(670 The Score) After an uninspiring victory against the Texans on Sept. 25, the Bears spoke of how it’s a more enjoyable process to seek improvements with a win in the bag. They won’t find such a luxury this time around – only the harsh reality of their own deficiencies.
The Bears (2-2) lost 20-12 to the Giants (3-1) on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in a performance that featured failures by Chicago in all three phases. Kicker Michael Badgley, who was signed Saturday, accounted for all of Chicago’s scoring.
The Bears can't be comfortable with any aspect of their game. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done in all three phases.
Offense
The Bears created balance on offense for quarterback Justin Fields, who had his best individual performance of the young season. But it still wasn’t nearly enough – and the lack of talent around Fields was plenty clear.
Fields was 11-of-22 for 174 yards while rushing seven times for 52 yards. There was improvement on display, but the Bears failed to find the end zone. The red-zone woes included a sequence in the first quarter in which coach Matt Eberflus elected for a Badgley field goal on fourth-and-2 from the Giants’ 4-yard line, a decision that he'll likely want to have back.
Apart from a 56-yard connection between Fields and top receiver Darnell Mooney – the Bears’ longest play of the season – there weren’t openings in the passing attack. Chicago’s receiving corps continued to have issues creating separation in coverage. Fields’ targets aren’t getting open for him often enough.
Without dynamic playmakers, the Bears have relied on offensive coordinator Luke Getsy to create designed openings. An example of that came in the Bears' win in their opener on Sept. 11, when Getsy drew up a play-action fake to scheme open receiver Equanimeous St. Brown on an 18-yard touchdown pass from Fields.
The Bears aren’t talented enough to consistently produce big plays on offense, so they’ll have to be creative in their play-calling moving forward.
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Defense
Entering Sunday, the Giants ranked 26th in the NFL in play-action percentage on offense. It seemed like the Bears never even planned for that possibility defensively.
The Giants exploited the Bears’ youth and lack of discipline with a barrage of play-action looks from quarterback Daniel Jones, whose day included a pair of rushing touchdowns off play-action fakes.
On Jones’ 21-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, he ran a play-action bootleg to the left side and went into the end zone untouched by a Bears defender. He had open field in front of him after Chicago’s defense bit on a fake to New York running back Saquaon Barkley on the right side of the field.
The Bears’ run defense continued to struggle Sunday as Barkley had 31 carries for 146 yards. He was clearly the most talented player on either team, and New York head coach Brian Daboll leaned on that in dialing up a victory.
Once again, the Bears made necessary adjustments at halftime and continued their streak of four consecutive games without allowing a touchdown in the second half. Even so, there’s going to be a harsh evaluation while watching this game tape.
Special teams
The Bears believe rookie receiver Velus Jones Jr. can be a game-changing threat on offense and special teams. On Sunday, his miscue altered the contest in the wrong way.
Jones muffed a punt with 2:13 remaining as the Bears hoped to drive for a game-tying score. He aggressively charged at a punt and couldn’t corral it, with the Giants recovering the loose football.
The Bears had played a clean game in special teams leading up to that, with Badgley stepping in admirably for kicker Cairo Santos (who was out for personal reasons) and giving his new team a chance.
With the game on the line, Jones made a mistake that cost the Bears a chance to come back.
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670.
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