No Bears Pity Party with Playoffs Still Possible
If the world is collapsing around the Bears, they refuse to acknowledge it.
From coach Matt Nagy to players, there is at least talk about how they'll continue to fight after a 34-30 come-from-ahead loss to the Detroit Lions, specifically.
They're trying to avoid a mental letdown from being a 12-4 division winner two years ago to struggling below .500 with a six-game losing streak.
"And so a big wave has hit us, right?" coach Matt Nagy said. "It's hit us and we got to make sure that we're able to be able to see the sunshine after the wave and be able to fight through that and stay together and that’s the message that we have.
"And as tough as it is and as much as it stinks and all that stuff, I'm just proud of our fighters."
Losing is as much life in the NFL as winning, several players maintained. They think they can bounce back from even a loss so devastating.
"The football man it, I mean sometimes it just doesn't go the way you want it, man," Cordarrelle Patterson said. "I know me and all these guys in here, we didn't picture this, you know, in camp. We pictured our record and everything would be way better than this.
"But like I say, man, sometimes life comes at you fast and you either get hit in your mouth and give up or you just keep fighting, and I know these guys are going to keep fighting each and every week and that's what we do."
Some players on the team have been through worse even than this current six-games slide.
Allen Robinson was one who experienced nine straight losses with Jacksonville in 2016.
"That was one of the toughest stints of my career," Robinson said. "I feel like it was a lot of stuff that was going on around me that I didn't really have too much control of what I was kind of affected by. I let that affect me, I let that weigh me down.
"And after that season I said I'll never let that happen again. I don't care what goes on around me, I don't care what else is going on, I'm going to make sure I'm improving myself no matter what the circumstances are, no matter what the case is."
Mitchell Trubisky said players naturally roll with the punches in the NFL anyway, and then pointed specifically to the white elephant in the room: COVID-19.
"You have to embrace each year as its own and really each game," Trubisky said. "Anything can happen in the NFL. You have rosters changing all the time, coaches changing all the time. You have injuries and now this year we're dealing with the pandemic.
"There's just a lot going on and you've just gotta do your job to the best of your ability and embrace each opportunity and look at each opportunity for what it is because it's gonna be different than everything else."
Even with lists of potential coaching candidates for the Bears flowing regularly from critics in the media and on social media, Nagy refuses to let the team wallow self pity.
Falling from 5-1 and leading the division to being tied for last still doesn't mean a season's end. There is still a chance for the playoffs if they start the turnaround with a win, he said.
"I'm going to stay positive all the time," Nagy said. "I promise you: positive, positive, positive. And that's the only thing that I know."
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
