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Hub Arkush: It feels impossible that these Bears are 5-1

Although the defense is starting to look extremely dangerous and special teams are among the best in the league, it feels near impossible the Bears can be 5-1 with this offense.

How is this happening? Look around the NFL and find one other team that isn't flawed in a very real way.

But that's tomorrow's column.

No curve for now, let's just talk about what we're seeing on the field versus the super team we'd like to see.

Quarterback: Nick Foles was mediocre in Carolina and he continues to save many of his worst throws for third down.

He did make two very nice throws in key spots, 18 yards to Darnell Mooney at the Panthers 12-yard line to set up the first third quarter touchdown of the season, and 23 yards on third-and-9 in the fourth quarter to Allen Robinson.

And in spite of some ugly third down tosses the Bears were 7-for-14 on the day, more than twice as good as the Panthers.

However, while Matt Nagy talked his way around expounding on what went wrong with the delay of game penalty out of the wasted timeout just four minutes into the game Foles clearly was at best a piece of the puzzle. Grade: C-plus

Running Backs: Nagy called David Montgomery's number 19 times on the ground but Cordarrelle Patterson only got one carry, and both continue to get no help whatsoever in front of them.

Montgomery was effective in the passing game again and his one special burst on the ground, 11 yards to the Panthers one came one play after the Foles to Mooney connection. The two are running extremely hard. Grade: B

Receivers: As I've said, Robinson and Mooney each had one special play and Cole Kmet made a huge play with his first NFL touchdown that he plucked in the end zone with three defenders around him, but Foles isn't missing a lot of wide-open targets.

Demetrius Harris had a costly drop and Anthony Miller couldn't seem to make himself available more than three yards off the line of scrimmage. Grade: C-plus

Offensive Line: The coach, Juan Castillo, wasn't there and they lost James Daniels so Sunday was going to be a challenge, but these guys are just not getting the job done.

Cody Whitehair and Bobby Massie were okay and Germain Ifedi was the next closest but okay obviously isn't good enough.

When you add to that Rashaad Coward looking lost much of the time at left guard and Charles Leno getting beat regularly these guys continue to be holding back the entire offense. Grade: C-minus

Defensive Front 7: While Carolina's hadn't faced any great defenses the Panthers still came in with one of the most efficient offenses in the league and these guys took them apart.

Every starter in this group flashed more than once, Brent Urban, John Jenkins, Barkevious Mingo and James Vaughters all made plays as well and while Danny Trevathan still has room to improve he and Roquan Smith are starting to look like the dangerous duo we expected.

Robert Quinn barely dented the stat sheet but he spent a lot of time in Teddy Bridgewater's personal space. Grade: A-minus

Secondary: This group played its best game of the season and that is saying something since they had to battle the Panthers and the zebras.

Carolina thought they'd challenge the rookie and they got Jaylon Johnson a couple times, but he made the play on Tashaun Gipson's pick and gave as good as he got, except on the completely bogus interference call on him in the end zone.

Gipson and Eddie Jackson were lights out and Kyle Fuller keeps making plays I don't know if any other corner in the league is matching. Grade: A-minus

Special Teams: The only way to stop Patterson is to get all five of your kickoffs out of the end zone and the Panthers did, and it may be time to try Miller or Mooney over Ted Ginn on punts.

But Patrick O'Donnell has actually become a weapon with three of his four punts again downed inside the 20 including one he checked up at the three, and other than letting Pharoh Cooper bring back one kickoff for 35 yards the coverage was excellent.

Cairo Santos is hot and his career long 55-yard field goal appeared to give his teammates some extra juice. Grade: B-plus

Coaching: Man this is tough. The offense is failing and a handful of game management decisions defy conventional wisdom, but the defense is dominating and improving every week, the special teams are really good and most importantly the team is 5-1 and that's the coaches' most important measuring stick. Grade: B

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