Winning Ugly

September 24, 2018

Watching the early Sunday football games, I witnessed two upsets of Chicago Bears’ rivals in the NFC North Division. Archrival No. 1, the Green Bay Packers, lost to the winless Washington Redskins. The Minnesota Vikings, with their great defense, got walloped by a bad Buffalo Bills team 27-6. The Vikings were 10 1/2-point favorites. The Bears were also playing a team they should have easily beaten, the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals quickly went ahead in the first quarter 14-0. Eventually with some help from the Cardinals, the Bears eked out an ugly 16-14 victory.

 The Bears’ defense won this game. This can become a recurring theme. The only glitch was Arizona easily scoring a touchdown on the Cardinals’ first possession, culminating with a 35-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open receiver. After a Mitch Trubisky fumble, the Cardinals got their second touchdown, on a 21-yard pass. From then on the defense was outstanding, allowing the Bears to overcome a 14-point deficit. They had four consecutive turnovers in the second half that resulted in 13 points. There were two key moments provided by Khalil Mack.  With 45 seconds left in the first half, the Cardinals were in field goal range. Mack sacked quarterback Sam Bradford, forcing a punt.  Leading 14-13, the Cardinals had the ball at the Bears’ 21-yard line. They could have run the ball and kicked a field goal for a 4-point lead. Instead, Bradford went back to pass and Mack sacked him, forcing a fumble. With the addition of Mack this is the best defense in the NFL.

For the Bears to keep on winning, the defense will have to play at an extremely high level, because the offense is awful. Mitch Trubisky continues to look bad. I wasn’t expecting him to be Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers, but I expected he would improve. However, he was better at the end of last year than he is now. His accuracy is off; he can’t check out of a play recognizing a blitz. He locks in on his primary receivers, not seeing others, causing bad decisions. If you took a photograph of the best quarterbacks drafted in the last three years, he would not be in the picture.

Matt Nagy was hired as a coach who could tutor a young quarterback. Under his watch, Trubisky has regressed. Nagy seems lost in his billboard of plays. His mismanaging of the clock and dumb timeouts would make former Bears’ Coach John Fox proud. In his post game interview, he said he is still learning. Just great, a coach with on-the-job training. Finally, he says that offense will grow because for many players are learning a new system. What happened to all those great practices with Trubisky getting plenty of reps?