Bear Digest

Power Rankings Giving Bears More Credit Than They Deserve

The complete collapse by the Bears didn't seem to hurt to much in their power ranking but this only proves how many bad teams there are in the NFL.
Gene Chamberlain|
DJ Moore finds no room as the 49ers close in on a screen pass in Sunday's Bears loss.
DJ Moore finds no room as the 49ers close in on a screen pass in Sunday's Bears loss. | Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Sometimes it's not about you and is about someone else.

From the way power rankings fall this week, it's apparent there are plenty of really bad teams in the NFL because the overall impact of the most lopsided Bears loss of the year was only a slight drop in their place with most polls.

In fact, in the SI.com power rankings they rose two spots after losing 38-13 to the 49ers. Just think where they could have been if they scored 14 points instead of 13, got Caleb Williams sacked six times instead of seven or even gained 5 or 6 yards in the first half instead of 4.

While the SI rankings were embarrassing by moving the Bears up two spots, they did have the most astute comment of the week.

"Matt Eberflus was good defensive coordinator, and without him the Bears looked predictable and easy to take advantage of," Conor Orr wrote.

This much was predicted by Chicago Bears On SI.

It only has partially to do with Eric Washington's inexperience calling defensive plays. Eberflus was on top of his game when calling defenses and had the Bears No. 1 in red zone defense almost all year, as they found ways to either force a field goal, take the ball away or get off the field on downs.

It gave a struggling offense with a rookie quarterback a chance to stay in games all year.

And now?

The 49ers went right through them and scored TDs five out of six trips in the red zone.

Expect more of the same this week against an even better offense in Minnesota.

Here are this week's power rankings.

Up from 25th, and Orr gave the Niners credit, while noting Bears troubles.

"That was the most effortless I've seen the 49ers in some time," Orr wrote.

Expect similar comments about the Vikings, Lions, Seahawks and Packers in coming games.

The 33rd Team: 25th

Dropping from 23rd, they were given far more credit from Marcus Mosher than they literally deserved. In fact, he gave them 20% more credit than they deserved.

"Matt Eberflus' firing did not ignite a fire in the locker room, and the defense was not competitive for most of this game," Mosher wrote. "Worse yet, the Bears had five yards of offense in the first half. Five!"

Uh, try 20% lower. They had 4. But the coaching staff appreciates the help.

CBS Sports: 22nd

Stayed the same here and Pete Prisco is another who noted the lack of a bump from the new coaches.

"So much for the idea that firing Matt Eberflus would get this thing turned around. They were even worse in the loss to the 49ers," Prisco wrote.

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Yahoo Sports: 24th

Falling from 22nd and Frank Schwab focused on Rome Odunze's two touchdowns.

"Odunze, the ninth pick of this year's draft, has had a quiet rookie season," Schwab wrote. "A good finish would be a promising sign for 2025 and beyond."

USA Today: 24th

Nate Davis dropped the Bears only one spot and had the yardage right.

"Thomas Brown will never forget his debut in the interim HC role, when his offense was outgained by 315 yards and outscored 24-0 by the Niners—in the first half," he wrote

ESPN: 25th

They fell quite a bit, three spots, and the theme of the week was their most shocking statistic. The 56 sacks on the year for Caleb Williams they chose is difficult to beat. With 11 more sacks allowed in four games, the Bears will set a franchise record for a season. The problem is, if it happens it could be one QB taking those sacks and when it happened before, in 2004, they distributed the pain among four passers.

The Sporting News: 24th

Falling one spot, and Vinnie Iyer took pity on Thomas Brown, although his use of the word "stumbled" probably wasn't an accurate enough description of what really happened.  

"The Bears' offense stumbled in San Francisco, perhaps not helped by Thomas Brown also needing to play coach as well as coordinator," Iyer wrote.

The Athletic: 24th

Falling a spot here, and the theme was a breakout player. Their choice was a good one: Punter Tory Taylor:

"Remember when everyone had a good laugh because Caleb Williams texted Taylor after the draft to tell him that he wasn’t going to be punting much? Oh, well. Taylor is punting 4.85 times per game, the second-most in the league this season and the 12th-most since 2015."

Pro Football Talk/NBC Sports: 24th

Mike Florio didn't start any rumors with wild thoughts about Kyle Shanahan to the Bears this week, but might have had the best one-liner of the picks.

"Well, at least they didn’t lose because of horrible late-game clock management," Florio wrote.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.