(670 The Score) It was a bad sign early Sunday night that the Bears' performance was already invoking comparisons to their Lambeau Field face-plant of 2014.
If Matt Nagy's team is seen by those who matter to have reached a similarly obvious rock bottom, the thought of Marc Trestman's shambling zombie lurks -- a rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouching toward Lake Forest to be reborn.
The last time Virginia McCaskey was said to be "pissed off" enough to green-light a housecleaning was that season, when the then-91-year-old was sufficiently motivated in part by the Bears' 55-14 embarrassment at the hands of what they still see as their primordial rival. This wasn't quite as explosively alarming, and yet in some ways upon review, it should reignite similar questions about the direction of the franchise. Its matriarch is now almost 98, and she was in attendance in Green Bay on Sunday despite the dangers inherent in traveling to an out-of-control COVID hotspot, a judgment question of a different kind for another time.
A final score of 41-25 told some of the story, but the details were far more damning in how they showed just how easily Bears schemes on both sides of the ball are anticipated, diagnosed and picked apart. It didn't take a trained eye to see an NFL team getting out-coached.
This previously solid Bears defense was pantsed from the outset, and the absence of Akiem Hicks can't explain just how yielding so much was elsewhere. Aaron Rodgers may not have hosted dinner Thursday, but his carving skills were on full display as he lopped off chunks of yards on his own through the air and by checking to productive runs after sniffing out what was coming at him. Early calls from the Bears like the three-man rush and rickety man coverages that allowed Danny Trevathan to be switched onto Davante Adams stood out as self-defeating. Chuck Pagano's defense forced no turnovers and produced no sacks, nor even a single registered quarterback hit, for all the money they make. Giving Rodgers a clean pocket is never good football planning, whether a result of strategic miscalculation, poor execution or a combination thereof.
And reinserting Mitchell Trubisky resulted in ... Mitchell Trubisky quarterbacking the Bears.
It was a familiar amalgam of good throws and bad, plays kept alive a bit longer than otherwise, an interception in the end zone, three fumbles and the kind of questionable situational awareness that sees him run out of bounds for a loss instead of throwing the ball away. That Nick Foles has been such a steaming flop should do nothing to reinvigorate any optimism that Trubisky's demotion shocked him into some other, better settings.
Nagy's in it, now, and deserves to be. This was again off the bye week and again looking less prepared than his opponent. The secretive wraith that Ryan Pace has become will continue to float behind the walls, hoping to not be seen, but Nagy has to answer for a marking-point loss.
There has been no quit in Nagy's Bears to this point in his tenure, but the scent of it may have just been detectable for the first time, with NBC analyst Tony Dungy even observing that tacklers were "giving up" on a Jamal Williams' touchdown run in the third quarter.
After a thorough domination at the hands of the Packers, the Bears are facing a reckoning. It's all teetering right now on multiple organizational levels -- and rightfully so.
Dan Bernstein is the host of the Dan Bernstein Show on middays from 9 a.m. until noon on 670 The Score. You can follow him on Twitter @Dan_Bernstein.
The Link LonkNovember 30, 2020 at 11:44AM
https://www.radio.com/670thescore/sports/chicago-bears/bernstein-bears-just-too-easy-to-beat-blowout-loss-packers
Bernstein: Bears just too easy to beat - RADIO.COM
https://news.google.com/search?q=easy&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
No comments:
Post a Comment