Chicago Bears: Reaction to Yesterday's Loss

The Chicago Bears continue the free fall with a 21-14 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Here is my analysis of that mess you saw in the Metrodome.

 

Bears had a chance despite Adrian Peterson running wild: Peterson did all of his damage in the first quarter with 105 rushing yards for two touchdowns. When the defense slowed down the Vikings offense, the Bears needed their offense to step up to the challenge and they failed to do just that.

An example of how incompetent this offense is, Matt Forte gets a big gain on the ground to put the Bears in Vikings territory with a chance to cut the lead to seven. During the very next sequence, J’Marcus Webb and James Brown give the Bears back-to-back penalties that put them in a first and 25 and out of Viking territory. Before that series, Jay Cutler throws a pick six on third and one which was obviously a terrible site adjustment by the quarterback.

Even with all that went wrong, the Vikings were still giving the Bears opportunities to take that game. Alshon Jeffery, despite having a good game for a rookie coming off a knee scope, dropped a touchdown pass that hit him right in the hands. Devin Hester dropped a would-be touchdown late in the fourth that also would have cut the lead to seven.

In Jeffery’s case it was a difficult catch, but Hester broke wide open in the middle of the field and had no one around him. He could have had an easy path to the end zone but the ball bounces off his hands and fell to the ground.

The defense allowed 154 yards to Peterson, but 105 of those yards came in the first quarter. The Bears defense gave the offense a chance the rest of the three quarters to catch up and the offense couldn’t deliver.

Overall Analysis: This was a game the Bears needed to win, but as usual in Lovie Smith tenure, he can’t win the big games. At 8-5, Bears fans should be talking about playoffs, but with this team losing four of its last five games after starting the season 7-1, we are instead talking about a possible regime change.

The Bears are on a current free fall and the Green Bay Packers have an opportunity to put the Bears out of its misery next week in Soldier Field.