CHICAGO -- The Chicago Bears are a hot mess.
Embattled quarterback Mitchell Trubisky self-destructed in the fourth quarter with two costly turnovers and kicker Eddy Pineiro missed a last-second 41-yard field goal to seal Chicago’s fate in a 17-16 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.
It's another crushing defeat for the Bears, who have dropped three in a row and are now in last place in the NFC North.
The Bears can only blame themselves.
Chicago failed to score a touchdown at the end of the first half despite having six chances from inside the 5-yard line. Head coach Matt Nagy’s offense had the ball four times inside the red zone in the opening 30 minutes and netted just three field goals.
To add insult to injury, the Chargers did everything in their power to lose the game, dropping two touchdown passes and missing a midrange field goal.
The Bears are sinking fast. There may be no coming back after this one.
Silver lining: Nagy vowed to run the football. After a franchise-low seven rushing attempts in last week’s loss to New Orleans, the Bears finally committed to rookie third-round pick David Montgomery, who rushed for a career-high 135 yards on 27 carries. Montgomery is a tough, physical runner. He earned every yard against the Chargers' defense and also caught four balls for 12 yards.
QB breakdown: Unacceptable. Under no circumstances can Trubisky throw that fourth-quarter pick to Casey Hayward or lose that fumble. To be fair, Trubisky played better than he did in previous weeks. The 25-year-old quarterback hit on some plays in the vertical passing game to Anthony Miller (35-yard reception), Tarik Cohen (31 yards) and Allen Robinson (31 yards). On the final drive, Trubisky connected with Taylor Gabriel on a nice throw and scrambled for 11 yards to set up Pineiro’s kick. But the overall body of work just isn’t good enough. The Bears remain limited on offense when Trubisky is the quarterback.
Describe the game in two words: Panic mode. The Bears (3-4) are no longer in the NFC playoff conversation. In fact, Chicago is now in last place in the NFC North following Detroit’s win over the New York Giants. The Bears are also way behind Minnesota (6-2) and Green Bay (6-1 going into their Sunday night game against the Chiefs). The Bears may be on the verge of going worst-to-first and then back-to-worst in the division in back-to-back seasons. Better days do not appear on the horizon.
Eye-popping NextGen stat: Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller now has 18 interceptions since entering the league in 2014, which is tied for the most in the NFC with Detroit’s Darius Slay over that span. Fuller jumped in front of a poorly thrown ball by Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers near the end of the first quarter and returned it 29 yards to the Los Angeles 4-yard line. The Bears, of course, failed to punch it in to the end zone.