Bears: the 2020 schedule is out – here are early predictions for Chicago
By Ryan Fedrau
The Chicago Bears missing the playoffs after a year of promise is quite disappointing. Even though this year wasn’t their best, here’s how Chicago can fix things in 2020.
The Chicago Bears will finish 9-7 at best. The loss to the Green Bay Packers last Sunday sealed their fate and ended their season. Last season around this time, the Bears ended the Packers season. I guess what comes around goes around. Hopefully, that will go back around until benefit the Bears in 2020.
The biggest benefit of the Bears finishing in third place is their schedule next year. They will be playing a third-place schedule. That means they’ll be taking on the third-place team in each NFC division. They also, along with the whole NFC North, will play the NFC and AFC South in 2020.
Those games include games against New Orleans, Atlanta, Carolina, and Tampa Bay. The last time the Bears played Tampa Bay, Mitchell Trubisky lit up the stat sheet throwing six passing-touchdowns. For the AFC South, that includes games against Jacksonville, Houston, Tennessee, and Indianapolis.
Chicago will play their three division opponents twice. Hopefully, they don’t open up against the Packers again Week 1. I am okay having an easier game to open up the offense from Week 1. A game against Jacksonville, Carolina, or one of the third-place teams in the NFC would be fine. Chances are those third places team will be the Giants and the Rams. The other third-place team is involved with the NFC division the Bears will play.
The top two seeds in the AFC South and NFC South will be hosted by the Bears since they finished worse than them. The schedule will be a lot easier than this season. The Rams again, this time hopefully in Chicago will be an interesting matchup.
Both teams have similar quarterbacks in Trubisky and Jared Goff. Both teams have outstanding defenses. They both have young head coaches that have won Coach of the Year. The most important thing is how they always play each other tough. The games are always exciting. Just this time, the Bears need to win just how they did in 2018.
Going into 2020, the Bears won’t be favorites to do much. Their schedule will be a lot easier than it was in 2019. If the Bears can start the season off with a win against whoever they play, there will be a lot of positive things coming out of their locker room.
The Bears also need to find a way to benefit off of bye-weeks and time off. Under Matt Nagy, they haven’t won a single game they’ve had more than a week to prepare for. Three of those games were against the Packers. That needs to change in 2020 if they want to be more successful.
Nagy and Trubisky have to start off 2020 fresh and get on the right page. The offense cannot take half of a season to get going. It needs to get done faster. Trubisky has a lot of potential and shows a lot of improvement and flashes of greatness. He is learning from situational football. The team and the coaching staff fully believe in Trubisky. It is time for the fans to believe in him as well.
Looking at the schedule right now, the Bears can go at least 11-5. That might or might not be good enough to win the NFC North. The smart thing to do is to bet the total wins for the Bears. I would guess the odds-makers would give the Bears a total of 8.5 wins in 2020, depending on how the next two games play out. That is a bet that everyone should take the over on.
Next. Bears: Trubisky, Nagy will improve after loss to the Packers. dark
I’ll leave you all with this. The Bears have one of the toughest divisions in football. The Packers and Vikings will always be in the playoff hunt. They will have to steal a victory against the Packers in 2020. They cannot go 0-2 against the Packers and expect to win the division.