3 Takeaways from Bears' Week 17 Loss

Plenty of NFL purists will likely tell you that it doesn't matter how you get to the dance as long as you get there. Well, the Chicago Bears are in the postseason, but they can't feel particularly good about how they have arrived.

It took an Arizona Cardinals loss to push Chicago into the playoffs, with the Bears limping in with an underwhelming 8-8 record.

Chicago could have secured a playoff berth on its own merits by beating the rival Green Bay Packers on Sunday, but it ended up getting embarrassed by MVP candidate Aaron Rodgers. While a great performance from Rodgers isn't surprising, a few aspects of Chicago's loss were.

Here are three key takeaways from the Bears' 35-16 loss in Week 17.

Chicago's Defense Is Becoming Unreliable

Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press

Look, the Bears defense deserves some credit for keeping Rodgers in check for three quarters of this game. The MVP favorite only led three scoring drives through three quarters and finished with just 240 passing yards. However, when it was crunch time, Rodgers shone while the Bears defense stumbled.

The Green Bay quarterback led two touchdown drives in the final period to put the game on ice, the first of which went for 12 plays and 76 yards. That was the back-breaker and the sort of drive that could ruin any chance Chicago has at going on a postseason run.

The problem for the Bears is that this wasn't the first time in recent weeks that the defense—which played extremely well during the team's 5-1 start to the season—has been problematic. It surrendered 41 points to the Packers in Week 12 and 34 points to the Detroit Lions in Week 13.

If Chicago cannot count on its defense—which may have lost Roquan Smith to injury Sunday—in the playoffs, then the Bears are going to have to win games with their offense. Given how up-and-down the Bears have been offensively in 2020, that's not a proposition that they should feel great about.

Chicago Is Going to Need More from Mitchell Trubisky

Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press

Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky was playing his best football of the season coming into Week 17. He had  thrown seven touchdowns and just two interceptions in his previous four contests and had Chicago on a three-game winning streak.

While Trubisky was 33-of-42 against Green Bay, he also struggled to push the ball down the field with any consistency and had a critical fourth-quarter interception that essentially ended the Bears' hopes of a winning season.

Trubisky did connect with Darnell Mooney for a 53-yard completion, but that one play accounted for a fifth of Trubisky's 252 passing yards. Getting just 199 yards on 32 other completions is rarely going to put pressure on a defense.

While it seems that coach Matt Nagy was trying to play keep away from Rodgers with a dink-and-dunk ball-control offense, the plan didn't work because of Chicago's failing defense. If the Bears are going to upset the New Orleans Saints and their third-ranked defense on Wild Card Weekend, they are going to need more from Trubisky, specifically in the deep-passing game.

Chicago Must to a Better Job of Cashing In on Drives

Gary McCullough/Associated Press

While Chicago's plan to keep the ball away from Rodgers didn't work, it was a sound strategy in theory. The Bears only trailed by eight points at halftime and had matched the Packers with three scoring drives through the first two quarters.

The problem is that the Bears didn't find the end zone after David Montgomery's touchdown run in the first quarter. Settling for field goals isn't going to be enough against a quarterback like Rodgers, and it probably isn't going to get the job done against Drew Brees on wild-card weekend.

Nagy has done enough to get the Bears into the postseason—and apparently enough to save his job for another season.

"[Nagy] is expected back, I'm told, and also he's taken a heavier hand in play-calling, which has helped him down the stretch," NFL Media's Ian Rapoport said Sunday morning on NFL GameDay.

However, Nagy is going to have to put together a better red-zone game plan to beat the Saints. He may also need to be more aggressive, as he settled for a field goal from the Green Bay 2-yard line when the score was still within a touchdown.

Chicago will have to cash in with touchdowns rather than field goals in New Orleans. Otherwise the Bears may experience a repeat of Sunday.