QUARTERBACK: F
Any other grade would be painting a dishonest picture. You can put aside Mitch Trubisky's 157 passing yards – his third-lowest total of the season, Minnesota week excluded – or his sixth game without a touchdown pass if you want to, and it’d still be an abject failure. In the first quarter he took an eight-yard sack by running out of bounds on third-and-13 from midfield. The fourth quarter 11-yard checkdown, on fourth-and-23, was egregious. At a certain point during Sunday night’s game, the crowd reacted with the same delighted surprise when Patrick Mahomes missed a deep shot as they did when Trubisky connected on one. He’s been unfairly blamed more than once this season, but there’s no denying Trubisky’s poor play against the Chiefs.
RUNNING BACKS: D
At first glance, the Bears actually ran the ball well. They finished with 101 yards on 22 attempts, good for 4.6 yards per carry. Then you take a look at how it breaks down:
David Montgomery: 13 rushes, 57 yards
Trubisky: 6 rushes, 20 yards
Cordarrelle Patterson: 1 rush, 16 yards
Tarik Cohen: 2 rushes, 8 yards
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None of them scored, because if you’ll remember, the Bears did not actually score a touchdown on Sunday night. They’ll say publicly that they’re happy to have a team average above 4.5 yards per rush, but how effective or successful did the Bears' run game feel last night?
WIDE RECEIVERS: D
Nine different players had catches on Sunday night, and Allen Robinson led the team with 53 yards. None of them scored, because if you’ll remember, the Bears did not actually score a touchdown on Sunday night. Anthony Miller’s early fumble was about as devastating as you can get without actually turning the ball over.
“That's a good point for us to learn and understand, man, we've all got to lock in,” Matt Nagy said after the game. “We're moving the ball. It's going a little bit. You can feel, getting some first downs. We worked on that all week.”
“None of it's intentional. Anthony Miller is more frustrated than anybody, more upset than anybody that he dropped it. But those are the type of deals because now you're second and long, and to start a game. We can't have that. We've got to be better than that.”
NFL
OFFENSIVE LINE: C
Moving the ball successfully starts on the line, so in that sense the Bears’ unit once again played poorly. The stat sheet lists three sacks for the Chiefs, but one of them was the aforementioned Trubisky blunder and another came with the game result well in hand. Outside of another Charles Leno holding penalty, the line played a clean-enough game – it’s just not a very strong unit at this point. The O-line wasn't THE problem on Sunday night.
TIGHT ENDS: D
There was a JP Holtz screen, and an Eric Saubert reception. Jesper Horsted had a catch, too. These are all real players on the Bears.
DEFENSIVE LINE: C
Brent Urban, Aaron Lynch and Roy Robertson-Harris were all called for various penalties. It was Lynch’s seventh neutral zone penalty of the season, which is probably all you need to know about where the Bears stand on his impending unrestricted free agency. The Chiefs didn’t run the ball especially well, but Mahomes had plenty of time to sit back and carve up the field when he had to. Losing Eddie Goldman to a concussion was just salt in the wound.
LINEBACKERS: B+
Khalil Mack was terrific on Sunday night, and the statsheet – even with a sack – does a disservice to how much he affected the pocket. Kevin Pierre-Louis and Nick Kwiatkoski finished the game first and second in tackles, continuing to impress as they audition for full-time roles. KPL showed impressive lateral speed against the lightning-quick Chiefs offense, and Kwiatkoski may be the hardest hitter on the Bears’ defense.
SECONDARY: C
They weren’t bad, but the Bears’ secondary continued to struggle making big plays or creating turnovers. Mahomes had an unspectacular game by his standards, but was still surgically efficient while throwing for 250 yards and two touchdowns. Mahomes’ longest pass of the night was only 19 yards, so that’s a win?
SPECIAL TEAMS: B
Eddy Pineiro went 1-for-1, and is now 7-for-7 since the Rams game. Pat O’Donnell landed two of his three punts inside the Chiefs’ 20-yard-line. Cordarrelle Patterson’s only kickoff return of the night went for 26 yards, which only sounds underwhelming if you haven’t been watching where the Bears start most of their drives this year. Kevin Pierre-Louis committed the exact same running-into-the-kicker penalty that he did against Oakland, which is bad optics on a night where he otherwise shined. All in all, it’s been worse.