GREEN BAY, Wis. — Playing hard is the minimum of what is asked in the NFL. Good effort is the baseline. I need to point that out before I let Bears coach Matt Nagy and quarterback Mitch Trubisky start in with the rah-rah stuff.
You’ve been warned.
The Packers had a 21-3 third-quarter lead over the Bears on Sunday but only ended up winning 21-13.
“For the guys to not just give up and turn it into a 40-3 [game], to fight back there at the end and have a chance those final two plays to maybe make something happen’’ was impressive, Nagy said.
“Proud of the effort in how we [battled] back and almost had a chance at the end,’’ Trubisky said.
Club Dub apparently will open for anything this season.
We wanted progress. We got proselytizing instead.
We wanted more than one touchdown from the Bears’ offense. We got three cheers instead.
I’m thinking a class-action lawsuit for consumer fraud might be in order. What the Bears had sold the previous five weeks and what too many people had bought was the idea that the offense had finally found its true self. They implied that their four-game losing streak in the middle of the season had been an imposter.
On a redundantly cold December afternoon in Green Bay, the Bears’ offense seized up as it had so many times this season. And when it really, really counted down the stretch, Trubisky answered with an interception, a stalled drive and desperation theater. In the closing seconds of the game, Trubisky threw a Hail Mary that bounced off the hands of rookie Riley Ridley in the end zone. Then the quarterback took part in a wild game of lateral keep-away that fell short in the shadow of the end zone.
The Bears grabbed onto those last-gasp efforts as proof of their resolve. But it was hard to find proof Sunday of an offense that knows how to score points. Until the rules of the game change, scoring is the whole idea.
And the whole idea of football, according to Bears ownership, is to beat the Packers. Instead, Green Bay won both games this season, a fairly good indicator of why the 7-7 Bears are out in the cold when it comes to the postseason.
I’ve never seen two players (Allen Robinson and Anthony Miller) have 100-yard receiving games and an offense look as unimpressive in the process as the Bears’ did Sunday. Trubisky threw two interceptions, though the first one came on a bomb that ended the first half. His passes were off target too often Sunday. He threw low. He threw high. He threw too many passes flat-footed. He also threw some very nice passes.
He threw and threw. He completed 29 of 53 passes for 334 yards and a touchdown. He easily could have thrown three or four interceptions.
Week 15 Mitch was about as effective as Week 8 Mitch. His numbers looked pretty good, but most of it was rouge and lipstick. For anyone who approached this game as a referendum on Trubisky’s ability and future, I suppose it was in the eye of the beholder. I saw someone who couldn’t produce touchdowns in a game the Bears dearly needed.
The loss to Green Bay downgraded victories over the Cowboys, the Giants and the Lions (twice) the previous five weeks. The defeat Sunday should restart the conversations over whether Trubisky is the long-term answer at quarterback, but it won’t. Mitch fatigue has set in, and people would prefer to wave the white flag rather than call for change that isn’t coming.
Trubisky ran four times for 29 yards, a far cry from the 10 carries and 63 yards he had against the Cowboys last week. The Dallas game had looked like something the Bears could build on, but like a lot of things this season, it turned out to be a mirage.
“You guys are going to continue to write us off,’’ Trubisky said in his postgame news conference Sunday.
He has it backward. The Bears have written themselves off this season with inconsistent play. Media members simply have chronicled it. Before the season began, most of us predicted the Bears would make the playoffs. We had seen a team that had gone 12-4 and won its division last season. Some of us assumed Trubisky would get better. He went in the opposite direction.
That’s why Sunday happened, and that’s why the Bears were left to play the high school-ish, valiant-effort angle.
“I’m going to stay positive with our guys because I appreciate their fight,’’ Nagy said.
The time and place of the Bears’ postseason banquet has not been set, but I’m told all the players will be awarded letter jackets. That letter is E for Effort.
