2020 Week 17: Chicago Bears 16, Green Bay Packers 35

You are the Weakest Link. Goodbye. [Photo credit: Kamil Krzaczynski, USA Today]

Player Grades

The grading scale goes from -3 to +3 for each play. Screens are graded as runs. Penalties are counted in whatever phase they were committed. Pre- and post-snap penalties are in the “Misc.” column. “Short” throws are 10 yards or less, “Medium” is 10-20, “Deep” is over 20. Everything else (scrambles, throwaways, reads, etc.) is under “Miscellaneous.” Parentheses in a column denote grades/snaps from the opposite side of the ball and are not included in grades/snaps from the player’s usual side. Snap counts are from Pro Football Reference. Box score and other relevant info can be found at that link as well.

Note: No offensive snap counts because the Bears’ last drive isn’t in the chart because garbage time.

So what happened to the offense?

The thing that was always going to happen when Trubisky is forced to make plays. In a weird way, the Packers may have helped us out in the long run here because they showed that Trubisky really hasn’t grown as a QB and stopping this “new look” offense isn’t actually that difficult. The Packers were content to just sit at the sticks and bet that Trubisky couldn’t make a play past them, or at least that he couldn’t make enough of them that it would make their strategy unviable. If the Bears bring Mitch back, the rest of the league is going to figure that out, too, the same way everybody figured out Chuck Pagano.

Speaking of which…

Yeah, he’s gotta go. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a Bears coach fired more then I want him fired. At least with John Fox, there was a reason for the team stinking beyond just him – the players weren’t very good. Chuck Pagano inherited a group that had just had a historically great year on defense and with two extra years of Roquan Smith and Eddie Jackson development and the upgrade of Jaylon Johnson over Prince Amukamara with the only losses being Adrian Amos, who despite what cheesebrains may attempt to tell you, is just a good, not great player, and Bryce Callahan, who, ditto minus the cheesebrains part, is finding ways to give up points with regularity. There is no justification for keeping him around. The pass rush can’t get home because opposing QBs know right away where they’re going with the ball because Pagano doesn’t disguise anything. And even more galling than that, he has no idea how to use Eddie Jackson.

Yeah, so what’s with Eddie? Kind of a disappointing year.

I trace that back to Pagano. The missed tackles are on Eddie, but the increase in passer rating when targeting him is because he’s being asked to cover guys in the slot more. Couple that with the fact that Pagano insists upon playing a gorillion yards off guys and there you go. Your author is going to keep pounding the drum for Dan Quinn until the Bears hire him because BoJack (and Fuller) would be phenomenal in that system.

What does this mean going forward?

Well, we’re in the playoffs. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we’re up against the Saints, who have their weapons back while we’ll be without Roquan and Mooney. This could be ugly.

Monsters

Jackson, Mack, Mingo, Mooney, Monty, Whitehair

Chipmunks

Mitch, Shelley, Graham

Four Stars of the Game

Cody Whitehair

  Darnell Mooney

  Eddie Jackson

Khalil Mack, Barkevious Mingo

Twitter: @KSchroeder_312