The Chicago Bears need a divisional win in the worst way heading into their final games of the 2022 season and will face a very challenging opponent in the Detroit Lions in Week 17. Though the Lions are the better team by record, their head coach Dan Campbell showed a lot of respect for Chicago’s game in his comments to the media on Wednesday and made a point to single out Justin Fields for his game-breaking abilities in the running game.
In his opening statement to reporters, he gave his thoughts on all aspects of the Bears’ roster ahead of Sunday’s divisional showdown.
“[They have a] physical defense, high motor, they’re getting takeaways, punching the ball, scrape at them, they’ve been playing pretty good football,” Campbell explained. “They played good against Buffalo last week, and then offensively everything starts with [Justin] Fields once again, man, he’s dangerous and [Bears RB David Montgomery] 32’s a [heck] of a back in the run game. So, there again starts with the run game with these guys. Special teams unit is physical, so we know we’ve got our hands full.”
Clearly, Campbell isn’t taking his matchup against the 3-12 Bears lightly. His assessment of Fields and Chicago’s gritty defense were spot on, and indicate that he knows that the Bears could be a tough out, especially given that they have nothing to lose in their penultimate tilt of the season.
Fields and the offense will need to show signs of life early in this game to pull ahead of Detroit early. If they can’t secure a lead before crunch time in the second half, the Lions’ scrappy group of talent on both sides of the ball is liable to take over the matchup and do what they’ve done so well since Week 9 — manhandle their opponents with relentless precision.
