A Bears Fan's Rant
Well that didn't take long. It only took about twenty nine minutes of game time for me to be reminded that the Bears are still a freaking mess.
First the good (but there is not much). The Bears looked great on their opening drive of the season. In fact, the Bears QB Caleb Williams looked great on his first 10 completions. He started the game 10 for 10 and also had a couple of nice runs including a nine yard touchdown run on that opening drive. During the rest of the half, the Bears moved the ball a bit but missed a field goal to end one drive and failed on 4th and 3 on another drive. But that was all no big deal. The defense was playing great and the Bears scored a late field goal in the second quarter to go up 10 to 3.
And then the wheels started to fall off. After kicking off, the Bears gave up a 28 yard pass play with 19 seconds left to set up a 59 yard field goal attempt by Will Reichard. this would tie the record for the longest field goal ever in Soldier Field. So of course he hit it. So the Bears lost all the momentum from their field goal drive at the end of the half.
The Bears offense came out and crapped down their leg (a sight we would see for much of the rest of the 30 minutes of game time remaining). Then on defense, the Bears did the unthinkable. They let Minnesota drive deep in their territory... and then CB Nashon Wright intercepted Viking QB J.J. McCarthy and took it 74 yards for a score. That should have been it. Game over. The Bears had a rookie QB in his first start on the ropes (not to mention it was near his childhood home so all of the pressure was on him).
Both offenses took the 3rd quarter off and it looked like the Bears would eek out an 11 point win. And then the Bears defense and coaches decided to take the game off as well. Then the Vikings scored 21 straight points in the 4th quarter to take a 27 to 17 lead. And the Bears never had a real chance after that.
Now for the rant. Holy shit! There was not a single position or coach on the Bears that did their job (maybe the receivers did but we will never know). One of the reasons Williams was 10 for his first 10 was that he refused to try to throw the ball to wide open receivers down the field. He settled for short pass after short pass. Eventually the Vikings caught on and dared him to throw the ball deep. So he did... very inaccurately. Williams missed as many open wide receivers as I do flies when I'm trying to catch them with chopsticks! So the #1 overall pick QB sucked.
Then there was the defense. Well they actually looked like one for about 33 minutes. Then the Vikings decided to run the ball. And the Bears decided they would politely let them. They couldn't stop the equipment manager from running let alone an NFL running back. So the defense and their big free agent signings sucked.
To show how consistent they are, the Bears also sucked on special teams. They allowed a blocked punt right up the middle, They also missed a very make-able field goal in the first half. The special teams sucked.
No human Bears deserved to be in this post.
And then there is the coach. Everyone in Chicago, including me, couldn't wait to see what the great Ben Johnson would do. You know what he did? He crapped the bed, that's what. Let's look at a few mistakes. He went for it on 4th down instead of kicking an easy field goal in the first half (the Bears lost by 3). He wasted a challenge on a play that by rule he had 0% chance of overturning. A Viking player was literally kneeling on both knees and Johnson decided to piss away a timeout by challenging that he was down (the Bears ran out of timeouts and lost by 3). Then after the Bears miraculously scored with 2:02 on the clock, he decided to let his kicker (who has a weak leg) try to kick the ball out of the end zone. With only 1 timeout left, if the clock went under 2:00 on the kickoff, the game was essentially over. But Johnson did it anyway. Literally everyone I know was either yelling "Try an onside kick!" or "Kick the ball out of bounds!" (did I mention the Bears ran out of timeouts, got the ball back with less than 15 seconds on the clock, and lost by 3?). Either of those would have been a better choice than allowing the Vikings to run the ball out and drop below the 2 minute warning. It is one of the stupidest things I have seen in a while... and I'm a bears fan so that is saying a lot. The coach sucks.
This is going to be a really long season!
I honestly feel your pain. I think Lions and Bears fans have a lot in common. It's definitely going to be a long season. I've been doing some recaps with my @bozz.sports account and it was hard coming up with good things to say for my post today...
It is impossible to say good things!
I hope for their sake that it's not such a long season and that they can improve to win many games or at least leave a better image than the one shown in the second period.
Every other victory is a matter of luck and also depends on hard work, but if a team loses without hard work, its fans become very sad and depressed. Now imagine two boys supporting different teams and one boy's team loses without hard work, then that boy always has to listen to what others say. So the players of the team should try their best to make their team win so that their fans can spend some time happily.
Maybe my friend, there are many aspects of the team that need to be improved and they will surely do so, but for that, they must work, such as training hard every day, and success does not come without hard work. I imagine that as the season progresses and with the draft selection taking the rhythm of the league, as well as the coach knowing the strengths and weaknesses of all his players, they will improve and who knows, in the end they will be fighting to get into the postseason, although a good season could be being over .500 average.
The start was great, but then the defense, special teams, and coaching fell apart. You clearly highlighted this disappointing fact in your article. The quarterback's inexperience, the defense's weakness, and the coach's bad decisions turned the game around. With your analysis, it is clear how intense the reflection of a fan's pain is. Best wishes to you.
What is their slogan again? ...anything that can go wrong will go wrong. I miss the days when the Bears just sucked on offense. I could put up with a few botched plays and interceptions, as long as I got to see some monsters on defense force fumbles and sack quarterbacks.
I'll just go watch my 1985 Bears beta tape...
Urlacher and the boys had a great run too, but yeah, nothing beats that 85 team. That is awesome if you actually still have the tape, I'd imagine that would make for quite the collectors item these days.
The '85 Bears are a long way off right now. Just really poor management in Chicago.
Excellent.
It's just the first game of a long 25-26 season, all that's left is to work and put the new pieces together, so keep your spirits up, the best is yet to come for your favorite team, the Chicago Bears.
I hope the season doesn't last long, I wish you success
your watching the bear is so intense! hope you still enjoy watching the next game 😅
There is a big difference between the results of a team that works hard and a team that doesn't. A hard-working team and its players work hard. In a match, the results are visible at the end, and some people play just for the paycheck
I feel the same way. The Bears started off with some hope, but then everything just fell apart. Bad play calls, weak defense, and no real adjustments. It’s hard to stay positive when the same mistakes keep happening every season.