Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2016 6:35:40 GMT -6
For winless Bears taking on beatable Lions at home, it's a matter of pride
David Haugh Contact Reporter Chicago Tribune
For a second, forget who's gimpy or grumpy and who's in or out for Sunday's matchup between the Bears and Lions at Soldier Field.
Ignore names and numbers or point spreads and series trends. Focus on the one thing impossible to measure when analyzing any NFL game and how that might affect the outcome.
At some point, as the losses and frustration mount, pride must factor in for the winless Bears, who are running out of beatable opponents before their midseason off week. The 1-2 Lions represent the latest, arriving with Las Vegas and history on their side but no longer wide receiver Calvin Johnson.
The last time the Bears beat the Lions, Lovie Smith was coaching them, Donald Trump was running "The Apprentice'' and 101 was the number of games the Cubs had lost the previous regular season — not won. It was Dec. 30, 2012, and Earl Bennett led the Bears in receiving in a 26-24 victory at Ford Field. Linebacker Nick Roach topped all Bears tacklers.
Of the 46 Bears expected to be active Sunday, only Alshon Jeffery played in that game five seasons ago. A day later, former general manager Phil Emery followed his gut and fired Smith after going 10-6, thinking things would get better at Halas Hall. In the understatement of the millennium, they didn't.
Instead, the Bears plummeted to the bottom of the NFC North, where they got way too comfortable. Since that day in Detroit, the Bears have gone 19-32 compared to the Lions' 26-25 record. The Bears' first 0-4 start since 2000 looms. When the Lions used to come to town, they were considered no more dangerous than the bronzed sculptures outside the Art Institute on Michigan Avenue — Smith's Bears had beaten them nine of the last 10 times they met.
But now the Lions stand within four quarters of winning for an unprecedented seventh straight time in a series that started 86 years ago. Has a Detroit team enjoyed this kind of supremacy over a Chicago sports team since the late 1980s when the Bad-Boy Pistons bullied the Bulls?
If avoiding that ignominy isn't enough to muster motivation and approach Week 4 with an increased sense of urgency, consider the Bears also will take the field knowing another defeat would make seven consecutive at home — a franchise record.
Attention, fed-up season-ticket holders: Bring your brown paper bags just in case. Home-field advantage has turned into home-field adversity under coach John Fox. To truly comprehend what it would mean to be the worst home team ever, given how many bad Bears teams have labored on the lakefront, might break this group's spirit with 12 games left.
"We're improving,'' Fox said, perhaps trying to convince himself too. "I know the end result, which is the most critical one, and that's wins. We haven't gotten there yet.''
To get there against the NFL's fourth-ranked offense, led by hot quarterback Matthew Stafford, the Bears will have to stop the run and rush the passer better than they have all season. Stafford quickly developed chemistry with wide receiver Marvin Jones, Johnson's replacement, who leads the NFL in receiving. While the Bears replaced playmakers such as Matt Forte and Martellus Bennett with relative novices, the Lions found a productive veteran to fill the void a future Hall of Famer left.
Once upon a time, in 2014, the Bears drafted cornerback Kyle Fuller in the first round to combat explosive receivers in the division like Johnson, and now Jones, but Fuller mysteriously went on injured reserve this week. Coaches soured on Fuller, but the Bears' lack of depth at the position means the latest development will hurt. Fuller's recovery complications combined with outside linebacker Pernell McPhee's extended absence after a setback with his injured knee raised legitimate questions about the rehabilitative process nobody in the organization has fully answered.
Without at least four injured defensive players who were projected starters in preseason, the onus falls on the Bears offense to put together its best game so far.
Backup quarterback Brian Hoyer, likely starting again for the injured Jay Cutler, plays with the kind of moxie the Bears need on a day intangibles matter. The offense must establish the run behind exciting rookie running back Jordan Howard, convert third downs with the short passing game Hoyer can execute and take isolated shots downfield with either Jeffery or Kevin White.
But no matter how well Hoyer plays, or what Fox implies, remember the job belongs to Cutler once his thumb heals. The local celebration of Hoyer's 30 completions against the Cowboys overlooked the fact that much of his production came after the Bears trailed 17-0.
Fox opening the door to Hoyer replacing a healthy Cutler — "I don't think there are any givens,'' he said earlier in the week — defied logic. An offense lacking playmakers doesn't bench one of its most explosive players, and starting quarterbacks don't lose their jobs to injury. A serviceable veteran like Hoyer understands his role.
And a Bears team as desperate for success knows it cannot afford to come out flat with so much futility threatening to leave a mark.
dhaugh@chicagotribune.com
David Haugh Contact Reporter Chicago Tribune
For a second, forget who's gimpy or grumpy and who's in or out for Sunday's matchup between the Bears and Lions at Soldier Field.
Ignore names and numbers or point spreads and series trends. Focus on the one thing impossible to measure when analyzing any NFL game and how that might affect the outcome.
At some point, as the losses and frustration mount, pride must factor in for the winless Bears, who are running out of beatable opponents before their midseason off week. The 1-2 Lions represent the latest, arriving with Las Vegas and history on their side but no longer wide receiver Calvin Johnson.
The last time the Bears beat the Lions, Lovie Smith was coaching them, Donald Trump was running "The Apprentice'' and 101 was the number of games the Cubs had lost the previous regular season — not won. It was Dec. 30, 2012, and Earl Bennett led the Bears in receiving in a 26-24 victory at Ford Field. Linebacker Nick Roach topped all Bears tacklers.
Of the 46 Bears expected to be active Sunday, only Alshon Jeffery played in that game five seasons ago. A day later, former general manager Phil Emery followed his gut and fired Smith after going 10-6, thinking things would get better at Halas Hall. In the understatement of the millennium, they didn't.
Instead, the Bears plummeted to the bottom of the NFC North, where they got way too comfortable. Since that day in Detroit, the Bears have gone 19-32 compared to the Lions' 26-25 record. The Bears' first 0-4 start since 2000 looms. When the Lions used to come to town, they were considered no more dangerous than the bronzed sculptures outside the Art Institute on Michigan Avenue — Smith's Bears had beaten them nine of the last 10 times they met.
But now the Lions stand within four quarters of winning for an unprecedented seventh straight time in a series that started 86 years ago. Has a Detroit team enjoyed this kind of supremacy over a Chicago sports team since the late 1980s when the Bad-Boy Pistons bullied the Bulls?
If avoiding that ignominy isn't enough to muster motivation and approach Week 4 with an increased sense of urgency, consider the Bears also will take the field knowing another defeat would make seven consecutive at home — a franchise record.
Attention, fed-up season-ticket holders: Bring your brown paper bags just in case. Home-field advantage has turned into home-field adversity under coach John Fox. To truly comprehend what it would mean to be the worst home team ever, given how many bad Bears teams have labored on the lakefront, might break this group's spirit with 12 games left.
"We're improving,'' Fox said, perhaps trying to convince himself too. "I know the end result, which is the most critical one, and that's wins. We haven't gotten there yet.''
To get there against the NFL's fourth-ranked offense, led by hot quarterback Matthew Stafford, the Bears will have to stop the run and rush the passer better than they have all season. Stafford quickly developed chemistry with wide receiver Marvin Jones, Johnson's replacement, who leads the NFL in receiving. While the Bears replaced playmakers such as Matt Forte and Martellus Bennett with relative novices, the Lions found a productive veteran to fill the void a future Hall of Famer left.
Once upon a time, in 2014, the Bears drafted cornerback Kyle Fuller in the first round to combat explosive receivers in the division like Johnson, and now Jones, but Fuller mysteriously went on injured reserve this week. Coaches soured on Fuller, but the Bears' lack of depth at the position means the latest development will hurt. Fuller's recovery complications combined with outside linebacker Pernell McPhee's extended absence after a setback with his injured knee raised legitimate questions about the rehabilitative process nobody in the organization has fully answered.
Without at least four injured defensive players who were projected starters in preseason, the onus falls on the Bears offense to put together its best game so far.
Backup quarterback Brian Hoyer, likely starting again for the injured Jay Cutler, plays with the kind of moxie the Bears need on a day intangibles matter. The offense must establish the run behind exciting rookie running back Jordan Howard, convert third downs with the short passing game Hoyer can execute and take isolated shots downfield with either Jeffery or Kevin White.
But no matter how well Hoyer plays, or what Fox implies, remember the job belongs to Cutler once his thumb heals. The local celebration of Hoyer's 30 completions against the Cowboys overlooked the fact that much of his production came after the Bears trailed 17-0.
Fox opening the door to Hoyer replacing a healthy Cutler — "I don't think there are any givens,'' he said earlier in the week — defied logic. An offense lacking playmakers doesn't bench one of its most explosive players, and starting quarterbacks don't lose their jobs to injury. A serviceable veteran like Hoyer understands his role.
And a Bears team as desperate for success knows it cannot afford to come out flat with so much futility threatening to leave a mark.
dhaugh@chicagotribune.com
