The Chicago Bears come off their bye week with a home game against the Saints. Can they slow down Teddy Bridgewater and company to get back in the win column?
Most teams would prefer their bye week to be a little later into the season, but for the Chicago Bears, theirs happened at about the perfect time. Fresh off an upset loss to the suddenly pesky Raiders in London, Chicago needed some time to regroup and get healthy.
Mitchell Trubisky is back practicing but is still unsure if he will play along with Taylor Gabriel who had a huge first half against the Redskins before suffering a concussion. The Chicago Bears will be without Akiem Hicks, though, who suffered an elbow injury early in the game against the Raiders. That is a big loss for the Bears on the defensive side of the ball as Hicks is heading to injured reserve.
Having Trubisky back should be an upgrade over Chase Daniel but at times he hasn’t played well. But he was coming off a great game against the Redskins before getting hurt early in the Vikings game. The Chicago Bears did seem to miss him in London, but then again the whole team was sleepwalking through three-quarters of that game.
The Bears need to bounce back and get a big win on Sunday against the Saints. It is the first game of a stretch of games that looked brutal to start the season. But now with the Chargers, Eagles, and Rams all struggling lately, it could be the start of a season-defining stretch for Chicago. The NFC is pretty top-loaded this year and if the Bears don’t win their division it will be tough to get a wildcard.
Seattle and the 49’ers are both playing great out West and the Panthers are suddenly red hot without Cam Newton. So the Chicago Bears must take advantage of the teams struggling right now and collect wins.
So what do they need to do to beat the Saints? We take a look at three keys to the game for the Bears.