It's a much different feel at 3-2 for Bears this season
Bears coach Matt Nagy used the comparison, so he invited the results.
While talking with media in London the day after the Bears lost 24-21 to Oakland, Nagy brought up how the Bears were 3-2 and in the same position as last year.
"Well I'm able to use my only year as a head coach, last year, and we were 3-2 last year you know and we ended up going 3-3 and then went on a run," Nagy said. "So my only experience as a head coach is pulling from last year and seeing that where we're at now is the same spot.
"OK, and so we're 3-2 and have a winning record. We know that we've been in every game."
Actually, the record is the same, but the production on both sides of the ball hasn't been the same, particularly on offense.
Most of this problem revolves around the nonexistent running game, one slowed to a crawl of inches when they had been hoping for big gainers. The lack of chunk yardage in the running game is what Nagy has complained the most about.
The Bears still have only four running plays of 10 yards or longer after five games, including only two by running backs. Last year they had four in their first game of the season, alone. They're 26th in rushing this year and were ninth last year at 121.5 yards a game. They had 164 rushing yards from Mitchell Trubisky at this point last year and 21 this year.
More importantly, they had 147 rushing attempts after five games last year and only have 118 this year. No less an expert than Bill Belichick lives by the mantra that rushing attempts far outweigh yardage in importance, and he's right.
In many other categories the comparison is true. They were 3-2 last year and playing at a similar level, particularly on defense.
The Bears have a plus-6 turnover ratio after five games and last year had a plus-6 ratio after five games.
They're fifth in overall defense and were second last year. They're giving up 34.8 percent conversions on third down and were at 33.3 percent last year.
The pass defense is down slightly from ninth last year to 12th this year.
"Obviously the defense, after five games, four out of five games have been lights out," Nagy said. "I mean, on another level defense. So you (media) guys had a question going into it, what's gonna happen going to coach (Chuck) Pagano versus Vic Fangio. I think that one's been answered."
Unfortunately for the Bears, it's been answered on the other side of the ball as well.
Only the Chargers and Giants have losing records among the remaining 11 opponents on the Bears' schedule.
As a result, 3-2 this year looks so much different than 3-2 did last year.
