2020 Week 7: Chicago Bears 10, Los Angeles Rams 24

By Kevin Schroeder
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Updated: November 1, 2020

Eddie Jackson of the Chicago Bears scores a touchdown on a fumble recovery

BoJack finally gets his touchdown and outscores the entire offense. (Photo: NFL GamePass)

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.

Do we have to?

Yeah, unfortunately.

Why?

Well, it’s what I do here.

Can you at least make it quick?

Sure.

Okay, so what was that?

Did you miss the offensive line chart? Rashaad Coward cannot be let to start another game. I said that last week and they didn’t listen and the result was this week, Coward surpassed Hroniss Grasu’s three-year-old record for offensive line awfulness. The only performance by any Bears player I’ve graded over these last five years that could be considered worse, factoring in the different Mendoza lines for each position, would be Chase Daniel’s -20.5 outing against the Giants in 2018. Start Alex Bars Sunday. Do I have any confidence in him? No. But he can’t be worse than this. Or start Spriggs at left tackle and kick Leno inside. Same logic applies.

If Coward’s abysmal day wasn’t bad enough, Both tackles were absolutely terrible, too. If the Bears want to give Spriggs a look over one of those guys, I’m all for it. Neither one should be on the team next year.

One positive not here, though – I was pleasantly surprised with Ifedi. While I wouldn’t call his performance good, nor was it a dumpster fire. He mostly held his own in a tough matchup. If he’ll come cheap next year, the Bears should bring him back.

What about the play calling? Didn’t Foles say he knows he’s not going to be able to execute some calls when they come in?

Brian Griese said on the broadcast that Foles told him that sometimes a call will come in and Foles will know he won’t have the time to execute it. Both Foles and Nagy downplayed that after the game, because obviously, but even if Foles did actually say that and it was relayed correctly by Griese, I see that as more of an indictment of the O-line than of Nagy. Again, I must refer you to the chart.

I wasn’t happy with Nagy in this one, particularly the lack of adjustments. He does need to simplify the offense and cut down on some of these personnel packages. I’m tired of seeing timeouts because the Bears don’t have the right guys in. That said, I do understand it to an extent because I think Nagy knows he doesn’t have the guys to get by just on talent alone, so at that point, you try to make up for it by outscheming your opponents. Nagy has a tendency to take that too far and outthink himself. I’m also tired of not seeing Jimmy Graham on the field in the red zone. That I have no justification for. Knock it off.

How about the defense?

They couldn’t maintain the edge in the run game or handle playaction in the passing game. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – the Bears need to go back to being a zone-first team. They shut down the Rams in 2018 when they were one of the hottest offenses in the league and, the last two years, applied none of the lessons they learned that night. Meanwhile, Sean McVay made a point of not letting a repeat of 2018 happen and has been wildly successful in doing so.

What does this mean going forward?

The Bears take on the Saints Sunday. While there won’t be fans in attendance, the Bears will still have a real advantage being at home as the weather is expected to be in the high 30s and windy. Drew Brees isn’t much of a deep threat anymore to begin with and will have to deal with that weather and do so without Michael Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, and Marquez Callaway. Allen Robinson cleared concussion protocol and will play. Patterson, Mack, and Jackson should be good to go as well. Cody Whitehair is out, so this could be another adventure up front. This is going to have to look like a repeat of the Tampa game if the Bears are going to win.