Examining Softest and Toughest Parts of Bears Schedule

There are more opponents trending down on this Bears schedule than there are trending up.

This should speak well for Bears chances, except for the fact they have no momentum themselves after a season of housekeeping in the personnel department. 

The schedule they face in 2023 has its difficult stretches and soft pockets, like most teams face.

However, the hard stretches do not appear as challenging as last year's Green Bay-Philadelpha-Buffalo stretch looked.

A good deal changes from season to season, and last year the Bears found this out as teams in the midst of struggles, like the Jets, Lions and Giants, suddenly righted their ships at their expense. 

Here are the toughest and softest aspects of this year's Bears schedule.

Softest Spots

1. Cold Spot

The sad thing from the Bears' standpoint is most of the schedule's soft spots only last two games. There are no prolonged stretches of weakness. They finish with a weakers stretch against Arizona and Atlanta in consecutive games at Soldier Field, and then even though it does mean going to Lambeau Field, the third game in the stretch is the season finale with the Packers. Pro Football Focus ranks the Cardinals last in the NFL in their power rankings. Atlanta is ranked 27th and Green Bay 18th. It's tough to call that third game a soft spot because of all the difficult times the Bears have endured against Green Bay, and if Jordan Love is going to beat them it's more likely to be in Lambeau Field than Soldier Field. Still, it's quite an opportunity for the Bears and if they somehow got themselves into—hold your breath Bears fans with this word"playoff" position, finishing with those three teams is a huge advantage. Two of them being warm-weather teams coming to Chicago at holiday time is a big edge, too.

2. The First Two Weeks

Starting with Green Bay after Aaron Rodgers has handed the ball to Love, doing it at home, and then going on the road to face Tampa Bay in Week 2 has to rate their second-easiest stretch of games. 

Teams always talk about unscouted looks in the opener and second game as being big, but for opponents every week is an unscouted look against the Bears because Justin Fields is unpredictable. So many new players for the Bears increases this.

Tampa Bay isn't exactly the Buccaneers of John McKay. Todd Bowles isn't going to be asked about his team's execution and then respond "I'm in favor of it," like McKay once did. But Baker Mayfield, Kyle Trask and John Wolford are their quarterbacks. Wow. Maybe Chris Simms should come out of retirement. 

And while Lavonte David isn't exactly 137 years old, he is 33 this season and playing a demanding linebacker spot as the key cog in a defense lacking the dominant secondary and line from their Super Bowl victory. 

Bowles is a good second lieutenant but no Bruce Arians, and his 34-50 career record as head coach shows it.

Toughest Sledding

1. Weeks 11-15

The opponents are not overwhelming but good enough. Even though their bye week occurs in this stretch, who wants a bye week in Week 13? That's two straight years the league hung this late rest on the Bears. It's always better to have around Week 9 because of injuries building up than it is in December.

The stretch of games starts with the NFC North favorites, which is how the Lions must be regarded. They trampled all over Justin Fields and the Bears last year 41-10. By winning eight of their last 10 the Lions built momentum and they did nothing in the offseason to slow it. On top of that, Green Bay and Minnesota both appear to have fallen back somewhat. 

The Bears don't match up with Detroit well, either. A Lions strength is the offensive line while the Bears are still only mediocre on the defensive line until they prove otherwise. The two rookie defensive tackles they added will help but haven't the slightest clue about life in the NFL. Nose tackle Andrew Billings is better than they had at the position last year but hasn't exactly been an NFL star. Journeyman would be a bit more generous of a description. And they really only slightly improved at defensive end with Rasheem Green and DeMarcus Walker. They're playing the Lions twice in this stretch of games, too. 

They also have to play Minnesota on the road on a Monday night, which is never easy to do. The Vikings are setting up as a classic dome team, explosive on turf and in ideal playing conditions, not so much outdoors and on grass. They are a finesse team.

The Bears close the stretch with Cleveland and no one can be excited about facing Deshaun Watson after an offseason to learn his team's offense. He's backed by a defense led by Myles Garrett. No team with running back Nick Chubb can be lightly regarded, anyway.

2. Mid-Schedule Blues

When the Bears go west for their game with the Chargers in Week 8, they'll be making a trip they've come to dread almost as much as when they go to San Francisco. They've lost four of their last five trips to southern California. 

However, three of those came to play the Rams and not the Chargers. 

Justin Herbert is the kind of quarterback who handles the cover-2 scheme well and anticipates where to throw it to receivers in the soft spots of zones. The Bears' three second-round cornerbacks are a bit better equipped to handle receivers like Mike Williams, Keenan Allen and running back Austin Ekeler in the passing game than they might have been in the past, but until there is a feared pass rush—and especially one from the edge—they'll struggle against brilliant pocket passers who stand in and fire at the zone's weak areas. 

The second game of this combo, against the Saints, features another QB who is better than the team had last year, and Derek Carr has receiver threats.  However, New Orleans must rely more now on Dennis Allen's defensive expertise more after salary cap issues cost them some overall athleticism. It's not the same level of talent that the Saints bring to Soldier Field as they try to extend a winning streak over the Bears to eight games. 

The Bears essentially lose a work day in preparation for the Saints because they'll be coming back on the red eye from L.A. after the Chargers game and Monday becomes more a day of rest than preparation.

You could toss the Panthers onto the end of this stretch because it's another game after only four days, but at least it's at home and follows another home game. 

And it's the Panthers.