If you’ve read my work here on Bears Talk, then you know I prefer supporting the Chicago Bears and their decisions over erring on the side of negativity. I tend to believe in the Bears until they give me a reason not to, and that’s why my expectations for this year’s team were high over the summer.
Two weeks into the 2023 season, it may be time to adjust those expectations. The Chicago Bears do not look like a good football team. The Chicago Bears do not look like a well-coached football team. Worst of all, the Chicago Bears do not look like they have a very good starting quarterback.
This is not a death sentence for the team, the coaches, or Justin Fields. There are still 15 games left and last year, we saw the Bears flip a switch in Week 7 on offense. It was a fun team to watch.
We could still see a team that plays like that in 2023, and I hope we do. I will own the shame of having lost faith too early, of having overreacted to a small sample size.
But I do not feel nearly as confident in this team as I did eight days ago.
Let me be clear: there is plenty of blame to go around. A lot belongs to the coaches, most notably offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. But, at this point, I cannot make the excuses for Fields that I did last year. The clean pockets are there. The open receivers are there. He’s not playing well, and there’s no getting around that.
But neither is Joe Burrow, for that matter. Or Jalen Hurts. Josh Allen has had a rocky start to his season. All these great quarterbacks have been struggling along with Fields. Maybe it’s something in the Gatorade?
As I said, there’s still time to turn this all around.
But that’s for the future. Right now, it doesn’t look good. Before the season started, I set a floor of seven wins and a ceiling of 11. It’s time for me to adjust those expectations.
I have to crank the floor all the way back down to three wins, the same as last year. Looking at the schedule, I don’t see many games I feel good about. Maybe the Bears pull out a win over the 0-2 Vikings, and maybe that Week 18 matchup against Green Bay will go Chicago’s way. The Bears play the Panthers in November, so perhaps that’s another victory.
As for a ceiling, that’s down to 8. If the Bears get their mojo back after what will almost certainly be a loss to Kansas City in Week 3, they can find a way to be right around .500 when the season ends, but a lot would have to go right for that to happen.
This is the harsh reality Chicago Bears fans are facing after a hard-to-watch 0-2 start.
