Rozner: Nothing new to see here as Bears' offense stinks

Make no mistake about how bad the Bears' offensive line was before injuries and virus issues.

That will be the excuse for this week and those moving forward, but you would only be pretending if you said it was fine before linemen started dropping like flies.

They couldn't run the ball or maintain a pocket when things were supposedly good. Now, it's a disaster and it played out just as it should have Sunday in Tennessee as the Titans throttled the Bears and handed them a 24-17 defeat.

It wasn't nearly as close as the score indicated and only some strange Titans decisions allowed the Bears to hang around as long as they did, and get within a touchdown at the very end.

But this is what happens when you ignore the offensive line, when you draft for projects and reach for thrills.

Six years ago, when GM Ryan Pace took over and the Bears needed a total rebuild, the first thing he did was draft Kevin White, an injured wide receiver, at No. 7 overall.

That pretty much sums why the Bears (5-4) are where they are six years later, still without an offensive line and sitting on a three-game losing streak.

A few weeks ago, they were the worst 5-1 team ever. Now, they're among the worst 5-4 teams ever, staring at one of the ugliest stretches of the last decade.

Some of what's happened with the offensive line is just bad luck, but a wise GM builds depth and power at a crucial position instead of searching for players no one else would think of selecting or signing.

This is not a revelation to the honest among us, but the Bears need someone who can draft a team from the inside out.

They need a head coach who doesn't blame others and make excuses.

They need someone who can call plays and admit a team's limitations.

They need an offensive line.

They need a quarterback.

They need tight ends who can catch, block and not jump before the snap.

Feel free to stop me any time here.

In fairness to Matt Nagy, he doesn't have a lot to work with from an offensive standpoint, but his genius always gets in the way of the game he's watching, the script a weekly problem and the inability to adjust in-game maddening.

Pick any part of this contest as your least favorite, but a sequence early in the third quarter summed up this game perfectly.

Trailing just 10-0, after another scoreless first half that Nagy still can't explain three years into his tenure, the Bears had first down on the Tennessee 40 early in the third quarter.

After an incomplete pass and a 4-yard run by David Montgomery, Cordarrelle Patterson gained 5 yards on a short throw from Nick Foles. On fourth-and-1, the most penalized team in football - a designation that also baffles the head coach - went to work doing what they do best.

Tackle Arlington Hambright was called for a false start, making it fourth-and-6. Next up, tight end Jimmy Graham jumped and it was fourth-and-11, forcing the offense off the field. From only 40 yards out, punter Pat O'Donnell missed badly and kicked it deep into the end zone for a touchback.

It doesn't get a whole lot worse than that.

The Bears' defense did its job for the most part Sunday and held one of the best backs in the league, Derrick Henry, to 68 yards - 26 in the first half - but when the defense doesn't take the ball away the offense has no chance, and when the offense puts the ball on the ground you can turn off the TV early.

Offensively, it was the same game you've been watching for two-plus years.

Foles had a hand in his face on every throw, Montgomery had no room to run and the patchwork offensive line - missing starters left and right to injuries and COVID-19 protocols - was dominated from start to finish.

The Bears' best offensive play of the day - when the game was still in doubt - was an 11-yard run by linebacker Barkevious Mingo on a fake punt in the first half, and he led the team in rushing for a good portion of the contest.

But Nagy being Nagy, the Bears were forced to take a timeout after the fake punt because offensive players weren't ready to go back on the field.

That's coaching, but Nagy's answer postgame was, essentially, that it happens every week to teams throughout the league.

Not much of an explanation.

Speaking of answers, Foles calls a better game than Nagy, which Nagy obviously hates, but they move the ball in the no-huddle each week better than at any other time.

Doesn't take a genius to figure out why.

Another mess of a match leaves the Bears just a game over. 500, but the truth is when they were 5-1 you knew they could have been 1-5, or maybe 3-3 if you were being generous.

What you've seen the last three weeks is not at all different from what you saw the first six weeks, or really going back more than two years to the middle of Nagy's first season here.

Next week offers another chance to show something else, but right now the Bears are who you thought they were.