It was the same old song and dance for the Chicago Bears against the Green Bay Packers Week 18. Second verse, same as the first, a little bit louder and a tad bit worse than Chicago’s loss at home to the Pack Week 1.
Just as they were in the season opener, the Bears were beaten badly in the trenches on both sides of the ball this time around. Behind a banged up offensive line, Justin Fields and Chicago’s offense couldn’t find the end zone, managing just three field goals all game, falling 17-9.
With center Lucas Patrick out, veteran Dan Feeny got the start, and it was obvious from the get-go Feeny doesn’t see much action. Chicago also lost starting right guard Nate Davis late in the first quarter. Veteran Cody Whitehair, in what was very likely his final game in a Bears uniform, took his place.
The Bears’ O-line didn’t do much in the run game, looking far more moveable than normal. Chicago gained just 75 yards on the ground, with only Roschon Johnson netting 4.o yards or more per carry (he finished with five carries for 20 yards). Considering the team’s past success with getting Fields rolling out and throwing downfield coupled with a thin O-line, you’d think the Bears would try to move the pocket more and maybe set up some play action. Nope.
The play design by offensive coordinator Luke Getsy was atrocious once again. At one point, Getsy had 5-foot-8, 178-pound punt returner and wide receiver Trent Taylor attempt to block Green Bay’s 6-foot-5, 278-pound linebacker Rashan Gary. Needless to say, that play ended in a sack.
The Packers’ defense finished with 5.0 sacks and 10 tackles-for-loss, a better overall defensive performance than Week 1, in which it sacked Fields four times while amassing 7 TFLs.
After the game, Fields revealed the team’s game plan relied heavily on lateral passes and quick outs — which ultimately isn’t much of a short passing game.
“Yeah, that was just the game plan,” Fields said. “I think just with those, we just got to be better blocking on the perimeter just to set those up. If you go back and look at the film, if we block the guys, those are big chunk plays, 10-, 15-, 20-yard plays. That was just the game plan. If they weren’t going to match, decided we were going to throw it out there and let our guys work. Just didn’t do our best at perimeter blocking, blocking on the edge, for our guys to catch the ball and run.”
Left guard Teven Jenkins also had his worst game of the year. Prior to the game against Green Bay, in 372 pass block snaps, Jenkins had allowed 9 hurries, three QB hits and just one sack. On one particularly ugly play at the end of the first half, Jenkins gave up his second sack of the season when Packers’ sixth-round rookie Karl Brooks swatted him aside like he was a wisp of a man.
Sure, Jenkins and company struggled and the team’s execution could have been much better, but there were other issues, most of which stemmed from the OC.
Getsy’s refusal to have Fields throw more than 20 yards downfield was also glaring. Fields had just one pass attempt that went beyond 20 yards in the loss to Green Bay. The Bears also went 3-for-11 on third down in this game. That’ll rarely ever get it done in this league.
Getting owned in the trenches by your biggest rival for the second time this season is on the offensive line, to be sure, but the bigger failure is Getsy’s for not putting his players in the best positions to succeed.
