When the Chicago Bears dropped a 10-3 season-opening loss to the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field back on Sept. 5, it was disappointing. But it wasn’t something that many believed would define the unit throughout the entire season.
But as the Bears left their Week 16 home finale the same way — held to a measly field goal in a 26-3 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs — it was a reminder that the Bears offense didn’t accomplish anything in 2019.
Sunday night’s abysmal outing was a reminder that the Bears have a lot of work to do this offseason before Chicago’s great defense is wasted.
“It’s disappointing,” Mitchell Trubisky said. “Scoring three points — you’re not going to win any games like that. We have to put more points on the board. We’ve got the guys to do it. We’ve just got to find the reason why it’s not happening right now.”
As Trubisky faced off against the Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs, it was a reminder that the Bears took the wrong quarterback, although it didn’t take this game to come to that conclusion.
After six solid performances, including two impressive outings that showed the quarterback he could become, Trubisky reverted back to his early-season self — an inconsistent quarterback surrounded by questions.
While Trubisky was certainly part of the problem, Sunday’s game was a reminder that he isn’t the only problem. Yes, Trubisky overthrew a wide-open Allen Robinson on what would’ve been a touchdown down 10-0 in the second quarter. Yes, Trubisky took a sack trying to scramble and make something out of nothing on third down in the first quarter.
While many people will point to those two reasons as examples of Trubisky’s struggles, they’ll also fail to mention that once again Matt Nagy’s playcalling was suspect. While Andy Reid was scheming his players wide open, Nagy failed to do that, outside of Trubisky’s deep miss to Robinson.
They’ll also fail to mention the shoddy pass protection from the offensive line, who replaced right guard Rashaad Coward with Ted Larsen in the middle of the game because he was just that bad. They’ll fail to mention that when Trubisky was putting the ball where it should’ve been that receivers were once again dropping passes.
It was a embarrassing effort all around — one that summed up an entire season of disappointment.
“That’s the biggest emotion I feel right now — disappointed, knowing that we’re a better team than we showed tonight,” said running back Tarik Cohen. “They have a hard defense, but I feel like most of it came down to our execution. It wasn’t there today.”
That’s been the story of this entire season for the Bears offense — lack of execution. While the Bears certainly don’t have all of the pieces in place — just look at Kansas City’s offense — they had enough talent on offense to be better than they’ve been for the majority of this season.
With one game remaining this season, the Bears will head into the offseason tasked with fixing this offense so that this can be a team that can compete in 2020. And it’s more than just Trubisky. It would be easier if it was just him. But Chicago’s offensive woes run deeper than their inconsistent quarterback.
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