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Time for the Bears to hurry up and rest

When Bears coach Matt Nagy conversed with the media shortly after noon Monday, he was well aware that in just 71 hours his team would do battle with the Lions at Ford Field in Detroit.

It was also just 14 hours after Nagy's team had dispatched the Vikings on national TV to put a chokehold on first place in the NFC North. The 25-20 victory was their fourth in a row, the longest win streak since 2012, when Lovie Smith's last Bears team won six straight. At 7-3 the Bears are 1½ games up on the 5-4-1 Vikings, but the time to savor Sunday night's accomplishment had already passed.

“We enjoyed it (Sunday) night,” Nagy said. “It was fun. It was a great win. (I'm) proud of the guys — heck of a team we played against, (with) great coaches, great players. But just like that, it's on to the next one.”

The money-grubbing NFL has dealt the Bears a lousy hand — an 11:30 a.m. Thanksgiving game hard on the heels of a Sunday night game that was moved back from noon for the sole purpose of increasing television revenues. The Lions have the benefits of having played a noon game Sunday and being at home.

For Bears players, it's like a kick in the groin with a steel-toed work boot. So, for this week, rest and recovery take precedence over practice and film review.

“That's the No. 1 thing, is to make sure these guys are taken care of, see where they're at physically and then mentally,” Nagy said. “Just send home the message of, 'Here we go. It's right back at it.' You don't have enough hours in the day. You're here early in the morning and that (Sunday night game) is in the past.”

Because Nagy's a glass-half-full kind of guy, he pointed out that there is a positive aspect to the killer schedule. If the Bears survive Thursday, they don't play again for 10 days, when they face the Giants in New Jersey. Maybe they'll have some time then to watch the replay of a victory more significant than any in the previous seven non-playoff seasons.

“We'll have some time after the Detroit game,” Nagy said. “We'll have a little mini-bye, so that's where you catch up on it.”

For now, the task at hand is getting ready to strap it up with just three days to recover, instead of six.

“(It's focusing on) sleep, recovery, condensing the game plan and trying to get as much in as possible,” QB Mitch Trubisky said. “We've just got to (go) out on Thursday with clean execution and hopefully be well-rested. We've got to be really smart how we recover.”

Facing a team twice in 12 days puts a unique twist on play-calling, even though the Bears hung 34 points on the Lions in a 12-point victory and Trubisky had a 148.6 passer rating. Fortunately, Nagy believes the Bears didn't utilize everything they had in the game plan.

“You always hope that in every game,” Nagy said of having plays in reserve. “But, when you just played somebody a couple of weeks ago, there's that fine line between chasing the cat's tail, as to what you think they're going to do, or they think you're going to do. For us, let's just control what we can control. We have a game plan. We've already talked about what we're going to do for these two out of three weeks against Detroit, so we'll put it to the test, and it will come quick.”

Game time will come even quicker for the Bears than for the Lions — about 7½ hours quicker.

Chicago Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky drops back to pass during the game against the Minnesota Vikings Sunday night at Solder Field in Chicago. Mark Busch/ mbusch@shawmedia.com
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