Upsetting Situation for the Bears

The last time the Bears won a game they went on the road as heavy underdogs.

They started that week 7 1/2-point underdogs to the New England Patriots in a nationally televised game, and at game time Vegas reports had 79% of bets going down on New England's side.

It wasn't a close game, as the Bears were home free in the third quarter of a 33-14 win.

The chances of this happening again on Sunday when the Bears go to Kansas City appear virtually zero.

Great upset wins by the Bears over the years didn't just happen. Factors pointing to an upset need to exist for one to occur and this game seems to have none of them.

For instance, in 1996 the Bears started the season against the defending world champion Dallas Cowboys and won easily 22-6. While it was a heavily favored Cowboys team, they were without numerous players due to holdouts and injuries. In 2020, the Bears faced Tom Brady and Tampa Bay at Soldier Field and the Buccaneers were without receiver Chris Godwin, and it was a Thursday night. A short work week for a road team is always a good breeding ground for an upset.

In last year's upset of New England, the Bears had played well at times earlier, beating San Francisco and Houston while losing close games to Minnesota, the Giants and Washington.

Scoring a win over the Kansas City Chiefs would be the most memorable upset they've ever had.

Nothing is going their way on the field as a 12-game losing streak says. Nothing definitely is going their way off the field when their defensive coordinator has resigned and their quarterback says publicly he isn't being allowed to play freely. Losing their left tackle to injury definitely doesn't help considering they already were short-handed on the offensive line with Teven Jenkins on IR, so Justin Fields' blindside is being protected by two players who weren't initially supposed to play those spots.

Their defense is without two starters in the secondary, which isn't the way to go into Arrowhead and face Patrick Mahomes. The pass rush hasn't taken hold yet after numerous off-season changes up front on defense.

“Did they steal the Bears playbook too?”

Hey at least we’re entertaining. #DaBears #Bears pic.twitter.com/C11x37ade1
— Clay Harbor (@clayharbs82) September 23, 2023

It wasn't surprising when Ryan Poles made a rare appearance in the Halas Hall press conference room to basically say people need to quit panicking because they're trying to build something and it takes time. The disturbing part of this was how he said it's going to take Fields more time.

"In my opinion, you got a young quarterback trying to figure it out," Poles said. "You have a guy who hasn't had the cleanest start to his career, who last year, you know, with the (weaker) roster, had to put the team on his back, do some unbelievable things athletically.

"Now, he gets talent around him and has to figure out and balance when to do those cool things athletically, when to lean on others and that is sometimes a gray place to live in. That takes time. That takes time on task for him to take that next step and everyone is on board helping him get into that place for him to be successful."

The problem is Poles assumes Fields has a stronger roster around him. The talent might be better, but is it capable of playing better at this point?

Fields has a better weapon at wide receiver in DJ Moore, and it's suggested—but not proven—that this version of Chase Claypool is a better one than last year's. They haven't made use of Robert Tonyan at all. The running backs haven't really been leaned on to any extent and more important than all of this, the offensive line they're using isn't the one Poles or Matt Eberflus planned to use this year. Sunday will be their third different starting line in three weeks, with Larry Borom expected to start at left tackle and Nate Davis returning at right guard. The offensive line's constant shuffling is an issue they had all last year.

The balance between Luke Getsy's offensive plans and Fields running more while playing freely really becomes a moot point when they're operating with a shaky line. Getsy might be forced into going back to the offense they tried last year, with Fields as a running back/quarterback and with more QB movement just because they can't even form a pocket.

None of this even takes into account the defense's lack of a pass rush, the injuries they face in the secondary and several inexperienced players defending against Patrick Mahomes on Sunday.

Kansas City might be scuffling a bit out of the gate, but the Bears have been far from a team capable of upsetting even average teams. They played two average teams and have been completely outclassed on the line of scrimmage by both teams.

Fields can scramble around all he wants but teams don't lose the battle on the line of scrimmage every week and win in the NFL, even with a scrambling, athletic quarterback.

"It doesn't happen overnight," Poles said. "Would you like it to? Absolutely. I wish the preseason was cleaner where everyone was going a ton of reps. It didn't happen that way. We had to adjust.

I challenge any “Bears Fan” who has criticized Justin Fields (since you ONLY ever focus on the negative) on this APP to tweet a positive thing he’s done in The last two games —because there were many. Try
— KareBear 🐻🏈 (@situationbears) September 23, 2023

"I believe that we have a better team. It takes time to gel. We're doing things the right way and unfortunately sometimes the right way is the hardest way. But in order to have success for a long period of time, we gotta go through these things to be a good football team."

The rebuilt Bears, with what they think is their new and improved talent, are simply going to have to hunker down, slog it out, go through weeks of trying to improve gradually and ultimately see better results in the late season after they've played together more.

Facing the world champions in Week 3 while in a very prone state and struggling themselves is no reason to even think the Bears can manage the biggest upset they've ever had during a regular season.

Justin Fields clarifies his comments from his press conference earlier pic.twitter.com/veLleoGbnV
— 79th & Halas Podcast (@79thAndHalas) September 20, 2023

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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