Chicago Bears: The players simply want a fresh start
The Chicago Bears have lost their last six games by no accident. It’s evident the players themselves have given up on this season.
Professional NFL teams will never admit that their season is over, especially when there are four games left in the regular season. Unfortunately, actions speak louder than words, and no matter how the Chicago Bears spin their latest collapse on Sunday against the woeful Detroit Lions, their performance throughout the contest indicate what has become obvious to many fans and media pundits.
The once 5-1 Bears have been frauds all along. Their six-game losing streak simply proves that they’ve been bottom-dwellers in their division the entire time, despite what initially was written down on paper.
Blowing a 10-point fourth quarter lead against the Lions who fired both their General Manager and Head Coach less than a week ago is the lowest point thus far in the Bears’ season. The Bears were finally able to run the ball with some authority, and for most of the game, Mitchell Trubisky played like someone who belongs on an NFL roster next season, not in the XFL or selling car insurance.
Yet, the Bears’ defense decided to take the day off work, playing awful down the stretch outside of collecting a nice interception from quarterback Matthew Stafford early in the fourth quarter. Furthermore, the play-calling on offense abandoned the run-game when the team had the lead with under two-minutes left, opting to put the balance of the game in Trubisky’s shaky hands, which ultimately cost them the lead, and the win with one puzzling fumble of the ball.
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It’s obvious the Bears have a losing mentality. The players know their season is over. When their defense plays great, their offense goes cold. When their offense finally wakes up, their defense simply is taking a nap.
Clearly the players are not on the same page as their coaching staff. Case in point: other teams with worse records than the Bears are playing with more passion and intensity on both sides of the ball. Bad teams the Bears beat early in the season … the New York Giants for example, are gradually improving each week, while the Bears are only getting worse by the minute.
The Bears are not a team void of talent on both sides of the ball. They’re just playing well-below their capabilities. Blame the front office, the coaching staff, but most importantly, blame the players themselves. Many of them have been Pro Bowlers who are just not living up to their reputations.
To say many of the players who are under contract beyond this season are open to having a fresh start with a new regime in place feels like an understatement, given how the Bears’ public relations team coaches them up for interviews and post-game comments (often to soften up the pushback of another loss). Khalil Mack, Akiem Hicks, and Eddie Jackson, among others have battled and played through many nagging injuries since joining the Pace-Nagy era, only to see their efforts largely go to waste.
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Who can blame any player that wants a fresh start with their team when things have been going south for years? That fresh start will likely take place following this season.
It’s too bad the end of the season couldn’t be now. Because all we have as Bears fans is watching endless re-runs of games each week, regardless of who the opponent has been.