CHICAGO -- The Chicago Bears hit one of their lowest rock bottoms in years last week at Soldier Field. The 2-7 (at the time) New England Patriots came to town, riding their own rookie QB in Drake Maye, and punished the Bears from wire to wire en route to a 19-3 shellacking. The Bears' offense hit historic lows in that debacle.
And ~40 hours later, Shane Waldron was officially fired after nine games, and Thomas Brown took over the OC position this week. A welcome change at Halas Hall -- not just for us consuming the games, but for the players as well.
For Chicago, this is a critical juncture. With their playoff hopes in hospice care and Caleb Williams regressing over three gruesome weeks since the bye, Matt Eberflus doesn't have a lot of magic bullets left. His hope is Brown can fix the offense to complement the defense so they put up fights over their remaining eight games. And what better way to kick off the hardest remaining NFL schedule than against the Green Bay Packers!
Couldn't be better timing, right?
While wins were going to be hard to come by, the Bears at least needed Williams to resemble the prospect he was coming out of USC. The Packers were going to be a tough test on multiple levels. And in the end, the Bears played a heck of a game for 60 minutes but lost it with more bad coaching decisions in the final moments. A truly devastating loss for Chicago.
I shared my in-game reactions, thoughts and observations from the game below. Follow me on X @DhruvKoul to continue the conversation.
Thoughts and Observations
1. The Bears really miss Andrew Billings. The Packers' OL is good, and they dominated en route to an opening drive touchdown. Josh Jacobs and Emanuel Wilson had big gains on the ground, and then Jordan Love hit Jayden Reed with the Bears having 12 men for a touchdown. Way too easy. Matt Eberflus needs to find answers against Matt LaFleur, who is brilliant.
https://x.com/DhruvKoul/status/1858210559268909265
2. Thomas Brown's first drive as Bears' playcaller was better than we've seen in recent weeks. Condensed formations for a few plays -- more in line with the McVay-tree staples -- sprung a really nice WR screen to DJ Moore to get the Bears into field goal range to answer. Caleb extended a drive with his legs (we saw him react and create finally!) earlier in the drive. Points on the opening drive are always nice. Bears need to find concepts that work and continue to build. I'm also interested to see how Brown adjusts throughout the game.
https://x.com/DhruvKoul/status/1858213110974497032
3. Despite Terrell Smith's really nice INT at the goal line to preserve a 7-3 deficit in the second quarter, it's crazy how undisciplined and poorly coached the Bears are. The Packers converted 3rd and 11 and 4th and 3 on that drive -- one of them thanks to an offsides on a backup DL when it was clear GB was just trying to lure them offsides.
The 'success rate feeling' from the Packers' offense is still so high, especially when finding answers against Eberflus' scheme. Love just killed the drive though with the overthrow.
https://x.com/DhruvKoul/status/1858221724082565597
But you can't count on opponents' mistakes forever.
4. It's clear that Thomas Brown has asked Caleb to be decisive as a runner today -- and incorporating designed runs based on prior concepts has worked very well in the first half. The 3rd and 1 zone read after the 2 minute warning with a fake to Roschon Johnson (short yardage tendency) was very smart. This is all common sense stuff that he's highlighting. Very curious how GB adjusts after halftime to this, and how the Bears build on it further.
https://x.com/DhruvKoul/status/1858225318525579642
The drive ended with a fascinating series of plays. Roschon Johnson appeared to be in on second down, but a replay review didn't allow it. In between, Eberflus let the clock tick all the way down to prevent one more chance for the Packers. On third down, somehow two defenders hit the gap and Doug Kramer only impacted one. But Johnson drove his legs on the other one into the end zone. A LEAD at halftime!
Honestly, shocking to me.
https://x.com/DhruvKoul/status/1858228156429488268
5. A nice drive coming out of the half for the Bears. Caleb with a beautiful deep ball to Cole Kmet, and found Roschon on a 4th and 2 deep in Packers territory to keep things going. It resulted in a field goal to go up 13-7.
And then the Packers marched right down the field yet again -- their second "half opening" nuclear drive for a touchdown to go up 14-13. The Bears' front has been manhandled by Green Bay today. They've had a good plan for Montez Sweat and Gervon Dexter, and the rest of the Bears' line simply isn't good enough against a talented Packers offensive line. It results in drives like that.
https://x.com/DhruvKoul/status/1858234562356400138
6. The Bears' offense really looks good right now. Caleb's legs have continued to be a force today -- a GREAT zone-read on 4th and 3 to keep after the DE crashed down on Johnson. Again!
And a few plays later, D'Andre Swift took a pitch and motored 39 yards to the house. The OL and WRs blocked like no other on the play -- notably Braxton Jones. It was a heck of a play. The Bears are alive and putting up a fight. 19-14 Bears near the end of the third quarter.
https://x.com/DhruvKoul/status/1858240133931405389
7. Wow, what a roller coaster of emotions the ensuing drive was! What started with some good Josh Jacobs runs turned into Love firing a deep throw to a double-covered Christian Watson, but Elijah Hicks and Kyler Gordon (trailing) couldn't find the ball. It set up 1st and goal from the 8.
But the Bears stood tall on 3rd and 4th and 6! Both times, things were well covered and the Bears got to Love -- the 4th down right at the 1-yard line. Huge play from the defense. Again - showing life!
8. Honestly, all things considered, they did really well on that drive. They held the ball for close to 8 minutes and went from the 1-yard line to near midfield over the course of several key 3rd down conversions. Packers get a chance with ~4.5 minutes left. But that was a really good drive for Caleb's development.
9. This drive was Matt Eberflus' chance to right so many wrongs: with a five point lead, the Packers needing over 75 yards and 4.5 minutes left, Flus had a chance to finally get one over Matt LaFleur.
And Jaylon Johnson lost his feet on the second play from scrimmage and Christian Watson took the ball 60 yards to the Bears' 15-yard line. Flus challenged, and lost, so the Bears were left with one timeout. Just horrific. A few plays later, GB plunged in to take a 20-19 lead with 3 minutes left.
Yet another critical opportunity meltdown by Flus' unit. A constant in a tumultuous season.
10. The Bears needed a field goal to win the game. Unfortunately, Caleb got sacked on first and second down (really good pressures from the Packers) at the two minute warning.
On 3rd and 19, Caleb found Rome Odunze for 16. And on 4th and 3, Caleb threw a BEAUTIFUL backshoulder throw to Odunze for another conversion! Kept the drive alive!
The next play was a missile out-cut throw to Keenan Allen to put Chicago in field goal range.
Already showing excellent clutch traits, no matter how this ends.
11. Karl Brooks charged in and blocked Cairo Santos' 46-yard field goal attempt to win it for the Packers. I'll let this tweet summarize.
https://x.com/DhruvKoul/status/1858254791501365759
The Bears let 40 seconds tick down after the ball was at the Packers' 27-yard line. A very Marc-Trestman-in-Minnesota type of approach there. I'd have liked a few more yards. The Bears reap what they sow.
12. The Vikings now come to town to finish up a disappointing homestand for the Bears. Hope the Bears can build on that offensive performance. But I'm not sure how Chicago recovers from yet another absolutely devastating loss.
Early prediction: Vikings 33, Bears 23.
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