GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Bears won the coin toss, which is the only thing they’ve won in four weeks.
And to his credit, Marc Trestman opted not to give the ball to Aaron Rodgers right away, which was the only indication Sunday night that the Bears had made any adjustments during their bye week.
But you know you’re in trouble when the coin toss is your only realistic chance to keep the ball away from Rodgers, as the Bears’ desperately underachieving offense went on to score just one touchdown in a 55-14 blowout.
“This is the team that we have. And we just have to accept it. We’re just not very good right now,” Brandon Marshall admitted.
All the talk going into the bye week about studying, doing homework and searching for better matchups resulted in the Packers leading 42-0 at halftime. It was the second time in two games that the Bears set a new franchise record for the most points allowed in the first half.
But is anyone really that surprised? Remember, the headline from the organization’s bye week press conference was the general manager admitting that critical comments from former linebacker Brian Urlacher drove him to conduct a research project while the rest of his team was busy preparing for a must-win game in New England.
The Bears lost that game 51-23, in case you’re keeping score.
And, unfortunately, they do keep score in the NFL, which is how we know the Bears have been outscored an unbelievable 94-7 in the first half of their last three games against the Dolphins, Patriots and Packers.
“We obviously aren’t a good team,” Jared Allen said.
Penalties, turnovers, blown assignments, miscommunications. It’s a familiar list.
“Like I’m sure a lot of guys have echoed, we’re a bad team right now,” Kyle Long said.
That was Trestman’s exact message to his team both at halftime and after the game, which is why all the players were repeating it — as if they finally had permission to state the obvious.
“We’re not a very good football team right now, obviously,” Trestman said. “We’ve descended over the last three weeks and we didn’t make any changes or any positive movement after the bye. And that starts with me.”
It’s starting to become more understandable why Marc Trestman went 20 years in the NFL without getting a head coaching job. In 2002, he led the league’s No. 1 offense to the Super Bowl and still didn’t get a head coaching job. In fact, he bet on himself after that season, declining a contract extension from the Raiders. Over the next four years, Trestman was a member of three different coaching staffs that were all fired — the third time at the college level with North Carolina State.
But, somehow, winning one championship in Canada qualified him to be head coach of the Bears more than the reigning NFL coach of the year. How many coaches go from the NFL to the NCAA to the CFL and end up as the head coach of the Chicago Bears?
But it’s not Marc Trestman’s fault he was offered the job. No, it was Phil Emery who passed on Bruce Arians for Trestman.
Arians is 19-6 with the Arizona Cardinals. Trestman is 11-14 with the Bears and just 2-6 against the NFC North. He was hired to fix Jay Cutler. He was hired to revolutionize the Bears’ offense. He was hired to consistently beat the Packers.
He’s accomplished none of the above.
As the first half ended, Trestman stopped to do his usual halftime interview with the Bears’ radio network and said: “We’re not a good football team right now, so that’s the baseline of where we’re going to start the second half.”
And that’s exactly where the Bears started the second half. It’s also how they ended the game. And it’s how they’ll start next week’s game against the Vikings.
“What’s transpired in the last three weeks is extremely disturbing and that starts with me because they’re not playing as well as I think we should be playing,” Trestman said. “So I stand here to say that.”
As the second half unfolded, Trestman stood by himself most of the time. At times, there was no one within 10 yards of him.
The question now is, will his general manager continue to stand by him? And will the organization continue to stand by the GM?
Adam Hoge covers the Bears for 87.7 The Game and TheGameChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AdamHoge.