One week after the Bears put up 59 points, they scored three.
Three fucking points.
Carson Wentz was starting for Minnesota, the weather was ugly, and I honestly thought the Bears had a chance to win this game. I figured it would be something like 28-24. Ugly, maybe. Close, definitely. But I thought the Bears would find a way to eke it out.
Then Minnesota ran for nine yards on the first play, and I was already sitting there like, Here we fucking go.
Kevin O'Connell came into the game 6-2 against the Bears. Now he is 7-2. What is that telling you?
He's different.
And by the end of this mess, the Vikings had taken the Bears from a 59-burger to three points, Caleb Williams was hurt, and every problem Ryan Poles tried to cover up was standing in the middle of Soldier Field with no place left to hide.
Flores was going to make the Bears one-dimensional. That is exactly what he did.
He neutralized the running game, sent pressure up the middle and off the edges, and never let the offense find a rhythm. He took the Bears into deep water like Floyd Mayweather, and the deeper the game went, the more they started drowning.
The Vikings never looked panicked. The Bears looked confused, frustrated, and completely outcoached.
You could see it all over Caleb. When he threw his helmet at the bench, that was not some spoiled-quarterback bullshit. That was a talented kid saying, What the fuck is going on?
The protection was breaking down. The penalties kept putting the offense behind the sticks. The running game disappeared. Caleb started trying to do everything himself, and some of those bad habits from the Eberlose year started creeping back in.
That is exactly what you do not want happening to him.
THE OFFENSIVE LINE GOT ITS ASS KICKED
Let's stop dancing around it: left tackle is a fucking problem.
The blitz pickup was atrocious. The pressure up the middle was bad. The tackles got beat. Caleb was running for his life, and the deeper the game went, the harder he tried to save the whole offense by himself.
Then he got hurt.
I love TB17, and if you follow this blog, you know I believe in Tyson Bagent. But I never wanted him coming into a game because Caleb got injured while trying to survive behind an offensive line that couldn’t protect him.
And I don’t wanna hear that the weather explains a lot. Of course the weather mattered. But this is the NFL. New England, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Green Bay, Kansas City, Seattle—teams play in bad weather and still win football games.
The Bears played in brutal weather last season and still found a way to win. So yes, the conditions were a factor. They were not an excuse for penalties, shit protection, no rhythm, and three points.
This is what happens when you ignore premium positions and convince yourself you can patch the offensive line together later. Once good teams find the weakness, they are going to attack it every fucking week—rain, snow, sunshine, or inside a dome.
WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH ROME ODUNZE?
And now we have to talk about Rome Odunze.
This guy was the ninth overall pick in the draft. Ninth. Overall.
I know he has been dealing with a calf issue. I know injuries affect timing, separation, and how many snaps a receiver can handle. I am not pretending that shit does not matter.
But we are in Year 3 now. At some point, a top-10 receiver has to dominate games.
Rome had three catches for 43 yards against Minnesota. He actually led the Bears' wide receivers in yards, so I am not going to sit here and lie and say he did absolutely nothing. But that is exactly the problem: we are still talking about flashes.
Three catches here. A nice contested grab there. A play that reminds you why he went ninth overall.
Where is the whole fucking game?
Where is the stretch where the defense knows the ball is going to Rome and still cannot stop him? Where is the game where he takes over? Where is the top-10-pick production?
If he is still hurt, then tell us he is still hurt. If he is healthy enough to play, then Ben Johnson has to feature him, Caleb has to find him, and Rome has to start owning these games.
Because when you are drafted ninth overall, being pretty good is not the standard. You need to become the guy.
BRO WHAT ARE WE DOING WITH THESE TIGHT ENDS?
Now let's get to the tight ends, because this shit makes even less sense the more you look at it.
Colston Loveland was the 10th overall pick. He had one catch for three yards.
One fucking catch.
This guy is supposed to be an elite receiving tight end and a mismatch for the defense. Right? Instead, you have him staying in and blocking pass rushers when he is not even a natural blocker.
If that is how you planned to use him, why didn't you take one of the highly rated tackles who was available in that draft?
Seriously. What the fuck are we doing here?
Then there is Sam Roush, the 69th overall pick in the third round. A high third-round pick from Stanford. He couldn’t lineup correctly, penalities, struggled on special teams, drops, and looked completely overwhelmed.
When Roush came back to the sideline after that drop, Ben Johnson looked at him like Michael Corleone's hitman looking at Moe Greene on the massage table.
Yes, I know he’s a rookie, but I am being dead serious: who evaluated this kid?
I watched more than 80 hours of NFL Combine and draft coverage. My wife rolled her eyes while I took over the television like the fall of Constantinople. I do not remember one fucking draft analyst glazing Sam Roush as some can't-miss tight end prospect.
Not one.
But Ryan Poles got cute again. Instead of drafting another tackle, a swing tackle, a center, or a defensive lineman, he used a high third-round pick on another tight end.
Now one tight end is being used like an offensive lineman, and the other one cannot block, catch, shift, or help on special teams.
Awesome, Bro.
GET LUTHER BURDEN THE FUCKING BALL
What about Luther Burden?
Why did the Bears wait until late in the game to start getting him involved?
He finished with three catches for 32 yards, and every time he gets the ball, you can see it. He looks like a No. 1 receiver. He has juice. He can create after the catch. He can change the energy of the offense.
So why are we treating him like some extra piece we remember in the fourth quarter?
Get Luther Burden the fucking ball.
And if Rome is limited, that makes it even more ridiculous that Burden was not a bigger part of the plan from the beginning.
THE DEFENSE WAS NOT AS GOOD AS THE SCORE LOOKED
I know the Vikings scored only nine points. I know White Rice made some plays, and that early stop on Justin Jefferson was huge.
But let's be serious about what we watched.
Dennis Allen dialed up some well-designed blitzes, but the Bears also got lucky. If the weather had been better and Carson Wentz had not missed some wide-open throws, this game could have been over early.
Jefferson got behind the defense. Jordan Addison got behind the defense. T.J. Hockenson found room. Wentz just missed them.
Carson Wentz was basically the Bears' best defender.
He fumbled. He overthrew open receivers. He left points all over the field. If he connects on even a couple of those plays, we are not talking about a 9-3 defensive struggle. We are talking about the Bears getting their asses kicked 28-3.
And Greg Olsen said the same thing during the broadcast that I said last week: the defensive line is getting pushed out of the fucking nightclub.
There is no attack. No drive to the football. No 11 hats flying to the ball. The late sacks looked nice on the stat sheet, but by then Wentz had been sitting back there like a slot machine. Sooner or later somebody was going to reach him.
Where is Van der Berg, by the way?
Everybody was touching themselves over this kid in the preseason. Where the fuck is he now? I wear glasses and contacts, and I watched this game on a 60-inch television. I still could not find him on the screen.
BEN JOHNSON GETS SOME OF THIS SHIT TOO
I like Ben Johnson. I believe in Ben Johnson.
But he does not get to walk away from this game clean.
The offense got away from the run, started getting cute with short passes, and never found a rhythm. Flores showed pressure, and the Bears never found a consistent answer.
Then TB17 came into the game, and the time management and situational awareness during those final three minutes were really fucking bad.
That is on Ben.
You cannot score 59 one week, score three the next, lose your franchise quarterback, and act like this was just weather and a bad afternoon. Good coaches have bad games. This was one of Ben's.
NOW THE RYAN POLES JOB INTERVIEW REALLY STARTS
This is where everything comes back to this actress GM.
The minute Caleb went down, Poles's job interview started.
Now we get to see whether he actually built a football team or just collected some talented players and a pile of projects.
Let's be fucking serious. Until Ben Johnson arrived, I am not sure he built either side.
Now it looks like he is trying to sew a parachute together while falling out of the plane.
The Bears have major holes at left tackle, center, and across the defensive line. It does not matter whether the quarterback is Caleb Williams, Tyson Bagent, Steve Young, Tom Brady, or Joe fucking Montana. If you cannot protect the quarterback and cannot control the line of scrimmage, you are going to have problems.
This is what happens when a GM falls in love with luxury picks and projects instead of building real depth at premium positions.
Look at teams like the Niners. They lose important players and still find a way to stay competitive because John Lynch knows how to build an actual roster. He played for a team that went from absolute shit to absolute glory. He understands the line of scrimmage, depth, scouting, key free-agent signings, and when to throw dead weight into San Francisco Bay.
How do the Niners keep finding players while the Bears keep opening a bag of shit?
And where was the Chicago media on Poles after this game? I watched hours of football coverage, and I barely heard one fucking word about the general manager who built this roster.
Happy Hanukkah, Ryan! Your job interview came early.
Caleb is hurt. TB17 may have to play. The offensive line cannot protect consistently. The defensive line cannot create pressure without help. The team has depth questions everywhere.
Now we find out whether Poles built a team that can win tough, ugly, knockout-drag-out games, or whether the whole thing falls apart the second the franchise quarterback cannot cover the holes.
The weeks are going to keep passing, and every week will be like another petal falling off a dying rose. The curtain is getting pulled back on the Wizard of Oz.
We are about to find out whether Ryan Poles knows what the fuck he is doing or whether he has been full of shit the entire time.
IS THE SEASON OVER?
No.
Fucking absolutely not.
I still believe in Caleb. I believe in TB17. I believe in Ben Johnson. I believe this offense has talent, the running game can work, and the defense can give us some semblance of hope.
But the Bears are no longer living inside the glow of that 59-point game.
Brian Flores just handed the rest of the league a blueprint. Attack the protection. Take away the run. Make the Bears one-dimensional. Force Caleb to hold the whole thing together. Then wait for the mistakes, the penalties, and the frustration.
Ben Johnson has to answer that blueprint.
Tyson Bagent may have to keep the season alive while Caleb recovers.
And Ryan Poles has to prove the roster he built can survive something going wrong.
Because something just went very fucking wrong.
The Bears went from 59 points to three in one week. Their quarterback got hurt. Their biggest weaknesses got exposed. Now Ben may have to make chicken salad out of shit.
The quest to save the season has officially begun.
