With each passing week, the Bears’ chances of obtaining the No. 1 overall pick via the Carolina Panthers have ticked up. As the percentage has ticked up, the pressure to find the correct answer to the franchise’s most pressing question has ratcheted up.

Is Justin Fields a franchise quarterback, or is a change needed this offseason?

A month ago, all the breadcrumbs pointed to the Bears heading in a different direction under center.

Fields had been inconsistent as a passer and missed four games due to a dislocated right thumb. The flashes were still there. The rare athleticism still evident. The potential tantalizing.

But all that does is get people fired.

Fields returned from his thumb injury in Week 12, needing to string together an impressive final stretch that showed growth and high-level quarterbacking that Poles can build around.

Anything less, and the Bears’ choice would be obvious, with two blue-chip prospects in Caleb Williams and Drake Maye set to enter the 2024 NFL Draft.

Fields is aware of his uncertain future in Chicago. He’s not letting it weigh him down. If anything, it might be elevating his game.

The third-year quarterback was good in his return to action against the Detroit Lions in Week 11. He showed increased pocket presence and escaped the pocket with a passer’s mentality, keeping his eyes downfield to find an open man in space. These are checkpoints head coach Matt Eberflus, offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, and quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko have been wanting to see.

Fields followed that up with a game-winning drive in Minnesota, during which he fumbled twice in critical moments. Fields erased those mistakes with a third-down strike to DJ Moore to set up a game-winning field goal. It was progress, but warts remained.

Entering the bye week, the feeling in league circles was that the Bears would still move on from Fields. Could five games really negate everything that has come before? It’s also important to remember that decisions are often made with the decision-maker’s own self-interest in mind.

“Do you really want to be the GM that passes on Caleb Williams?” a league source told NBC Sports Chicago. “If you don’t know for sure that Fields is your guy at this point, he’s probably not your guy. Betting on flashes and potential is a good way to get fired. If you pick Williams and he busts, it’s probably not going to cost you your job.

“I understand why it’s still a question. He’s got talent and the tools you want for the today’s game. But is he going to win you a Super Bowl?”

But that opinion isn’t unanimous.

The Bears entered Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions with a 94 percent chance of earning a top-two pick, per ESPN analytics. Following Sunday’s action in which the Panthers lost again, the Bears now have a 95 percent chance to earn the No. 1 overall pick.

With the New England Patriots, Arizona Cardinals, Washington Commanders, and New York Giants all slotting behind them in the Williams-Maye sweepstakes, Fields has the opportunity to open the Bears up to a world of opportunity should he remove all doubt over the final month.

“Quarterback evaluation is incredibly difficult,” an AFC scout told NBC Sports Chicago. “Teams miss all the time for all sorts of reasons. Caleb and Drake are already getting dinged. Who knows if they’ll pan out? One guy is undersized and holds the ball too long. The other was inconsistent. You have a guy with special ability. If you can get him to play at a high-level week-in and week-out, then you’ll have teams who don’t have a Justin Fields calling you with the world to move up.”

If Fields makes the questions about his future evaporate with a near-perfect final month, Poles and the Bears will have a lot of different avenues to travel without having to focus on a quarterback.

They can trade down once or twice, pick up more draft capital, and still draft two blue-chip players to give Fields more support. Adding Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. and potentially Notre Dame left tackle Joe Alt or Georgia tight end Brock Bowers would complete the Bears’ transformation from offensive outhouse to dynamic attack.

That’s the dream scenario. As much as teams, scouts, and pundits have drooled over Williams for three years, the Bears’ preference should be for Fields to put it all together, delivering them quarterback certainty and a draft gift that can be rocket fuel for a rebuild that’s on the right track.

Don’t look now, but Fields is starting to do just that.

After going 19-for-33 for 223 yards and a touchdown in Sunday’s win over the Lions, Fields has now completed 66.6 percent of his passes for 609 yards and two touchdowns since returning from injury. It is the first time in his career that he has gone three straight games without throwing an interception.

Fields has rushed 42 times for 221 yards and one touchdown in those three games. He has been sacked eight times and fumbled three times.

Per CBS Sports, Fields now has a higher passer rating than Trevor Lawrence (91.8), a higher touchdown-to-interception ratio than Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen (2.2), and is averaging more rushing yards per game than Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson (50.9).

Fields got off to a rough start Sunday. At halftime, he had just 52 net passing yards and had completed just four passes. But something clicked in the second half, and Fields showed high-level quarterback play when he got the Lions to jump offsides on a fourth-and-13 and used the free play to hit DJ Moore for a 38-yard touchdown that gave the Bears a lead they would not relinquish.

“To me, the poise has looked a lot better of late, especially when things break down. He’s not panicking. He seems to be putting it all together,” an NFC scout told NBC Sports Chicago.

There are still things for Fields to clean up. A hot streak doesn’t make him infallible. He was the first to admit Sunday that he still is holding onto the ball too long and inviting pressure. That also invites disaster for a quarterback who is still working on cleaning up his ball security. He also missed a few open throws, including what would have been a walk-in touchdown in the flat during the second half.

All that is true.

But Fields also threw with anticipation and trusted Moore and tight end Cole Kmet to make plays in tight coverage.

Early on this season, Fields wasn’t pulling the trigger on “NFL open” throws. He was waiting for receivers to be wide open and missed several big-play opportunities in the process.

The talent has never been an issue with Fields. He has a big arm and rare athleticism. The potential of blending those two together is what had him as the No. 2 quarterback in his class for three years until a weird draft slide that was brought on by dings not rooted in reality.

Young quarterbacks often need time and patience. Fields entered into the worst situation imaginable and has, to his credit, survived and started to thrive in spite of it.

It hasn’t been perfect. Quarterback development isn’t linear. Too often, teams give up on young quarterbacks early in the process when all that’s required is time and a plan to get them to harness their potential.

A month ago, it looked like Fields’ NFL career was destined to blossom outside of Chicago. But with the Bears about to lock up the No. 1 pick, Fields has started to become the quarterback who was promised.

He can open up a world of possibilities for Poles if that continues through the end of the season. There’s a sense the tide could be turning in Fields’ favor with the season winding down.

“When it’s right, it’s very right,” another league source told NBC Sports Chicago. “He’s starting to look like the guy many people had on equal footing with [Trevor Lawrence] in the draft. If that’s who he is going to be consistently, then you don’t really have a decision to make. You don’t trade proven for potential. But he has to prove it to pass up [Williams or Maye]. The question is: As good as he’s looked lately, is it too late to remove all doubt? He still has to do a lot to look past the ability to go younger, cheaper, and healthier with an elite talent at the position. But he’s got the talent to make it a more difficult decision than it looked like it was going to be month ago.”

With four games left, the wind has started blowing in a different direction as it pertains to Fields’ future.

It’s a breeze that could deliver Poles and the Bears everything they need heading into a transformational offseason.

To cut to the chase, the answer is yes.

The Bears currently sit at 5-8, good for 12th place in the NFC. If the Packers lose to the Giants on Monday, then five teams will be tied for seventh place with a 6-7 record– the Packers, Rams, Seahawks, Falcons and Saints– and the Bears would be just one game behind that pack. That’s important since the seven seed is the final playoff spot. If the Packers win, however, the Bears would be two games behind the Packers and Vikings, who would be tied with a 7-6 record.

If you want to get crazy, the Bears are technically still in contention for an NFC North title. If the Bears win out, they’ll finish with a 9-8 record. If the Lions lose out, they’ll also finish at 9-8. From there, tiebreakers take over. The Bears and Lions split their head-to-head matchups, so next up would be the teams’ respective win percentages against the NFC North. As things stand, the Bears are 2-3 against their division rivals with one game remaining. The Lions are 2-2 against NFC North opponents with two games remaining.

But the fact of the matter is talking playoffs now is a little crazy.

Check this. Per NFL.com, between 1990 and the start of this season, 103 teams started the year with an 0-4 record. Of those 103 teams, only one made the playoffs: the 1992 San Diego Chargers. The Chargers ended up 11-5 that year and lost to the Dolphins 31-0 in the Divisional Round.

Not great odds for the Bears after their disastrous start to the season.

Yes, the Bears have played better football lately, and with such little joy over the past two years for Bears fans it’s worth celebrating. But a two-game win streak is typically not a high bar for NFL franchises. Yes, the Bears have separated themselves from the truly awful teams in the NFL, but they’re still not contenders in the conference.

With a month to go it’s fun to dream, but keep in mind that the Bears have five teams between them and a playoff berth. That’s a lot of ground to make up to earn a postseason bid.

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Now, for the first time since Matt Eberflus took over as head coach, the team has won two games in a row. And Eberflus and the players alike took the development as a sign that they’re doing things the right way.

“It’s just like anything. You want to see the proof of it,” Eberflus said. “To have a win like this, it’s proof for (the players), it’s proof for the staff, it’s proof for Chicago Bears fans.”

“It basically just shows us the formula of winning,” said Justin Fields. “Takeaways, explosive plays, third down conversions, stuff like that… As long as we focus on those aspects, those situations, we’re more likely gonna win a game than lose a game.”

The biggest improvement has come on Eberflus’ side of the ball: the defense. The team has gone from fielding one of the worst run defenses in the league to one of the best in just one season. The team still allows some of the most points scored in the league, but it’s improved from 27.2 points per game in 2022 to 23.8 points per game this year. Over their past four games, they’ve been much better, surrendering just 16.8 points on average.

“The last three or four games that we’ve played, the defense has played really freaking well,” said Justin Jones. “Obviously, last time we played Detroit, we just didn’t finish. That’s a helluva team over there. A helluva team over there. We just gotta make sure we play 60 minutes.”

That was the prevailing thought in the locker room after their loss to the Lions in Week 11. The Lions didn’t do anything special to win that game. The Bears let them off the hook with mistakes they made. They were supremely confident in their ability to beat the Lions, they just had to do their jobs well and avoid self-inflicted wounds.

That’s exactly what they did on Sunday, and after the game Jaylon Johnson said the defense’s confidence is at an all-time high.

“We’ve been doing a heckuva job keeping teams out of the endzone, a heckuva job on third downs getting off the field, getting sacks, getting turnovers,” Johnson said. “Overall, we’re confident.”

Ryan Poles deserves his share of the credit for the turnaround with his gutsy trade for Montez Sweat. The new defensive end has made a remarkable impact on the unit with his effective pass rush and high-pressure rates. Sweat’s presence not only allows Eberflus to call a game to his liking with fewer blitzes and more guys dropping back into coverage, it also creates better opportunities for his teammates on the line and in the secondary.

Since teams need to focus on Sweat, others on the DL draw more one-on-ones. His pressure also pushes quarterbacks and ball carriers into other Bears players. Further, he speeds up the clock for opposing quarterbacks, which forces more bad throws and gives the guys playing behind the line more chances for interceptions. Before the Sweat trade, the Bears had six interceptions over eight games. Since the Sweat trade, they have had nine interceptions over five games.

“The players that we brought in, everybody is trusting each other, playing for one another, loving each other,” said Jaquan Brisker. “The coaches have been great. They’ve been locked in. The buy-in has been pretty good.”

“I think it’s a big deal,” said Eberflus. “It’s been a long time coming to win two in a row, and it’s two division opponents, which is big. The guys are super excited, and we could feel this coming. With the improvements that were happening over time, I was telling them, ‘If you keep doing it right, it’s gonna be right, and good things are going to happen.’”

Good things finally did happen after plenty of bad things over the past year and a half. That’s not to say that the Bears have just flipped a switch and are ready to push for the playoffs from here on out. There will still be bumps in the road because growth is never linear. But Eberflus praised the Bears for sticking together through adversity to reach this humble two-game win streak, and there’s no reason to believe the team will fall apart when they hit adversity again. That’s a real testament to players, coaches, and personnel staff alike.

“The guys always stayed together,” said Eberflus. “There was never a point where the morale was bad.”

Moving forward, the win against the Lions is finally a bit of positive reinforcement for a team that has had close to none recently. Again, it’s giving them confidence that they’re building their young team the right way.

“Keep everything the same,” Fields said. “Don’t get too high, don’t get too low. There’s still a lot of spots to improve upon.

“I expect nothing for us but to keep coming together, keep getting better, and just keep working.”

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The Bears outplayed the Lions three weeks ago in Detroit. They had a 12-point lead with four minutes to play and blew it. They entered the fourth quarter of last year’s home game against the Lions up 14. They lost that one as well.

The Bears jumped out to an early 10-0 lead Sunday before a failed fourth-and-1 pitch to DJ Moore swung the momentum back in the Lions’ favor. Detroit scored 13 unanswered to take a 13-10 lead into halftime.

In the past, the Bears would have been unable to regain the momentum, and things would have snowballed.

Sunday was different.

The Bears’ defense put the screws to the Lions’ offense, holding them to 76 yards in the second half while forcing three turnovers.

Quarterback Justin Fields and the Bears’ offense broke a 13-13 tie with a 38-yard, free-play touchdown strike to Moore, giving the Bears a 19-13 lead that they never relinquished. Fields added an 11-yard touchdown run later in the second half to put the Bears up 12. That was all she wrote.

Sunday was the first time the Bears have won back-to-back games in the Eberflus era. It was a win that highlighted continued defensive growth and a quarterback playing his best football since returning from a thumb injury.

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That’s where this statement-win report card leads off:

Passing offense

The passing game might as well have been going in reverse in the first half.

At halftime, Fields had 52 net passing yards, four completions, and had been sacked three times on 14 dropbacks.

But Fields found something in the second half. He made several anticipatory throws, including a critical third-down conversion to tight end Cole Kmet. Linebacker Alex Anzalone blanketed Kmet, but Fields threw it before the tight end got out of his break and put it where only Kmet could go up and get it.

Three plays later, Fields got defensive end Aidan Hutchinson to jump offsides on fourth-and-12. Center Lucas Patrick snapped the ball the minute Hutchinson came across, and Fields threw a dart to Moore down the left sideline for a 38-yard touchdown.

Fields finished the day 19-for-33 for 223 yards and one touchdown.

Despite a decent day at the office, Fields and Kmet noted the Bears’ offense could have put 40 on the Lions had they executed properly for the entire game.

Fields was critical of some of his misses after the win.

“The dagger to DJ, I’m still sick about that one late in the game,” Fields said. “I think, the third-and-short to Mooney could have been executed a little better. It was a great play call. Got exactly what we thought we would get.”

Fields also noted after the game that many of the hits and pressures Sunday were the product of him not getting to his checkdown fast enough or not throwing the ball away.

After not targeting Moore in the first half, the Bears targeted the star wide receiver 10 times in the second half. He caught six passes for 68 yards.

The Bears continue to struggle to get Darnell Mooney involved. He had just two catches for 44 yards.

Justin Fields GRADE: B
Team GRADE: B

Rushing offense

Fields entered the game having eclipsed 100 yards on the ground in each of his last three games against the Lions. The third-year quarterback picked up 28 on the ground on the opening drive but finished with just 58 after two kneeldowns to end the game.

A healthy D’Onta Foreman returned and picked up 50 yards on 11 carries. Khalil Herbert gained just 8 yards on three carries.

The Bears’ best running play came when offensive coordinator Luke Getsy split Fields out wide and had Moore take the direct snap. Fields faked as if he was going to take the handoff on a reverse, but Moore kept it and got the corner, sauntering 16 yards for the Bears’ first touchdown.

The Bears’ ground game wasn’t at its best Sunday, but it was effective enough to keep the Lions’ defense guessing, and the Moore wrinkle is enough to earn a decent mark.

GRADE: B-

Passing defense

Three weeks ago, the Bears’ defense picked off Lions quarterback Jared Goff three times and had the Lions in a corner with four minutes to go.

But Goff and the Lions’ potent offense engineered two quick touchdown drives to break the Bears’ hearts in Detroit.

There wasn’t a repeat Sunday.

Goff went 20-for-35 for 161 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions on Sunday. The Bears held wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown to three catches for 21 yards and gave up just two catches for 23 yards to tight end Sam LaPorta.

The Bears’ pass rush notched three sacks and nine quarterback hurries as they once again got the better of the Lions’ talented offensive line.

Detroit has one of the best offenses in the NFL, and the Bears’ pass defense completely shut them down outside of two drives.

No notes.

GRADE: A+

Run defense

The only offensive success Detroit found Sunday came on the ground.

The Lions rushed for 140 yards on 24 carries (5.8 yards per carry), with David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs picking up six or more yards per tote.

Gibbs’ electric rushing helped the pendulum swing back in Detroit’s favor in the second quarter, but the Bears’ defense was able to hold them to just 37 yards on the ground in the second half.

It didn’t start out pretty, but the Bears made the necessary defensive adjustments to keep the Lions from winning the game on the ground.

The Bears entered the game with the NFL’s top-ranked run defense. This grade will look low, but it’s based on the bar they have set.

GRADE: C+

Coaching

Eberflus and his defensive staff came up with a great defensive game plan, and their halftime tweaks were flawless.

On the offensive side, Getsy gets a ding for the fourth-and-1 pitch to Moore. I liked Eberflus’ aggressiveness in going for it, but the play call left a lot to be desired.

Other than that, there’s little to nitpick from the first signature win of the Eberflus era.

GRADE: B+

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That difference was highlighted Sunday on the most critical play of the Bears’ 28-13 win over the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field.

With the game tied at 13 midway through the third quarter, the Bears lined up to go for a fourth-and-13 at the Lions’ 38-yard line.

“I don’t think so,” left tackle Braxton Jones said after the game when asked if the Bears were planning to run a play.

“No, it was supposed to be a freeze play,” wide receiver DJ Moore echoed.

Quarterback Justin Fields walked to the line and called out a protection change. Left guard Teven Jenkins started making protection calls. Tight end Cole Kmet looked over to wide receiver Darnell Mooney and made a check.

All fake. Improv.

“I thought the line did a good job selling the protection adjustment,” Kmet said. “I looked out to Mooney like we were going to switch routes or whatever, and they bought it.”

Sure enough, Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson came across the line, and that’s where the preparation took over. Once Hutchinson crossed the line, center Lucas Patrick snapped the ball, and Moore beelined for the end zone.

“Fourth-and-13, hell of a cadence,” Kmet said. “I thought, no way in hell they are jumping. They jumped. I don’t know how you could jump in that situation, but they did.

“I was shocked.”

Moore beat his man off the line, and the safety that was over the top didn’t come over initially. The line gave Fields good protection, and the quarterback threw a rope to Moore for a 38-yard touchdown to give the Bears a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

“They bit on it,” Jones said. “I mean, it was cool to see. Tev had great communication there, ‘Go to this guy. Go to that guy,’ calling different things. We just got them to jump and then just got DJ to do DJ. You know, ‘Go DJ.’”

“Based off what they do, you either win or you go win,” Moore said.

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Fields’ strike to Moore on the free play allowed the Bears to recapture the momentum they lost early in the game.

Chicago jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead, but a failed fourth-and-1 play in the second quarter swung things back in the Lions’ favor. Detroit ripped off 13 points in a row to take a 13-10 lead into the half.

The game ground to a halt in the third quarter, with neither team able to gain an edge.

Prior to Fields’ free-play dart to Moore, the Bears’ quarterback converted a critical third-and-3 with an anticipatory throw to Kmet on the left sideline. The Bears lost 2 yards on the next three plays and were prepared to take a delay and punt from Lions territory.

But their preparation — and a Lions mistake — presented the Bears with an opportunity they couldn’t waste.

“We practice that all the time. I think it kind of comes second nature now,” Kmet said. “In a walk through and one of our scout team guys accidentally jumps, we’re always going into that. It’s something we’ve practiced a lot that has just kind of become second nature. I thought [Fields] had a hell of a cadence on that play. It sounded really good but I’m still shocked that they jumped.”

“We practice that each and every week. It was great execution by everyone,” Fields added.

The touchdown pass to Moore gave the Bears a 19-13 lead after a blocked PAT, and the defense did the rest, holding the Lions’ offense to 267 total yards while pitching a second-half shutout.

“Us hitting that shot to DJ, that was a big momentum-shifter,” Eberflus said after the win.

Everyone from Jenkins to Patrick and Moore gets credit for the seamless free-play execution.

But it was high-level quarterbacking from Fields to see Hutchinson jump and execute a play that wasn’t supposed to be without flinching.

“DJ is hard to cover,” Eberflus said. “He’s hard to cover when you got a guy over the top of him or when it’s just one guy on him like that. Really good throw. Really good catch. Really good reaction.”

“It was a hell of a cadence and a hell of a throw to DJ,” Kmet said.

Fields said the key to the play was approaching everything, from cadence to protection calls, like a normal play.

Once Hutchinson came across, the rest was easy.

“When he jumped, I was like, ‘Shoot, I’m out,” Moore said. “I’m like, ‘meep meep.’”

Moore cruised into the end zone, delivering a right hook that staggered the Lions — one the NFC North leaders never recovered from.

The win marked the first time the Bears have won back-to-back games in the Eberflus era. At 5-8, the Bears believe they are firmly in the playoff picture.

But they had to win Sunday.

Preparation, execution, and a dime from Fields knocked the Lions out and gave the Bears a statement win they hope can be the springboard for more.

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They’ve just let them off the hook in the fourth quarter.

Three weeks ago, the Bears blew a 12-point fourth-quarter lead in Detroit. They were champing at the bit to get another shot at the Lions on Sunday at Soldier Field.

The Bears jumped on the Lions early but let them crawl back to take the lead heading into halftime.

But Sunday’s game was not going to be the latest in a line of Bears’ letdowns against the division-rival Lions.

Chicago’s defense bowed up in the second half, and quarterback Justin Fields struck with his arm and legs in the second half to lead the Bears to a 28-13 win that moved them to 5-8 on the season and was the first time they have won consecutive games under head coach Matt Eberflus.

Fields went 19-for-33 for 223 yards and one touchdown while also adding 58 yards on the ground. Meanwhile, the Bears’ defense suffocated a normally potent Lions offense, holding them to 267 total yards and forcing three turnovers.

The Bears were confident coming into the game. They were adamant not only that they were better than the Lions but that they could go on a late run to the playoffs. A statement win Sunday was the first step in that plan.

Fields and the defense made sure that box got checked. Now, they move on to Step 2.

Here’s what we learned in the Bears’ 28-13 win vs. the Lions:

Clean script

The Bears won the opening toss and elected to take the ball against a Lions defense that has been struggling mightily for over a month.

On third-and-3 from their own 38-yard line, Fields dropped back and felt pressure. The quarterback stepped up in the pocket and took off for a gain of 13.

Fields entered the game having rushed for over 100 yards in each of his last three games against the Lions. He ripped off 28 yards on the ground on the opening series before offensive coordinator Luke Getsy busted out a new wrinkle inside the red zone.

The Bears split Fields out wide and brought wide receiver DJ Moore in to take the snap. Moore took the snap and ran left. He faked a pitch back to Fields, hit the corner, and raced 16 yards untouched for an opening touchdown.

Momentum killer

The Bears dominated the first quarter-plus of Sunday’s game. They led 10-0 and had the chance to add to it after Jaylon Johnson picked off Jared Goff on fourth down.

Fields and the Bears’ offense moved the ball down to the Lions’ 40-yard line, where they faced a critical third-and-3. The Bears opted for a quarterback draw, but Fields was stopped after a gain of 2.

The Bears rolled the dice on fourth-and-1, but the play-call left a lot to be desired. The Bears lined Moore up in the backfield and opted to pitch it to him, but Lions cornerback Ifeatu Melifonwu sniffed it out and popped Moore short of the line.

With the momentum pendulum starting to swing back their way, the Lions’ offense marched 61 yards on nine plays, with running back Jahmyr Gibbs capping off the drive with a 12-yard touchdown run. A missed PAT made it 10-6 Bears midway through the second quarter.

The Bears’ offense needed to string a drive together before half to halt the Lions’ momentum. That didn’t happen.

The Bears went three-and-out, and the Lions’ offense closed the half with an 11-play, 53-yard touchdown drive to take a 13-10 lead at halftime.

Chicago flushed a brilliant quarter-plus of play down the drain in the final 7:04 of the half, and it all started with a failed fourth-and-1 pitch to Moore.

Free play magic

The Bears entered the second half down 13-10 but tied up early in the third quarter.

After the two teams exchanged a few punts, Fields and the Bears’ offense retook command.

On third-and-3 from the Lions’ 43, Fields dropped back and fired left toward a covered Cole Kmet. The Bears tight end climbed the ladder and made an impressive catch to move the chains.

The Bears went backward on the following three plays but lined up to go for it on fourth-and-12.

Fields got the Lions to jump offsides and then took advantage of the free play. Fields saw Moore had a step on his man and ripped a dot to the star receiver for a 38-yard touchdown.

The Lions blocked the Bears’ point after attempt, but Chicago’s defense quickly got the ball back when linebacker T.J. Edwards recovered a fumbled snap by Goff.

The Bears took over at the Lions’ 29-yard line, and Fields punched it into the end zone with an 11-yard run five plays later to give the Bears a 25-13 lead.

The ballad of Justin Fields

Sunday was the full Fields experience.

The third-year quarterback tormented the Lions with his legs early but could not get the passing game in a flow in the first half. At halftime, Fields had four completions and had been sacked three times on 13 dropbacks.

In the second half, Fields made several anticipatory throws to move the chains and struck on the free play to give the Bears the lead.

There was no better encapsulation of Fields’ ups and downs than on the Bears’ drive after the Goff fumble. Fields missed a wide-open touchdown throw in the flat, then turned around on the next play and raced 11 yards for a scoring strike.

With these final five games potentially setting the tone of the Bears’ offseason quarterback plan, Fields’ second half was a window into what is possible. If the Bears can get that to be the four-quarter norm — Getsy owns a big role in that — that will open up a multitude of options this offseason with Fields entrenched as the starting quarterback.

If they can’t, then tough decisions loom.

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KENNETH DAVIS

The Lions snatched a victory away from the Bears several weeks ago. Some would say, the Bears gave that game away. The Bears definitely aided in giving it away, but I think it was more of Detroit having confidence that they can turn it on when needed. Perhaps Lions center Frank Ragnow being out will aid the Bears in pressuring Jared Goff, and slowing down the Lions run game like the Bears did for most of the last game versus Detroit. I think the Bears could win this game, but I’m going to go with the Kitties on this one.

Lions: 27, Bears: 21

JOSH SCHROCK

The Bears have never won back-to-back games under head coach Matt Eberflus. They also have yet to beat a team this season that doesn’t have a coach on the hot seat (Frank Reich and Josh McDaniels have been fired and Ron Rivera will soon join them) or is using a backup quarterback (Joshua Dobbs).

Sunday’s game against the Lions is a chance for the Bears to make a statement that the growth they keep talking about is real. The Bears match up well with the Lions from a scheme and personnel standpoint. Chicago has outplayed the Lions in two of their last three matchups but coughed up big fourth quarter leads in both instances.

I think the Bears get over the hump against Dan Campbell’s Lions this time. Quarterback Justin Fields has rushed for over 100 yards in each of his last three games against the Lions. Detroit’s defense has given up an average of 30.25 points per game over the last month and struggled stopping the Bears three weeks ago.

The Bears win the battle in the trenches, Fields shines with his legs, and the Bears move to 5-8.

I already hate this pick.

Bears: 27, Lions: 23

ALEX SHAPIRO

The Bears probably had their best chance to get a win against the NFC North leaders when they shocked the Lions for three and a half quarters in Week 11. The Lions will not be taken by surprise again. They’ll also be armed with the info that helped them beat the Bears down the stretch last month: throw to David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs as an extension of the run game, and attack the middle of the field with Sam LaPorta.

Justin Fields has enjoyed some of the best performances of his career against the Lions, and Detroit’s defense remains susceptible to big plays. There’s no reason to believe the Bears won’t be able to muster more points this Sunday than they did against the Vikings in Week 12. But the Bears aren’t set up to win a shootout, and that’s what could develop at Soldier Field this Sunday.

Lions: 31, Bears: 24

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In a results-oriented business that often demands immediate success, it would be easy to let frustration creep in, especially when outsized expectations aren’t met and questions about job security arise.

But Eberflus has continually stayed where his feet are and looked at the bigger picture of what he and general manager Ryan Poles are trying to accomplish. Daily progress can sometimes be infinitesimal, but eventually, the larger results materialize if you stay the course.

“You have to have extreme patience during this time, and you got to see growth,” Eberflus said Wednesday at Halas Hall. “You have to see that in small increments at times. You have to learn from every performance, and I think that’s part of growing. We’ve continued to do that as we’ve put this football team together.”

Eberflus can say that, but he also understands that his 7-22 record isn’t good enough, especially given the Bears’ dreadful start to his second season. But that incremental growth Eberflus has seen daily at Halas Hall has started to show on the field, and the Bears enter Week 14 with the arrow pointing in the right direction.

“You want the wins, right? The wins, that’s the biggest frustration,” Eberflus said. “When are you going to get the wins? You keep doing things right, you keep doing things right, then all of a sudden, the wins will come. That’s what all of my mentors would tell me when I visited during this process. Just keep doing it right and really focus on the fundamentals and details of doing the job right. Hold guys to standards, don’t let that slip. That’s what we’ve tried to do. Again, I know it’s been slow, and I know the Chicago Bears fans– as we do– want more wins. You can certainly see that momentum starting to change, and we’re certainly optimistic for that.”

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While Eberflus’ defense has strung together eight weeks of mostly solid performances — Los Angeles and the fourth quarter in Detroit notwithstanding — the offense has continued to be clunky and inconsistent.

Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy’s game plans have been hit and miss, and that’s the most generous interpretation. Quarterback Justin Fields has flashed, but the passing game has lacked the consistent explosiveness needed to win in today’s NFL.

This is the first time Eberflus has had responsibility for a team’s offense. That patience Eberflus preached in pushing through the stagnant times also extends to Getsy, Fields, and the offense.

But there’s a line that has to be walked. Patience is essential, but things must be fixed immediately when they aren’t working.

“I think that’s always there, the sense of urgency is always there,” Eberflus said when asked about exercising patience with the offense. “When the execution is there, you want to keep doing it. When it’s not, you want to have a sense of urgency. I said it the other day, it’s about being optimistic, being positive, but also being real. That’s not just with the players. That’s with the coaches too. What do we need to improve on? You have to make that improvement. That’s part of being a coordinator, that’s part of being a head coach, and that’s exactly what you do.”

Getsy took some heat for his screen-heavy game plan during the Bears’ 12-10 win over the Minnesota Vikings in Week 12. Getsy believed the best way to combat Minnesota’s high-pressure defense was with quick passes to the perimeter. That worked initially, but the Vikings caught on, and the Bears’ offense sputtered in the second half.

On the Monday after the Minnesota win, Eberflus noted explosive plays to be had down the field against the Vikings. The Bears have to take advantage of those opportunities schematically, and Fields has to hit them when they are called.

“It’s about how do we generate explosive plays,” Eberflus said. “You score touchdowns by getting the explosives, right? We all know that.  

“But how do we do that in the running game? How do we create advantageous positions for the offense through motions, formationally, to create those advantages, those angles that we want to have so we can pop those runs? And in the passing game — we’re going to have to take more shots downfield to create those explosive plays. Those things are there. We just have to take advantage of it.”

Eberflus understands the pressure he and his staff face over the final five weeks. The progress has started to show, but a strong finish would go a long way toward ensuring they get another season.

But the potentially warming seat hasn’t forced his reservoir of patience to empty with Getsy, Fields, and the offense. There’s a belief that a breakout is coming. The adjustments will be made, and the explosive plays will start to arrive Sunday when the Bears open their critical finishing stretch against the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field.

“I think they’re coming. I really do,” Eberflus said when asked about his patience with the offense. “I know Justin throws a really good deep ball, and he’s proven that we’re excited about our opportunity this week.”

If Getsy, Fields, and the offense continue to be erratic and struggle to create explosive plays, Eberflus’ patience will be put to the test, and the sense of urgency, with jobs potentially on the line, will be ratcheted up.

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“Sudden change comes around for offense when you get a big return into (opponent’s territory), either by takeaway or kicking game,” Eberflus said. “Or you get an explosive play, that can also be a momentum thing, too. It’s not quite sudden change, but it’s also momentum into the scoring zone.”

The Bears offense had several opportunities to take advantage of sudden change against the Vikings in Week 12, but they couldn’t make the most of them. The Bears offense got the ball five times off of a sudden change– four from interceptions and one from a turnover on downs– but they only managed to score six points on those ensuing drives. They had four offensive plays that went for 20+ yards over three drives. They got six points out of those drives. That’s not good enough, and it allowed the Vikings to hang around in a game that the Bears should have dominated.

Eberflus believes the key for more success is as simple as better operation when the team is in scoring range.

“Some of that’s converting on third downs,” Eberflus said. “If we decided to go on fourth down like we did last week with fourth-and-10, it’s converting there. Then it’s maintaining that momentum through execution into the scoring zone, into the end zone.

“That’s what we have to focus on.”

Poor execution both on offense and defense led to an incredible collapse in Week 11 when the team gave up a 12-point lead with just over four minutes to play against the Lions. The Bears have a chance to exorcize the demons when the Lions come to Soldier Field this Sunday. The team knows they can hang with the NFC North leaders, and if they can execute better on offense in the biggest moments they’ll give themselves a chance to tally a signature win.

“I think they’re coming,” Eberflus said. “I really do.”

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While the 2023 Bears focus on being where their feet are, the outside focus has shifted to the 2024 NFL Draft and the potential ahead. Thanks to general manager Ryan Poles’ trade heist of the Carolina Panthers last March, the Bears can focus both on an unlikely postseason push and an offseason that could see them own the No. 1 pick again.

After Sunday’s Week 13 action, the Bears have a 72 percent chance of getting the No. 1 pick via Carolina. Currently, the Bears would own the No. 1 and No. 5 picks in the 2024 draft, giving them two top-tier assets to reshape the franchise.

The question from now until they go on the clock in April is: How will/should Poles utilize those picks? Should he draft a new quarterback in Caleb Williams or Drake Maye? Should he use the picks to add blue-chip talent around Justin Fields? Or should he trade one of the picks for more draft capital?

Poles will have plenty of paths to choose from this offseason, but what happens in the final five games will impact the route he travels.

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Four figures, three of whom reside in Halas Hall, will play a key role in determining how Poles attacks what is setting up to be a potentially “transformational” offseason:

Justin Fields

Fields and how he plays during the final five games will undoubtedly play a massive role in how Poles chooses to use the draft capital he finds in his war chest this offseason.

Last offseason, the Bears’ GM said he’d have to “be blown away” to move on from Fields and draft a different quarterback. The Bears eventually dealt the pick to Carolina, passing on the opportunity to draft C.J. Stroud, who is having an impressive rookie season in Houston.

Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus wanted to build around Fields, remove the excuses, and see if he could take a big step forward as a passer in 2023.

The season didn’t start as planned. The third-year quarterback struggled early on and admitted to playing “robotic.” Fields appeared to get back on track in Weeks 4 and 5 before dislocating his right thumb in Week 6.

Since returning in Week 11, Fields has played well in the two games since his return. He has shown some improvement with pocket presence and escaping with a passer’s mentality by keeping his eyes downfield after being flushed from the pocket.

Fields has been inconsistent as a passer this season. Some of that can be attributed to questionable play-calling and a constantly changing offensive line picture.

But a lot of the issues fall at Fields’ feet.

The Bears will look at the entirety of the Fields’ three seasons when evaluating him as a franchise quarterback option going forward.

The feeling in league circles is that the Bears will move on from Fields after the season if they have a top-two pick. Fields has shown flashes and has exceptional athleticism, but that’s just enough to get people fired for sticking with him too long and not enough to pass on either Williams or Maye, both of whom are viewed as elite NFL quarterback prospects.

Fields has five games to change the Bears’ mind.

Five games of consistent, high-level passing and playmaking could change the course of the Bears’ offseason plans.

It’s easy to be enticed by Williams or Maye. But quarterback evaluation is an inexact science. Having Fields remove doubt that he’s the long-term answer behind center would provide the Bears with a world of options when it comes to the draft. If the Bears don’t have to use their first pick on a quarterback, that should allow them to travel the safe road with wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.

But if Fields can’t silence the doubts, then the Bears have to go with either Williams or Maye.

Braxton Jones

After Fields, Jones might be the player with the most riding on the final five games of the season.

Two blue-chip left tackles are slated to be in the 2024 NFL Draft class in Notre Dame’s Joe Alt and Penn State’s Olu Fashanu.

The Bears locked down the right tackle position in the last draft with the selection of Darnell Wright. They entered the season hoping Jones would solidify himself as their franchise left tackle, allowing them to check off an import box in their rebuilding project.

Jones worked all offseason on getting stronger against the bull rush, which was his biggest weakness during his rookie season.

That work showed up early in the season, but Jones struggled with mental mistakes and hand placement. Then came a neck injury that cost him six games.

Since returning to action in Week 9, Jones has allowed just 10 pressures in 140 pass-blocking snaps.

On the season, Jones has allowed just 14 pressures and one sack while being penalized seven times.

Jones will be part of the Bears’ plan going forward. He’s a talented tackle that the Bears believe has left-right versatility.

But if he can cement himself as the franchise left tackle, that could allow the Bears to focus elsewhere in the first round, be it edge rusher, wide receiver, or defensive tackle. If doubt remains about Jones after the season finale, the Bears will have a tough time passing on Alt or Fashanu in Round 1.

Matt Eberflus

The Bears’ head coach might be the biggest pivot point in the road ahead.

From the outside, Eberflus’ seat appeared to be warming early in the season. But I don’t think it was ever as hot as everyone believed, and it’s likely cooled, given the Bears’ improved play over the past eight weeks.

The Bears are 4-4 in their last eight games, and the defense has continued to improve under his direction as play-caller. The Bears’ defense now leads the NFL in run defense and ranks ninth in yards allowed per game. The Bears are two blown leads away from being 6-6 and right in the thick of the playoff race.

As dysfunctional as things have appeared at times, I don’t get the sense that those inside Halas Hall view things the same way the general public does. The Bears have already won more games than last year and should be in line to win at least two more games down the stretch.

If the Bears move on from Eberflus after the season, it likely means Fields is gone as well, and Poles is looking for a full reset with a new staff picking their own quarterback. (This is how functioning organizations do things, which might be foreign to the Bears.)

If that’s the case, the Bears’ draft path becomes clear.

But if the Bears continue to play well and Eberflus earns Year 3, there’s a good chance that Fields was a big reason why and might have done enough to allow the Bears to utilize their first-round draft picks by adding talent around him (Harrison, Alt, Fashanu, Brock Bowers, etc.)

The coaching situation at the season’s end will play a big role in how the Bears attack the draft.

Bryce Young

The final domino in the Bears’ draft puzzle is the guy they elected to pass on in 2023.

Young landed in the worst situation possible for a young quarterback. His weapons don’t separate, his line is beyond leaky, and his head coach was fired after 11 games.

The Panthers are an abject disaster and are hurtling toward a doomsday scenario where they hand the Bears the No. 1 pick in the draft.

Carolina is horrible. No doubt.

But you should never underestimate the mediocrity of the NFL.

The Panthers were close to knocking off the Tampa Bay Bucs on Sunday. They have games against the Saints, Falcons, and Buce remaining. All of those teams are capable of laying a stinker.

Can Young drag the Panthers to one or two more wins down the stretch to push Carolina out of the No. 1 spot? The New England Patriots have completely cratered and are projected to likely finish with a lower strength of schedule than Carolina. If the two teams finish with the same record, the Patriots would receive the better selection.

Getting the No. 2 pick would still be a massive win for Poles and the Bears, but it could also drastically alter how they approach the selection and their quarterback future.

While many might see Williams and Maye as worth a top-two pick, the Bears’ pre-draft evaluation could lead them to believe only one is worth the selection. If that signal-caller were to go No. 1, the Bears would have to go to Plan B.

The Panthers are dreadful, but Young has already beaten a good Texans team. Anything can happen in the NFL. If anything happens one more time for the Panthers, the Bears’ plans could be irrevocably altered.

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“We want to get our young guys more and more playing time,” Eberflus said. “If they’re effective and produce, we certainly will play them. You guys know that.”

The Bears have spoken highly of Smith all year even though Stevenson won the starting outside corner job opposite Jaylon Johnson out of training camp. He impressed enough in practice and in his limited game experience to earn snaps in a rotation with Stevenson in Week 11. Smith was then a standout performer in his spot start for Stevenson in Week 12.

Rotating Stevenson and Smith is an interesting decision for a coach who some believe is on the hot seat. Prioritizing player development with a rookie rotation compared to playing the starters all the time indicates that Eberflus might not feel outside pressure to win right now. It will also give the team valuable tape to evaluate as they engage in negotiations with Johnson. If Smith and Stevenson each continue to improve and play at a high level, it could make the team confident enough to move on without paying Johnson a huge contract.

Over seven games and three starts Smith has surrendered a 63% completion rate and 89.9 QB rating when targeted. He’s also made impressive tackles in the open field to prevent first downs and explosive gains. Stevenson has been put into the line of fire more often as a starter, and he’s noticeably improved as the season has progressed. Stevenson has given up a 67% completion rate and 112.5 QB rating when targeted. Stevenson also has one interception.

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They are playing the best ball of the Matt Eberflus era, and there’s no way of knowing if head coach Matt Eberflus or quarterback Justin Fields will be in Chicago in 2024.

That could put some added pressure on a 4-8 team exiting a late-season bye. The Bears feel that their final five games are winnable and that an unlikely playoff berth could be in the cards if they run the table.

Whether or not that becomes reality, it’s no secret that how these final five weeks play out will play a significant role in determining the future of Fields, Eberflus, and the franchise’s direction. The veterans on the team are cognizant of that as they prepare for a home stretch that starts with Sunday’s visit from the Detroit Lions.

“That is the business we’re in,” linebacker T.J. Edwards said Monday at Halas Hall. “I think no matter what, it’s kind of always there. But at the end of the day, we’re here to win games and we’re here to be the best football players we can be. That’s something we have to do. That is our job. That is what we’re here for. I think our team is understanding that these are important games and we know that if we want to do what we’ve gotta do, we’ve gotta win ‘em. And we’re excited about that. We have the right people in here, the right leaders who understand that and to keep the main thing the main thing.”

Tight end Cole Kmet signed a four-year, $50 million contract extension this offseason. The Illinois native is one of the foundational pieces of general manager Ryan Poles’ rebuild. Kmet has offered both honest critiques and strong support for the direction the franchise is headed.

To Kmet, there’s optimism in the Bears’ recent play and how the staff and players overcame the early-season adversity and came through the other side. That has shown up over an eight-game stretch where the Bears went 4-4 but let games against the Lions and New Orleans Saints slip away.

“I think we have been making progress, and I think that’s been showing on tape,” Kmet said Monday. “When you kinda take the results aside — it’s a mix of both because it’s a results league — but if you’re being critical about your play, you just kinda look at the tape and look at the silence of the tape, and that’s kinda what you have to look at and go off of. You can see the progression that’s been going on, whether it’s been in our run scheme or pass pro, guys on routes. You’ve seen the steps there on tape.

“The results haven’t been always what we’ve wanted them to be. We’re optimistic that if we keep grinding away at this thing and keep going at it the way we have been, then the results will start to show up.”

Kmet has already been through a coaching change and a quarterback swap during his Bears tenure. He understands and has heard the noise that change could be coming this offseason if progress isn’t made, maintained, and built on in the right areas.

The best way to make that chatter dissipate is to win.

“I think it’s just taking it one game at a time. You take this thing one game at a time,” Kmet said. “If you focus on the things that matter, and I think that’s winning each and every week and making a push here for playoffs, that’s my mindset with it because there’s still an opportunity to do that, you just focus on the main thing. And then at the end of the season, you let the cards fall where they may. But we’re not worried about that stuff right now, and we’re just taking this thing one game at a time.”

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Eberflus offered a similar answer when asked about his job security Monday, saying he’ll just “put his best foot forward” and believes that will deliver the desired results and keep the arrow pointing up entering a critical offseason.

With two top-five picks potentially waiting for them when the season ends, the Bears need to use these final five games as a fact-finding mission as it pertains to Eberlfus, Fields, and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy.

Should any return? Is it best if the slate is wiped clean? Or are continuity and patience the recipe for success that the Bears should follow?

After facing the Lions on Sunday, the Bears will travel to Cleveland to meet a Browns team leaking oil before returning home to face the lowly Arizona Cardinals and inconsistent Atlanta Falcons. Eberflus, Fields, and Co. will then finish the season on the road at Green Bay in a game that could have playoff implications for the Packers, and, perhaps, the Bears if they can author an unlikely run.

“Obviously I’m treating it like we’re in playoff mode now,” Kmet said. “I think five very winnable games here to end the season. Who knows what can happen at 9-8? I’m not looking too big picture — you take it one week at a time. Look, there’s a lot of flux at the bottom of the NFC here, especially for that seven, six spot. You never know what can happen. You gotta take it one week at a time and we’ll see where it goes.”

Where it goes over the final five games will likely determine where it heads in 2024 and beyond.

Teams that are 4-8 aren’t often playing consequential games in December. That’s not the case for the 2023 Bears.

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If you don’t deliver the desired results, they’ll find someone who will.

Eberflus’ second season as Bears’ head coach got off to the most disastrous start imaginable. The Bears lost their first four games, their defense was the worst in the NFL, and third-year quarterback Justin Fields appeared to be regressing. Throw in the mysterious resignation of defensive coordinator Alan Williams and the Chase Claypool failure, and Eberflus’ seat, at least from the outside looking in, was scalding hot early in October.

But things have taken a positive turn over the past two months. The Bears are 4-4 in their last eight games, the defense has made great strides under Eberflus’ direction, and Fields has shown signs of progress since returning from a dislocated thumb.

The Bears are trending in the right direction as the season hits the home stretch. But there are still whispers about a pending change at head coach. Jim Harbaugh has been mentioned as a potential replacement. Detriot Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is a popular name.

Eberflus isn’t oblivious to the importance of the Bears’ final five games to his future but isn’t outwardly buckling under the pressure. This is the life of a coach in the NFL.

“You know the season didn’t start the way everybody wanted, for sure,” Eberflus said Monday at Halas Hall. “But over the last eight weeks, we’ve put some good things out there. We’re certainly excited about doing that this week. Our focus is — as any time in the NFL — is where your feet are. We’ve got to be focused on this game and this game only to put your best foot forward out there, and that’s what we’re doing this week.”

On November 1, general manager Ryan Poles gave a strong statement in support of Eberflus as the then-2-6 Bears navigated a wave of adversity after the dismissal of running backs coach David Walker.

“What I see every day, where I see him address the team and I see his approach through adversity, it is stable, man,” Poles said. “And I know in the outside world, it doesn’t look like that. And I know it looks like we’re far away. But this dude comes in every day and just keeps chipping away. He has high integrity. The people that he brings in here, he’s done the work to make sure that they’re the people they’re supposed to be. Again, we hold that standard. If it doesn’t follow that and people aren’t acting that way, they’re not here.

“But the way he holds everything down here is incredible for how loud it is, how tough it is. I mean, this team, you watch them, they fight. I know this past weekend wasn’t great, but you can’t watch that team and be like, oh, they’re going to fold. Most teams fold, and they’re not folding. It’s been hard. It’s been really hard, especially from where we started last year, trying to build this and do it the right way. What I see from him on a daily basis and how he gets this team ready on a weekly basis, to me, I see a grown man that has leadership skills to get this thing out of the hole and into where it needs to be.”

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On Monday, Eberflus was asked if he felt that his job was safe, given Poles’ public backing. The head coach reverted to his previous answer, understanding that if the arrow keeps pointing up for the final five games, he’ll likely avoid the axe.

“What you can focus on is leadership, and the first rule of leadership is leading yourself,” Eberflus said. “Come to work every day, put the plans together — offense, defense, special teams — lead the football team, help the leadership council, lead the football team as well, because true leadership comes from within. I think that’s really what you focus on, and that’s put your best foot forward every single day.”

Those in league circles are split on whether or not Eberflus will get a third season in Chicago. Many factors, including the Bears’ draft position and available replacement candidates, could play a role.

I don’t get the sense that Poles wants to fire Eberflus. I don’t think the 2022 record factors into the equation at all. If we’re being honest, the way a 2022 team, relatively devoid of talent, fought until the end is probably a feather in his cap.

The defensive improvement over the last two months also buoys Eberflus’ case to stay. The Bears now have the NFL’s best run defense and rank ninth in yards allowed.

If the Bears finish strong, there’s a good chance Eberflus returns for 2024.

For now, all he and the Bears can do is put their best foot forward.

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That’s exactly the situation that has played out for the Bears, yet many fans have already written off head coach Matt Eberflus moving forward. They’re happier daydreaming about Jim Harbaugh ditching the Wolverines to come back to the NFL than watching the rest of the season. Understandable considering the Bears have lost more games in excruciating fashion this year, but maybe a bit premature considering the team could still see a 100% improvement from last year to this year.

This year has always been about evaluation for the Bears. Of course winning games is the ultimate goal, and competing for the postseason is always the standard. But first the Bears need to figure out if they are on the right path. Preseason questions really weren’t about what seed the Bears could lock up in the NFC. We were asking if Justin Fields could take the next step in his personal development. Would GM Ryan Poles’ bold moves, like passing on Jalen Carter for Darnell Wright or trading for DJ Moore and Chase Claypool pay off? Would we see signs that Eberflus’ program was contributing to better ball and more wins?

We have some answers already, but in most cases the jury is still out. With five games to go a lot remains unseen and unexpected trends could still develop. We don’t know if the Bears will head into the offseason with a bit of momentum, or if they’ll flounder near the bottom of the standings. The last month of the season could determine the future for this team. However the team has moved in the right direction in a couple of key areas that indicate Eberflus has done well and should get the opportunity to lead the team for at least another season.

From a big picture standpoint, the Bears have simply won more games over the past couple of months, and they’ve done it at a much higher rate. Since their 0-4 start to the season, the Bears have gone 4-4 to dig themselves out of the NFL basement. Normally playing .500 ball isn’t worth celebrating, but it’s notable given last year’s disastrous campaign and the awful start to this season. Going from worst to first does happen in the NFL. However it’s far more common for a team to gradually improve over two or three seasons before seriously contending. Wins against the Panthers, Raiders, Commanders and Vikings might not seem all too impressive, but before the Bears can be the best they have to be not the worst. They’ve already proven to be better than the true bottom of the league and could very well climb higher out of the basement with games against the lowly Cardinals, middling Browns and Falcons, and the hot-and-cold Packers left.

Part of the reason the Bears have managed to win more games recently is because key players still buy into Eberflus’ vision and methodology. Eberflus has not lost the locker room, even after gut-wrenching losses. In particular, the Bears could have completely collapsed after their losses to the Broncos and the Lions. In each case the Bears let what seemed like a sure win through their fingers in the late stages of the game. Those moments can send teams into tailspins, but the Bears followed up each of those awful losses with wins. That speaks to Eberflus’ ability to keep the team together.

Getting into the nitty gritty, Eberflus has also done well to improve a key facet on his side of the ball. In just one year, he’s helped to transform the run defense from one of the worst units in the league to one of the best. Big personnel additions like Andrew Billings, T.J. Edwards and Montez Sweat have helped. So has the development of young players like Kyler Gordon. But Eberflus deserves credit for putting those players in a position to succeed. When Eberflus took over defensive coordinator duties in Week 2, he called a more aggressive game. Eberflus dialed up more blitzes and exotic personnel packages. It helped. In 2022 the Bears ranked dead last in rushing touchdowns (31) and first downs allowed (151), 31st in rushing yards allowed (2,674) and tied for 26th in yards per carry allowed (5.0). This year they rank tied for first in rushing yards allowed (948) and first downs allowed (58), second in yards per carry allowed (3.4), and tied for third in rushing touchdowns allowed (6). That kind of turnaround deserves praise.

Again, there is still plenty of football left to be played. If the Bears slide back again it’s fair to question whether Eberflus should be the guy to lead the team in 2024. Problem areas like the large number of penalties the team commits week after week deserve scrutiny. But if the Bears win a couple of more games and if the defense continues to play well, then Eberflus should probably stick around for at least another year.

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The Bears are understandably a team often mentioned as a possible landing spot for Harbaugh. The Athletic’s Dianna Russini said Wednesday on FOX Sports that the Bears have had “conversations” about Harbaugh should they decide to fire head coach Matt Eberflus.

If the Bears move on from Eberflus, Harbaugh would make a lot of sense.

He is an elite coach and program builder. He went 44-19-1 during his four seasons as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. Harbaugh led the 49ers to two NFC West titles, three NFC Championship Game appearances, and one Super Bowl berth. The 49ers didn’t have a winning season in the eight years before Harbaugh arrived and went 7-25 in the two seasons after before starting a rebuild spearheaded by John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan.

Harbaugh knows what he is doing. He knows how to build a team and a culture. He wins everywhere he goes. His demeanor and personality should make him immune to the poison inside Halas Hall that seems to just about everyone who enters into the worst version of themselves.

I don’t think there’s a good argument to be made against the Bears hiring Harbaugh if they decide two years of Eberflus is enough.

But the Bears would need the answers to a few key questions to line up before anyone starts thinking about an introductory press conference at Halas Hall for Harbaugh.

First, they have to decide if Eberflus deserves a third season.

I’ve said for the past month that I don’t think Eberflus’ seat is as hot as the outside world wants it to be. General manager Ryan Poles’ statement of support last month didn’t sound like a typical word salad from a GM about to drop the axe. Poles’ backing of Eberflus sounded genuine and at least gave the impression that he believes he has the right guy in the building.

Eberflus has also done great work with the Bears’ defense this season.

After holding the Minnesota Vikings to 10 points and 242 total yards on Monday night, the Bears’ defense now ranks ninth in yards allowed per game and first in rushing yards allowed per game at 79.0. The Bears’ defense has forced seven turnovers in the past two games. Now fully healthy and with an elite edge rusher in Montez Sweat, Eberflus’ defense is showing that it works when all the right pieces are in place, and the right guy is pulling the strings.

I would also assume the Bears don’t judge Eberflus’ record the same way the outside world does. The 2022 season was always going to be a lost cause record-wise, but Eberflus got a young locker room to play hard throughout and buy into his culture and system.

Despite having a bad run of injury luck, the Bears are 3-3 in their last six games and are two fourth-quarter meltdowns away from being 6-6 on the season. The meltdowns should be attributed to coaching. At the end of the day, it falls on Eberflus’ ledger.

It has been far from perfect, but the Bears are showing progress under Eberflus this season.

At the moment, I feel like that will be enough to get him Year 3.

CHICAGO BEARS

Justin Fields Nov 30

Bears overreactions: Examining different 2024 NFL draft scenarios

Justin Fields Nov 28

Matt Eberflus' explanation of Bears' screen-heavy attack vs. Vikings worth examining

Justin Fields Nov 28

Schrock: Justin Fields' GW drive could mean everything or nothing for Bears' future

If the Bears choose to look for a new head coach, the next test to pass is the Kevin Warren exam.

The Bears’ new president and CEO will make the hire. While Harbaugh is a great coach, there’s a feeling in league circles that Warren and Harbaugh don’t exactly see eye-to-eye after the former’s time as Big Ten commissioner.

Only Warren and Harbaugh know if the headbutting between the two during the COVID-19 pandemic caused bad blood or if it’s just a case of Harbaugh grating people the wrong way, as he seems to do at every stop.

There’s obviously no chance Warren’s first head coach hire will be someone he doesn’t get along with and won’t want to work with on a daily basis.

That brings us to what I would say is the potential big hurdle in this hypothetical Harbaugh-to-the-Bears scenario.

Who has personnel control?

Harbaugh’s time in San Francisco ended after he continuously butted heads with general manager Trent Baalke over personnel decisions the coach disagreed with. Baalke eventually won the power struggle, and Harbaugh left after the 2014 season.

When Harbaugh’s brother-in-law Tom Crean was removed as head basketball coach at Indiana in 2017, Harbaugh peeled back the onion a bit on his time in San Francisco.

“Much like my situation in San Francisco, the people that are doing the micromanaging…when it comes to building a ball team, what they know could not blow up a small balloon,” Harbaugh said via Sports Illustrated’s Michael Rosenberg. “In my case, an owner and a general manager. In his case, an administration. They are so similar in that way. And he still wins two Big Ten championships outright.”

Given how his time in San Francisco ended, the feeling around the league is that Harbaugh likely will ask for personnel control when he returns to the NFL.

So where would that leave Poles, who owner George McCaskey gave the keys to less than two years ago? Are the Bears going to fire Poles? Will they try to arrange a marriage similar to the one the Las Vegas Raiders had with Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock, where Mayock was the general manager and oversaw the scouting and personnel departments, but Gruden had the final say on the moves?

Neither is an ideal situation for a franchise that is still very early in a rebuild.

The Bears agreed to give Poles time to see his vision through. The team has added talent, and the arrow appears to be pointing up. He’s a young GM and has made mistakes. None fatal to this point. Pulling the plug this early would only set the franchise back. Asking Poles to stay but be under Harbaugh when it comes to personnel decisions probably isn’t going to fly.

That’s a quandary. A solution exists, but it will be the hardest of these questions to answer in a way that sets the Bears up for long-term success.

I don’t think quarterback Justin Fields factors into the Harbaugh equation much, if at all. If Fields continues to play well enough down the stretch to earn another season as the starter, it likely means he saved Eberflus’ job in the process. If the Bears decide to move on from Fields, they should also clean house and bring in a staff to choose its quarterback and put everyone on the same timeline.

It’s hard to see a world in which Harbaugh is coaching a Bears team led by Fields in 2024. Maybe Harbaugh gets hired and thinks he can get Fields to turn the flashes into consistency. It’s possible but logical puzzle pieces just don’t fit seamlessly together.

Doesn’t mean it can’t happen. The Bears don’t exactly do things by the book, but it’s just the least likely of the scenarios, in my opinion.

The Harbaugh-Bears rumors will undoubtedly continue until one side squashes them. In all likelihood, it will be just noise in the end.

Harbaugh would be a great fit. But timing is everything, and the Bears would have to make multiple things align for the move to make sense this offseason. It’s doable if the Bears want to make it happen.

But with other franchises with bigger upside potentially willing to give him what he wants, Harbaugh’s NFL return likely will be somewhere other than Chicago.

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“The Chicago Bears are another organization I have heard has had some conversations about that, depending on what decision they make with this coaching staff that’s in place, and of course what they do with that quarterback situation,” Russini said on FS1.

This of course should not be interpreted as an indication that the Bears have already decided to move on from head coach Matt Eberflus. Nor should it be interpreted as proof positive that Harbaugh is on his way back to the NFL. Seemingly every year since Harbaugh took the Wolverines job in 2015, his name has been bandied about in coaching search rumors.

Whether the Bears retain Eberflus moving forward remains to be seen, but there are a few reasons to believe he should keep his job. To start, the Bears have already eclipsed their 2022 win total and they have five games left to stack more wins. In addition, the defense has vastly improved from last year since Eberflus added defensive coordinator responsibilities to his typical head coaching duties. Last year the team’s run defense ranked tied for 26th in rushing yards per attempt (4.9), 31st in total yards (2,674) and 32nd in rushing touchdowns allowed (31). Beyond that, Eberflus has not lost the locker room. Players still buy into his messaging and vision for the team.

Of course there are some red flags that might encourage the Bears to move on to a new head coach. The team has been plagued by penalties all season, and according to the NFL Penalties database, they rank in the top-10 in both offensive and defensive pre-snap penalties. That lack of discipline is a reflection of the head coach. Some cite Eberflus’ franchise-worst .241 winning percentage and their franchise-worst 14-game losing streak as reasons why Eberflus should be fired– and ultimately coaches are judged on their win-loss record. However, Eberflus was playing with a short deck after GM Ryan Poles stripped an already talent-needy roster down to the studs.

The Bears have never fired a head coach in the middle of a season, so if they do decide to fire Eberflus, a move likely wouldn’t come until January.

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Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy relied on a screen-heavy approach to combat the Vikings’ constant defensive pressure. It had some success early on, but the Vikings adjusted, and the Bears’ offense stalled in the second half.

Two fourth-quarter fumbles by quarterback Justin Fields put the Bears in danger of dropping another game they controlled throughout. But the third-year quarterback engineered a game-winning drive to ensure the Bears left U.S. Bank Stadium with a 12-10 win in which they didn’t find the end zone.

Fields’ game-winning drive was a welcome sight for a Bears team that is steadily improving, but many questions remain about the franchise’s future direction as they enter the off-week.

Those questions start with the 2024 NFL Draft. The Bears are currently slated to own the No. 1 and No. 5 selections come April. But how the final five weeks unfold will play a significant role in how they attack another critical offseason.

That’s where we start this week’s mailbag:

We’ll begin without an overreaction and just try to game this out.

First, we’re assuming that the Bears stick with Fields and pass on Caleb Willams and Drake Maye.

I’d say that’s about 50/50 with five games to play.

But let’s say the Bears once again survey the QB class and decide Fields is better. If that’s the case, I agree Marvin Harrison Jr. is the obvious pick with one of the two first-rounders.

If the Bears own the No. 1 pick and aren’t taking a quarterback, they could trade down with a team looking for a QB and add future draft capital. But I wouldn’t move down past three if they want to make sure they get Harrison, who might be a top-10 receiver in the NFL the second he gets drafted.

The second first-round selection is where things get interesting.

That conversation will start at left tackle and the Bears’ evaluation of Braxton Jones.

Per Pro Football Focus, Jones has allowed just 14 pressures and one sack this season in 229 pass-blocking snaps. He has been whistled for seven penalties and missed six games with a neck injury.

Jones is improving and seems to be on track to securing his role as this rebuild’s starting left tackle.

If the Bears don’t feel that way and would rather Jones be their swing tackle, then Notre Dame left tackle Joe Alt or Penn State left tackle Olu Fashanu should be the selection. If the Bears are good with Jones and Darnell Wright as their bookends, then that second first-round pick can be used in a number of ways. The Bears could double down on offense and draft Georgia tight end Brock Bowers, who would be a terrific compliment to Cole Kmet. They could go edge rusher with UCLA’s Laiatu Latu or Florida State’s Jared Verse. Or, they could trade down here as well, add more capital, and then either get a lesser edge prospect (Chop Robinson, Jared Verse, Dallas Turner), a defensive tackle (Jer’Zhan Newton), or a versatile offensive lineman (Graham Barton, Troy Fautanu). That will depend on how far they move down and how they address the other holes on their roster in free agency.

Overreaction? Yes.

I understand the thought process of moving down a bit and getting a guy in Malik Nabers, who is an insane talent in his own right.

But I’m not passing on Marvin Harrison Jr. He’s that special of a wide receiver prospect. Right now, the Bucs are projected to have the No. 7 pick. Nabers’ stock is rising around the league, so I don’t even know that it’s a safe bet he’ll be available at that selection.

Adding draft capital looks good on paper. Vea is a terrific defensive tackle. But sometimes teams get too cute. Just take Harrison. It’s a pick the Bears won’t regret, no matter who the quarterback is in 2024 and beyond.

Overreaction? Not at all.

Fields is incredibly polarizing, and I see both sides of the argument.

He’s arguably the best runner in the NFL with the ball in his hands. The athleticism is exceptional. He throws a great deep ball, and there are flashes when everything clicks, and it’s easy to see him as the guy for the next 10 years if he can harness it. I loved Fields coming out of Ohio State and thought the 49ers should have drafted him at No. 3 when they moved up in the 2021 draft. (They whiffed on Trey Lance but found Brock Purdy. Kyle Shanahan lives a blessed life.)

Fields landed in arguably the worst situation for a young quarterback that needed some time to develop. He fought through the lame-duck Matt Nagy year and showed promise last season with zero talent around him.

But the consistent, high-level passing that the Bears want to see hasn’t been there to this point. Part of that falls on the scheme, sure. But Fields has to own his inconsistencies this season. I don’t blame you if you’re watching Fields and think he’s fine but doesn’t have it. The flashes have been incredible, but there have been too many moments in three seasons where he either doesn’t see an open receiver, doesn’t throw a guy open, holds onto the ball too long, or turns it over in the fourth quarter.

However, I think Fields — outside of three fourth-quarter fumbles — has looked pretty good since he returned from the thumb injury. He is escaping the pocket with a passer’s mentality, keeping his eyes downfield, and hitting open guys in space. The internal clock and pocket presence still need to improve, but he has shown progress in the past two games.

Does it continue in the final month of the season? It might determine how the Bears approach the 2024 draft if it does.

Overreaction? No.

I think two things can be true: The Bears seeing Fields deliver in the clutch was important, and it probably means little in the big picture.

I wrote as much after the game.

Fields was 1-for-17 since the start of 2022 in converting game-winning drive opportunities before that drive started. He also just fumbled on his first attempt minutes early. The Bears also wouldn’t have been in that position had Fields not fumbled the first time and let them go up 12-3.

That game-winning drive was probably overstated because of how many times Fields and the offense have failed in that scenario in the past two seasons.

The Vikings didn’t blitz for the first time all game and left DJ Moore wide-open on a deep in. Fields made the throw, so he deserves credit for that.

But it doesn’t need to be made into something bigger than it was.

Overreaction? No.

I’ve written a few times about the Bears’ inability to unlock Mooney, as Nagy’s offense did in 2021.

I think there are several reasons for that. They’ve asked too much of him, the passing game has titled toward DJ Moore, and the aerial attack has been inconsistent at best.

It’s possible that the 1,000-yard season Mooney had in 2021 winds up being just an outlier, and he turns out to be just a good No. 3 receiver.

Right now, Mooney is tied with Brandon Powell and Khalil Shakur in catches with 25 and is tied with Christian Watson with 351 yards. Watson has played four fewer games than Mooney.

Mooney is going to look for the best deal in the offseason. That’s his right, and he should do what’s best for him and his family long-term.

I think Mooney would be open to re-signing with the Bears, but it will come down to numbers. I don’t think the four-year, $40 million projected deal from this past offseason is still out there. Would Mooney and the Bears be open to a Kendrick Bourne-type three for $15 million deal? I think something like that could make sense for both sides.

We’re going to end here on what is a nine-step offseason plan with two opinions sprinkled in. Shoutout to @K3N7AR01 for going deeeeeeep.

Let’s breeze through each step.

1. New coaches: I don’t think Matt Eberflus’ seat is as hot as the outside world wants to believe it is. The Bears’ defense has been playing much better since he took over, and they have been banged up until about two weeks ago. I do think that if the Bears plan to draft a quarterback, they should wipe the staff, bring in a new one, and let them choose the quarterback so all parties are on the same timeline. All signs point to Jim Harbaugh wanting to return to the NFL, and I think that would be a home-run hire for the Bears, even if it wouldn’t be entirely seamless.
2. Keep Poles: I think it’s probably the right call. I don’t think Poles is in any danger of losing his job. The Bears agreed to let him have the keys and maintain patience in the process. I haven’t agreed with a lot of his moves, but he should get one more year before the seat warms.
3. The locker room does believe in Fields. Its most vocal veteran leaders are staunch Fields supporters. I don’t know if moving on from him would take morale. Players generally understand the business. But if they trade Fields and bring in a rookie who struggles, things could get tense. I believe it’s 50/50 on whether or not Fields is the starting QB in 2024. It’ll depend on the final five games and where the Bears’ draft picks land.
4. Yes, they should pay Jaylon Johnson.
5. I think it’s the end of the road for Cody Whitehair. I personally would keep Eddie Jackson. He’s respected in the locker room and has bought into this staff’s vision from Day 1, which has allowed him to re-elevate his game.
6. Agreed. Marvin Harrison Jr. has to be one of the picks.
7. Trading down looks good on paper. It’ll depend on if they take a QB with the first pick, what they do in free agency, and what players are on the board when the trade calls come in.
8. The Bears’ center position has been an abject disaster this season. I don’t expect Lucas Patrick to be back as the starter. Poles has to find a long-term solution in the middle of the line.
9. The Bears are going to take an L on Velus Jones. It’s just a matter of when they admit defeat. St. Brown is a good run blocker, but the Bears are going to have money to spend, and there are better depth receiver options out there.

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To better combat the onslaught of defenders brought by defensive coordinator Brian Flores, the Bears went to the screen game early, often, and over and over again.

Per ESPN Stats and Info, Bear quarterback Justin Fields was pressured on 52 percent of his dropbacks in Chicago’s 12-10 comeback win at U.S. Bank Stadium on Monday night. The Bears ran 13 screens, and Fields finished with the lowest average air yards per attempt (2.4) and air yards per completion (1.9) in his career. Fields threw 21 passes at or behind the line of scrimmage and was averaging just 0.8 air yards per attempt at halftime.

While the screens were initially somewhat effective, the Vikings quickly caught on and adjusted the Bears’ game plan. But offensive coordinator Luke Getsy didn’t stray from his plan, and the Bears’ offense sputtered in the second half because of it.

On Tuesday, head coach Matt Eberflus addressed why the Bears felt they couldn’t attack the Vikings with slants and short passes over the middle.

“They pack the paint, so to speak,” Eberflus said Tuesday at Halas Hall. “Some of their coverages are three deep, and they’ve got two guys in the middle. So really, the open spots on a lot of those are the perimeter. And you certainly can hit some high-side pockets on those, which we did with DJ a couple times. Certainly, they give those things away. You’ve just got to do a real good job of spitting the ball out there and blocking well on the perimeter, which we did at times. You saw DJ get a couple nice runs there towards our bench. There were a couple times. But that’s really where you can take advantage of it.”

When asked if he was satisfied with an offensive game plan that produced minimal vertical attacks until the game-winning drive when the Vikings didn’t blitz, Eberflus admitted improvements are needed.

“You’re always wanting more chunks,” Eberflus said. “Explosive plays are where it’s at. I think we had eight explosives where we’re at in terms of goal-wise. We certainly, when you’re playing a team that pressures that way, and they’re vulnerable in the coverage, I believe that we should have more, and we’re always looking to get that. Certainly, we had some opportunities to hit some more of those, and we want to take advantage of those.”

CHICAGO BEARS

Montez Sweat Nov 28

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Fields did have a few opportunities to attack downfield that he missed Monday night, with the most notable one coming early in the second quarter.

With the Bears facing a third-and-14 from their own 44-yard line, Fields dropped back and was immediately pressured and flushed out to the left. Wide receiver Darnell Mooney was wide open, coming across the field and working right to left. Fields kept his eyes downfield and had an easy chunk play if he ripped it to Mooney immediately. But instead, Fields waited and threw late and high, which allowed Vikings safety Josh Metellus to tag Mooney as he went up for the pass.

Eberflus’ explanation/critique of the offensive output Monday night in Minnesota appeared to be directed at both Getsy for his screen-heavy plan and Fields for not connecting on some of the deep shots that were available.

Fields did, however, connect on the two deep throws that mattered.

With the Bears trailing 10-9 with under three minutes to play, Fields finally came through with the game-winning drive his young resume had been lacking.

Fields opened the drive with a 16-yard pass to DJ Moore and finished it with a 36-yard strike to Moore on third-and-10 to get the Bears into field-goal range.

The Vikings didn’t blitz once on Fields’ five dropbacks on the Bears’ final drive. Fields went 2-for-2 on throws of 10 or more air yards and averaged 17.5 air yards per completion, per ESPN Stats and Info. Prior to that drive, Fields was 1-for-3 on throws of 10 or more air yards and was averaging 0.9 air yards per completion.

As is usually the case, there’s plenty of blame to go around for the Bears’ offensive struggles.

Getsy’s plan lacked creativity and ingenuity, and his inability to adapt in the second half almost sunk the Bears. But Fields must also continue to be more consistent in seeing and hitting those chunk plays the second they come open. That pass to Mooney was at least 26 yards the Bears left on the table, and it could have been more.

It’s all part of the growing process for a young quarterback and first-time NFL play-caller.

It’s clear Eberflus knows his offense still has a lot of kinks to work out, and he sent a message to both his quarterback and OC that things have to get better coming out of the bye.

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Sweat played 39 snaps in the thrilling win, which was good for 71 percent of the Bears’ defensive snaps.

General manager Ryan Poles told ESPN 1000 during the pregame that he and head coach Matt Eberflus had a conversation about playing their best players more in critical moments.

While Sweat’s snap count didn’t rise to the percentage normally seen by elite edge rushers, the star defensive end made his impact felt on those 39 snaps.

According to Pro Football Focus, Sweat notched seven pressures, 1.5 sacks, and had a win rate of 25.0 percent in the win over the Vikings.

Sweat’s solo sack came on a nicely designed pick stunt on which the Bears lined Yannick Ngakoue outside Sweat and had Ngakoue loop around.

Adding an elite edge rusher of Sweat’s caliber has allowed Eberflus and defensive line coach Travis Smith to implement some rush games they didn’t feel they could implement without a top-tier pass-rusher to impact the gravity of the opponent’s pass-blocking scheme.

“Travis Smith, that was his idea to put those guys on the same side and run that little pick stunt that we had,” Eberflus said Tuesday. “We ran it a couple times. We lined up in that same alignment, did a couple other things out of that, had a nice third or fourth down stop out of that same alignment with a different pressure. But yeah, you definitely need to do that. Any time you can get a mismatch and put him (Sweat) on a particular side, you’re doing that for a particular mismatch, or you’re creating an advantage for somebody else somewhere else. That’s the benefit of having a player like that.”

CHICAGO BEARS

Justin Fields Nov 28

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Justin Fields Nov 28

Schrock's Bears Report Card: Grading Justin Fields, offense, defense in win vs. Vikings

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DeMarcus Walker clocked in with the second most snaps among Bears edge rushers with 32. Ngakoue battled cramps during the game and only played 29 snaps.

On the offensive side, rookie running back Roschon Johnson out-snapped Khalil Herbert 52-15 in the win. Eberflus pointed to Johnson’s stellar week of practice as the reason why he got the lion’s share of the work over Herbert. The Bears will continue to prioritize the practice work and production when determining how the backfield rotation looks each week.

“Roschon did a nice job, for the most part,” Eberflus said. “There was a couple hiccups in there. The one sack that we did take with the edge pressure, he’s just got to be more inside and firm. He’ll learn that as he goes. He’s still a rookie, and he’s got a lot of situations that he hasn’t seen yet in real time and game situations. But he’s a heck of a worker, super smart, he’s a tough guy and he’s one of our better protectors, so he’ll continue to work on that.

“We’re always going to look at the practice, we’re always going to look at production, and it’s always going to be based upon that.”

Here’s the snap count from the win over the Vikings:

Quarterback: Justin Fields 70

Running backs: Roschon Johnson 52, Khalil Herbert 15, Khari Blasingame 6

Wide receivers: DJ Moore 65, Darnell Mooney 57, Equanimeous St. Brown 34, Tyler Scott 12, Trent Taylor 4, Velus Jones Jr. 1

Tight ends: Cole Kmet 62, Marcedes Lewis 24, Robert Tonyan 19

Offenisve line: Lucas Patrick 70, Braxton Jones 70, Darnell Wright 70, Nate Davis 70, Teven Jenkins 63, Cody Whitehair 7

Defensive line: Justin Jones 39, Montez Sweat 39, DeMarcus Walker 32, Yannick Ngakoue 29, Andrew Billings 28, Gervon Dexter 20, Rasheem Green 18, Zacch Pickens 11

Linerbackers: T.J. Edwards 55, Tremaine Edmunds 55, Jack Sanborn 13

Defensive backs: Eddie Jackson 55, Jaylon Johnson 55, Jaquan Brisker 54, Terell Smith 52, Kyler Gordon 42, Jaylon Jones 4, Josh Blackwell 2, Elijah Hicks 2

Special teams: Sanborn 15, Ja. Jones 14, Blackwell 14, DeMarquis Gates 14, Dylan Cole 14, Travis Homer 12, Hicks 11, Cairo Santos 10, Tonyan 10, V. Jones 9, Patrick Scales 8, Trenton Gill 8, Blasingame 7, Christian Matthew 7, Wright 5, Patrick 5, Kmet 5, Whitehair 5, Gordon 5, Dan Feeney 5, Ja’Tyre Carter 5, Edwards 4, Taylor 3, Davis 3, Brisker 3, Walker 3, Dexter 2, Green 2, Ju. Jones 2, Jenkins 2, Ro. Johnson 2, Ja. Johnson 1, Edmunds 1, Smith 1, Sweat 1, Billings 1, Pickens 1

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But in the end, quarterback Justin Fields did just enough to back up a dominant performance from the Bears’ defense and deliver a 12-10 win.

Fields and the Bears tried to combat the Vikings’ blitz-heavy attack with a giant dose of screens and horizontal passes. That game plan led to three hours of offensive football that wasn’t aesthetically pleasing.

But there are no style points in the NFL.

A win is a win, and this was a victory that head coach Matt Eberflus and the Bears desperately needed as they head into their bye week.

The report card reflects one unit that aced its primetime test and one that did just enough to pass with some last-minute extra credit:

Passing offense

Fields was blitzed on 52 percent of his dropbacks Monday night, per ESPN Stats and Info. The Bears countered that with 13 screen passes, which caused Fields to finish with 2.4 air yards per attempt and 1.9 air yards per completion. Both marks are the lowest of his career.

Fields threw 21 passes at or behind the line of scrimmage on Monday night. That’s the most in the NFL since 2020, according to ESPN.

But on the Bears’ final drive, the Vikings didn’t blitz Fields, and he completed two passes of 10 or more air yards on the drive, including a 36-yard strike to DJ Moore that set up the game-winning field goal.

“Everybody bailed out there and left me wide open,” Moore said after the Bears’ win. “I don’t think that was very smart.

“Maybe like 10 yards into the route, I was like, ‘something ain’t right about this.'” Moore said. “Then I was like, ‘shoot, there’s nobody in the middle. This deep in is going to be in the middle.’ We connected on it, and the rest is history.”

The Bears’ pass attack was an eyesore for much of the night, but Fields and Moore delivered when everything was on the line.

Fields entered that drive having gone 1-for-17 on potential game-winning drives since the start of 2022. That lone one came in Week 3 last season when Roquan Smith picked off Houston Texans quarterback Davis Mills in Texans territory, and the Bears kneeled down before kicking a field goal.

This was a bonafide game-winning drive from Fields, which earned the aerial attack passing marks after a relatively putrid performance.

Fields GRADE: C+ (game-winning drive boost)
Team GRADE: D

Rushing offense

The Bears’ ground attack found little success in Minnesota.

With D’Onta Foreman out with an ankle injury, it felt like a game in which Khalil Herbert would get the bulk of the carries. Instead, the Bears turned to rookie Roschon Johnson, who rushed 10 times for 35 yards. Herbert rushed just six times for 24 yards.

Fields was the team’s leading rusher with 59 yards on 12 carries.

As a team, the Bears averaged 4.2 yards per carry. That number was just good enough to keep the Vikings’ defense honest.

The Bears’ offensive line was mauled most of the night by the Vikings’ front. It was a little better in the run game than in pass protection, but it was a subpar night overall by the front five.

Chicago could have tried to lean on its run game to beat the Vikings’ pressure, but instead, offensive coordinator Luke Getsy went to the horizontal passing game for most of the night.

Johnson ground out tough yards, and Herbert did well in limited time.

But overall, it was a lackluster night for the ground attack.

GRADE: C

Pass defense

The Bears’ nearly fully healthy defense made life hell for Dobbs and the Vikings’ offense on Monday.

The Bears picked off Dobbs four times and sacked him twice while notching nine hurries.

“We getting the chemistry going,” safety Eddie Jackson said of the Bears’ dominant defensive performance.

“This is what it was [in training camp]. We just had to get everybody healthy, get everybody out here, and I feel like we knocking the dust off a little bit. The finish part is the most important part. We just got to continue to close guys out.”

The Bears’ defense came up big time and time again Monday night.

After Fields fumbled with 3:36 remaining, the Bears’ defense needed to force a quick three-and-out to give Fields one more chance to lead a game-winning drive.

The Vikings ran it twice and then threw a quick pass to Brandon Powell behind the line of scrimmage. Linebacker T.J. Edwards quickly identified the play and rallied to make the tackle to force a punt, giving Fields the opportunity to win the game.

“I think it’s belief, man,” Edwards said of the Bears’ defensive resurgence. “We understand that we have to go out there, and we have to get turnovers, we have to spark the game early.

“Guys are just resilient. There was no panic on any of those sudden changes or anything like that. We got to find a way to go out there and get a stop and we got the guys to do it.”

CHICAGO BEARS

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The Bears held Dobbs to 185 yards passing and one touchdown while picking him off four times.

Montez Sweat recorded 1.5 sacks, while DeMarcus Walker notched three hurries. Justin Jones forced one of the interceptions when he quickly collapsed the pocket and forced Dobbs to get rid of it over the middle. The pass was deflected and ultimately picked off by Kyler Gordon.

It was a dominating performance from a unit that has been telling us it had this in them from Day 1.

GRADE: A

Run defense

The Vikings are a pretty one-dimensional offense, so they didn’t attack the Bears on the ground often Monday.

Alexander Mattison rushed 10 times for 52 yards and got loose for a couple of solid runs in the second half. The important thing was that the Bears kept Dobbs from breaking contain and beating them with his legs. The Bears held Dobbs to just 11 yards on two rushes on the night.

The Bears got good interior push from Gervon Dexter, Jones, and Andrew Billings on the night. Edwards and fellow linebacker Tremaine Edmunds did a great job flowing downhill and being sure tacklers. The linebacking duo combined for 11 solo tackles.

It was another stout performance from a run defense that has been the Bears’ best unit in 2022.

GRADE: A

Coaching

The offensive game plan was a complete disaster for much of Monday night.

I understand the thought process of trying to beat the blitz with screens, but 13 was way too many for offensive coordinator Luke Getsy to call. The Vikings quickly caught onto the short passing game and stymied the Bears’ offense for much of the final three quarters.

The offense lacked creativity and ingenuity. Had the Vikings blitzed Fields on the final drive, this could have quickly turned into a “walk the plank” postmortem for Getsy.

On the defensive side, head coach Matt Eberflus did a great job mixing up his simulated pressures. On Montez Sweat’s first sack, the Bears lined up Yannick Ngakoue outside of Sweat and had Edmunds up close like he was coming on the blitz. The Bears dropped Edmunds out and had Ngakoue loop around Sweat, which helped allow the star edge rusher to get home for his first sack.

It was another good defensive game plan from Eberflus, who has shown that, for all his faults, he does know defense.

EBERFLUS GRADE: A-
GETSY GRADE: D

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The Philadelphia Eagles showed the heart of a (future?) champion in a gutty overtime win against the Buffalo Bills. Meanwhile, the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys both put together resounding wins over inferior opponents on Thanksgiving.

In Las Vegas, the Kansas City Chiefs bounced back from their Week 11 loss by continuing their ownership of the Raiders. In Los Angeles, the Baltimore Ravens put together an impressive performance against Justin Herbert and a Chargers team that is out of answers.

On the other end of the spectrum, the New England Patriots put together a “give us a top-two pick” masterpiece with an inexplicable loss to the New York Giants. In Tennessee, the Bears got a much-needed win as the Panthers once again looked inept in a loss to the Tennessee Titans.

On Monday night, the Bears’ defense dominated the Minnesota Vikings and Justin Fields delivered a game-winning drive to give Matt Eberflus his first NFC North win as Bears head coach.

Here’s where each team stands after Week 12:

1. Philadelphia Eagles (10-1): The Birds just know how to win. But their top-ranked run defense gave up over 150 yards on the ground to the Bills. That has to get cleaned up before next week’s tilt with the No. 2 ranked team in these rankings.
2.  San Francisco 49ers (8-3): The Niners’ pass rush has found its teeth over the past three games, notching 15 sacks, including six against the Seahawks on Thanksgiving. It’s a matter of when, not if, the Niners once again wear the NFC West crown.
3. Kansas City Chiefs (8-3): Rookie wide receiver Rashee Rice broke out Sunday, catching eight passes for 107 yards and a touchdown against the Raiders. That kind of production needs to continue for the Chiefs to have a chance of defending their crown.
4.  Baltimore Ravens (9-3): Baltimore’s defense gave Justin Herbert fits, and Lamar Jackson and Co. continue to show they have an explosive side that makes them perhaps the only real threat to the Chiefs in the AFC.
5.  Dallas Cowboys (8-3): The Cowboys’ next five games will tell us if this Dallas team is different than the ones in years past. The Cowboys have lost their two games against teams with winning records and hammered everyone else. Their next five games are against the Seahawks, Eagles, Dolphins, Bills, and Lions.
6. Miami Dolphins (8-3): The Dolphins’ defense will have to find a way to survive without their co-leader in sacks, Jaelan Phillips, who suffered an Achilles injury on Friday in New York. The Phillips-Bradley Chubb combo had found its groove over the past month, and now Andrew van Ginkel and Emmanuel Ogbah will have to fill the void left by Phillips.
7. Jacksonville Jaguars (8-3): Trevor Lawrence got his groove back. The Jags QB has had a quarterback rating of 90 or better in seven of his last eight games and gave Jacksonville a two-game lead in the AFC South with Sunday’s win over the Texans. The run game needs to pick up the slack, but Lawrence is playing his best ball as the calendar turns to December.
8.  Detroit Lions (8-3): The Lions might be in trouble. One week after throwing three interceptions against the Bears, Jared Goff turned it over three times Thursday in a loss to the Packers. The Lions QB was pressured on 45% of his dropbacks in the first half as Green Bay jumped out to a massive lead. Two weeks after being dubbed legitimate Super Bowl contenders, the Lions are now staring at the fraud tag if they can’t find a quick remedy for their issues.
9.  Pittsburgh Steelers (7-4): In their first game since firing offensive coordinator Matt Canada, the Steelers put up their first 400-yard game in almost three years. Sometimes the answer is staring you right in the face.
10. Buffalo Bills (6-6): It was a loss, but the Bills’ performance against the Eagles was a sign that the real Josh Allen might be back. In two games since the Bills fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey, Allen has looked more comfortable than during his early-season woes. But at 6-6, is it too late for the Bills?
11.  Houston Texans (6-5): The Texans lost ground in the AFC South on Sunday but can still make a wild-card push in the crowded AFC. Rookie cornerback Derek Stingley notched an interception in his second straight game. The young Texans have all the pieces in place to be a tough out come January, but they have to get there first.
12.  Cleveland Browns (7-4): Dorian Thompson-Robinson was playing well against the Broncos until he was forced to exit with a head injury. Myles Garrett also sustained a shoulder injury and left the stadium wearing a sling. It might be too much for the Browns to overcome at this point.
13. Denver Broncos (6-5): After giving up 70 points to the Dolphins, the Broncos’ defense has given up just 80 points total during its current five-game winning streak. Denver has gone from riding to the dump to legitimate playoff contention in a month. Tip your cap to Sean Payton.
14.  Indianapolis Colts (6-5): The Colts have bounced back from a three-game losing streak and now have a real shot at making the playoffs in the log-jammed AFC. Indianapolis has the easiest remaining schedule in the NFL, but the third-down offense has to be better than it was Sunday (2-for-11) to capitalize on that opportunity.
15.  Los Angeles Rams (5-6): Running back Kyren Williams returned and rushed for 143 yards on 16 carries while also catching six passes for 61 yards and two touchdowns. LA’s offense looked different with Williams back, and the Rams are now just one game out of the playoff race after dismantling the Cardinals.
16.  Seattle Seahawks (6-5): The Seahawks are 6-5, but they might be cooked. Seattle’s next three games are against the Cowboys, 49ers, and Eagles. After just getting bulldozed by the Niners, it’s not unrealistic to think the Seahawks will be 6-8 entering the final week of December.
17. Minnesota Vikings (6-6): I think the Josh Dobbs magic has officially run out.
18.  Atlanta Falcons (5-6): If you get the ball to Bijan Robinson, good things happen. It’s not rocket science.
19.  Green Bay Packers (5-6): The Packers have been patient with Jordan Love, and it’s paying off. Green Bay is still a game under .500, but the Packers only have two games left against teams with a winning record, and Love has looked the part over the past three games. They might have done it again.
20.  New Orleans Saints (5-6): Just play Jameis.
21.  Las Vegas Raiders (5-7): Antonio Pierce, Josh McDaniels, Rich Bisaccia, Jon Gruden, Jack Del Rio – it doesn’t matter who the Raiders’ coach is, the Chiefs own the Silver and Black. Have for more than a decade now.
22.  Los Angeles Chargers (4-7): It’s over for Brandon Staley in L.A. We’re just playing out the string at this point.
23.  Cincinnati Bengals (5-6): This will always be a “what could have been?” season for Cincy.
24. Chicago Bears (4-8): Justin Fields finally delivered a game-winning drive, and Chicago’s defense is playing like the best unit in the NFL over the past two weeks. Can a suddenly dominant defense lead the Bears on a late playoff push in a down NFC?
25.  Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-7): The Bucs aren’t dead but their NFC South chances are on life support after another dispiriting loss to a team they had a realistic chance to beat.
26.  New York Jets (4-7): If the Jets let Aaron Rodgers come back and he gets hurt again, everyone should be fired on the spot. This season is over. Focus on 2024 and what might be Rodgers’ last ride.
27. Tennessee Titans (4-7): The Titans are now 4-0 at home after beating the Panthers. With four of their final six games in Nashville, Mike Vrabel’s club might be able to scrap together a respectable season.
28. New York Giants (4-8): Tommy DeVito has officially cost the Giants a shot at a top-two pick. So, this season could, in fact, get worse for Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen.
29. Washington Commanders (4-8): Jack Del Rio was ejected from the Commanders’ coaching staff after Washington was torched by Dak Prescott on Thanksgiving. It’s an understandable move, but it’s too little, too late for paddle boat Ron and the Commanders.
30. Arizona Cardinals (2-10): The Cardinals just have to avoid accidentally winning a game down the stretch to ensure themselves a top-three pick and potential franchise-changing player.
31. New England Patriots (2-9): Are we sure Bill Belichick isn’t tanking?
32. Carolina Panthers (1-10): Frank Reich’s seat is scolding hot. Owner David Tepper would write a blank check to make it hotter if he could.

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The mind behind the Minnesota Vikings’ U.S. Bank Stadium, it became clear the Bears wanted Warren to be the leader for their stadium endeavors. Since then, Warren’s taken the reigns, succeeding Ted Phillips for the project.

But, according to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, Warren wants a more significant role on the football side of the Bears. In Breer’s opinion, Warren might be motivated to put his foot down and make pivotal decisions for the team.

“I think it’s trending toward Matt Eberflus not being back, and that in part is due to Kevin Warren’s influence in the organization. He did not hire Ryan Poles, he did not hire Matt Eberflus, and I think he’s motivated to see what he can do with his own guys in there. I’ve also heard that Kevin Warren wants to be more involved on the football side,” Breer said in his most recent mailbag.

That would be quite the development.

Remember, Warren is technically the leader of football operations. Chairman George McCaskey took that role near Phillips’ retirement. But after the Bears hired Warren, it was clear to McCaskey the title should belong to Warren.

“Ted (Phillips) had told me about his intention to retire and we just felt with all that he was taking on with the stadium and so forth and his impending retirement, that it was best to have the general manager report to me,” McCaskey said in January. “When we assessed Kevin’s strengths as an executive, it just made perfect sense to me to go back to the general manager reporting to the president and CEO.”

Warren is brand new to the organization. As Breer mentioned, he didn’t hire Eberflus and he didn’t hire Poles. Since that duo took over the organization, things haven’t progressed. The duo’s record since taking over is 6-22.

It wouldn’t be an out-of-left-field move to clear house, either. At least, from Eberflus’ perspective, he’s experienced enough to deserve him relief from his duties as head coach. Here’s a quick review of happenings under his leadership from this season.

The Bears have blown some inexcusable leads. Just last game, the Bears blew a 12-point lead with less than five minutes to play against the Detroit Lions. They blew a 21-point lead, also, to the Denver Broncos at home in Week 4. To open the season, they didn’t blow a lead but were blown out by the Packers, 38-20.

Alan Williams, the team’s defensive coordinator to start the season, unexpectedly resigned from the team. Later, the Bears fired running backs coach David Walker because he didn’t meet the organization’s standards. Both were hired by Eberflus.

And, maybe the top bullet point, he hasn’t succeeded in elevating Justin Fields to the next level. Is that all of his fault? No. But he certainly shoulders responsibility on the matter, considering he also hired offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, who hasn’t helped him significantly from a play-calling perspective.

On Wednesday, Eberflus was asked about the pressure he’s under to prove to Warren and the organization that he’s the right guy for the job.

“Yeah, I could see progress. And I told the player in the meeting that we can show ‘em that,” Eberflus said. “We can show them real, tangible progress. It’s our charge to take that next step.

“In terms of the pressure thing — really that’s the NFL, right? It’s about executing. It’s a week-to-week league. The story of the world’s written every single week. So that’s the way it goes and that’s where you’re at. That’s the life we live and I’ve been living it a long time. That’s the way it goes.”

What about Poles? (Side note: Breer did not explicitly say Poles is trending in a similar downward trajectory as Eberflus. But he insinuated a potential demise for Poles by saying “He didn’t hire Ryan Poles” and adding Warren’s speculated interest in bringing in “his own guys.”)

He’s certainly made significant advances to the roster i.e. trading the No. 1 pick for future picks and DJ Moore. Signing Tremaine Edmunds, T.J. Edwards, Nate Davis, Cole Kmet, etc. He also drafted Jaquan Brisker, Kyler Gordon, Darnell Wright and others. He also traded for Montez Sweat.

These are clear upgrades.

But, he hasn’t been perfect. He let Roquan Smith walk away in an ugly divorce between one of the league’s best defensive players. The Chase Claypool trade experiment was an absolute disaster. And let’s not forget how poorly Velus Jones Jr. has been since Poles spent a third-round pick on him.

Remember, while Poles has defended Eberflus tooth and nail, he was hired while Eberflus had already completed his second interview for the position. Not sure if it’s fair to say Eberflus is a Poles hire. Though, he stands by him, which can’t be seen as a positive.

Poles has never gotten his shot on a quarterback, however. He did not draft Justin Fields, nor is he responsible for developing the third-year quarterback. He is, however, responsible for figuring out whether or not to keep him while deciding the plan for using their No. 1 and No. 4 picks in the 2024 NFL draft, as it currently stands.

Would it be permissible for Warren to relieve both Eberflus and Poles? Better yet, can he convince the organization that would be the correct move for the direction of the team?

It might be Kevin Warren’s team, through and through. The question is — what happens next if it is his team?

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You can add Sunday’s loss to the Lions as another reason. The Bears gave up a 12-point lead in the final five minutes of the game by playing not to lose. They played conservatively, running the ball, kicking short field goals and taking the ball out of Justin Fields’ hands.

It was inexcusable.

On Wednesday, Eberflus was asked about the pressure he’s under to prove to ownership he’s the right guy for the job.

“Yeah, I could see progress. And I told the player in the meeting that we can show ‘em that,” Eberflus said. “We can show them real, tangible progress. It’s our charge to take that next step.

“In terms of the pressure thing — really that’s the NFL, right? It’s about executing. It’s a week-to-week league. The story of the world’s written every single week. So that’s the way it goes and that’s where you’re at. That’s the life we live and I’ve been living it a long time. That’s the way it goes.”

That is the way it goes. And coaches have been fired quicker for less than Eberflus this season.

In his defense, there is tangible progress. Finishing 23rd in offense last season, they currently slot 19th. The defense, which works directly under Eberflus, moved up from last to third-to-last between last season and this one. They are, however, 10 turnovers away from last season’s mark.

Still, it doesn’t feel as much has gone right for Eberflus this season. Let’s review.

Coming into the season with an insurmountable amount of hype, energy and optimism, the Bears were blown out by the Green Bay Packers at home, 38-20.

The following week, Justin Fields cited the coaching staff for his struggles in the pocket, claiming his head was cluttered with too much information, disallowing him to play freely. He later retracted his comments, along with shouldering any and all future blame.

Alan Williams, the team’s defensive coordinator to begin the season, unexpectedly resigned from the team. Later, the Bears fired another Eberflus disciple — running backs coach David Walker — because he didn’t meet the organization’s standards.

Following Williams’ resignation, the Bears blew a 21-point lead at home to one of the league’s worst teams: the Denver Broncos.

Against the Vikings in Week 6, Justin Fields dislocated his thumb. The Bears opted not to place him on injured reserve, despite him being out for the subsequent four games.

And finally, the Bears blew a two-score lead in the final five minutes of their game against the Lions. The Bears are on a 12-game losing streak against teams in the NFC North.

We haven’t even touched on the team’s inability to develop Fields into their franchise quarterback. Or, how about Luke Getsy’s ineptitude in creating an offense tailored to his skillset?

The list is seemingly endless.

Remember, the Bears have never fired a head coach midseason. With seven weeks left in the season, firing Eberflus is entirely unlikely.

But, are the Bears ready to keep him around for a third season? If they keep Fields, would it move the Bears to keep Eberflus to avoid forcing Fields into a third head coach and another new offense?

Decisions, decisions. The Bears will have a lot of them to make this offseason. Stay tuned.

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“You certainly want to see that rise,” said head coach Matt Eberflus on Wednesday. “You always want to see that rise, and it’s been rising… It’s gonna continue to rise.”

Sweat is no stranger to playing high snap counts. With the Commanders this year he averaged 47.1 snaps per game.

“Generally, I want to be there every play, but the body and the heart doesn’t really work like that,” Sweat said.

Eberflus cited the team’s fast-paced and high intensity practices as a reason why it’s taken Sweat some time to prepare for a more robust workload with the Bears, but acknowledged the team needs him on the field for critical moments like third downs and two-minute drills. Eberflus said getting players like Sweat onto the field is sometimes easier said than done.

“The drives matter. Is it a 15-play drive? Is it an eight-play drive? It’s always great when we go three-and-out. That’s easy. But yeah, you just look at the drives.”

Eberflus also noted that the flow of the game was different against the Lions. Instead of a typical back and forth affair that leads to a one big defensive drive and one big offensive drive, the Bears had to run their two-minute defense twice in a row.

On one of those drives, Sweat came out to catch his breath for a few plays. But the Lions started playing a hurry-up offense, so the Bears didn’t get a chance to sub Sweat back into the game. Eberflus also isn’t in the business of telling players they need to go back on the field if they check themselves out of the game for a quick rest.

“These are pro athletes and they’ve played a lot of football, so you leave it to him,” Eberflus said. “When he’s exhausted and needs to take a play or two, you let him, then get back in there as fast as you can. When there’s a stoppage in play, get back in there. I think that’s always been best practice. Some guys stay out and they just want to stay out there and you can clearly see they’re tired and their effectiveness goes down. You want to keep your rushers fresh and that’s just the whole mode of doing that.”

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Then everything unraveled in the blink of an eye as the Bears blew a 12-point lead in the final 4:15. It was a historic loss on several levels.

It was a meltdown of epic proportions that should lead to some difficult conversations about the direction of the rebuild and who the foundational pieces — both player and coach — should be.

That’s where we start this week’s mailbag. With Matt Eberflus’ future and how much the Detroit debacle might impact it:

Overreaction? It can’t be at this point

I’ve been pretty convinced that Matt Eberflus’ job is safe. I think there are a number of reasons to believe he gets Year 3.

General manager Ryan Poles genuinely seems to think he’s the right man for the job. The defensive improvement since Eberflus has taken over the reins can’t be ignored. I also don’t think the Bears hold last year’s 3-14 season against him. How could they?

But if there’s one thing that can turn the tide, it might be what happened in Detroit. That was inexcusable on a multitude of levels.

The Bears played not to lose once they entered the fourth quarter.

The Bears opened the final frame by not converting a third-and-1 on a quarterback sneak. Eberflus went for it on two fourth downs earlier in the game but elected to take the field goal and go up nine. That defensible.

On the Bears’ next drive, quarterback Justin Fields got them inside the Lions’ 30-yard line on a 29-yard run. Up nine, the Bears had a chance to go for the kill shot with Fields in a groove. Instead, they turtled up, electing to run it three times and kick a short field goal.

You can also critique the timeout Eberflus called when the Lions got down to the 1-yard line with 31 seconds to go. Eberflus called the timeout to preserve time for the Bears offense, but the Bears might have been better served forcing the Lions, who were out of timeouts, to rush to the line and try to execute in a hurry.

We can also nitpick the defensive end “rotation” that saw Montez Sweat play just 63 percent of the snaps and only half of the Lions’ third-down and red zone plays.

The Bears also played linebacker Dylan Cole one snap on defense. That snap happened to be on a second-and-goal from the 2-yard line that ended with Jahmyr Gibbs blistering Cole in a foot race to score the Lions’ first touchdown.

If I were a gambling man (I dabble), I’d say Eberflus avoids the axe after the season. The Bears have winnable games on their schedule. A 5-12 finish is an improvement from last season, and Poles understands it’s early in the process.

But the Lions meltdown causes a snowball effect, and the Bears start to fold, that could be all she wrote.

Overreaction? No

The NFL is all about self-preservation, and the ladder of power shows you who the shields are when it comes time to make changes.

General managers normally get two head coaches and at least one quarterback that’s of their choosing. So, as far as Poles is concerned, Eberflus and Fields will likely be swapped out before he gets ejector-seated.

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Eberflus’ seat, should he keep his job, will be hot this offseason. That, coupled with the very plausible scenario of drafting a new quarterback, could likely lead to a change at offensive coordinator.

Getsy has his warts as a play-caller. There’s no doubt. But he’s an easy scapegoat for issues that go far beyond his control.

But that’s how the NFL works.

I don’t think there’s a world where Eberflus and Getsy are both back. If the Bears plan to draft a different quarterback and move on from Fields, they should scrap the entire operation and ensure the new quarterback is on the same timeline as his coach and play-caller.

But that’s how functioning organizations work. The Bears aren’t there yet.

Overreaction? A little

Poles should shoulder a bunch of the blame for this season.

His offseason moves have been hit-and-miss at best.

Linebacker T.J. Edwards has played well after a slow start, defensive tackle Andrew Billings has bolstered the run defense, and Darnell Wright looks like a franchise right tackle.

Edmunds has been underwhelming, Gervon Dexter and Zacch Pickens have been slow developing, and the Chase Claypool trade blew up in his face after three weeks.

You can point to several routes the Bears could have gone that might (likely would’ve had) a more significant impact on the team than the investments Poles made. Jalen Carter and Orlando Brown Jr. are the two that come to mind, but Wright has been good, and Braxton Jones has not been the weak link on the offensive line.

Poles could have tried to draft a center in the second round instead of cornerback Tyrique Stevenson or Dexter. There’s an argument to be made that going Jalen Carter and John Michael Schmitz with the first two picks would have been a better use of the draft capital.

There’s reason to critique Poles’ roster-building approach, but an almost fully healthy Bears team just drubbed the Lions for 54 minutes before melting down, so perhaps patience is required with the GM.

Overreaction? Yes and no

The easy way to answer this is: if Fields ends up staying, he likely played well enough to win games, and therefore, Eberflus is safe like Dave Roberts in the 2004 ALCS.

If Eberflus is gone, it’s almost a near certainty Fields is also out, and the Bears will move on with a new coach-QB combo.

Hard to imagine a world where Fields plays well enough to earn their full long-term confidence, but Eberflus is launched out of Halas Hall.

I don’t think it has anything to do with the amount of coaches/coordinators Fields has had. It’s more about the logical scenario that Fields being good will likely equal better play from the Bears, which reflects positively on Eberflus, and we’re all vibing together into the offseason, right? Right?!

As an aside, while Fields’ stock is up after one game, the Bears are looking at the totality of his tenure, and it’s going to take a lot more than 54 good minutes for them to pick him over Caleb Williams/Drake Maye and the opportunity to reset the QB contract timeline.

There are a lot of moving pieces and long-term ramifications to consider. Three good quarters in Detroit is a minuscule piece of the puzzle.

Overreaction? No

I’m just going to focus on the final bullet point here since we’ve touched on Eberflus and Fields ad nauseam.

Drafting Marvin Harrison Jr. is a no-brainer.

If the Bears have the chance to draft him, and it doesn’t interfere with their long-term quarterback plans, they shouldn’t waste a second.

If Fields cements himself as the guy in the final six games, giving him Harrison to pair with DJ Moore would be NOS in his development fuel lines.

If Fields doesn’t, and the Bears somehow end up with two of the top five picks and can draft Williams or Maye and Harrison, they should do that. The Bengals pairing Joe Burrow with JaMarr Chase was a brilliant blueprint that should be copied.

You need an elite wide receiver to win in today’s NFL. Having two makes your offense almost impossible to stop.

Overreaction? I’d like to say yes.

The Jim Harbaugh piece of the equation, for the Bears and all NFL teams, will be interesting to monitor this offseason.

It feels like Harbaugh’s time at Michigan is coming to an end, especially if the Wolverines finish the deal and win the College Football Playoff National Championship.

If Harbaugh chooses to return to the NFL, the Bears seem like an obvious fit.

But you bring up two good points.

He will carry a hefty price tag, and the Bears might not be interested in writing a big check while also paying the current staff to exit the building. The second part of the Harbaugh scenario is that he could very well ask for personnel control, which would either mean Poles goes or the Bears construct a Mike Mayock/Jon Gruden structure where Poles is the GM, but Harbaugh gets the final say on personnel decisions.

That’s a sticky scenario.

The Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers (assuming Brandon Staley is gone) seem like great fits for Harbaugh.

He’d be an excellent hire for the Bears. He wins. He wears out his welcome, but he wins.

I’m not sure that’s the route they’d take if they move on from Eberflus, though.

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The third-year quarterback needs to string two months of high-level play together to prove to general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus that they should continue to build around him as their franchise quarterback and not jump ship to Caleb Williams Island or Drake Maye Key.

The Bears said they need to see Fields consistently improve. They want to see him take care of the ball while making game-changing plays with both his arm and legs. They need to see him operate the offense cleanly in four-minute, two-minute, and end-of-game situations. Can he prove he can play quarterback at a high level and be the reason the Bears win games? Can he make Luke Getsy’s sometimes clunky offense look better than it is? Can he elevate those around him as other franchise quarterbacks do?

Fields played 53 minutes of damn good football Sunday in Detroit. He played free, hung in the pocket, made good and quick decisions, kept his eyes downfield when he was forced to escape, tormented the Lions with his legs, and his 39-yard touchdown strike to DJ Moore was quintessential Fields when he’s on.

The quarterback dropped back and was pressured from his left. Fields dodged the rusher, stepped up in the pocket, and ripped a rope to Moore for a score.

For 53 minutes, Fields gave the Lions fits. He finished the day 16-for-23 for 169 yards and a touchdown while adding 104 on the ground.

When Fields bolted out of the pocket and picked up 29 yards on third-and-14 with just under seven minutes to play, it looked like the third-year quarterback would begin the critical seven-game stretch with a signature win — by beating a measuring-stick opponent with plays that reminded how special he can be.

It was all right there. Then, the Bears’ coaching staff — the same one that needs to see Fields execute in do-or-die situations and prove he can win them games when everything is on the line — took it out of his hands.

Up nine and facing a first-and-10 at the Lions’ 26-yard line, the Bears had the kill shot in their sights. All they had to do was keep the game plan the same as it had been for the first 53 minutes, let Fields continue to make smart decisions and roll out of Detroit with a marquee win.

Instead, the Bears coached not to lose.

The Bears handed the ball off to Khalil Herbert for a gain of 1 on first down. Fields kept it on a zone read for 2 on second down to set up a critical third-and-7.

It should have been another opportunity to evaluate Fields. To put the ball in his hands and see if they are the hands you want controlling your fate for the next 10 years.

Instead, the Bears handed it off to Roschon Johnson for 2 yards and kicked a field goal to go up 12.

Fields’ grade on that drive went from an A to an incomplete with three confounding play calls.

“Yeah, we love those plays we had there, even the one on third down,” Eberflus said Monday at Halas Hall. “We thought we could pop that for the third down. I think it was third and 7 there potentially, yep. We like that. He could have had a disconnect on that one but decided to hand it off. I think 34 was there waiting for him. We thought we could pop that one, so that’s where it was.”

Not only did the Bears waste an evaluation opportunity with those three calls, but they also cost themselves the win.

The Lions went right down and scored in 1:16 to cut the lead to five.

That meant Fields got one more chance to make the winning plays to put in the pro column on his evaluation ledger. With less than three minutes left, the Bears were going to be conservative. That’s fine. But there’s a difference between not wanting to turn the ball over and turtling.

The Bears did the latter.

The first-down call was a vanilla shotgun handoff to Herbert. No creativity, no motion, no keeper option. Just run it up the middle for no gain. On second-and-10, the Bears called a read option that the Lions played perfectly, forcing Fields to hand it to Herbert for a gain of 1.

On third-and-9 and needing a first down to almost ice it, the Bears finally put the ball in Fields’ hands. DJ Moore was the primary read, but when the safety came down in robber coverage, Fields knew he had Tyler Scott singled up on the outside and took his shot. Fields’ ball was perfectly thrown, but Scott “misjudged” it, and it fell incomplete past his outstretched fingers.

The Bears punted and the rest is history as the Lions completed a historic comeback to win 31-26.

Six plays (or more) in the perfect NFL cauldron for the Bears to evaluate Fields — to get the information they claim they want — and they completely punted on an opportunity they needed to plot a course forward.

“The last play we talked about with the cross to DJ, and he threw it over top, I mean that would have been a spectacular play if we connected on that,” Eberflus said Monday when asked if the Bears could get a full evaluation fo Fields if they don’t put the ball in his hands in critical moments. “We were right there. We just got to do a good job of executing in that moment, and that’s what we’re talking about as a group. Taking accountability is offense, defense and kicking, about finishing the right way. We have to do that.”

The lack of execution by Scott, a talented but raw rookie receiver, isn’t the issue.

The issue is everything that came before it in the fourth quarter.

With a chance to plunge a dagger into the Lions’ heart, the Bears asked little of Fields. Out of the 19 offensive plays the Bears ran in the fourth quarter, only six were passing plays. Four were quarterback runs, one was a sneak, and the other eight were handoffs.

The Bears called passing plays on these downs in the final quarter:

–Third-and-4 (defensive holding)
— Second-and-6 (scramble)
— Second-and-6 (sack)
–Third-and-14 (scramble)
–Third-and-9 (incomplete)
— First-and-10 (strip-sacked with 29 seconds left, trailing by two)

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Perhaps the Bears don’t truly want Fields to prove it to them. Maybe the die was cast long ago, and they are ready to move on to a rookie quarterback of their choosing.

But what would serve this rebuild the best is for Fields to go out and prove to be the guy. At the very least, the Bears have to be sure he’s not a franchise quarterback before moving on from him if they want to avoid a crippling mistake.

The unknown of a draft pick can be intoxicatingly enticing for front offices. But quarterback evaluation is an inexact science. Even the best prospects bust at a high rate.

Look at the 2021 draft class and where they are today:

— Trevor Lawrence (starter)
— Zach Wilson (third string behind Tim Boyle and Trevor Siemian)
— Trey Lance (third string behind Dak Prescott and Cooper Rush)
— Justin Fields
— Mac Jones (TBD based on the week of practice vs. Bailey Zappe)

Having Fields remove doubt is a much better option than rolling the dice on Williams or Maye. It’s not a question of talent but rather an acknowledgment that finding a franchise QB in the draft is much easier done on Madden than in real life.

But the Bears coached Sunday like they didn’t want to see if Fields could prove them wrong. Maybe their minds are made up, or perhaps it’s just an archaic way of coaching that says playing conservatively is the surest way to win.

Either way, what the Bears did Sunday in the fourth quarter didn’t move them any closer to clarity on Fields. On the contrary, letting him play free for three quarters only to handcuff him in the fourth makes the picture even murkier with six games left.

Unless they’ve already made up their mind. If they have, Fields faces an almost insurmountable uphill climb to change their minds.

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That’s why he was brought to Chicago.

But that wasn’t the case Sunday in the Bears’ 31-26 meltdown loss to the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. Sweat played just 39 snaps in the loss in Detroit. That’s good for 63 percent of the Bears’ total defensive snaps. Yannick Ngakoue paced all Bears edge rushers with 45 snaps, and DeMarcus Walker nearly equaled Sweat with 38.

Sweat was also off the field on several critical third-down and red-zone plays. After the game, the defensive end told reporters that he subbed himself out on a third and goal play that the Lions scored on.

For comparison, Lions star edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson played 69 snaps Sunday, good for 92 percent of the Lions’ defensive snaps.

That’s what is required out of a star pass rusher. They should rarely come off the field.

On Monday, head coach Matt Eberflus defended the Bears’ defensive line rotation that kept Sweat off the field in some big moments.

“For sure, we want him out there more,” Eberflus said Monday. “But those guys are rotating. Travis rotates them in and out. Usually, they’re five to seven plays – somewhere in there – during the two-minute drive like that. You just gotta platoon them and get them in there fresh. And when those lead dogs are fresh, you put them back in. You just gotta do that because those guys are throwing their fastball every time.

“Sweat’s one of our best players, he really is, and that’s just how we do it,” Eberflus later said when asked if Sweat should be playing more. “We platoon our guys and keep them fresh that way. That’s how we do it.”

After reviewing the film, Sweat was on the field for just 50 percent of the snaps in which the Lions either had a third down or were inside the red zone (9/18). The Bears’ star edge rusher was on the field for the majority of the Lions’ final two offensive drives that decided the game (12/17).

That 9/18 number on critical downs is a problem. There are some defensible reasons for that, depending on the length of the drive and the tempo of the offense, but the Bears need Sweat to be on the field more, especially on the money downs.

That’s why he’s here.

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After a dominating performance against the Carolina Panthers, Sweat notched just one pressure against the Lions. That pressure resulted in a sack, but otherwise, the flash plays needed didn’t show up on a consistent basis.

Perhaps that’s because he only played 39 snaps. It’s also a credit to Detroit’s offensive line, which stymied Sweat but allowed Walker and Ngakoue to combine for seven pressures, per Pro Football Focus.

Eberflus lauded “The ‘Tez Effect” after the win over the Panthers. It was evident against a bad Carolina team. The effect was different/less noticeable against a more proven Lions front.

The Bears need Sweat to have a more consistent impact and find a way to make sure he’s on the field in critical situations. Having a rotation is important, but the staff and Sweat must solve the issue that popped up in Detroit. Getting Rasheem Green and DeMarcus Walker snaps is nice, but Sweat should outpace them significantly as other top-tier edge rushers do.

On Sunday, Hutchinson played 92 percent of the Lions’ snaps. T.J. Watt played 97 percent of the downs for the Steelers, Myles Garrett clocked in at 84 percent, and Nick Bosa checked in at 87.

The Bears need Sweat to play that high percentage of snaps, especially in a game where the defense was only on the field for 62 total plays. Hutchinson played more snaps than the entire Bears defense Sunday and almost doubled up Sweat.

That’s the bar for an elite, game-changing edge rusher. Sweat shouldn’t factor into a normal “rotation.”

Here’s the snap count from the Bears’ loss to the Lions:

Quarterback: Justin Fields 75

Running back: Khalil Herbert 32, Roschon Johnson 25, D’Onta Foreman 18, Khari Blasingame 16

Wide receiver: DJ Moore 73, Darnell Mooney 45, Equanimeous St. Brown 32, Tyler Scott 27, Trent Taylor 5

Tight ends: Cole Kmet 59, Marcedes Lewis 30, Robert Tonyan 13

Offensive line: Teven Jenkins 75, Nate Davis 75, Darnell Wright 75, Braxton Jones 73, Dan Feeney 40, Lucas Patrick 35, Larry Borom 2

Defensive line: Yannick Ngakoue 45, Montez Sweat 39, DeMarcus Walker 38, Justin Jones 37, Gervon Dexter 30, Andrew Billings 23, Rasheem Green 20, Zacch Pickens 17

Linebacker: T.J. Edwards 61, Tremaine Edmunds 41, Jack Sanborn 29, Dylan Cole 1

Defensive backs: Eddie Jackson 62, Jaquan Brisker 62, Jaylon Johnson 61, Kyler Gordon 53, Tyrique Stevenson 49, Terell Smith 13, Elijah Hicks 1

Special teams: Cole 19, Jaylon Jones 18, Josh Blackwell 18, Blasingame 16, Hicks 16, Travis Home 16, DeMarquis Gates 16, Cairo Santos 13, T. Smith 13, Tonyan 13, R. Johnson 13, Trenton Gill 9, Stevenson 9, Sanborn 8, Patrick Scales 8, Wright 6, Jenkins 6, Cody Whitehair 6, Borom 6, Kmet 6, Feeney 6, Edwards 6, Davis 4, St. Brown 4, Brisker 4, Green 3, Walker 4, Ju. Jones 3, Taylor 3, Patrick 2, Moore 1, Herbert 1, Scott 1, Lewis 1, Ja. Johnson 1, Ngakoue 1, Sweat 1, Edmunds 1, Pickens 1

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Fields popped up after the conversion and started dancing. The Bears were handling the NFC North-leading Lions with relative ease. The defense picked off Lions quarterback Jared Goff three times, and Fields was making plays with his arm and legs that had to make some people believe this was the start of something.

A statement win over the Lions that would have been the biggest win of Fields’ career and the Matt Eberflus era was within the Bears’ grasp Sunday. For a moment, things started to feel different.

Then, the Bears became the Bears again.

Up by 12 with five minutes left, the Bears allowed the Lions to march down the field in 1:16. A quick three-and-out in which the Bears mostly took the ball out of Fields’ hands followed. The Lions promptly marched right back down the field and scored again to take a 29-26 lead with 29 seconds remaining.

An unraveling of monumental proportions was complete, and it took all of 4:20 seconds to complete in the 31-26 meltdown loss.

NFL teams are now 27-3 when they win the turnover battle by three. The Bears’ loss Sunday is one of those three. Since the NFL-AFL merger, there have been 61 teams that have held the ball for at least 40 minutes and collected four takeaways. The Bears are just the third team to lose and the first to do so in regulation. Since 1932, no NFL team with a plus-three turnover margin and 40-plus minutes of possession had ever lost. Teams were 48-0. They are now 48-1.

Ten days ago, the Bears believed they found something in a gritty win over the Carolina Panthers. For 55 minutes Sunday, it looked like they did.

But this team — staff and players — still needs to learn how to win.

“It’s tough. It hurts. It hurts a lot,” tight end Cole Kmet said after the loss. “Third time I think we’ve handled these guys pretty well in my last three years. You go back to last year at home, we kind of kicked their ass and lose the game. The year prior to that, kicked their ass and lose the game. I’m talking physically, time of possession, all those things. We just got to find a way. I’m not going to lie. It’s hard.”

Kmet is typically one to find the silver linings even in losses. That time is over for one of the franchise’s cornerstones.

“Yeah,” Kmet said when asked if it was time the moral victories ended. “We need to win.”

A throughline of the Eberflus era — all 28 games — is the Bears’ inability to execute in critical moments. They manhandled a Lions team that is a legitimate Super Bowl contender for three-and-a-half quarters Sunday. They’ve done that before.

When winning time came, they crumbled. Folded like a cheap suit. Dissolved like a wet paper bag.

The Bears’ locker room has shown resolve throughout a turbulent season. They’ve remained confident the right pieces are in place, and the right people are at the controls. There has been belief that the expected results would come.

Sunday’s loss sent them searching for answers. Answers that this team might not be equipped to find in the final six games of the season.

That journey will have to start inward for key members of this Bears foundation.

“We just got to finish it out,” running back Khalil Herbert said. “I just got to make a play.”

Cornerback Jaylon Johnson lamented two dropped interceptions that would have put the Lions out early.

“I should have capitalized,” Johnsons said. “I felt, honestly, I had two opportunities to put 14 points on the board. Just for me, you got to finish those better. Not easy catches, but I’m a player that can make those plays and I got to do it.

“Pretty frustrating. I mean, I feel like, honestly, the whole game we whooped they ass and then they came through when it mattered.”

Linebacker T.J. Edwards maintained the Bears have the right guys in the locker room. This won’t break them. It can be a catalyst for future games in the cauldron.

But eventually, they have to learn to win. However, learning experiences are only those if lessons are digested and changes are made.

That hasn’t been the case so far.

There were too many mistakes by supposed foundational rebuild members to count.

There were Johnson’s dropped interceptions and Herbert’s inability to grind out key yards in what should be a game-icing two-minute drive. There was a missed deep connection between Fields and Tyler Scott on which the rookie “misjudged” the ball. That would have iced the game. Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds missed key open-field tackles on the Lions’ two late scoring drives. Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy’s play-calling on the final two-minute drive was stuff out of the “play not to win” bible. Eberflus elected to kick two short field goals instead of going for it when he had early in the game.

Sometimes it’s just in your DNA. It trickles down from the top, and when these instances keep happening over and over again, it becomes habit.

The Bears have had multiple losses this season that led to leaders huddling in the locker room after to plot a course out of the wreckage.

This time, it was Fields and Edwards: a hometown linebacker and a homegrown quarterback debriefing on what went wrong and what comes next.

“Just finish,” Fields said after the loss. “Like I said, the deep ball [to Scott], he’s just got to lock in and run through that. And defense, that’s hard to – spoke to TJ after the game, he said it to me, like the matter of the fact is we can’t let up 12 points in the last however so minutes there were in the game. Just finishing, finishing, and when it comes down to it, just making plays. So, can’t really explain it. You’ve kind of just got to go out there and do it.”

With six games left, these Bears are all but out of time to figure it out.

When the season ends and the autopsy of a 2023 season that started with unrealistic expectations gets underway, it’ll find the cause of death was a lack of execution brought on by a rot that might be systemic.

A rot that might have to be ripped out to cleanse the foundation of a losing poison that has seeped deep within. The only question then becomes: What’s the cause of the rot?

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But the Bears lost to the Lions in truly historic fashion on Sunday. As in they did something that no other NFL team has ever done before, per ESPN 1000.

The Bears did almost everything right for three and a half quarters. They followed their script to win a game: run the ball well on offense, take the ball away on defense. Justin Fields was electric in his return and made huge plays both with his arm and his legs. It was as dominant of a performance as the Bears could have hoped for on the road against the class of the NFC North.

It all came crumbling down for another disappointing loss as the Lions scored 17 unanswered points in the final four minutes of the game.

Where did it all go wrong? Was conservative playcalling to blame? Or the inability to make a stop on defense with the game on the line? Did the Bears doom themselves by not capitalizing on every single opportunity the Lions gave them to put points on the board, or take points away? Do the Bears need to learn how to win, or is Eberflus’ H.I.T.S. program insufficient for building a winning program? Does the team not have enough talent, and is the talent on the field executing at a high enough rate?

These are the questions folks will debate all week, just as they’ve been debated many weeks prior. Whatever the reason for the numerous disappointing losses, it’s clear the Bears simply aren’t good enough to beat quality teams without playing absolutely perfectly.

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Then, the final five minutes at Ford Field unfolded, and the Bears crumpled like a wet paper bag.

Quarterback Justin Fields returned from a four-week absence and made the kind of plays the Lions could only dream of stopping. He tormented Detroit with his legs and made timely and precise throws with a “fresh” arm.

The Bears’ defense turned the Lions over four times, including a forced fumble on a kick-off return.

Everything went the Bears way Sunday until nothing did.

The Bears held a 12-point lead with five minutes to go and wound up losing 31-26.

It’s the second straight year they’ve had the Lions on the ropes only to completely come undone in winning time.

The Bears are 3-8, and a meltdown of this level deserves some harsh truths. But there were undoubtedly some positives to take away from the first 55 minutes of Sunday’s game in Detroit. We’ll start there:

Passing offense

Fields’ numbers won’t light the world on fire. He finished the game 16-for-23 for 169 yards and one touchdown. But he made smart throws and didn’t put the ball in harm’s way. He overthrew DJ Moore for a deep touchdown early but came back and threw a strike on the same play a few quarters later for a 39-yard scoring strike.

“I told DJ I wasn’t going to overthrow him again,” Fields said after the loss.

He felt and looked fresh. There was no apparent rust from his four-game absence.

Fields played free and gave the Lions all they could handle. It’s the type of game that can provide the staunch Fields believers with hope that he can still prove to be the long-term answer at quarterback.

I have no quarrels with that assessment of Sunday’s game. He was good. He did what the Bears asked him to do. Had they not gotten conservative in the fourth quarter, Sunday could have been a statement win for the Fields-Matt Eberflus pairing.

All of that dissolved in five minutes. If we’re handing out blame pie, the passing game gets crumbs, with an early overthrow of Moore and a late missed connection with Tyler Scott serving as the only blemishes.

Justin Fields GRADE: B+
TEAM GRADE: B

Rushing offense

The Bears’ rushing attack has been clicking of late. The return of Fields and running back Khalil Herbert were supposed to ignite the ground attack further.

Fields did his part, rushing for 104 yards on 18 carries, but Herbert and D’Onta Foreman struggled to gain traction against the Lions’ front.

Foreman tried to gut through an ankle injury but left midway through after for 14 yards and a touchdown on six carries. Herbert found little room to work in his return, rushing for just 35 yards on 16 carries (2.2 yards per carry).

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The Bears called Herbert’s number on the game’s key drive, but the back could not find daylight.

Up five with three minutes to play, the Bears needed two first downs to completely ice the game. Even one would have made it hard for the Lions to complete their comeback.

The Bears handed the ball to Herbert on first and second down for 1 yard. Fields’ pass for Scott fell incomplete on third down after the receiver “misjudged” the pass. That pass doesn’t happen if Herbert finds a way.

“I just got to make a play,” Herbert said after the loss.

Team GRADE with Fields: B+
Team GRADE without Fields: D

Pass defense

Lions quarterback Jared Goff entered the game with just six interceptions all season.

He threw three Sunday against the Bears and could have had two more on his ledger if cornerback Jaylon Johnson held on to both his opportunities.

For 55 minutes, the Bears held Goff to under 150 yards, but the Lions quarterback racked up 107 yards and a touchdown in the final five minutes to stun the Bears.

Wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown caught eight passes for 77 yards, but rookie tight end Sam LaPorta was held to just three catches for 18 yards.

It was a brilliant effort until it wasn’t. As such, a mediocre mark is required.

GRADE: C+

Run defense

The Bears entered the game with the NFL’s No. 2 ranked run defense, and they looked the part at times.

The Lions didn’t run the ball much Sunday, but they were able to find success when they did.

As a team, the Lions rushed 22 times for 115 yards (5.2 yards per carry) and two touchdowns.

Former Bear David Montgomery ran for 76 yards and the game-winning touchdown to pace the Lions.

That the Lions ran the ball effectively even when down 12 with five minutes to play is a credit to their offensive line and a ding against the Bears’ improved run defense.

GRADE: C+

Coaching

Head coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy seemed to have the hot hand early on. Eberflus rolled the dice on multiple fourth-down attempts and was successful.

But when the Bears needed bold decisions late in Detroit, Eberflus opted to take the ball out of Fields’ hands and played conservatively.

It cost the Bears.

NFL teams are 27-3 this season when owning a plus-three turnover margin. The Bears’ loss Sunday is one of the three.

The Bears had no business losing Sunday. But they somehow found a way to let a statement win slip through their fingers despite holding the ball for more than 40 minutes and winning the turnover battle by three.

Unacceptable.

GRADE: F

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The Bears looked different over those last four minutes, though. Instead of playing to win, it looked like the Bears were playing not to lose. Extra scrutiny was paid on the team’s second-to-last offensive drive. The team got the ball with just under three minutes to play, up 26-21, with an opportunity to ice the game.

Matt Eberflus said the directive for Luke Getsy and the offense was simple.

“We need the first down,” Eberflus said.

Instead, the Bears went three-and-out and only gained one yard. They ran an inside handoff to Khalil Herbert for no gain on first down. An RPO handoff to Herbert for one-yard followed. Then Justin Fields heaved a deep ball to Tyler Scott on third-and-nine that fell harmlessly incomplete.

The Bears punted. The Lions marched down the field and scored the go-ahead touchdown.

The uninspiring series was a microcosm of what’s now an unsurprising collapse from the Bears. But Eberflus defended the play calling after the game.

First up was the explanation of the first-down inside handoff.

“We’ve been really running that play,” Eberflus said. “Obviously the cutback on the corner was where we wanted it. I thought they blocked it really well on that one.”

Makes sense. The run game has been the team’s strength for the past year and a half, so no reason not to open with a run– especially when you want the Lions to burn timeouts. Consider the opposite, too. If the Bears had opened with a pass that fell incomplete, fans would have been equally incensed.

Then there was the second down RPO:

“(The Lions) played way outside on that one, so we handed it off.”

Again, understandable. Inside handoff didn’t work, so why not put the ball in Fields’ hands? He had been the best playmaker up to that point, so give him the opportunity to carry the ball if he got a good look. As it turned out, the way the Lions played it made the correct read a handoff. It went nowhere. Could the Bears have dialed up play action so that Fields would’ve had the ball in his hands no matter what? Sure. But again, there’s the chance to throw an incomplete pass and help the Lions.

Third down felt like the crux of the series. As Eberflus said, the team needed a first down. Getsy dialed up a crossing route to DJ Moore, but the Lions took away Moore, just like they took away Fields one snap prior.

“When the free safety comes down– which he did– to take away the crosser, we’re going to throw it over the top,” Eberflus said. “I thought (Fields) had a nice read there and I thought he just missed it by a step. I thought it was a good ball, just gotta run under the catch.”

To have a go-route to a rookie wide receiver as a secondary read on a gotta-have-it third down play is gutsy. It matched the aggressive nature of the first three quarters. But it was probably the wrong time to get aggressive though. That’s a moment where the Bears need nine yards, not a home run. If Getsy wanted to take a riskier swing, it probably would have made more sense on first or second down, not third down. By playing aggressively earlier in the series, the Bears afford themselves a little runaway to make up for a missed shot on later downs. By pushing it on third down, the Bears play themselves into an all-or-nothing scenario.

Eberflus said he had no problems with any of the play calls after the game. And if Scott doesn’t slow down for an instant on the deep shot, he has a much better chance of reeling in the catch. If he makes the play the Bears have a much better chance of winning, and there’s probably a lot less scrutiny for the playcalling.

But Scott didn’t make the catch and the Bears didn’t win. So we’re left wondering if the Bears could’ve capitalized on a golden opportunity to win a game if they had only pushed a few different buttons.

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Other players who are fully medically cleared to play include starting right guard Nate Davis (ankle), starting fullback Khari Blasingame (concussion), starting running back Khalil Herbert (ankle/shin) and backup cornerback Terell Smith (mononucleosis). 

Head coach Matt Eberflus said that Herbert will be activated from injured reserve on Saturday, meaning he’ll be ready to go on Sunday. Eberflus said Herbert has looked strong in practice, but that the team still needs to discuss whether or not he’ll be on a pitch count because he hasn’t played since Week 5.

Eberflus also said earlier this week that Davis will return to right guard and that Teven Jenkins will slide to left guard, where he played a bit earlier this season. Lucas Patrcik will remain at center, meaning Cody Whitehair is the odd man out on the offensive line and will head to the bench.

Starting middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds managed to squeeze in a limited practice on Friday after not participating in eight-straight practices due to a knee injury. Eberflus said he looked good moving around and the team likes where he’s at. Edmunds is questionable to play on Sunday, but the team may need him to return this week since backup middle linebacker Jack Sanborn is also questionable to play with an illness.

D’Onta Foreman is also questionable to play with an ankle injury. Foreman was in obvious pain after the Bears’ Thursday night win against the Panthers last week. He was one of the best performers on offense for the Bears as the fill-in starting running back while Herbert was hurt.

Finally, linebacker Noah Sewell was ruled out with a knee injury. Sewell has been a key special teams player for the Bears this year and has mixed in a little bit on defense.

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The overhype cup runneth over.

Almost three months later, the Bears enter Week 11 at 3-7, with plenty of questions to answer about the state and direction of their rebuild in the final seven games of the season.

Those questions start with Fields, who has missed the last four games with a dislocated right thumb but is set to return Sunday against the Lions in Detroit.

Can Justin Fields prove he’s the guy?

The Bears’ primary goal for the 2023 season was to get a complete evaluation of Fields. With the quarterback’s fifth-year option needing to be picked up this offseason and the Bears likely to finish the season with two high draft picks, having a concrete idea of what Fields can be in the NFL was a must entering the season.

Fields got off to a horrific start before stringing together back-to-back starts against the Denver Broncos and Washington Commanders in Weeks 4 and 5. He entered Week 6 among the league leaders in passing touchdowns, but he threw for just 58 yards while compiling a passer rating of 36.7 in almost three quarters against the Minnesota Vikings before exiting with a thumb injury.

After missing four games, Fields returns needing to string together the best seven-game stretch of his career to show the Bears they should still place their faith in him.

Even if he rips off seven straight high-level performances as a passer to close the season, the die might already be cast as far as Fields and the Bears are concerned.

The 24-year-old entered the worst situation imaginable and has been unable to escape the organizational dysfunction that has consumed countless quarterbacks before him.

He has struggled with accuracy, pocket presence, and dissecting zone coverage. He hasn’t been able to consistently throw with anticipation and has oscillated between positive performances and those littered with throws he either doesn’t see or refuses to make.

Seven games won’t be enough for the Bears to pass on Caleb Williams or Drake Maye if they land a top-two pick via the Carolina Panthers. Resetting their quarterback contract window with a top prospect whom general manager Ryan Poles can hand-pick will be too enticing to pass up for a second consecutive draft.

But seven games of consistent, high-level quarterbacking could allow Fields to keep the flicker of hope alive and perhaps give him one more year in Chicago to show he can reach his potential — but that reality likely only exists if Maye or Williams isn’t in the Bears’ future.

The last ride for the H.I.T.S principle?

Head coach Matt Eberflus seemed like one of the few bright spots of a throwaway 2022 season. Given the Bears ‘ lack of talent, it was hard to gauge his coaching acumen, but the team played hard, didn’t quit, and the staff was good at making in-game adjustments.

Eberflus’ seat warmed quickly this year, thanks to an 0-4 start. He’s 6-21 in his first 27 games, but it doesn’t feel like the winds are blowing in the coaching change direction at Halas Hall.

For now.

Eberflus has the Bears’ defense playing well. The unit got off to a horrid start but has slowly improved over the last six games. The Bears’ defense currently ranks second in run defense and 15th in total defense. In the previous five games, the Bears have only allowed 16.8 points and 264.2 yards per game.

Poles gave a strong statement in support of Eberflus prior to the Bears’ Week 9 game against the New Orleans Saints.

Despite the adversity this season, Eberflus appears to be on solid ground, and a few more wins while continuing to be competitive in losses should keep him safe.

However, if the Bears’ defense regresses and a host of embarrassing losses fill the end of the season, a change of leadership could be in order.

How the final seven games play out will go a long way in determining what the future holds for Eberflus and his staff.

Blindside secure?

Braxton Jones has been honest that he still needs to prove to Poles and Eberflus that he can be a franchise left tackle.

The 2022 fifth-round pick out of Southern Utah struggled with penalties and hand placement early in the season before going on injured reserve with a neck injury before Week 3.

Since returning from injury, Jones has allowed just four pressures and one hit in 66 pass-blocking snaps across two games, per Pro Football Focus.

Jones had two penalties in Week 9 against the New Orleans Saints but played a clean game against the Carolina Panthers in Week 10. Jones has said he needs to work on not making mental mistakes later in the game as his stamina wears down.

CHICAGO BEARS

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With the Bears likely to have two picks in the top 10, Jones needs to stay healthy and play at a high level for the final seven games. If he does that, the Bears might feel comfortable with him and Darnell Wright being the bookends going forward.

But if Jones struggles, the Bears will have to take a long look at either Notre Dame’s Joe Alt or Penn State’s Olu Fashanu in the first round of the draft. Even if Jones plays well down the stretch, there’s a case to be made that the Bears should still draft a left tackle early and make Jones a swing tackle.

Jones has a chance to squash that idea during the next two months.

Does All Pro equal extension?

Cornerback Jaylon Johnson and the Bears haven’t found common ground on a contract extension. The fourth-year defensive back got permission to seek a trade at the deadline, but the Bears’ asking price was too high for inquiring teams’ taste.

Johnson has said he’s done negotiating for the time being and wants to focus on playing at a high level and being named an All-Pro. Johnson has said numerous times that if he plays at an elite level and the Bears win, the money will take care of itself.

On the season, Johnson has given up just 16 catches on 31 targets for 141 yards and one touchdown. He has two interceptions, and opposing quarterbacks have a 47.9 rating when targeting him.

Among all NFL cornerbacks with at least 250 coverage snaps, Johnson ranks third in yards allowed, fourth in receptions, eighth in reception percentage, and third in passer rating against.

For comparison, Denver Broncos star cornerback Patrick Suratin has given up 28 receptions on 41 targets for 374 yards and two touchdowns. Per PFF, opposing quarterbacks have a rating of 103.1 when targeting Surtain.

Johnson said Wednesday that he has no doubt he is playing at an All-Pro level.

With matchups against Amon-Ra St. Brown and potentially Justin Jefferson in the final seven games, Johnson will have a chance to cement his Pro Bowl and potentially All-Pro status with a strong finish.

If he continues to play at a top-tier level and achieves his goals, it will be hard for the Bears to rationalize not closing the negotiation gap and inking him to a long-term deal.

Swan song for Mooney?

While Johnson’s lack of an extension gets most of the attention, wide receiver Darnell Mooney is also in the final year of his contract and has yet to make significant progress on an extension with the Bears.

Mooney was a 1,000-yard receiver in 2021, but he has yet to find that level of productivity with this new regime. The season-ending ankle injury he suffered in Week 12 last year played a role, but Mooney has just 814 yards and three touchdowns in 22 games with this regime.

The Tulane product is a good slot receiver who would thrive as a No. 3 receiver on a contending team. The Bears like Mooney, but there doesn’t appear to be any tangible progress in extension talks.

The Bears would probably like to bring Mooney back on a cheap deal. But is that something he’ll be interested in? Can he put together his best seven-game stretch in two years to increase his value and show the Bears he should be viewed as a foundational piece of their rebuild?

Or will Mooney’s time in Chicago end after a Week 18 trip to Green Bay, with a supporting role on a contending team likely waiting for him in the offseason?

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With Justin Fields expected to return soon and the defense near full health, the 3-7 Bears believe a victory over the NFL’s worst team could be what finally gets the ball rolling.

But with just seven games left in what has been a disappointing season, it’s time for us to focus our gaze on the future of the Ryan Poles rebuild and what life might look like after 2023.

That’s where this edition of the mailbag takes us — into the unknown:

Overreaction? Yes.

I’m going to frame this as “the Bears will want to keep Justin Fields with a new coaching staff.”

I’m on the record as saying I think Matt Eberflus will get at least one more season as long as the Bears don’t completely combust over the final seven games. I don’t think he will be judged at all on the 2022 season. He has dealt with a lot of adversity this season, the defense has improved since he took over the play-calling duties, and Fields has so far missed four games.

If the Bears finish 5-12 or better, I think Eberflus is safe.

But Fields and the Bears’ quarterback uncertainty should play a huge role in Ryan Poles and Kevin Warren’s decision on the future of the coaching staff.

The Bears have made the same mistake with the past two coaching staffs pre-Eberflus. They drafted Mitchell Trubisky when John Fox was on the hot seat. They fired Fox after Trubisky’s rookie season and hoped Matt Nagy could work with the young quarterback. Then, they drafted Fields when the seat was scolding for both Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace. Both Nagy and Pace were fired after Fields’ rookie season and Poles and Eberflus were brought in with a talented but raw asset that they didn’t draft at quarterback.

The Bears are in danger of repeating that mistake for the third time this offseason. Assuming he gets a stay of execution, Eberflus’ seat will be hot this offseason. The Bears likely will have a chance at Drake Maye or Caleb Williams. Are they going to draft another young quarterback to stick with a potential lame-duck coaching staff?

The best way to successfully rebuild is to have a coaching staff and a quarterback that are on the same timeline. The staff picks their guy, and they get time to grow together. If Eberflus and his staff are fired, the Bears should also look to move on from Fields and let the next staff have a clean slate with the guy of their choosing.

Either way, unless Fields lights it up as a passer once he returns, it feels like the Bears will move on from him this offseason. He deserves a fresh start after being saddled with two horrid situations to start his NFL career.

As the Bears look to the future, it’s important the quarterback they choose and the staff are paired up and fully aligned. That hasn’t been the case with their past two swings at quarterback, and it has cost them.

Overreaction? No.

Let’s look at this as: “Do the Bears have a long-term answer at left tackle?”

Braxton Jones has been solid for a fifth-round pick out of Southern Utah. He has impressed at times but has struggled with penalties and mental mistakes this season.

I think the best-case scenario for the Bears is Jones becomes a high-quality swing tackle, and they find an elite blue-chipper to play left tackle.

Those are much easier to find in the first round of the draft. It’s very rare for premium left tackles to hit the free-agent market. Those are the players teams draft, develop, extend, and extend again.

The Bears will have a good shot at drafting a top-tier left tackle prospect with their second first-round pick come April.

This class has two high-quality tackles in Notre Dame’s Joe Alt and Penn State’s Olu Fashanu. Assuming the Bears either go quarterback or Marvin Harrison Jr. with the Panthers’ pick, they could look to solidify the left tackle spot with their own first-round pick.

The Bears do need a center, but those are often found on Day 2 or Day 3 of the draft. If all else fails, they can find a veteran stopgap for a year.

Overreaction? Yes and no.

I say no because I agree with your premise. Teven Jenkins has been the Bears’ best offensive lineman for two years and has dominated since returning to right guard after Nate Davis’ injury in Week 6.

It’s clear he’s comfortable there, and Jenkins himself said he feels like he’s in a groove next to Darnell Wright at the moment. Offensive line coach Chris Morgan and Jenkins have attributed that to the third-year lineman’s comfort level in Year 2 on the inside and his continued growth as a professional.

This Bears regime has moved Jenkins all around, and he has handled it impressively well.

But when Davis comes back, I feel like Jenkins will flip back to left guard, and Davis will slot in at right guard.

CHICAGO BEARS

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Eberflus said he feels like Davis can play both sides, but Davis has only played right guard in the NFL. The Bears signed him to a three-year, $33-million contract to play right guard, so I don’t think they’ll ask him to move when he comes back.

The Bears will keep all their options open when Davis returns, but nothing about this staff’s history with Jenkins says they will work the pieces around him. They see him as their most versatile lineman, and I would expect him to move back to left guard.

Overreaction? No.

If we assume Eberflus stays (I do at the moment), conventional wisdom says changes will be made elsewhere, barring an unforeseen late-season surge.

Alan Williams is already gone, and the Bears’ inconsistent offense falls solely at the feet of Getsy.

Dorsey was scapegoated Tuesday after the Bills fell to 5-5.

In his first 25 games as the Bills’ OC, Dorsey’s unit ranked first in success rate, second in EPA per play, second in offensive points per game, first in red zone EPA per play, and second in red zone success rate.

He’d be a tremendous hire and is someone the Bears should look at if they move on from Getsy but keep Eberflus.

I’m sure Dorsey will be in demand, both at the pro and college level, so the Bears will have to make a compelling offer to land him. Working with either Caleb Williams or Drake Maye is a good trump card should the Bears hold it at season’s end.

Overreaction? More or less

It’s Week 11 and we have reached the “Play General Manager In Madden” part of the discourse.

That tells you how well this season has gone for the Bears.

But these hypotheticals are fun when the team is 3-7, and another “transformational” offseason is on the horizon.

OK, first off, let’s rule out Parsons. Not going to happen. Ever.

The caliber of player the Bears get in return for a trade down, assuming they get one at all, will be correlated to how far they are moving down.

The Giants aren’t going to give up Dexter Lawrence to move up one spot. He’s a 26-year-old elite defensive tackle who is thriving in that defense. If the move is one spot, it’s probably just going to be a draft pick deal.

Minkah Fitzpatrick? The Steelers acquired him to anchor their defense for the next decade. He’s 26 and spearheads one of the league’s best units along with T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. Don’t think he’s going anywhere.

Jeffery Simmons is an interesting possibility, but the Titans just drafted Will Levis and are unlikely to be in the market to move up for a quarterback.

If you’re looking at teams who will be in the seven-10 range in the draft that will want to come up, it’s the Rams, Falcons, Bucs, Titans, Packers, and Commanders.

I don’t know if any of those teams are as desperate as the Panthers were last season. You can probably rule out a deal with the Packers, and the Commanders look like they have a guy in Sam Howell. The Rams’ cupboard is empty of elite players in the middle of their prime.

That leaves us with the Bucs and Falcons.

Could A.J. Terrell be on the table? The Bears have some good young corners and could still figure out an extension with Jaylon Johnson. Tristan Wirfs is an immediate hang-up from Tampa Bay.

There’s not a ton of obvious options. But we also didn’t think DJ Moore would be on the table. We’ll see what shakes after teams evaluate the quarterbacks come February.

There is a feeling around the league that Jim Harbaugh’s time at Michigan is close to over. Whether or not his path out of Ann Arbor leads him to Chicago is impossible to say.

There will be other job openings. Would Harbaught rather come to Chicago or go to Los Angeles to coach Justin Herbert assuming Bradon Staley doesn’t get another year? What about taking over the Raiders in Las Vegas?

He’ll have options if he chooses to return to the NFL.

As far as McCarthy goes, the answer is no. Harbaugh recruiting McCarthy to Michigan will have no impact on how the Bears attack the draft if he is coach.

Harbaugh signed McCarthy at Michigan because that was his best option at quarterback in that cycle. He’ll likewise go with the best option for himself and the Bears, which would either be Williams or Maye.

I remember when Pete Carroll took the Seahawks job, and everyone thought he would draft safety Taylor Mays because he played for Carroll at USC. Instead, Carroll took Texas safety Earl Thomas because he was the better player.

It would be the same situation.

McCarthy is QB3/4 in this class, and there’s a big gap between 1/2 and 3/4. Bears won’t pass that up because of a college connection.

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In a vacuum, that is not a confidence-inspiring development. Teams should have higher standards than, “Hey, we’re not the worst.” Considering the complete selloff the team underwent in 2022, and the disastrous opening month of the 2023 season however, it feels like a momentous shift for the Bears.

Over the past four games the Bears have gone 2-2. Over their past six they’re 3-3. Again, playing .500 ball typically isn’t celebrated. For the Bears it’s a step in the right direction. On Monday, head coach Matt Eberflus shared some of the reasons why he believes the team has incrementally improved of late.

“The three wins that we did have, the positivity of that was we had zero turnovers in those games and the turnover margin was plus-five,” Eberflus said.

Taking the ball away and taking care of the football are pillars of Eberflus’ program, but too often they haven’t met the mark. That was abundantly clear in their Week 9 loss to the Saints, when the team lost the turnover battle, 5-0 yet only lost the game 24-17. It’s easy to see why the Bears believe they could have won the game if they had simply narrowed that incredibly wide turnover margin.

The biggest turnaround for the team has come on defense. Last year the unit did almost nothing well after Ryan Poles traded away key players like Khalil Mack and Roquan Smith. This year there’s been a little talent infusion, an uptick in aggressive play calling with Eberflus at the helm, and more success.

The most notable area of growth has been run defense. In 2022, the team was tied for 26th in YPC allowed (4.9), 31st in yards per game allowed (157.3) and 32nd in rushing touchdowns allowed (31). This year, they’re first in YPC allowed (3.2), second in yards per game allowed (76) and tied for third in rushing touchdowns allowed (4).

That’s a remarkable turnaround.

Although the numbers aren’t as dramatic, Eberflus also cited critical third-down improvements for the team over the last six games.

“Both in the top-10 during those games, and that was the reason why we were in most of those games and had a chance to win three of those, a chance to win the fourth and potentially another one there as well.”

It’s worth noting that the Bears have played some truly awful teams in the process. But the Bears have managed to beat those truly awful teams. That’s more than they could say for the majority of last season when they went on a franchise-record 10-game losing streak in 2022– then continued that streak with four more losses to start this year.

At the beginning of the season, some had sky-high expectations that the Bears would compete in the playoffs this year. I’ll admit, over the summer when vibes were at their absolute highest I thought the team had a chance to push for 10 wins. Obviously those expectations were misguided. But before you can be great, you have to be ok. And before you can be ok, you have to be not terrible. With better play– especially on defense– over the last month and a half, the Bears have at least separated themselves a bit from the true basement dwellers of the league.

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When Fields dislocated his thumb against the Vikings in Week 6 and rookie Tyson Bagent took over, offensive coordinator Luke Getsy had to make some changes. The Bears don’t have a situation where the backup quarterback fits the same mold as the starter. Bagent’s strengths and weaknesses are different from Fields’. Bagent thrives when he can make a timing pass in rhythm. Fields thrives when things break down and he can improvise. Bagent goes through his progressions quickly and reliably takes check downs when that’s what the defense gives him. Fields attacks defenses with a great deep ball and elite scrambling ability.

Both quarterbacks have shown they can do what it takes to win a game, but what it takes to win with each guy is different. The Bears recognize that.

“The offense is going to be what it is based on the talents that we have available to us,” said head coach Matt Eberflus. “When there’s an injury at receiver or running back you kind of tailor your offense to that. It’s no different than the quarterback. You know we’re going to tailor it a little bit for Justin and to fit his style.”

Eberflus even shared a few details of how the team will tailor things for Fields again.

“We’re going to bring back the quarterback run and the keepers, we’re going to bring back the different things that we’ve done and that were effective.”

Those extra things could be more deep throws to stress defenses vertically and more RPO concepts to take advantage of Fields’ dual threat capabilities.

“There’s a lot of things he really brings to the table,” Eberflus said.

The Bears are also looking forward to having a more experienced quarterback under center. Eberflus praised Bagent for being able to absorb as much information as he did to start the last four games, but Bagent understandably made some rookie mistakes. Several times opposing defenses were able to confuse Bagent with zone looks to bait him into throwing interceptions. That’s not necessarily a slight on Bagent. All rookie quarterbacks go through growing pains like that, and those are things teams with rookie QBs need to live with at times.

So, yes, the Bears appreciate what Bagent did over the past month, but, no, there is no quarterback controversy.

“When (Fields) is healthy, he’ll be back,” Eberflus said. “He’s our starter.”

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For the first time since 1998, the Bears didn’t allow any sacks, turnovers, or offensive touchdowns to their opponents. Indeed, Tyson Bagent went untouched against the Panthers as the Bears remained perfect with protecting the ball. And, most notably, they didn’t allow the Panthers to score an offensive touchdown once.

Instead, the Panthers had to settle for two field goals and a punt return touchdown to help keep them in the game. The Bears, on the other hand, hadn’t had a punt returned for a touchdown against them since 2017.

For a Bears defense that hasn’t been spectacular this season (sixth-worst 25.5 points allowed per game), they proved differently on Thursday night against a putrid Panthers team. They held Bryce Young to under 200 yards passing and zero touchdowns. They also kept the Panthers to 43 yards rushing.

The Panthers finished 3-of-15 on converting third downs; though, they were able to notch all three fourth-down attempts they executed against the Bears. The Panthers’ offense averaged a paltry 3.7 yards per play from the 57 plays they ran against the Bears, too.

All-in-all it was a solid evening for the Bears’ defense, highlighted by their newest addition: Montez Sweat. He finished with eight pressures, the most by a single Bears player since Robert Quinn in 2020. He has 54 pressures on the season, the fifth-most in the NFL.

As for the Panthers’ offense, they weren’t content with how the game unfolded. So much so, that wide receiver Adam Thielen let it all out during his postgame media session, calling their effort “embarrassing.”

“We’re just not hitting on all cylinders right now. We’re not hitting on any cylinders,” Thielen said via Panthers.com. “It’s an embarrassing effort. I think everyone’s just embarrassed, you know, put up what, six points on offense.

“Like, we didn’t do anything. That’s embarrassing when your defense is playing the way they’re playing, especially the way they’re playing. It’s embarrassing. And like we talked about, we’re putting in good practices. We’re doing the right things; building the momentum that way, but it’s just not translating. That’s tough.”

Not only did the Bears get the win — improving their record to 3-7 this season — but they also improved their draft stock by boosting the Panthers 2024 first-round pick, which they acquired last offseason. They now have the No. 1 and No. 5 picks in the next NFL draft.

It was a solid evening for the Bears, despite the slop fest on both ends of the ball. Either way, they got it done. With some extended time off from their “mini bye,” they’ll gear up to play the Detroit Lions on the road in Week 11.

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They’ve shown us who they are, and the product leaves a lot to be desired.

That product, and the things that have doomed it to sub-mediocrity, were on full display during Sunday’s Week 9 loss to the New Orleans Saints. It was a perfect encapsulation of why a team that is much more talented than last year’s 3-14 teardown outfit remains glued to the league’s undercarriage.

We can open with the two things that have plagued the Bears all season and cost them chances to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Denver Broncos, and Saints.

Turnovers and penalties.

When head coach Matt Eberflus arrived in Chicago, he promised his team would follow the H.I.T.S. (hustle, intensity, takeaways, smart football) to a T. They would follow that religiously, have it drilled into them and never beat themselves.

And yet, that’s all the 2023 Bears have done. The T and S in H.I.T.S principal have been AWOL all season.

They didn’t board the plane to New Orleans, either.

The Bears turned the ball over five times and committed eight penalties in the 24-17 loss at the Caesars Superdome. You can put some of the blame for the turnovers Sunday on rookie mistakes from backup quarterback Tyson Bagent. That’s fair, but the Bears have failed to execute all season, no matter who is under center.

This was left tackle Braxton Jones after the Bears turned it over twice and committed five penalties in a loss to Tampa:

“Just have to figure out why we’re losing focus in key moments.”

Six weeks later, tight end Cole Kmet was frustrated at the Bears’ continued issues with consistency and execution after a blowout loss against the Chargers.

“That’s just us not being professionals as players,” Kmet said of the Bears’ constant issues. “We got to be better. We got to execute the plays that are given and do a better job when we’re in away environments.”

After nine weeks, the Bears are tied for the NFL in accepted penalties with 60 (they rank eighth in total penalties at 69). They lead the NFL in takeaways with 18. They are third in pre-snap penalties with 27 and third in accepted penalty yardage with 510.

Nine weeks. It hasn’t changed. It hasn’t improved. There have been one-off blips, but otherwise, the Bears have only been consistent in their sloppy play and inability to protect the football.

The Bears opened the season with a 38-20 loss to a Green Bay Packers team that has been beyond dreadful ever since. They talked about mental errors and beating themselves after that loss. Seven days later, the now-departed Chase Claypool got flagged for a critical offensive pass interference penalty on a screen that he thought was a run. Justin Fields threw an interception on the next play.

It didn’t improve. After getting their doors removed by Patrick Mahomes in Week 3, the Bears turned the ball over twice and committed 10 penalties while blowing a 21-point lead to the Denver Broncos.

It has been the only through line in the Bears’ season. Only Jack Del Rio and Josh McDaniels have kept it from being a nine-game sweep.

While the turnovers and penalties are the weights around the Bears’ ankles dragging them into the NFL abyss, the two other foundational pillars of the 2023 Bears threw them into the deep end with no way to swim.

Through nine weeks, the Bears have just 10 sacks. That ranks, you guessed, dead last in the NFL. They did not record a sack or takeaway in New Orleans.

General manager Ryan Poles’ significant offseason acquisitions on the defensive line, DeMarcus Walker and Yannick Ngakoue, have combined for 3.5 sacks. Rookie defensive tackle Gervon Dexter has failed to get to the quarterback so far.

The newly acquired Montez Sweat should theoretically help that. Sweat generated four pressures on 25 pass rushes for a pressure rate of 16 percent Sunday, per Next Gen Stats. Sweat’s impact should continue to grow, but it will mean little if the rushers opposite of him and next to him can’t win one-on-ones. Per ProFootballFocus, Ngakoue has a pass-rush win percentage of just 5.1 percent this season. That ranks 40th out of 41 edge rushers with at least 200 pass-rush snaps. Walker ranks 33rd with a 9.2 win percentage.

It’s not going to get that much better with this group. The Bears aren’t going to wake up one Monday and have a magic elixir to create pressure. They can’t consistently generate pressure with four.

Turnovers, penalties, zero pressure.

CHICAGO BEARS

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What’s behind door number, you ask?

The inconsistent and puzzling offensive gameplans.

The first three weeks of the season saw the Bears’ offense try to rely on a straight shotgun dropback game that was ineffective. There were very few easy access throws for Fields, the wide-zone run game the Bears’ championed last season was used sparingly, and nothing worked.

Some tweaks in Weeks 4 and 5 saw the Bears’ offense explode. The running game got going, and the Bears found ways to get the ball to star wide receiver DJ Moore consistently. Then, Week 6 rolled around, and the Bears looked totally unprepared for the Vikings’ blitz-heavy approach despite having 10 days off to prepare for it.

The Bears leaned on a physical run game in a win over the Raiders, but that physicality on the ground didn’t make it to LA in Week 9.

The loss in New Orleans was the perfect illustration of the maddening roller coaster the Bears offense, directed by Luke Getsy, has been on this season.

The first half against the Saints was filled with good work from Getsy as he got Bagent out of the pocket and dialed up good looks off play-action.

Things changed in the second half as Bagent mainly operated from the pocket, and the Bears went away from a successful ground game and the play-action.

In the first three quarters in New Orleans, Bagent had only 17 dropbacks from shotgun. He had 12 in a fourth quarter that saw the Bears turn it over three times and only pick up one first down.

Per PFF, Bagent finished the game 7-for-10 for 110 yards, two touchdowns, and a passer rating of 158.3 on play action in New Orleans. And yet, the Bears went away from that in a one-possession game in the fourth quarter.

Getsy has had some nice moments this season, but he seems to consistently forget himself and go away from what works.

There’s no one reason for the Bears’ failure this season. There are four. They all reared their head in New Orleans, and they’ll continue to show up in the remaining eight games.

This is who the Bears have shown themselves to be for nine weeks.

There’s no reason to expect it to change now.

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“We’ll literally see where it is today and then see where it goes from there,” Eberflus said. “We’ll know more on Wednesday in terms of how that progresses.”

Eberflus said the decision to play Fields or sit him another week will come down to three factors. First, the medical staff needs to clear him to play. Then, Fields himself needs to sign off and say he can function well enough to play. Finally, the coaches need to evaluate how Fields is throwing the ball and operating to determine whether he can return or not.

“If Justin is there and is available and is functional, we will go with him.”

Fields has missed the last three games due a dislocated thumb. He suffered the injury in Week 6 against the Vikings. On the year, Fields has completed 61.7% of his passes for 1,201 yards, 11 touchdowns and six interceptions. He’s added 47 rushes for 237 yards and one score on the ground.

If Fields can’t play, Tyson Bagent will start his fourth game in a row. Bagent has completed 67.3% of his passes for 697 yards, three touchdowns and six interceptions. As a rusher, Bagent has 97 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries.

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But, as has become custom this season, the 2023 Bears couldn’t get out of their own way.

Bagent threw three interceptions and fumbled once as the Bears lost the turnover battle five to zero and committed eight penalties in a 24-17 loss.

“I thought our team played extremely, which is why it’s so embarrassing,” Bagent said after the loss. “One score game, but lose the turnover battle by that amount, it’s embarrassing. It’s part of the game and I’m just looking forward to building and learning from this experience.”

After five turnovers and eight penalties on Sunday, the Bears now either lead the league or are tied for the league lead in both categories.

That’s where we start this report card — with the coaching staff flunking for being unable to fix fundamental issues that cost them a game they should have won Sunday.

Coaching

I usually start the report card with the passing offense and quarterback, but that can wait.

When Matt Eberflus was hired as head coach, he made a big show of his team playing fundamentally sound, smart football regardless of the talent level on the roster.

That was, for the most part, true in 2022.

That has not been the case in 2023.

After Sunday’s loss, the Bears now have committed 18 turnovers and 60 penalties in nine games. Both are abominable numbers, highlighting a lack of execution that has plagued this team all season.

The good games against the Washington Commanders and Las Vegas Raiders are outliers, given the mountain of evidence provided in the other seven games.

The “T” and “S” from Eberflus’ famed “H.I.T.S.” principle have been missing all season, and the Bears got no closer to finding them during an inexcusable sloppy performance against a beatable Saints team.

GRADE: F

Passing offense

Bagent played well for most of Sunday’s loss in New Orleans.

At halftime, Bagent was 10-for-13 for 149 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, and a rating of 121.5. He showed good pocket presence, created plays out of nothing, and got the ball into the hands of the Bears’ skill players and let them do the rest.

But things quickly disintegrated in the fourth quarter as Bagent threw two interceptions and fumbled during the decisive final stanza.

Bagent continues to show glimpses of promise, but right now, he’s a low-ceiling developmental backup quarterback. There’s nothing wrong with that, but Sunday’s fourth-quarter wilt job should make an already obvious decision to go back to Justin Fields when he’s healthy even easier.

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As for other aspects of the passing game, the offensive line did a decent job in pass protection. They only gave up two sacks but also had three holding penalties on pass plays that put Bagent behind the sticks.

Darnell Mooney and Cole Kmet both had outstanding games. Mooney caught five passes for 82 yards and showed excellent run-after-the-catch ability. He was the best he has looked all season. Kmet, meanwhile, caught six passes for 55 yards and two touchdowns.

DJ Moore caught three passes for 44 yards but also had a critical fumble in the second half.

Bagent GRADE: D
Team GRADE: D+

Rushing offense

D’Onta Foreman cD’Ontaes to impress when given a constant workload in the Bears’ backfieldBears’unday, Foreman rushed 20 times for 83 yards and was once again a shoestring away from breaking open a few big scoring runs.

Even when Khalil Herbert comes back, it will be difficult for the Bears to chew into Foreman’s touches.

Bagent showed off his wheels on Sunday as well, rushing eight times for 70 yards, including several impressive scrambles to extend drives.

The Bears’ run game wasn’t as physical and overpowering as it is when running at optimal condition, but it was a good day for the ground attack, with Teven Jenkins and Darnell Wright once again performing well as road graders on the right side.

GRADE: B+

Pass defense

The Bears’ defense dBears’ost everything in their power to deliver a win Sunday in New Orleans.

The Saints only threw for 214 yards at 6.1 yards per attempt. New Orleans’ biggest play in the passing game came on a 17-yard pass to running back Alvin Kamara and the game-deciding touchdown pass from Taysom Hill to Juwan Johnson, which came on a busted coverage.

But the Bears didn’t pressure Carr (zero sacks, two hurries) or force any turnovers.

Given how liberally the offense was coughing it up, the Bears needed their defense to come up with one or two momentum-shifting plays.

That didn’t happen.

didn’t B

Run defense

The Bears’ run defense continues to be the surprise of the season. They entered Sunday ranked No. 3 in the NFL in run defense and extended defensive tackle Andrew Billings as a result.

That unit once again played tremendous on Sunday, holding the Saints to 87 rushing yards on 27 carries (3.2 yards per carry).

Middle linebacker Jack Sanborn, weakside linebacker T.J. Edwards, and nickel corner Kyler Gordon made several good plays in run support to back up a good effort by the front four.

No complaints here.

GRADE: A

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Add it all up and many Bears fans have called for head coach Matt Eberflus to be fired by season’s end. On Wednesday, GM Ryan Poles said he understands questions about the job Eberflus has done to this point, but shared why he’s confident Eberflus is still the right man to lead the team.

“What I see every day, where I see him address the team and I see his approach through adversity, it is stable, man,” Poles said. “I know in the outside world it doesn’t look like that, and I know it looks like we’re far away, but this dude comes in every day and just keeps chipping away. He has high integrity.”

Questions of culture and integrity came up often on Wednesday since the Bears announced they had fired running backs coach David Walker because he wasn’t meeting the team’s cultural standards.

“We have expectations here,” Poles said. “This comes from me, (team president/CEO) Kevin (Warren), (team chairman) George (McCaskey) and Matt. If you don’t meet those expectations of how you move around this building and how you treat people, how you talk to people, how you act, you don’t belong here.”

Walker’s dismissal was the second time an assistant coach had to leave this offseason. Former defensive coordinator Alan Williams resigned in September, citing health and family issues. Further reporting from Adam Schefter said Williams left because of inappropriate, but not criminal, behavior. But Poles dismissed the idea that the Bears had a culture problem, or that Eberflus wasn’t doing well to vet his staff members.

“The people that (Eberflus) brings in here, he’s done the work to make sure that they’re the people they’re supposed to be. Again, we hold that standard. If it doesn’t follow that and people aren’t acting that way, they’re not here. But the way he holds everything down here is incredible for how loud it is, how tough it is.”

Further, Poles commended how the Bears have played, even though they’ve done a lot more losing than winning over the past year and a half.

“I mean, this team, you watch them, they fight. I know this past weekend wasn’t great, but you can’t watch that team and be like, ‘Oh, they’re going to fold.’ Most teams fold, and they’re not folding. It’s been hard. It’s been really hard, especially from where we started last year, trying to build this and do it the right way.”

Fans often point to Eberflus’ 5-20 record as head coach and franchise-worst .200 win percentage as grounds that he needs to go. But the Bears may cut him slack for last years’ 3-14 record, since Poles traded away several of the team’s best players in Khalil Mack and Roquan Smith and began a rebuild in earnest. It’s hard to win when a roster is torn down to the studs.

Culture isn’t something that’s developed overnight. In the Bears’ case there have clearly been growing pains. And at least publicly, Poles is still buying into Eberflus’ ability to build a winning program.

“What I see from him on a daily basis and how he gets this team ready on a weekly basis, to me, I see a grown man that has leadership skills to get this thing out of the hole and into where it needs to be.”

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“So David Walker, with the support from [general manager Ryan Poles], [CEO Kevin Warren] and ownership, we have made the decision this morning that our running backs coach, Coach Walker, has been relieved of his duties,” Eberflus said. “As the head coach, we are building a program and have standards to uphold as a staff and organization both on and off the field, and those standards were not met.”

Walker is the second member of Eberflus’ coaching staff to depart since the start of the season. Defensive coordinator Alan Williams resigned for “personal reasons,” but subsequent reporting by ESPN’s Adam Schefter noted that Williams’ departure was due to unacceptable work behavior that was “non criminal.”

Sources confirmed to NBC Sports Chicago that the Bears dismissed Walker for human resource issues. The Athletic was the first to report the news.

When Eberflus was hired as head coach, he envisioned himself as a CEO. With two coaches he evaluated and vetted now leaving for not meeting the standard, the buck stops with Eberflus.

“Like I said, it’s disappointing from my vantage point,” Eberflus said of Walker’s dismissal. “But we have a standard to uphold to. When that standard is not met, we act. We act accordingly, and that’s what we did today.

“I would say the responsibility is there because I’m the head football coach,” Eberflus said later when asked what culpability he has in the turbulent coaching issues. “I would also say that the standard has to be met, right? And when it’s not met, you make a decision. We did that.”

When asked if he felt he misevaluated Walker and Williams, Eberflus evaded.

“We take pride in that,” Eberflus said of the vetting. “Actions are actions and we got to take action for that.”

Eberflus said there were no signs of these issues with Walker when he was hired and felt they did the right thing when hiring him for the staff.

“I would just say when you look at things, you’ve got to make sure you look at everything, I think we did that,” Eberflus said. “I know we did that. Again, this is a process where something happened, and we’re taking action on it. And I’m actually … how we all came together to do it, it was good.”

Eberflus prides himself on the culture he is creating in Chicago. Despite the staff turmoil and mis-evaluation of Walker and Williams, Eberflus maintains the culture is rock solid.

“Absolutely not. Absolutely not,” Eberflus said when asked if the Bears have a culture problem. “The culture in our building is outstanding. The guys work hard every single day. The relationship piece is there. We care about each other. We’re working diligently to get this thing turned.

“Our culture is awesome.”

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Throughout the 11-minute press conference, Eberflus kept pointing to the Bears’ 2-2 record over the previous four weeks as proof that things are on the right track despite the apparent dysfunction.

When pressed on if he felt this was a good day for the organization, Eberflus admitted he was disheartened by the issues that led to Walker’s dismissal.

“We’re all disappointed. It’s never good when this has to happen. Certainly a disappointment,” Eberflus said. “But I do know this, adversity does make you stronger in your personal life, in your team life, it does make you stronger. It’s just how you come through it. It’s how you respond to it.”

Despite the issues with Walker, Eberflus is adamant that he has not lost the trust of his players or staff.

“I think the trust is stronger because we take action,” Eberflus said. “That’s what it is. It’s called having accountability and you move forward. Player, coach, staff member. Doesn’t matter.:

Omar Young will take over Walker’s role as running backs coach as the Bears prepare to face the New Orleans Saints in Week 9.

Eberflus left the podium Wednesday having fielded just two questions about Bears trade deadline acquisition Montez Sweat and zero about the status of quarterback Justin Fields or the future of cornerback Jaylon Johnson.

That tells you everything you need to know about the status of the operation Eberflus is leading.

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“Has really good experience with that… He’ll make that transition really good,” Eberflus said.

Young had been working as an assistant wide receivers and assistant quarterbacks coach this year. Last season he was an offensive quality control coach.

Young has some experience working as a running backs coach at the college level. He held that position, in addition to working as a co-special teams coordinator, at Eastern Illinois University in 2020 and 2021. He also assisted with the running backs as an offensive intern for the Browns in 2015.

The Bears unexpectedly fired Walker because he wasn’t meeting the team’s cultural standards.

“It’s really clear, in terms of how we treat each other with respect,” Eberflus said. “Being on time and working hard. That’s the first thing I laid out to everybody in the building. That’s the standard that we operate in.”

Walker is the second Bears assistant coach to leave the team midseason. Back in September, Alan Williams was not at Halas Hall as the team prepared for its Week 2 matchup against the Buccaneers. Williams eventually resigned on Sept. 20 in a statement, saying he needed to focus on his health and his family. The Bears acknowledged Williams’ resignation but did not make a similar statement of their own.

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Walker joined Matt Eberflus’ staff when Eberflus took over as head coach in 2022. Prior to joining the Bears, Walker had seven years of NFL experience.

The Bears run game was tops in the league last season with 3,014 yards. This year they’re still one of the best, coming in at No. 5 in the NFL with 1,062 yards.

This is the second assistant coach to suddenly leave the team. Back in September, Alan Williams was not at Halas Hall as the team prepared for its Week 2 matchup against the Buccaneers. Williams eventually resigned on Sept. 20 in a statement, saying he needed to focus on his health and his family. The Bears acknowledged Williams’ resignation but did not make a similar statement of their own.

It is unclear who will take over as the Bears running backs coach. The team does not have an assistant running backs coach on the staff.

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It’s a strange situation of illness and concussion intertwining, so head coach Matt Eberflus carefully explained the timeline on Monday.

“So, (last) Sunday and Monday he checked out fine with the evaluation and with the independent neurologist being cleared from concussion, so he was all set,” Eberflus said. “Then Tuesday, we reported that he was ill and had a fever. That persisted through Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, then into Friday we brought him in the building, so he was in here then. Then he was still not feeling well, so we ruled him out on Saturday. Then, again, he wasn’t feeling well, then his illness cleared Saturday, then Sunday felt he was cleared, in terms of his illness. Then, still felt a little bit off in terms of having different symptoms and those types of things, so we had him re-evaluated and now he is back into concussion protocol. That was on Sunday, not feeling well, then on Monday, this morning, got him tested again and he’s back in concussion protocol.

“I understand that’s unique. I’ve never had that happen before.”

The Bears were without both Brisker and fellow safety Eddie Jackson against the Chargers. Elijah Hicks and Duron Harmon played in their places. If each guy misses more time, the Bears will likely go back to that same combination. 

“The most important thing is our players’ safety and health and Jaquan did a very good job of communicating with us and the training staff did a really good job too, of seeing this thing all the way through,” Eberflus said.

The Bears selected Brisker in the second round of the 2022 draft and he cracked the starting lineup immediately. Brisker appeared to be an ascending star on defense, but his young career has been broken up by frequent injuries already. Brisker only missed two games last season, and one game up to this point this year, but he’s shuffled on and off the field due to various injuries, including a broken thumb, multiple soft tissue issues and now multiple concussions.

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It’s a story Bears fans have heard on repeat over the past two years: Bears can’t get home with four, as they prefer, and QB slices and dices the defense. GM Ryan Poles tried to address the issue by signing bonafide edge rusher Yannick Ngakoue and drafting two young tackles in Gervon Dexter and Zacch Pickens. So far it hasn’t been enough, and on NBC Sports Chicago’s “Football Aftershow,” former Bears defensive end Alex Brown argued that Poles should have remained aggressive throughout the season to address the problem.

“Frank Clark was out on the streets for two weeks,” Brown said on “Football Aftershow.” “Where were the Bears, pouncing on that opportunity to get a pass rusher? We need a pass rusher. Why are we just allowing the pass rushers to be out on the streets?

“Randy Gregory, he was available apparently, and he left and went to somebody else.”

Each player has a history of success in the NFL, regardless of their slow starts to the 2023 season. Clark has 58.5 career sacks, 14 forced fumbles and seven fumble recoveries in 123 games. Gregory has 20.5 sacks, 10 forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries in 63 games.

“We need them in order for this defense to work,” said Brown. “We have to have guys that can get after the quarterback.”

The Bears defense is predicated on pressuring the QB with the defensive line alone so that the unit can drop seven defenders in coverage. That’s essential for the team to take up as much space as possible in their zone schemes, or to double-cover an opposing offense’s best playmaker.

Throughout the year the defensive line has been unable to create that pressure, so Eberflus has had to adjust by bringing blitzers more often. It’s great when the extra rushers get home, but when they don’t it leaves the secondary vulnerable to explosive plays.

The Broncos let both Clark and Gregory go earlier this month as they focused on giving younger talent an opportunity to shine in a disappointing season. Clark eventually signed a reported one-year, $1.165M contract with the Seahawks. The 49ers sent a sixth-round pick to Denver in exchange for Gregory and a seventh-rounder. In each case, the Bears could’ve easily afforded the price. However there’s a debate as to whether they would want to.

If the Bears don’t meet the NFL’s salary cap this year, they’re allowed to roll over the savings to next year. Further, Poles may want to keep as many draft picks as possible, even low picks like sixth-rounders, to continue adding as much young talent as he can, especially considering how last year’s Chase Claypool trade flopped. Alternatively, the Bears may have reached out to a player like Clark and they may have been rebuffed if Clark wanted to join a team with real playoff aspirations.

Either way, it’s clear that the Bears are still in rebuild mode, and not serious playoff contention mode.

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The Bears were the worst team in football last season, and they looked plenty bad in plenty of their losses, but they often played a competitive brand of football. This season has been different. Sunday night’s blowout was already the third game this year where the Bears haven’t looked competitive at all. They laid an egg against the Packers in Week 1, got blown out by the Chiefs in Week 3, and can now add Week 8’s uninspiring performance to the list.

“We had a lot of penalties that set us back, set our drives back on offense,” head coach Matt Eberflus said after the game. “The operation wasn’t as clean as it needed to be. Then on defense it was simply about fundamentals. It was about basics.”

The Bears roster isn’t good enough, or deep enough, to recover from sloppy play. With key players like Justin Fields, Eddie Jackson, Jaquan Brisker, Khalil Herbert and Nate Davis all sidelined, everyone else needs to mind their Ps and Qs just to give the team a chance to win.

For instance, the Bears had a perfect opportunity to score and make a statement on the first drive of the game. Tyson Bagent opened the night with a great 41-yard pass to Darnell Mooney. But the offense followed that up with a one-yard D’Onta Foreman run, a Trent Taylor end-around that went for a loss of two, then a big sack when Joey Bosa ran right through Cody Whitehair. A prime scoring chance turned into a punt.

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Eberflus said.

The ensuing defensive series was just as bad. The Bears couldn’t generate any pressure with their front four and had numerous missed tackles, which allowed Justin Herbert and his numerous Chargers playmakers to march easily down the field. One of the worst whiffs from T.J. Edwards transformed what could’ve been a TFL into a touchdown. The lack of pursuit from Edwards’ teammates at the second and third levels didn’t help.

“That’s where they got their big plays and that’s where they got their scoring opportunities,” Eberflus said about the lack of fundamentals on defense as a whole.

Each opening drive was a microcosm of the Bears’ bad night. Sometimes the problem was a bad penalty on an offensive lineman or a poor decision from Bagent. Other times it was a poor angle taken by a would-be tackler, or a squandered opportunity to notch a takeaway. Whatever the issue, the result was the same too often: fruitless drives for the Bears and points for the Chargers.

If you need someone to blame for the ineptitude, you have your choice. You can blame the coaches for the lack of discipline and poor techniques across the board. You can blame the players for not executing when coaches put them in a position to succeed. You can blame the front office for failing to bring in enough players who can get the job done.

But it doesn’t matter who you choose. No matter where you land, the simple truth is that the Bears need to play nearly perfect ball to win. That’s tough to do.

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With the NFL trade deadline one week away, Jaylon Johnson trade rumors and debates have intensified. On a recent episode of NBC Sports Chicago’s “Under Center Podcast,” Hall of Fame coach and “Football Night in America” analyst Tony Dungy joined the show and shared his thoughts on what the Bears should do with their talented cornerback.

“I’ve never been one to say, ‘We’re going to get rid of good players and get what we want and rebuild,’” Dungy said on the show. “If you’ve got a player that plays your style and you’re comfortable with him, let’s go forward and let’s keep winning. And you never have enough cover people.”

There’s no doubt Johnson is one of the best coverage cornerbacks in the NFL. For years he’s been recognized as a player who can stymie elite wide receivers. But there have been questions about whether Johnson can take the ball away at a high clip, like head coach Matt Eberflus demands from his defenders.

Entering this season Johnson only had one career interception, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery over three seasons. That’s not enough in the Bears’ eyes. So Johnson worked on techniques to help generate more turnovers and he’s started to see the results. Of course there was Week 7’s big day with two interceptions, including a pick-six. Johnson also forced a fumble in Week 2 that the Bears weren’t able to recover.

“He’s done everything we’ve asked,” Eberflus said earlier this week. “He’s done a really good job of improving his craft. He’s always been really good in terms of being sticky at the top of routes and being able to close distances and make plays on the ball. Now he’s starting to make those interceptions, which is positive. Obviously getting takeaways is a big thing.”

Dungy indicated that’s not just coach-speak from Eberflus. 

“I know this coaching staff is comfortable with him,” Dungy said.

That seems to put to rest concerns that Johnson might not fit into Eberflus’ style of defense. There’s still the question of whether the Bears ultimately extend Johnson, and what they do at the deadline.

Do they take a chance on a player as they try to build up their roster, like they did with Chase Claypool last season? Do they stand pat with the roster they’ve got? Or do they trade away some high performing players with expiring contracts like they did with Roquan Smith and Robert Quinn?

If the Bears decide to go that latter route, there aren’t many players who could fit the bill. Andrew Billings has been a revelation at nose tackle, but the Bears are so hard-pressed for effective pass rushers that it doesn’t make sense to set the unit back even more. Cody Whitehair has been pushed out of his starting center job, but he’s too valuable to the team as a depth piece at both center and guard– especially with Nate Davis on the shelf with an ankle injury.

Johnson’s case is a little different, though. He is a player on an expiring contract who can fetch valuable draft picks on the trade market. He also plays a position where the Bears have intriguing young talent. The Bears spent two draft picks on cornerbacks this year to bring in Tyrique Stevenson and Terell Smith. Each rookie has shown the makings of a good corner in their playing time this season. 

But as Dungy said, NFL teams can’t have enough good players at premium positions like cornerback.

“I just never liked the idea, you know, this team, maybe they’re not in it, so they look ahead. Well, the way you get better is stockpile good players. So I’m not trading Jaylon Johnson just to get another pick down the road.”

The NFL trade deadline is Oct. 31.

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For instance, the Buccaneers dialed up shots to Mike Evans against Stevenson whenever they could in Week 2 en route to Evans’ massive six-catch, 171-yard performance. Even though Stevenson has been picked on a bit, it’s not really a slight on him. That’s just how life typically goes for rookie corners in the NFL.

So when Adams told Raiders reporters earlier this week that he was unhappy with his diminished role in the offense and wanted the ball thrown his way more often, it seemed like Stevenson was in line to get picked on, yet again. And over the Raiders’ first three offensive plays that’s exactly what happened.

Brian Hoyer opened the game with a quick pass to Adams with Stevenson in coverage. It turned into an 11-yard gain. Two plays later, Adams beat Stevenson off the line easily for a catch on a quick slant and gained another 15 yards. So when the Raiders faced their first third-down later in the drive, and it was once again Stevenson lined up across from Adams, everyone knew what was going to happen next.

“We were playing a lot of zone, but coach (Matt Eberflus) believes in us on third down to play man and I just knew where the ball was coming just hearing from the media and everything going on with him wanting the ball,” said Stevenson. “I just knew the ball was coming, so I knew I had to do my job the best way I can.”

Stevenson did. He covered Adams well and got a key pass break up to force a field goal attempt. One snap later Daniel Carlson missed his 41-yard try. Stevenson’s stop ended up keeping points off the board entirely.

“Gave me the confidence that I can go out there and play, I can go out there and cover a veteran like Davante,” said Stevenson. “It added to my confidence and I feel like it added to the team confidence.”

Stevenson’s teammates and coaches have always been confident in his ability to make big plays, even as a rookie.

“Just the type of guy he is, he’s a competitor, he’s a dog, he’s got a work ethic, he’s a competitive dude so he ain’t scared of nothing, and he’s got all the ability in the world,” said safety Elijah Hicks. “With all that combination of things, it’s just good for him to showcase his skillset.”

Stevenson didn’t cover Adams all day, but he settled in for a back and forth battle with the dynamic pass catcher from that point forward whenever they were matched up against each other. Sometimes Adams got the better of him. Sometimes Stevenson made a splashy play. Overall it was an impressive performance, but Stevenson wasn’t satisfied.

“Feel like I gave up some passes that I could’ve defended better and I could’ve played a lot more clean of a game, but I’m definitely happy that we won as a team and played together.”

Stevenson finished the game with three passes defended, with at least two of them coming against Adams. After the game, Eberflus said he liked what he saw from the rookie when he was covering the premiere receiver.

“He’s going to play against a lot of really good receivers this year, and the most important part for a rookie is to just keep learning,” Eberflus said. “Take that, put it in your file and learn for the next time you play that player, because it’s all about the one-on-ones.”

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On Thursday, offensive coordinator Luke Getsy started to get into the things they see from Bagent on the field that gives him confidence Bagent can get the job done.

“I think he’s a fluid athlete,” said Getsy. “I think the processing part of it, he’s played a lot of ball in college, threw the ball all over the yard, so he’s an obvious passer of the football.”

The Bears have also described Fields as a good passer, pointing to his success throwing the ball back at Ohio State. They’ve been effusive about his deep ball for a long time. So any descriptions of Bagent as an “obvious passer” shouldn’t be read as a slight towards Fields.

Fields’ athleticism is second-to-none, however, so the Bears have things in their offense to take advantage of that athleticism, like designed runs and RPOs. Could there be additional concepts to play to Fields’ strengths, like moving pockets and vertical shots? Yes. But now, Bears coaches are charged with designing an offense around Bagent’s strengths.

“Certainly some of it will look different,” said head coach Matt Eberflus. “It’ll look different for sure just because you’ve always gotta play to the strength of who’s got the ball in their hands at quarterback. We’re going to do that for sure.”

We won’t know exactly what that looks like until the Bears take the field, but an educated guess might say the Bears could dial up more quick throws to get the ball out of Bagent’s hands. If the Bears really like his ability to process the field, then there could be an uptick in timing throws that are predicated on going through progressions precisely. We might see fewer designed runs, if any at all.

Bagent said he told coaches that he was comfortable with the entire call sheet when he came in to finish last week’s game. He didn’t want them to hold any plays back. This week he’s equally confident that he can master a full call sheet, no matter what the team installs. The key to his confidence goes back to his dedication to preparation.

“I’m not usually that comfortable until I know the whole game plan so I kind of put that burden on myself throughout the week,” Bagent said.

That confidence in turn spreads to the rest of the offense.

“The way he commands things, the checks he makes sometimes are just like, ‘Oh, he made that check,’” said wide receiver Tyler Scott. “Some things that necessarily weren’t initially in the game plan but just kind of things that was all playing football. I think he just has that ‘it’ about him.

“We had a scenario this past week where something was called and we made an adjustment on the fly… He just kind of made an adjustment leaving the huddle. He said, ‘Hey, they’ve been bailing.’ He seen something with the defense, he was like, ‘Hey, they’ve been doing this, snap it down at the top and I’ll hit it to you.’ And that’s when we converted that huge third down giving us a chance to win. I think he makes those kinds of football plays and just kind of sees the game and just kind of plays free.”

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