It’s been a tough year for all the major sports teams in Chicago and despite having Super Bowl hopes before the start of this season (LOL) the Bears are only making it worse.
After a 3-1 start, the Bears have lost three games in a row. Even when Mitch Trubisky looks fine, he makes costly mistakes and misses wide open receivers. Matt Nagy might be a good coach(?), but he’s certainly not doing anything to make his QB better and he’s losing confidence from fans after each game by making bone-headed decisions.
I mean, it’s the simple things that Nagy can’t even get right.
After their third straight loss, the Bears dropped to last place in the division and now have the fifth worst record in the NFC. Could the Bears still make it to the playoffs? I guess, but the way this team has looked for the past month it’s going to take a miracle to reach 10 wins and that might not even get it done this year to earn a Wild Card spot in the NFC.
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Barring a miracle run by the Bears, it’ll be the first year/season since 2004 that none of the five major Chicago sports team make the playoffs.
Five teams, no playoffs?
2018-19 Blackhawks: 84 points, 10th in Western Conference
2018-19 Bulls: 22-60, 13th in Eastern Conference
2019 Cubs: 84-78, 3rd in NL Central
2019 White Sox: 72-89, 3rd in AL Central
2019 Bears: TBD
2003-04 Blackhawks: 59 points, 15th in Western Conference
2003-04 Bulls: 23-59, 14th in Eastern Conference
2004 Cubs: 89-73, 3rd in NL Central
2004 White Sox: 83-79, 2nd in AL Central
2004 Bears: 5-11, 4th in NFC North
It was bad, really bad
A few “highlights” for those teams. Tyler Arnason led the Blackhawks with 55 points. Tuomo Ruutu had the most goals with 23, while goalies Craig Anderson and Michael Leighton tied for most wins at six. It was Brian Sutter’s last year coaching in the NHL.
Scottie Pippen played in 23 games and started six times for the 2003-04 Bulls. Head coach Bill Cartwright was fired after a 4-10 start and was replaced by Scott Skiles. It was Kirk Hinrich’s rookie season and hey that was also the season the Bulls broke a 26-game road losing streak against Western Conference teams. Holy shit, I forgot about that. And of course, the Bulls had one of the highest attendance numbers in the NBA despite being terrible.
Just like 2019, the 2004 Cubs had a terrible collapse in September to miss the playoffs. It was Dusty Baker’s second year as Cubs manager and Sammy Sosa’s last season on the North Side. It was also the last time Kerry Wood and Mark Prior both made at least 20 starts in a season.
The biggest takeaway from the 2004 White Sox? They made two trades during the season for Freddy García and José Contreras, who both became key starters for the 2005 World Series team. It was also Ozzie Guillen’s first year as White Sox manager.
Yeah, 15 years ago the Bears had awful QB play too. Chad Hutchinson, Craig Krenzel, Jonathan Quinn and Rex Grossman all started at one point during Lovie Smith’s first year as Bears head coach. Sexy Rexy was the only QB who averaged more than 200 passing yards a game, throwing for 607 yards in three starts. The Bears finished the season with the worst offense in the NFL.
But hey, the last time there was a playoff drought in Chicago it didn’t last long. Bears went from 5-11 to 11-5 and a division title, while the Bulls made the playoffs the next season for the first time since the dynasty era and the White Sox won the 2005 World Series.
But obviously we’d love if the Bears continued the streak of some playoff action for Chicago instead of breaking it. Sadly, those chances don’t look good at the moment.
