(670 The Score) No excuses remain for a Bears team that can't pull itself out of a disturbing tailspin that spans all phases of the game. This is as bad as it looks.
A sickening slide from Super Bowl contender to NFC also-ran has occurred at breakneck speed despite every claim that it could and would be fixed, with a 36-25 loss to an injury-riddled Saints team at Soldier Field on Sunday fully laying bare systemic problems with the Bears that infect everything they're trying to do. We're staring at a lurid, funhouse-mirror reflection of what they were expected to be, and now it's time to ask those responsible how it got here.
This proved the London disaster was too easily dismissed as an anomaly. The Bears offense has atrophied into something grotesque and utterly unrecognizable, with Mitchell Trubisky looking mentally fried and physically compromised, the former far more troubling than the latter. He still can't see enough of what's happening in front of him and react to it properly, despite all of the resources and time dedicated to the project. All of the big questions about him are on the table -- now not just fair, but demanded.
The Bears either don't run the ball because they can't or can't run because they don't, which are equally unacceptable. Too many plays look like tricks that betray a lack of trust in an offensive line that features two 2018 Pro Bowl participants and a load of guaranteed money, and the gimmickry out of necessity instead of luxury is now fooling no one. A surfeit of skilled players has disintegrated into a list of questions, with only Allen Robinson even holding his own.
The defensive line got mauled again by an opponent winning repeatedly at the point of attack, powering simple run plays into chunks of easy yards. If Akiem Hicks matters this much, that's itself its own problem. What's worse is that the Bears have Khalil Mack in his prime, and it doesn't matter.
The Bears had two punts blocked too, with the first one -- coming after an opening-possession three-and-out of overwrought strategy derailed by bad blocking -- foreshadowing this regime's worst day.
Remember when we thought something as superfluous as the choice of placekicker could be their undoing? That was cute.
Coach Matt Nagy is in over his head at the moment, his relentless positivity now challenged by the enormity of this situation, the unquestioned nadir of his tenure. This performance occurred on his watch right after he said it wouldn't.
He promised that the bye week would allow for him to steady the ship through the hard work of corrective practice, though he wasn't compelled to get on with it until giving his team a week off. Nagy met the high expectations of 2019 with a failure at home in the season opener, and he had to know this game -- at home, after the bye week, with his starting quarterback available and against a beat-up opponent -- was some kind of last stand for relevance. He assured us that he was on it, digging into the kind of ruthless self-scouting and reconsideration of personnel and play-calling that would help the Bears to reassert some kind of identity.
Alas, one has been found.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's Bernstein & McKnight Show in midday. You can follow him on Twitter @Dan_Bernstein.
