Bears-Packers Q&A: Chicago disappoints in 2019 despite late-season surge

On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers host a rematch of their Week 1 victory over the Chicago Bears. Robert Zeglinski of Windy City Gridiron kindly volunteered to answer our questions about the Bears and provide some insight into their strengths and weaknesses.

APC: At 7-6, the Bears remain alive for a playoff berth. However, their schedule includes Sunday’s game against the Packers as well as matchups with the Chiefs and Vikings, all teams with nine wins or more entering Week 15. How do you expect Chicago to fare over the course of that slate, and how do you evaluate the team’s 2019 performance considering the preseason expectations?

I would be shocked if the Bears won more than one game over this final stretch. I wouldn’t be surprised if they lost all three outright. The Packers have legitimate offensive issues, but it’s never a sound idea to doubt Aaron Rodgers when he’s facing the Bears. Put orange and navy blue colors in front of him, and I have no doubt he’ll find a way to win. After an early knee injury, Pat Mahomes has again found his top quarterback form (No. 1 in ANY/A) and the Chiefs’ defense no longer resembles a turnstile. It would be poetic for either the familiar rival to drive in the final dagger on the Bears’ season, or if Chicago were somehow able to win at Lambeau Field, for the special quarterback they could’ve drafted two years ago to drop the fateful anvil. I think the Bears can beat the Vikings. They arguably have this iteration of Minnesota’s offense’s number more than any other unit in football. But they have to get there unscathed first. They won’t.

As for meeting expectations, a late season hot streak doesn’t salvage what will end up being known as one of the more disappointing seasons in Chicago’s 100-year history. The Bears were supposed to be Super Bowl contenders. They were supposed to go pound for pound with the other NFC heavyweights. They weren’t supposed to drop out of the picture altogether after one division title. They weren’t supposed to have little to no meaningful identity as an irrelevant ghost by mid-November. Finishing at or around .500 is a failure in every sense of the word, and portends a long off-season full of difficult decisions at Halas Hall. The Bears making themselves relevant to the smallest order by the end of the year doesn’t change that.

We’d like to thank Robert. Be sure to check out the rest of our Q&A session with Windy over the course of the week as well as our Q&A session over there. As always, keep your internet machines tuned to Acme Packing Company this Sunday for our comprehensive game-day coverage of Bears versus Packers.