Chicago Bears: The good, bad, and ugly from Week 8 loss to the 49ers

The bad — the game plan became too conservative again

While we saw some improvement in the offense, the game plan was similar to other games. The Bears ran out to an early lead, then the play-calling became too conservative. Once again, Chicago got into what I call a prevent offense.

The Bears wanted to hold onto the lead so the coaches just wanted to hold the ball and milk the clock. That plan worked against the Raiders but it didn’t against San Francisco.

As I mentioned, the Bears were very effective on third down in the first half. They had a good mix of run and pass to extend drives.

In the second half, however, the Niners made an adjustment. They keyed on Khalil Herbert, who was on his way to another good game with 66 yards in the first half. At one point, Herbert had five consecutive negative runs. He also got hurt and missed some time.

This was coming from a defense that ranked 20th against the run.

The Chicago Bears kept trying to use the run no matter what. Once again, the coaching staff put the handcuffs on Fields. This is the same problem we see week after week — the coaches don’t trust Fields enough to put the game on his shoulders. Nagy might not have been on the field but his presence was certainly there.

The reason the Chicago Bears got out to the early lead was that they were aggressive and they mixed things up. Once they became conservative and predictable, they were unable to make the plays that extended drives and scored points. Why the coaching staff doesn’t realize that is beyond comprehension.