Bears Rule Two Key Players Out for Thanksgiving Matchup vs. Lions

The Chicago Bears have a ginormous mountain to climb on Thanksgiving against the Detroit Lions. Thankfully, the Bears enter the game relatively healthy, only missing two players.

According to Kevin Fishbain of the Athletic, the Bears have ruled out safety Elijah Hicks and right guard Ryan Bates.

Hicks remains out with the ankle injury he suffered a few weeks ago, leaving Jonathan Owens to fill his spot again. Last week against the Vikings, Owens had good and bad moments.

His best moment occurred in the first quarter when he stripped the ball from Aaron Jones at the two-yard line, saving a touchdown. Owens' worst moment was failing to wrap up Jordan Addison, which resulted in a 69-yard catch and run.

While expecting Owens to come up with another heroic turnover against the Lions is unrealistic, hopefully, he isn't the cause of another explosive play on Thursday.

On the other hand, Bates will miss his second straight game with a concussion. Despite Bates missing the Vikings game, the offensive line played fairly well, only allowing three sacks.

On paper, this week is a more favorable matchup for the Bears' offensive line. The Lions have 25 sacks on the season and have struggled to generate pressure since Aidan Hutchinson went down.

That said, the Bears have faced bad defensive lines this season and made them look good, so Detroit might be able to reap the benefits. Hopefully, though, missing Bates won't massively impact the Bears' offensive line play against the Lions.

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