With a five-game losing streak heading into a road game against a 10-1 Lions team that ranks No. 1 in the NFL in scoring and No. 2 in scoring defense, the last thing the Bears need is a short week. They didn’t have a full practice this week, opting for walkthroughs Tuesday and Wednesday before heading to Detroit for a Thanksgiving Day game at Ford Field. It looks like a potential nightmare scenario.
But maybe not. Practice doesn’t seem to make a difference with Matt Eberflus’ team, which seems to have reached the ultimate dead end — the harder they try, the worse they get.
There was no better example last week than the failed field-goal unit. After the Packers blocked Cairo Santos’ game-winning attempt on the final play in a 20-19 loss in Week 10, the Bears went back to work, focused on the issue and corrected the breakdowns that led to that ignominious failure.
And they failed again. Santos’ very next kick — a 48-yard attempt against the Vikings — was blocked. It was the first time a kicker had consecutive field-goal attempts blocked in nine years.
“We spent a lot of time and attention last week on that. We really did,” special-teams coordinator Richard Hightower said. “But we didn’t get it done.”
The Bears’ defense has had similar problems — though not nearly as egregious. It started the season as good as advertised — and is still eighth in the NFL in points allowed — but a leaky run defense has been an issue all season. The more they focus on it, the worse it gets.
Through six games, the Bears were 10th in the NFL in rushing defense — but not happy about allowing 112 yards per game, including touchdown runs of 38, 26 and 21 yards.
They vowed to get better but have only gotten worse. Since the bye, the Bears have allowed an average of 151 rushing yards — sixth-most in the NFL in that span.
The Bears’ performance after the bye week, in fact, has been yet another indictment of Eberflus and his coaching staff. The bye is when teams have a chance to take a breath, refresh, identify issues and come out better.
Eberflus’ team came out worse. After going into the bye week with three consecutive victories, the Bears have lost five straight, with a series of self-incriminating issues — discipline, penalties, technique, details and fundamentals. In Week 12 of Year 3, those are all issues that should be fully ingrained strengths of a team, not excuses.
Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams and the offense went into the bye on a tremendous high. The Bears scored 24, 36 and 35 points in three victories. Williams had a 122.8 passer rating, completing 74.1% of his passes.
After a week to refresh and re-focus and build on that momentum, the offense flopped. The Bears had 15, nine and three points in losses to the Commanders, Cardinals and Patriots. Williams had a 64.7 passer rating, completing just 50.5% of his passes.
Williams and the offense have recovered since then and are back on the upswing. The Bears have gained 391 and 395 yards and scored 19 and 27 points in their last two games. But even that encouraging uptick is ominous for Eberflus — it took a coaching change to make it happen.