3 and Out: Bears offense falls apart in loss to Vikings

The penalties piled up and the Bears offense turned in another clunker in a 17-9 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on “Monday Night Football.” Here’s what you need to know:

Three moments that mattered

1. How much worse can this get? The Bears, entering a game where 14 players were unable to play after being placed on the COVID-19/reserve list, turned in another reminder of just how overmatched they are in comparison to the majority of the league. The offense scored three points in four red-zone trips, and Justin Fields certainly struggled plenty. Despite an admirable defensive effort without virtually the entire starting secondary, it wasn’t competitive. That’s on coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace.

2. On cue: After Damien Williams partially blocked a punt to give the Bears good field position at the Vikings’ 30 and trailing, 17-3, in the second half, the Bears went 7 yards on four plays, burning only 1:31 of clock. Nagy opted to go for a fourth-and-1 at the 21 with Fields rolling out for a possible pass before taking a sack. David Montgomery came off the field the previous play, but the failure to get any points, much less seven, on that drive epitomizes how broken the Bears are offensively.

3. Can’t get off the field: On the Vikings’ second possession of the second half, a 10-play drive ended in a touchdown by Ihmir Smith-Marsette with 5:51 left in the third quarter to give the Vikings a 17-3 lead. The drive was aided by two defensive penalties by the Bears when they seemingly got off the field on third down, only to see that go for naught due to the penalties. Regardless of if the calls were officiated well, the Bears have struggled all year with penalties when drives have ended. This has been consistent with Nagy’s team the last few seasons.

Three things that worked

1. Secondary held by duct tape: Considering the entire starting secondary was placed on the COVID-19 list, holding superstar wideout Justin Jefferson to 47 receiving yards and one touchdown was certainly admirable. Deon Bush, Teez Tabor, Kindle Vildor and Thomas Graham Jr. entered Monday with a combined 26 starts among them. Graham, in particular for his first-career start, flashed with three nice pass breakups.

2. That’s Pro Bowler Robert Quinn to you: It’s a broken record at this point, but Quinn forces our hand. There’s no other way to slice his resurgence. Now up to 16 sacks after two in the first half Monday, Quinn needs only 1 1/2 to tie Richard Dent’s single-season sacks record set in 1984. Quinn has done this largely without Khalil Mack and Akiem Hicks healthy for the majority of the season.

3. Hicks’ return: After missing the previous four games, Hicks returned in a big way for the defensive line to generate two sacks. While Hicks’ future in Chicago looks murky beyond this season, he brought a visible mean streak to the game and has performed well when healthy.

Three things that didn’t

1. Nagy, once again: At this point, as respectful as we can be, we don’t know how the Bears’ braintrust could watch that football game and not be considering immediate changes, certainly at coach, and possibly beyond. We’ll never advocate for anyone to lose their job, but virtually every aspect of the Bears is teetering on disaster. Not all of it can be directly placed at Nagy’s feet, and there’s definitely plenty to go around, starting with an offense that scores three points in four trips to the red zone and seven trips in Minnesota territory before a pointless touchdown on the final play of the game. Fields bears responsibility for that, as well.

2. Tevin Jenkins: The Bears’ rookie left tackle has seven penalties in eight quarters played in his young career. Jenkins, obviously, has a ton of time to show he can be an NFL starting-caliber tackle, but false starts and holds don’t help his cause. We will, however, defend his personal foul flag after clearly defending Fields after a tough tackle.

3. Red-zone aggressiveness: In three first-half trips inside the red zone, the Bears left with only three points. Nagy also chose arguably odd times to be aggressive and not to be. On one drive, Fields converted a fourth-and-1 on the Minnesota 25-yard line on a wheel route to David Montgomery to precede a field goal, but later opted to not try and convert fourth-and-2 at the Vikings’ 31, which led to Cairo Santos’ blocked field goal. Nagy’s inconsistent tendencies for those situations continue to be puzzling.

What’s next?

The Bears face Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks on the road. Kickoff is set for 3:05 p.m. Sunday.