The Bears' passing offense is so bad you'd have to go back 40 years to find a worse one

It's 2022, and the Bears are still figuring out the forward pass.

If you’ve ever paid attention to the Chicago Bears for even a second, you know it’s an organization that has struggled to find The Answer under center for years. Whereas most squads have figured out the forward pass is an entirely legal and viable way to move the football downfield, the Bears are often, instead, at Square One.

But for all their passing ineptitude, you never necessarily think the Bears can get any worse. After all, they’re often already at the bottom of the abyss. Following their latest stinker of a performance on Sunday Night Football against the Packers (-10), that assertion would be incorrect. When it comes to Bears passing offenses, it can and usually gets worse.

Since 2000, four NFL offenses have completed eight or fewer passes in a game. You read that right. Four. Justin Fields and the Matt Eberflus Bears have now done it in back-to-back weeks as they’ve evidently returned to the days of the “T-Formation”:

Even worse, these same Eberflus-Fields Bears are the first squad in four decades to complete 15 passes in the first two weeks of a season. Can I get the biggest of “yikes”?

In some extremely minor respects, the Bears’ actions can be explained.

For example, Justin Fields has just 12 starts to his name. And after a year where it can be argued the previous staff with Matt Nagy had little interest in long-term development for Fields, he may as well be starting from scratch himself. Amid his struggles, the quarterback is still technically so very green as a professional passer.

Regarding the overall offensive cast, we’ve documented what little the Bears have in place up front on their offensive line and at their paltry skill positions. And well, two weeks into a regular season, that hasn’t changed! Supposed top weapons Darnell Mooney and Cole Kmet have a combined two catches for four yards in eight quarters of football, while Fields is asunder any time he drops back to pass.

Throw in an inexperienced first-year offensive coordinator like Luke Getsy, still trying to feel his way through matters, and you have the perfect mix of an offense that can barely fly. Fields has 28 passing attempts through two weeks. Not that it’s a precise marker of success, but a lot of quarterbacks have 28 attempts through three quarters most weeks.

The Bears are a rebuilding team and probably going through more growing pains than they’d like. But no professional offense should be masquerading around pretending that fewer than eight pass completions a game is a viable formula in the year 2022. If this is Chicago’s strategy for “evaluating” Fields as the future of the franchise while simultaneously winning games — it’s a guarantee neither goal will see much success.