On January 9th, the Bears suffered a rough 31-17 loss to the Vikings. This has been a mediocre season for the Bears, both at home and away. Finishing with 11 losses and 6 wins has landed them near the bottom of the NFC North and out of the running for the Super Bowl.
The Bears aren’t the safest team to bet on. They haven’t won a Super Bowl since 1986 and this season has been another fairly lackluster one. We will need to wait to see if the changes to the coaching staff have a positive impact.
One reason to keep an eye on who’s hired for the General Manager and Head Coach positions is that this could have a dramatic effect on the odds offered on Bears games next season. With sports betting becoming increasing popular around the country, a new season is the perfect time to get in on the action.
A bookmaker guide, like the one at www.bookmakers.com, is a great resource for sports bettors looking to find trustworthy bookmakers, the best odds, and available welcome bonuses and special offers. Even if you already have a favorite online sportsbook, it’s always worth checking a guide.
Are there bigger factors in play that made this loss inevitable? Or did the team just have one of those bad days that every team has occasionally. It’s most likely a bit of both. This article will look at what factors combined to make the last game of the season such a disappointment.
Echoes of past performances?
The last time these two teams met back in December, the Vikings beat the Bears 17 to 9. That game was closer, but it still wasn’t a great showing for the Bears. The narrative surrounding that game was that it was the Vikings’ last game to get their act together in order to secure a spot in the playoffs.
The Bears had 14 players on the reserve/Covid-19 list in that game, so they were already at a disadvantage. Their touchdown didn’t come until the fourth quarter and throughout the game the team struggled with giving away penalties.
Based on this performance, it would have been expected for the next meeting between the two to go roughly the same – especially since the games were so close in the schedule to one another. To see the Bears lose by almost twice as many points suggests it was a breakdown on the day.
What went wrong?
Throwing away a decent lead is evidence for the argument that something went wrong on the day. The Bears offense obviously had the ability to put points on the board, and the defensive line proved it could hold strong against whatever the Vikings could throw at it.
As the second half started, things started to go downhill. By the fourth quarter, the team had totally collapsed. So what happened? How did a team that looked like it would hold its own and end an unfortunate season on a high note, end up falling apart so badly?
It seems to have been a mix of poor decision-making and mediocre play for the most part – there were three moments when the Bears could have gone for the conversion at the 4th-and-1, but instead, they chose to throw each time. And each time it went badly for them, with sacks and turnovers.
What exactly went wrong with the defense is harder to identify, it was almost like a different team came out to play the second half. The clearest issue is that they had severe struggles against the Vikings’ air game, ultimately costing them.
Morale
The last few years have been hard on everyone and sometimes it’s easy to forget that this includes professional athletes too. The Bears have been no exception. The constant stress about whether or not they’ll be able to play is bad enough, but it has also made it hard to plan and strategize.
The other major morale issue seems to have been head coach Matt Nagy. Recent press has revealed that his ego and inability to communicate well with players led to him pulling stunts like not showing up for one on one meetings with players that he was upset with, namely former quarterback Mitch Trubisky.
Though he was described early on in his tenure with the Bears as a ‘leader of men’-style coach, he seems to have become completely disconnected from his players and the fans. This level of dysfunction and division is a struggle for even the best team to cope with.
When it comes down to it, losing that game was probably inevitable — especially with so many players out due to Covid-19. The Bears were a tired and frustrated team. Losing so badly, however, that was due to decisions made on the day.
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