5 Bears Takes Following A Second Straight Divisional Loss

Didn’t think things could get worse from Week 1? Well, think again! Just six days after blowing an 11-point fourth-quarter lead at home, the Chicago Bears took their show on the road for an early-season Ben Johnson reunion in Detroit. Despite a fun start to the game, the Bears found themselves on the wrong end of a second-half blowout. The defensive line couldn’t generate pressure, and the offense continued to make far too many mistakes.

If there’s one thing that’s clear through two weeks, it’s that this is a team very far away from digging itself out of a brutal hole that it’s been plagued with since 2019. Let’s dive into our Five Bears Takes before we permanently erase this game from our memories.

1. If you hadn’t adjusted your expectations after Week 1, this might be a good time to.

I’m not sure you could have scripted a more disastrous start for a Bears season. After blowing an 11-point fourth-quarter lead at home in Week 1, they were embarrassed on the road against a divisional opponent in Johnson’s Detroit homecoming. We’ll get to it more later, but starting (0-2) is tough, but it’s an even bigger deal when both of those losses come within the division.

To put it bluntly, the Bears have looked absolutely awful over the last five quarters. Before that, they had one good drive and three dominant defensive quarters to show for their young season. Heading into Week 2, Chicago is one of nine (0-2) teams. More concerning, their -34 point differential is the worst in the league. They’ve given up 19 more points than the second-worst defense and have averaged just 19 offensive points per game. If you were taking the eye test of rosters and depth charts out of the equation, it would be easy to argue that the Bears have been the worst team in the league over the first two weeks of the season. Even for the most skeptical of fans, it’s hard to imagine anyone had them starting this poorly.

Now, here’s the good news. They have some winnable games coming up. Regardless of what the Las Vegas Raiders do on Monday Night Football, that’s a winnable game. Same with their Week 3 matchup against the Cowboys. They’ve also got the New Orleans Saints, New York Giants, and Cleveland Browns on the schedule following their early bye week.

There are two ways this situation is likely to go.

1. They’re experiencing a slow start. The defense is struggling, the offense isn’t much better, and the entire team is learning how to win. As the team continues to get its footing under them and the coaching staff figures out how to tailor their scheme(s) around their personnel, things will get better.
2. This team is an actual disaster, and this is just how things are going to be.

Frankly, I’d be surprised if the Bears are *this* bad. As I’ve admitted before, I didn’t expect this slow a start, but I...