Preventative Measures: Bears Go All Out to Avoid Losing Streak
On Oct. 20 last year, the New Orleans Saints added on to a stunning Chicago Bears loss against the Raiders, turning it into a losing streak.
It eventually became a season-killing losing streak of four games.
The Saints dominated the Bears at Soldier Field 36-25 and didn't even have injured quarterback Drew Brees or running back Alvin Kamara.
After Monday night's deflating defeat in Los Angeles, last year's disaster appears ripe for a repeat. The Bears (5-2) can prevent this by beating the Saints (4-2), except this time with Kamara and Brees but not their top two wide receivers.
"So when we had that four-game losing streak last year that was really hard, you know, that's challenging," Bears coach Matt Nagy said.
Nagy is big on learning from the past and hopes they've done everything they can this week in practice to prevent it.
"So one of the things you learn from that kind of stuff is, and I've been through them before on other teams, is trying not to change," Nagy said. "It sounds crazy, but trying not to change your daily habits because when you start changing things then it's like you're chasing the cat's tail and you're all over the place and you never get any consistency rather than just fighting through it.
"And that's kind of been the mantra that we've had as a team is continue to just stay persistent and keep fighting and stay together."
What they can't afford is repeating what they have been doing on the field. If they average 44 yards rushing like they've done the past four games, or turn the ball over on two Nick Foles interceptions and tackle poorly like Monday they can very easily make one loss into four straight or more.
An inept offense now ranked 29th is one thing, but it now seems to be wearing on the defense. They'll need every bit of their normal defensive prowess even with the Saints down receiver Michael Thomas due to injury and receiver Emmanuel Sanders due to COVID-19.
That's because Kamara acts both as the top Saints receiver and runner.
"It's still a long season but we know the mindset that we have," linebacker Danny Trevathan said. "It can be better. We know little things, it comes down to the run fit everybody trusting one another, and just being one across. We know we can get that stamped out.
"Like what we've been doing this week is trusting one another and taking care of business, trusting in the plan, knowing where to fit in and just bringing him down."
This still doesn't address the major issue the Bears face. That would be how they can run the ball against the fourth-ranked Saints rushing defense when their last four efforts were 28, 35, 63 and 49 yards. And now they are trying to do it without a second starting offensive lineman due to center Cody Whitehair's calf injury.
"The biggest thing with an offense is keeping the defense off-balance," Foles said. "That's the greatest tool for any offensive line is when the D-line doesn’t know what's happening and the linebackers don't know what's happening.
"And then we can keep them off-balance and whether it's running a naked (bootleg), running a screen, running a dropback, a play-action, doing all those little things well and ultimately designing them around our playmakers, which is what our coaches do and what they're doing."
At least they know they'll have Allen Robinson. Their top wide receiver cleared the concussion protocol on Saturday.
"When you stick together as a team and don't point fingers, usually you pull out of these," Nagy sad. "Again we went into one of these last year where we lost four in a row and we pulled out of it. We've been through it, we've been calloused and a win is always going to help."
If they get it right this week, it can be the type of win to provide a turning point in a season on the verge of unraveling.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
