28 December 2023
As the Chicago Bears tied a bow on their Christmas gift to the city — Sunday’s 27-16 victory over the Arizona Cardinals — they added a dash of valuable perspective. Yes, Chicago, there is meaningful progress being made.
Believe it or not, this was the Bears’ fourth consecutive victory at Soldier Field. That’s a nice touch on a season propelling the team upward in the NFL hierarchy.
That Sunday’s win came a week after a dispiriting defeat to the Cleveland Browns was also the latest testament to this group’s unity and mental toughness.
“This is just about being resilient,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “There was an attention to detail on some things that we have to do better. And you have to do that in the fourth quarter. You have to bring it to the guys’ attention and the coaches’ attention and keep doing a better job.”
Added defensive tackle Justin Jones: “This team is growing, man. We really are.”
Sunday’s announced attendance was 59,978 on what felt like a mid-October day beside Lake Michigan. And those who chose to spend their Christmas Eve afternoon inside Soldier Field were treated to a Bears victory in which they never trailed and led for the final 51:16.
Justin Fields’ 3-yard touchdown scramble started the scoring in the first quarter, finishing a drive that was jump-started by the quarterback’s extended-play 53-yard bomb to tight end Cole Kmet.
On the move, Fields bought time, spied Kmet in one-on-one coverage against 5-foot-11, 190-pound safety Jalen Thompson and launched.
“The DB was just panicking back there,” Fields said. “He hadn’t even looked back at me. So I just threw it up, gave Cole a shot and he came down with it. I fully trust Cole. He’s a great player. That was a pretty easy decision for me.”
That was a nice start to a positive day.
The Bears’ lead grew as big as 21 points in the second quarter when Fields threw a 1-yard TD pass to Marcedes Lewis. That score came with the Bears quarterback faking a handoff to Roschon Johnson and then an end-around to Darnell Mooney.
Lewis had a little difficulty with his release against linebacker Jesse Luketa and Fields was flushed out of the pocket. But the threat of a Fields scramble lured Luketa up and Lewis, who teammates know as “Big Dog,” was all alone behind the “O” in the north end zone.
“Boom,” Fields said. “Just threw it to him. I’m glad we could get ‘Big Dog’ a touchdown today.”
Added Lewis: “All I did was just play football. I went where (Luketa) wasn’t.”
For the veteran tight end, who is in his 18th season and fast closing in on his 40th birthday, that was his 40th career touchdown catch.
“The guys were excited about that,” Eberflus said. “They all started barking when he scored. Because he is the ‘Big Dog.’ In many ways. He’s a big human. And he’s a great leader too. The guys love him for who he is.”
The Cardinals, with a leaky defense and far too much sloppiness, gave the Bears a little glimpse into where they once were, in the NFL’s bottom tier and working through an abundance of struggle and frustration. So perhaps, as much as anything, that is what Sunday’s victory signified, a show of progress of where the Bears have climbed from this season.
But there is still, obviously, a long way to go. And Bears general manager Ryan Poles seems fully aware of that reality. On the team’s official pregame show Sunday on WMVP AM-1000, Poles lamented the Week 15 collapse in Cleveland with the Bears blowing a 10-point fourth-quarter lead in that brutal road loss.
While saying he was encouraged by some individual performances in that loss as well as his defense’s continued ability to take the ball away, Poles still wants more as he pushes the Bears toward championship contention. “There’s still a lot of room to grow and improve as a football team,” Poles said. “I’ve said it I feel like for two years now. The ability to finish and put games away is critical. We have got to get to that point.”
Two weeks from now, Poles will find himself walking into a pressure-filled offseason that will also be filled with opportunity. His big-picture evaluation of the team will require him to make big decisions on what the future holds for Eberflus as well as Fields. Creating direction is a must.
“(We’ll) look at everything in its totality,” Poles said. “Because oftentimes we’re all emotional during the season. We ride the roller coaster where everything is perfect after a win and everything is awful after a loss. So a lot of times you have to come down and be levelheaded in the way you evaluate the season and individuals. And that’s going to help guide us to making good decisions to make this roster into a championship-caliber roster.”
Poles knows he will have a season’s worth of snapshots from the roller coaster to study closely and interpret.
“It’s important to go back and look at those tough losses and those close games and see what you need to improve,” he said. “If it’s from a schematic standpoint, if it’s from a player standpoint, that’s going to be the important piece. When I take a peek back a year, to 2022, you can kind of see the improvements from how many of those tough losses we’ve had. So we’re starting to close the gap. We just have to do it at a higher rate.”
On Sunday, the Bears again got a sound performance from their defense and coupled that with a gritty rushing attack that chewed up a season-high 250 yards. Running back Khalil Herbert turned 20 carries into 112 yards, including a nifty 11-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter. Fields added 97 rushing yards to his 170-yard passing day.
Kmet, meanwhile, contributed four catches and 107 yards before leaving the game late in the first half with a knee issue.
Again, Sunday’s win wasn’t nearly as resounding as some might have liked against a struggling opponent. The Bears offense sputtered for a long stretch of the second and third quarters and the Cardinals clawed within eight points when Kyler Murray beat a blitz with a 38-yard touchdown pass to Greg Dortch with 6:37 remaining.
But Eberflus didn’t worry that any sort of “Here we go again” feeling would torpedo his team.
“It’s attention to detail on your job,” Eberflus said. “And believing in yourself and believing in the guy next to you. Then just take it one play at a time. That’s big-time coach-speak. But that’s what gets it done.”
Indeed, against an inferior opponent, the Bears finished the job. And they headed to celebrate Christmas with positive feelings about the improvements they’re making.
“We obviously let a couple wins slip out of our hands this year,” Jones said. “But honestly, bro, if we can start to get a few of these things to bounce our way, we can be a serious contender. That’s my opinion.”
Jones emphasized how the tight bond of this team has been the fuel for their improvement this season.
“It’s how much time guys are spending together outside of the facility,” he said. “That’s huge. It’s the camaraderie you’re building when you’re going to watch ‘Thursday Night Football’ together, when you’re going to each other’s houses to eat. That’s what makes a group special.”
Little by little, the improvements are coming. Progress is happening.
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