Broncos Blowout Nothing for Bears to Laugh At

It almost seemed comical, the implication the Bears could suffer from overconfidence.

Now at 13 straight defeats, the Bears own the longest losing streak in the NFL since Urban Meyer's Jacksonville Jaguars beat Miami 23-20 on Oct. 17, 2021 to end a 20-game losing streak.

Yet, someone outside of Halas Hall might think about this week's game as easier for the Bears because the team coming to Soldier Field Sunday, the Denver Broncos, lost 70-20 to Miami last week

It's certain no one on Matt Eberflus' team is thinking about it like an easy end to their franchise-record losing streak.

"I mean, that was last week and Miami who they played," Bears running back Roschon Johnson said. "So in reality it has nothing to do with us. I mean the fact that they scored 70 doesn't mean we're going to score 70."

It's a safe assumption considering it's taken the Bears three games to score 47.

"So I mean regardless of whatever they went through I'm pretty sure they're feeling very similar to how we're feeling right now," Johnson said. "So none of that matters.

"It's about how you execute when it's your time to execute. So I think that's going to be our focus and I know I'm going to try like hell to make sure that's the focus of the whole offense and try to help spring us to better execution and going out and getting a win."

Coordinator Vance Joseph's defense allowing 70 to Miami isn't likely to get the Bears offense overconfident but it's getting the Broncos plenty of criticism.

Former Jets coach Rex Ryan had interviewed for the defensive coordinator position Joseph has, and he wasn't above criticizing the Broncos, but not necessarily Joseph. He took some shots at the Broncos for not getting Joseph more defensive help.

"It's just brutal," Ryan said on ESPN's Get Up. "I see it as absolutely a disgrace. This is an absolute disaster.

"Nobody saw this coming. This defense literally was supposed to be a top-five defense in the league—and maybe No. 1 with the right guy running it."

Ryan sounded like a person who avoided a horrible fate like a plane crash or the sinking of the Titanic by losing his ticket.

"I'm sitting here like, 'Are you kidding me?' " he said. "That could have been me there. Maybe they should have ponied up a little bit."

The Broncos became the first team to give up five passing touchdowns and five rushing touchdowns in the same game.

"We'll pick ourselves up here this week and get ready to play next weekend," Payton told reporters afterward.

Misery loves company, and could have some Sunday at Soldier Field because the Bears defense was on course to allow almost as many points as Denver (0-3) did by halftime last week. They trailed the Chiefs 34-0 at halftime, then 41-0 in the third quarter before KC lost interest in running up the score.

In the past, defenses giving up huge point totals like Denver's did not usually recover quickly. However, it has happened infrequently, and when it did, for the most part, it was so long ago it's irrelevant.

The 70 points was the second most allowed in the regular season. The most were 72 in a 72-41 loss by the New York Giants of Allie Sherman to the Washington Redskins on Nov. 27, 1966. The next week, the Giants defense "held" the Cleveland Browns to 49 and lost the game to 49-40.

This was the most recent example of a total collapse of this type by a defense. The others were in the 1949-50 seasons when players were still going without facemasks.

The Rams were inflicting severe damage with their offense in 1950. They ran up a 70-27 win over the Baltimore Colts on Oct. 22, 1950, then the next week rang up a 65-24 win over the Lions.

The next week after their blowout loss to the Rams, the 1950 Colts lost again but only by a 17-14 count to the San Francisco 49ers. The 1950 Lions followed their blowout loss to the Rams with a 35-21 loss to the Bears.

In 1949, the Chicago Cardinals scored a 65-20 win over the New York Bulldogs. The Bulldogs then got it together somewhat on defense. They lost 42-0 to the Philadelphia Eagles the next week.

It's not entirely unusual for a Sean Payton team to cough up big point totals.

In 2005 during his first year with the Saints, the Packers beat them 52-3. Then the Saints came back with another loss, 34-31, to Atlanta the next week.

In 2012 the Saints lost 52-27 to the New York Giants, but bounced back the next week to beat the Buccaneers 41-0.

The Bears have so many problems of their own that Denver's cave-in will barely even catch their attention.

Coach Matt Eberflus has his staff trying to address their issues to end the streak.

"I would just say that everybody’s gotta take a hard look of what they're doing, in terms of the schemes we're running, what we're doing," Eberflus said. "We're charged with putting our players in the best position to execute, and that's what the coach does. And develop the players at the same time. We just gotta do a better job. It's also on the players because it is a partnership, both of us together. The execution part on the field is always player and coach."

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