Today’s Collapse Has To Be Rock-Bottom For The Chicago Bears, Right?

Read the title of this article again. The same headline could have been written after the first three games of the season for the Chicago Bears. But, if the team’s collapse on Sunday against the Denver Broncos was an indication, surely THIS is rock-bottom for the once-proud franchise.

For a long time on Sunday, it looked like a “get-right” game by the Chicago Bears, as the team looked great in all phases.

Maligned quarterback Justin Fields had looked terrible through three weeks. But, for most of the game on Sunday, he looked like the best quarterback in the league. The third-year signal-caller out of Ohio State started 16-17 for 231 yards and a touchdown in the first half, and was 14-14 at one point.

And, the defense was doing a nice job against a much-improved Broncos offense. The Bears led 28-7 for most of the 3rd quarter, before the also-winless Broncos scored in the final seconds of the frame to make it 28-14.

The fourth quarter, however, was an unmitigated disaster. After a Bears punt, the Broncos went right down and scored on a Russell Wilson pass to Courtland Sutton. Then, disaster struck.

Justin Fields had avoided a big mistake all game long, until this.

Still, they had a chance to go down and win the game. And, that oft-criticized Bears offense went right down the field, setting up a 4th and 1 at the Denver 18 with just under three minutes left.

Now, I have no issue with any coach going for it in this situation. If you get it, and you should on 4th and 1, you’re going to be able to take a lot more time off the lcock and hopefully get to the point where you can kick a walk-off field goal. But, what the Bears did makes no sense.

Head coach Matt Eberflus sent his offense out on the field, only to try and fail to get the Broncos to jump. Not the best use of timeouts. To compound his error, the offense went back out there, where they were stopped on a vanilla play call.

The Broncos kicked the go-ahead field goal, and Fields ruined any chances of a comeback when he took a terrible intentional grounding penalty and followed it up with an interception. The Bears had plenty of time, and had the ball around midfield before those two terrible plays.

The bright side if you’re a Chicago Bears fan is that this is another loss closer to getting USC quarterback Caleb Williams with the top pick in the draft.

Everything else is pretty bad, though. This franchise simply seems unable to win at all anymore. They haven’t won a game since last October, they’re showing no real signs of improvement, and the vibes are a low point. Yes, they played a competitive game today. But, this was a Broncos team that had just given up 730 yards and 70 points to the Dolphins, and is also trending down.

When you add in the fact that their defensive coordinator, Alan Williams, resigned in disgrace two weeks ago, Justin Fields has already publicly feuded with the staff, and $100,000 worth of equipment was stolen from Soldier Field.

At least the Carolina Panthers, who sent their 2024 first round pick to the Chicago Bears in the trade for the privilege to draft Bryce Young, also dropped to 0-4. The Chicago Bears could very well have the top two picks in the draft come next April.