Nashville may be Music City, but another Bears loss composes quite a sour tune, if I do say so myself. Cue the game over music. All dramatics aside, this is what we’re working with: a defense who is doing their best and an offense who doesn’t know what to do. It’s embarrassing. But we love them, right? Right. Let’s look at the highlights and lowlights of the Tennessee Titans matchup.
Defense starts hot, but is thrown under the bus by offense
Chicago’s defense looked pretty good during the first half, holding the Titans to just a field goal in the first 26 minutes, until Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill connected with A.J. Brown for a 40-yard touchdown. That gave Tennessee a ten-point — haha, puns — lead going into halftime. Nothing to sweat, yet.
The Titans defense, on the other hand, made relatively easy work of Nick Foles and Chicago’s offensive eleven, holding them to zero points in the first three quarters of football and forcing a David Montgomery fumble and pick 6, to extend the Titans’ lead to 17-0 in the third quarter. The Bears made a run for the victory in the fourth quarter, but 17 points wasn’t enough to prevent another Titans touchdown. The game ended with Tennessee victorious with a score of 24-17.
I feel bad for the Chicago defense. They are still a league-wide top-ten presence in my mind, but their hard work gets overshadowed by the offense’s inability to put points on the board.
Nothing super new to analyze about this loss, friends. The offense is still struggling with play calling and chemistry, which are turning into quite debilitating problems.
The viral scare
In completely different news, it is a medical miracle that the NFL is still able to function in the midst of the COVID-19. Each organization’s protocols and procedures concerning the virus are different, and teams are based in cities all across the country, whose governments have their own rules and regulations to follow. For example, Illinois has been on the more stringent end of COVID-19 regulations and restrictions since the beginning, touting a statewide requirement to wear a mask in public when social distancing isn’t possible. Even still, Illinois’ cases have been ticking upward, with the total number of infections nearing the 500,000 cases mark last week.
The Bears dealt with COVID-19 up close and personal mere days — and hours — before kickoff last week. At the time of game time on Sunday, safety Deon Bush and center Cody Whitehair were the two biggest names populating the COVID-19 reserve list. Another player who traveled to Nashville with the team, offensive lineman Lachavious Simmons, tested positive before the game after being elevated from the practice squad just last week. Luckily, Simmons did not have any high-risk contacts with anyone else on the team. That poor offensive line, though.
We’ll see if any other scares surface this week. Luckily, the Bears have the weekend off to recover if need be.
Maddie’s Monster of the Week
Linebacker Roquan Smith has been an all-star defensive player this season, racking up a total of over 62 solo tackles so far this season, on track to match his record of 89 tackles on the season if he stays healthy, knock on wood. On Sunday, he had 11 total tackles in one game alone, nine of which were all him.
Divisional roundup
Minnesota is taking names in the division, having beaten both the Packers and Lions in the past two weeks to claim third place.
1st place: Packers (Won against the San Francisco 49ers)
2nd place: Bears
3rd place: Vikings (Won against the Detroit Lions)
4th place: Lions (Lost against the Minnesota Vikings)
See you Monday
Like I said before, the Bears have Sunday off this week, and that’s probably for the best. We can’t afford to waste a second of our extra day off preparing for our long-awaited divisional matchup against the Vikings on Monday. Wouldn’t it be sick to be the only team in the division to beat them? I thought so. Until then, mask up and Beardown!
