Chicago Bears: 5 Observations from embarrassing Week 7 loss

The Chicago Bears suffered an embarrassing loss to the shorthanded New Orleans Saints. Here are some observations from Week 7.

The Matt Nagy and the Chicago Bears fans’ honeymoon is over. After a flat outing against the Oakland Raiders in London, the Bears had two weeks to prepare for the New Orleans Saints. The Saints came in winners of four straight games but they were shorthanded.

In addition to being without Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees, they were also without Alvin Kamara, their leading rusher and second-leading wide receiver, and Jared Cook, their top tight end.

With the Bears having those two weeks of preparation, many thought the team could improve on their struggles and come away with a win. Instead, the struggles got worse. They really were never in the ballgame. A Cordarrelle Patterson kickoff return for a touchdown kept them close for a while, but eventually the Saints pulled away.

Don’t be fooled by the 36-25 score. The Bears scored 15 points in garbage time to make the score look respectable. They had 120 yards of total offense through 56 minutes, 85 of them through three quarters. After the Saints’ lead grew to 36-10 and they eased off the pedal the Bears got 132 yards and 15 points. The only people who were happy were fantasy owners who got a lot of points late.

All of the same struggles the Bears had throughout the season were on display against the Saints. The offense could not run the ball, and Mitchell Trubisky had trouble hitting open receivers.

The Bears have a tough four weeks coming up so they need to come up with some answers. Yes, they were 3-3 last season but this has a different feeling. Also, if they couldn’t come up with something to work after a bye week, it’ll be difficult to do it in less than a week’s time.

If things don’t get fixed, the feelings at Halas Hall of frustration and hopelessness that ruled for years before Nagy got there will return in full force.

Here are my thoughts on this game.