Bears Win Ugly, The Old Fashion Way
Anyone who will listen has heard me say for years, that it takes at least 4 weeks into the regular season before we begin to see who might be good and who might not. If you watched football today, you are still scratching your head and wondering, which NFL team is going to emerge as a leader? This can be summed up best by what Rich Eisen said: "Thirteen days ago: the Lions were embarrassed at home by the Jets, Fourteen days ago: the Bears were demoralized in Green Bay and the Bills lost by 44 in Baltimore. Today: Lions beat Patriots, Bills trounce Vikings and the Bears took over first place."
Over the off-season, team makeup undergoes a major face lift. Coaches get fired and hired, contracts expires, rookies are drafted and that is not to talk about the other underlying support systems of an NFL team, such as; strength and conditioning coaches.
When week four or fives gets here, injuries begin to set in and start taking a toll on teams. What caused the Lions to suddenly rise from the dead? Is it because they were catching a struggling Patriots team? Because the season has a few games under it's belt, are teams beginning to get good intelligence on their opponents? Teams are starting to rely on certain plays, but those plays they rely on, are simply on tape for the opposition to see.
The Bears went into Arizona on Sunday and won in ugly fashion. Everyone had the Cardinals as being one of the worst teams in the league right behind Buffalo Bills. In my view people do not see that most NFL teams are still figuring it out. This could be the blessed curse of an ugly loss. My hope is, Matt Nagy realizes that the league is ever evolving and the Bears brass will have to find ways to adjust, bring change and get better.
In Jim Collins book, "Good to Great," a book about businesses who have long term success, Collins was able to track down the reason why companies seem to thrive at a perennial rate. Two of the reasons were, 1. core values and 2, the flywheel affect. Having values in an ever changing world of the NFL is suppose to be the thing that grounds a football team. We could probably look at the Steelers and the Patriots as a couple of teams that have beliefs that have transitioned them from year to year. But once you have those core values, you have to work them and keep those values in place while trying to win. That is where the "fly wheel affect," comes in. You have to keep at it. Success does not come on the first spin of the wheel, you keep cranking the wheel and at some time, it just takes off. But all of that is predicated on the ideal that you are doing it right.
NFL teams are highly competitive from the front office all the way down to the training room. Executives searching for answers to make their team better than the others. The coaches in the NFL better be up to date on all the new schemes and old plays. Players have to constantly study film in order to find a weakness in their opponent. Change is the name of the game, so you are not going to take the league by storm unless you have perfected your craft. Then when you get it down, you better be of the mindset to adjust. Why, because the league always catches up with you.
So looking at this Chicago Bear team, I am wondering, do they have the core values in place to help them transition from game to game and will they keep at it, till they get it right?Is this why week 3 in the NFL looked funky to many? Because teams are trying to implement their game and adjust to the changes at the same time? If the Bears possess of the basic ingredients to win, that will not be enough, they have to learn how to keep at it, while all the other teams in the division will be making their changes. This is why the Cardinals almost caught the Bears with their pants down, the Cardinals adjusted and the Bears was taken by surprise. So why did the Bears win? The core values that are in place through an established defense ran by Vic Fangio and a super star by the name of Khalil Mack.
