Bear Digest

Bears' Focus Challenged as Matt Eberflus' Definition of Adversity Hits

Two losses in the NFL signifies something bad to Bears coach Matt Eberflus and the Bears need to reverse course soon in a year when they need as many early wins as possible.

Gene Chamberlain

Cole Kmet celebrates in the end zone after a touchdown catch helped draw the Bears within 21-16 Sunday.
Cole Kmet celebrates in the end zone after a touchdown catch helped draw the Bears within 21-16 Sunday. / Christine Tannous USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images
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It was one game, one defeat the Bears believe they shouldn’t have suffered.

They’re quick to point out it’s not the end of their season, but a continuing trend of wasteful play will bring that about soon enough if it continues.

“I think that's a game where you look at our roster and look at theirs and I'd take ours over theirs any day of the week,” Bears tight end Cole Kmet said Monday, after Sunday’s 21-16 loss. “So yeah. I mean, it's not a game I think we should have lost.”

The glow of that unlikely comeback in Week 1 has faded away to two mistake-filled road losses and the Bears are starting to realize whatever they do, they need to minimize error to make their narrow victory margin with a rookie QB better.

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“We got to keep things tightened here, and I think coach said it well the other night, you know, when you drop two in the NFL, you know, that's adversity,” Kmet said. “So we have dropped two in a row here.

“Offensively we haven't played up to the standard that we wanted to yet. I think it has gotten better each game, but I mean, again, we're being real. Right now better is not good enough. We got to be better. We’ve got to be much better if we want to win these games, and you look at the positives from the other day. We were able to sustain some drives and ran the ball well at times and obviously good numbers in pass yards at the quarterback position there, so that was all good to see and we were able to control the clock, but we got to be able to punch the ball in the end zone and get points.”

Playing without turnovers is the key, Kmet said. They won the first game with less than 100 passing yards from Caleb Williams, and have lost both since then. They won the turnover battle in Week 1, lost it the last two games.

“Despite the performance against Tennessee that first week, the one thing that we could come out saying is that we took care of the football and we need to get back to doing that,” Kmet said. “And I think if we take care of that at the very least, we'll start winning some more games."

Defensively, the Bears realize their goal is to help keep things together until the offense has it all working.

“Yeah we’ve just got to try our best and not really worry about what’s going on on that side of the ball,” safety Kevin Byard said. “We have to do our jobs and at the end of the day this is a professional football league and we all get paid to do a job.

“I get paid to play safety for the Chicago Bears. And I have to make sure that I continue to do that job. It can be frustrating at times because we want to win. Like I said, everybody wants to win. But it’s not a pointing the finger type deal. Sometimes emotions are showing. But at the end of the day we’ve got to continue to do our job because I’ve been in situations in this league man where the offense has been struggling and eventually did get the ball rolling. Once everything is rolling then you know we can make a real run. Like I said, we just have to continue to do what we need to do–force turnovers to try to win ballgames. And that’s what it’s got to be until things change.”

If they do.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain

GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.