(670 The Score) This is the 2022 Bears team we all expected, the one we thought would probably be bad at all kinds of things due to its dubious combination of inexperience and lack of talent.
So much for "Well, maybe... ." This one told some truths.
The Bears' 20-12 loss to an already injured Giants team Sunday looks even worse when you note the fact that New York didn't even have a healthy quarterback for the deciding series. Daniel Jones was out with a sprained ankle, and Tyrod Taylor was evaluated for a concussion after coming in long enough to rush for 30 yards on three carries, just a small portion of the embarrassing total of the 262 that the Giants stomped all over a Bears defense that had a tough enough time figuring out who had the football.
Boot actions and read options and other misdirections had too many eyes crossed as wayward Bears raced to fill gaps while the actual ball carrier slipped around and away. Saquon Barkley rolled up 146 yards on 31 carries, while Jones accounted for 68 on six carries and the game's only two touchdowns.
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Bears coach Matt Eberflus will keep preaching the gospel of his HITS principle, so let's suggest he add an amendment to the front of it to represent "see where the ball is." It would be a nice start.
Rookie cornerback Kyler Gordon is still getting located and picked on too, in both the run game and down the field. It's one thing for Aaron Rodgers to expose him, another entirely for it to be done this easily by that Giants team.
We'll read what we want into a day for Justin Fields that wasn't without some decent throws but which still fed ongoing questions about what he sees and when he sees it. Having 11 completions in 22 attempts for 184 yards and no scores or picks is still bad in this league, no matter the excuses that will be made. Fields' eyes keep dropping too early when he's pressured, forcing him to do all he can to keep plays alive and scramble like hell, which often results in him having to absorb undue physical punishment. It's no way to live.
Of course the just-signed Michael Badgely kicked four field goals to account for all of the Bears' points. The journeyman was signed from the placekicker green room after Cairo Santos incurred a family emergency, and he was right down the middle on all of his attempts.
The Bears have to make these kickers stop mattering so much.
Velus Jones Jr.'s debut was much anticipated after he missed the first three games with a hamstring injury, and the rookie all but sealed the loss by muffing a punt in the fourth quarter for the second of the Bears' three turnovers on the day.
As painful as it was to watch, it's even tougher to confront just how unlikely it was that this Bears offense would otherwise have driven down the field to score an actual touchdown and then run a successful two-point conversion. And it only would have tied it, anyway.
No, this has to serve as a reset -- a return to reality.
It's going to be like this for a while, at least until a lot of much better players get here and the ones on the roster who have so much to learn start to do so in front of our eyes.
Settle in. As the injuries mount, this will get uglier.
Dan Bernstein is the co-host of the Bernstein & Holmes Show on middays from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on 670 The Score. You can follow him on Twitter @Dan_Bernstein.
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