The Chicago Bears won an impressive game over the Detroit Lions. Aside from a small spurt of points allowed after a bad decision by the Bears offense in the second quarter, the Bears completely dominated the Lions on both sides of the football. However, sitting at 5-8 every win brings just as many questions as answers. Which questions strongly emerged from the win?
3. Will the Chicago Bears stick with Justin Fields at quarterback
The Chicago Bears knew that the final seven games of the season would be huge for Justin Fields. It was the best set of playmakers and offensive line around him and the defense was trending up as well. Fields needed to play better, but he needed to win football games. Now, the Chicago Bears are 2-1 since his return. Fields may have played well enough for them to be 3-0 in that stretch.
While he is slowly winning the fan base back over, this is still going to be an insanely tough decision. Fields is not just playing the Bears out of draft position to replace him. They still have the Panthers pick which almost certainly will be first overall. Do the Bears really pass up a quarterback there? Fields needs to show a lot.
Two wins in a row are impressive, and his rushing totals have looked great. However, against Minnesota, he mainly threw screens and then had two costly fumbles. Against Detroit, Fields still was sacked three times, he still completed under 60% of his passes, and still had under 250 yards passing.
They won, though. His play to get the defense to jump, knowing he had a free play and unload a dart to D.J. Moore for a game-changing touchdown may have been the moment that changed his fate.
With four games left, 3-1. Which means 5-2 since his return would seal that he is the man. 2-2, would be a huge question, and anything less would show he is not progressing enough, and it is just small spurts.
2. Will the Chicago Bears stick with Matt Eberflus as head coach
Matt Eberflus may have a seat just as hot as Justin Fields, if not hotter. There were moments when it looked like the locker room and even the coaching staff was falling apart. The position group he coached coming up was the worst unit on the team and they could not win close games.
First, Eberflus has changed this defense over the last seven or eight games. It helped that he got pieces back, but the run defense is night and day from last year, and the secondary is coming together now that the pass rush has more juice.
More than that, the last two games show the team is still fighting for him. They finally put together a winning drive and won a close game. Now, they have two straight wins over the division.
Just like Justin Fields, three wins over the final four games would lock in his spot as the head coach next year. Can he do that?
1. What could have been with the 2023 Chicago Bears
As the Chicago Bears have played their best football over the last four weeks, it is hard not to wonder what could have been for this roster. Injuries to Braxton Jones, Teven Jenkins, and Nate Davis did not give the offensive line a chance to settle. The defense had new pieces and so many shuffling pieces early on in the season.
Every team has to play through injuries, but since the defense has mainly gotten healthy, they have been one of the best in the NFL. Games like Denver and Detroit where the Bears had fourth quarter leads loom large. Even against the Bucs and Saints, they had chances to win the game late and could not capitalize. If they win two of those four games, we are talking about a 7-6 team that is right in the mix and playing their best football
Winning out is supremely optimistic, but it is their only chance to extend this hot streak into the playoffs. The close losses, the injuries, the could have been and this team is so close to what many expected them to be before the season. This loss highlights that it easily could have happened. Will that factor into decisions with Justin Fields and Matt Eberflus, and how much?