If the Bears were getting the occasional Thursday and Monday night matchups during one of their greatest periods of irrelevance in the last few years, what did you think would happen as soon as they started looking like an actual ... playoff team?
For the second time in as many weeks, the NFL announced on Wednesday that the Bears have been flexed into a Sunday Night Football matchup. This time it’s with the high-flying and star-studded Los Angeles Rams in Week 14 at Soldier Field once again.
We’re about to find out a lot about this Bears team under Matt Nagy with three of Chicago’s next four games being nationally televised against the Vikings this Sunday night, the Lions on Thanksgiving, and then the Rams on December 9th.
The Vikings and Rams especially posing the greatest of challenges with premier players like Kirk Cousins, Stefon Diggs, Harrison Smith, Adam Thielen and Jared Goff, Aaron Donald, and Todd Gurley, respectively. Two regular season NFC heavyweight fights on the horizon for the Bears. Two opportunities for national showcases of an up-and-coming team that hasn’t had this much of the spotlight in awhile.
The television ratings that a relevant Bears team brings in are about to skyrocket across broadcasts. Maybe the Bears are too.
Robert is the Editor-in-chief of The Blitz Network (subscribe here!), the managing editor of Windy City Gridiron, and writes for a host of other fine publications. You can follow him on Twitter @RobertZeglinski.