Chicago Bears season is now on life support after fourth straight loss

After a great start to the season, the Chicago Bears’ downward spiral continues.

Another week, another struggling offensive performance and another loss for the Chicago Bears. Their latest loss was on the Monday Night Football national stage to the Minnesota Vikings, 19-13. After starting out 5-1, they proved their detractors right — their great start was fraudulent. They now limp into their bye week with a 5-5 record.

Offensive coordinator Bill Lazor took over play-calling from head coach Matt Nagy but the results were the same. The offense again did not score a touchdown. The only touchdown for the Bears came on Cordarrelle Patterson‘s 104-yard kickoff return to start the third quarter. Also, for the ninth time in 10 games, the offense failed to score in the third quarter.

The offense could not move the ball, especially in the second half. At one point, the offense had four consecutive three-and-outs. On those drives, which went from the third quarter until about halfway through the fourth quarter, the offense amassed just three yards. On their last two drives of the game, they moved the ball 29 yards and both ended with a turnover on downs.

The offensive line, which has taken a beating both on the field and in the court of public opinion, didn’t do too bad of a job. They protected Foles well for the most part, except in one area — picking up the blitz.

The Vikings constantly blitzed on third down and the Bears constantly failed to pick it up. After going 2-15 on third downs last week against the Tennessee Titans, the Bears were just 2-11 against the Vikings. If you cannot convert third downs, you’ll have many three-and-outs and that is exactly what happened.

Despite having a clean pocket (except on third downs) quarterback Nick Foles acted shell-shocked, feeling more pressure on him than there actually was. He rushed a lot of his throws, missing open receivers as a result.

To add injury to insult, Foles was injured on the last drive of the game. On the first play, the Vikings of course blitzed and Foles barely got the pass off. He fell to his side and stayed on the ground. It looked bad and Foles eventually had to be taken away in a cart.

Nagy gave an update on Foles’ injury and it appeared worse than it actually was. Foles suffered a hip/glute injury and the Bears feel it could be a hip pointer. Nagy said Foles would be day-to-day and doesn’t envision the team putting the quarterback on injured reserve.

The Chicago Bears season is on life support now.

While the Bears are still in second place (barely), this losing streak basically kills any hope for the playoffs. Coming out of the bye week, the Bears will likely own a losing record. They currently have a six-game losing streak after the bye week. That streak probably continues as the Bears face the Green Bay Packers, not only the NFC North leaders but also the NFC leaders.

After that, the Bears face the Detroit Lions, a team that nearly beat Chicago in Week 1 and has improved. Then the Houston Texans come to Soldier Field in a game that could be a real snooze fest. In a game between Deshaun Watson and anyone playing quarterback for the Bears, the better bet is on Watson, especially if the Bears haven’t ended their losing streak by then.

If the Bears cannot get past the Texans, they travel to Minnesota to take on the Vikings again.  If they lost at home to the Vikings then winning on the road for a struggling offense is a difficult task.

The next week might be the Bears’ best chance for a win. They face the Jacksonville Jaguars with an offense that will get swallowed up by the Bears’ defense. The Jaguars don’t have a good quarterback and a subpar running game.

After the Bears beat Jacksonville, their season mercifully ends with another loss to the Packer. After a 5-1 start, the Bears can easily finish 6-10 and the offseason shakeup will surely begin. There is still a long way to go before the season ends, and the Chicago Bears fans will experience more suffering before the end.