17 Thoughts On The Bears’ Garbage Loss To The Lions

I found two thought that I feel are notable.

1) 8. Bears had a 10-0, and then a 17-7 lead in the first half, and both times those leads were wiped out by stupidity. The first one thanks to the offense, and the second one thanks to the defense. All of a sudden, Bears found themselves losing at halftime and going back on defense to start the second half. Shooting themselves in the foot and being unable to take control of games — something we’ve gotten all too familiar with these last three years.

2) 17. This was a very frustrating loss. The Bears had control of this game early, had a chance to stomp on the Lions’ throats, and choked it away. The Packers, after stunning the Bears last week, got destroyed on their home field by the Ravens, whom the Bears beat on the road. Just a poor coaching job after the bye so far from John Fox has this team on the cusp of another Top 10 finish in draft positioning. Add to it the sobering loss of Leonard Floyd, and the Bears lost way more than just the game today.

Both tend to highlight the same results we have seen for three seasons under John Focks.  This is far more than just poor play.  It's the result of a team whose often poorly prepared to even begin a game and even when they do manage to eek out a lead they can't hold it.  A penalty for unnecessary roughness by a veteran OL following a 1st down is inexcusable.  Momentum building into yet another drive stops, Trubisky fumbles, and the Lions are right back in the game instead of the Bears going up 17-0 and being in a position to put the game away before half time.  It's sheer stupidity week, after week, after week, that kills them.

Poor third down defenses have been a problem all three seasons which to me means Vic Fangio will find himself coaching elsewhere next year as well.  Neither he nor Focks can seem to figure out a way to keep this team from consistently hemorrhaging third down stops.  They just don't make them near enough nor does the offense make their third down conversions near enough.  As a result all the good that may have come in the two down before it is wasted.  Players need to go and Pace needs to do a reset with his coaching staff.  Whenever a team or any one player keeps repeating the very same mistakes game after game it's time to move on from those who've contributed to that.

This team has never played smart football under John Focks and today was no exception.

Well, I expect a good old fashioned beat down by the Eagles next Sunday and then a couple of wins. Fox can go back to thinking his style of offense DOES win games for a little bit. It makes the 'ol guy happy.

They were passing a little more. I think that helped the run. But like you said.... when something works they always half-ass it. It was working so of course they stopped doing it.

And this is revealed in that article and it's what I've been emphasizing as well.

Even if they get a lead they can't seem to hold it.  If teams can make an adjustment to our defense all of a sudden they ring up some quick scores as Detroit did yesterday.  That's been a common problem as has been the ability of the defense to make 3rd stops.

I have no idea what their thinking is on offense.  Even when they begin a game mixing things up eventually they seem to revert to the same old predictability or they shoot themselves in the foot with dumb penalties.  The precision is seldom there or if it is it ends up disappearing.

Here's a great reason why we aren't able to play come from behind football.  This is from Adam Hoge.

“There are a lot of situations that a lot of people, including you all, don’t get,” Fox said. “In a two-minute (package), not everybody on the team knows all that. We have Adam Shaheen, we have Mitchell Trubisky, we have Tarik Cohen — they are playing in their (10th) games in their NFL careers, as rookies. They have a lot on their plate as it is, and they can’t do everything.”

So they can’t handle the most crucial package in the playbook?

“It’s just more so about me learning more things in the offense so that in the hurry-up situation I can be in the slot or I can go to the X-receiver or the Z-receiver or just be in the backfield,” Cohen said, confirming that he doesn’t know all of the plays in the two-minute package. “Probably just the hurry-up plays at those positions. I know certain plays at those positions, but you know, just to open up the whole playbook with me, I would have to learn all of those plays.”

To be clear, this isn’t a Devin Hester situation where he’s struggling to learn the playbook. The Bears have constantly raved about Cohen’s intellect and ability to pick things up, which means Fox and Loggains are the reason why Cohen isn’t in the two-minute package. They’ve decided not to put that on his plate.

What it boils down to is a lousy excuse.  We're 11 games into a season that's been preceded by a rookie camp, OTAs with the vets, four weeks of training camp, and four weeks of preseason tune up games where rookies get a lot of snaps and yet rookies like Cohen still haven't been taught their roles in a 2 minute package??

If you ask me this is pure John Focks style fucked up thinking.  He doesn't even want rookies playing with the game on the line so what better way to avoid it then to not include them at all because you've never spent the time teaching them their roles.  For cripes sake Focks treats this like it's fucking astrophysics and it's a manned moon shot not a lousy 2 minute offense.