Yes, it’s only week seven in the NFL season, but Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers feels like a must win game for the Chicago Bears.
The Bears are 3-3 to start this season and with a win Sunday will be in the same spot they were in last season at this time. The team has looked sluggish at times this season. Whether it’s the defense giving up the big play, or Cutler constantly getting sacked and pressured, Bears fans aren’t feeling too confident.
With a win in London Sunday, that can all change.
The Bears can move to 4-3 and head into their bye week right in the middle of the pack in the wild card race.
Bye weeks are supposed to help your team. We saw this last year when the Bears went into their bye week at 4-3. They fixed things on the offensive side of the ball, creating a solid offense that went to the NFC Championship game. This season it feels like their is plenty more to fix however.
The offensive line needing to protect Jay seems like the biggest one problem to fix. But with confidence going into the next few weeks, that could be a good way to fix it.
So why does this game feel like a must win? With two teams ahead of the Bears (Packers 6-0, Lions 5-1) it’s going to be hard for the Bears to catch up to them. Especially with losses to both of those teams.
Green Bay has dominated opponents all season long, and have shown no signs of slowing down. Detroit is certainly a surprise to most people with their 5-1 record and their second place sitting in the NFC North.
The Packers man handled the Bears in week 3 at Soldier Field. The Lions also took care of business at home against the Bears. Using big plays by Calvin Johnson and Jahvid Best to slice up the Bears normally solid defense.
With the Bears sitting behind those two teams, every game against the NFC is a must win for the Bears wild card chances. Especially ones against teams your supposed to beat.
Chicago has a fairly weak schedule after the bye. Minus a few games against the Packers and Chargers, there are plenty of winnable games on the schedule for the Bears. Including a four week stretch against the AFC West, which could determine the Bears playoff fate.
The Bears gained some momentum last week against the Minnesota Vikings, and looked like the team many fans expected this season. Cutler had great protection and torched the Vikings secondary. The defense shut down one of the best running backs in the game, and kept one of the worst passing offenses at bay.
Then there’s Devin Hester. Who returned (no pun intended) to his old form with a kickoff return for a touchdown.
So which Chicago Bears will show up this week in a crucial game? Will it be the ones we saw last week, who should take care of the Bucs? Or the ones that will let us down and have us on the verge of a breakdown in Chicago?
If the Bears don’t get this much needed win on Sunday, you can call it a season folks.