Chicago Bears: Loss vs. Giants ugly, but bullet dodged still

The Chicago Bears suffered a terrible loss to the lowly New York Giants in Week 13. Even so, the other division foes trailing them lost as well so they dodged a bullet.

The Chicago Bears did exactly what fans hoped they wouldn’t — play down to the level of their weak opponent and come away with a loss — in Week 13 against the New York Giants. Yes, they made a miraculous comeback to send the game into overtime, but it was for naught as the Bears lost 30-27.

The Bears looked sloppy on both offense and defense. Offensively, backup quarterback Chase Daniel showed why he’s been a career backup. He can give you some moments, but if you use him extensively he’ll get exposed. Daniel looked like Mike Glennon, fumbling four times and throwing two interceptions. One of the interceptions was run back for a touchdown. He couldn’t lead a consistent offensive attack.

The defense wasn’t much better. They gave up too many yards, allowing the Giants to move the ball and get in scoring situations. I’ll accept that Saquon Barkley is a beast and he’ll do his thing. What I cannot accept is the defense allowing him a 22-yard run on third-and-23 late in the second quarter that allowed New York to go for it on fourth down and ultimately hit a 57-yard field goal. That seemed to turn the tide.

Everyone kills Nagy for the timeout, but if the Bears hold Barkley to a 15-yard gain or even 17-yard gain, the field goal probably isn’t made.

Nagy credited the team for continuing to fight and ultimately come back at the end of regulation. He also admitted, via the Daily Herald, that in addition to the players doing their job, the coaches, him in particular, had to coach better.

"“I’m proud of them for fighting to the end. Not every team will do that. We have to figure out how to learn from this.”“We need to play better and we need to coach better. There’s way too much parity in this league."

That’s nice, but there are no points given for almost wins. You win or you lose. And you’re supposed to win against teams that are 3-8. You want to be considered elite, you have to win those games.

This loss is a bad one. Now, they face an elite Los Angeles Rams team. Mitchell Trubisky probably starts that game (since the Bears said he would’ve started against New York if it was a playoff game), but he’ll play without throwing in a game in three weeks.

As bad as the Packers are at the moment, Aaron Rodgers plays well against the Bears and winning again wouldn’t be a shocking result. That means that a three-game losing streak down the stretch isn’t beyond the realm of possibility.

As bad as this loss was, the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers both lost as well. That means the Bears’ lead over Minnesota remains at 1.5 with four games remaining. The Bears are still in the driver’s seat to win the division if they can win. The Rams game will be difficult to win, so it comes down to the Packers game to either practically seal the division. If they lose, they’ll have another trap game, this time against the San Francisco 49ers.

The Chicago Bears dodged a bullet, but they need to get it together because the next one could drop them.