Stock up, stock down: Bears-Chargers

Even when the Bears get something right they get it wrong.

The Bears offense still wasn’t a well-oiled machine Sunday, but it moved the ball, it kept the defense off the field (the Bears dominated time of possession 38 minutes to 22) but when it mattered, it couldn’t come through.

Just one of their five trips inside of the red zone ended with a touchdown, including three plays at the Chargers’ one yard line.

The Bears got their running game going, but they still fell short.

The defense only allowed one touchdown, but still only came away with one sack against an offensive line that was missing starters.

Overall it was another pathetic performance by the Bears and with the other NFC North teams winning, the Bears at 3-4 need a miracle to rekindle their playoff hopes, let alone those Super Bowl dreams fans talked about just eight weeks ago.

The Bears have dropped two games to losing teams (Raiders and Chargers), teams that they should have beat.

We’re all depressed about it (or least I am) so I’ll stop there, but there is plenty of blame to go around for this one. To me, this was the first loss of the season not solely on the ineffective offense (although it was mostly them, let’s be honest).

Stock up

David Montgomery, RB - Finally, finally, the Bears kept feeding Montgomery and it paid off. 27 carries for 135 yards and a touchdown on the ground and another 12 on receptions. Granted, without his 55 yard run his average drops to 3.1 YPC, but this was still the best running effort of the year.

Anthony Miller, WR - Miller finally made an impact, with three catches on three targets for 67 yards. A big part of that was Mitchell Trubisky actually finding him, but it was good to see him making some plays and getting involved before garbage time.

Mitch Trubisky, QB - I get that this is going to cause a ton of venom in the comments; it wasn’t a great game through and through. The two turnovers in the second half absolutely KILLED the team and their momentum. However, with where expectations have been, I think Trubisky actually showed a little life. He was much better going downfield, although he still missed some throws.

I am not absolving him and I definitely haven’t changed my mind that he still isn’t the longterm answer, but I am saying he showed some signs of life by answering with a decent performance when his back was totally against a wall and there was seemingly no hope.

Stock down

Bobby Massie, RT - Joey Bosa is great, I get it, but man alive Massie had a bad day as Bosa had two sacks, four tackles for loss and three QB hits and most of that damage came against Massie.

Eddie Jackson, S - Jackson doesn’t appear in the box score. For the Bears’ playmaking safety he’s just not showing up in the games. He’s made zero impact plays this year.

Eddy Pineiro, K - He shouldn’t be cut or anything, because I think conditions were somewhat tricky for him and he’s been mostly good, but the two missed kicks loom large. Obviously none was bigger than the missed 41-yarder as time expired. The Bears didn’t necessarily deserve to win in Denver, but the kicker came through, well they didn’t deserve to win Sunday either and he missed, so it is what it is, let’s see how he responds.