The Bears’ offense is discombobulated.
“We’re still trying to figure out what works for us,” wide receiver Darnell Mooney said Monday. “It’s not too soon, not too late.
“Obviously, you don’t want to be 0-2. If we’re 2-0, we’re not talking about what works.”
But the offense isn’t working. Take away the teams playing in the “Monday Night Football” games, and:
- Only three teams have averaged fewer yards per play than the Bears’ 4.5.
- Only four have had a higher percentage of drives end in turnovers.
- Only three have a lower team passer rating.
The 27-17 loss to the Buccaneers on Sunday was filled with small mistakes that bad teams don’t overcome — and one screen call from the Bears’ own end zone that ended in disaster.
Coach Matt Eberflus defended the latter Monday, saying offensive coordinator Luke Getsy was right to call the screen from their 6-yard line with 2:12 to play, based on the look the Buccaneers’ defense showed them before the snap. Quarterback Justin Fields, who has the authority to change plays at the line of scrimmage, was correct to run the play as called, Eberflus said.
“That’s a great look for that particular play,” he said. “They’re in shell defense; the linebackers are all back. There’s no one really taking the linebacker in that situation; he’s a zone-covered guy. The pre-snap in terms of what Justin was doing was A-1. There’s nothing wrong in there.”
Eberflus said the screen was one of “several plays” the Bears could’ve called in the shadow of their own goalpost, but he was fine with the fact they did.
“It was there,” he said.
No, it wasn’t. Bucs linebacker Lavonte David said “everyone knew” the screen was coming.
Outside linebacker Shaq Barrett, who felt the screen out by the way he was blocked by guard Ja’Tyre Carter, pirouetted, picked off the pass and ran it in for a game-sealing touchdown.
Eberflus said Carter should have let Barrett get closer to Fields before releasing his block to create more separation from the target, Khalil Herbert.
Details haunted the Bears all day — and led to some big-picture questions about whether Fields, Getsy and Eberflus can produce a compelling offense. Their combined ineptitude has sucked the enthusiasm out of a season that was designed to be a step forward — and it has only been two weeks.
With 3:12 left in the first half, the Bears went no-huddle, sending Trent Taylor in motion and into the right flank and running back Roschon Johnson up the right seam, where he was open. DJ Moore ran an out route to the left sideline and turned his palms up when the ball wasn’t thrown his way.
Fields looked downfield for what seemed like forever and took a sack. Eberflus said Bears receivers weren’t spaced out enough.
“It’s designed to really spread out the field,” he said. “We’ve got to do a better job with our spacing there — you know, with our receiver spacing. There was a little bit of an issue there with the spacing part of it, and we’ve got to do a better job executing there.”
It happened again later. On third-and-10 with 12:24 left in the game, Moore and tight end Cole Kmet ran the same stick route just beyond the first-down marker. Fields fired toward Kmet or Moore — it was hard to tell because Kmet was directly between Fields and his receiver — for an incomplete pass.
Mooney said spacing was something receivers need to talk through in meetings, particularly when it comes to which hash mark the ball is spotted on. On the third-down play, the ball was between the two hashes.
“Usually the ball is always on the hash, but the ball was kind of in the middle of the field,” he said. “So we kind of have to figure out the details on that.”
