Fox guiding Bears ship in right direction in off week
Former Bears coach Lovie Smith would have looked at the situation of the current team and seen a glass half full.
Coach John Fox is just as optimistic as Smith would have been, but without the metaphor. Fox believes the 2015 Bears are headed in the right direction, despite a 2-4 record.
"In my mind, there's no doubt we're going to get there," Fox said. "It's hard for me to put an exact time frame on it."
On the field and on paper there are indications that The Good Ship Foxy is headed in the right direction - but just as many signs that it could wind up lost at sea.
With an open date this week, the banged-up Bears, who have listed more than a dozen players on the injury report the past two weeks, can rest and heal. On the downside, it could also provide additional time to obsess over the 37-34 overtime loss Sunday to the Lions, a game that was there for the taking.
"It's going to be a tough one; (it'll) take a couple of days," quarterback Jay Cutler said on Sunday. "We'll come back Tuesday and Wednesday and get some good work in. I like where the lockerroom is. Obviously it's a loss. (But) no one's too down right now. They're ready to go, and we'll get re-energized."
The current CBA mandates that players are off from Thursday through Sunday of an open week before returning to the practice field next Monday. Fox believes that players will come back showing the same characteristics that he believes indicate the team is on a course similar to the one that Fox charted in Carolina and Denver. In his second year with the Panthers, Fox guided them to Super Bowl XXXVIII. He got all four of his Broncos teams to the playoffs, including Super Bowl XLVIII after the 2013 regular season.
"It's getting guys that are willing to put in the time and the effort and to do the right thing at the right time," Fox said. "I've been pleased with the way our guys have gone about it. I think we've been in most of the contests to this point, and now it's just figuring out how to win consistently. We're not there yet by any stretch, but I think we're moving in the right direction."
Against the Lions, the offense flashed the explosiveness it's capable of with a healthy Pro Bowl wide receiver Alshon Jeffery back in the lineup for the first time since opening day. Coordinator Adam Gase's crew rolled up what were by far season highs of 34 points, 444 total yards, 353 passing yards and 6.1 yards per snap.
"The sky's the limit," Jeffery said of the offense after catching 8 passes for 147 yards. "We just have to get healthy and capitalize on it more when we get in the red zone."
That area inside the opponents' 20-yard line has been more of a dead zone for the Bears' offense. It converted just 3 of 8 red zone opportunities (37.5 percent) into touchdowns against the Lions and is 25th in the league with a 44.4 percent success rate. The Steelers lead the league at 75 percent.
The defense, which had climbed to No. 4 in fewest total yards allowed per game, suffered a severe backslide against the Lions. Vic Fangio's crew permitted 546 yards after allowing an average of 304.6 through the first five games. The defense, which had allowed just 185.8 passing yards per game, third-best in the league, was gashed for 391 yards in Detroit.
"We started off slow (Sunday), and I think (that was) our worst performance all year," said linebacker Pernell McPhee, who leads the Bears with 4 sacks and shows signs of becoming a player Fangio can build around. "We had a lot of chances, we just didn't finish it. We've just got to come back to work and tighten up the screws."
The Bears' next game is Nov. 1 at home against the Minnesota Vikings. Between now and then, they should follow McPhee's lead.
"I'm about to go in the zone," he said. "I'm on a mission to dominate no matter what. We've just got to take this time to get ourselves healthy; offense and defense. We've got to come ready to go to work and get ready for Minnesota."
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