The boos at Soldier Field spoke of anger, frustration and perhaps some embarrassment over whatever circumstances had led Bears fans to pledge allegiance to this sad franchise.
The offense managed only 142 yards of total offense Sunday against the Patriots, which totally offended those in attendance, those watching on TV and those who weren’t paying attention to the game but smelled a foul odor they suspected was coming from a locked car trunk. Caleb Williams was sacked nine times.
The boos were scattershot. They hit coach Matt Eberflus, offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, the offensive line and general manager Ryan Poles, the guy responsible for putting together that offensive line.
Everybody and everything was a target during a brutally bad 19-3 loss to the not-very-good Patriots. The boos will get louder.
The only thing stopping Eberflus from getting fired now is the Bears’ age-old refusal to can a coach during a season. No, check that. Another possibility: The out-of-touch McCaskey family still likes the cut of Eberflus’ jib. It’s the kind of thing chairman George McCaskey would say. And believe.
After the game, Eberflus answered reporters’ questions very broadly and blandly. But if anyone is going to walk the plank for the offense’s deficiencies, it’s going to be Waldron, who seems to be in danger of losing his play-calling duties. The Bears have gone 23 consecutive drives without a touchdown. They were 1-for-14 on third-down conversions Sunday.
‘‘We’ll look at everything,’’ said Eberflus, which is coachspeak for, ‘‘We’ll need your headset now, Shane.’’
The Bears used the No. 1 overall pick last spring on Williams, and they’re criminally failing him. He was sacked six times last week, which seemed like a lot until Sunday rolled around. He had no chance against the Patriots’ pass rush, and if this is to be his lot for the rest of the season, the best move would be to sit him and let somebody else donate their body to science. The idea is to protect such a valued investment. If the line can’t do it, management should.
At a minimum, Williams shouldn’t have been anywhere near the field late in the game, not with his team down by 16 points. But there he was, in harm’s way. A fireable offense, if there ever was one.
The Bears were without their starting tackles because of injury. The poor play of their replacements and the rest of the offensive line falls directly on Poles, who had one job after making the decision to draft Williams out of USC: Do whatever it takes to help the rookie succeed.
What happened Sunday had the feel of all the other failures of modern Bears history, surely leading to all those boos. This felt like Matt Nagy and Marc Trestman, with a side order of Ryan Pace and Phil Emery. This felt like every other inept offensive coordinator before Waldron. The Bears’ offense had no rhythm, no cohesion and no apparent reason for being.
Williams averaged four yards per pass, a stunningly low number that evoked Craig Krenzel, Chad Hutchinson and Jonathan Quinn. If one thing in this world is true, it’s that the talented Williams is not those reject Bears quarterbacks. He had no time to throw. Sometimes he held on to the ball for too long, but he mostly spent the afternoon holding on for dear life.
So booing. Lots of booing for a franchise with a bad habit of finding multiple ways of screwing things up.
Losers of three in a row after starting the season 4-2, the Bears got pushed around by the Patriots, who came into the game with a 2-7 record. And to think this was supposed to be the easy opponent on a very difficult second-half schedule. Now come, in order, the Packers (H), Vikings (H), Lions (A), 49ers (A), Vikings (A), Lions (H), Seahawks (H) and Packers (A).
Late Sunday afternoon, Eberflus talked about ‘‘looking inward.’’ He said the same thing after a terrible loss last week to the Cardinals, too. Offensively, I think he’s seeing a blocked intestine.
Long forgotten is the preseason excitement about the skill-position talent Poles had amassed. He’s not a hero anymore; he’s a bull’s-eye, one of several. The sacks are on Poles for building such a bad line, the pre-snap penalties are on Eberflus for having an undisciplined team and the joke’s on Bears fans for believing this nonsense again.