Bears Win but Need Drastic Improvement

The three most spoken yelled words in my apartment last night were “DO YOUR JOB”.  At a certain point in the game, it wasn’t even directed at a specific player, it was just a catch all frustrated exclamation to the entire team.  By the time Jake Moody’s field goal went in during the last few seconds I wasn’t happy – I was relieved.  The Bears have 3 wins and 2 losses and two of those wins elicited the same feeling as when you finally take a tums to stop a bad bout of heart burn.  Thank God this is over.  Wracked with penalties, some luck, and a field goal, the Chicago Bears limp their way to a win over the Washington Commanders.  Time for a deflated and trailing “woooooo”.

                Penalties might be the death of this team’s season.  The Chicago Bears managed to accrue 9 total penalties which accounted for 84 yards in the Commander’s favor.  The most egregious penalties are as follows:

·         Illegal formation (D. Moore) which negated a TD

·         Illegal contact – 5 yards

·         Facemask – 15 yards

·         2 defensive offsides – 5 yards

·         Roughing the passer – 15 yards

These penalties, at this volume in one game would be shocking for an SEC college football team.  Hell, hard not to say they would be shocking for a program like Eastern Illinois.  I don’t know why these guys can’t act like the paid professional players they are but something must change.  Maybe we live in a different era of coaching, but this team could use an iron Mike Ditka ass chewing.  It was hard to watch these guys get excited after the win (expect for Swift and Brisker and Moody, they get a pass).  Yes, you won the game.  This is an objective fact, but goddamn they need to be at work 7am tomorrow busting their asses and cleaning these penalties up.

                We need to talk about Caleb Williams, not that everyone isn’t or hasn’t and we need to talk about him even though this blog is at risk of becoming a Caleb Williams blog.  He was 17 for 29 (not good) with 1 passing TD and negative 2 yards rushing.  I don’t think he’s fully realized that he isn’t at USC anymore.  The constant wide rollouts without taking a second to make a read are starting to get exhausting.  We can look at a body of evidence, these past 5 games and we can fairly say that he has not improved as a QB.  He has almost started to regress.  This team is still trying to find its identity offensively; he cannot be immediately running backwards expecting some miracle side arm throw.  He is not as good as he thinks he is.  I am incredibly disappointed in Caleb William’s play these past couple games.

                On a positive note, we had three standout players from this game.  Jaquan Brisker, Jake Moody, and D’Andre Swift.  Brisker had a gorgeous interception that breathed some life into our team.  Link here for a video of the grab.  D’Andre Swift finally broke 100 yards in a game with the average amount of carries he has had this season.  I’d be remised if I did not attribute part of this to some good blocking by our offensive line.  Lastly, we saw the redemption of Jake Moody.  A kicker who was cut by the 49ers as recently as September.  A kicker who had a field goal blocked during this Monday night game.  A kicker who sealed our victory despite all of this and some atrocious weather.  Thank you, Jaquan, Brisker, Jake Moody, and D’Andre Swift for doing your jobs.

                At the end of day, we got lucky with this win.  The Chicago Bears had several pieces working against them.  A blocked field goal, 9 penalties, and sloppy QB play.  If Jayden Daniels does not fumble the football late in the game and/or if Terry McLaurin is healthy, I don’t think we win this game, and I think we get embarrassed.  This level of football from the Chicago Bears is not good enough, pure and simple.  There has been minimal progression as a team.  Sure, a player steps up during a game, but there has been zero cohesive improvement game to game.  The pieces are there, figure it the fuck out.  Not good enough at all.