The Chicago Bears might have every reason to play with a chip on their shoulder on Sunday afternoon against the Philadelphia Eagles.
After all, Philadelphia defeated Chicago at Soldier Field during last year's playoffs, and the Bears–at 3-4 on the year–desperately need a spark in order to save their season. However, Bears head coach Matt Nagy says that his team is keeping the focus on this year.
“That was a big game for us, a big loss for us that we used [as motivation] in the offseason,” Nagy said via the team website's Larry Mayer. “I think internally, everybody knows the feeling of what we felt, but we haven't turned this into any type of revenge game: ‘You've got to do this or do that.' We're just focused on going 1-0 with where we're at this year.”
“Now we're in the season, that's last year. We don't want to live in the past. We don't want to live in the past last week. That's just kind of where we're at. We're trying to stay moving our feet forward. That's probably why it hasn't been brought up as much.”
The Bears have been typically excellent on the defensive side of the ball, but Nagy has had trouble putting quarterback Mitch Trubisky in successful situations.
Chicago's offensive line has been depleted further with the loss of Kyle Long, and Nagy's inconsistency in the run game have made it too easy for opposing defenses to challenge Trubisky to throw downfield.
The Bears have fallen well behind the Packers and Vikings in the NFC North, but a win on Sunday would go a long way towards revitalizing their playoff hopes.
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