Bears makeshift offensive line gave 'everything they had,' but showed little cohesion in loss to Titans

With a makeshift offensive line, the Bears offense wasn’t expected to be pretty.

But Sunday's 24-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans was a special sort of ugly. The game was not nearly as close as the score indicated – the Bears fell behind 24-3. From the first possession, the offensive line struggled.

The Bears started Charles Leno at left tackle, Arlington Hambright at left guard, Alex Bars at center, Germain Ifedi at right guard and Rashaad Coward at right tackle. Leno and Ifedi were the only regular starters in the lineup. Injuries and COVID-19 decimated the Bears' line.

Starting center Cody Whitehair, tackle Jason Spriggs and backup lineman Lachavious Simmons were on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Backup center Sam Mustipher was out with a knee injury. Starting right tackle Bobby Massie went on injured reserve this week with a knee injury.

“We knew going into today’s game that it was going to be challenging in certain areas,” Bears coach Matt Nagy said.

None bigger than the offensive line.

Nevertheless, the Bears seemed to have something going on their first possession, piling up 41 yards. But on fourth-and-1 at the Tennessee 34-yard line, right guard Germain Ifedi whiffed on his block and running back David Montgomery was stuffed short of the line to gain.

It was a bad omen for the Bears, and thing didn’t improve much after that.

Nagy said he feels his team has improved in those short-yardage situations, but that wasn’t a great example of it.

“We’ve been better of late, and then it’s the ones that you don’t get, especially the fourth downs – those are the ones that are magnified and they sting,” Nagy said.

The Bears were forced to cancel practice Thursday after Whitehair's positive test. They added Simmons and defensive back Deon Bush to the reserve/COVID-19 list prior to Sunday's game, while both were already in Nashville.

The result? Quarterback Nick Foles was hit nine times. The offense rushed for 56 yards.

When it wasn’t blocking struggles on the offensive line, it was penalties. Leno, Coward, and Hambright were all called for penalties during the game. The Bears totaled five penalties for 35 yards. Hambright's false start came on a fourth-and-1 play when the Bears were going for it in Tennessee territory.

"They played as hard as they could and they gave me everything they had," Foles said. "And that’s all I can ever ask of them. You go out there, you play together as an offense and you give it everything you have until the end. And they did that. So I’m proud of them for that."