Bear Digest

Chicago Bears Report Card: Production Falls Short of Effort

Grading the Bears: They didn't surrender early like in the San Francisco game but the end result was much the same against the Minnesota Vikings in a 30-12 loss.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams gets some encouragement from Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell after the 30-12 Bears loss.
Caleb Williams gets some encouragement from Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell after the 30-12 Bears loss. / Brad Rempel-Imagn Images
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The final stat sheet shows eight quarterback hits by the Bears defensive line and only three by the Vikings.

Maybe the white helmets fooled the stat keepers or something.

Perhaps it was merely the mental exhaustion of eight straight losses then, because Caleb Williams seemed to take a bigger beating Monday night than in any other game  despite only two sacks and the hits.

Or maybe it was just frustration wearing on him as he sat on the bench looking totally beaten.

The Bears could have been within six points in the third quarter and had begun running the ball effectively, when Thomas Brown trotted out a formation from the Shane Waldron era of 2024 Bears football with Doug Kramer at fullback.

The problem was Kramer was playing the "silent" fullback position and apparently didn't effectively notify officials and a D'Andre Swift touchdown came off the board with a penalty.

From there, they went backwards like they tend to do at times.

The thing is, they had a very good blocking fullback earlier this year and there are plenty of players on their roster who would not have been missed had they merely kept Khari Blasingame on the roster to block at the goal line and in short yardage. He wouldn't have had to report to anyone when he came in, either.

In the future, they might want to consider not beating up their own players at walk-throughs and practices because their offensive fate seemed sealed on Sunday when it was announced tackle Braxton Jones had suffered a concussion, apparently from his work during the week at Halas Hall.

He didn't need to make the trip and coach Thomas Brown was left starting Kiran Amegadjie, who had no training camp, no offseason work, no preseason and barely a few in-game reps this year after leaving Yale.

The Bears saw this type of thing when they tried using Teven Jenkins during 2021 in much the same way, after back surgery with no prior experience and got similar results. Four penalties, a sack allowed and an offense put into reverse was the result.

The Bears have now been outscored 53-0 in first halves the past three games and after dropping behind 13-0 Monday night at the half.

It's all enough to make someone yearn for the good old days, back at Thanksgiving when they had Matt Eberflus keeping his last timeout in his pocket as time expires.

At least those were close games, even if the conclusions seemed far more aggravating.

If this is what trying hard for 60 minutes nets, then maybe they were better off with half-efforts.

Here are the grades to a second straight loss in the Brown era, eighth straight overall.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY FOR BEARS AGAINST VIKINGS

EIGHT IS ENOUGH: THE BEARS LOSING STREAK CONTINUES AGAINST VIKINGS

Rushing: D+

Give Swift credit for maintaining interest in the second half by running really hard even as the score on the Minnesota side kept increasing. Swift's 79 yards rushing were his most since Nov. 3. The 113 yards rushing were 24 more than the Vikings usually give up on the ground. No one with the Bears should be celebrating this, though, after the two failed fourth-down rushing attempts in the first half and the goal-line incident with their center-turned-fullback again.

Passing: F

Again, Williams threw no interceptions but his 6.2 yards per attempt and the 1-for-14 third-down conversion rate all speak to a disaster. He missed some easier passes and also didn't see some open receivers earlier in the game. It wasn't all on Williams when he had to worry about his blind side being assaulted because Amegadjie couldn't stand up to the pass rush. DJ Moore is being forced into running pass routes in a phone booth. He caught all eight targets but it's not too hard when you're catching all the passes at the line of scrimmage. He averaged 5.8 yards per eight reception and averaged more as a runner at 8.0 yards per three rushing attempts. Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze seemed like prominent figures in the passing attack but combined they caught only eight out of 20 targets. Looking at the statistics with two sacks, the Bears offensive line will count this as a victory. It was anything but that because of the great pressure allowed when the Vikings didn't blitz as much as they normally do.

Run Defense: C-

Not getting trampled for once was enough to earn a passing grade, although they did allow Aaron Jones 86 yards and he seemed to find yards whenever they really were needed. A player who showed some real promise was the big defensive tackle the Bears signed off Green Bay's practice squad, Jonathan Ford. The massive, 6-foot-5, 338-pounder hadn't played in an NFL game in three seasons but produced four tackles, including one for loss and when he wasn't getting in on the tackle he was caving in the center to benefit the 3-technique. The other DT, Zacch Pickens, had five tackles, 33% of his total for the season. T.J. Edwards never goes down without a fight.

Pass Defense: C-

Only two teams kept Sam Darnold in check better than the Bears did on Sunday. His passer rating was worse (74.1) than Caleb Williams' was and he completed only 60%. What the Bears couldn't do was stop third downs when they needed to, or find a way to stop throws to anyone underneath their zone coverage and particularly T.J. Hockenson. Even Justin Jefferson's seven catches were not as impactful as they normally are when he gets this many receptions. He gained only 10.4 yards a catch. Minnesota had only 9.6 yards per reception. the pass rush provided more consistency than against the 49ers, particularly Chris Williams, DeMarcus Walker and Montez Sweat. They still got home only twice. Tyrique Stevenson with an interception didn't quite offset his pass interference penalty in the end zone.

Special Teams: B

Two more punts inside the 10-yard line by Tory Taylor and a blocked punt by Dominique Robinson to set up a TD proved impactful. The Bears lead the NFL in blocked punts. The special teams play let them have the 33-yard line as an average drive starting point but their fourth-down failures gave the Vikings better average starting points at their own 35. 

Coaching: D-

The biggest mistake made was starting Amegadjie. While everyone might like to see a third-round pick get a debut in a meaningless game, it's not meaningless whenever Williams is playing and his blind side needs to be protected. He's the franchise's future and Thomas Brown/Chris Beatty/Chris Morgan should have been turning to Larry Borom or Jake Curhan to play left tackle in a road game when there was no time for the rookie to practice with starters during the week. The game with Detroit this week at home, with some prep work would have been a good time to start Amegadjie for the first time. The second-biggest mistake was using Doug Kramer at fullback again. For shame Thomas Brown. When a team trails first 13 out of 14 times and has been outscored in first halves 53-0 over three weeks, it's more than just execution. Eric Washington's defense played with far more fight than the previous week but the end result was only eight points allowed less. The key downs were all going the way of Minnesota's offense.

Overall: D

The Bears escape an F because their effort remained high even while they were down big at game's end. It is important because, for better or worse, it gives hope something better can result from different direction using many of the same players next year.

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.