Grading the Bears: New Offensive Lows Reached

DJ Moore looked around Sunday and said he saw three people devoted to him on some pass plays.

He has become the new Khalil Mack, a Bears player who stands out above the mediocrity and opponents will do everything possible to keep him in check.

The answer to this is for others to pick up the slack, whether it's Darnell Mooney, Tyler Scott, Trent Taylor or, yes, even Velus Jones Jr., their newfound Cordarrelle Patterson—a running back returner instead of the wideout he was drafted to be.

Only the Bears can go against a team giving up over 200 yards a game to wide receivers, the highest average in the league at this, and then get the ball to receivers for only 116 yards. That's just over half the yards Moore gained by himself against Washington in the previous game.

What a week it would have been to have a 6-foot-5 wide receiver target in the middle of the field to beat the blitz.

No, not Chase Claypool. They aren't that desperate. Equanimeous St. Brown would have been the player who could have helped.

A back who could catch a pass in the screen game might have been a help, too, but the Bears were so determined to run wide receiver screens against the Vikings that they did it on successive plays without gaining a yard.

The Bears clearly regressed against a bad Minnesota Vikings team that lacked its best player.

This is where the blame gets fixed. There's plenty of it to go around for everyone in this week's report card, including the decision makers.

Passing: F

Justin Fields had thrown for 58 yards in about 2 1/2 quarters of play before he left, which was what he threw for on one pass to Moore the previous game. He balked at throwing passes, he held the ball too long and he made risky moves with the ball. The interception he threw came as he was hit passing it, but was another case of holding the ball too long. The biggest indictment of Fields' play was Moore. He had one catch for 7 yards before Fields left, then an undrafted rookie from Division II, Tyson Bagent, got it to him four times in the last 1 1/2 quarters of play. As for the other receivers who didn't contribute much, Kmet's two receptions for 9 yards and Mooney's two catches said nothing for their ability to burn opponents for paying too much attention to Moore. The Bears faced a blitzing defense bent on disruption and handled it much the same way they did against Tampa Bay, Green Bay and Kansas City. That is, they didn't. They can expect more of it with Tyson Bagent or Fields at quarterback in the future.

As for Bagent, it isn't even fair to include any criticism here because of the impossible task asked of a player with so little high-level experience. This type of game was exactly why they signed P.J. Walker in the offseason. This was a perfect situation for a backup QB with experience and a winning career record. Where was he, anyway? He was in Cleveland yesterday, beating the undefeated 49ers as the Browns backup.

Running Game: B-

Considering how much shuffling went on along the offensive line, gaining 162 yards on the ground looked fairly impressive. Only 46 came from Fields' running, so backups D'Onta Foreman and Darrynton Evans shouldn't feel as down about their efforts as the wide receivers, tight ends and Fields. The running game opens holes even when they're replacing centers who can't snap the ball with centers who can't block. Maybe find a center who does both? Just a suggestion. If they ran they ball this way and found a way against any opponent, they could expect to win.

Pass Defense: B-

The only negative here had to be their inability again to rush the passer with four men. The biggest pass rush contribution came from T.J. Edwards on a blitz. Tremaine Edmunds and Edwards loomed large in pass defense, just like in the pass rush. They lost Eddie Jackson to injury--or the cynical might say they pulled him because he's going to be traded--but they still held Kirk Cousins to 181 yards passing and 174 team passing yards. The Vikings had two second-half first downs. Even without Justin Jefferson playing this looks impressive. The return of Kyler Gordon and Jaylon Johnson made a difference, although they needed their own defense to take one away on an interception the way the Vikings did.

Run Defense: B

The Vikings aren't really a team interested in running it, anyway. They didn't. The 46 rushing yards was not quite the 29 the Commanders had but still a level no winning NFL team should have. Edwards, Andrew Billings and even Justin Jones helped make the defensive front stout against the run. The Vikings had 22 rushing attempts, certainly not a lot but a sufficient total in many games and five of them went for loss.

Special Teams: B+

Velus Jones Jr. finally got the chance to return some kicks and did it the way he did last year. Trenton Gill had one ball downed at the 5, a perfect punt that looked like a 60-degree wedge backing up. They got a 53-yard field goal from Cairo Santos, Rasheem Green blocked an extra point that loomed large late in the game and they started on average from their 31, 3 yards ahead of where Minnesota did. Only yet another 15-yard punt return counted as a negative on the special teams slate.

Coaching: D-

The only reason the Bears don't get the obligatory failed grade here is the way Eberflus' defensive scheme gave nothing to Cousins. Even without a pass rush to speak of—occasional effective blitz aside—they kept the Vikings to 15.4% conversion on third downs and 5.3 yards per pass. Those are winning numbers. Don't give too many pats on the back to the Bears coach for this, as his explanation for why Patrick was in the game at center late came straight out of the Dick Jauron textbook for twisting negatives and avoiding criticism of players. They took Cody Whitehair out not because of numerous bad snaps but because Bagent was more used to working in training camp and preseason with Patrick, the Bears coach said. This is the same Patrick who was graded 34th in the NFL by Pro Football Focus among centers going into the game. Those two must have really developed quite the relationship during training camp to bring back a center graded 34th in a 32-team league. It's OK to criticize a center's snaps or even inability to make line changes in the face of blitzes. Someone should tell Eberflus, but not admitting it to the media doesn't really affect output on the field, only questioners in postgame press conferences.

Luke Getsy's offensive game plan was greatly borrowed from the way they attacked the blitzing schemes of the Packers, Chiefs and Buccaneers. They got the same results, or even worse this time. Isn't insanity defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting something different?

The meld of poor quarterback play with an extremely poor offensive game plan, shoddy blocking and inability of receivers to step up with Moore triple-teamed proved too much to overcome.

Overall: C-

It takes creative losing from real experts at it to rush for 162 yards while holding an NFL team to 220 net yards in this modern era and still come away without a victory. If this was the tanking time of the year, this loss would have been hailed as a Bears job well done.

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