Chicago Bears Insider: Avoiding the Lion Letdown Against Detroit

The Chicago Bears have been on fire lately, winning four games in a row and playing some of the best football that anyone has seen them play since the 2006 season.  Teams that go on winning streaks like this tend to struggle in one or two games as they go along and sometimes these struggles can lead to losses.  These losses can lead to poor playoff positioning or worse, the loss of a chance to make the playoffs.

Any team that starts to get a head of steam on a winning streak and focuses on the playoffs, can overlook a team on their schedule that they are supposed to beat.  This has happened to many teams on their way to the playoffs and the Bears cannot afford to let it happen to them. 

You would think that it would be pretty easy for a team on a winning streak (like the Bears are on right now) not to overlook those teams that they should beat.  It shouldn’t be difficult to beat a team that’s playing poorly when your team is playing so well.  It should be a walk in the park. 

A piece of cake. No problem, right?

But how many times have we seen teams fail at winning the games that they should have won?  Many.  There are times when teams overlook just how good these teams (like the Lions) are and don’t practice or prepare for the team quite like they should. 

Perhaps they are looking forward to the game afterwards?  Perhaps the players feel that this game will be a breeze and they don’t need to prepare as much as they would for other games.

The Bears coaching staff will prepare their team for the Lions game and not allow them to overlook it.  Each and every game is important and the Bears coaching staff will impress this upon their players hoping that it sinks in and they play well this coming Sunday.

But there is something that the coaches can’t really control and that’s the mindset of the players.  They can’t control how a player feels about a particular game.  For instance, if the quarterback feels that the team that he doesn’t need to practice as hard or study as much film because the team that their playing is a “joke” in his mind, he’s not going to be well prepared for the game. 

Other players may end up feeling the same way, and before you know it you have several players on the team that aren’t committing to playing 100 percent in the game.  This can lead to lapses in concentration, laziness and ultimately a loss.

So let’s hope that the Bears are fully prepared for their game against the Lions this coming Sunday at Ford Field.  We should hope that the coaching staff has the players ready to play this game by making them focus on this game and nothing else.  They can’t afford a let down against the Lions.

So as the Detroit Lions make their predictions and guarantee a victory over the heavily favored Bears, we can only hope that the members of the Bears football team, winners of four straight, are indeed listening and prepared to show the Lions that they indeed are for real and won’t lie down in this game.

If the Bears lose this game, they could easily fall back into a near tie with the Packers for the lead in the NFC and hurt their chances of making the playoffs.  Every game counts and they have to win this one on Sunday.