Bad News Bears: Season Update

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By Michael McKay, Staff Writer

It’s fairly simple to say that the performance of the Chicago Bears this season isn’t very surprising. The Bears, with a record of four wins and nine losses following last Sunday’s win against the Cincinnati Bengals, have had nothing short of an embarrassing season thus far.

Even though the Bears blew the Bengals out of the water last Sunday by a score of 33-7, it was their first win in over a month. The team did not have a single win throughout the entire month of November, and their last win before that was on Oct. 22 against the Carolina Panthers.

Rookie quarterback Mitchell Trubisky hasn’t been much of a shining star either, although through little fault of his own. The Bears run-to-pass ratio has dropped since Trubisky came in to replace Mike Glennon. Trubisky is only averaging 167.5 passing yards over his nine starts, including six touchdowns, four interceptions, and five fumbles; these are not the kind of stats you’d like to read out from a starting quarterback.

On the bright side, the Bears run game has been dominating this season. Running backs Jordan Howard and rookie Tarik Cohen have been blowing up opposing defenses. Cohen is also the first rookie to have a rushing, receiving, passing, and returning touchdown all in his first season since Gale Sayers in 1965. Cohen even took a punt return all the way to the house against the San Francisco 49ers on Dec. 3.

Any chance the Bears have of earning a playoff spot is gone, as the team is in last place in the NFC North. The Bears can only hope for a good draft pick for the 2018 NFL season to turn the team around.

The Bears will play their final three games against the Detroit Lions on Sat., Dec. 16, the Cleveland Browns on Sun., Dec. 24, and the Minnesota Vikings on Sun., Dec. 31.