Bears Report Card: Effort Trumped by Errors

From close calls along the sidelines to questionable penalty calls and non-calls, it was a difficult day for the Bears in Sunday's 21-13 loss to Green Bay.

Statistics often mean little and in this game it especially was the case.

The Bears owned the edge in virtually every statistical category and held Aaron Rodgers to barely 200 passing yards, with less than 50 percent completions.

Yet, they came away with a loss to fall from playoff consideration.

Winning isn't all about numbers, and this is reflected in their grades on this week's postgame report card.

Running Game

The offensive line and David Montgomery never really achieved consistent yardage. The Packers limited Montgomery to 39 yards on 14 carries and Tarik Cohen had eight for 35 yards. The 96 rushing yards was propped up by Mitchell Trubisky's four runs for 29 yards, and he had 5 of those on the failed Stanford Band Play to end the game. GRADE: D

Passing Game

Trubisky's two interceptions were fluky. His passer rating of 64.5 wouldn't have been nearly as bad without those. One was on a Hail Mary pass and the other was a deflected pass at the line of scrimmage bobbled and held by lineman Dean Lowry. Yet he couldn't get the ball downfield until after the Packers owned a 21-3 lead, then threw for 334 yards in desperation. Pass blocking struggled early and Kenny Clark's interior rush made it tough for Trubisky to step up into a throw. He made several ridiculously dangerous throws across the field and had some he stepped into and delivered with authority. It's uncommon for the Bears to have two receivers go over 100 yards, but they did with Anthony Miller making nine catches for 118 yards and a touchdown and Allen Robinson seven for 125. GRADE: C-

Run Defense

They held running backs to 77 yards and Akiem Hicks' presence made a difference, but too many broken tackles burned them in the third quarter. Aaron Jones' 21-yard touchdown run can't happen. It was the kind of play poor run defenses give up. Tackling overall was shoddy on the day, but in particular from defensive backs in run support or in coverage. GRADE: C

Pass Defense

Holding Aaron Rodgers to a 78.2 passer rating, less than 50 percent completions (16 of 33) and 203 yards should be cause for celebration. The Packers only converted 33 percent of third downs. But they did find a way to get Khalil Mack blocked and didn't let him wreck the game. Rodgers' running for 23 yards was a key and came out of the passing game on scrambles. Davante Adams tore up Buster Skrine when the Packers matched him up in the slot, but the Bears adjusted to keep it from being a one-on-one situation inside. Kyle Fuller lost his footing on the poor Lambeau Field grass, and it helped lead to a TD drive. Nick Kwiatkoski had a key sack but also dropped an interception he should have had and left the middle vacant for Rodgers to scramble forever on one play. GRADE: C

Special Teams

Cordarrelle Patterson's penalty was an obvious blown call but a penalty nonetheless and cost the Bears the ball and gave it to Green Bay at the Bears 35. Tyler Ervin's 45-yard kick return took momentum back away from the Bears. Frozen field conditions kept the kicking game in the background, but Eddy Pineiro did make both of his short attempts to keep the Bears in the game. GRADE: C-

Coaching

Mitchell Trubisky touched on the play calling, possibly accidentally or possibly not. Matt Nagy tried running the offense like he had been running early in the season when it didn't work, and it didn't work again. There was no I-formation running game emphasis like the Bears had run when they were getting better yardage the last two weeks. They didn't move Trubisky around much in the first half, unless he was scrambling on his own. In the second half, there was a little more emphasis on this and it worked better when Trubisky was throwing after moving. Two games with the Packers and Mike Pettine got the best of Nagy in both of them. It took seven full quarters plus for the Bears to score a touchdown this year against Pettine's defense. GRADE: D

Overall

Great effort once they fell behind and it all meant nothing in the end. The last two games for the Bears now will mean nothing. GRADE: D+

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