It didn’t start off pretty; it didn’t end well either. Yet, in between the coin toss and the final whistle, we were reminded again that this Bears team has no quit in it. I know, I know… things that losers say, yet in year 1 of the new Poles and Eberflus era, year 2 of Justin Fields, this quality is an important one. This needs to get instilled at the ground level of this rebuild; I’m seeing it, and that makes me not so mad about this latest loss to the Cowboys.
The performance of Fields is what should also help us move on quickly from this latest defeat. Those flashes that he had been showing are becoming a little more frequent; his performance is becoming a little more consistent. He’s not there yet, by any means… not where he wants to be, not the level we hope he reaches… spoiler alert: that will not happen this year. Still, back to that ground level; we’re building, and part of this undertaking, is the development of Fields. Again, we will not see the finished product this year, but if we can sit back months from now and say “hey, it looks like we DO have our QB”, that will be a win. It will be one position, the most important position in football, that we don’t have to worry about, as we figure out the smartest way to use our draft picks, and the smartest way to spend all that money we have. Plenty more football to be played before we get there though; plenty more show and prove required from anybody who wants to be on this roster going forward.
The defense looked bad in this one. It’s the most points we’ve given up this season, by far; the 29 points scored by the Vikings back on October 9th were the most we’ve seen from the opposition. So yeah, 49… not great. Speaking of 29 points, that should be more than enough to win a good amount of games. If we can pencil in 30 for the offense, I think we’re going to be OK. Maybe I underestimated the Cowboys… I’m just so used to them being overrated every single year… do they actually have a team this year? Not sure why Pollard wouldn’t be their starting RB going forward. I know our run D isn’t the greatest, but man, that dude can play. Dak looked pretty good too. Maybe the strongest part of their team is their D, which is another reason I’m feeling OK after this one. Our offense did pretty well against a really good NFL defense; another good sign.
We’re seeing positive things. There have been many seasons where those have been few and far between; many times where our future looks as bleak as our present. I don’t feel that way this time. While we will take some more lumps this year, we will make a game out of it. Although the losses may outnumber the wins when it’s all and done, we are developing a path to improvement; there is promise in our future. At this point, I certainly feel like we have dispelled the notion that we are one of the worst teams in football; that’s really not a high bar though. Now, we need to fight towards being a 500 team. At 3-5, we have some work to do; next week the Dolphins will supply another good test. This time though, we’re at home, and if there’s something else we need to establish early on in this process, is winning in front of our home crowd. We’re a crappy game against the Commanders away from being undefeated there. Let’s get back on track. Bear Down!!!
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