Grading the Bears: Mistakes Overshadow Effort

One man's redemption can be another's catastrophe in the NFL.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers hail Baker Mayfield's 317-yard passing performance in Sunday's 27-17 win over the Bears as his arrival, after he has arrived and left Cleveland, Carolina and Los Angeles since 2021.

It's easy to overlook the fact the Bears used two backup safeties, one who had been with the franchise three weeks, and a practice squad nickel back. Mayfield also had only to shrug off Yannick Ngakoue on a few occasions from the Bears pass rush, and did it with like a semi does with an insect.

Conversely, Bears coach Matt Eberflus threw out praise for his team's effort publicly after Sunday's loss. Privately, it can't be so positive or his HITS principle is a hollow acronym.

The Bears looked more competitive, yes. They were gutsy hanging in the game facing the handicaps of absences from Eddie Jackson, Kyler Gordon, Nate Davis, defensive coordinator Alan Williams and Jaquan Brisker until he literally played with more juice. Forget not the fact their offensive line operates without Teven Jenkins and Davis, their preferred starting guards, and with Braxton Jones at left tackle.

Calling this a resounding victory is ignoring the 0-2 start and 12 straight defeats and no one can or should do this, even if you try like Matt Eberflus did, to flush 10 of those losses into the 2022 toilet.

"This is 2023, so there are a lot of guys in that locker room that weren't here last year, right?" Eberflus said. "A bunch of them–free agents, draft guys, a bunch of guys we picked–and it's a new football team.

"So, we are getting the chemistry together. We’re getting the guys together that are playing together for the first time in a season and we will make that work. The guys are very optimistic about that."

That's wonderful but it's the future. Grading the production from Sunday's loss only needs to go as far as the intercepted screen pass at their own 4-yard line -- a poorly conceived play and poorly executed one that was passed off by Justin Fields as a good play by Shaq Barrett.

In this case, one man's great play was a disaster for the other team just as the Bears' misery in Tampa's heat and humidity was Mayfields' refreshing redemption.

Here are the Week 2 grades and there's no way to spin these in another direction.

Running Game: D-

Without Roschon Johnson's 23-yard bolt down the left sidelines, the Bears had 38 yards rushing on 15 carries. It's noVita Vea in it. When they went to the run later and Khalil Herbert had 6- and 8-yard bursts it made thet enough attempts or production. Ja'Tyre Carter starting an NFL game at guard for the first time and playing in one for the fourth time couldn't have helped move a defensive front with immovable object or lack of rushing yards seem more the result of play calling than lack of execution. Fields is always the deodorizer for the Bears running attack but gained 3 yards on four carries, his worst rushing total as a starter. The Bears running attack isn't good enough in its current state, behind this offensive line, to survive this.

Passing: D+

Sporadic successes like 33- and 31-yard completions to DJ Moore on the first drive or a 20-yard TD to Chase Claypool are easily forgotten amid countless poor passes, six sacks when pass blocking broke down or Fields held the ball way too long, or penalties like Claypool's offensive pass interference and Jones' false start. Hurrah! Fields remembered he had Moore and Claypool this week and targeted them! Then again, Darnell Mooney didn't have a single target. There is nothing consistent about the Bears passing attack overall and definitely wasn't in this game. Just when they got a drive going using all forms of effective passes to get within 20-17, they gave up a one-handed pick-6 to an edge rusher in a crowd to lose.

Run Defense: D+

It's questionable whether they ever really shut down Tampa Bay's ground attack. It seemed more a case of the Buccaneers growing bored with using it. A 3.5-yard average looks respectable but whenever Tampa Bay leaned on the ground game it worked. In this respect it was a replay of the Week 1 game with Green Bay. The offense found too much to like with its passing attack to bother using the ground all the time or their rushing yards would have been much higher.

Pass Defense: F

They still haven't had an interception, and Brisker had two chances at them. Tyrique Stevenson struggled to cover and to avoid getting knocked to the ground by Mike Evans, who apparently is exempt from obvious offensive pass interference penalties. Elijah Hicks might have made the worst defensive play of the day by failing to bring down Evans on a short pass that turned into a 36-yard gain and initiated a touchdownd drive. Another Bears opponent converted more than 50% of third downs (53.3%). Tampa Bay converted third downs of 5, 6, 8, 11 and 14 yards with the 14-yarder being a touchdown. Ngakoue again proved the only player capable of generating a pass rush but kept sliding right off Mayfield like he had been covered in grease.

Special Teams: B+

The 40-yard blocked field goal by Rasheem Green had the same effect as an interception and return to the 50-yard line. Too bad their own offense then took only three plays to send punter Trenton Gill back onto the field. Critics of Cairo Santos again were fed a healthy dose of his excellence as he did what he always does and converted a 52-yard field goal. Special teams made a difference for the Buccaneers in this one, too, as the Bears had to start drives at their 16, 10 and 7 in the fourth quarter while they were trying to make a comeback.

Coaching: C-

The high mark came for enduring the loss of a key decision maker in Williams. Eberflus showed more willingness to blitz in this one than they had shown in the past. However, only 16 runs and the overuse of screen passes again came back to haunt the Bears. The Buccaneers said they sniffed out the screen pass coming on the decisive play. The Bears had only 24 minutes of possession time in the heat and wilted. Possession time comes from an effective running game. Their running game wasn't given a chance to be effective because of the play calling. Eberflus' positive spin was needed for a team going from the frying pan to the fire against Kansas City this week, but is it realistic?

Overall: D

Effort only counts for a small part of a team's success. The other "E" word is even more important at this high of a level. That's execution.

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