Bear Digest

What a Weekend Without Playing Told Bears: The Coaching Search

Did Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady put his name front and center for the Bears head coaching job by beating the Lions and Ben Johnson?
Gene Chamberlain|
Joe Brady had a moment in the sun on Sunday as his Bills offense outperformed the Lions and Ben Johnson easily in a 48-42 win.
Joe Brady had a moment in the sun on Sunday as his Bills offense outperformed the Lions and Ben Johnson easily in a 48-42 win. | Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears were officially eliminated on Sunday even though they've been eliminated in the minds of many for several weeks.

It's not really the most important thing for the Bears learned on a weekend without a game.

Rather, the really important stuff occurred around the league involving potential Chicago coaching candidates.

It was a case of the big showdown, the rising star and another name to consider.

The Showdown

The big showdown, of course, was Ben Johnson's Lions offense against Joe Brady's Buffalo offense after the Bills had just scored 42 points in a loss last week to the Rams.

Both Brady and Johnson have been betting favorites at times for the Bears job. But Brady came out on top and it wasn't as close as the final score showed as the Lions scored with

The Lions only managed 35 yards rushing from their two running backs. The Bills ran for 129 by players besides QB Josh Allen. And his 68 yards rushing with two TDs made a difference. But he threw for 362 yards on 23 of 34 with two TDs. Jared Goff had five TD passes as much of his 494 yards passing and the TDs came in desperation as the Lions were down 45-28 in the fourth quarter with 11:51 left.

It was the two highest scoring teams in the NFL and the Bills, No. 2 coming in, had more.

Brady's offense scored 30 against Kansas City's Steve Spagnuolo-led defense in a Buffalo win. They scored 35 against the 49ers, 42 against the Rams, scored 31 against the first-place Seahawks in a win. And now they beat Johnson's team by six in what was actually a more lopsided game than the score says.

This was a road game at Ford Field and against the top NFC seed and Brady's offense triumphed.

Brady's offense has scored 30 points or more in seven straight games.

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This should definitely get Brady mentioned with the candidates for the Bears job and earn at least a look.

The Rising Star

It was said here this past week and no one really paid much attention.

They'd better.

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Liam Coen's star is rising.

The Tampa Bay offensive coordinator was rejected by Matt Eberflus in the hunt for a Bears offensive coordinator last offseason, which probably was a break. Coen took over Tampa Bay's offense after Dave Canales left and had them ranked third in offense going into the weekend but they had a difficult assignment to beat the Chargers on the road with Jim Harbaugh's team in a playoff position.

Coen had the league's seventh-ranked rushing attack even without the benefit of a quarterback who is known for his legs as much as his arm.

The Chargers led 17-10 in the second quarter and Coen's offense scored 30 unanswered points to win 40-17. They stuffed the football down the throat of a coach who likes doing this to opponents himself with 223 yards rushing with 117 coming from Bucky Irving and 64 from Rachaad White. Baker Mayfield threw for 288 yards and Mike Evans had 159 yards on nine catches.

Coen is the former Rams assistant under Sean McVay who is having much more success in his first season than former McVay assistant Shane Waldron had with Seattle three years and certainly with the Bears for nine games.

And by the way, it was Coen's team that beat Johnson and the Lions in Week 2, 20-16, and he took over an offense ranked 23rd last year and has been carrying the Tampa Bay defense, which has declined to 28th in the league.

The Kellen Moore Question

Can an offensive coordinator who has a team ranked next to last in the league in passing be considered for a head coaching position?

In Kellen Moore's case, yes. He calls the Eagles' plays as Nick Sirriani gave it up in 2021. He has been more of a passing style coordinator in the past, with three top 10 finishes in passing with Dallas as coordinator from 2019-21 but showed this year  he can adapt to his talent. In other words, Saquon Barkley.

Moore has had four top-10 scoring offenses, four top-10 rushing offenses and three top-10 passing offenses in his six seasons and on Sunday they scored 28 against the league's fifth-ranked scoring defense, the Steelers, in a win to tie Detroit's win total in the battle for top NFC seed.

Tanks for Nuttin'

If the Bears were hoping to get some help as they looked to move up in the tanking order for a better draft pick, they came away disappointed.

Only the New York Jets, among teams ahead of the Bears in tanking order, provided any help as they came from behind and won over Jacksonville to move into a tie with the Bears at four wins.

The Bears don't win that tiebreaker, though, because they played a much tougher schedule.

So the Jets are currently drafting eighth and the Bears ninth.

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.