Offensive problems in the early game, Velus Jones finds a home: political football

The NFL is the most popular sport in America because of its eventuality. Each team plays once a week, making every match seem like a big event. Football fans build their lives around autumn and winter Sundays.

It’s a system that clearly works. Nothing dominates the sports landscape quite like the NFL, but for diehard fans of a given team, the wait between games after a crushing loss can seem interminable. That’s the case for Bears fans this week, after falling to the Commanders at the last second, a Hail Mary that was completely preventable.

Bears fans would do anything to keep their minds off the way the game ended, but in today’s sports information climate, we’ll be hearing about it The antics of Tyrique Stevenson and Matt Eberflus’ late decision-making over a long period of time. A win over the Cardinals would take some of the sting out of what happened in Washington, but that chance for redemption is still four days away.

While we wait to see if the Bears can bounce back from such a painful loss, let’s discuss some newsworthy stuff.

The Bears are 4-3 through seven games, but they’ve had to fight from behind to get there. That’s because the team’s offense was virtually non-existent early in the games.

In show business, you never want to follow someone on stage who has brought the whole thing down. It’s always better to do your deed right after someone has been booed in the locker room because there are no expectations. By comparison, you have to be better, right? Right?

Shane Waldron found himself in a tough situation when he was hired by the Bears this season. He had a few shiny new toys in Caleb Williams, Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze, and he had the great fortune of following one of the least liked coaches in recent Bears history, Luke Getsy.

Getsy infuriated Bears fans during his time in Chicago thanks to his conservative game plans and unimaginative play calling, and He’s not doing much better in Las Vegas as the Raiders OC. However, one thing he was quite good at while in Chicago was scripting the first few drives. The Bears found quite a bit of success early in games under Getsy before ultimately withering away more often than not because he couldn’t adapt to what the defense was doing.

Waldron appears to be better than Getsy at adjusting as the game progresses (despite the transfer of Doug Kramer), but when it comes to scripting his offense in the first quarter, he is seriously lacking. The bears did that scored a total of 10 points in the first quarter all season, and this year he has trailed in every game so far.

The defense is doing everything it can to keep the Bears in the game. Only the Colts have managed to score 20 points on the Bears this year, and we saw this past week just how good the D could be as he kept rookie wunderkind Jayden Daniels out of the end zone until the final play of the game.

Waldron needs to figure out a way to get the offense into a rhythm early, because no matter what he’s doing right now, it’s just not working.

Have you ever seen an ex find happiness and settle down? As long as things between the two of you end amicably, I imagine you’d be happy for them. That’s where Bears fans are with Velus Jones Jr.

Velus seems like a good guy and a hard worker, and he endeared himself to the fanbase during his time in the spotlight Hard blows. Sometimes, though, it’s in everyone’s best interest to move forward from a situation that simply comes with too much baggage.

Bears fans were excited about the possibilities when Ryan Poles drafted Velus in the third round of the 2022 draft. They saw his elite speed and open-field ability as something that could make a difference on offense and special teams. Time and again, however, he literally let opportunities slip through his fingers because he had real problems holding the football.

Velus got a second chance this year when he joined the running back room, ultimately making the team because of how well he handled the transition. His muffed kickoff in Week 1 against the Titans immediately evaporated that goodwill, and from then on it was only a matter of time until the Bears let him go.

Poles finally made the decision to cut Velus last week, and he was picked up by the Jaguars on Tuesday. Jacksonville has been a mess this year, which the Bears saw firsthand when they destroyed them 35-16 in London nearly three weeks ago. The Jags are one of the most disappointing teams in the NFL at 2-6, and while Velus has only just been named to the practice squad, the fact that Christian Kirk has been ruled out for the year due to a broken collarbone means he could soon get his chance to show what he can do.

While Bears fans are happy that he is no longer on the team, I think we can all agree that we wish Velus the best in his new home.

Football fans across the country will be happy when November 5 comes and goes, if only because we won’t be bombarded with political ads every second of our football viewing experience. The stakes of the election are certainly huge, and maybe it’s a bit selfish, but don’t you just want to be able to enjoy the game in peace? It doesn’t feel like too much to ask. Watching football is an escape for most people.

Unfortunately for Bears fans, they are now unwilling participants in the most divisive election in our country’s history as they are used as political pawns by both sides of the political spectrum.

Vice presidential hopeful and current Minnesota Governor Tim Walz took advantage of the bears’ misfortune as a rallying cry to Democratic supporters during a campaign stop in Wisconsin on Tuesday, saying, “We leave it all on the field, unlike the Bears, I might add.”

As everyone knows by now, Walz is a former football coach, and as governor to millions of Vikings supporters who happened to be speaking in Packers territory, he made the shrewd political calculation of kicking the Bears when they were in trouble.

Walz wasn’t the only one using the Bears for political purposes, as right-wing activist Charlie Kirk says went to X with a snippet of the Hail Mary to warn Republican voters: “Here’s what could happen in eight days if we’re not careful.” He even made a YouTube video titled “The Bears Celebration Early: A Chilling Warning to Conservative Americans.” I’m not going to link to that because Bears fans have been through enough.

The Bears have no one to blame but themselves for being tossed around like a political football. More than any other team, they will be happy when this election is over.