4th and Goal(s): Will Bears Go Out Like Turkeys on the Holiday?
Stuck in a losing streak, coach almost out the door, winless Lions feeling like they're due -- this is Thanksgiving with the Chicago Bears
Is there some kind of football game going on for Thanksgiving? I’m not sure…
Would it happen to be including the Chicago Bears? Ah, that would explain why I almost phased this upcoming game from my consciousness.
Since Sunday’s embarrassing loss to the Ravens, the movement to fire head coach Matt Nagy has been sweeping the Chicagoland area — Bulls games have featured the “fire Nagy” chant, even this reporter’s high school alma mater is getting in on the action (maybe let’s keep the coaches family out of this though?).
Bears fans have hit a boiling point with Nagy and they want him gone.
Shortly after all the chanting went viral, reports of ownership planning to do the fans bidding after the game against the Lions. Is Nagy’s fate sealed, soon we will find out, but if Nagy wants to at least strengthen his chances with this job or any future ones, then he must avoid another embarrassment Thursday on national TV. Here is how the Bears can get it done.
Focus in (as a team) - There are a lot of distractions around Halas Hall at the moment and their impact will most likely start to leak into the football operations on the field.
Also, if these reports are true of a firing after Thanksgiving, since we are not apart of the closed door discussions, players will get a whiff of these developments and it's easy for the team to pack it in knowing their head coach will be fired.
Even though these Lions are winless, they have played lots of teams tough and have played the Bears with a backup quarterback very tough on Thanksgiving before. Any lack of focus will increase the odds of the Bears losing in Detroit.
Who’s going to score? - These two teams are pretty evenly matched when it comes to scoring futility. Bears being 29th in the league and the Lions being 30th. Now a tie could happen, the Lions are already initiated in the tie game, but both sides don’t score and give up too many points.
Whats going to give in this clash? Can the Bears target a few match-ups that they can exploit offensively even though they really struggle at this? Whichever team that can put together the most efficient offensive results will likely win this game. Then again when two bad teams meet up its those massive blunders that tell the story of the game.
Battle of the backups? - Its official that the Bears will be going with quarterback Andy Dalton to face the Lions with quarterback Justin Fields nursing a ribs injury. The Lions are hoping to go with their usual starting quarterback Jared Goff, who has been dealing with an oblique injury and may not be able to go even though he was limited in the fake practice injury reports.
If Goff is unable to go at any point then the Lions will have to rely on back up Tim Boyle. It is very possible the Bears will have the best quarterback on the field regardless of the starter for the Lions. That being said, Dalton did some good things against the Ravens but was primarily mediocre, Dalton will have to play much better to lead the Bears to a victory.
Be smart with what works - Both the Lions and Bears should be looking to feature the running game. Lions running back D'Andre Swift has been killing it running the football lately and is the first Lions running back to get back to back 100 yard rushing games for the first time in 17 years.
Looking at the rankings of both teams, the one that standouts in a positive is how well the Bears have rushed the ball and are sixth in football. It stands to reason that these two teams would want to feature the run game to control the clock and open up the pass game.
The Bears have usually gone away with the run game far too often, this is a week to limit the play calls and pound away until the run game starts rolling.
Ryan Bukowiecki covers the Chicago Bears and professional football for WARR