After months of buildup to the 2023 season, the Chicago Bears’ Week 1 game against the Green Bay Packers was a massive bust.
A defense with multiple new starters allowed Jordan Love to throw three touchdown passes in the Packers’ 38-20 victory. Bears quarterback Justin Fields showed little progress from last season, throwing for 216 yards and a touchdown while committing two turnovers. And the Bears offensive line made costly mistakes, forcing Fields to work under pressure too often.
So now what?
The Bears have to regroup quickly for their Week 2 road game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who upset the Minnesota Vikings in their opener Sunday.
As the Bears turn the page, Tribune reporters Colleen Kane and Dan Wiederer work through several major questions about Sunday’s loss and the future of this team with a game of true or false.
Colleen Kane: I’ll start you off with a question we’ve heard in different forms over the years as the Bears offense struggled. True or false? The shaky offensive performance Sunday was on coordinator Luke Getsy more than quarterback Justin Fields.
Dan Wiederer: False. If anything this was a collective faceplant. From the coordinator to the quarterback to the offensive line to the running backs, receivers and tight ends. That level of slop can’t be pinned exclusively on one person. And while I understand the convenient knee-jerk impulse in Chicago to crucify the play caller for the offensive struggles, it was obvious the Bears’ issues with penalties and poor blocks and missed assignments created way too much backward momentum. For myriad reasons, Fields also passed up opportunities to push the ball down the field and had eight plays on which he chose the comfort of the tuck-and-run over a downfield pass. He also had two costly second-half turnovers caused by hesitance and poor decision-making. Getsy may not have had his finest day, but the play-calling didn’t strike me as egregious — either in live action or when reviewing the game. This is the NFL. The 32 players with the QB1 designation have big-boy responsibilities, and Fields has to own Sunday’s loss as much as anyone.
Kane: I joked that I would answer this one with a head-exploding emoji, simply because I cannot believe we are back to this place again, trying to figure out who the biggest problem is on a sputtering offense. But you are right to say it’s nuanced. I’m sure there are parts of the game plan and some play calls Getsy would like back. But Fields had missed opportunities and mistakes, and there was blame to go around for his teammates. The one thing I don’t think we have to worry about is Fields owning the loss. Just last month quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko called Fields “his own hardest critic,” saying he displays his leadership when he acknowledges his mistakes in front of his teammates. That should be worth something as the Bears regroup.
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Wiederer: My turn. Given the buildup to the opener and the optimism that percolated through the Bears fan base for months, true or false? Sunday’s lopsided loss was even more disappointing than the season-opening defeat to the Packers in 2019.
Kane: False. It’s a great question because both games had their distinct disappointments. Sunday’s letdown starts with the missed opportunity. Aaron Rodgers is gone, but the Bears couldn’t take advantage in Love’s second career start to break their four-year losing streak to the Packers. And the progress the Bears expected to see on offense from Fields and on defense with several new players didn’t show up. That the Bears got DJ Moore only two targets was pretty high on my list of disappointments. But do you remember the hype heading into that 2019 season? The Bears were feeling great coming off their 2018 NFC North title and amid all of the Bears100 hoopla. And then they scored three points! It was a major foreshadowing of the offensive struggles to come under Matt Nagy and Mitch Trubisky. I guess the Bears’ defensive performance in that 10-3 loss at least gave fans something to hold on to. But given the level of expectation — people were talking Super Bowl! — 2019 was a bigger disappointment.
Wiederer: I know, initially it seems crazy to consider. The buildup to that 2019 season was incomparable to anything I’ve been around in my 11 seasons on this beat. So, yes, that 10-3 loss in a big-stage game to open the NFL’s 100th season was beyond brutal. But somehow Sunday felt worse. Rodgers is gone. The Packers seemed vulnerable. The Bears were confident in all the personnel upgrades and on-field improvement they had made since April. And then? That? A blowout loss. At home. To the rival. With so little steadiness or fight when things started to go haywire. Bad. Just bad, bad, bad.
Kane: OK, I’m up. True or false? The problems the Bears defense displayed Sunday are quickly correctable as they turn their focus to the Buccaneers in Week 2, followed by the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 3.
Wiederer: True. To some extent. There’s evidence throughout Sunday’s loss — particularly in the second half — where the Bears defense could have swung the momentum simply by staying on top of details and being sharper with its execution. The Packers’ 56.3% conversion rate on third down was among the most concerning numbers. And it’s fair to expect improvement in that category in Week 2 if the defense plays more to its potential. But I also have great concerns about this group’s ability to consistently create pressure on quarterbacks, something we’ve wondered and worried about since the spring. The Bears had only one sack and three quarterback hits Sunday. They also failed to create a takeaway. Those are “uh-oh” stats.
Kane: I don’t know that I can confidently agree that it’s true, simply because of your last point. The Bears didn’t get to quarterbacks often enough in 2022, and with a revamped group in 2023, they didn’t create much pressure Sunday. Matt Eberflus’ defensive philosophy is predicated on getting takeaways, but it was the HIS philosophy against the Packers. There were some big plays. New additions Tremaine Edmunds, Yannick Ngakoue and Tyrique Stevenson all flashed at times. Perhaps a defense that had a lot of preseason injuries simply needs more time together on the field. And I had this Buccaneers game circled as an early opportunity for a win before what should be a much tougher test against the Chiefs. But I’m taking the prove-it-to-me stance on this one.
Wiederer: I can’t believe we’re on this road at the start of Week 2, but here goes. True or false? The Bears are still the worst team in the NFL.
Kane: False. I don’t know for sure, but I’ll play the odds on this one. There were teams that had worse losses Sunday. The New York Giants lost by 40 to the Dallas Cowboys. The Pittsburgh Steelers lost by 23 to the San Francisco 49ers. (Though the Cowboys and 49ers are expected to be better than the Packers.) Plenty of teams scored fewer points, though only the Giants gave up more. And there are teams I’m just certain are in worse shape than the Bears, namely the Arizona Cardinals and Houston Texans. But the Bears have work to do if they’re not going to wind up in the bottom third of the league again. And given that general manager Ryan Poles still is building depth on the roster, they need some health luck too.
Wiederer: I hear what you’re saying. And I think we’ll be well past this kind of dread in a month or two. But … they are until they aren’t, right? The Bears were one of six teams to get beaten by at least 15 points in Week 1, joined in their misery by the Giants, Steelers, Texans, Cincinnati Bengals and Seattle Seahawks. Three of those teams made the playoffs last season and should have an easier time dismissing the big-picture significance of their opening clunkers. The Bears haven’t experienced victory in 322 days now. Repeat: 322 days! They have lost their last 11 games. A year ago they lost a league-high six times by 16 points or more. In fact, that was more losses by 16 or more than five entire divisions experienced.
Opening 2023 with another blowout defeat was not what the doctor ordered. If the Bears want to be seen as an on-the-rise team, they have to provide that evidence. It will show up in the win-loss column. And it will show up in the brand of football they play. Sunday did little to diminish the notion the Bears are still in the bottom tier of the league. So how will they now respond?