Bears Need Consecutive Wins in the Worst Way

Analysis: The Bears need to string together victories now because time no longer allows for the luxury of statistical promises.
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It's all coming together now, the Bears say.

A defense so easy to run against last year has plugged lanes and now has begun to address the pass. They're even rushing the passer better since Montez Sweat arrived and it has led to the promised takeaways.

"It makes our job pretty easy," Bears safety Eddie Jackson said. "When those guys go upt there and rush, get the ball out fast, get sacks and things like that, it helps create turnvoers, which we've been doing the last two games."

Justin Fields' passing statistics have trended upwards since Week 3, to go with a running game ranked third in the league despite injured ball carriers throughout the last eight weeks.

"There's gotta be progress each week, and I feel like there has been," offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said. "As you continue to look through it, the last few games, 40 minutes of time of possession, 35 minutes of time of possession, those are really cool things. That's pretty good execution to be able to have the ball that long.

"To be able to be top 10 in third down and gold zone, that's pretty good execution that's going on. Now, it's not consistent enough, that's for sure, for where we want to go and what we want to be. But it's about that progress."

So far, all this perceived progress on both sides of the ball only earned the Bears heartbreak or ugly victories over Carolina and Minnesota. They scratched out wins over a struggling rookie quarterback with a lost franchise and beat a rival playing its third-string quarterback after they had squandered a late lead.

The Bears have the chance to establish a winning streak Sunday for the first time in 30 games. Their last winning streak, a modest two-gamer at that, ended with the final game of 2021 under Matt Nagy.

In the history of the franchise, there have only been two stretches of games longer without winning consecutive games. They went 35 straight games from 1973-76 under coaches Abe Gibron and Jack Pardee without consecutive wins. They went 32 straight under George Halas from 1951-54.

For those who don't or can't remember those times, more recently coaches John Fox and Dick Jauron had slightly shorter stretches between winning streaks. Fox went 29 games from 2016-17 and Dick Jauron in 1999-2001 also went 29 straight. 

This one under Matt Eberflus has been worse.

"Obviously, you want the wins, right?" Eberflus said. "The wins, that's the biggest frustration. When are you going to get the wins? You keep doing things right, you keep doing things right, then all of a sudden the wins will come.

"That’s what all of my mentors would tell me when I visited during this process. Just keep doing it right and really focus on the fundamentals and details of doing the job right. Hold guys to standards, don't let that slip. That's what we've tried to do. Again, I know it's been slow and I know the Chicago Bears fans—as we do—want more wins. You can certainly see that momentum starting to change and we're certainly optimistic for that."

So, another promise for the future, but the problem is it's getting rather late in the game for optimism, patience and promises. It was fine early when they could point to how the roster was gutted last year and they had lacked talent. The talent has been there all year and they have four wins.

It's getting late for quarterbacks who up their passer rating to 92.3 on the year and still have won only seven out of 33 career starts, especially when there is at least one quarterback available in the draft who offers great promise.

It's getting late in the year to expect more sacks from the defensive line when they still have only 17, lowest total in the league for the second straight year. It's a rush-and-cover defense but there still needs to be more rush.

It's getting late for coaching staffs to talk about being patient while chances for winning streaks keep vanishing.

Every remaining game still carries so much significance for the future.

If they lose Sunday's game to Detroit, another chance to win consecutive games is gone until at least the Christmas Eve game with the Arizona Cardinals. The chances start to dwindle to make the required statement with wins.

The Bears need to win and win now to show they really can do it. When there were so many opportunities left earlier this season, it was acceptable to lose games with good statistics. That time has passed.

They need to beat a 9-3 team like Detroit and do it without any asterisks or flukish circumstances attached. It's the best remaining Bears opponent. Doing it next week against Cleveland, another playoff contender, in a tough place to play would say something similar about their progress but if they lose this one they're losing another chance at consecutive wins. 

The schedule has only one non-contending team left on it and even the Cardinals are starting to show signs of life, if not a lack of understanding about the tanking process.

Pushing off that time when they actually begin to show results in the win column only invites drastic postseason change.

More wins in the next five games will make clear what needs to be done at season's end. So will losses with good statistics. 

Winning consecutive games shows clear progress. Beating a team they dominated and should have beaten earlier is only followed up properly by beating them the next time on your home field.

"We got one, now we've got to get another one," Jackson said.

If they don't, time will almost be up to prove the current path needs to be followed.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven


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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.