Bears Film Study: Team's miserable start can be traced to misplaced offseason priorities
Nothing defines the Bears these days quite like the games with lopsided expectations and even worse results.
Sunday's loss in Kansas City was an all-around miserable experience from the Bears' perspective. The first-half highlight was a ridiculously easy 50-yard touchdown pass to Marquez Valdes-Scantling getting called back by a penalty. The highlight of the second half was Patrick Mahomes taking a seat midway through the third quarter.
Unless you're really into celebrity romance, this game offered nothing.
(Hey Taylor, why didn't you do a fourth Chicago show? My daughter couldn't get tickets.)
This is a good time to discuss why the Bears haven't shown any improvement this season and it can be traced to the winter. If there was a 2022 All-Film Study opponent team, leading the way on defense would have been Green Bay's Quay Walker, Philadelphia's Haason Reddick and Miami's Jaelan Phillips. Tall, athletic outside linebackers who can rush the QB and drop back in coverage seemed to be trending around the NFL.
So when the Bears made their top free-agent priority a middle linebacker, Buffalo's Tremaine Edmunds, it was natural to think they were planning to utilize his speed on the outside. No, he's playing middle linebacker, while two former MLBs, T.J. Edwards and Jack Sanborn, are on the outside. Edwards and Edmunds both rank in the top 10 in tackles, so they're making plays but not really changing the game.
The list of needs included pass rusher, dominant defensive tackle, veteran offensive lineman and more talent at cornerback. The Bears came back with two new linebackers, a couple of middling linemen, a rookie corner and a rookie right tackle. Defensive end Yannick Ngakoue signed in early August.
Now, it's tough to speak on what they could have done or how much it would have cost to land a player to fill one of the glaring needs, but the only position group that took a step up is wide receiver with D.J. Moore. At the same time, an argument can be made the Bears were better with Equanimeous St. Brown and Dante Pettis than with Chase Claypool.
With Edmunds and Ngakoue, are the Bears better than they were at the start of last season with Roquan Smith and Robert Quinn? The results speak for themselves. Through three games, the Bears have 1 sack and their only 2 takeaways were the garbage time interceptions of Blaine Gabbert on Sunday.
The Bears added help where they didn't really need it (linebacker) and ignored the biggest issues.
Learn from best:
How many Bears players would start for the Chiefs? Possibly Moore, maybe no one.
The Bears could look across the field and see what they're missing. An elite, veteran quarterback is one thing, obviously, but the Chiefs also had a huge speed advantage. They love to utilize the small, quick receivers like Skyy Moore and Jerick McKinnon, which the Bears don't really have.
But here's the play that summarized this mismatch more than any other: To start their third drive, the Bears ran a clever play with FB Khari Blasingame and TE Cole Kmet lined up in the backfield. Justin Fields faked a handoff to Khalil Herbert, then ran wide with two lead blockers.
He had room to run and it should have been a sizable game. The problem was George Karlaftis, the second year DE from Purdue, ran past the blockers and chased down Fields for a 5-yard gain. The Chiefs managed to land a couple of stars in the 2022 draft in CB Trent McDuffie and Karlaftis, with the No. 21 and 30 picks.
Right way to play:
Every time he dropped back, it seemed like Mahomes was given multiple target options - short, deep, middle, sideline - and he clearly has great trust in his offensive line.
Too many times Bears receivers are chugging along on deeper routes as Fields feels the pocket collapsing. Late in the second quarter, the Bears finally ran a pattern combo that resembled something the Chiefs did. Fields had Roschon Johnson over the middle, a tight end and Darnell Mooney on sideline patterns, while Moore and Claypool went deep. KC's deep safety went toward Moore, so Fields threw it to Claypool, with predictable results. Try that again but throw short next time.
The less negative news:
Rookie RT Darnell Wright had a nice day of run blocking. ... Maybe the two Ngakoue pressures that directly led to the Bears' interceptions of Gabbert are a sign Ngakoue is getting back into playing shape after arriving late to training camp. The first pressure came against KC's backup left tackle, but starter Donovan Smith was back in for the second one.
Twitter: @McGrawDHSports