Chicago Bears: It’s now or never vs. the New Orleans Saints

It is rare to see a Super Bowl contender down their two best players. For the Chicago Bears, the time to pounce is now.

Drew Brees is a legend and sure-fire Hall of Fame quarterback. Alvin Kamara, when healthy, is one of the very best running backs in all of football. These Chicago Bears get their starting quarterback along with a couple other guys back from injury, and won’t be seeing either Brees or Kamara.

At 3-2, and Mitchell Trubisky set to return from a shoulder injury, the Bears have no choice but to win this game. It would be nice to see them come out and win in dominant fashion, but at the end of the day, the main concern should be the NFC North standings.

The Minnesota Vikings take on the Detroit Lions, which will only help the Bears in one way or another. Meanwhile, the Green Bay Packers should take care of the Oakland Raiders — should.

If the Bears don’t come away from this one at 4-2, the biggest takeaway won’t be the fact that they dropped further down in the divisional race. The biggest story will be that they lost to a team without Brees or Kamara — at Soldier Field.

The time is now for Trubisky. Many fans want to give him a pass for the first few weeks of the season, stating that he started slow last year, too. Fine, I’ll give him that. But, if he doesn’t play well against the Saints — and the Bears don’t win — there will be a lot of justified question marks surrounding both the quarterback and team overall.

Taylor Gabriel and Bilal Nichols are returning, whom are both constants on their respective side of the ball. The Bears will be without Akiem Hicks, though, meaning it’ll be Nichols and guys like Roy Robertson-Harris and Nick Williams who need to step up. The game against the Raiders was ugly due to the latter not happening.

Stopping Latavius Murray and putting pressure on Teddy Bridgewater is a must — and it should be feasible. Hicks is a big loss, but the Bears have plenty of talent up front still. This is a game where we should see Khalil Mack, Roquan Smith and Leonard Floyd dominate the line of scrimmage.

This is a statement game waiting to happen for the Bears. The stars have aligned in their favor. It’s all on their shoulders to come out and take what’s waiting for them — a much-needed victory following the bye week.

It’s now or never, folks. Let’s hope we see the Bears team we know and believe in.