Bears 2018 regular season schedule leaked

Damnit!!! early November in Buffalo could suck HUGE!!

www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/ct-spt-bears-schedule-analysis-matt-nagy-20180420-story.html

Analysis: What does 2018 Bears schedule mean for Matt Nagy & Co.?
Bears 2018 season: Tribune writers make their week-by-week picks

Brad Biggs, Rich Campbell, David Haugh, Colleen Kane and Dan Wiederer
Chicago Tribune

Time to free up your fall Sundays. And a Monday night. And to make your Thanksgiving Day plans. The NFL released the regular-season schedule Thursday night, offering new coach Matt Nagy and the Bears a detailed look at their path through the 2018 season.

So how difficult is the Bears’ road? What are the most intriguing pockets on the schedule? What early conclusions can be drawn, even before the draft next week? Members of the Tribune’s Bears coverage team weigh in on what intrigues them most.

Brad Biggs

The Bears were in a tough position last year, made worse by a grueling schedule to start the season that more or less doomed John Fox and his staff before the midway point. Facing three 2016 playoff teams in the first four weeks sent them to a 1-3 start they didn’t recover from.

As far as April predictions go, Matt Nagy’s new staff has a more appealing start to the schedule. That’s not to say a Week 1 trip to Lambeau Field is a treat as the Packers begin the celebration of their 100th season against their rivals, but the Bears don’t face a 2017 playoff team until Tom Brady and the Patriots visit Soldier Field in Week 7 on Oct. 21.

That should give Nagy’s young team a chance to build a little confidence as it finds the way. Interestingly, the NFL had enough faith in the Bears to give them prime-time television slots in the first two weeks -- at the Packers and then home against the Seahawks on “Monday Night Football” in Week 2 -- but those are the only night games on the slate. Will TV executives be wishing the Bears had more appearances under the lights before the season ends, or wonder what thinking went into giving them two right out of the chute?

What matters most on the schedule are the division games. The Bears have lost nine straight against NFC North foes, and before they start talking about contending, they need to find a way out of the division basement. So circle the NFC North games and zero in on them. The Bears will find out how they stack up against the Packers from the get-go.

Rich Campbell

Step right up, Matt Nagy. For your head coaching debut, how about Lambeau Field in prime time as the restructured Packers ramp up their 16-month-long “100 Seasons” celebration?

That’s a tough one to start. But overall, the first half of the schedule appears relatively favorable for a team that will need a sizable margin for error in the early stages of a new offense under a first-time head coach. The Patriots and Bills are the only 2017 playoff teams the Bears encounter through the halfway point.

That’s not to say the Seahawks, Dolphins or Cardinals couldn’t jump up and bite them, but there are obvious opportunities for the Bears to generate momentum and reverse the streak of awful starts they had under John Fox.

Doing so will be critical, too, because the home stretch seems uphill. Starting Nov. 11, the Bears play three NFC North games in a 12-day span: two against the Lions, sandwiched around the Vikings. They have their rematch against the Packers, a home game against the balanced Rams and the familiar season finale against the Vikings. That’s five division games in the second half, and they were winless in those last year. But the Bears can at least hope for meaningful football in December.

David Haugh

Expect Year 1 of the Matt Nagy era to peak early, as in Week 1, against the Packers, at Lambeau Field, on national television.

Wow.

Nothing announces a culture change quite like beating your rivals in front of America. And the element of surprise favors the new-look Bears, who get the Packers in Green Bay at the best possible time. Who knows what quarterback Aaron Rodgers will be passive-aggressively sniffling about by the end of training camp? Who knows how well tight end Jimmy Graham will fit into an offense that will be without Bears killer Jordy Nelson? Who knows if the Packers defense will be any good without coordinator Dom Capers? Strange things happen on opening nights, and the schedule offers the Bears an opportunity to build confidence from the get-go.

Reality will return soon enough. Once the adrenaline wears off, the Seahawks and Cardinals likely will remind the Bears how far they have to go. They can beat both teams from Florida, back to back around the open date, but Tom Brady will give everyone snapping pictures and streaming video something to remember when the Patriots visit Soldier Field.

Expect the Bears to improve steadily as the season progresses, sweeping the New York teams and splitting with the Lions -- Thanksgiving Day offers another great chance for a national three-hour commercial for Nagy’s offense.

The fourth quarter of the season, however, threatens to be the longest for the Bears. Can a new coach feel good about progress when he ends his first season on a four-game losing streak? Something tells me that’s the question we’ll be asking in the U.S. Bank Stadium press box after the Vikings beat the Bears in Week 17.

Colleen Kane

It seems fitting Mitch Trubisky’s first start at Lambeau Field and Matt Nagy’s first game as Bears coach coincide in Week 1. The Bears’ futility in recent years is well-represented in their 14 losses to the Packers in the last 16 meetings.

Fixing that is a good place to start a new era.

Even with two tough opening games against the Packers and Seahawks, there’s potential for the Bears to reach the midpoint of the season with a winning record. Maintaining that over the second half, however, looks more difficult, even if Trubisky has settled in.

The Bears must face the defending NFC North champion Vikings and new quarterback Kirk Cousins twice in the final seven weeks. They’ll host a Rams team on the rise in the final month. The Packers a second time, the Jimmy Garoppolo-led 49ers and a Giants team looking for a big boost from next week’s draft probably won’t be pushovers either.

The Bears’ first winning record since 2012 very well could remain out of reach.

Dan Wiederer

This was Jordan Howard’s early rundown of new Bears coach Matt Nagy: “He’s a fiery guy. He’s hungry. He’s ready to win now. We’re not in a rebuild mode. He wants to win now.” That came Tuesday, just before the Bears’ first practice under Nagy. Later that day, the coach himself reiterated his message to players.

“I want them to know we want to win now,” Nagy said. “So you’ve got to understand what it takes to get there.”

The “win-now” mentality is the proper one to set and should compel the Bears to get their brightest red marker out and circle Sept. 9 on the calendar. That’s the curtain raiser on the Nagy era, a Week 1 game at Lambeau Field.

It’s not just that it’s a prime-time season opener against the Packers. That, in itself, should have Nagy’s energy spiking. But he also should be reminded that the Bears haven’t won a season opener since 2013. He should be aware his predecessor, John Fox, went 1-9 in September games. Nagy should know the Bears are an abysmal 6-24 in NFC North games over the last half-decade.

Winning now will require a reversal of all of those trends. Winning now demands a fast start and much greater success in division games. Winning now means winning as soon as possible. Like Sept. 9. Week 1.