Bears muck up Monday night in Minnesota

I just want to watch a football game without my favorite team embarrassing themselves. Is that too much to ask?

This is where I’m at as a fan of the Chicago Bears. Wins take a backseat to not looking like a clown show.

I’ve been here before. Far too many times in my lifetime, but this is what it’s like rooting for the Bears. It’s my normal.

What makes this season especially awful is the expectations we had this offseason. And yes, I feel good using “we” because most fans, analysts, local beat, and national reporters all felt the 2024 Chicago Bears would be pretty good. Many had them as a postseason hopeful, and Vegas had their win total set as an above .500 team.

The warts on the team were evident, but in year three of a regime, the depth should have been enough to keep things afloat. Many of us had offensive line concerns, and the need for another pass rusher was there, but overall, the talent was better than last year’s 7-10 team, and the schedule looked to be a touch easier.

However, the coaching staff let the team down, and the players weren’t as good as we thought.

The Minnesota Vikings were in the same place as the Bears in 2022, but they got their general manager and head coach combo hires right while the Bears mucked theirs up.

Ryan Poles’ seat has been getting hotter and hotter since Kevin Warren gave him the vote of confidence, and whether he stays or goes, this roster is in need of another rebuild. The trenches need an overhaul. There are issues at linebacker. The running back room needs something. The race to a thousand receiving corps didn’t show up. The quarterback should be a strong selling point to a new regime, but he’ll need to be broken down and built back up after this franchise gave him a doofus head coach and two play callers as a rookie.

I want to believe Caleb Williams will be okay with better coaching, but I’m a Bears fan.

I’ve seen this play out all too often.

Check out Jeff Berckes and me here, or join us live on our 2nd City Gridiron YouTube channel at 6:00 p.m. (CT).

Here’s our usual bullet point outline of Bear & Balanced.

• Intro: We’ll both share some general thoughts about the game.
• Trench Tribute: This is our weekly pick for lineman of the game.
• Sweet Tweets: We’re both active on social media — so be sure you’re all following us at @gridironborn & @wiltfongjr — and we highlight one Twitter interaction/Tweet each week. We’re also at Bluesky, in case you’re over there.
• The Caleb Corner: We talk about quarterback Caleb Williams.
• Caught up in a numbers game: This segment features one number or statistic from the game that we found interesting.
• The 3 Bears: You all know the story of the Three Bears, so in this porridge-themed portion of the show, we give our picks for the Bear that was hot, the Bear that was cold, and the Bear that was just right in the game against the Vikings.

After we wrap up the podcast portion of the show, we’ll stick around to answer any questions you guys may have from the YouTube comment section in some video-exclusive content.

You can listen to the podcast version here (ASAP) or download it wherever you get your pods:

Our 2nd City Gridiron Podcast Channel is available on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Audacy, and other popular podcast platforms, so hit subscribe wherever you get your audio. Our YouTube home is also called 2nd City Gridiron, so subscribe there for our pods and other video content.