NFL power rankings are the epitome of the saying, ‘what have you done for me lately.’ And in the case of the Chicago Bears and their standing in NFL.com’s Week 5 power rankings, their loss to the New York Giants on Sunday has pushed them into the bowels of the league.
The Bears are down three spots to No. 30.
“Justin Fields set a season high on Sunday with 11 completions and in no way is that depressing,” wrote Dan Hanzus. “Yes, the growing pains rolled on for the young former first-round pick, who took six sacks and had three trips inside the red zone without scoring a touchdown in a 20-12 loss to the Giants at MetLife Stadium. You can imagine Matt Eberflus finds himself in a difficult situation: Fields represents the possible future of the Bears organization, but he’s been unable to lead the offense with any efficiency. The new coach is tied to the young QB in his debut season, for better or worse.”
This is a bit of an overreaction to Fields’ performance, which Eberflus said after the game provided some positive downfield moments in the passing offense.
Still, the Bears (2-2) haven’t done anything over the first month of the season to provide analysts like Hanzus with any reasons to rank them higher. Aside from the rushing offense, Chicago has been average or below average in almost every team aspect. The run defense has been terrible, the pass defense is giving up chunk plays, the offensive line has been brutal, and there have been questionable coaching decisions as well.
So, yeah. The Bears are No. 30 right now, and they only have themselves to blame.
