Bear Down, Nerd Up: Long losing streaks have become the norm in recent years

For the second time in three years, the Bears are on a six-game losing streak. It’s their fourth such losing streak in the past decade. Twice in the past decade they also had losing streaks that ended at five games.

So welcome, Matt Eberflus, to your first extended losing streak as head coach of the Chicago Bears. This one has to feel so much better than all of those previous losing streaks because at least Bears fans can point to the development of quarterback Justin Fields as a positive.

The Bears piled up season highs in total yards (409) and net passing yards (254) during Sunday’s loss to Green Bay. It was their second game this season totaling more than 400 yards and losing (previously they had 408 yards against Detroit and lost Nov. 13).

Here’s what other numbers stood out this week.

Top WR: Credit for the following nugget goes to my colleague John Dietz at the Daily Herald. Receiver Darnell Mooney’s season is over after an ankle injury last week. Mooney finishes the season with 40 receptions for 493 yards and two touchdowns.

Tight end Cole Kmet has 35 receptions, but the next highest in receptions behind Mooney among the wide receiver position is Equanimeous St. Brown’s 17 receptions. Unless somebody has a crazy final four games, Mooney likely will finish as the leader in receptions among receivers.

Mooney’s 40 catches would be the fewest to lead Bears wide receivers since 2011, when Johnny Knox and Roy Williams led the way with 37 catches each.

Before 2011, the Bears’ top receiver had 40 catches or more in every season dating to 1990, when receiver Wendell Davis finished with 39 catches. Other players at running back or tight end have led the team in receptions during that time, and Kmet likely will lead the Bears in 2022.

But it further shows how depleted this Bears receiving group is – particularly before Chase Claypool showed up. Since coming to Chicago, Claypool has 12 catches for 111 yards.

Fields rushing record update: With 71 rushing yards Sunday, Fields brought his season total up to 905 rushing yards. He’s 63 yards shy of Bobby Douglass’ team record. He’s 301 yards shy of Lamar Jackson’s 2019 NFL record of 1,206 yards. He passed Michael Vick’s second-best effort from 2004 on Sunday to move into sixth all time.

These are the top rushing seasons for an NFL quarterback:

1. Lamar Jackson, 2019 – 1,206 yards
2. Michael Vick, 2006 – 1,039 yards
3. Lamar Jackson, 2020 – 1,005 yards
4. Bobby Douglass, 1972 – 968 yards
5. Randall Cunningham, 1990 – 942 yards
6. Justin Fields, 2022 – 905 yards (so far)

Per Stats Research, Fields is the first QB to record three or more rushing touchdowns of 50 or more yards in the same season since 1925. Nobody in the NFL has done that since running backs Derrick Henry and Christian McCaffrey both did in 2019. No Bears player has done it since running back Neal Anderson in 1988.

Fields has six straight games with 50 or more rushing yards and at least one rushing touchdown. That is the longest such streak for a Bears player since Gale Sayers in 1969, per NFL Research.

On his 55-yard touchdown run Sunday, Fields reached a top speed of 20.15 mph, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. It was his eighth such carry this season. He now has more runs of 20 or more mph this season than any player has had in a single season since 2018.

Sunday’s touchdown run ranks 19th among all rushes this season in Next Gen Stats’ “rush yards over expected.” Based on Next Gen Stats’ model, Fields could’ve been expected to gain 3 yards on that play given where the defenders were when he started to run. He gained 52 yards more than expected. Fields holds three of the top 20 runs in this metric.

Tackling machine: For the third time in four games, linebacker Jack Sanborn had double-digit tackles. He led the Bears with 11 combined tackles against the Packers. He had 12 against the Lions in Week 10 and 15 against the Jets in Week 12.

With three games of 10 or more tackles, Sanborn now has the second-most such games ever by a Bears rookie. Roquan Smith did it six times as a rookie in 2018.

Sanborn’s three games with 10 or more tackles are tied with Jacksonville’s Devin Lloyd and Green Bay’s Quay Walker for the most among rookies this season.

Snap decisions: With Mooney out, Dante Pettis led all receivers Sunday with 34 snaps (65% of offensive snaps). Claypool was one snap behind him at 33 (63%) and St. Brown wasn’t far behind with 30 snaps (58%). N’Keal Harry played only five snaps (10%), while rookie Velus Jones Jr. saw 12 snaps (23%).

Seeing his first action of the year, backup tackle Alex Leatherwood played 10 snaps (19%) at right tackle.