Bears hoping matchup with Lions leads to repeat success |
For the second season in a row, the Chicago Bears will be facing the Detroit Lions twice in November. Last season it was the Bears who came out victorious in both of those meetings as they in the middle of a five-game winning streak during that run. This season's team is much different as they will enter Sunday on a four-game skid, the longest under second-year Head Coach Matt Nagy.
Hoping that this will help the Bears remember what it feels like to get back on the winning side of things, Nagy believes his team can not only reflect on watching film from last season's matchups but can take plenty of benefits that they could put forward into this week’s preparation. “It was a really good game for us,” said Nagy via Nathan Smith Bears.com. “I think you saw there were some nice chunk plays in there. You know there was, I don’t know what our average yards per play was in that game, but we felt like the guys were really executing well and schematically we felt well.” It was at this point nearly one year ago to date where Trubisky had one of his best performances of his career. In the team's first matchup at Soldier Field, Trubisky threw for 355 yards and three touchdowns as the Bears cruised 34-22 for the win. Just two weeks later, on Thanksgiving, Chase Daniel got the call as he led the Bears to a Turkey Day win on the road 23-16. There was just something about the Lions that seemed to bring out the best in the Bears, which is something Nagy is hoping they can unlock yet again. “It’s hard to say exactly why we like what we like,” he said. “You go back, and you watch that game on tape, and you see, man, it’s pretty, we did a lot of good things in both of those games. But there’s other games as well last year that we did things on offense too, and that’s been like the biggest thing that you fight, trying to figure out that why.” It is no secret that the offense has been brutal all season long to put it lightly, and Nagy hasn’t shied away, acknowledging that the team has had no rhythm offensively this season. A lot of the focus has surrounded Trubisky and for a good reason, but Nagy knows that everyone should be held accountable for this season’s failure thus far. Neither Allen Robison nor Anthony Miller has been able to reach the levels they were at last season, which is something that needs to change in a hurry. “We’ve done it with the whole offense at times,” said Nagy. “Depending on what game it is, it’s nice when you’re able to put on a game from the previous year.” “Last year we put on Chiefs stuff because that’s what we had,” added Nagy. “Now this year we’re able to put on Bears stuff and that part’s good for these guys because they get to see things that they’ve done in other games. That has helped them.” A lot of the successes the Bears had offensively last season can be primarily attributed to the overall balance they played with, which is something that is lacking this season. Not only that, Chicago is not spreading the ball around as they did a season ago as Robinson has nearly as many receiving yards as Miller, Taylor Gabriel, and Trey Burton combined. When everyone is contributing, things seem to flow more freely, which is precisely what happened at times last season, especially against the Lions. “You saw that last year,” said Nagy. “There was a lot of distribution. That hasn’t happened this year. And that’s the part where we want to make sure--for one--if they’re going to take A-Rob away then you know, two other or three other guys are going to show up. That didn’t happen last week because we just didn’t have enough plays.” Another reason that Chicago may be struggling this season may be the expectations put on the second-year man in charge. Coming into the league last season, no one gave the Bears a chance, and they were able to surprise teams when they had minimal expectations at best. This season was a whole different animal as not only were they not sneaking up on people, but the expectation level was much higher than what Bears fans have been used to in recent seasons. He is not using that as an excuse for his team's 3-5 start and knows he deserves all the scrutiny he is currently receiving. “We’re not asking for anything different,” said Nagy. “We want that. If you don’t crave that pressure and you don’t crave that, then you shouldn’t be on this team. Knowing that coming into this year, we always talked about, let’s not get complacent. We can’t walk on that field and just be out there and be 12-4 again. Things are going to happen. Adversity is going to strike. It struck.” It is now or never for the Bears as they really need to go 7-1 or at worst 6-2 over their final eight games to have a shot at postseason play. Nagy wants to look at this next stretch of games as a bit of a proving test to see if this team can put something together down the stretch. “So now the now is how are we going to react?” said Nagy. “Because at the end of this thing, it’s going to reveal a lot about a lot of people. I think that’s what I am going to take away from this. You can’t worry about Week 15 or 16 right now. You have to worry about the Detroit Lions.”
