The Chicago Bears have seen a turnaround the past few weeks. The Bears started the regular season 1-2, and looked like they might be repeating the same disastrous mistakes that they made with both Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields. I have not liked Matt Eberflus or his coaching staff these past couple years, and I was hoping that the Bears would look for a new head coach. I feared that when the Bears drafted Caleb Williams, they had drafted a potentially elite quarterback in the last gasp of a lame duck year for the coaching staff. I feared that coaching staff would stunt Williams' development with poor coaching and play-calling. Williams did not look very impressive in the preseason (the backups sure did, though), and he struggled the first few weeks behind awful pass protection, an un-reliable rushing game, and play-calling that failed to put him in situations in which he could succeed and build confidence.
Those days feel like ancient history though. The Bears have now won 3 straight, going into their bye week. Not only are they winning, but they are winning decisively, and looking like a well-rounded powerhouse. Williams is in the top 15 in both passing yards and passing TD. The offense is scoring over 30 points per game in its wins, and the defense is giving up an average of less than 17 points per game. At the same time, they have scores on special teams, and rookie punter Tory Taylor is looking like an instant all-pro.
Photo credit: total apex sports.
Punter Tory Taylor is making life very easy for the defense.
Things seem to be on track.
But "seem" might be the operative word there. I still have concerns.
Those 3 wins came against some of the worst teams in the NFL this year. All 4 of the teams the Bears beat have 1 win each through 6 weeks. In fact, the only 1-win teams that the Bears haven't beat yet are the Patriots and Browns (thought the Bears will have a shot at the Patriots next month). The Texans are the only good team that the Bears have played so far, and they lost a frustrating match against a mediocre Colts team. The good news is that the Bears were at least competitive in those 2 losses, losing both games by a single score.
In any case, the Bears have shown that they can beat up on bad teams, but they have yet to show that they can truly win against Playoff-caliber teams. And that's worrisome, because all of the NFC North is looking like potential playoff teams this year! They will get a chance to prove themselves after their bye, when they will go on the road to play the NFC East-leading Washington Commanders. Then they will have a couple more cupcake games against the Cardinals and Patriots, before starting a brutal gauntlet of a schedule that includes all of their NFC North divisional games, as well as road matchups against the 49ers and a home game against the Seahawks. The Vikings (in particular) are one of the surprise success stories of the league so far, as they remain unbeaten through 6 weeks (5 wins because they already had their bye).
The Bears could very well go into divisional play with a record of 6-3 (or even 7-2), but they will need to at least split those divisional games, and win at least 1 of the non-divisional games against the 49ers or Seahawks, if they want a shot at a wildcard playoff berth. And honestly, I'm not yet convinced that they can do that.
Photo credit: Vikings Wire.
Sam Darnold has played well, leading the Vikings to a surprising 5-0 start.
Despite putting up a lot of offensive points the last few weeks, the offensive line has still been inconsistent at best. Williams has been forced to improvise more often than I would like, due to breakdowns in pass protection, and he has taken more hits than I would like. The running game has looked a lot better, but it also suffers from inconsistent blocking, with offensive linemen seeming to miss their assignments at least once or twice every possession. They've been good enough to beat bad teams, despite these problems, but I don't feel confident that they'll be able to overcome these problems against better defenses, or against opposing offenses that are better able to score points against the Bears' defense.
Perhaps the most reassuring thing that I've seen so far, is that I haven't noticed as many of the confoundingly-bad play calls and schemes that I've seen the past couple years from Eberflu's coaching staff. New OC Shane Waldron is designing and calling much better plays than Luke Getsy was, even if they still need more refinement.
The defense is probably the most exciting part of the team. With Tory Taylor pinning opponents back deep, and the defense giving the offense short fields (or turnovers), I do expect the Bears to be in every game. I do not expect any blowouts. I'm just not sure if they have the discipline and consistency to win the division or compete against playoff teams.