Bears Can't Get Ahead of Themselves

It's becoming a matter of patience.

Each week the Bears take on preparation for a new opponent, each week there are expectations or even promises of success, of something different. And each week there is disappointment.

There have been 13 straight games like this for the Bears and everyone has been as patient as possible. Players are patient, ownership and management is patient, even fans have been patient.

Even if coach Matt Eberflus likes to put last year's 10 straight losses in the past, it can't really be done because about half his starters or key players had parts in the beginning of the 10-game losing streak. Those who just joined in the fun this year quickly found they'd climbed on board a vehicle without propultion.

A resurrection of this inert object is promised each week and this week there does appear to be a better chance of it.

The opposition is more conducive to said turnaround, because teams that lose 70-20 like Denver obviously have flaws. No one would have expected a turnaround against Kansas City. However, the Broncos have issues just like the Bears.

The thing is, Denver has found ways to activate its offense under new coach Sean Payton. Leakage occurs only on one side of the ball, not everywhere like with Eberflus and the Bears.

Eberflus says he still remembers what it was like to win.

"When you win, you feel great," he said. "I would say, yeah, it really does. We've been fighting for a long time. We've been doing this and we've got to do a great job of coming together. That was my message for the team this week.

"It's about through adversity you have to come together and you have to do different. So our focus was different, was we focused more on technique, more on fundamentals. We tried to highlight that like we do every week, but we really put an emphasis on it, and we've honed in our focus on that, our single focus. The guys did a nice job with that."

We've Heard It All Before

Fundamentals, basics, it's all been as repetitive as their losing.

"Definitely have to start winning now," wide receiver Darnell Mooney said. "It's definitely a frustrating thing to continue to keep losing."

On an individual basis, players carry this with them and it becomes more and more difficult as it continues. It is easy to see a team just forget how to win when losing happens so often.

"It's, moreso for myself, I worked so hard to come back from injury and get at a good spot," Mooney said. "I didn't come back to lose. I'm not sitting here like, 'All right, here's what it is.' That's not what it is. I want to win. That's what we've gotta do."

The carrot on the stick for many players is a win can trigger a winning streak.

"I see guys on all three phases still fighting," defensive end Yannick Ngakoue said. "We weren't able to get a win these last three weeks but at the end of the day, it’s football. We've seen teams go 0-3 to going to the playoffs."

Playoffs are probably taking it one step beyond. It's a real stretch of the imagination and the Bears need to be focused on smaller prey, like making the next play work, avoiding a presnap penalty, keeping the quarterback from being hit, not letting defenders stand wide open in the secondary and finding the open wide receiver.

Since the Super Bowl era began with the 1966 season, only three teams have made the postseason after an 0-3 start. So it's best for the Bears to zero in on ending their losing streak and leave grandiose plans as vague possiblities somewhere down the road once they've gone 1-0 for a week.

They also need to quit worrying about the game after this one so much.

Much talk at Halas Hall this week has centered on the quick turnaround and road trip to Washington next Thursday.

"I look at it as a good opportunity to quickly course-correct, I guess you could say, and you go into that mini-bye week feeling a little bit better about things and then you kick it off that kind of second quarter of the season with a divisional opponent against Minnesota," tight end Cole Kmet said.

The trouble with that thinking is if they lose both of the next two, then they're going into the Minnesota game 0-5 and no team has ever made the playoffs after an 0-5 start anyway. The Chargers made it in 1992 after an 0-4 start but 0-5 is the cutoff for those silly enough to believe it's possible to kick-start seasons into overdrive.

At 0-5 the tank-a-thon officially begins.

The Bears, themselves, have made the playoffs after 3-5 starts twice. But three is more than zero, which is their win total now for the last 13 games.

One Win Is Necessary to Start Streak

Eberflus even talked about getting things turned around and headed to the playoffs. He remembers starting 1-5 with the Indianapolis Colts and making the playoffs in 2018.

"That 1-5 start, it was hard," he said. "It was a battle. But ultimately it came down to the players and coaches in that locker room coming together as a group and being determined to not be letting each other down on Sunday, because we cared so much about each other, and that's what that's gonna be."

It sounds good but the one aspect left out of the equation is how fans feel who have been so patient, waiting back before Eberflus' regime back through 2019 since they had a winning season.

Again, that 1-5 Colts team at least had one victory before making its run.

Right now just a win somewhere, at some point, for these Bears must suffice.

"I would just say this: I understand the passion of the Chicago Bears fans, and I understand the passion of our football team," Eberflus said. "And we all want a victory, and I think it’s important that we fight for 60 minutes to get that done. That's what I would say. It's all about the execution. It's all about the execution and about us being able to fight and be determined and have the stamina to push through this adversity. And we're going to have to do it together."

The more they keep losing, the more likely when it does finally occur there will be a lot less "we" who even care because patience is wearing thin.

They'll find this out from Soldier Field fans Sunday if things take a turn for the worse at some point.

Patience is great but has an expiration date.

The Line: Broncos by 3 1/2 (over/under 46).

BearDigest Record: 2-1 Straight Up, 2-1 vs. Spread, 1-2 over/under.

BearDigest Prediction: Broncos 24, Bears 20

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven