Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2016 6:23:44 GMT -6
Look how far the Bears have fallen, and they can't seem to get up
Dan WiedererContact ReporterChicago Tribune
Lovie Smith last 51 Game; Dec. 20, 2009 thru Dec. 30, 2012
W/L Record; 31-20 (.608)
Playoffs; Once (2010)
Pts Scored Per Game; 22.4
Pts Allowed Per Game; 19.4
Point Differential Per Game; +3.0
Total Point Differential; +154
Since Trestman and Fox; Sept. 8, 2014 thru September 25, 2016
W/L Record; 19-32 (.373)
Playoffs; None
Pts Score Per Game; 22.4
Pts Allowed Per Game; 27.5
Point Differential Per Game; -5.0
Total Point Differential; -256
Who would have thought? Who ever could have imagined the tailspin would become so dizzying?
The grin on Lovie Smith's face seemed so hopeful that Sunday in December 2012. Smith's Bears were on their way out of Ford Field, 26-24 victors over the Lions and still alive in the NFC playoff hunt.
Ten victories. A bit of momentum. All they needed was a little help — from reigning MVP Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, three-point favorites that afternoon in Minnesota.
So Smith summarized that day's Bears victory — Matt Forte's 100-yard effort, the defense's four takeaways — and culminated his final postgame radio interview as Bears coach with a three-word wish: "Go Pack go!"
We bring this up only because that's the last time the Bears defeated the Lions, eons ago in football years. And that offers at least some context for the buzz-free game to be played at Soldier Field on Sunday.
A loss and the Bears would be 0-4 for the first time since 2000. A victory? Well, that would be like a pinky-sized bandage on the gaping flesh wound the team suffered during its winless September.
Who would have thought? Who ever could have imagined the chain reaction would become this severe and so seemingly irreversible?
Back to that Sunday in December for a second, the one when Smith became a three-hour backer of his rivals to the north. The Pack didn't go. Or at least not enough. With the Bears airborne toward O'Hare, Vikings running back Adrian Peterson trampled the Packers defense and broke the Bears' hearts.
The Vikings went to the playoffs. The Bears went on a coaching search. And in the 45 months since, the franchise has found itself scrambling to halt a startling regression.
Now, at the start of October, the 2016 playoff hopes are all but dashed. The Bears remain part of a winless fraternity that includes only the Browns, Jaguars and Saints.
And for a fan base worn out by a quarter-century's worth of mediocrity, the search for meaning over these final 13 weeks seems fruitless.
Bears general manager Ryan Pace
Photos of the Bears general manager Ryan Pace.
With blinders on
Internally, Bears players remained bunkered in this week. They had to be, armored against a hailstorm of outside agitation.
Of the players currently on the 53-man roster, 40 have been in Chicago for less than 20 months. Twenty-four have arrived since March. So decades worth of franchise struggles proved irrelevant.
And while incremental progress always will remain a difficult sell to the fan base, the Bears have pushed to keep their focus narrow this week.
Sad as it sounds, a big step involves proving they can be more competitive than they were in September. Against the Eagles, the Bears trailed by double digits for the entire fourth quarter. In Dallas, it was the final 46 minutes, 54 seconds.
Outside linebacker Willie Young spoke this week of his own approach, wading through this 0-3 muck for the third time in his career.
Fiery pep talks? Forgot about those.
"Talking is out the window right now," Young said.
Instead, Young wanted other players to see his daily investments — how hard he works, how intensely he studies, how appreciative he is to have this opportunity.
"Hopefully the guys see my mentality and my mindset," Young said. "I'm not frustrated by no means. The only time I can have fun is on Sundays. And all I can do is ask the guys around to me play balls to the wall and give me all they've got."
Week 3: Cowboys 31, Bears 17
Blooper real
Between halftimes of the Eagles and Cowboys games, the Bears were outscored 44-10. In that span, their offense was on the field for nine possessions and had as many turnovers (three) as points scored.
And yes, those were indeed Bears fans at AT&T Stadium last Sunday in Texas, pulling brown paper bags over their heads, the ultimate symbol of embarrassment and defeat.
The message markered below the cut-out eye holes: "It's getting ugly."
"Getting," however, might have been too kind a word.
After Smith's 2012 exit, the Bears' free fall didn't begin immediately. The 2013 team, under offensive-minded coach Marc Trestman, won its first three games — late rallies over the Bengals and Vikings and then a 17-point defeat of the Steelers in Pittsburgh.
The excitement of 3-0 felt so promising.
That was just three short, yet very long years ago. Ever since, the array of misfortune has proven mind-boggling.
The Bears didn't lose the NFC North in 2013 only because Chris Conte blew a coverage in the final minute of the final game, allowing a 48-yard Randall Cobb touchdown catch in a 33-28 home loss to the Packers. They also lost the division because in their first chance to clinch, a week earlier in Philadelphia, they got Chip Kelly'd on a prime time stage. Mauled. Slaughtered. Five-hundred-fourteen yards allowed; 54-11 Eagles.
The next season included more humiliation. Twenty-four Jay Cutler turnovers. Multiple Brandon Marshall tantrums.
The Patriots scored 21 points in a single minute in late October. The next game, Rodgers threw six touchdown passes in the first half against the Bears. In 120 minutes of football, the Bears allowed 106 points.
Ultimately, that dysfunctional 5-11 season prompted a Halas Hall house cleaning and brought new hope with an energetic young general manager and an accomplished head coach. But 20 months into that Ryan Pace-John Fox union, the Bears have lost more than twice as often as they have won.
The organization also now finds itself challenged to retain the confidence and trust of even its most loyal supporters.
Chicago fire
Before Sunday's game by Lake Michigan, fans will be greeted, as usual, with a history lesson on the Soldier Field video boards, a sepia-toned montage narrated by Dick Butkus. As modern day hype videos go, it's tame. The nostalgia is nice and all with highlight clips of Sayers, Payton, Dent and Urlacher. But when Butkus boasts of a team that "dominated the '40s," the message feels tone deaf with no signs of any Sid Luckman or George McAfee jerseys in the seats nearby.
For perspective, Fox, the fifth oldest coach in the NFL right now, wasn't even born during that '40s domination.
And so the failures of the Bears' recent past — only five postseason berths since 1991 — becomes more unnerving, especially with so few signs the Bears are ready to be relevant any time soon.
Without a stunning turnaround this fall, the Bears will miss the playoffs for the ninth time in 10 years.
In a league with a postseason that uses a rapidly revolving door, the Bears are one of only three NFC teams without multiple playoff trips since 2006. The others? The Buccaneers and Rams, each of whom at least now are pinning their own revival efforts on young quarterbacks drafted No. 1 overall.
The Bears? With all the roster reshuffling they have done — 78 signings in this calendar year alone — it's still difficult to identify more than a handful of players whose futures are guaranteed to be bright in Chicago.
Kyle Fuller's move to injured reserve earlier this week pushed another first-round pick out of the immediate plans.
Since reaching the Super Bowl in the 2006 season, it's easy to argue the Bears have hit on only two first-round picks — former tight end Greg Olsen and current right guard Kyle Long — while whiffing on so many others. Chris Williams, Gabe Carimi, Shea McClellin. Now maybe Fuller too.
So now the hopes hinge on Pace restocking the roster and Fox re-energizing the locker room.
On the latter task, Fox believes he can press all the right buttons.
"It's all about hope," he said this week. "I think with young guys one of the advantages of this is they are a little more energized. They are out to prove themselves. So that's the key. … I think they see some of the growing signs."
Even Fox, though, admitted that victories are needed more than growing signs. And amid an 0-3 start, it's only human nature for there to be a potential dip in enthusiasm, something the Bears no doubt must guard against.
"There's a sense of urgency, that's for sure," inside linebacker Jerrell Freeman said. "We have to put out this fire and put it out quick — like yesterday or the day before."
The problem, though, is that the Bears seemingly have been trying to extinguish that fire with a squirt gun.
Whether it's injury issues or a lack of depth or mental mistakes or in-game failures, the Bears found themselves burnt to a crisp in those back-to-back prime time losses last month. The smoke was again thick and familiarly acrid.
dwiederer@chicagotribune.com
Dan WiedererContact ReporterChicago Tribune
Lovie Smith last 51 Game; Dec. 20, 2009 thru Dec. 30, 2012
W/L Record; 31-20 (.608)
Playoffs; Once (2010)
Pts Scored Per Game; 22.4
Pts Allowed Per Game; 19.4
Point Differential Per Game; +3.0
Total Point Differential; +154
Since Trestman and Fox; Sept. 8, 2014 thru September 25, 2016
W/L Record; 19-32 (.373)
Playoffs; None
Pts Score Per Game; 22.4
Pts Allowed Per Game; 27.5
Point Differential Per Game; -5.0
Total Point Differential; -256
Who would have thought? Who ever could have imagined the tailspin would become so dizzying?
The grin on Lovie Smith's face seemed so hopeful that Sunday in December 2012. Smith's Bears were on their way out of Ford Field, 26-24 victors over the Lions and still alive in the NFC playoff hunt.
Ten victories. A bit of momentum. All they needed was a little help — from reigning MVP Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, three-point favorites that afternoon in Minnesota.
So Smith summarized that day's Bears victory — Matt Forte's 100-yard effort, the defense's four takeaways — and culminated his final postgame radio interview as Bears coach with a three-word wish: "Go Pack go!"
We bring this up only because that's the last time the Bears defeated the Lions, eons ago in football years. And that offers at least some context for the buzz-free game to be played at Soldier Field on Sunday.
A loss and the Bears would be 0-4 for the first time since 2000. A victory? Well, that would be like a pinky-sized bandage on the gaping flesh wound the team suffered during its winless September.
Who would have thought? Who ever could have imagined the chain reaction would become this severe and so seemingly irreversible?
Back to that Sunday in December for a second, the one when Smith became a three-hour backer of his rivals to the north. The Pack didn't go. Or at least not enough. With the Bears airborne toward O'Hare, Vikings running back Adrian Peterson trampled the Packers defense and broke the Bears' hearts.
The Vikings went to the playoffs. The Bears went on a coaching search. And in the 45 months since, the franchise has found itself scrambling to halt a startling regression.
Now, at the start of October, the 2016 playoff hopes are all but dashed. The Bears remain part of a winless fraternity that includes only the Browns, Jaguars and Saints.
And for a fan base worn out by a quarter-century's worth of mediocrity, the search for meaning over these final 13 weeks seems fruitless.
Bears general manager Ryan Pace
Photos of the Bears general manager Ryan Pace.
With blinders on
Internally, Bears players remained bunkered in this week. They had to be, armored against a hailstorm of outside agitation.
Of the players currently on the 53-man roster, 40 have been in Chicago for less than 20 months. Twenty-four have arrived since March. So decades worth of franchise struggles proved irrelevant.
And while incremental progress always will remain a difficult sell to the fan base, the Bears have pushed to keep their focus narrow this week.
Sad as it sounds, a big step involves proving they can be more competitive than they were in September. Against the Eagles, the Bears trailed by double digits for the entire fourth quarter. In Dallas, it was the final 46 minutes, 54 seconds.
Outside linebacker Willie Young spoke this week of his own approach, wading through this 0-3 muck for the third time in his career.
Fiery pep talks? Forgot about those.
"Talking is out the window right now," Young said.
Instead, Young wanted other players to see his daily investments — how hard he works, how intensely he studies, how appreciative he is to have this opportunity.
"Hopefully the guys see my mentality and my mindset," Young said. "I'm not frustrated by no means. The only time I can have fun is on Sundays. And all I can do is ask the guys around to me play balls to the wall and give me all they've got."
Week 3: Cowboys 31, Bears 17
Blooper real
Between halftimes of the Eagles and Cowboys games, the Bears were outscored 44-10. In that span, their offense was on the field for nine possessions and had as many turnovers (three) as points scored.
And yes, those were indeed Bears fans at AT&T Stadium last Sunday in Texas, pulling brown paper bags over their heads, the ultimate symbol of embarrassment and defeat.
The message markered below the cut-out eye holes: "It's getting ugly."
"Getting," however, might have been too kind a word.
After Smith's 2012 exit, the Bears' free fall didn't begin immediately. The 2013 team, under offensive-minded coach Marc Trestman, won its first three games — late rallies over the Bengals and Vikings and then a 17-point defeat of the Steelers in Pittsburgh.
The excitement of 3-0 felt so promising.
That was just three short, yet very long years ago. Ever since, the array of misfortune has proven mind-boggling.
The Bears didn't lose the NFC North in 2013 only because Chris Conte blew a coverage in the final minute of the final game, allowing a 48-yard Randall Cobb touchdown catch in a 33-28 home loss to the Packers. They also lost the division because in their first chance to clinch, a week earlier in Philadelphia, they got Chip Kelly'd on a prime time stage. Mauled. Slaughtered. Five-hundred-fourteen yards allowed; 54-11 Eagles.
The next season included more humiliation. Twenty-four Jay Cutler turnovers. Multiple Brandon Marshall tantrums.
The Patriots scored 21 points in a single minute in late October. The next game, Rodgers threw six touchdown passes in the first half against the Bears. In 120 minutes of football, the Bears allowed 106 points.
Ultimately, that dysfunctional 5-11 season prompted a Halas Hall house cleaning and brought new hope with an energetic young general manager and an accomplished head coach. But 20 months into that Ryan Pace-John Fox union, the Bears have lost more than twice as often as they have won.
The organization also now finds itself challenged to retain the confidence and trust of even its most loyal supporters.
Chicago fire
Before Sunday's game by Lake Michigan, fans will be greeted, as usual, with a history lesson on the Soldier Field video boards, a sepia-toned montage narrated by Dick Butkus. As modern day hype videos go, it's tame. The nostalgia is nice and all with highlight clips of Sayers, Payton, Dent and Urlacher. But when Butkus boasts of a team that "dominated the '40s," the message feels tone deaf with no signs of any Sid Luckman or George McAfee jerseys in the seats nearby.
For perspective, Fox, the fifth oldest coach in the NFL right now, wasn't even born during that '40s domination.
And so the failures of the Bears' recent past — only five postseason berths since 1991 — becomes more unnerving, especially with so few signs the Bears are ready to be relevant any time soon.
Without a stunning turnaround this fall, the Bears will miss the playoffs for the ninth time in 10 years.
In a league with a postseason that uses a rapidly revolving door, the Bears are one of only three NFC teams without multiple playoff trips since 2006. The others? The Buccaneers and Rams, each of whom at least now are pinning their own revival efforts on young quarterbacks drafted No. 1 overall.
The Bears? With all the roster reshuffling they have done — 78 signings in this calendar year alone — it's still difficult to identify more than a handful of players whose futures are guaranteed to be bright in Chicago.
Kyle Fuller's move to injured reserve earlier this week pushed another first-round pick out of the immediate plans.
Since reaching the Super Bowl in the 2006 season, it's easy to argue the Bears have hit on only two first-round picks — former tight end Greg Olsen and current right guard Kyle Long — while whiffing on so many others. Chris Williams, Gabe Carimi, Shea McClellin. Now maybe Fuller too.
So now the hopes hinge on Pace restocking the roster and Fox re-energizing the locker room.
On the latter task, Fox believes he can press all the right buttons.
"It's all about hope," he said this week. "I think with young guys one of the advantages of this is they are a little more energized. They are out to prove themselves. So that's the key. … I think they see some of the growing signs."
Even Fox, though, admitted that victories are needed more than growing signs. And amid an 0-3 start, it's only human nature for there to be a potential dip in enthusiasm, something the Bears no doubt must guard against.
"There's a sense of urgency, that's for sure," inside linebacker Jerrell Freeman said. "We have to put out this fire and put it out quick — like yesterday or the day before."
The problem, though, is that the Bears seemingly have been trying to extinguish that fire with a squirt gun.
Whether it's injury issues or a lack of depth or mental mistakes or in-game failures, the Bears found themselves burnt to a crisp in those back-to-back prime time losses last month. The smoke was again thick and familiarly acrid.
dwiederer@chicagotribune.com
