(670 The Score) Of all the letdowns in a Bears season defined by disappointment, perhaps the biggest one was exposed Sunday in Santa Clara, Calif.
Their defense stinks.
What the Bears have always counted on most provided the least.
Once considered capable of being a top-five unit in the NFL, the Bears defense now risks finishing the season as one of the most overrated in the league.
The 49ers rammed that point down the Bears' throats in a 38-13 throttling at Levi's Stadium in a game that illustrated what real NFL roster depth looks like.
San Francisco was playing without its top two running backs, an All-Pro left tackle and one of its leading receivers yet did whatever it wanted against the Bears.
"We got our butts kicked,” Bears interim coach Thomas Brown said succinctly postgame. "There's no other way to say it.”
There are – but not without censors. The 49ers amassed 452 total yards. Quarterback Brock Purdy looked relevant again, completing 20 of 25 passes for 325 yards and two touchdowns with a 145.4 passer rating. His receivers were more open than a chatty Uber driver. The chains moved faster than the WiFi in Silicon Valley. This was an offensive onslaught.
The first half represented as lopsided of a half as you'll ever see in the NFL, with the 49ers rolling up 319 yards compared to the Bears' four. Four yards. That's an embarrassing disparity. It was the lowest offensive output in a half by the Bears this millennium, according to TruMediaSports.
Obviously, the Bears defense didn’t travel well as they failed to back up their big talk. A once-feared unit no longer scares a soul. Middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds (too) quietly has made little impact at a position designed for it. Sack man Montez Sweat has stopped getting sacks. The middle of the defense never recovered from the loss of Andrew Billings, with Gervon Dexter Jr. becoming too easily moved on running plays. Outside linebacker Jack Sanborn was isolated in a mismatch and beaten on a pass play to the goal line.
The Bears secondary lost Jaquan Brisker to a concussion weeks ago, sure, but it hasn't been the same since cornerback Tyrique Stevenson lost his head in a loss against the Commanders. Stevenson has been a different player since. Too many Bears defensive backs catch running backs more than they tackle them. Jaylon Johnson remains one of the NFL's top cornerbacks but has made more noise off the field than on it this season.
Sunday marked the first game that Eric Washington called the defensive signals instead of Matt Eberflus, who as a head coach was a pretty good defensive coordinator. Until he wasn't. Until the multi-tasking responsibilities swallowed him whole and he couldn't perform any of his jobs well, so he was fired.
It's unclear whether the Bears defense missed Eberflus or, after seven straight losses, it's just deteriorated into a version of bad. Whatever. The cause matters less than the outcome. And as a result of all that underachieving, the Bears did more for Purdy's stature Sunday than they did for their interim head coach Brown.
As debuts go, Brown's was a dud. Not even Brown and all his well-publicized vim and vigor could revive this lifeless bunch of underachievers. There’s no doubt Eberflus lost the locker room, so perhaps it was a little unfair – or at least unwise – to expect Brown to get everybody using the same GPS in his first game.
So much for the interim head coach bounce. The "energy" was missing and only one Bears offensive drive showed any degree of competence, a 16-play, 70-yard scoring march that lasted 9 minutes and 4 seconds to open the second half and ended with a four-yard touchdown pass from Caleb Williams to Rome Odunze. That only made it 24-6 because tight end Cole Kmet dropped the two-point conversion pass that hit him in the worst possible place: his hands.
That was the only time all game Kmet was targeted, a fitting disparity that also points out how far apart the Bears really are from quality teams – and organizations. Kmet's counterpart, 49ers tight end George Kittle, dominated the game with six catches for 151 yards – so many after the catch.
Kmet is a good player with potential but must be surrounded by others in the passing game to make his presence felt. Kittle is one of the best tight ends in the league, the type of target who makes quarterbacks better and offenses complete. The next time you think about whether the Bears really have a playoff roster or one that just looks solid in comparison to past Bears rosters, think of the difference between Kmet and Kittle in this game. Kmet is Chicago good; but Chicago good, as the Bears keep proving, isn't good enough to compete perennially for the postseason.
It's something that the entire organization – led unmistakably by team president Kevin Warren, if the news conference last week is any indication – must accept and realize. Then it must respond.
Their defeat Sunday guaranteed another losing season for the Bears, but it's much worse than that. Any organization that fires its offensive coordinator and head coach within three weeks of each other during the season has lost the right to assume anything. The Bears are closer to having two double-digit losing streaks in a three-year span than they are to competing for a postseason berth.
This season began with playoff aspirations. It'll likely end with the Bears among the 10 worst teams in the league. How should any job be secure after that? Why would anybody at 1920 Football Drive feel comfortable going to work Monday?
And who will the players blame this week? The Bears are running out of people to fire. But there’s plenty of blame to go around.
Warren assured everyone that Poles will be the point man for the head coaching search and sounded confident in his general manager, but the first word out of his mouth when asked about Poles was that he was "young.'' Not exactly the first impression you want to leave.
By the end of his dreadfully long season – four more losses? – you have to wonder how much Warren still will believe in Poles. That's not jumping to conclusions as much as it's grasping the obvious.
Poles' biggest misses have come in his insistence in supporting Eberflus when other more qualified coaches were available and his inability to assemble a capable offensive line. That's all Williams really needs: a capable offensive line. But too many times this year, the offensive line issues have been at the core of the offensive breakdowns. The 49ers sacked Williams seven more times, and nobody in the NFL this season has been sacked more than the Bears' rookie.
Williams completed 17 of 23 passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns with a 116.9 passer rating, numbers more respectable on paper than they looked on the field. He extended his rookie record for passes thrown without an interception to 255. But as much as you appreciate Williams' attention to detail, times exist when he needs to take a bigger risk for a potential reward.
Williams being too careful can stymie a possible explosive play as much as any given Bears pass blocker being too weak.
Rebuilding the offensive line is priority No. 1 for Poles – or whoever is assembling the next Bears roster. Winning organizations still build from the ball on out, a message the Bears have consistently ignored under Phil Emery, Ryan Pace and now Poles.
The Bears often have gotten away with such neglect because of defenses stout enough to overcome other deficiencies. This defense once was thought of in the same light but not anymore. Now, the defense has added itself to the list of what the Bears can't count on, a list that continues to grow – the offensive line, the offensive coordinator, the special teams, the head coach, the defense ... what else? Who else? The general manager?
From top to bottom, after another long day by the Bay, nothing should be out of the question at Halas Hall. Nothing can be considered too drastic of a possibility, not with four more games against playoff-caliber teams left. Nothing is working anymore.
Not even the defense.
David Haugh is the co-host of the Mully & Haugh Show from 5-10 a.m. weekdays on 670 The Score. Click here to listen. Follow him on Twitter @DavidHaugh.