The Bears offense somehow finds ways to hit new lows each and every week. On Monday, they scored fewer than seven points for the second time this season. They LOST three yards over their three drives in the third quarter. The defense spotted them two turnovers, Cordarrelle Patterson scored a special teams touchdown, and Dalvin Cook was bottled up for only 96 yards on 30 carries. But the team still lost.
Frustration was palpable on social media after the game, and among the Football Aftershow crew.
“We’re almost to the point, in my mind, you blow the whole damn thing up,” Alex Brown said. “Let’s go. Let’s start over.
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“At what point do we start looking at the players for this? Because the players have to execute the plays. The coaches can only coach the plays. You can keep changing the coaches, but if the players aren’t executing, it doesn’t matter who’s calling the plays.”
It’s true players failed to execute at several key moments. Twice, Nick Foles and Anthony Miller couldn’t connect on wide open looks. One of those passes could’ve gone for a touchdown in the waning moments of the game. But other times the play calling was just as questionable as ever, like the 3rd-and-4 screen pass that was thrown five yards behind the line of scrimmage with under three minutes to go in the game.
“This is where we’re at,” Brown said. “We’ve got to deal with this for the rest of the year, but come April this is what I want to see in the offseason. This is when I want to see you put forth the effort to change this. Give me some guys. Invest in (the offensive line). Invest in that. You have to invest in that.
“You invested in the defense and you see them come out and play like this and you’re not surprised. Because you’re paying them $100 million or more.”
NFL
Unfortunately for Brown’s dream of investing major money on the offense, the Bears do have to operate under a salary cap. According to Spotrac, a site that tracks professional sports contracts, the Bears will have just over $3 million in cap space next season, so they will have to make some cuts or restructure contracts if they want to make a splash move on offense.
But before any of that happens, Lance Briggs says the Bears need to change their offensive philosophy and return to their roots.
“How many times are we going to keep experimenting and getting offensive ‘gurus’ out here to do something in Chicago that has never been done?” Briggs said. “There are ways that Chicago has been able to be effective and win. It’s tested true. It’s defense, special teams, run the ball on offense.”