Monday Night Massacre: Vikings Sleepwalk Past Bears 31-12

But what did Poles expect? The highest-paid offensive lineman on the team, Nate Davis, is no longer rostered because, frankly, the guy couldn't care less about playing football. The rest of the line is comprised of journeymen free agents and late-round draft picks. The only two average to above-average players, Teven Jenkins and Darnell Wright, were acquired via high draft picks, and they're unsurprisingly leagues more talented than their cohorts across the line.

The aforementioned sack of Williams that caused the fumble was his 57th on the season, passing former Browns quarterback Tim Couch for third-most in NFL history for a rookie. He ended the game getting sacked twice, pushing that number to 58 on the season.

Williams isn't without fault; he holds the ball too long. However, that's been an issue since his USC days and something that the team had to have forecasted before drafting him first overall in April. Poles did little to address the offensive line in the offseason, primarily opting for half-measures he was hoping would result in players having career years versus playing closer to what their tape suggests they are.

Poles has a penchant for plucking mediocre offensive linemen who shone brightly when surrounded by superior talent. Lucas Patrick is an example, and Ryan Bates is likely another example. Coleman Shelton played next to a stud guard in Kevin Dotson with the Los Angeles Rams. These players aren't meant to anchor an offensive line; they're meant to go along for the ride and not be liabilities. On a team like the Bears, who are bereft of any blue-chip talent on their line, their weaknesses get exposed tenfold.

One could bemoan the offensive line until blue in the face, but it's a fool's errand at this point. If Amegadjie wasn't whiffing on his assignment, players like Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze were dropping passes. Williams still struggles with accuracy downfield, and D'Andre Swift continues to be a shifty back without any capabilities of breaking a simple arm tackle.

For whatever reason, Cole Kmet continues to be an afterthought in this offense despite having the potential to be a big-bodied security blanket for Williams. The Bears schemed up an easy pass to Kmet in the first half that resulted in a 14-yard pickup to move the chains, and then, like Hugh Jackman's character in "The Prestige," he vanished for the rest of the game.

The offense has its woes, but the defense's downfall has been even more staggering as the season reaches its conclusion. No play was more indicative of the Poles/Matt Eberflus era than the Vikings picking up a first down on third and 17 while Jonathan Owens postured and danced after finally making the tackle.

Or maybe it was Tyrique Stevenson, who's been the poster child of awful decision-making, mocking the SKOL chant after logging an interception while the Bears were down 10. The only problem? The interception was on fourth down and actually cost the Bears seven yards.

The Fish Rots from the Head

Under Ryan Poles' leadership, the Bears have gone 14-33, yet he's constructed a roster full of players who behave as if the record were reversed. There's a lack of cohesion, of unity, among the players, and this falls squarely on Poles' inability to bring aboard true leaders within the locker room. Keep in mind, that this team has a baffling eight team captains. Eight! The Bears would try to sell you on the idea that there are just that many guys who exude a captain's attitude, but we know better. If you have eight captains, you really have none.

After all, this is a locker room that petitioned hard to have its head coach fired. Then, when the Bears went against their organizational nature and acquiesced the players, they came out and got boat-raced by the San Francisco 49ers.

At one point in the broadcast, when the Vikings were coasting to their seventh win in a row, the camera shifted from showcasing Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to Poles. The body language was rightfully inversed between the two, but it was a reminder to Vikings fans of what could have been. The Vikings wanted Ryan Poles, and for whatever reason, Poles chose the Bears over the Vikings, likely due to the fact that the Vikings, on paper, had a worse outlook than the Bears long-term.

Adofo-Mensah hired Kevin O'Connell after Poles chose Matt Eberflus. In the same amount of time with the team, Adofo-Mensah has gone 31-16 while retooling the bloated roster he inherited, fixing the Vikings' once porous offensive line, and seamlessly transitioning from the Kirk Cousins era.

For Bears fans, it's another reminder of the endless cycle of incompetence that's plagued this team since the McCaskeys took over, and a fear that there is no end in sight.