On Tuesday, it was confirmed that the Bears Rams November 17th game in Los Angeles will remain on Sunday Night. Many speculated that the game could be flexed out of Sunday Night for a more competitive matchup given the Bears’ current four-game losing streak and offensive struggles. Although the game features two teams from the country’s second and third largest viewing market, it does no favors for a Chicago Bears team that could be embarrassed in front of a national audience.
When the two teams meet on the 17th, there is a good chance that the Bears record could be at 3-6 with the league’s most mocked quarterback appearing in primetime. Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky will be the main focus of the game whether good or bad and everything he does will be magnified. If Trubisky has another poor performance, he will be heavily scrutinized from both a local and national sports talk perspective.
There are more competitive and enticing matchups in week 11 including the Houston Texans against the Baltimore Ravens. The game features two of the league’s most exciting quarterbacks in Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson. In the Bears Rams game, Trubisky’s performance will be compared to the performance of these two quarterbacks throughout the game.
This is not the first time the Bears have been set up to fail in primetime as they were embarrassed back in 2014. In the week 10 matchup against the Green Bay Packers, the Bears were demolished by a score of 55-14. Aaron Rodgers passed for six touchdowns in the first half. NFL chose not to flex this game out of primetime, even though the Bears were 3-5 heading into the game and had gotten blown out by the Patriots two weeks before by a score of 51-23.
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It also won’t be the first time a Chicago quarterback has faced harsh criticism for a performance in a nationally televised game. In a Monday Night loss to the Saints in 2014, Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was heavily criticized following the game for his performance by ESPN personalities. Although some of the criticism was warranted, a good portion of the analysis was unjust and extremely uncalled for.
Trubisky could face the same criticism with the Bears Rams game not being moved out of the Sunday Night window. The Sunday Night analysis crew and commentators could have a field day with Chicago’s quarterback and their offense. It is unfortunate as although his performance has heavily regressed this season, Trubisky doesn’t warrant the amount of criticism that could come his way. Being exposed on a national level may only make matters worse for Chicago’s struggling quarterback.
Head coach Matt Nagy’s job security could be questioned by the media if the team is embarrassed on the national stage against the Rams. This game may be interesting not from a matchup standpoint, but from a “how much more worse can it get for the Bears” standpoint. Fans and the media love teams that are surprisingly good, but there is more fun in dissecting and criticizing a team that is surprisingly bad.
This time last season, the Bears were good enough where two of their games were flexed into Sunday Night. Their performances against the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams made many around the country take notice and believe that they were Super Bowl contenders. Now almost a year later, many will laugh to watch a potential train wreck that has become the Bears season take place in front of the whole country.
