The Chicago Bears fell to 0-2 on Sunday in the NFL following a loss at Tampa Bay that Bears Head Coach John Fox felt reflected on the whole team as opposed to any particular individual. Mike Glennon, the quarterback of the Bears, threw for two interceptions, one of which led directly to a defensive score. But in a post-game press conference, one that the Chicago Bears published to their YouTube account, Fox said that one of the interceptions was more of a "sack-fumble caught in the air" kind of turnover, even if it went as an interception on the official stat sheet.
Fox made consistent efforts to deflect attention away from his quarterback and instead focused on the whole team. Overall Chicago's performance certainly was disappointing following a respectable showing last week where they were able to play the defending conference champions, the Atlanta Falcons, to within six points.
No running game a big problem?
"Everybody wants to blame somebody," Fox claimed, "but, you know, that was a team defeat and we all had our hands in it." Glennon connected 31 times on 45 attempts which is not that bad of a passing percentage at 68.9%. But the volume of passes shows that the Bears favored the air game to a very large degree. Chicago rushers did basically nothing in the game as Tarik Cohen and Jordan Howard combined for just 20 yards on the ground.
That is an egregious total and likely played a role in making the Bears very predictable for the Tampa Bay defense.
The Buccaneers themselves were opening their season as they were unable to play last week due to Hurricane Irma. They improved to 1-0 on the campaign with the final score in the game (29-7) a result that a number of Chicago turnovers helped fuel.
On the offensive side the Buccaneers' Jameis Winston had an average day as a quarterback. He completed 18 of 30 pass attempts for a lean 204 yards in the air. Furthermore none of the rushers for the Buccaneers had amazing stats and the game was more about Tampa Bay's defense stifling the Bears. Chicago was not able to score until the game was already out of their hands.
The Bucs didn't make excuses
Overall Tampa Bay do have to be feeling good about the result. They say luck comes and goes in sports and that it balances out over the long term. However, when a natural catastrophe such as Hurricane Irma affects your season, that's a dose of bad luck that simply doesn't affect all teams equally. The Bucs didn't make excuses, but instead secured a win to open their season.
Both teams will be active next week in the NFL. The Bears will host the Pittsburgh Steelers in a game that looks like it could lead to an 0-3 start for Chicago. Meanwhile. the Buccaneers will travel north to play the Minnesota Vikings.
