The Detroit Lions (4-7) are on the road this week to face their division rival Chicago Bears (5-6), where one game separates the two teams in the division cellar.
After the Lions Thanksgiving slaughter, principal owner Sheila Ford Hamp decided to clean house and fired both Matt Patricia and Bob Quinn. In their stead, Darrell Bevell was named the interim head coach, while the GM duties are made up of a slew of front office personnel.
It’s difficult to anticipate how different the Lions will look this week, but Bevell has said he wants the players to work hard but have fun in the process. On the flip side, mixed signals have gone out about the defense, but it’ll be interesting to see if the issues were mostly due to Patricia or these coordinators should share some of the blame.
The Bears were handed their own massacre on Monday Night Football against the Green Bay Packers, getting pummeled 41-25. Coach Matt Nagy was embarrassed by the performance and expected a whole lot more from the players.
The Bears started hot to begin the season, but they have fallen into the dark abyss, and have dropped their last five games — bringing into question if they are on the verge of purging their coach and GM as well.
It’ll be interesting to see how well the players have responded to the coaching situations this week, and with playoff hopes all but shot, for both teams, this game may determine the rest of their seasons.
Here are the key areas in this week’s Honolulu Blueprint the Lions need to focus on to secure victory.