Chicago Bears: Grading The Team After Six Games

We grade the Chicago Bears on how they are performing about one-third of the way into the 2022 season.

Isn’t it amazing how long we waited for the Chicago Bears to start their 2022 season and realize how fast it is now moving?

It seems we were celebrating the start of the season. Now the Bears are now about a third of the way through the season. They own a 2-4 record, but is that record an indication of their underperformance or actually of their overachievement?

Looking up and down this roster, many experts around the league did not expect more than three victories the entire season for this team. Of course, there are those fans with rose-colored glasses who expect the Chicago Bears to compete for the playoffs yearly.

This team is already approaching those three wins. They already have two, and a throw here or there, and that total could have been double that. They are competing and have been in every game they played. Even in that Green Bay Packers loss, they shut them down in the second half and a controversial call took away what could have been a tighter game.

After a third of the season, let’s see what grades the Chicago Bears earned.

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Special Teams (B-)

The Chicago Bears started out pretty good at special teams. Cairo Santos is his typical dependable self. He made all seven field goals he attempted, including a 51-yarder. Additionally, he made six of his eight extra-point attempts (the two he missed were in one game).

Even in the game Santos missed due to personal reasons his replacement, Michael Badgley, made all four of his attempts in Week 4 against the New York Giants. In fact, his field goals were the only score the Bears had in the entire game.

Punter Trenton Gill has had a pretty good season as a rookie. He averages 48.7 yards per punt. He’s done a good job of flipping the field when needed.

On the other hand, the return game hasn’t been as good as expected. Velus Jones Jr. missed three games due to an injury. In the three games he’s been back, he hasn’t blown any minds. He averages 6.8 yards per punt return and 21 yards per kickoff return. In addition, he’s had two fumble punts that cost the Bears a shot at winning games.

Defense (C-)

The defense has had its ups and downs. The unit has done a good job in the second half of games. They allowed just 34 points in the second half of games. Also, they only allowed two second-half touchdowns.

Unfortunately, those two touchdowns resulted in go-ahead points for the opponent which led to losses.

Coming down to late-game situations, the defense has let down. Against the Vikings in Week 5, they allowed Minnesota to go 75 yards on 17 plays that covered seven minutes in the fourth quarter. That drive gave the Vikings the game-winning points.

While the pass defense is good (the Bears rank 4th in passing yards allowed and 2nd in passing touchdowns allowed), the rush defense is horrible. They rank 29th in both rushing yards and rushing touchdowns allowed. They have to improve against the run or teams will continue to run it down their throats. Also, have to show something earlier in games so they don’t have to mount comebacks and then lose because of a defensive letdown late in games.

Offense (D-)

I know a lot of people would give the Chicago Bears offense an F. However, the offense has shown some flashes before giving the fans more frustration.

Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy has, for some reason, gone away from what succeeded. We see how well Justin Fields does when the pocket is moved. He is deadly when throwing on the run. Additionally, he can use his legs to make incredible runs. His running on the Bears’ final series is what put them in position to win. Also, he had a terrific run the week before that would have been a touchdown but it was called back by a penalty.

Somehow Getsy goes away from that and has Fields stay in the pocket. With a struggling offensive line that has given up 23 sacks, Fields should move around to buy some time. Getsy doesn’t do that, and as a result, we see bad plays like the interception in front of the Washington Commanders’ goal line in Week 6.

Fields isn’t free from criticism, though. It seems he feels that his receivers should be wide open when he throws to them. That may be what happened when he was at Ohio State but it doesn’t happen much in the NFL. The margin of error at the pro level is much smaller and he has to accept that. He sees a little bit of an opening but he hesitates to make the throw. That costs him. He ends up with a sack, an incompletion, or a fumble. He has to make those throws. He’s shown great accuracy when throwing deep. He needs to know he can do the same when a receiver is only partially open. If he doesn’t, his time in the NFL will be brief.

David Montgomery has shown how valuable he is to the offense. He won’t always get over 100 rushing yards, but he does enough to keep the offense afloat. He is the one running back who really contributes in the passing game. We saw how he turned two screens into huge gains (one went for 30 yards and the other went 21 yards) against the Vikings. He was the Bears’ leading receiver in that game.

Again, Getsy decided to go away from what worked. Against Washington the next week, Montgomery was targeted just once.

Montgomery has to be used a bit more. He is becoming a security blanket for Fields. Fields can dump the ball off on him and know that Montgomery will take it far.

The receivers have a difficult time getting open. The duo of Fields and Darnell Mooney started out slowly. After spending all summer together, they looked out of sync. They have been getting better lately, however. After amassing just four yards in the first two games, the duo combined for 237 yards in the past four games.

There hasn’t been any other receiver step up, though. Equamineous St. Brown and Dante Pettis have had a couple of moments, but they’ve been few and far between. Also, Pettis has had some key third-down drops.

As mentioned earlier, this offense has shown some spark. However, it isn’t consistent enough. The play-calling has to improve and Fields needs to show more trust in his and his receivers’ abilities.

If this offense doesn’t improve, getting to and eclipsing the three-win total many experts predicted might be difficult to attain.

Considering how this roster was assembled, the Chicago Bears are actually overachieving. They play hard and that keeps them in games. Playing hard helps them come back when they start out badly. We saw that against Minnesota. If this team eases off just a little we know that things will get ugly. They have done a good job until the last couple of weeks. Wins and losses aren’t the priority, but if they don’t see any positives soon this season can go down the drain very quickly and we won’t see much, if any, development.