As the day went on, and the time for Monday Night Football came close, my friend asked me a question: “Couldn’t they flex us out of Monday Night? Jeez…” I knew exactly what he meant. He’s a Raiders fan; they were taking on the Falcons in the other MNF matchup. I responded: “I know the feeling. More national embarrassment.” It’s bad enough that the Bears continue to crash and burn this season, but now the whole country gets to witness it… again? And just like we thought, it was another national debacle from the Bears in Minnesota against the Vikings.
After last week’s shitshow against Frisco, I asked the question: who can we fire now? The same question remains. Is Ryan Poles up next? Aikman seemed to have his back, or at least got the memo to defend him, on the MNF broadcast. I’m not saying he should be fired; I’m not saying he shouldn’t be. He’s done good things; he’s done bad things. One thing is clear: Poles is part of the problem for this year’s failures. We’re not going to chuck our rookie QB into the sun after one year of playing in this offense even though he hasn’t been great. He HAS been great in comparison to previous Bears rookie QBs; that wasn’t hard to do. Depending on what numbers you want to throw up on the screen, depending on how you slice the stats, he’s right there with other great QBs rookie seasons, so… I’m choosing not to worry about Caleb right now; he will be our QB next year, that much is clear. I’m perfectly fine with that. Now back to Poles…
The fact remains that the Bears went into the season with one glaring weakness that Poles failed to seriously address: the offensive line; we’ve been over this before. It’s amazing that this was the case considering that Poles was an offensive lineman himself; it’s even more amazing considering the #1 overall pick would be marched out there with suspect protection in his spotlight rookie season. I’m not saying the Bears should have taken an offensive lineman instead of Rome with the 2nd first round pick, but… our 3rd round pick… he was on display in this one, and… it was not pretty. Trying to plug the line with FA signings, one which we had to straight up cut during the season, was not the best strategy Ryan. Is that a fireable offense? This wasn’t his only bad move; of course, he’s got moves on the other side of the ledger. We don’t have to go over it all.
Honestly, I’ve been trying to avoid Bears coverage; trying to save myself some stress, especially during this holiday season. All I want for Christmas is 1 win. It’s been 8 losses in a row. The one game I want to win is in Lambeau; that’s it… that’s all I want. The Bears seem to be waving the white flag themselves, so… I should care more? The season has been a disaster, but there is silver lining. Heading into the offseason, we have our QB; now let’s put a team around him… and oh yeah, how about a coach? Will we need a GM too? Bear Down.
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