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I feel all the snark and shade many of us Chicago Bears' fans threw at the Power Rankers these last couple weeks may have been unwarranted.
We were all riled up when they ranked our favorite team down near the bottom of the NFL barrel, thinking that with all the "improvements" the team made in the offseason, we were sure to see a better product on the field. The Bears had to be better than the 6 win team from a year ago.
Welp...
Losing to the Houston Texans on the road and we figured, no biggie, they're a tough team and the Bears hung with them through three quarters. But losing the home opener to a rookie QB and a 1st time head coach, and the Bears deserve what ever shame may come from the NFL experts this week.
The 2016 Chicago Bears may not be what we thought they would be.
There's still time to right the ship, but through 2 games, Bears' fans have to take what ever the Power Rankers decide to dish out.
Here's how a few reputable sites around the interwebs have the Bears ranked. The Skinny is from each site unless otherwise indicated by a "~ Lester," in which case that's me chiming in.
| PUBLICATION |
THIS
WEEK
|
LAST
WEEK
|
THE SKINNY |
| WCG | 31 | 24 | We could, arguably, be anywhere from 26th to dead last. Frankly, most of these teams at the bottom end really are "on any given Sunday" except Cleveland. Chicago's backups outplayed Cleveland's starters (yes, it was pre-season, but it was also pretty obvious) so the Bears stay out of the cellar. |
| SB Nation | 31 | 31 | The lowly Bears don;t even warrent a mention. ~ Lester |
| Mile High Report | 17-30 | 25 | No specific snark aimed at the Bears this week! MHR grouped a bunch of crappy teams together, but the worst they have the Bears is 30th. ~ Lester |
| ESPN | 26 | 29 | John Fox took the Panthers and Broncos each to the playoffs in his second year as head coach, but that's looking less and less likely in his second year with the Bears following a winless start. They'll have another crack at beating a rookie quarterback in Dallas this weekend. |
| NFL.com | 31 | 30 | Listened to Eric Davis on "Total Access" talk about the challenge of focusing on your own tasks when you know a quarterback -- in theory, a bad quarterback -- is going to be under contract for a while. Davis said you just "have to do your job." How frustrated are Bears players -- and front-office folks -- with Jay Cutler's lack of progression? Feel like we will be hearing speculation on said topic for much of this season. Fine. But what about John Fox's defense? |
| CBS Sports | 25 | 28 | They were awful Monday night against the Eagles, and they suffered a bunch of big injury hits. It's going to be a long season. |
| USA Today | 30 | 30 | John Fox took his previous two teams to Super Bowl in his second season. That pattern is not going to hold up with this sorry team. |
| Yahoo | 31 | 24 | In the fourth quarter Monday night, receiver Alshon Jeffery was running on the field, putting on his helmet after the Bears had already broken the huddle, like he was shocked he had to go in the game. That summed up the Bears' entire sorry performance. And Jay Cutler suffered a right thumb injury on top of it all. |
| FOX | 31 | 29 | The Bears have plenty of holes to fill on both sides of the ball: cornerback, offensive tackle, quarterback (seriously). Jay Cutler was the turnover-prone player he's always been against the Eagles in Monday night's loss, and to make matters worse, he injured thumb. Linebacker Lamarr Houston may have torn his ACL, too. Chicago is going from bad to worse. |
What are your thoughts on the Bears' ranking this week?