The Chicago Bears (3-6) took another loss to the Green Bay Packers this past Sunday at Soldier Field, but this one was a lot more frustrating. The Bears were favored to win coming out of the bye week and facing a struggling Packers team that did not even feature Aaron Rodgers. While many thought Chicago would beat Green Bay at home for the first time since 2010, the result ended up being a Packers 23-16 win.
The Bears made way too many mistakes and looked unprepared for a team that was coming off a bye. Not to mention featuring a very, very bad challenge at the goal line. The fingers are pointing at head coach John Fox, who in his third season as Bears head coach has one of the worst winning percentages in franchise history. Fox has been on the hot seat all year, but this loss to this Packers team may have completely ended his future in Chicago.
The challenge
Unclear answers, secretive approaches and extremely conservative play calling has irritated Bears followers for a while now. The style of offense that him and coordinator Dowell Loggains plays has been extremely predictable and have handcuffed rookie quarterback Mitchell Trubisky from showing his full potential.
But a challenge Fox made is yesterday's game just put criticism towards him at an all new level.
Bears running back Benny Cunningham rushed for a big game and extended the ball towards the goal line before going out of bounds. As Cunningham was going out of bounds the ball was lose in his hand, but regardless if left alone it's first and goal inside the five. Fox decided to challenge the play as the ball wobbling in Cunningham's hand as he crashed into the pylon.
It was ruled that Cunningham lost control of the ball as he went out of bounds and hitting the pylon would result in a touch back. Thus it went from Bears at the two-yard line to Packers ball. John Fox challenged a play that resulted in his team losing the ball, when just leaving it sets up first and goal.
Twitter exploded with #FireFox, a range of jokes and several videos of him challenging the play with Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" music playing in the background.
Fox's tenure
John Fox came to Chicago after him and the Denver Broncos "parted ways" after a 12-4 season in 2014. Overall with the Bears he has a 12-29 record since he began in 2014. While his defensive units have much improved in Chicago, bringing in Vic Fangio and overall being defensive minded, the team still is not close to winning. They have lost so many games by one score which makes it frustrating.
There was skepticism when the hire was made by some, but now people realize his style and methods are not working with this young Chicago team that is trying to develop. An argument could be made to part ways with him right now, but regardless of what happens this season, it is very hard to see John Fox being the head coach of the Chicago Bears next season.