Sunday’s 30-12 win against the Raiders at Soldier Field was a lot of things: the Bears’ first at home in 13 months; coach Matt Eberflus’ second in 17 days after having three in his career up to that point; and rookie Tyson Bagent’s first as a starting quarterback.
In a soul-crushing season, Sunday marked a delightful change of pace. But it wasn’t big-picture progress. Eberflus has so much more to do to be able to argue otherwise.
Much like injured quarterback Justin Fields — who is recovering from a dislocated right thumb — Eberflus is racing the clock to prove he belongs next year.
His 2-5 Bears remain one of the NFL’s worst teams seven weeks into the season. Beating the Raiders and fill-in quarterback Brian Hoyer — whose last win as a starter came when Bagent was 16 years old — doesn’t change that. It only inches Eberflus closer to a breakthrough if the Bears can use Sunday’s victory to rattle off road wins against the Chargers and Saints the next two weeks.
The Raiders, though, aren’t much of a measuring stick — even for the Bears.
The same Raiders were the only team to lose to Colts interim coach Jeff Saturday, perhaps the most under-qualified selection of his generation, last year. They also lost to the Rams last season when quarterback Baker Mayfield had just two days to prepare for the game after being claimed off waivers from the Panthers.
In retrospect, what was so remarkable about the Bears’ franchise-record 14-game losing streak under Eberflus — one that ended earlier this month against the Commanders — was that it ran counter to a modern NFL where the wrong team wins, somewhere in the country, every week.
The Bears have been here before. In Week 7, no less. Last year, a downtrodden Bears team trudged into a matchup with the Patriots — who, like the Raiders, were 3-3 — on “Monday Night Football.” They blew out Bill Belichick, 33-14 — and then didn’t win again the rest of the season.
The Bears knew it was a false positive. Two days later, general manager Ryan Poles traded defensive end Robert Quinn, less than a year removed from setting the franchise’s single-season sacks record, to the Eagles. Five days after that, they sent star linebacker Roquan Smith to the Ravens. The Bears’ remaining defenders never recovered, becoming the worst unit in the league the rest of the season.
With the NFL’s trade deadline looming on Halloween, perhaps Poles’ experience last year makes him think twice about selling off what few pieces he has to offer a competitive team via trade. He shouldn’t, though, make any decisions based on Sunday’s game.
The win wasn’t predictive of future success — even if it was better than the alternative.