NEW ORLEANS — When Matt Eberflus looks at his team, he doesn’t see what you see.
He thinks the Bears are close.
Close to what? Beating a .500 team on the road? That’s the best the Bears could say after Sunday’s 24-17 loss to the Saints at the Caesars Superdome.
Don’t confuse the 2-7 Bears playing entertaining football — the game was decidedly not the root canal that fans have come to expect on Sundays — with the team being close to a breakthrough.
The Bears had five turnovers. The Saints had none.
The Bears were flagged eight times for 71 yards. The Saints were penalized once for five.
Good teams don’t get boat raced in those categories.
The NFL has very few great teams. More than half its teams are decidedly middle class and capable of losing to anyone every week. The Bears can only aspire to get to that level under Eberflus, who is 5-21 in his year-and-a-half at the helm. Sunday showed they’re not there. And they need to get there before they can pretend to be “close” to anything competitive.
Mistakes, even beyond the turnovers, haunted the Bears all day. Kicker Cairo Santos, who had made 14-straight field goals dating to last year, hit the right upright in the final minute of the first half, keeping the game knotted at 14.
Receiver DJ Moore, the Bears’ best player, fumbled after making a catch during the Bears’ first drive of the third quarter. On the second drive of the quarter, the Bears had second-and-1 from the Saints’ 23 in the third quarter. A holding call on center Lucas Patrick negated a 13-yard D’Onta Foreman run that would have put the ball at the 10. On the next play, left tackle Braxton Jones committed a false start. The Bears eventually settled for a field goal.
As the game neared its end, the Bears kept fumbling their chances. With 7:29 to play, the Saints tried for a quarterback sneak at the Bears’ 17 rather than kick a field goal to go up two scores. Derek Carr was stopped short.
The Bears gave the ball back on a Tyson Bagent interception, got it back again and were forced to punt after starting at their own 1. When Saints kicker Blake Grupe hit the left upright on a 47-yard miss with 2:30 play, the Bears gave it back when Bagent was sacked by Demario Davis and fumbled. Linebacker Pete Werner recovered it to seal the game.
