For all of the hype surrounding the Chicago Bears heading into 2019, the offense feels like an empty promise. They had all of the talent on paper — a young quarterback destined to take a leap in his third year, stability on the offensive line, a slew of young playmakers poised for breakout seasons and a young play-caller that kept promising advancement to the Football 202 level.
And yet, after 11 mediocre weeks of futility, here we are. Expected to believe results are still on the way, even as it feels like this offense takes one step forward and three steps backward on a weekly basis.
The problem goes far beyond the quarterback, who is a problem in his own right. It also lies with the offensive line, the nonexistent run game, the receivers that are near the top of the NFL in dropped passes, the tight end group that is mediocre at best and invisible at worst and the offensive genius that is too stubborn to adapt his offense to the strengths of his quarterback.
So even flashes, like Sunday in an unimpressive 19-14 win over the New York Giants, aren’t enough. Take it from quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, who seemed to issue a challenge to the Bears offense following the victory.
“Enough is enough; it’s the sloppiness, the mistakes, everything,” Trubisky said, via The Athletic. “It has to stop. We’ve got to get better as an offense. We have too much talent and we’re wasting it because we’re hurting ourselves. So we’ve just got to be better, and if everybody does their job, I think we’ll be fine and I think that’s what you see in the third quarter coming out.”
The fact that the Bears offense is “wasting” their talent feels like a bold declaration by Trubisky.
“Wasted opportunities” could be the slogan for Chicago’s offense in 2019, which hasn’t been able to capitalize on the talent in place. It’s not that the talent isn’t there, it’s that it hasn’t been utilized to this point, which is even more frustrating.
While 11 games seems a little too late to issue such a challenge, the Bears offense doesn’t have anywhere to go but up at this point.
They’ll get another crack at the Detroit’s struggling defense on Thursday, although it’s always difficult to beat the Lions in Detroit on Thanksgiving, so the Bears will have their work cut out for them.
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