Brad Biggs’ 10 thoughts after the Chicago Bears lost 24-10 to the Los Angeles Rams

10 thoughts after the Chicago Bears lost to the Los Angeles Rams 24-10 Monday night at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.

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1. Matt Nagy can go ahead and skip over exploring the ‘why part’ this week when he’s asked the many different ways about ideas for fixing the ailing offense.

The offensive line was a mess and the Bears were dominated from start to finish in a rare blowout. Unfortunately, the why part was front and center for prime time viewing.

It’s only the third time the Bears have lost by 10 or more points since Matt Nagy arrived. This loss stings, too, from the standpoint that it was a showcase opportunity to prove the doubters wrong for questioning the Bears’ long-term viability despite their 5-1 start. A victory over the Buccaneers followed by a road win at Carolina provided a boost of confidence at Halas Hall that the Week 4 loss to the Colts was maybe an aberration. Just as Indianapolis physically dominated the Bears up front, the Rams did so — times two.

Los Angeles entered with a 4-0 record against the broken-down-and-left-for-dead NFC East and an 0-2 record against anyone else (Buffalo and San Francisco). The Rams hadn’t defeated a worthy opponent and looked awful the week prior in a loss to the 49ers. And Los Angeles stuck it to the Bears. It was 10-3 at halftime, but it had the feel of a 20-3 game. Soon, it was more out of hand than that as the only touchdown the Bears could muster was a scoop and score by free safety Eddie Jackson on an 8-yard fumble return. When it was over, doubters were given more reason to believe this is a flawed team, one with a terrific defense but an offense that won’t be good enough to threaten quality teams. Believers must be wondering if they somehow overlooked this team’s obvious deficiencies in the excitement around comeback victories against the Lions, Falcons and Buccaneers and the narrow win over a struggling Giants team.

There’s plenty to be fixed with the offense — it’s not just the line — but Nagy can’t be referring to anything else when he talks about figuring out the “why part.” That’s been a common refrain for him this season. He used it last year as well, in particular after the disappointing loss to the Raiders in London. He doesn’t want to publicly call out players, especially right after a game, and that’s understandable. Games like this happen where an offensive line has a rough night and gets beat routinely. It’s happened before with the Bears when they have had very good offensive lines. It’s been a recurring theme and for maybe the first time, Nagy looked like a man without any answers, not right now, in the postgame Zoom.

“It’s hard when you’re in this scenario right now,” he said. “What happens is you start thinking, ‘OK, is it this guy? Is it that guy?’ The only choice we have right now probably, and I know this for sure, would be that we have to pull together as best as we can and fight through this adversity as hard as it is. Because the word frustration is easily exaggerated in these times and it should be. Having that happen, we have to understand, ‘OK, what are we doing that’s not working?’ Let’s not do that. ‘What are we doing that is working?’ Let’s get back to more of that. I wish I had a better answer for you but again I am not going to criticize or challenge any of our guys’ effort but something is obviously off so we have to figure out what that is because until we start running the ball, we can’t be one-dimensional.”

The running game was dreadful once again after Nagy came out with a plan to be balanced. The Bears ran on the first two plays of the game. They ran on the first snap of their second possession. They ran for a nice 5-yard gain on third-and-3 from the Rams’ 37-yard line after David Montgomery had been stopped for no gain on the previous play. But when they came out to begin their fifth possession, they had 16 yards on seven carries.

The Bears finished with a meager 49 yards on 17 carries (Montgomery had 48 on 14 attempts) and the running game now has 175 yards on 72 carries over the last four games. That’s 2.43 yards per carry. Montgomery has 162 of those yards and 53 of the carries, averaging 3.06 yards in the last month. The Bears have been sinking in the rankings but they’re now 32nd. They can’t go any lower.

“We have to figure out how to run the ball effectively,” quarterback Nick Foles said. “I think the big thing is finding the rhythm of who we want to be. And in this situation, we’ve got to continue to work. We really have to assess who we want to be and find that identity. And when we find that identity of who we want to be, that’s when we’ll take off. But that’s where we’re at right now. We have the people here to do it. And I think it goes back to once again believing in one another and continuing to go to work every single day for the person next to you.”

You’d think Foles’ belief is at least wavering after this outing. Pass protection wasn’t good enough — the offensive line made Leonard Floyd look like a legit pass rusher (more on him in a little bit) — and Foles was sacked four times and pressured too often. Although he finished 28 of 40 for 261 yards, it was a rocky go and there were too many attempts where Foles couldn’t or didn’t step into his throws. The protection has to be improved for Foles because while he gets the ball out quickly, he’s a target back there. His game is based so much on being clean in the pocket and throwing with rhythm and timing. You look back at his best run in Philadelphia when he had two premier offensive tackles in Jason Peters, the year before he broke down physically, and Lane Johnson. One of the issues Foles had in Jacksonville last year — and that thing melted down quickly — was the Jaguars really struggled up front, their tackles were abysmal and he was getting hit too much.

It’s nothing we haven’t seen in games the Bears have won, it was simply magnified in this meeting and that’s troubling. Nagy has known the why part. The Bears have been working to improve the why part. It’s hard to get better at that stuff during the season.

I think it’s fair to say firing offensive line coach Harry Hiestand in January didn’t solve the Bears’ issues on the offensive line. That’s not saying Juan Castillo cannot help the current group out, it’s just that the Bears aren’t demonstrably better than they were a year ago with pretty much the same group. Replacing the position coach hasn’t solved the issue. The Bears counted on five guys in the trenches each getting individually a little bit better with the idea that would make the whole better. It’s hasn’t happened through seven weeks and now center Cody Whitehair is at least a question mark after exiting the game with a calf injury.

There isn’t a solution for the offensive line issues on the bench right now. I get inundated with questions daily from folks asking why the Bears are not bringing in free-agent linemen for tryouts. It’s a thin, thin list of guys on the street. I doubt any high-caliber offensive linemen will be available in trade and general manager Ryan Pace would be wise to keep all of his higher picks.

“I don’t want to point fingers,” Nagy said. “I just don’t wanna do that to just our offensive line or just our wide receivers or tight end or the quarterback because we’re all in this thing together. I know it’s not an answer that y’all wanna hear, but we have to keep plugging away. We have to try to fight through this really difficult position that we’re in right now. And when you have good coaches and you have good players, you usually do that. That’s going to be our challenge.”

“We’re going to be facing a really good Saints team here coming up, and we’re going to have to do it right away and do it fast. I’m going to start with myself and I’m going to continue to hold everybody accountable for the execution part, too.”

Nagy doesn’t have to point fingers publicly. That’s his prerogative. At the same time, the Bears can’t say they’re trying to figure out where their biggest issue lies.

2. I don’t blame Ryan Pace for changing his mind and rescinding the fifth-year option for outside linebacker Leonard Floyd.

The Bears chose to cut ties with Leonard Floyd rather than pay him $13.2 million this season and given the way his first four seasons went after the Bears drafted him No. 9 overall in 2016, I don’t think you can argue it was the wrong move.

I was somewhat skeptical about a $30 million investment in 30-year-old Robert Quinn as the replacement for Floyd and I think that’s still valid. Maybe the presence of Quinn, who had a really nice play to strip wide receiver Robert Woods on a jet sweep, creating the Eddie Jackson fumble recovery and return touchdown, has helped out with Akiem Hicks and Khalil Mack when it comes to the pass rush. I’ve always thought if you’ve got the highest-paid pass rusher in the league, and Mack was that the previous two seasons, you ought not need to go out and drop $30 million guaranteed on another pass rusher so your elite one can get rolling.

Floyd had two sacks in the game giving him four on the year — one more than he had all last season for the Bears. Quinn has one sack and, as you probably recall, it came on his first snap for the Bears against the Giants.

Floyd was tightly clutching a game ball presented to him by Rams coach Sean McVay when he answered questions postgame.

“We proved that we were the better defense today,” Floyd said. “It was kind of emotional but I tried not to get too far into the emotional side of it. I wanted to keep it like it was a normal week for me. Getting the game ball, man, it was a blessing.

“(McVay) gave me and coach (defensive coordinator Brandon) Staley game balls for beating our old team. He even let me break it down.”

Floyd’s first sack came late in the second quarter when the Bears were facing third-and-10 but had crossed midfield to the Rams’ 43-yard line. He lined up super wide of right tackle Bobby Massie, much wider than a nine technique. He almost looked like a gunner creeping in from the outside to try and block a punt. Floyd struggled putting pass-rush moves together with the Bears, but broke one out here, the same move Quinn used to sack Daniel Jones in that Giants game. It’s a jump and club move and as I wrote in Week 2, it’s becoming more popular and no one has used it with more success than Yannick Ngakoue, who was traded from Minnesota to Baltimore last week. These guys leave their feet and chop down on the offensive tackle’s arm. When they leave their feet, it forces the offensive tackle to hesitate a little bit. When Floyd left his feet, Massie stopped moving his feet, and Floyd chopped his arm down to give him the edge. It’s a tighter angle, but that is where the offensive tackle, Massie in this case, wants him. Go ahead and get as wide as you want. Massie stopped his feet and that was his big problem.

The second sack was on a twist/stunt with Floyd picking inside and Aaron Donald wrapping around to beat Rashaad Coward.

It’s not a good look for the Bears because Quinn hasn’t been a super productive pass rusher. Floyd didn’t blossom with the Bears and sometimes a guy needs a fresh start elsewhere. He’s got four sacks now but we’ve seen him sort of disappear for large stretches. Some folks talk about quarterback pressures from Quinn, but how many times have you seen him knocking the quarterback down or forcing him to chuck the ball out of bounds?

3. You have to wonder if the Cordarrelle Patterson experiment at running back has run its course.

The Bears have Lamar Miller on the practice squad, maybe he’s worth a look? Or give undrafted rookie free agent Artavis Pierce a shot. But the Cordarrelle Patterson bit at running back has played itself out. He had three carries for 1 yard and, yes, the blocking was terrible on the fourth-and-1 run that blew up in the third quarter. But before getting into that, consider Patterson has 25 carries and 71 yards. That’s a 2.8 average. Washington’s Peyton Barber is the only back in the league with at least 20 carries to be averaging less. He’s at 2.1.

The play in question came with 10 seconds remaining in the third quarter. The Bears were on their 34-yard line and tried a toss/crack to Patterson to the boundary side of the field. Wide receiver Javon Wims was tasked with blocking rookie outside linebacker Terrell Lewis, who is 6-foot-5, 252 pounds. It didn’t go well for Wims. Lewis manhandled Wims and then stuffed Patterson for a 2-yard loss.

“Sometimes what happens is we scheme plays and we have things and certain things we like and then there’s the execution part,” coach Matt Nagy said. “I gotta go back and actually see the execution part. I know that our whole entire coaching staff and our players coming out of that (replay review) break felt really good about that play. We all did. There’s nothing where anyone was like, ‘Nah, maybe we shouldn’t do that.’ No, we felt good.”

Patterson’s run reminded me a little bit of the bizarre play call the Bears had on about the same spot on the field when they faced a third-and-1 in the loss at Los Angeles last season. They ran a speed option for David Mongomery that was stopped for a 3-yard loss. That call was also to the boundary side of the field. Neither play ever had a chance.

A toss/crack to Patterson didn’t make sense when the Rams had been whipping the Bears on the line the entire. That’s a spot to get your best player involved — wide receiver Allen Robinson. Matt Nagy has to look through his call sheet for a play that gives him the highest degree of confidence the Bears can get a yard. Players first, scheme second. The ball needs to go to Robinson or Jimmy Graham on crossers against what would have almost certainly been man coverage. Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey wasn’t in position to cover both of them, so pick the one he’s not on. If it’s fourth-and-1 and you have to run the ball, how about go with a running back by trade, the running back they traded up to draft a year ago?

4. Is the Ted Ginn Jr. era is wrapping up soon?

Ted Ginn Jr. isn’t working out as a steady hand fielding punts since Tarik Cohen was lost to a season-ending ACL injury in Week 3. One of the reasons the Rams dominated this game, besides the lopsided action in the trenches, was field position. Punter Johnny Hekker had a huge game, landing all five of his punts inside the 10-yard line. Think about that: The Bears’ average starting field position was their own 16, thanks to deep punts that pinned them at the 7, 10, 1, 6 and 5. It was remarkable. Hekker’s 57-yarder pinned the Bears on their own 1. He later boomed one 63 yards and Ginn was helpless.

“The special teams, in some areas I thought was really good,” coach Matt Nagy said. “In other areas I didn’t think was very good.”

Go ahead and underline punt return. Ginn had a muffed return last week at Carolina and it looks like he’s done as a returner. The 35-year-old last performed the chore in 2017 for the Saints. He’s got five returns for 24 yards since Cohen, a Pro Bowl talent as a returner, went out. With Ginn hardly seeing time on offense, the Bears can admit a low-dollar mistake here and move on.

The good news is the team already lined up one possible option. The Bears listed Dwayne Harris, a veteran returner, as a tryout player last week. COVID-19 protocol takes nearly a week to get a guy on the field for an actual workout, so that could be happening Tuesday. I’m not sure what Harris has left, as he’s 33 now but he’s averaged 10.1 yards per punt return with four touchdowns in his career.

“He’s had a good reputation throughout the league,” special teams coordinator Chris Tabor said on Friday. “Good, tough, physical player. North-south player. He’s a guy that is gonna come in for a tryout and we’ll see where he’s at.”

5. It’s a strange year to cover the NFL and quite challenging.

There’s no mining the locker rooms of the Bears and opponents every game searching for nuggets, anecdotes, explanations, trends, opinions, anything that would be informative about the game, the direction the team’s season was headed, critical plays — the stuff that has made 10 thoughts fun to produce every single week of the season. As you probably know, all media access in terms of interviews is via Zoom calls now. That makes it tough to dig for the minutiae you’re accustomed to finding here, but I’m going to do my best to stock it regularly each week. That leads us to the latest installment of “The Questions We Didn’t Get To.” Some of the press conferences are on the shorter side, and the Zoom setup makes it hard to get in multiple queries or even follow-up questions, when appropriate. So, when Matt Nagy’s call ended Monday night, there were three questions that went unasked before time was up. If you were watching the game, you probably had some of your own questions you were wondering about (ranting statements don’t count).

Why didn’t you use your final timeout just before halftime to force the Rams to punt? This was before Johnny Hekker broke out all of his tricks. Los Angeles faced fourth down on its own 35-yard line with a 10-3 lead. As offensively challenged as the Bears were in the first half, why not take a shot at a punt block or a big return? Heck, put Eddie Jackson back there for an end-of-half or end-of-game scenario. Nagy looked upset on the sideline and I don’t blame him. He had to blow two timeouts for communication issues on a possession just before that. The Bears need every scoring chance they can get, even ones with minuscule odds like hoping Ted Ginn Jr. can run a punt back.

Is there a coaching point for some of the penalties the team has been accumulating? It wasn’t an overriding issue, but it also wasn’t a clean game and officials called Akiem Hicks for four infractions (two of which were declined). Hicks has been called for nine penalties, which is the most in the NFL, one ahead of Buccaneers left tackle Donovan Smith.

Does Lamar Miller look physically ready to play and could he warrant a shot soon? Nagy isn’t going to answer questions like that right after a game but at this point, as I detailed in the above item on Cordarrelle Patterson, why not at least evaluate someone else. Maybe Miller can provide a spark. Maybe not. But David Montgomery is pressing a little at times in search of daylight and replacing Patterson makes sense to me.

6. Former Bears quarterback Brian Griese is settling into ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” booth and I’ve enjoyed the chemistry the network has with play-by-play man Steve Levy and analyst Louis Riddick.

I think Brian Griese and Louis Riddick offer a nice blend of perspective when calling the game. Griese, who was with the Bears in 2006 and 2007, is excited to be working NFL games after a 10-year run calling college football.

“It’s been great,” he said Monday morning. “I enjoyed calling college football for 10 years but I was kind of looking to get back into the NFL game. There is a lot in the NFL game that allows me to use my skills as an analyst more. The college game has become really fast and less dependent on quarterback play and the coaches calling the game from the sideline, players looking over to the sideline getting the play and there’s not a lot the quarterback is asked to do at the line of scrimmage. And so it’s become less interesting to me and the pro game, there is still a lot for the quarterback to do at the line of scrimmage. So, that is what is interesting to me.”

Griese called the Bears and the Steelers the two best defenses in the league entering the Monday night game in Los Angeles.

“Defensively, the Bears are as good as anybody in the league,” he said. “It’s been a lot of fun watching. The defensive line, you knew what you were going to see when you put the tape on and the addition of Robert Quinn has brought balance and it’s opened things up for Akiem (Hicks) and Khalil (Mack). What I didn’t anticipate is some of these new secondary players. Jaylon Johnson has been fantastic. And for him to be as aggressive as he is, yeah, he makes mistakes but he’s also been aggressive, last week getting a tip/interception (for Tashaun Gipson) and Gipson has been a pleasant surprise. Couple that with what they knew they had in Eddie (Jackson) and Kyle (Fuller) and you have this aggressive secondary matched with that front really is fun to watch.

“If you’re going to force me to talk about the Bears offense, I will.”

He was just joking, but serious when he questioned how the Bears are playing along the offensive line.

“Let’s be honest, I know everybody in Chicago and they want to talk about the quarterback and they want to talk about the skill players but we all know the issue here is the offensive line,” he said. “If you can’t block people, I don’t care which quarterback you’ve got back there. It’s hard to fashion an offense no matter what style you want to run if you can’t block the guys up front. That’s been the issue. We can talk about Nick (Foles) and we can talk about Mitch (Trubisky) but until they get some consistency up front, it isn’t really going to matter.

“I loved the city of Chicago. The fan base was just awesome to be around, the expectations and the commitment. I think Nick is a good football player. He’s been around. I think he’s a steady hand, which in the scenario that the Bears are in now, they need a steady hand back there and they need a guy that’s gonna be positive.”

As excited as Griese was about the current Bears defense, I asked him how it compares to the 2006 team that reached Super Bowl XLI.

“That’s a good question,” he said. “They’re both obviously great. That defense got us to the Super Bowl and obviously having Devin (Hester) and what he did on special teams. As of right now, that defense is better. But this is a championship-caliber defense that the Bears have. There’s no question about it. They could go to the Super Bowl. If they have any kind of consistency on the offensive side and they grow, I think this is a playoff team and who knows what could happen.

“What’s unique about this defense is that when Chuck (Pagano) came in, he had a different background and mindset than Vic but he understood that what was working with Vic (Fangio) was great so he’d be crazy to change it. So, he kept a lot of what Vic was doing and then began to add a little bit of his background. So, I think what you have is a diverse defense that can do a lot of different things and play to the strengths. It’s a little bit more difficult defense to prepare for if you’re a quarterback because they are multiple where as Lovie (Smith’s) defense wasn’t very multiple. It was just really good at every position.”

7. Barring something unexpected, Mitch Trubisky figures to be wearing a different uniform next season. The same can be said for Jets quarterback Sam Darnold.

The Jets (0-7) are the league’s only winless team and currently in the driver’s seat for the No. 1 overall pick. At this point, it would be an upset if Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence is not the top pick in April. General manager Joe Douglas, the former Bears college scouting director, wasn’t running the franchise when the Jets selected Sam Darnold third overall in 2018. So, it will be easy for him to move on to a new quarterback. While Mitch Trubisky is in the final year of his contract, Darnold has one more year and the Jets (or whoever he is with next spring) will have to make a call on the fifth-year option in his contract for 2022.

The mailbag has been filled with questions the last few weeks about whether or not the Bears could be in the market for Darnold as a reclamation project. The way the Bears are trending, they’re not going to be in position to choose one of the top prospects at the position like Lawrence, Ohio State’s Justin Fields or even North Dakota State’s Trey Lance.

Of course, the Bears’ interest in a quarterback will be fueled largely by their level of confidence in 31-year-old Nick Foles, who has made four starts here now and is signed through 2022. Survey the landscape of quarterback-needy teams and you can generate a list of clubs that will be doing their homework on Darnold, reviewing their pre-draft reports and seeing if what they saw then matches with what Darnold is putting on tape. There will be a trade market for Darnold, assuming the Jets begin shopping him after the season. A fair gauge for trade parameters is the price the Dolphins paid the Cardinals last year for Josh Rosen, the 10th overall pick in 2018. Miami forked over a late second-round pick and a fifth-round pick to get Rosen, a deal that in retrospect wasn’t good. But precedent was set and Douglas should be able to get something comparable. It’s possible the selling price for Darnold is slightly lower because he won’t have as much time remaining on his contract as Rosen did. Certainly that is what I would expect any team inquiring about him to say.

Darnold has next to nothing around him with the Jets, which is reflected in their record and how they’re playing. New York has cracked 17 points only once and been held to 13 points or less five times. The Jets squandered a 10-0 lead against the Bills on Sunday and generated two first downs and four total yards in the second half. It was Darnold’s first game back after missing two with a shoulder injury. He completed 12 of 23 passes for 120 yards and was picked off twice. He’s completing only 58.4% of his passes, with twice as many interceptions (six) as touchdowns (three).

He will have a throw or two a game where you’ll watch it and say, “Holy smokes, that is a big-time play.” But there are too many poor decisions sprinkled in, perhaps because he’s pressing, and there will be downright boneheaded plays like in Week 1 against the Bills when he rolled out left and then tried to throw back across the field and off his back foot. That’s not something a guy in his third season should be attempting.

There was the publicized moment in a “Monday Night Football” loss to the Patriots last season when he was mic’d up and was caught saying, “I’m seeing ghosts,” when New York trailed 24-0. The Patriots had been pressuring Darnold consistently with Cover Zero blitzes. Darnold thought pressure was coming, but New England dropped in coverage, confusing him and explaining the comment caught in a disastrous four-pick outing, his second start after missing four games because of a bout with mononucleosis.

I reached out to two scouts to get their opinion of Darnold and how they view him as a potential target for teams in the market for a project. They believe Darnold’s environment has led to a great deal of his deepening struggles.

“If he goes somewhere else, he could be OK,” said a national cross-checker for an NFC team who studied Darnold when he came out of USC. “He’s as shellshocked as David Carr was in Houston. He’s getting hit all the time and he doesn’t have any talent around him, you know, kind of like David Carr. If you put the guy somewhere else and you surround him with some talent, he might have a chance.

“I thought he was a franchise quarterback when he came out. He had every trait known to man. He wasn’t beat out in college by a guy that was playing in Canada.”

A second scout said you can still see ability even as Darnold looks in-over-his-head in New York.

“The good is that he still flashes first-round traits,” the scout said. “He’s got really good movement skills, he’s got excellent arm talent and he can play off-schedule, make plays on second reaction throws and he can do it with his legs too. You saw it in that Thursday night game the Jets played (against Denver Oct. 1). He can pull the ball down and go a little bit. He’s tough.

“But the negatives are in his short time in the NFL, he’s picked up some poor habits because he doesn’t trust himself behind the offensive line. I think his footwork in the pocket is skittish and that is what has impacted his mechanics. He’ll open his front shoulder, lock his front leg at times and that will impact his ball location. His processing ability isn’t as good as everyone expected it to be at this point and people say, ‘Well, Adam Gase’s offense doesn’t lead to production.’ There are throws to be made all over the field if you watch the film. I watched him this summer and then I watched some more tape already this year. He doesn’t see it. Now, if that’s because his eyes consistently drop, which could be an issue, I see it often. That goes back to the poor habits he’s developed because he doesn’t trust people in front of him.

“Could Gase have helped him more? Sure. You can use more motion, more movement, try to get guys loose underneath to make higher percentage throws. Darnold turns the ball over too much and the Jets are not talented enough to do that and he consistently puts them in bad positions. That’s a bad football team, it’s probably the worst team in the league roster-wise, but you would be going to get Darnold based on his traits and there is no question he still has them.

“I think he’s a better thrower than Trubisky. I think he processes better than Trubisky. Mitch might be a better athlete but I think Darnold is a tougher football player. He’s got some things to fix though and I don’t know if it’s coaching or putting him behind a great offensive line or giving him weapons. He’s throwing to nobody right now besides (Jamison) Crowder, who has been hurt almost the entire season. It hasn’t been good.

“Opportunity, situation, roster constructions and coaching, they all play key roles in quarterback development. And he’s gone through multiple head coaches, multiple coordinators. I still think there is hope for him because of the traits and what he flashes at times. Sometimes you watch these throws and you say, ‘That looks like a starting NFL quarterback. That’s a first-round kid.’ Then at other times you’re saying, ‘What is he seeing? Why is he not seeing this?’ That is the concerning part. The turnovers too. He’s got to be better with the football. He just has to be. You can’t play him. You can’t turn the ball over.

“If you’re bringing Sam Darnold in, you’re saying ‘We’re going to try to repair him. We trust the traits. We trust our coaching. We trust our general manager to put talent around him and protect him up front.’ I can see it. But you’re going to want to have another quarterback you’re comfortable playing with because you just don’t know how it’s going to work. Sure, there’s a chance but with some of these guys, even when the scenery changes it just never clicks for them.”

8. It wouldn’t be right to criticize the offense and not point out that it was not a great game for the defense.

The Rams rushed for 161 yards and while Jared Goff was only 23 of 33 for 219 yards, the Bears didn’t make him uncomfortable like they did the last two years. The defense really struggled defending the perimeter. Missed tackles that were a problem early in the season defending the run popped up again.

It was still a 10-3 game when the Rams started their second possession of the third quarter. They took over on their own 45-yard line but quickly faced a third-and-5 from midfield. The Bears had an interesting call on that dropped outside linebacker Khalil Mack off in coverage. They blitzed inside linebacker Roquan Smith from the opposite side and he came free, but Mack wasn’t able to close the window to wide receiver Josh Reynolds on the front side. If Goff has to come off Reynolds, it’s probably a sack. That’s a passing window Mack has to close in that situation, but they’re paying him to get the quarterback. The result was a 21-yard gain and then the Rams bullied the Bears in the red zone with running back Malcolm Brown.

9. Credit the WBBM-780 AM postgame show with a good question for quarterback Nick Foles.

I don’t want to pile on the offensive line, but it was a good question about the false start penalty on left guard Rashaad Coward when Matt Nagy elected to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the Bears’ 19-yard line in the second quarter. Foles was asked if it was a long count, something perhaps to try to draw a defender offside.

“It was a quicker snap count to keep them off guard,” Foles said. “That’s tough (answer). I have not seen the play. I think Shad is continuing to develop and is going to be a great player. He’s only been playing O-line for a short time so he’s going to continue to develop and I’m excited about that. But I haven’t seen the play and obviously the QB sneak would’ve gotten the first down and that would’ve been huge. But that’s a tough play and that’s just part of the night for us. Not an easy night for us. We’ve just got to keep going.”

It’s little plays like that which continue to add up to make things more difficult for the Bears.

10. For the second time in four weeks, Matt Nagy said Cole Kmet needs to play more.

The first time we heard that was after the second-round pick from Notre Dame got 15 snaps in the Week 4 loss to the Colts.

“Fifteen is not enough. He needs to be out there more,” Nagy said. “We’re aware of that. He’s doing a really good job at taking in this offense, which we knew from the get-go that he was going to do.”

Kmet made a nice contested catch on a 38-yard pass, one of the few offensive highlights, and also had a 7-yard reception. Fellow tight end Demetrius Harris made two catches for 15 yards but had one drop.

“Cole Kmet is going to start playing more in this offense,” Nagy said. “He’s deserved it. He earns it. He’s a guy that I think I’m really proud of the way he’s playing. For us, we have to be aware of that, understand that and start using him more.”

How is Kmet going to get more playing time? The Bears are either going to have to go to more multi-tight end sets or Kmet is going to start replacing veteran Jimmy Graham in some of the 11 personnel. Those are really the only ways to see his snap count, which has been relatively level (between 24% and 35% in the first six games), climb.

10a. The Bears are fortunate free safety Eddie Jackson had only a brief scare when he had his knee checked out on the sideline.

“I knew it wasn’t nothing too bad,” he said. “I’ve been through the ACL (test). I’m fine. I’m feeling good. It was just a little scare. But I knew it wasn’t nothing too serious and it started to calm down, I started to feel much better. But I’m good.”

10b. This game wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t pretty at all. But don’t fall into the trap of wildly overreacting after one game. When in doubt, fall back on the old Bill Parcells’ saying, “you are what your record says you are.” The Bears are 5-2 and trying to sort some issues out while being grateful for a hot start.

10c. It was positive to see the offense scheming up deep shots for Darnell Mooney. Finding more ways to target him should be a priority.

10d. Best of luck to former Bears defensive coordinator and player Ron Rivera, who underwent his final cancer treatment on Monday. The Washington coach ought to remain in good spirits after a 25-3 victory over the Cowboys. Rivera has not missed a game and with any luck, he will be feeling better near the end of the season after seven weeks of treatment.

10e. Bears fans travel well on the road and I am sure some were bummed out they couldn’t check out the new digs at sparkling SoFi Stadium. There’s good news on the horizon. The Bears will play at Los Angeles next year, marking the third consecutive year they have played on the road against the Rams. That’s because the Bears will play all four NFC West teams next season, hosting Arizona and San Francisco, and making a road trip to Seattle.

10f. Fox’s No. 1 team of Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Erin Andrews will call the Saints-Bears game this Sunday at Soldier Field.

10g. The Saints opened as a two-point favorite over the Bears at Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas.

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