Chicago Bears offense fails to use weapons in blowout loss to the Packers

CHICAGO — DJ Moore caught a slant pass for 14 yards to set up the Bears’ offense for a first-and-10 from the Packers’ 8-yard line in the second quarter.

The next play went for a four-yard gain to Cole Kmet. On second-and-goal, Justin Fields was forced out of bounds and credited with a sack. After the seven-yard loss, Fields failed to connect with Kmet in the end zone. The Bears were forced to kick a field goal — which Cairo Santos made.

After Moore’s 14-yard gain, the Bears’ No. 1 wide receiver was out on the next two plays and he finally returned to the field on third down. By then it was too late.

The Bears failed to utilize their playmakers for the entirety of what eventually became a 38-20 blowout loss to the Packers.

Moore finished the game with two targets for 25 yards on back-to-back plays. All happening with just over 11 minutes left in the second quarter. Then nothing more.

“They did cloud him up a little bit,” Fields said. “I mean his time will come, so … Just kind of how the chips fall. He’s not going to go for a hundred every game. Of course, I wish he did. That’s just not how it’s going to happen. He’s definitely going to get more touches in the future for sure.”

Moore better get more touches because what happened in the Week 1 loss was embarrassing. Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy needs to reevaluate his play-calling approach and call up plays designed for Moore. Even though Jaire Alexander is one of the top corners in the league, that’s not an excuse to completely go away from the talented wide receiver.

D.J. Moore had two catches for 25 yards today.

Jaire Alexander: “Yeah, it was real quiet for him. I don’t know if anybody thought anything else was gonna happen.” pic.twitter.com/1txKmo2Yua

— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) September 11, 2023

Had Moore been targeted 10 times and been shut out on a majority of them, that at least shows an aggressive play caller trying to get his best offensive weapon involved. Sunday showed someone who was passive and reluctant to even try that approach.

Fields’ overall passing chart only reinforces that narrative. As pointed out by Zack Pearson from BearReport, only four of Fields’ 37 attempts went over 10 yards. And when you look at his pass attempts, a majority of them were towards the boundary and came in the form of screen passes.

Justin Fields pass chart from Week 1. Just 4 attempts of 37 past 10 yards. 2/4 on those throws with a TD and an INT. #Bears pic.twitter.com/25viHb65jc

— Zack Pearson (@Zack_Pearson) September 11, 2023

After the loss, Fields provided some clarity as to why.

“Yeah, that was just the game plan,” Fields said. I think just with those, we just got to be better blocking on the perimeter just to set those up. If you go back and look at the film, if we block the guys, those are big chunk plays, 10-, 15-, 20-yard plays. That was just the game plan. If they weren’t going to match, decided we were going to throw it out there and let our guys work. Just didn’t do our best at perimeter blocking, blocking on
the edge, for our guys to catch the ball and run.”

That was clear and obvious early on in this game. If that was the game plan for the Packers, then why would one of the better blocking wide receiver in Equanimeous St. Brown be inactive for this game? I mean if the Bears were just going to use their playmakers to block, then you may as well have Brown in the game. He does that well.

Just another questionable decision among the many that were made in this game. Like Robert Tonyan not getting a single target even though he made plenty of plays in the red zone throughout training camp. Yes, he did show up on the injury report with a back injury on Saturday, but clearly he was good enough to play.

Even though his presence was barely noticeable.

The Bears have a lot to clean up as they look to try and rebound after another embarrassing loss to the Packers. One place the team could start is by actually using its playmakers.

Watch our postgame show on YouTube!