You by no means wish to overstate issues, by no means wish to blow them up out of lifelike proportions or make them greater than they really are, however typically . . .
Within the early levels of Egyptian mythology, there was a chook with feathers of scarlet and gold. They referred to the outsized eagle, undersized pterodactyl as a phoenix. A chook that flew to the “Metropolis of the Solar” (Heliopolis) to immolate itself on the altar of the solar’s hearth solely to rise from these ashes to turn into a youthful model of itself.
The phoenix is usually considered as an allegory for resurrection, for all times after demise, what one can turn into when one survives strolling by way of the hearth. And the hearth subsequent time.
The 2024 Bears are lifeless. Their string of inconceivable, incompetent methods to lose video games will go down in Chicago sports activities infamy. And as a lot as many have made and can make of the epically mismanaged final 32 seconds (profoundly, the final 12 seconds) of Thursday’s collapse, the core of their newest, probably most damning loss could be discovered and focused to the sport’s first half-hour.
(Lowering that loss to simply clock mismanagement is a cop-out.)
Not saying that it was a microcosm or a snapshot of what the way forward for the Bears appears to be like like (or signifies how a lot work the Bears want), however that Thanksgiving Day first half in opposition to the Lions represents every little thing.
Earlier than Tyrique Stevenson’s last-minute pressured fumble on the 6-yard line, the Bears had 22 yards and no first downs. Then the three overthrows, one missed pass-interference name, a throwaway on the final play and Matt Eberflus’ no-worries, every little thing’s-good, it-is-what-it-is demeanor throughout his on-field halftime interview with Tracy Wolfson (which absolutely explains his ‘‘I like what we did there” final-sequence postgame remark) bolstered how really deep the waters are in the case of what the Bears must swim themselves out of.
In a recreation to keep away from shedding six in a row, with zero highway wins, the time of possession in that first half displayed the every little thing of every little thing: Lions, 23 minutes; Bears, seven minutes. Lifeless.
The ability to play from behind as a norm shouldn’t be an influence.
The switch-flippin’ ain’t it. The bilateral, schizophrenic, anti-symmetrical tradition that has formed not simply their performances and elegance of play however apparently their total strategy to every recreation shouldn’t be the system on which any “profitable tradition” has ever been constructed. The reality that each one season lengthy they’ve solely had one opening lead in a recreation, a lead that lasted all of 59 seconds, must be all they should reinforce to themselves that the merciless method during which a few of their losses have occurred shouldn’t be the issue. S—’s method greater than that.
Greater than the Eberflus removing.
Sooner or later what they’re and what they’re able to turning into (identical with Caleb Williams) must separate from each other. And as written in a predicted Week 1 column that when they go three video games below .500, “we [would] activate each other and on the Bears.” They stand at 4 video games below right now.
Even when the Bears had discovered a method to win that recreation Thursday, turning the second half into one other of their cardiac recreation plans, the way it takes them so lengthy to get up and ball and why — even in essentially the most determined of video games — they wait till second halves to placed on show any indicators of life is essentially the most high-priority thriller that must be solved over the following 12 months. (Which means we might be revisiting this — or another — problematic concern subsequent Thanksgiving. Belief.)
It was Keenan Allen who stated after the loss, ‘‘I really feel like we did sufficient as gamers to win the sport.” No. You all did sufficient as gamers to win the second half of the sport. When your QB has a 132.3 passer score within the second half of a recreation and nonetheless finishes the sport with a sub-100 score, that’s the ever-so-substantive indicator wanted to digest how profitable solely half of a recreation doesn’t win video games.
Making their non-opening-kickoff mentality and non-60-plus-minute need as a workforce much more urgent than the Eberflus firing, extra exigent than Thomas Brown’s standing as future head-coach candidate or continued OC, extra essential than any masterminding Ryan Poles is considering to appropriate the wrongs he felt he corrected that ended up blowing up in his and the group’s face.
There’s all the time one thing to be stated about those that make it past their very own crashes and burns, who make it by way of the hearth. If something shifting ahead must be put right into a capsule, Thursday’s first half must be it. It must be the Bears’ case research of selves, their self-evaluating file. Of all issues which have occurred to them, by them, no matter how the remainder of this season seems, that half-hour must be their solar.
All the time that reminder of what all-time low appears to be like and seems like. That’s normally the purpose from which all phoenixes rise.
