Latest Debacle Shows Bears Have Totally Collapsed
This was a total team effort, as coaches like to say.
You can't blow a 30-20 lead in the closing minutes to a rudderless ship like the Detroit Lions without working very hard at it. Everyone must pull their weight.
The biggest contributor Sunday, of course, was Mitchell Trubisky after he played yet another strong game against the Detroit Lions but came away a 34-30 loser because he had trouble holding onto the ball and not because he can't throw it.
For the second straight week, Trubisky fumbled it away on a sack. He lost this one at the 7-yard line with the Bears trying to kill time or somehow get better field position after a poor attempt at a kick return by Darnell Mooney pinned back at their 11 with less than three minutes remaining.
Then Trubisky became indignant after the game over a questioner wondering how he could repeat this mistake.
"Continue to be an issue? I mean, it was last week and this week," Trubisky blurted. "So, I'm emphasizing ball security in practice, that's something I always do, protecting the ball and the football.
"I thought the guy made a good play. I was about to get ready to throw, I had one hand on the football and he must've timed it perfectly. I don't think it's an ongoing problem."
The play Trubisky was trying to make before the problem he says isn't ongoing was supposed to be aimed at Anthony Miller, who surfaced as a play maker in this one as he always seems to do against Detroit.
"Third-and-4 and we're backed up where we don't really have the field position, so we have to get a first down," said coach Matt Nagy, who couldn't simply hand off to his hot backs and had to throw. We have to make them use their timeouts.
"We ran a play that's good versus all coverages."
The idea was to find Anthony Miller coming free over the middle but before Trubisky could get it out of his hand, Romeo Okwara came around back and knocked it away. "It's just a play, at least what I saw from the Jumbotron afterwards, is, kid made a good play around the edge and was able to swipe his arm out and make a play," Nagy said.
Germain Ifedi was in the vicinity and couldn't come up with it. The Lions at worst had a chip shot field goal for a tie but soon had the lead on Adrian Peterson's 5-yard TD run.
The offense had two other grave mistakes to make. The first was Allen Robinson not going to the sticks at the 19 and for a first down in the Bears' drive after the Lions went ahead. He had the opportunity to run and at worst, hurtle himself out of bounds for the first down. He might even have been able to get it simply by running but instead he hesitated a bit and went out a yard short.
Then with one timeout still at the 20, David Montgomery couldn't pick up a 1-yard gain after he'd chewed the Lions up all game for 72 yards and two touchdowns.
"I let the fellas down," Montgomery said. "That's something I'm going to rewatch and figure out what I can do to get that. Because at that point, it just takes will and anything you've got left in the tank, and I let them boys down. So that's on me."
The offense didn't really let down much in this one like they normally have, but it was against moribund Detroit. They did pretty much everything necessary to win except actually score in the third quarter, but that would be far too much to ask of them.
A week ago Nagy tore into his defense in a rare display of disdain for the efforts of those on that side of the ball. He can feel free to do it again, because the Bears defense played an even worse game in this one. They definitely played worse than their own offense.
Again, considering they were going against Detroit and not Green Bay, it should have been easier to make stops. And they seemed to actually have the big play necessary when Bilal Nichols intercepted an attempted tight end screen after Cole Kmet's 11-yard TD catch put the Bears up 30-20.
However, they made Stafford look like Patrick Mahomes and allowed him to take the Lions 96 yards in 2:15 on seven plays. It takes longer than 2:15 for some of these players to run 96 yards let alone put together a drive that long, and Stafford had them in the end zone when Marvin Jones Jr. made Jaylon Johnson look like a high school JV cornerback and got 5 yards behind him for a 25-yard TD.
Then, on the winning TD Roquan Smith and Tashaun Gipson both failed to bring down 35-year-old Adrian Peterson on a 5-yard run.
They let Stafford throw for 402 yards. It was the kind of defensive effort that gets defensive coordinators fired. They hadn't given up 462 yards of offense since giving the Dolphins 541 in Miami in 2018 in a loss.
And if anyone can get a message to Khalil Mack, let him know he can start pressuring the quarterback any time now.
"We're a proud defense," Nichols said. "We know we need to be better. Point blank, period. It's on us because we need to play better. We need to go out there and play like the best defense. That's how we gotta bring it every week. We gotta be consistent.
"We can't have weeks where we're not playing the ball that we need to be playing. It's on us. We gotta be better as a defense, as a whole."
Maybe the worst aspect of this all is Arizona lost and the Bears remain just a game behind the Vikings and Cardinals in the NFC wild-card chase.
It gives everyone hope.
After seeing the way they blew this one, the only thing they should really hope for is a good spot in the draft order—as well as good hires with their new GM and coach.
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