Bears news: Early game offensive woes, Velus Jones Jr. finds a new home, political football

The NFL is the most popular sport in America because of how eventized it is. Each team plays once a week, which makes every game seem like a huge event. Football fans build their lives around fall and winter Sundays.

It's a system that clearly works. Nothing dominates the sports landscape like the NFL, but for diehard fans of a particular team, the wait between games after a crushing loss can seem interminable. Such is the case for Bears fans this week, after they fell to the Commanders on a last-second Hail Mary that was entirely preventable.

Bears fans would do anything to take their minds off the way that game ended, but in the current sports information climate, we'll be hearing about Tyrique Stevenson's antics and Matt Eberflus' late game decision-making for a long time. A road win over the Cardinals would take some of the sting out of what happened in Washington, but that opportunity for redemption is still four days away.

While we wait to see if the Bears can rebound from such a painful loss, let's catch up on some newsworthy items.

Shane Waldron's first-half playcalling leaves much to be desired

The Bears are 4-3 through seven games, but they've had to fight from behind to get there. That's because the team's offense has been virtually nonexistent early in games.

In show business, you never want to follow someone on stage that brought the house down. It's always better to do your act right after someone got booed back into the dressing room, because there are no expectations. By comparison, you have to be better, right? Right?

Shane Waldron came into a plum situation when he was hired by the Bears this offseason. He had some shiny new toys in Caleb Williams, Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze, and he had the great fortune of following one of the least-liked coaches in recent Bears history, Luke Getsy.

Getsy made Bears fans irate during his time in Chicago thanks to his conservative gameplans and unimaginative playcalling, and he's not doing much better in Las Vegas as the Raiders OC. One thing he was pretty good at while in Chicago though, was scripting the first couple of drives. The Bears found a fair amount of success early in games under Getsy, before eventually wilting more often than not because he couldn't adjust to what the defense was doing.

Waldron seems to be better than Getsy at adjusting as the game goes along (the Doug Kramer handoff notwithstanding), but when it comes to scripting his offense in the first quarter, he's seriously lacking. The Bears have scored a total of 10 points in the first quarter all season, and have trailed in every game so far this year.

The defense is doing everything in its power to keep the Bears in games. Only the Colts have been able to crack 20 points on the Bears this year, and we saw this past week how good the D could be, as it kept rookie wunderkind Jayden Daniels out of the end zone until the final play of the game.

Waldron needs to figure out a way to get the offense in rhythm early on, because whatever he's doing right now is just not working.

Velus Jones Jr. finds a new home

Have you ever seen an ex find happiness and settle down? As long as things ended amicably between the two of you, I'd imagine you'd be happy for them. That's where Bears fans are with Velus Jones Jr.

Velus seems like a good guy and a hard worker, and he endeared himself to the fanbase during his time in the spotlight on Hard Knocks. Sometimes though, it's in everybody's best interest to move on from a situation that just has too much baggage.

Bears fans were excited about the possibilities when Ryan Poles drafted Velus in the third round of the 2022 draft. They saw his top-end speed and ability in the open field as something that could be a difference-maker for the offense and special teams. Time and again though, he let opportunities literally slip through his fingers, because he had real issues with holding on to the football.

Velus got a second chance this year as he joined the running back room, ultimately making the team because of how well he handled the transition. His muffed kickoff in Week 1 against the Titans instantly evaporated that goodwill, and from there it was only a matter of time until the Bears let him go.

Poles finally did make the decision to cut Velus last week, and on Tuesday he was picked up by the Jaguars. Jacksonville has been a mess this year, which the Bears saw firsthand when they destroyed them 35-16 in London almost three weeks ago. The Jags are one of the most disappointing teams in the NFL at 2-6, and while Velus has only been signed to the practice squad as of now, the fact that Christian Kirk has been ruled out for the year with a broken collarbone means that he could get a chance to show what he can do soon.

Although Bears fans are glad to not have him on the team any more, I think we can all agree that we wish Velus well in his new home.

The Bears are being used as a political football

Football fans around the country will be glad when Nov. 5 comes and goes, if for no other reason than we won't be inundated with political ads during every second of our football-watching experience. The stakes of the election are enormous to be sure, and maybe it's a little selfish, but don't you just want to be able to enjoy the game in peace? It doesn't feel like too much to ask. Watching football is an escape for most people.

Unfortunately for Bears fans, they're now unwilling participants in the most divisive election in our country's history, as they're being used as a political pawn by both sides of the political spectrum.

Vice Presidential hopeful and current Minnesota governor Tim Walz used the Bears' misfortune as a rallying cry to Democratic supporters during a campaign stop in Wisconsin on Tuesday, saying "We're leaving it all on the field, unlike the Bears I might add."

As everyone knows by now, Walz is a former football coach, and as the governor for millions of Vikings supporters who happened to be speaking in Packers territory, he made the smart political calculation of kicking the Bears when they were down.

Walz wasn't the only one that used the Bears for political ends, as right wing activist Charlie Kirk took to X with a clip of the Hail Mary to warn Republican voters, "This is what could happen 8 days from now if we aren’t careful." He even created a YouTube video entitled "The Bears Celebrate Early: A Chilling Warning to Conservative Americans." I'm not going to link to that one because Bears fans have already been through enough.

The Bears have nobody to blame but themselves for being tossed around like a political football. More than any other team, they'll be glad when this election has come and gone.