Finding Ways to Win Still Trumps All for Bears in L.A.
The Bears want nothing to do with comparisons to their 2019 mid-season collapse or measuring sticks.
To them, there is only the task at hand.
"What happened last season was last season," running back Cordarrelle Patterson said. "This is a new season. So we're just focused on what's ahead of us and that's the L.A. Rams."
It's not entirely easy to dismiss the past when problems leading to a .500 finish in 2019 linger. Ranked 28th, the offense seems no better than last year.
However, there are differences from last year as they head into Monday night's game in L.A. The main one is they find ways to win, despite their inadequacies.
The Bears (5-1) begin what some interpret as a rough stretch of their schedule by facing the Rams (4-2), a team from football's toughest division and a Super Bowl team two years ago. A road game on a Monday night makes it entirely more difficult.
Last year they hit the rough part of the schedule at 3-1 with a trip to London. When they emerged from it they were 3-5 and looking up at both Green Bay and Minnesota in the NFC North.
However, calling this the start of a rough stretch of games does a disservice to teams they have played.
In fact, they probably started the rough stretch of the schedule when they played the Indianapolis Colts.
"You look back, you go to the Colts, to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, we've had a lot of measuring sticks, if you will, if you want to call it that," safety Tashaun Gipson said. "So, I don't think that this game is anymore intensified than it probably had been in recent games.
"But I think that any time you're on a prime-time stage, you want to put forth your best effort, so I think that's just kind of the mindset where everybody's at."
From the Colts game three weeks ago until they face Minnesota on Nov. 16 at Soldier Field, there are no teams with losing records. Even the 3-3 Panthers might eventually be something more than a .500 team, and it is certain they were on a roll when they faced the Bears with three consecutive wins.
Later on the Bears have difficult games as well, such as two games with Green Bay. There might be teams later in the season playing better or worse than now to varying degrees. None of this is predictable or matters.
What is certain is the Bears have been and continue to be able to count on their defense, while their offense continues to struggle to find a rhythm under quarterback Nick Foles.
In that way, they are similar to last year.
They think they found something with a strong first half last week against Carolina, something which bears repeating. It's what coach Matt Nagy is calling a key to success.
"I would say for Nick it's probably me as a play caller, him as a quarterback, us as an offense, being able to get off to a fast start and keep that fast-start-type deal," Nagy said. "And then just across the board, there are so many different elements to the offense, whether it's the run game, whether it's protection, whether it's the details of what we're doing with the routes, whether it's the play calling.
"All of that, putting that together, and then scoring points."
Nagy knows he can rely on the defense even if the potentially explosive Rams offense has reached 30 points or more three times.
"They are just creating havoc," Nagy said of his defense. "It's cool to see. It's across the board and you feel that.
"What that's doing right now is that it's putting us in a great spot to be able to win these games and we understand that."
It's on their offense to cope with Rams defensive forces Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey, and to put points up on a consistent basis despite a big question mark at left guard after losing James Daniels to injury.
"Obviously, we want to get a better rhythm and do things better, but the ultimate thing in this league is you want to find out how to win games as a team," Foles said.
There is no doubt they've done this much to date.
Making it continued remains the objective week to week, regardless of what their opponents' records are to date and where they are on the schedule.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
