It turns out that a new head coach doesn’t really amount to a hill of beans if the man has little talent with which to work.
Bears fans were geeked about the start of the Thomas Brown era after former head coach Matt Eberflus was fired on Black Friday following a disastrous conclusion to the team’s Thanksgiving Day game against the Lions. Some fans and analysts even predicted a Bears victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
For me, a road trip into hostile territory while riding a 6-game losing streak hardly instilled me with the belief they could win their first game since the London trip. I’ve seen that movie one too many times and I don’t like the results that come out of the Bay Area.
Brown’s opening act as interim head coach couldn’t have gone much worse as the Bears were outclassed and outworked to the tune of a 38-13 thumping by the 49ers.
The Niners outgained the Bears 319 yards to 4 in the first half on Sunday. No, that’s not a typo. The Bears had four yards of total offense at halftime.
That’s an all-time level of embarrassment. I think about some of the poundings the team has taken in its recent franchise history and this ranks among the worst. The defense had no answer for Brock Purdy, George Kittle and the rest of Kyle Shanahan’s Niners offense. And as we’ve seen far too often this year, there was little substance to a Bears offense that couldn’t block, couldn’t catch, couldn’t run, and couldn’t move the chains.
It was 24-0 at halftime, and despite the Bears’ incredible second-half comeback against the Lions on Thanksgiving, there seemed to be little hope of such a turnaround this week.
Despite taking seven sacks, Caleb Williams’ numbers were respectable. He completed 17-of-23 pass attempts for 134 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions, his seventh-straight game without throwing a pick. Ironically, the Bears haven’t won one of those seven games.
Williams did have a turnover for the first time in a long time when he lost his grip on the football when attempting to throw a pass, which wound up going backwards.
But once more, despite any of his faults on Sunday against the Niners, he’s far down the list of problems the Bears exhibited in the loss.
For starters, the line play on both sides of the ball couldn’t possibly be much worse. The team is devoid of real talent to protect its possible franchise quarterback. And they lack the bodies along the defensive front to consistently pressure opposing quarterbacks.
Football is won and lost in the trenches, and it’s no surprise the team is on a 7-game losing streak, with 9 total losses on the season.
Beyond the two lines, the Bears have holes up and down the roster. With Jaquan Brisker still out, and him having been hurt every year of his career, the team will need to invest in safety help this offseason. Kevin Byard is getting up there in years, thus they’re really going to be hurting at the position soon.
Cornerback Tyrique Stevenson is having a major sophomore slump. And when not doing stupid things on the field, he’s getting beat all over it. He’ll need to be challenged next year as I don’t think Terrell Smith is the answer either.
On top of the defensive line and secondary, there is a major glaring hole at linebacker, too. I like T.J. Edwards, and Jack Sanborn is fine as a seldom-used strong-side linebacker on a team that plays a lot of nickel.
But Tremaine Edmunds has really struggled this year and looks nothing like the player he was in Buffalo. Edmunds is a rangy player who uses his athleticism to drop into coverage and run sideline to sideline. What he does not do well is run downhill and fill the gaps in run support, and it has shown all year as the Bears are one of the worst run-stopping defenses in the league.
If I had to conservatively name the holes the Bears needed to plug this offseason, you’re looking at three new offensive linemen, depth at wide receiver — since it makes little sense to re-sign Keenan Allen at his price tag — another pass rusher off the edge and perhaps depth at tackle, a young middle linebacker to challenge Edmunds, a second corner to challenge Stevenson, and one, if not two safeties.
That’s a lot.
The Bears likely will have three picks in the Top 40, and they have a good amount of draft capital and cap space to sign veteran free agents. They’re going to need all of those assets, too, because no matter what head coach the Bears hire this offseason, his system won’t work without the horses to run it.
