3 and Out: New Bears Era Can't Shake Packers Struggle
New-look Monsters gets no love in an anemic opener against Jordan Love, Aaron Jones
By Russel Wiafe
A new era for the Chicago Bears sure did a good job disguising itself as the old one as the team lost its opening game of the 2023 season to eternal nemesis Green Bay at Soldier Field Sunday afternoon.
Before the start of this season, many football fans in Chicago were adamant the Monsters of the Midway were scary again with several new roster additions to brag about, most notably that of certified No. 1 wide receiver D.J Moore. Infused with more impact players to surround the established franchise quarterback, Justin Fields, a turning point was assured for second-year coach Matt Eberflus and his team.
If there was a turn made Sunday, though, it took the team right into a brick wall. Now the question is can the Bears recover from a wreck of a Week 1? Lets take a look at three elements of the 38-20 embarrassment that needs to be addressed immediately.
D.J Moore was underutilized
Two targets over the course of an entire game, for one of the elite wide receivers in the National Football League, is not enough. Before Moore’s arrival to Chicago, coach Eberflus dreamed of augmenting a mostly barren offensive squad with a dynamic wide receiver to help Fields get to the elite level and to prove Fields to be among the top young quarterbacks in the game.
Certainly the investment was there right from the moment the team announced it traded the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft to get the haul that was topped off by Moore. Reports from throughout the off-season spoke of reps taken between Fields and Moore and time spent on the practice field that formed a real bond that would likely flourish with big play after big play in the fall. There is no mistaking here — Moore is supposed to take Fields to the next level, win games and eventually return the Bears to the playoffs.
One game into their pairing and that “eventually” looks like it should be in bold and all caps and maybe followed with a question mark.
But, all other things being equal, this is going to be a long season for the Bears, and some sort of positive turnaround can still be expected, but it won’t happen at all if you don’t get the ball to Moore. With his established skill set, it’ll only foster resentment in this receiver if he’s allowed to only make minimal impacts in big games.
Look at the two plays where he was targeted — he caught the ball both times and made first downs both times (2 receptions, 25 yards). Just imagine if he was given the chances that a Tyreek Hill is given to touch the ball, or a Stefon Diggs? Would the numbers be the same? Maybe not, but they wouldn’t be far off, they would certainly be enough to make things easier on Fields and the Chicago offense. When you have a weapon the likes of D.J. Moore, you use him, there’s no way around that.
“It’s football, the defense was kinda pushed over to me. It was hard to see me, and I understand that,” Fields said after the game. “We just gotta learn from it and move on.”
Chase Claypool looks unperturbed
Trading for Chase Claypool during the 2022 season was always going to be a risky proposition for the Bears, and many have let their opinions be heard since about how it was a wrongheaded decision.
It would be premature still to say Bears general manager Ryan Poles made the wrong move by acquiring Claypool for what would have been the 33rd pick in the most recent draft, but from the look of things in Week 1, the Claypool gamble is looking like a bust.
The fourth year wide receiver had no catches on only two targets of his own (notice a trend?) and his failing to execute simple blocking on screen plays was called out immediately in the blowout loss to the Packers. Claypool needs to take more pride in his play and take way more responsibility in his role on the Bears as he gets closer to entering free agency next year.
Matt Eberflus, entire staff are on the hot seat
Bears fans can be ruthless and there’s nothing like an under-performing coach to make the most faithful of #Bearsnation get their claws out with the quickness.
Coach Eberflus and his entire coaching staff all face an uphill task to turn things around and convince fans in Chicago and beyond that they are the right stewards to lead Justin Fields and this franchise in the immediate years to come.
Winning is the best remedy, of course, and from the look of things, Ryan Poles is in no hurry to fire ‘Flus or anyone else, but Sunday provided a baseline from which the Bears front office can draw standards from going forward. If fans see too many more performances like the one from this past Sunday then they will be calling for the heads of Flus, Luke Getsy and Alan Williams with regularity, and they will deserve to be listened to.
Quite frankly, Eberflus were completely out-coached and that played a direct role in how the Bears were outplayed throughout the entire game against the Packers. Poor play calling from Getsy worked in tandem with the terrible pass protection on the offensive line and the overall uninterested looks coming from the offense likely had roots in bad preparation and a poor game plan from the OC.
Elite QBs in the NFL have reliable pass protection and offensive coordinators that plan for them to throw the ball deep down the field — the Bears provided neither of those things for Fields on Sunday. Getsy was ultra-conservative, sticking to screens and overall throws within five yards despite how ineffective they were showing themselves to be. This intermediate to short pass attack also did no favors to the run game as Fields had to lead the team in rushing again — mostly on impromptu scrambles — despite some promising runs from rookie Roschon Johnson and the revamped Bears’ backfield.
The performance by the defense was nothing to write home about, certainly in giving up 38 points that was the case. It could be forgiven for observers and fans to think that a Bears defense, one that got tens of millions of free agent dollars pumped into it this past off-season, could at least not make Jordan Love look like a “love child” of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, as far as beating the Bears goes.
Love had enough time, in only his second ever professional start, to read the Chicago defense and made big time plays with comfort, he looked so much more well-kept and under control than Fields, who was making his 26th start.
Meanwhile, defensive coordinator Williams failed to make the needed adjustments in the second half of the game and as the Packers pulled away, particularly in building up an 18-point deficit in the third quarter, the DC had an awful time as he refused to send in extra pressure and his defense failed at every level of the game, from tackling to sticking on assignments.
Conclusion:
For all fans and sympathizers of the Bears, the good news is that there are still 16 games left in the season. Other good news came from better, more established teams also losing in embarrassing fashion, including the Giants getting that 40-burger put on them by the Cowboys on Sunday night and the AFC North champion Bengals losing to the “elves” in Cleveland.
Good teams, teams that are ready to take the bull by the horn, will find a way to make it count, even when the odds are against them. The Bears still have time and opportunity to become a good team, but they cannot afford to be worse than what we all saw on Sunday if they expect to make any positive impact in this 2023 season.
Maybe they should look at this coming Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a second opener and (re)start from there.
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