The Bears won Sunday. That’s a sentence that hasn’t been written since humans first learned how to control fire.
You would think there’d be good feelings associated with such a thing, but it didn’t escape the notice of the bleaker among us that their opponent was without its best player and without what is commonly known as “a defense.’’
The Bears are talking about building off of their 20-13 takedown of the Lions, but because the victory came without Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford on the field, we should probably have a conversation about the structural integrity of the whole operation.
Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky completed 16 of 23 passes for 173 yards, three touchdowns and a 131.0 passer rating. He made some very nice throws. He also was playing against one of the worst defenses in the NFL. That’s a Mitch thing. The best games of his career have come against bad teams: Tampa Bay last season, and Washington and Detroit this season.
That will strike some (many?) of you as overly negative. The Bears had lost four straight games coming into Sunday. In that stretch, their slogan was, “If it’s good news, it’s news to us.’’ So by that standard, go ahead and laud them for the victory over the Lions. By that standard, any victory, no matter how ugly, deserves kudos.
So, yay.
I guess.
But a corner being turned? I don’t think so. If the Bears think Sunday’s victory solved anything, they and reality should jointly file for divorce.
“I think winning always (builds confidence),’’ Trubisky said. “I think playing well, playing a little bit better, catching some of those mistakes that we’ve been making ... and coming up with the W, is always big. It feels good. We’ve just got to build off it.’’
The point of the NFL is victories, of course, but this was a victory over a team playing with a quarterback named Jeff Driskel. And perhaps the most incriminating part of it is that Driskel, who now has six starts to his name, has more pocket awareness than Trubisky will ever have.
The Bears caught a huge break when news broke Sunday morning that Stafford wouldn’t play because of fractured bones in his back. He was fourth in the league in passing yards coming into the game. Facing him would have been a much, much better gauge of how the Bears handle duress. The talent gap between Stafford and Driskel is measured in miles.
And, yet, the Lions had a chance to tie the game with seven seconds left and the ball at the Chicago 25. That they didn’t led the Bears to fire up Club Dub, their post-victory celebration room, at Soldier Field. I don’t begrudge them their party, especially after such a long losing streak. But if confetti fell, I hope it was shaped like asterisks.
For the sake of real organizational progress, it would have been better for the Bears to have lost Sunday. That way, they would have had to look even harder in the mirror and think about serious, meaningful changes.
Instead, they’re able to look at their record and fool themselves.
“Now here we are 4-5,’’ coach Matt Nagy said. “… I love how our guys are believing in each other. They’re like, ‘Bring it on.’ They like it. It’s part of who we are.’’
The Bears were especially pleased with the three straight touchdown drives that Trubisky led Sunday. Just before halftime, he made a beautiful throw to tight end Ben Braunecker, who made a diving catch for the score. It was especially nice, given that the Bears’ offense had nine yards of total offense in the first half against the Eagles the week before.
But if you were to stick a hand in a rushing river, your fingers would represent the Detroit D and the water whichever offense it were facing. The Lions came into the game giving up 424.1 of total offense a game. They gave up just 226 yards Sunday.
The Bears play the Rams in Los Angeles next week, and it figures to be a much tougher test than whatever that was Sunday.
You have two options as a Bears consumer. You can look at the Lions victory with a sparkle in your eye and embrace the kind of positive thinking that has built a multibillion-dollar self-help industry. Or you can look at what happened Sunday and get an eyeful of the truth.
It’s up to you, Sunshine. But just remember, the comedown from delusion is a long, hard fall.
