Why Are The Bears The NFL’s Biggest Letdown?

Is there a bigger disappointment in the NFL than the Chicago Bears? If you were to ask fans of the franchise, their answer would be a resounding ‘NO!’ In 2018 the Bears went all out to secure the signature of Khalil Mack, a player that looked capable of inspiring them to greater heights.

His acquisition was key in the franchise’s impressive 2018-2019 season as they went from worst to fifth in the NFC North. A no-nonsense, near impenetrable defense, was key to the Bears’ transformation last season, and fans hoped it would lay the foundations for a successful campaign this time around.

A single point loss to the Chargers earlier this season summed up the Chicago Bears offensive woes…

High Hopes Pre-Season

The drafting of David Montgomery, coupled with head coach Matt Nagy’s apparent commitment to focus on his side’s offense this season, saw the Bears feature highly in the football odds back in August.

Many experts ranked the Bears as outside tips to reach the Super Bowl in Miami and upset the apple cart. But at the time of writing, nothing could be further from the truth. The Bears may have just beaten the Detroit Lions, but by all intents and purposes, their season has been an unmitigated disaster.

So what’s gone wrong for the Bears so far this season and who is to blame?

Defense Reigns Supreme

For a team that based much of their success last season on a strong defense, the fear going into this season as they would be unbalanced as they looked to shift towards an offensive emphasis.

Strangely, the opposite seems to have happened. Despite Matt Nagy’s lofty ambitions of revolutionized the Bears offense, they seem to have focused more on solidifying their defense, which has been by all measures excellent.

This has come at a cost to the offense though, which seems more stunted and ignored than ever before. There are no big plays, there is no ambition and those tasked with added offensive vigor have come up woefully short.

Up until recently, the Bears were averaging just 263.7 offensive yards per game, and even when dominating games, failed to score as many touchdowns as they should have. Of course, Matt Nagy and his coaching team should take full responsibility for their team’s offensive impotency, but two players, in particular, have become scapegoats for the fans…

The Chicago Bears Scapegoats

Eddy Pineiro

It was no secret that the Bears needed a new kicker last season, but eyebrows were raised when it came out that Eddy Pineiro was the man the franchise had picked to bolster their kicking options.

Pineiro’s previous season with the Oakland Raiders had been cut short by injury, which was perhaps small mercy for Pineiro who had been performing poorly prior to that. Supporters of Pineiro pointed to his 2016 and 2017 seasons in which he made 38 out of 43 kicking attempts, suggesting that he could recapture his best form with the Bears.

Thus far, it seems that he has been unable to replicate that form and has instead found himself as the target of ire from disgruntled Bears fans. When the franchise lost by a single point to the Los Angeles Chargers earlier in the season, Pineiro was lambasted for his 41-yard missed kick in the dying embers of the game.

Whilst it’s true that the Bears should not have been relying on a kicker to win them the game at that point, it still didn’t stop fans from directing their fury at Pineiro. He provided the perfect scapegoat for the myriad of problems that the Bears were presently experiencing.

Mitchell Trubisky

Whilst Eddy Pineiro may not be truly deserving of criticism from the fans, no such thing can be said of Mitchell Trubisky. At the beginning of the season, the young quarterback was identified as key to the Bears hopes of reaching the Super Bowl in Miami.

After his first two rookie seasons, there were clear signs that he could push on and make this season his real breakthrough campaign. However, he has been nothing short of awful so far this season.

In the first seven weeks of this season, Trubisky averaged less than 170 passing yards per game with just five touchdown passes. His passer rating was under 71 in three of those games, and his high of 82.8 only ranked 43rd in the league.

Matt Nagy has claimed that Trubisky is just suffering from a loss of confidence and that one win will bring the quarterbacks performances back to a high level. Which brings us on to our final point, the main reason for the Bears underperformance this season…

Debate still rages on as to whether or Mitchell Trubisky is actually a good quarterback…

The Main Culprit – Matt Nagy

Chicago Bears head coach has attributed Mitchell Trubisky’s poor form to a lack of confidence and has suggested that hard work and a win will turn all of that around. Which sounds like poor management. How can hard work and luck alone pick a player up off the floor?