Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune quotes Bears head coach Matt Eberflus on Jack Sanborn.

“If you go back and look at the preseason, you saw what kind of player he was,” Eberflus said. “He’s very instinctual, makes a lot of plays on the ball, always reads his keys. He’s always on it that way. We’re pleased with where he’s going.”

I was listening to a podcast the other day where the hosts stated that they were worried because the Bears had “once again” not identified a player early in the season and failed to put them into the games until later than it should’ve happened.

I don’t think this is the case with Sanborn. A spot at linebacker was opened up when the Bears traded Roquan Smith. I would say it’s likely that one of the reasons the Bears felt comfortable trading Smith was the fact that Sanborn was behind him and was developing into what looked like a decent linebacker.

Is Sanborn a decent linebacker? We really don’t know yet. But he led the team in tackles his first 2 games with 19. Sixteen of those were solo and 2 were for loss. He has 2 sacks.

If the Bears had Sanborn in mind when they let Smith go, I’d say that the indications are that it was a good call.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune
talks about the Bears substandard defense.

It’s jarring to see the lowly Lions come in and move up and down the field and not have issues in the red zone, but Poles can make some major offseason moves to begin plugging the many holes on defense while also trying to shore up things around Fields. The Bears will be flush with more than $100 million in salary-cap space, and the loss moved them to No. 6 in the projected draft order by tankathon.com. At least two teams ahead of the Bears — the Houston Texans and Carolina Panthers — could be hunting for a quarterback.

So maybe those who want to see the offense continue to put up points in exciting games that ultimately end in a Bears defeat to enhance draft positioning are happy. I know there’s a segment of the fan base that thinks this way. But it’s frustrating for those involved and many watching to see the defense appear so inept.

Well, everyone likes to see a better draft position. But I agree with Biggs that it’s frustrating to watch the defense, not because they’re not very good but because of the reason they’re not very good.

I, like everyone else, totally understand that the Bears don’t have very much talent on the defensive side of the ball. I can live with losing for that reason in a rebuilding year. But what worries me is that is not always the case.

Biggs use the word “inept”. That’s part what I’m seeing. I’m seeing guys that aren’t doing their jobs and making a lot of mistakes.

The Bears defense at times looks poorly coached. I did not expect that with Matt Eberflus at the helm. Based upon his history I expect the defense to go out there and play at least to their abilities if not above their abilities. That is what Eberflus did with some consistency in Indianapolis. I expected the Bears to beat other teams with superior discipline. That simply hasn’t been the case, especially last Sunday when they committed 8 penalties to the Lions 2 and lost the turnover battle.

That is not happening here.

The Bears have work to do to make their defense better. They have to eliminate the mistakes. They have to start staying in their gaps in the run game and the broken coverages in the pass defense need to end. And tthey have to cut out the penalties that they’re committing at critical times.

Hopefully that will come together and they will show up better later in the year. In the meantime, Eberflus has reportedly been spending time with the quarterbacks in meetings. That’s good. But perhaps it’s time for him to spend more time with the defense that is his expertise. Evidently, they could use it.

Offense

• It’s very evident that at least part of the Bears game plan was to run the ball as much as possible. The first 6 plays were runs of one type or another. Ultimately they ran 35 times for 258 yards.
• Quarterback Justin Fields was under a lot of pressure from the lions. They seem determined to blitz and put pressure on the offense. Fields was 12 for 20 for 168 yards and a passer rating of 99.4.
• Once again, Justin Fields legs was the most potent part of the offense. He ran 13 times for 147 yards and 2 touchdowns. He made some mighty tough runs, not the least of which was the first touchdown run, where he slammed into two Lions players to get into the end zone. Fields has me holding my breath constantly after every hit. The 50 yard touchdown run for his second touchdown was breath taking as well.
• However, once again, Fields was not the only contributor. David Montgomery wasn’t bad (9 runs for 37 yards) but Khalil Herbert got the bulk of the carries and had a very good day (10 runs for 57 yards).
• I’m trying to be patient, but I really wish that Fields would get rid of the ball more quickly. He holds it awfully long and I know he can get away with it because he can scramble with the ball. But eventually he’s got to develop into a better passer.
• One of the things I’ve noticed is that Fields is getting everyone lined up, but he’s waiting until fairly late. In the play. Clock countdown to snap the ball. I think he’s waiting to see if the defense performs any late shifts. This is something new and it sounds like a pretty good idea.
• Really nice job by Cole Kmet adjusting to the ball on his second touchdown of the day late in the third quarter. That was a tough catch even though he was wide-open. Fields threw the ball far behind him. Heck of a play. I’m finally starting to think that they might have something in Kmet. In the end Kmet had 4 receptions for 47 yards and 2 touchdowns.
• Byron Pringle had a good day, his first game back from injured reserve. Fields seemed to be looking for him.
• The Bears were 6 of 11 on third down and 0 for 1 on fourth down.

Defense

• It looked like Detroit’s plan was to run the ball against the Bears. They did do a nice job of mixing in short quick passes. But my impression was that they thought they could run on the Bears on the early downs. They ran 31 times for 95 yards for a below average 3.1 yards per carry in the end.
• As poor as the Bears defensive line, is it getting pressure with their front four, I will say that they did a bit of a better job of getting penetration against the run this game. There were a few tackles for loss from the defense from players like Armon Watts, Justin Jones and Jack Sanborn.
• The Bears seemed to blitz Jared Goff, quite a bit more than is their want. Evidently, they realized they had to get pressure on him to succeed in this game. Blitzing was the only way to do it. The defensive line is very rough for the Bears and they just cannot get pressure otherwise. In the end they still only sacked Jared Goff twice.
• On a related note, I might add that they were right to do everything that they could to pressure Goff. Anytime Goff had time, he ripped up the Bear is secondary. The Lions had a good day passing the ball (19 for 26 for 228 yards)..
• I do not think that I have to add that Goff did this by throwing away from Bears quarterback, Jaylon Johnson. Jaylon Jones saw a lot of action to his side until he was replaced by Lamar Jackson, who immediately committed a pass interference in the end zone. Golf picked on Kyler Gordon, and the safeties as well.
• Amon-Ra St. Brown had himself a day. My guess is that he was wound up and ready to compete with his brother who is a Bears wide receiver. He came out and performed. He had 10 catches for 119 yards.
• Jack Sanborn was all over the place. He had another good day. He had 12 tackles (2 for loss) , two sacks, and he should’ve had an interception that was taken away for a hands to the face penalty.
• The first Lions touchdown was really a nice play. The tight end slipped out unnoticed after making a fairly good fake block down on the defensive end. Goff needed plenty of time to pull it off, but he got it and it was a very smooth play to a wide-open receiver.
• The Lions were five for 11 on third down and one for one on fourth down. A comparable day to the Bears.

Miscellaneous

• Kevin Kugler, former Bears quarterback Mark Sanchez and Laura Okmin were your announcers. I have to say that I’ve never been a big fan of Sanchez. His charm is lost on me. But he surprised me and I thought he did a very good job in this game. Sanchez did a nice job of bringing in replays to point out good teaching points on the plays as the game progressed. It was good work.
• The broadcast was not helped by some lousy audio work. There was a microphone somewhere, possibly down on the field, that was making a lot of background noise and it made it very hard to hear Kugler, Sanchez and Okmin at times in the second and third quarters. That was some poor work.
• On special teams, Herbert had a nice kick return in the first quarter. He took it 50 yards. Cairo Santos has a rough day. He kicked a kickoff out of bounds to set the Lions up in good field position in the third quarter. Then as Fields ran for a magnificent touchdown to put the Bears ahead, he missed an extra point to keep it at a six point game. It ultimately cost the Bears the game.
• The Bears were very undisciplined today (9 penalties for 86 yards). They had some bad penalties that killed a fair number of drives. For instance:
  • one holding call in the red zone on Braxton Jones brought them back 10 yards to second and 14. The Bears settled for a field goal.
  • Jones had another holding penalty on the second drive that killed it.
  • On another drive a facemask penalty from Cole Kmet set them back 15 yards.
  • Jaylon Jones had a pass interference in the end zone that contributed to the Lions first touchdown drive.
  • An unnecessary roughness penalty when Jaquan Brisker shoved Goff out of bounds, helped along an important Lions drive in the fourth quarter. That drive was also helped by a holding call on Johnson. The unnecessary roughness penalty was borderline, but still dumb.
  • A hands to the face penalty on Johnson eliminated a Sanborn interception and kept a Lions drive going in the fourth quarter. Detroit scored a touchdown instead.

  Neither their offense nor their defense is good enough to make up for deficits like this.

• I’d say that turnovers weren’t a big part of this game. Fields interception in the fourth quarter hurt but he was under pressure, and it was not unusual. The Lions had no turnovers.
• This was a bit of a bad loss for the Bears as losses this year ago. The year was never about wins, but this one hurt because of the way it came about. Way, way too many penalties with the Lions getting almost none. The Fields interception was the only turnover.To be outplayed by the Lions, who played a very clean game, did not make for a great afternoon.

  I suppose ultimately the good news is that Fields continues to develop, and the rest of the team continues to develop around him. But it seems like they have a long way to go, especially the defense. Lots and lots of mistakes were made and these have to be corrected and some talent upgrades have to be made for the Bears are going to be able to play defense like a competent NFL team.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions.

Do you think Alex Leatherwood has a place on this O-line in the future? I am hoping he can be the right tackle at some point this season if he performs well. — @iammars25

There’s no way to answer that question without seeing Leatherwood play. As I wrote Friday, it’s a really good idea to give Leatherwood a stretch of games as a starter before the season ends to determine if he should be in the mix to compete for a starting job in 2023. That could happen at right tackle, but veteran Riley Reiff has played well the last two weeks and I doubt the Bears are ready to make a switch right away. Time is remaining, but I’m definitely in the camp that believes Leatherwood needs to be evaluated before the end of the season.

So a couple of things here.

When Leatherwood was acquired, it was fairly evident to me that the Bears thought that he was a project. When you watched him on video, his technique was completely shot. The guess here is that the plan is for offensive line coach Chris Morgan to completely tear Leatherwood down to the studs and then rebuild both his technique and his confidence from the ground up. That’s going to take time. And the fact that Leatherwood started his Bears career by becoming injured set him back even farther.

We probably will see Leatherwood at some point toward the end of the season, particularly if it continues to look like the Bears will be eliminated from the playoffs sooner rather than later. But my guess is that the Bears acquired Leatherwood more for 2023 and that it’s not a big deal if he doesn’t make it onto the field in 2022.

Second, and this is the second or third time I’ve heard Biggs say it this week, veteran Riley Reiff is playing well but not that well. There’s a reason why Reiff has been a journeyman throughout his NFL career. He’s known as an excellent pass blocker, but his run blocking is amongst the poorest in the league.

Ultimately the Bears need an all-around guy who can do both at right tackle. Larry Borum is a young player who shows some signs that he could do that. And playing and developing the young players is what this season is about, not playing veterans that you already know aren’t good enough.

My guess – and it is only a guess – is that the Bears were a little bit hesitant to put Borum in right away coming off of his concussion with very little practice time. However, it would not surprise me in the least if he was starting at right tackle over Reiff this week.

Dan Parr and Eric Edholm at nfl.com
evaluate the draft position and needs for every NFL team as it currently stands.

Biggest needs: DL, OL, LB
Week 10 opponent: vs. Lions

DP: Linebacker replaces wide receiver on the needs list. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to continue adding to the receiver corps, even after the acquisition of Chase Claypool, but the cupboard is looking bare at linebacker with Roquan Smith now in Baltimore.

I think if there is one message that we can take away from the Bears recent moves it’s that inside linebacker is not going to be anywhere near that nine overall pick unless it’s a can’t miss, super impact player.

For instance, Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune points to this exchange in his 10 thoughts column.

I asked Matt Eberflus on Wednesday if, when he was the Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator in 2018, they would have considered Smith if Notre Dame guard Quenton Nelson wasn’t available.

“At 5 (actually the Colts picked No. 6)?” Eberflus said.

Yeah, Smith was taken a few picks later.

“(Smith) was 11, right?” Eberflus said.

No, he went at No. 8.

“Eight?” Eberflus replied. “Yeah, I don’t think at that time (Colts GM Chris) Ballard was in the business of taking an off-the-ball linebacker at 8. I don’t think I could convince him of that.”

That’s a revealing take from Eberflus about the significance of positional value.

It is.

It’s pretty obvious that Bears general manager Ryan Poles is going to value the other, more high impact positions over positions like inside linebacker. If it’s an offensive lineman, it will be in offensive tackle, preferably a left tackle. If it’s a defense of lineman, it’s going to be three technique or defensive end. Don’t rule out the possibility that cornerback is high on this list as pretty much everyone on the roster is an inferior player after Jaylon Johnson.

Parr and Edhome are right to suggest that wide receiver is still high on the list. But given the scarcity of talent at the top of the draft, I would expect a fairly early run at the position. I wouldn’t hold my breath that the Bears are going to find a wide receiver that they need picking in the slot.

And that brings up another “problem” when it comes to this draft (if you consider it to be a problem). The Bears draft position is likely to only get worse from here. The defense is not going to be dealing with a Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle every week. And the offenses is definitely showing signs of being a bit frisky.

It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if the Bears find themselves outside the top 10 before this season is over.

In any case, these are the positions that the Bears are going to be looking at, not linebacker.

Offense

• The Bears gave an indication of what the plan was when they started the game with 5 straight passes before running the ball. The first drive was 7 passes total to only one run. Obviously, they thought they could attack the Dolphins defensive backfield despite the 15 mph wind.
• The Dolphins were playing a lot of press coverage at the line of scrimmage. Surprisingly it didn’t really work as well as I would have anticipated. The Bears passed for 116 yards on 17 attempts. Not great. But not completely shut down and they did have their moments. The man coverage also left the defensive backs with their backs turned to the line of scrimmage. Which left Justin Fields open to run the ball. More on that below.
• Chase Claypool immediately showed some of his value as he drew a 28 yard pass interference penalty on the first possession. Claypool also got s first down with a nifty move in space in the first quarter. Claypool had 2 catches for 13 yards which doesn’t sound like much but it was his first game with a new team and with minimal time to prepare. And notably he should have drawn another pass interference call at the end of the game to keep the Bears final drive alive. Most of the time that’s called and should be added to his credit.
• There seemed to be a conscious effort to get Cole Kmet more involved in the game. The first pass of the game went to him. He also had a jet sweep and a quarterback sneak in the first quarter. Scored a touchdown on the same drive early in the second quarter. Kmet ran for 9 yards o two rushes in addition to having 5 catches for 41 yards and 2 touchdowns.
• The Dolphins had a spy on Fields but that didn’t stop him from doing damage with his legs. The Dolphins had every bit as much trouble stopping Fields on those designed runs as the Patriots did. In fact, more. Fields set a new single game NFL record for a quarterback when he rushed for 178 yards, a remarkable feat, making him the Bears greatest offensive weapon by a long way. The Bears rushed for a total of 252 yards.
• One of the things I was glad to see was the outstanding run fake on the Fields roll out and pass to come back for a touchdown early in the second quarter. It wasn’t the only one today. One of the complaints that I’ve had about bears quarterbacks for a long time is that they do not carry out those run fakes as well as they should. Fields did a good job there.
• Another thing that made me happy was and Fields completed a pass to David Montgomery on a route out of the backfield. I feel that the Bears do not send Montgomery out enough for passes on routes past the line of scrimmage either out of the backfield or lined up as a receiver and I think that they should take better advantage of his talents in that direction.
• Heck of a throw and heck of a catch by Darnell Mooney just after the two-minute warning near the end of the half. Nicely done.
• Fields was only sacked twice today. That was largely due to his mobility, but the offensive line deserves some praise as well.
• Fields final passer rating was 106.7. Another solid effort I would say and much improved over the first four games or so of the season.
• As a measure of the Bears effectiveness on offense, the Bears were 10 of 16 on third down and 1 of 2 on fourth down.

Defense

• The Bears seemed to be determined to keep the Dolphins from running the ball. It’s obvious that they concentrated on their run defense last week as it’s been suffering from ill-discipline. Dolphins ran 477 yards on 23 attempts for only 3.3 yards per rush.
• The problem is that the Dolphins had no intention of leaning on the run. They passed the ball 30 times for 302 yards. They concentrated upon attacking the Bears rookie Jaquon Brisker and the outside corner opposite Jaylon Johnson. That was Kindle Vildor, then Jaylon Jones after Vildor left with an injury. Everybody’s going to be attacking whoever is opposite Johnson for the rest of the season. Far as I can tell they should have every expectation of success doing so. Kyler Gordon was left with the unenviable task of covering Tyreek Hill in the slot. That was a mist match as well.
• Tua Tagovailoa did a great job of alternating throwing balls to his wide receivers all game. Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill did an outstanding job. The Bears played mostly zone defense and the Dolphins tore it apart. Tagovailoa got the ball out fast and he saw almost no pressure. His first incompletion came with one minute left in the first half. Tagovailoa was 21 for 30 tabs for 302 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Passer rating was an outstanding 135.7. These guys are tough to stop.
• I think that Nicholas Morrow decided that he was the Bears player we needed to step up after Roquan Smith was traded. He was all over the field today and made some nice plays. Good for him. Angelo Blackson’s effort was notable as well
• As I implied above the Bears were in a tough spot here. They struggled to get pressure with their front four and couldn’t blitz with Hill and Waddle on the field. Tagovailoa saw very little pressure in the first half and saw only a bit more in the second as the Bears evidently made some adjustments.
• Tagovailoa doesn’t have a reputation for having a very strong arm. But the high winds didn’t affect his passes too much. He likes to go over the middle like many quarterbacks and their NFL offenses do. He doesn’t have the arm strength to throw the ball to the outside nearly as well. But if arm strength is an issue, he wasn’t affected too much today by the weather elements. That’s a good sign for him.
• The Beas held the Dolphins to 5 of 10 on third down and held on two crucial fourth downs in the fourth quarter to keep the Bears in it.
• Jack Sanborn was in for the traded Roquan Smith today had a solid day with 7 tackles, all solo, though none were for a loss.

Miscellaneous

• Your announcers were Kevin Harlan (play-by-play), Trent Green (analyst), and Melanie Collins (sideline). It’s always a pleasure to hear Harlan and, considered with the proper perspective, there’s a lot to like about Green. Green isn’t Tony Romo or Cris Collinsworth. But for what he is, he does a pretty good job. I think he expressed all our fears when he talked about the possibility that Justin Fields, though young, might wear down quickly in the same way that Cam Newton did due to the punishment that his body is taking because he’s running all the time. We certainly hope that that is simply temporary, and that Fields will become a better pocket passer over time. But for right now I think we all realize that it’s a problem. Green provided many other insights over the course of the game which I found to be helpful.
• Velus Jones was a healthy scratch. Khalil Herbert was returning kicks. I’d love to tell you who was returning punts but the Dolphins never did it.
• Herbert completely whiffed on his block on Jalen Phillips on a blocked a Bears punt in the second quarter which was turned into a touchdown by Andrew Van Ginkle. It’s possible that blocks like that are the reason why Herbert has trouble getting on the field over Montgomery despite superior running stats.
• Turnovers
• Saw two pretty good quarterbacks today. Tagovailoa is rapidly being recognized as one of the best quarterbacks in the league this year. Fields has really been coming along and is taking full advantage of his legs while he learns to better handle the passing game.If you ask me which one I would choose there was a time when I would’ve said Tagovailoa. But I don’t think so anymore. Tagovailoa was only successful once Miami surrounded him with superior talent. When he didn’t have that, we saw what he was. And it wasn’t great.Fields on the other hand is doing it with a leaky offensive line and less than stellar talent at wide receiver. He’s carrying the team on his own. In the end, my bet is that he turns out to be the superior quarterback. Let’s just hope that he learns to better pass from the pocket sooner rather than later. Otherwise, his career may be cut too short by wear and tear on his body.
• Well give the Bears credit. That was quite an effort despite the fact that they allowed Miami to score 35 points. Defensively the Bears came up with some big stops in the fourth quarter and, let’s be frank, it took a really poor call non-call by the officials on an obvious pass interference on Chase Claypool to allow Miami to seal the victory.

  Having said that, it isn’t like Miami didn’t deserve to win. They marched up and down the field with superior talent on a superior offense and they ripped the Bears defense to shreds with the passing game today for 3 quarters. So all credit to them.

  On the even brighter side, however, it looks like the Bears may actually have a quarterback. I’m allowing myself to hope so anyway. And as he grows, so the offense seems to grow with him. That is perhaps the best news of the day. Because let’s be honest. We all know that this season was never going to be about winning a lot of football games anyway.

Mike Jones at The Athletic says that the Bears were both winners and losers at the NFL trade deadline.

“Chicago Bears: The Bears have an eye on the offseason already and parted with a disgruntled Smith and 32-year-old Robert Quinn while getting a second-, fourth- and fifth-rounder in return.”

and

“Chicago Bears: Was this week a total win for the Bears? Clearly, they aren’t in full rebuild mode as they bring in [Chase] Claypool — a bit of a confusing move. Yes, it gives Justin Fields an upgraded No. 1 target. But … people around the league believe they overpaid for a receiver who’s not elite, and who wants to be paid. To justify this move, the Bears will have to open up the checkbook this offseason.”

I have to disagree with Jones here. I wasn’t a bit confused by the move for Claypool and I don’t think that there’s a conflict in the message that it sounds.

The Bears were building for the future with those moves. Quite simply, they saw a real Roquan Smith as a player at a less valuable position. Despite having a great deal of cap space next year, the Bears still have to pick and choose where they are going to sink their resources. In that respect, off the ball linebackers don’t make the grade unless they are Brian Urlacher types. Smith is a good player but no one in Baltimore is going to be reminded of Ray Lewis. who was not going to be here in 2024 when the Bears will [cough might cough] be good again.

On the other hand, they saw Claypool as a young piece around whom they believed that they could build at a valuable position. They plan on Claypool being here in 2024. That made him more valuable than Smith to them in their particular situation.

Adam Jahns, also at The Athletic agrees that the Bears were focusing on the future when they traded for Claypool.

Poles acknowledged that the receivers who likely will be available in free agency next year factored into the Bears’ decision-making. Too many potential free agents have already re-signed with their original teams. And, regardless of the Bears’ cap room, Poles has shown that he’s not going to pay close-to-elite money for players who aren’t close to elite.

“You have to do a little bit of forecasting and looking down the road,” Poles said. “I just didn’t feel completely comfortable with that. Not to say that there’s not good players there. I just didn’t feel comfortable with not (being) maybe a little bit more aggressive at this point.”

“The same applies to the draft. Poles isn’t going to reveal in November how the Bears feel about receivers in the 2023 class, but Dane Brugler, The Athletic’s draft analyst, has a good idea of what the 2023 class has in terms of high-end talent and depth.

p style=”margin-left: 36pt”>“We have had five-plus receivers drafted in the first round each of the last three years, but that streak likely ends this year,” Brugler told me. “And we don’t have a wide receiver prospect in this class who is a no-doubt, top-10 pick. But there are still quality receiving prospects in this class.”

Agreed.

This was also the larger context of Jone’s article. And this is the reason why The Bears were winners with both trades until we see how Claypool works out, that is. There was no conflict.

As Jones says, the Bears did overpay for Claypool. There’s no doubt about that and the Steelers were perhaps the biggest winners here. They were fortunate to have a decent, physically gifted young player with upside that they could part with in a year where there was limited high end wide receiver depth in both the draft and free agency.

Its no coincidence that the Packers were the Bears major competition for Claypool and drove up the price. Both teams need wide receiver help is a major way and had no other way to get it.

The Packers have always values the kind of size that Claypool brings and don’t mind receivers that tend to drop the ball as much as most teams because they can make big plays to overcome it when it happens. Bears offense coordinator Luke Getsy brings that philosophy to the Bears.

It added up to a hefty price for Claypool, a player who probably won’t be a clear number 1, at least right away, but who is still better than anyone either team has on hand now. The Steelers cashed in.

But I can’t blame the Bears. They needed Claypool or a player like hm and there was just no other way to get him. Because of that, I congratulate Poles on the move and don’t consider him to be a loser in this deal.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions.

With the trade of Roquan Smith, the Bears now have several draft choices and cap space. My concern is that to date, Ryan Poles has done nothing to indicate he will make good draft choices and free-agent acquisitions. The 2022 draft has been marginal so far with Jaquan Brisker the only rookie performing at a high level. The free agents have been marginal, even though it is clear they were signed simply to fill out a roster. Any reason to believe [GM Ryan] Poles will be successful building the Bears in free agency and the draft? — Jim A., Plymouth, Minn.

Brisker has been really good, and cornerback Kyler Gordon has been steadier the last two or three games. Remember, Gordon is being asked to do a ton playing outside in the base defense and at nickel in the sub package. That’s something teams won’t ask many veterans to try.

Left tackle Braxton Jones has shown a little improvement too. Is he a long-term solution at that position? I wouldn’t go there right now, but for a half-season, it’s fair to say he has been better than a lot of folks expected.

Defense

• The Cowboys game plan became quickly evident. It was going to be a heavy dose of running back Tony Pollard at the Bears somewhat weak run defense along with attacking wherever Jaylon Johnson wasn’t in the passing game. Most often to CeeDee Lamb (77 yards).
• The Bears really got handled upfront. Its very hard to win where that’s the case. They need to work on their defensive line in the off-season. It’s an underrated need.
• The Cowboys had 98 yards rushing and 28 points with 7 minutes left in the second quarter. In fairness, it wasn’t just the defensive line. The Bears simply didn’t play very good run defense. They weren’t very disciplined in plugging their gaps and staying in them. For that matter, there were a number of instances of evident broken or poorly executed coverages in the passing game as well. This was the biggest problem.
• On a related note, the Bears problem with rollouts to the outside also made itself evident very early. Dominique Robinson collapsed down on the inside run and Dak Prescott danced into the end zone right around the end with no one to contain for the Cowboys first touchdown. I thought we were done with this after the Giants exposed this problem a few weeks ago. Evidently not.
• How big was the interception by Eddie Jackson at the end of the first half? Ending the half with another score and getting it right back to start the second half 11 points down after being down by 21 kept them in the game at that point. Jackson continues to have a great comeback season in this respect.
• The Cowboys were 9 for 11 on third down. And that doesn’t really tell the whole story. They stopped the Cowboys on third down for the first time all game 3 minutes into the second half. That tells you how flat they were in the first half.

Offense

• It’s very evident that the Bears plan was to establish the run game. The Cowboys were ready for it. They have a very good pass defense and even average pass defenses need not fear the Bears passing game much. Both teams knew that.
• The Cowboys were playing fast and swarming to the ball. That’s generally a good thing but it meant that the Bears best success on the ground often came when they used misdirection. An end around to Velus Jones to the right for 18 yards while everyone else moved to the left in the first quarter was a great example of this.
• Again Justin Fields’ legs were the Bears greatest weapon (60 yards rushing with a touchdown). This is, of course, a good thing. But as long as that’s the case he’s probably not progressing enough as a pocket passer. It also exposes him to injury which makes it risky.
• On a related note, the Cowboys were also ready for the designed runs to Fields. They had either a linebacker or a safety spying on him early in each down.
• What we need to see more of from Fields are passes like the one to N’Keal Harry at the end of the first half. Fields took the ball and got rid of it to Harry within about two seconds. A quick decision, a quick and accurate throw on the money over the middle for a 17 yard touchdown. That wasn’t the only example. Fields was 17 for 23 for a respectable 151 yards with a quarterback rating of 120.0. Those are the kind of passes that will get Fields paid and secure his position as a franchise quarterback with the team. They just need to see much more of it.
• Another good thing about Fields. He’s been handling the pressure coming at him pretty well. The Cowboys did a good job of rushing him but he didn’t panic. He made some good, calm throws around and over free pass rushers coming at him all game. That’s another very good sign.
• The strength of the team continues to be the running backs, David Montgomery and Khalil Herbert who had 152 yards combined. Give the offensive line credit. The protection wasn’t great today but the run blocking was pretty good.
• The things that struck me was how well the Cowboys use their tight ends in the passing game. In contrast, I couldn’t even tell you if Cole Kmet was out there today until he caught his first touchdown of the season early in the fourth quarter. It was his only catch of the game other than a shuffle pass late for essentially no gain.
• Jones dropped a pass that would have set the Bears up with first down from the four yard line near the end of the first half. It was a big miss at this time in the game with the Bears struggling to keep in the contest. Considered along with his muffed punts in previous games, Jones has had a rough start to his pro career.
• I tried to keep an eye on whether the Bears were trying to do anything special to stop Micah Parsons. Parsons has become one of the best pass rusher in the NFL. As far as I can tell, through left tackle Braxton Jones got occasional chip help from a tight end, Parson was going one-on-one with him on the left for quite a bit of the game. Though the Cowboys got pressure on Fields elsewhere, Jones kept Parsons from doing much damage. Parsons had only 4 tackles and no sacks.
• Parson’s recovery of Montgomery’s fumble and subsequent run after not being touched for a touchdown was just a nice, heads up play.

Miscellaneous

• The Bears had 6 penalties for 45 yards but the Cowboys had only 5 for 36. So, though they were disciplined, they got no advantage from it today. The turnover battle was even at one apiece.
• Reversal of the call on the Khalil Herbert fumble early in the second half was interesting. On replay, a front angle clearly showed that Herbert lost his grip on the ball. From a back angle it looked like he might’ve gotten control of it again but it was really hard to tell for sure because you couldn’t see the ball very well. If it would have been me, I’m not sure I would’ve reversed that call. But as it was, the Bears certainly caught a break. Herbert eventually scored a touchdown to get the Bears within five points of the Cowboys.
• The NFL needs more people like Jared Allen.
• This game set itself up as a letdown game. The big victory in against New England last week was nice but it’s human nature to let down the week following such a big victory. Even as 10 point underdogs, its natural for a young team like the Bears to come back and perform that well again and they did indeed struggle, especially on defense. It was an uphill climb before they even started this week.

  Having said that, the Bears just got beat by a better team today. The Cowboys have more talent at almost every position than the Bears do. Frankly, I was surprised they hung in there as well as they did for as long as they did today. They scored a lot of points and although Justin Fields isn’t there yet, I think we did see some good things from him today.

  I think we can take this away for what it is and move on to next week without feeling too bad about things.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune
answers the question of what Justin Fields must do to take a step forward.

Biggs: Start hitting on the easy throws and short completions.

That would put the offense in better down-and-distance situations and keep drives alive. Fields began making some of the “cheap completions,” as [Luke] Getsy termed them, in the Week 5 loss at Minnesota, but there weren’t a lot against the Commanders when he completed 14 of 27 attempts.

Another question in this article was “What is the Bears biggest problem on offense?” The Tribune writers disappointingly copped out and all three basically answered “everything”. But that’s not really true. Everything is, indeed, a problem. But the biggest problem is Justin Fields. He has the balls in his hands every play and decides what to do with it. And there are ways to work around the other problems.

Fields is dealing with a problem that he’s not surrounded by great talent. We all agree on that. When you’ve got an offensive line that is struggling to protect, the one thing you absolutely positively must do is read the defense, drop back and get the ball out quickly. When you are dealing with wide receivers that aren’t particularly talented, you must throw them open with timing, anticipation throws on those short routes. Fields seems to be constitutionally unable to do this.

Good quarterbacks make the players around them better. Fields compounds their problems.

It is no coincidence that most of the Bears fans that I know came away from the Minnesota game encouraged despite the loss and despite the miserable performance in the first half. It was because they thought Fields look good in the second half. When Fields looked his best he was dropping back hitting his back foot and getting the ball out on shorter passes, as big points out above. This is what he must do in order for the Bears offense to move. If he can’t do that, then he’s not going to be the future for the Bears.