Well, that went almost as I expected, except for the offensive line looking awful. I mean, c’mon, the Panthers rush three and still get pressure on the QB? But I digress. The Bears did put up 20+ points and I’m not sure what I was thinking when I thought they’d hold the Panthers to under 10. That’s not very realistic in today’s NFL. However, they did take an early lead and never looked back all while holding their opponent to under 20 points again.
Offensively the Bears need to figure things out. I’m no expert at evaluating game play or play calling but it seems to me Nagy is calling a different game plan with Foles under center than he did with Trubisky. I would actually expect that since they’re different quarterbacks and folks have said that Foles’ style of play more closely resembles the kind of game Nagy likes to run. Foles operates better out of shot-gun where he has a couple of extra moments to survey the field and make his decisions whereas Trubisky seemed to do better under center with play-action and rolling to the outside to make his throws. So it should be a good thing that Nagy has changed his play-calling to match the skills of his starting QB. The problem is the offensive line seems incapable of executing the kind of offensive plays Nagy wants to run and that’s getting them killed. This is feeling like 2019 all over again when everyone said nobody, not Trubisky, not Mongomery, not Cohen could be successful with such poor offensive line performance. What we seem to be seeing now is, it is possible for the QB to be somewhat effective with the o-line unable to execute but this isn’t a strategy that will work for them long-term. I have no idea what the answer is. I don’t think they should go back to Trubisky – he’s shown he’s not capable of running any type of NFL offense, but if the line you have is incapable of executing the kind of offense you want to run, and what they are capable of executing is not what your QB is good at, you have a problem on your hands. I sure hope Nagy can find a way to solve this.
The Bears are at 5-1 and are in first place in the NFC North. They have a tough three game stretch coming up against the Rams, Saints and Titans. I hope they come out of that at least 1-2. After that they have games against some teams they should be able to handle even with their shaky offense. They’re in a good position to make the playoffs, but right now they don’t look like they’d get very far if they do. Until then, I’m going to keep watching and keep being entertained by the 2020 Chicago Bears
Actual Final score
Bears: 23
Panthers: 16