The Chicago Bears suffered another embarrassing loss in Week 10, this time to the lowly New England Patriots. With the team reeling, they will consider any move to help reverse their misfortunes.
The Chicago Bears suffered an embarrassing loss to the New England Patriots 19-3. Their third straight loss drops their record to 4-5. The offense continues its struggles. The unit again failed to score an offensive touchdown. The Bears have now gone 129 straight snaps over eight quarters without a touchdown.
The Patriots came into the game with a 2-7 record. They struggled on both offense and defense. Defensively, they ranked 22nd in passing yards and 27th in yards allowed per attempt. They also ranked 21st in points allowed and 24th in total yards.
New England did not look like a struggling team against the Chicago Bears, however. They held Chicago to just the three points and 142 total yards of offense.
Last week, the Arizona Cardinals increased their sack totals by 40 percent by sacking Caleb Williams six times. This week, the Patriots ranked 29th in sacks going into the game. They increased their sack total by 56 percent by sacking him nine times. Williams was under constant pressure all game.
© Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images
The Chicago Bears’ offensive line, which struggled early in the season when it was a full health, has nearly collapsed. They faced the Patriots missing four linemen — left tackles Braxton Jones and his backup Kiran Amegadjie, right tackle Darnell Wright, and, right before the game, right guard Nate Davis.
Later in the game, left guard Teven Jenkins went down with an ankle injury and missed the rest of the game.
Everything went wrong offensively for the Chicago Bears. While Williams was under a lot of pressure, he did not see open receivers underneath while looking for the deep ball. Again, he took sacks that shuttered drives and/or put the offense out of field goal range.
The play-calling left much to be desired as well. Once again, the Chicago Bears were unable to get the ball into key targets. Tight end Cole Kmet, who had zero targets last week in Arizona, had only four this week. He did not get those targets until later in the game. He finished with two catches for 13 yards.
© Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images
D.J. Moore, the Chicago Bears’ top wide receiver, had only two targets in the first half. He caught one for -2 yards. He finished with three catches for 24 yards.
If you cannot get the ball to your best receivers you won’t be able to move the ball. If you cannot move the ball you cannot score points. The Chicago Bears have not been able to do any of that. As a result, they have 27 points in their three-game losing streak, 15 of them in one game.
Things are dire for Chicago
The Chicago Bears are reeling and things only get tougher. They have the toughest schedule in the league the rest of the way. They face NFC North Division foes in six of their final eight games. The other two games are against the Seattle Seahawks and the defending NFC champs, San Francisco 49ers.
With all of their offensive struggles, offensive coordinator Shane Waldron is under fire. His play-calling has been questioned. Not being able to get his best offensive players involved in games is bordering on embarrassing. Last year’s OC, Luke Getsy, got fired for the same thing.
It will be tough to continue to see this happening. There were such high hopes for the Chicago Bears this season after General Manager Ryan Poles overhauled the offense. Many expected to see the ball flying all over the field with all of his targets. That has not happened.
Their struggles now have people thinking if the Chicago Bears will win another game this season. They went from possible playoff contenders to possibly contend for a high draft pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. The fans are not happy and they want changes.
Head coach Matt Eberflus is also on the firing squad. He has had trouble throughout his 44 games in Chicago. We all know that he has yet to have a victory on the road on Sundays (0-18). That just adds to the frustrations. Reporters asked him about that in the postgame press conference.
Eberflus talked about everyone, from the players to the coaches, including himself, taking accountability. He was asked if he was willing to get fired without exploring the possibility of changing the game planning, which alluded to firing Waldron.
We’ll look at everything. I think it’s everything from the top to the bottom, making sure that we find the answers and play better as a team on offense, defense, and special teams.
With Eberflus also on the hot seat, Waldron may be the sacrificial lamb. During the week leading up to the game, Chicago Tribune writer Brad Biggs wrote that Eberflus has a five-year contract instead of the standard four. That means he will likely survive this season’s meltdown.
What happens beyond that is unknown, however. He has been taking a beating in the court of public opinion. Getting rid of Waldron could be a job-saving move for Eberflus. Poles would sign off on that since he did not fire Eberflus when he torched the offensive coaching staff this offseason.
Again, Eberflus’ contract could have been a big reason for that.
This will certainly be a week filled with negativity and drama. In addition to the offensive struggles and possible firings, the Green Bay Packers come to town. That is the NFL’s biggest rivalry, even if it has not been much of a rivalry lately. They would love to come to town and kick the Chicago Bears while they are down.
This season has deteriorated and threatening to become another lost one. The Chicago Bears fans have seen too many of these seasons and were ready to see their hope fulfilled. Instead, they have more of the same. The one question remaining is whether the team decides that maybe both Eberflis and Waldron are the problems and they make a move they’ve never done before — fire the head coach in the middle of the season.
We should not hold our breaths waiting for that, though. The McCaskeys were willing to see some awful football to continue in the name of not firing coaches. This could be uglier and last throughout the rest of the season before anything is done.
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