The Morning After…the Bears’ frustrating loss vs. Giants in Week 4

The Chicago Bears (2-1) came away with a narrow 23-20 victory over the Houston Texans (0-2-1) on Sunday, where there were still some concerns despite the win.

The offense continues to struggle, and they stalled in all three trips to the red zone. Placeholder kicker Michael Badgley accounted for all 12 of Chicago’s points. But even as Justin Fields looked like he improved somewhat, the offensive line let him down.

There was plenty to break down following Chicago’s loss against New York. Our Bears Wire staff is sharing their thoughts following the Week 4 game.

The Bears’ Week 4 loss vs. Giants

Alyssa Barbieri

Sarah Stier/Getty Images

The Bears’ loss to the Giants was even more infuriating than their loss to the Packers in Week 2. Stay with me here. For all intents and purposes, Chicago and New York are two evenly-matched teams. They’ve had sub-par quarterback play; they have dominant run games; their defenses have been stout, but not without their flaws; and they both had no business being 2-1  (now, for the Giants, 3-1).

At least when the Bears lost to the Packers, they lost to a team with a strong edge in talent and coaching. But Chicago’s loss to the Giants was made worse by the fact that the Bears couldn’t beat a borderline bad/average team. Credit to the Giants, who out-coached and outplayed Chicago (not to mention, who have one of the best running backs in the league in Saquon Barkley). But there were opportunities to win this game for the Bears.

Chicago has been a second-half team this year. They’ve done a decent job of making some sort of adjustments at halftime following some ugly first halves. But the offense’s inability to convert on all three trips inside the red zone was the reason they lost this game. The offense continued to struggle; the defense stumbled; and the coaching staff had a brutal outing (specifically looking at you, Luke Getsy).

If there’s a positive to take out of this, it’s that we finally saw the Justin Fields-Darnell Mooney connection manifest on the field. Unfortunately, Fields’ offensive line, other wideouts and offensive coordinator let him down. It’s hard not to worry about his development at this point, even so early on in Year 2.

This is one of those losses that makes you sit back and think, maybe the Bears are as bad as the national media made them out to be this offseason. Not that this wasn’t unexpected. I’ve expected Chicago to struggle this…