Before I commence with my thoughts about the all-around pretty goodness of the NFL this season, with no team standing out as extraordinary, I’d like to point out that it is not my intention to depress you Bears fans any more than you already are.
So as you soak in your tub of despair, know that I am your friend, your consoler, your shoulder to cry on.
Also know that your 6-6 team has really blown it so far in a season that apparently doesn’t require greatness to be a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
I notice you’ve assumed the fetal position. Was it something I said?
If you look at the NFL through a Bears lens, it will drive you insane. But look we will. Remember how ugly their 17-7 loss to the Rams was in Week 11? You remember coach Matt Nagy pulling quarterback Mitch Trubisky late in the game because of a hip injury (and not poor performance!). He healed so quickly from what was called a hip pointer that the Miracle Boy of Halas Hall was able to play the next week. But do you remember how awful the Rams were in that game? How spectacularly ordinary their quarterback, Jared Goff, looked? Well, the Rams are 7-5. They crushed the Cardinals 34-7 Sunday.
In the past month, the 3-8-1 Cardinals have lost twice to the 49ers by a total of 13 points. At 10-2, those 49ers are tied for the best record in the NFL.
The Bears lost to the underwhelming Chargers 17-16 in Week 8. The Chargers beat the Packers 26-11 the next week. Green Bay, which is 9-3 and in first place in the NFC North, stunned the Bears 10-3 in Week 1. The Bears strutted into that game and this season with Super Bowl hopes. The Packers, with a new coach, weren’t sure what they were.
I’m not sure how good the Packers are, but I do know that they destroyed the lowly Giants 31-13 on Sunday. Those are the same lowly Giants the Bears barely beat the week before.
All right, I’ll stop. You see my point. I’ve heard some people say that if the Bears had a kicker they’d be 8-4 now. We can play that game all day long. The Bears should have lost to Denver, but a phantom roughing-the-passer penalty against the Broncos’ Bradley Chubb with 24 seconds left gave them life and, in the end, a game-winning 53-yard field goal by Eddy Pineiro.
Not surprisingly, the Patriots are atop the AFC East with a 10-2 record. Surprisingly, they are not there because of Tom Brady. Their defense is excellent. Brady’s completion percentage is 61.1, which is worse than Trubisky’s 63.7. Both percentages are near the bottom among starting NFL quarterbacks. I’m not sure I could have imagined the names “Brady” and “Trubisky” being in the same sentence this season, but I never would have suspected it would be for that reason.
The Texans, with Deshaun Watson leading the way, beat the Patriots on Sunday night. The New England defense I described as “excellent’’ in the previous paragraph gave up 28 points to the Texans. Keep an eye on 8-4 Houston, especially if defensive end J.J. Watt makes it back from a torn pectoral muscle in time for the playoffs.
But is any team out there great? New Orleans with a healthy Drew Brees is well-balanced. The 10-2 Ravens are the closest thing to great. Lamar Jackson has thrown 25 touchdown passes and just five interceptions. He has 977 rushing yards. The Bears, as a team, have 952. Jackson is averaging seven yards a carry. You try stopping him. The Ravens’ defense is fifth in the NFL in points allowed (18.2). The team ahead of them? The Bears, at 17.3.
The only way a team with that stingy a defense could be .500 is if the other side of the ball is a mess. The Bears’ offense has only done well against teams with very bad defenses. It’s why Trubisky’s shiny stats in two victories over the Lions and one over the Giants have little meaning.
The Bears have one quality victory this season, a 16-6 victory over the Vikings at Soldier Field in late September. Chase Daniel replaced an injured Trubisky early in that game and walked away with a victory.
It’s very possible the Bears were going to get their comeuppance in the last four games of the season even if they were 8-4 at this point. The rest of their schedule is the Cowboys at home Thursday night, the Packers away, the Chiefs at home and the Vikings away. That’s Iditarod tough sledding.
I promised you I was going to stop with the comparison shopping, but one more. The 8-4 Chiefs trounced the Raiders 40-9 on Sunday. That would be the same Raiders who beat the Bears 24-21 in London, the first of four straight losses for the team from Chicago with high hopes.
Uh-oh.
