The good news is the Bulls play Monday. Everyone loves the Bulls, right?
(Unless, of course, you have Comcast or enjoy winning basketball.)
Hey, how about that election? Tuesday won’t be stressful, will it?
Wow, daylight saving time just ended. Isn’t it nice that it’s dark before you leave work?
And let’s not forget Ian Happ won another Gold Glove in left field, even if “Gold Glove in left field” is kind of an oxymoron because if you were a truly great defensive player, you probably wouldn’t be in left field.
What I’m trying to get at is: Don’t be so negative. Blessings abound for sad Chicago fans even after the Bears’ soul-crushing 29-9 loss in Arizona.
I’m writing this on Sunday night, but I’m predicting the sun will still rise Monday morning. Then again, I also predicted the Bears would beat the Cardinals, so maybe don’t listen to me.
For the second week in a row, the Bears lost a game that could best be described as “made for sports radio.”
And for the second week in a row, the Bears were thoroughly embarrassed by a 50-plus-yard touchdown at the end of a half.
Last week, the Bears lost to the Commanders 18-15 thanks to a 52-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass as time expired in Landover, Md. That almost never happens. This week, the Cardinals scored on a 53-yard touchdown run to make it 21-9 with four seconds left in the first half. That, too, almost never happens.
Yeah, per Elias Stats Bureau, this is the longest rushing TD given up in the last 20 seconds of the first half since the 1970 merger.
It’s very, very hard to give up this touchdown lol https://t.co/rf6DjUKLrv
— Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) November 3, 2024
Usually, when teams run at the ball at the end of the half, it’s to kill the clock. The Cardinals did it to kill the Bears.
With that run by Emari Demercado, combined with James Conner’s 107 yards, Arizona averaged 6.3 yards per carry. The offensive line gave up six sacks and the Bears were penalized six times, one of which turned a field goal into a touchdown, and another resulted in a safety.
When he had time to throw, Caleb Williams’ deep ball was off target. A week after a down game in Washington, he wasn’t a difference-maker in Arizona.
It was an ugly game all around, the kind you could wave away as an aberration if not for what happened last week. (Defensive end Montez Sweat’s absence Sunday because of a shin injury loomed large.)
In Matt Eberflus’ defense — and God knows he needs some right now — Nov. 3 is kind of late for the first truly lopsided Bears loss of the season. The team’s previous three losses this season, while all bad in their own unique way, were only by a combined 14 points. The Bears had a chance to win each of them.
This time, the game was over long before it ended, which looks poorly on Eberflus. And just to add injury to insult, Williams tweaked his ankle at the end of the game, when backup Tyson Bagent should’ve been handing off to kill the clock.
Charles Davis had some criticism for the Bears after Caleb Williams was hurt in garbage time.
“I’m sorry, this just does not make sense to me. This is your rookie quarterback…I don’t think he should have been out there for the two minutes.”pic.twitter.com/4ijJ6OOL0D
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 4, 2024
Eberflus told reporters Williams was getting some work in the two-minute drill, which is another way of saying, “I’m going to be a defensive coordinator in the AFC South soon, aren’t I?” It was just a nonsensical excuse for a coaching mistake.
At least the embattled Bears coach took the blame for the loss instead of offering up wishy-washy answers about after-action reports and accountability. And everyone is inclined to give the head coach the lion’s share of the responsibility for this one-sided loss.
If this game were a gauge of how the Bears recovered from last week’s chaos, well, it’s not auguring well for his future. Eberflus is signed through 2025, which makes him a lame duck in waiting.
What happens the rest of this season will decide his future. Winning, not development or draft pick stockpiling, is paramount right now, and since the bye week, the Bears have blown a win and were uncompetitive in a road game against a beatable team. It’s about to get much worse.
After next week’s home game against the New England Patriots — the Bears opened as 7-point favorites — the remaining eight games look pretty gnarly, with six against the NFC North, along with a road trip to the Bay Area to play the 49ers and a home game with the frisky Seattle Seahawks.
It could be that general manager Ryan Poles, seemingly the president of the Eberflus Fan Club, is already starting to sour on his coach. But if the divisional portion of the schedule could decide Flus’ fate, he might want to freshen up his C.V.
Eberflus went 2-10 against the NFC North in his first two seasons and the division is pretty competitive this season, starting with the Lions, who look like the best team in the NFC.
With the loss in Arizona, the Bears are 0-4 in true road games this season (though they did beat Jacksonville in London), which makes them 3-18 away from Soldier Field under Eberflus. The Bears famously haven’t won a Sunday road game since Dec. 26, 2021, back when Matt Nagy was still coaching.
Things probably would be looking brighter if the Bears had fired Eberflus before last season and hired, say, Jim Harbaugh or Ben Johnson. But instead, they have a coach who can’t win on the road and a president in Kevin Warren who can’t find the team a new home.
The Bears, as currently constructed by Poles, should be better than 4-4. They should still have a shot to make the playoffs, though the recent pileup of injuries is a cause of concern.
But a disconnect seems to be growing. The players were openly critical of the coaches last week, and this week’s performance showed that all is not right with this team. Maybe it’s the coaches. Maybe it’s the players. Probably it’s both.
For a couple of weeks, it looked like they turned a corner, but the Bears are forever trapped in a haunted maze of their own design where there’s no way out.
But hey, at least we’re not talking about Tyrique Stevenson’s boneheaded mistake anymore. That’s a positive, right?
(Photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
