Bears Report Card: Even the Empty Seats Wanted to Boo
If not for the Soldier Field seats being empty Monday night, they would have been booed off the field.
As it was, a few security and janitoral crew members standing at the back of the stadium's lower bowl booed and heckled.
It seemed sufficient.
The Bears embarrassed themselves on national TV with an effort so inept on offense it could have been from the John Fox or Abe Gibron coaching eras.
The loss to the Vikings featured the worst yardage effort by the offense in the Matt Nagy era.
They had 149 yards of offense, fewest since Fox's team had 147 yards on Dec. 3, 2017 with Mitchell Trubisky at quarterback in a 15-14 loss to Robbie Gould and the San Francisco 49ers.
Here are the one-sided grades from Monday night for a team which might be better if it simply quick-kicked on first down each possession.
Running game: F
They actually had center Cody Whitehair back from a calf injury and COVID-19 to help their blocking, but between backs Patterson, Ryan Nall, Artavis Pierce and Lamar Miller all they could manage was 41 yards rushing and one rushing first down. They only had fewer rushing first downs in seven games over their 101 seasons.
Passing game: F
The Vikings played their safeties to prevent strikes downfield and Nick Foles had little time to look past his primary target on third downs. The Bears were 2 for 11 on third down, and the pass rush eventually got to Foles so much they knocked him out of the game. They had two first downs in the second half of the game.
Run Defense: B
Knowing Dalvin Cook was getting the ball, the Bears kept him in check. They limited the Vikings to 99 rushing yards on 33 carries, a 3.0-yard average. That should be sufficient to win a game against a team not known for passing. They shut off the cutback run and even when Akiem Hicks went out with a hamstring injury late in the game they were able to at least slow the running attack sufficiently. Roquan Smith made 14 tackles, including eight solos.
Pass Defense: B-
The Vikings held the pass rush in check with a blend of quick passes and play-action throws or bootleg passes but still the Bears found ways to turn the ball over to their offense with a Khalil Mack interception and Tashaun Gipson's fumble recovery on a pass play. Considering how their own offense had four second-half three-and-outs and could manage only 10:52 of possession time, it's amazing the Vikings scored only 19 points.
Special Teams: A-
Cordarrelle Patterson's 104-yard touchdown return would have made for a near-perfect day but Dwayne Harris muffed a punt in a game when he suffered a tricep injury. The muff cost them three points, which proved huge in the late part of the game as they did reach the Minnesota 30 and could have tried a tying field goal then. Cairo Santos made his 13th and 14th straight field goals, Anthony Miller broke the team's longest punt return of the year, 34 yards, and punter Patrick O'Donnell enjoyed another strong game.
Coaching: F
Matt Nagy's coaching blunder of the night was going for a first down from the Vikings 35 on fourth down with just over two minutes left. If Santos kicks a field goal, they have all their timeouts left and a chance to either tie or win if they get the ball back. He put no faith in his defense again, only in an offense which produced two second-half first downs. Sure it was a 52- or 53-yard try, but Santos had made 14 straight. The game plan of Bill Lazor had a little more variety of depth to the pass plays initially, at least until they started falling behind. Still, there seems to be way too much of an attempt early in games by the offensive braintrust to set up plays for later rather than simply getting to the end zone regardless of how they do it. No sense setting anything up when you can't get there later or at all anyway. The Bears averaged 4.07 yards per pass attempt. That can't be all execution. There has to be scheme issues involved, as well, when the figure is that low.
Overall: D-
The Bears had only four plays that went for longer than a 9-yard gain, indicating an offensive game plan rather low in deception or imagination. They averaged 3.0 yards a play, or 108 inches, and produced a season-low 10 first downs. The sad part was their 41 rushing yards weren't even a season low. In fact, they went lower than that twice. Only Patterson's return and the way the defense scrapped to get two turnovers kept this from being a complete debacle.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
