It wasn’t the primetime game anyone wanted and it wasn’t the one we deserved, either. The Chicago Bears and Washington Commanders met up at a windy and blustery Soldier Field on Thursday night, their first matchup in The Windy City since 2016. It was the battle between one team trying to desperately capture lightning in a bottle with a has-been quarterback amidst growing pressure against their ownership. The other is a team who embodies squads from yesteryear, showcasing a putrid offense with a defense that can make the stops when necessary.
All of that was on display when the Commanders defeated the Bears 12-7. The Bears had ample opportunities to make a statement with three trips to the redzone, but came away with nothing but disappointment after failing to score a single point. Washington could barely move the ball, yet found a way to come out on top, mainly thanks to a costly turnover on special teams.
It’s a game that will sting for days seeing as the Bears don’t play again for a week and a half, but perhaps that will allow time to make necessary changes that improve the product on the field. Regardless, this one hurts. Here are our takeaways from Thursday’s loss.
1. This is one of the worst losses the Bears have had in years
Forget the blowouts, forget the rivalry games with the Packers. This loss to the Commanders was one of the worst games in recent memory for the Bears. It was one of the most winnable games I had ever seen and yet all they could muster was one touchdown. The Bears had three separate drives where they had the ball inside the Commanders 10-yard line. The first one, a helmet causes an interception. The second, Justin Fields missed a wide-open Ryan Griffin for a touchdown and the drive stalled at the one-yard line. The third ended with Darnell Mooney an inch short of the pylon that would have won the game late.
The Commanders could not do anything on offense whatsoever. Their only touchdown drive came due to Velus Jones’ deep inside Bears territory. This game could have and should have been a 28-6 curb stomping of an inferior opponent. One, mind you, that is surrounded in turmoil after yet another scathing report about their owner was published just hours before kickoff.
Blowout losses and rivalry games hurt, but at least there’s solace knowing the better team usually wins. That wasn’t the case and it’s embarrassing the Bears couldn’t overcome themselves to beat a bad football team. Guess that cements their own status moving forward, then.
2. Justin Fields simply doesn't have enough help
We’re six games into the 2022 NFL season and it’s very clear Fields doesn’t have the help or support he needs to progress as a quarterback. Fields completed 14-of-27 passes for 190 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. Starting with the wide receivers, none of the additions made during the offseason have provided much of a positive impact. Equanimeous St. Brown has been relegated to jet sweeps, Byron Pringle has been hurt, Dante Pettis only shows up once a month, N’Keal Harry still has yet to play a snap, and Jones Jr. isn’t involved in any vertical routes. We don’t even need to talk about Ihmir Smith-Marsette.
The protection continues to be well below average, leaving Fields to scramble for his life seemingly every play. It’s getting old and the fact nobody can step up and become a playmaker for this team is worrisome. The decision to sign low-risk players was understandable given the uncertainty this new regime had about the team as a whole. But they vastly overrated their confidence in the scheme to improve the offensive line, as well as Darnell Mooney’s ability to ascend to a WR1.
All of those issues combined make it extremely difficult for Fields to develop and we’re stuck watching a quarterback slowly lose confidence in his ability to trust his teammates. Hopefully that doesn’t result in Fields losing confidence in himself. He’s a special athlete and can make something out of nothing quick. He did miss a couple key throws, notably the wide open play to Griffin in the endzone and needs to hit those layups. But when it comes to passing as a whole, it’s getting to the point where his confidence level becomes a valid concern not only now, but for his career.
3. Velus Jones Jr. is already close to being a missed draft pick
General manager Ryan Poles’ decision to draft Jones Jr. with their third-round pick was curious at the time, but many were able to see the upside he brought and figured he would be a solid contributor on special teams to start out at the very least. Not anymore. For the second time in three games, Jones muffed a punt that swung the tide of the game. This time, it gave the Commanders a very short field that led to their only touchdown of the night.
Jones is going to take time to develop as a receiver. That was clear going into the season. But at the very least, he was supposed to excel as a return specialist. It’s what he did best in college. Now, he can’t even cleanly field a punt or determine when he should let a ball bounce or not. Because of those issues alone, Jones is already one of the most disappointing draft picks this year. He’s not a bust yet, but the car is already starting down that road. It’s up to him to turn it around.
4. Teven Jenkins is the only dependable offensive lineman
Two months ago, Teven Jenkins wasn’t guaranteed to be on the Bears roster. Now, it’s become clear that he’s their most dependable player on the offensive line. Jenkins dealt with rumored rifts with coaches and had his name pop up in trade talks throughout most of training camp. He was a man without a country until he was moved to right guard and forced the Bears to make him a starter. Now, he’s the only one doing his job well on a consistent basis.
Jenkins continues to bully defenders at the right guard position and while he isn’t perfect, he’s making many more positive plays than his teammates on the offensive line. He’s finishing his blocks and fortified what was considered the weakest position on the offensive line heading into the summer. It’s ironic that the former offensive lineman-turned general manager seemingly didn’t want Jenkins and now he’s the most consistent player on the line.
5. Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker are progressing well
Let’s stick with some more positives and point out how the Bears’ top two rookies are starting to really come into their own. Cornerback Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker were busy on Thursday night and both were making plays in coverage and in the backfield. Gordon’s had a slow start to his career but things are starting to pick up. He had six total tackles and one pass defenses, diving to force an incompletion. He only allowed short passes and continued to show he’s a sure-fire tackler. It’s been a solid few weeks for him and he’s turning a corner.
Brisker, meanwhile, flashed early but continues to show plenty of promise. He notched five total tackles, including one for a loss, a sack, and a quarterback hit. The Bears are using him all over the field and he’s proving to be a nuisance for opposing offenses. The defense looked very solid for much of the night and the two rookies played a key role in that performance. It could be the beginning of a strong secondary for years to come.
6. Matt Eberflus was bailed out late in the fourth quarter
One area of the game that isn’t being talked about was the Bears’ second-to-last drive of the game and it comes down to the coaching decisions from Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. The Bears got the ball with 7:21 left in the game, still down by five points. They then orchestrated a drive of 10 plays that took off a staggering amount of time, nearly five minutes and only netted 27 yards. That got them to midfield when they faced a fourth and 11 with 2:34 remaining.
Armed with all three timeouts, the Bears chose to try and convert to keep the drive alive instead of punting. A delay of game made things more difficult and pushed them back to five yards to make it a fourth and 16 play. But the Bears still forged ahead with trying to convert and a pass from Fields to Smith-Marsette was dropped, giving Washington the ball inside Bears territory with a chance to end the game or at the very least go up by eight points.
The Commanders fortunately missed a 48-yard field goal try that gave the Bears life. It bailed Eberflus out of a terrible decision and the Bears got themselves back into position to win. But just because they got the result doesn’t mean the process was correct. Eberflus should have called for the punt team and forced Washington to move the ball deep in their own territory. With all of their timeouts in tact, it would have been the better play. It didn’t matter for this game, but it will in the future.
7. Robert Quinn should have been dealt in the offseason
This takeaway isn’t necessarily hindsight. Just a reminder that Robert Quinn was never going to come close to replicating his 2021 success and that the team should have pushed harder to move him in the offseason. Quinn has fallen back to Earth and looks much like the player we saw in 2020 and not last year. He has just one sack on the year and seven tackles. Quinn couldn’t get past Charles Leno Jr. to pressure Carson Wentz, the most-sacked quarterback in the league. It’s been a bust of a season for No. 94.
Would the Bears have gotten a second or third-round pick for Quinn during the offseason? Maybe, maybe not. But the point is his value was never going to be higher after his 2021 production. He had nowhere to go but down and the Bears decided sticking with him would have been a better play than acquiring picks for the future. Quinn is nonexistent on the field right now and there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight.
You still need players to fill out a roster and Quinn obviously is held in high regard with his teammates as a captain. But there was an opportunity to speed up this rebuild by moving him and the Bears chose to sit on their assets.
8. We're watching the 2004 Lovie Smith Bears
Perhaps my biggest takeaway from this game and the season to this point is that we’ve gone back in time and are watching the 2004 Bears season. You remember the 2004 season, right? Perhaps you’ve blocked it from your memory since it was painful to get through. The Bears were starting a new chapter under Lovie Smith and featured a stagnant offense with pitiful passing performances, but a solid ground game. There were few, if any, notable playmakers at receiver and the offensive line struggled under a first-year offensive coordinator.
The defense, however, showed promise with plenty of young players. They just couldn’t put it all together to stack wins on top of each other. The result was a 5-11 season that had fans questioning where this team was going. Sound familiar? The good news, however, was that it was a stepping stone for the next few seasons. Players continued to develop and the front office pinpointed areas of concern in the offseason and the Bears built a team that went to the postseason in consecutive years. That’s where this team can go heading into 2023 with the right attention to detail.
Poles wanted to see what this offense looked like without spending gobs of money first. He wanted to see where the major deficiencies were and those have been made crystal clear. There’s not much he can do about it now, though. It’s a team with a struggling offense with little star power and a defense that could become a very productive unit, just like in 2004. The only difference is this year, the Bears have a healthy quarterback they can build with an not a cavalcade of characters such as Jonathan Quinn, Craig Krenzel, and Chad Hutchinson. That alone provides hope of developing the offense into next year. But for now, this is what we have to look forward to for the rest of the season.
