Slow Start Against Eagles Leaves Bears Buried
A week after they failed to finish at the close against the L.A. Chargers, the Bears on Sunday failed to answer the opening bell against the Philadelphia Eagles.
It's what losing teams do best, find every way possible to lose.
The Bears suffered through a miserable first half offensively and their second-half rally didn't accomplish enough in a 22-14 loss to the Eagles, their fourth-straight defeat.
"Just really, really sloppy, extremely sloppy," coach Matt Nagy said.
It might have been the nicest thing anyone could say about the way the Bears fell to 3-5 to close the first half of their season.
"We've got to come out better, we've got to come out faster with a little chip on our shoulder," quarterback Mitchell Trubisky said.
They had just 9 first-half yards and 1 yard passing, the only first down of the half coming on a Trubisky scramble late in the second quarter. They had 47 more yards in penalties in the first half than they had offensive yards.
"If you think you're going to do that coming into a place like this with that defense that they have, with that front line, you're not going to be in good shape," Nagy said. "And that's what happened."
Trubisky completed just 10 of 21 for 125 yards with a 66.6 passer rating. Only Taylor Gabriel and David Montgomery caught more than two passes, each hauling in three.
"Just bad plays on first and second down, not being in third-and-manageable, hurting ourselves, not doing the simple things and then credit going against a good defense," Trubisky said.
A defense that was on the field for 20:45 in the first half, allowed a 62-yard drive to Zach Ertz's 25-yard touchdown catch and two 28-yard Jake Elliott field goals. Then they came out of the locker room at halftime and surrendered an 84-yard drive to Jordan Howard's 13-yard TD run.
With the Bears trailing 19-14, they allowed the Eagles to tear 8:14 off the clock on 16 plays of a 69-yard drive to Elliott's third field goal, a 38-yarder.
"We just didn't execute," outside linebacker Leonard Floyd said. "Nothing more to be said about it. We've got to do a better job of executing to give our offense the ball back."
For most of the game, the offense wouldn't have known what to do with it anyway.
Then they switched to the I-formation and ran or they threw play-action passes like against the Chargers, and the offense seemed to gain a rhythm.
Trubisky found Gabriel for a 53-yard strike and it led to the first of two 1-yard Montgomery TD runs.
They had the chance at the lead near midfield with nine minutes to play while down 19-14, and Montgomery dropped a screen pass with the blocking perfectly formed and no Eagles defenders along the sidelines.
The Bears offense never got the ball back again after that possession thanks to the ball-control drive and Adam Shaheen fumbling away a pooch kick with half a minute remaining.
"We got outplayed in the first half but made some adjustments and kept fighting in the second half," Trubisky said. "You're proud of the resilience, but at the end of the day it's still not enough and we know that because you feel like this afterward."
And now they're left pondering eight remaining games without realistic hope of a playoff berth.
"It sucks man," Floyd said. "You want to win every game you go out and play.
"But again, it's a marathon, not a sprint."
At this point, the quicker conclusion would be preferable.
Twitter@BearsOnMaven
