Hugely disagree with that; we were expecting/hoping for a mediocre defense. The latter isn't what anyone (I hope) was expecting; they are literally dependent on the turnover and have absolutely no other way of stopping the opposing team. But one would assume the offensive talent is still there, unless we're just assuming they've forgotten how to play. The defense was garbage last year and has only gotten worse; that's far more concerning to me because there's not even a baseline of tolerable that we can hope they can back to since for a season and a half now they've shown nothing. An offense simply isn't going to carry a team if you've effectively abandoned half of the team based on the product you've put on the field. Well you were wrong hoping for mediocre. They brought back the same [expletive] LB corps. Got older at S and only improved at nickel with a rookie. With injuries, both units that were among the worst in the league last year got worse. The hope was the DL would hide the deficiencies, but they haven't, though the Bears have been solid against the run for the most part. They have NOT gotten worse. And that's pretty much how the game works now. Nobody can stop any good offense. You hope for a big mistake on the offense (turnover, blown protection for sack, penalty). And there are examples of teams who have basically ignored half the ball and been successful. Last year's Colts, SB winning Saints, etc. Their offenses have been elite though, and the Bears aren't there despite having all the tools to be there and some precedence for it to have happened this year by now. The whole damn offseason was dedicated to improving the defense. How can it be wrong to hope for improvement to mediocre? That was the entire plan!