NEWSLETTER
If Lovie Smith declares the Bears are back, then they’re really back … right?
It’s true, the Bears are back. And fittingly enough, one reason we’re even having this conversation is because they followed the blueprints left behind by tonight’s opponent.
The Rams and Bears are basically the Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man meme, but with football uniforms instead of that snazzy superhero get-up.
After watching Mitch Trubisky – the first quarterback drafted in the 2017 NFL Draft – struggle to a 4-8 record as a rookie, the Bears fired a head coach who the game had passed by (John Fox), hired an innovative offensive-minded replacement (Matt Nagy), and brought in a quarterback-whisperer as the offensive coordinator (Mark Helfrich). From there, the Bears upgraded the offensive weaponry in free agency (Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel, Trey Burton) and in the draft (Anthony Miller) while maintaining defensive continuity (re-signing Kyle Fuller, retaining Vic Fangio).
It’s a modified, hijacked version of the plan the Rams have trotted out since canning Jeff Fisher to get the ball rolling in the right direction. The only difference is that the Rams entered the year and were expected to be contenders in 2018, while the Bears could only hope things bounced the right way for them. And to this point, it has. Well done, folks.
The buzz was that the Bears could be this year’s Rams and we held out hope it could happen. I mean, come on. Even Rams Head Coach Sean McVay said he saw similarities between the plight of Jared Goff and his Bears counterpart. Perhaps that’s why they got along swimmingly as roommates.
So here we are with two contenders about to get it on under the lights on Sunday Night Football. That one was expected to be in this position and the other was a sleeper on the outside-looking-in doesn’t matter at this point. We’re here and we’re pumped about it.
