Gabriel: Bears-Packers Review

By Greg Gabriel--

(CBS) What we saw Thursday night was that with their present roster, the Bears can't go into a game on the road and expect to win.

The overall depth of their roster is too thin, and it was on display in a 26-10 loss to the Packers at Lambeau Field. While many of the young players on the Bears have the talent and potential to become good players, they simply aren't ready right now.

In the last month, the Bears received reasonably good quarterback play from Brian Hoyer. I say reasonably because as the new starter, Hoyer put up good numbers, but opposing defenses took away what the Bears were trying to do.

Before he suffered a broken left arm last night, Hoyer was off to his worst start as a Bear. His accuracy was off (4-of-11), and the reason was that Green Bay was taking away what Hoyer had done in earlier games.

Hoyer is best with shorter routes and getting the ball out of his hand quickly. Last Sunday against the Jaguars, cornerbacks played more aggressively with the Bears' receivers. They were playing tight press man coverage and trying to jam or reroute the Bears' receivers. The Packers used a similar approach.

With the short game taken away, Hoyer tried to go deep, but he lacks the skill set to play that type of game. He lacks the arm strength and accuracy to make deeper throws. After his injury, the Bears offense came to a total halt with Matt Barkley at quarterback. There's a reason this is his third team in the last three seasons -- he's not more than a third-string quarterback, if that.

In his first two starts, rookie running back Jordan Howard gained more than 200 combined yards from scrimmage. In the last two games, he has done little, because teams were playing tighter to the line of scrimmage. The creases that were there two weeks ago are now gone, and Howard lacks the elusiveness in tight to create when nothing is there.

It didn't help that guard Josh Sitton was out with an ankle injury and the Bears lost Kyle Long early in the second quarter. They're the Bears' two best offensive linemen and helped the inside run game. Eric Kush and Ted Larson were the replacements, and they just aren't good enough to be NFL starters.

On defense, the Bears made Aaron Rodgers work for his points, but in the end, he played perhaps his best game of the season. Without a true running back playing, the Packers still gained 103 yards on the ground. That was enough to help Rodgers get his first 300-yard game of the season.

By Rodgers' high standards, he was in a slump. He worked out of it with 326 yards passing and three touchdowns Thursday.

At times the young Bears corners played good football, but with Rodgers throwing the ball 56 times, they just weren't good enough to stop the Packers' passing game. De'Vante Busby, Cre'von LeBlanc and Jacoby Glenn have potential but just aren't there yet, and their inexperience showed. Against a quarterback like Rodgers, the defensive backfield needs to be flawless.

We also saw the Bears defense blitz more than they have in the past, and while they got Rodgers out of rhythm at times and flushed him from the pocket, they still weren't able to stop him.

The Bears played hard and tried to compete. They just don't have enough talent. Yes, there are key players out with injury, but the backups aren't good enough to win more than a few games in a given season.

If there is good news, the Bears will have a high draft pick next April, likely a top-five pick. They have to make that pick work as well as get three or four more good players in that draft.

Greg Gabriel is a former NFL talent evaluator who is an on-air contributor for 670 The Score. Follow him on Twitter @greggabe.