Takeaways from Chicago Bears 31-24 Loss to Carolina Panthers

After spending the past four weeks trying to vet these Chicago Bears, the picture of who they are as a team is becoming clearer.

Sunday’s 31-24 loss to the Carolina Panthers was an epic fail on so many levels. The Bears entered the game with a 2-2 record, lucky to be sitting where they were after four enormously inconsistent games.

The Bears entered the game with a chance to feast on a team with a quarterback who was still recovering from an injury; a team with a running game consisting of street free agents; a team with a defense which allowed 75 points in the two games leading up to Sunday—a very beatable team, even at home.

The Bears blew it, with a capital "B." And it was a fail in all three phases of the game. Sadly, you just never know what you’re going to get with this team.

Enough is enough, though. Let’s take a look at some of the takeaways from Sunday’s miserable defeat.

Inconsistency at Its Finest

Bob Leverone/Associated Press

The offense looked great at times Sunday, driving down the field into the end zone on three consecutive possessions in the first half. And then somehow that same offense can give us second-half drives of punt, field goal, punt, punt, fumble, interception and interception.

The same goes for the defense, which forced the Panthers to open with drives of punt, fumble, fumble and interception to open the game, followed by two touchdowns, three punts, a field goal and then the game-winning touchdown.

Usually when a team undergoes a transformation, it’s a game-to-game-type deal. Oh no, that was not these Bears. These Bears don’t fit conventional stereotypes. These Bears go from Jekyll to Hyde at some point during the 12-minute halftime period.

“We just lost it in the second half,” Brandon Marshall said, according to John Mullin of CSNChicago.com. “First half we had a little bit of rhythm. Second half there was no rhythm at all.”

The past two weeks (vs. GB, CAR) have been incredibly troublesome.

First half: Bears outscored opponents 38-35.

Second half: Opponents outscored Bears 34-3.

Winning teams hold leads when they have them. The Bears and Green Bay Packers were trading the lead back and forth before Green Bay went haywire and scored on four straight possessions in the final 31-plus minutes of which Chicago countered exactly zero times.

It was the same thing Sunday.

Head coach Marc Trestman explains it in much broader terms (via ChicagoBears.com):

"

I think that we’ve struggled at times, and that’s the thing we’ve got to focus on. We’ve had a lot of very consistent moments, and then we’ve gone inconsistent. We have the last two weeks, certainly in the second half.

So it’s something that we’ve got to continue to work on and get better at. We still haven’t put four quarters together. We’ve put some good quarters together, but we haven’t put four quarters together yet.

"

These are not your pop’s Bears. Your pop’s Bears were consistent. They were consistently average on offense, with very little expectations, and they were very strong on defense, always with the highest of expectations.

The bottom line here is winning teams win.

Yep, you read that correctly. The most obvious statement you’ve heard all day, right?

Winning teams win games they’re supposed to win. Winning teams win when they have better players than the opposition. Winning teams win when they have leads. Winning teams step on the throat of the opponent at every turn.

Winning teams do not lose game they’re supposed to win. Winning teams do not change personalities from drive to drive. Winning teams do not find the banana peel every time victory is within sight.

You get it.

Come On, Jay, You’ve Got to Be Better, My Man

Bob Leverone/Associated Press

Jay Cutler's stat line is quite deceiving. He completed 28 of 36 passes for 289 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

The two interceptions were all on Cutler, too.

"High and over the middle of the field is never good,” Cutler said after the game (via ChicagoBears.com). “It happened twice today."

Unfortunately, it continues to happen—over and over again—and the worst always comes of it.

His fourth-quarter interception against Buffalo, on a drive that should have been used to burn clock, allowed the Bills to drive down the field for the game-tying field goal.

His two third-quarter interceptions against Green Bay spurred the Packers to score back-to-back touchdowns that sealed the game.

His fourth-quarter interception against Carolina led to the Panthers kicking the game-tying field goal.

Here’s a shocking stat: Cutler has thrown six touchdowns and zero interceptions in the Bears’ two wins; whereas all six of Cutler’s 2014 interceptions have come in the Bears’ three losses, along with six interceptions. Basically, he breaks even in losses, something the defense clearly cannot overcome.

“It’s not like we’re out there being careless with the football,” Cutler went on to say. “Sometimes balls get tipped, and guys make good plays out there. They get paid to play football, too. In my case, especially in a crucial situation like that, I can’t let go of the ball.”

Sure, “balls get tipped” and “guys make good plays,” but it’s not like those things are happening more against Cutler versus other quarterbacks. Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers also play in this league, yet they somehow find ways to avoid the boneheaded mistakes that have sunk Cutler and the Bears.

“It is frustrating early on, because it is not like we are getting beat, we are beating ourselves,” Forte said (via Dan Durkin of CBSChicago.com). “If we can get out of our own way, we can win some games.”

That right there pretty much sums it up.

When Matt Forte Is Great, the Bears Lose?

Bob Leverone/Associated Press

It doesn’t make much sense, does it? But that’s how it’s been.

Forte, in the Bears’ two wins, touched the ball a combined 36 times for 112 yards and zero scores. In the three losses, Forte has touched the ball 85 times for 506 yards.

His yards per touch in wins: 3.11. His yards per touch in losses: 5.95.

Forte was the Bears’ best player in Sunday’s loss. He might have been the best player on the field, if we’re looking at both sides. The running back gained 61 yards on 17 carries and caught 12 passes for 105 yards and a touchdown.

But the best player on the field also was one reason his team lost the game. Forte’s fourth-quarter fumble one drive after Cutler’s second interception, gave Carolina the ball in its own territory, which set up the game-winning touchdown.

Forte deserved a better result Sunday. But based on the track record laid out above, we shouldn’t really be surprised by the Bears’ colossal breakdown.