Arkush: Bears came out flat vs. Bills. But why?
Exhibition games are notoriously difficult to evaluate, extremely dangerous to take seriously and rarely of any value at all in predicting how a team's regular season will proceed or eventually end.
Those who were determined to do so going in will try and make the Bills' 41-15 thrashing of the Bears an indictment of quarterback Andy Dalton and an argument for giving Justin Fields the starting job immediately.
But while it won't stop those determined to have it, nothing happened on the grass Saturday at Soldier Field to further advance that conversation.
We know Fields is a much better runner that either Dalton or Nick Foles, and he was impressive in moments Saturday with his legs.
But the Bears' passing game is in disarray right now and neither Dalton vs. mostly second stringers or Fields vs. mostly a mix of second, third and fourth stringers was productive or impressive throwing the ball.
Other than his scrambling, Fields' most impressive moment came in his post game news conference when he told us, “The fans need to realize we're on the same team.” And he then added of Dalton, “Actually, I think it's kind of disrespectful to Andy when they chant my name when he's on the field and it would be better if they'd just cheer for all of us.”
The kid definitely has a lot of that “it” factor and continues to find ways to impress.
Allen Robinson, Darnell Mooney and Marquise Goodwin all spent 60 minutes on the sidelines, but I still came away from the game more concerned about the lack of open receivers and creativity in the design of the passing game than I was with the play of Dalton and Fields.
We should also note that neither the Bills, nor their quarterback Mitch Trubisky in his triumphant return to Chicago, faced any such challenges.
While Mitch was sharp and in rhythm from the opening whistle, he appeared to have his choice of open targets whenever he dropped to throw and was aided by a running game far more dangerous than anything the Bears offered with just 13 carries for 40 yards on the ground in addition to Fields' 4 for 46.
In his postgame analysis head coach Matt Nagy said, “Unfortunately there was more stuff today, the penalties, with the offense we were one step forward, two steps backward. There was no rhythm today at all.”
Nagy did reaffirm again after the game that the plan is for Dalton to be the opening-day starter, and he added that his main focus is to evaluate what Dalton can do with the first team in the regular season and not so much in these practice games.
But all of this probably begs the issue of what the real concern of Saturday's remarkably weak effort should be.
From the opening whistle the Bills, to a man, appeared to be quicker than the Bears, more focused, and honestly, just more interested than the Bears offense or defense in being there.
Panic is always unproductive and, again, the history books are stuffed with playoff and Super Bowl teams that got there after seemingly bad exhibition seasons.
Building excitement, competition and “juice” have been themes of this training camp, but another has been the number of key players getting multiple “veteran days off,” skipping work to protect either extremely minor nicks or weakness or tightness from becoming more serious, and focusing on “load management,” which in essence is giving players extra rest to make sure they have plenty left when the lights go on for real.
It may be a good strategy, but could it also be leaving too many guys too relaxed and laid back with opening night now just three weeks away?
The main question Nagy and company have to ask themselves now is do they have their guys on the right track and pace to be on that razor's edge, completely focused and prepared to fly around 100 miles an hour and play through every whistle when they visit the Rams, because they sure didn't seem to be all that interested in playing football Saturday.
• Twitter: @Hub_Arkush