In a week where many people, incuding me, were spending our time moaning about how this year’s version on Justin Fields looked exactly like last year’s version of Justin Fields on Sunday, I thought that it was notable that my two favorite writers in town, Brad Biggs and Kevin Fishbain, both chose to address the deficiencies of the Bears defense instead here and here.
This is logical. The offense probably is what it is going to be with Fields at the helm. It’s going to go as he is going to go and if he doesn’t find a way to be better from the pocket, it is probably only going to get so much better.
A couple points.
- The defensive backfield, which was supposed to be the strength of this team, was a huge disappointment on Sunday. I think we can all agree on that. But it was encouraging to me that many of the issues that I saw were correctable. The Bears looked to me like they had a lot of communication breakdowns and broken coverages in key spots during the game and that led to some wide open receivers and some big plays. But these issues can be dealt with and, even with a reasonably big hole at nickel cornerback, where Kyler Gordon has gone on
injured reserve, I can’t imagine that the pass coverage will be that bad again. It will be a very bad sign if it is. - Both Biggs and Fishbain rightfully concentrated upon the lack of pass rush. But I think that it’s notable that the Packers have possibly the best offensive line in the league. That was what was being said going into the game and I saw little to indicate that it wasn’t the case.
This is not to give the Bears an excuse here. Their thier defense, especially their pass rush, isn’t good enough and its been the major reason why I’ve been far more pessimistic about the Bears going into this season than most fans ane media members.
I still don’t see the Bears winning more than 6 games this year. But they won’t be as bad as they were on Sunday.