3 changes the Bears have to make to get back to their winning ways

Just like a carton of milk left on a bench in Grant Park in August, this Chicago Bears season has begun to spoil.

The Bears have dropped their last two games after entering their bye week on a three-game winning streak, and they've done it in disheartening fashion. First was the loss to the Commanders in which the Bears offense no-showed until the very end to nearly waste a heroic performance from the defense. Despite numerous self-inflicted wounds, including one of the worst playcalls we've ever seen when offensive coordinator Shane Waldron called for backup center Doug Kramer to get a goal-line carry (resulting in the most unsurprising fumble of all-time), the Bears were somehow able to take the lead late, only to give it away on a final play Hail Mary that still has the entire fanbase talking.

The Bears appeared to be feeling the hangover of letting their fourth straight victory slip away, as they looked flat and unprepared in a decisive 29-9 loss to the Cardinals one week later. The Cardinals were able to run the ball at will, and Caleb Williams and the Bears offense failed to reach the end zone against Arizona's mediocre defense.

Most Bears fans, myself included, are now panicking about the state of the team. The Bears looked, if not like Super Bowl contenders, at least like they were worthy of the playoffs as they hammered the Rams, Panthers and Jaguars. Now at 4-4 with a hellish closing schedule still to come, the postseason looks the way a person on the sidewalk below Willis Tower would to someone gazing down from the top. Bears fans think they can see it, but it's so far away that they can't really tell.

Linebacker TJ Edwards revealed this week that the Bears held a team meeting to try to turn things around. Other than the normal platitudes of needing to hold each other accountable and needing to be on the same page, Edwards didn't offer much in the way of specific things the team talked about doing to get back in the win column, but any Bears fan that has been paying attention can probably rattle off a few. Here are three things the Bears need to do to get back to their winning ways.

The Bears need to start converting on third down

A look at the bottom of the third down conversion ranks looks like a who's who of terrible NFL offenses. Four of the bottom eight teams in conversion rate (the Patriots, Raiders, Titans and Panthers) have all benched their Week 1 starting quarterback, and the Bears rank below all of them.

Only the Browns, who have trotted out the misdemeanor-y combo of Deshaun Watson and Jameis Winston, have a worse third down conversion rate than the Bears, which is a brutal indictment (no, not that kind of indictment) on Shane Waldron and the entire offense.

I'm not saying that Caleb Williams should be benched, because he's a much bigger part of the solution than he is a part of the problem (even though, to be fair, he has had issues with accuracy). I put this more at the feet of Waldron, who has struggled to scheme guys open despite having a wealth of skill position talent at his disposal.

Cole Kmet has gone virtually unused these last two weeks, but he should be one of Caleb's first looks, especially on third down. I read a stat earlier this week that Keenan Allen is averaging the highest depth of target in his career, which is insane considering he's 32 and has been dealing with a foot injury.

Waldron needs to begin putting the Bears in a position to succeed. That means getting positive yards on first and second down, so that third down is manageable. It also means calling smart plays to move the sticks, and he just hasn't been doing that.

The Bears are currently converting 31.48 percent of their third down chances. Last year under since-fired OC Luke Getsy (who was also fired this week by the same Raiders team that currently ranks ahead of the Bears in third down percentage), that number was 41.18 percent.

The heat is on Waldron to turn this around, otherwise it will be too late for the Bears, and too late for him to save his job.

The Bears need to figure out how to stop the run

No team allowed fewer rushing yards than the Bears last season. One year later, Chicago ranks 20th in the league in stopping the run, and Matt Eberflus' defense is getting worse by the week.

It's no surprise that the Commanders and Cardinals are two of the better rushing teams in the NFL. Both teams rank in the top seven of the league in rushing yards per game because they have mobile quarterbacks in Jayden Daniels and Kyler Murray, strong lead backs in Brian Robinson Jr. and James Conner, and quality depth pieces in Austin Ekeler, Jeremy McNichols, Trey Benson and Emari Demercado.

That's all well and good, but there's still no excuse for a team that allowed only 86.4 rushing yards per game last year to have given up 381 combined in the past two weeks alone. These were the worst two performances of the year for Chicago's run defense, yet worryingly, they're not isolated incidents, as the Bears have given up at least 119 yards on the ground in six of eight games.

The Bears need to solidify their run defense before it's too late, but it won't be easy. Andrew Billings has been the anchor of the Bears interior defensive line, which is why he was rewarded with a two-year contract extension this offseason. He's now likely to miss the rest of the season though, after needing surgery for a torn pectoral muscle that he suffered against the Cardinals.

Montez Sweat missed the game against the Cardinals, and with Billings out, the Bears desperately need him back and operating at peak efficiency. He got in a limited practice session on Wednesday, which hopefully bodes well for his ability to play against the Patriots this week.

Even if Sweat does return, Matt Eberflus needs to put more of an emphasis on stopping the run. Injuries have ravaged the Bears secondary, which leads me to believe that Eberflus is choosing to drop more guys back in coverage to help out. Even without Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker, though, Eberflus should trust Elijah Hicks and Josh Blackwell to handle their business without needing help, as they've proven what they can do when given the chance.

This falls on the linebackers. TJ Edwards, Tremaine Edmunds and Jack Sanborn need to be in the box and ready to plug the gaps in the defensive line, otherwise the Bears will continue to get chewed up on the ground.

Every single team the Bears face the rest of the way has a rushing attack that demands attention. Rhamondre Stevenson of the Patriots is first up. Then is Josh Jacobs of the Packers, Aaron Jones of the Vikings, and Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery of the Lions. In addition to facing each divisional foe a second time, the Bears will also be against Christian McCaffrey of the 49ers and Kenneth Walker III of the Seahawks before the season is through. If the Bears can't shore up their run defense, they'll never turn the season around.

The Bears need to get their heads in the game

It's crazy that this even needs to be said to an NFL team, but there's a way for professionals to conduct themselves, and we've just seen too many instances of the Bears falling short in that department.

Tyrique Stevenson has to be the first name mentioned here for everything that transpired at the end of the Commanders game. His selfish play cost the Bears a win, and might even have sent them spiraling down a dark path for the rest of the season. This isn't baseball where you get 162 games to play, so losing one isn't the end of the world. Every NFL game is a big deal when you're trying to contend, and to throw one away due to a lack of professionalism really hurts.

Stevenson apologized, but I'm still glad that Eberflus sat him for the first couple of series against the Cardinals to send a message to him and the rest of the team that if a standard is not met, there are consequences.

Stevenson is the most obvious example, but he's not the only Bear that needs to get his head in the game. DJ Moore is a player that I love. He's a dynamic wide receiver that can run every route and turn even a nothing play into a big gain. When it comes to body language though, the Bears haven't had someone this bad since Jay Cutler.

DJ is all smiles when things are going well, but when they're not, he looks like a kid that dropped his ice cream cone. His shoulders slump, he sits by himself on the bench with a blank stare, and he gets visibly frustrated if he's open and doesn't get the ball, either because it went to someone else or Caleb just missed him.

Against the Cardinals, DJ actually walked off the field in the middle of the play as Caleb was running for his life, even taking a seat on the bench before the play had even ended. That has to be a record, kind of like how Happy Gilmore was the only guy that ever took his skate off and tried to stab somebody.

DJ has said that he walked off because he rolled his ankle on the play, but he played the rest of the game and even ran a go route on the next snap. This is just a terrible look for DJ, Eberflus and the team whatever the excuse, especially as Caleb was doing everything he possibly could to keep the play alive and make something happen.

Hopefully the team meeting that Edwards talked about will get everyone on the same page, because the Bears will need to be a unified front if they hope to do more winning than losing the rest of the way.