Jets Leave Bears Looking Lost and Beaten

Once the Bears figured out who the quarterback would be Sunday, they gave a good account of themselves for about a half of football.

They even remembered they had wide receiver Chase Claypool on the team.

Then Trevor Siemian's passes stopped connecting, the running game got clogged up, the defense no longer forced punts and injuries began piling up.

The end result was a predictable 31-10 loss to the New York Jets in the rain at East Rutherford, N.J.

"I thought we were very competitive there," Bears coach Matt Eberflus said. "Obviously the second half wasn't good enough for either side of the ball. It wasn't good enough.

"Theres no execuses no explanations, just wasn't good enough. I told the guys in the locker room we're better than that. We've got to do a better job and perform better in the second half and that's all phases."

The Jets dominated the second half with 17 points while shutting out the Bears, and overall they scored 24 straight points after the Bears led 10-7.

The pregame drama of a decision to sit Justin Fields was followed by more pregame drama when Siemian injured an oblique muscle in pregame warmups.

"I was throwing, something wasnt right," Siemian said. "It flared up on me and then I got back in the locker room and figured something wasn't right again and gave it it a go."

The team actually announced Nathan Peterman would start, but Siemian gutted it out after taking some pain-killing medicine, and staked the Bears to their 10-7 lead with a 4-yard TD pass to Byron Pringle. Completions of 20 and 31 yards to Claypool made the TD possible on the second play of the second quarter.

"It's something we talked about this week," Siemian said. "And then as we got closer to the game I just told him I don't care who's over there (in coverage), I'm going to throw it to you.

"It's one of those things. I think he's a great player, has got a huge body, huge catch radius. He's a good player. So I just wanted to give him a couple chances."

It ended it this point, however, as the Jets took the lead on a 54-yard TD pass from Mike White, a play when safety Eddie Jackson suffered a game-ending foot injury. Then they padded it with a 57-yard Greg Zuerlein field goal just before halftime.

The onslaught picked up in the second half with a 22-yard third-quarter TD pass from White to Elijah Moore, and it became a rout on Ty Johnson's third-quarter 32-yard TD run.

White finished 22 of 28 for 315 yards and three TDs. Siemian finished 14 of 25 for 179 yards with the TD.

"Yeah, there's a reason why he's been in the league for this long," tight end Cole Kmet said of Siemian. "He gets the ball out, good rhythm, diagnoses coverages well. So yeah ... we started out well and all that stuff."

However, in the second half Siemian went 6-of-10 for just 62 yards.

The Bears (3-9) lost for the fifth straight time, eighth in nine games and took over the second position in next year's draft after Carolina defeated Denver.

In the process, they not only lost Jackson to a foot injury but Darnell Mooney to an ankle injury. Right tackles Larry Borom and Riley Reiff both came out of the game with injuries, as well.

And they still have the Fields shoulder injury to address this week against Green Bay.

It all had Siemian feeling a bit guilty over his little pregame "owie," when he almost missed a start.

"Honestly, I'm more embarrassed," Siemian said. " You get an injury like that, we've got guys in there and what are we in week 12, 13, going through hell. "And I have like a non-contact thing show."

After eight losses in nine weeks, they're all going through said lower regions regardless of whether they are healthy or not.

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