(670 The Score) Much has been made about the Bears seeming to lack a clear identity as they went 8-8 in the past two regular seasons.
Finally, the team has hope at quarterback as rookie Justin Fields continues to progress nicely. He’ll be the centerpiece of the team for years to come, but in the mind of Audacy Sports insider Michael Lombardi, the organization as a whole still lacks a cohesive identity and needs to figure that out, as Lombardi explained on the Mully & Haugh Show on Wednesday morning.
“The hardest thing to do is to have a measuring stick, right?” Lombardi said. “You know, we all want to be honest with ourselves and evaluate ourselves, but who are we comparing it to? What is our overall basic philosophy? What do we believe in as an organization? Who are we? I mean, this is no different than the people driving to work in Chicago today that work for corporations. Who are we? What do we represent as the Chicago Bears? What do we want to be?
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“And then once you figure that out, then you set the standards of what you want to have as your organization. It’s easy to get back to square one when you understand where you’re going. Any road will lead you somewhere if you don’t know where you’re going. I think ultimately that’s one of the biggest problems with the Bears. They’re a mom-and-pop operation, which is wonderful, but they don’t ever have an identity. They’ve lost their identity in terms of ‘here’s who we are and what we represent as a football team.’ They’ve gotten away from it. You often thought of with (Mike) Ditka, with all the great defenses, as a defensive team that would run the ball and play tough. Well, that’s not who they are now. That’s not who they are. They lead the league in sacks. They’ve given up over a zillion yards in sacks. They had their first 200-yard passing game last week. They’re trying to be a finesse team that really isn’t a finesse team. I think at the end of the day, that’s the core. I think Ted Phillips and (George) McCaskey have to sit down and say, ‘This is the kind of football team we want, this is who we are.’ And the general manager has to fill in those blanks and go from there.”
The Bears are 3-6 as they prepare to host the Ravens on Sunday at Soldier Field. You can listen to Lombardi’s full interview below.
