Bernstein: Not Much To Be Learned From These Bears
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) The recency or "serial position" effect can be a funny psychological thing, causing the human mind to recall easier what it has just seen rather than what came some time before.
It's probably good for Bears quarterback Matt Barkley, so those who experienced his gunslinging fourth quarter are more likely to be mindful of that then his brutal earlier interceptions and the several other almost-picks dropped by Titans defenders as the Bears went down 27-7 before rallying in garbage time in a 27-21 loss.
Regardless, Barkley is still just meh, maybe now under a bit more consideration as a backup possibility on some future roster. Nothing that happened Sunday did much to alter the team's proximity to winning a championship, other than perhaps the outcome's ultimate relation to draft order or the outside possibility of a potential coaching change.
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The rest was all noise, all the dropped passes and questionable play calls and flaccid pass rush and porous downfield coverage. The same goes for the late push by the hurried-up offense.
And if you actually saw the fourth quarter live, you are either lying or need better options for what to do on a gray and misty -- if otherwise pleasant enough -- fall Sunday afternoon. It's certainly true of the handful of fans sticking around at Soldier Field, the remaining stragglers of the announced official total of 48,408. It was well less than that, of course, with thousands of no-shows paid in full but absent from this ongoing debacle.
So some of us walked in the woods and others played cards or braved the malls to shop for deals while what's left of the 2016 Bears fought on in vain. The DVRs witnessed it all, having themselves made no such alternative plans.
It was all pretty much just right for a team now at 2-9 and still losing players to major injury and more chances this week for steroid suspensions. Anonymous action with varying levels of success occurring desultorily from one drive to the next, and none of it mattering. The broadcast itself was appropriately at or below replacement level, too, with unfamiliar announcers beset by audio problems that necessitated a substitute play-by-play call from analysts at the desk in New York who clearly also wanted to be doing anything else.
It's over, whatever it was, but the season, alas, is not.
That's the curse of the recency effect, keeping this Bears team top of mind and making thoughts of a successful and encouraging rebuilding effort by John Fox and Ryan Pace seem even longer ago and so much further away.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.
