by MADDIE TOPLIFF
I wish I had good news, friends. I really do. But another Chicago Bears loss at home is the news I have to report this week. That officially takes the Bears to a losing record of three wins and four losses. Let’s dive in and dissect the problems — to the best of our ability, anyway.
Booking my flight I said last week that if we lost to the 2-5 Chargers, I would personally fly up to Chicago and lecture the entire team. Due to me being a full-time student, this trip will have to be postponed, even though I want to do nothing more than leave the state of Iowa for a bit. Just a little bit. I love Drake University, though.
On the bench This week’s injury report was promising. Linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis was the only name that slightly concerned me, with him being a consistent presence in the past couple of games. But most of our defense was healthy and ready to roll. The same goes for our offense. So, we couldn’t blame the loss on our lack of starters.
The latest from LA The Los Angeles Chargers were 2-5 going into Sunday’s matchup, having lost three in a row against the Tennessee Titans, Pittsburgh Steelers and the Denver Broncos. Their only two wins this season were against the Indianapolis Colts and the Miami Dolphins, which is not impressive at all. The Bears crushed the Colts in preseason. That’s all I’m saying.
What even happened? What an eyesore of a game. I’ll sum it up for you as quickly as I can. Onward and upward.
We only scored one touchdown thanks to a 4-yard rush by RB David Montgomery. Our other nine points were courtesy of Eddy Piñeiro due to us not being able to capitalize in the red zone.
Speaking of Piñeiro, our place kicker was put into a super difficult position at the end of Q4 when head coach Matt Nagy decided to run down the clock instead of get his team into a better field position for the final hurrah. Poor Piñeiro. 41 yards isn’t a major deal for him, but his own team iced him by taking a timeout right before. Ugh.
The “highlight” reel told us what we already know: Our defense is Super Bowl caliber and our offense isn’t. Blah blah blah. But with so much consistency — the bad kind, that is — you would
think that something would give. Nagy is a smart guy, so I hope he shakes up the QB position before it’s too late.
Time to trade? It may finally be time for Trubisky to go. I really have tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he scored less than nine fantasy points this week as a quarterback. If you don’t know anything about fantasy, that’s dismal. As far as options go, I’m open to anything at this point. Within reason, of course.
Lessons learned — directed straight at Matt Nagy -Don’t disgrace your running back by bringing out the kicker too early.
Don’t set your kicker up for failure by running down the clock instead of getting more yards.
Our defensive efforts are continuing to be wasted.
Maddie’s Monster of the Game Montgomery may be the most tenacious runner that the Bears offense has seen since Forte. I wish that our playcallers trusted him more to get the job done despite him fumbling a couple of weeks ago. It happens to the best of us. Thanks for our only touchdown on Sunday, pal.
Divisional roundup We’re on a four-game losing streak, which is really cool because we’re the only team in the division with a losing streak. Even the Lions won a game this week. Disgusting.
NFC North: Current standings
1st place: Packers
2nd place: Vikings
3rd place: Lions
4th place: Bears
It’s still too soon Next week, the Bears are up against none other than the dream-crushing Philadelphia Eagles, who kicked our butts out of the playoffs last season. Some could say that we kicked ourselves out — literally — but it still stings. If we can win won on the road, that’d be killer. But do I even have expectations at this point? Yes, of course. We persevere.
You can expect the game to hit your TV screens at noon on Sunday courtesy of Fox. See you next week. And as always, Beardown — even when it hurts!