The Chicago Bears took care of business against the Los Angeles Rams. Now they have two games left before the bye week. First up is the Carolina Panthers, who are 1-3 and dealing with a rash of injuries on defense. The Bears get them at home, where they’ve won seven in a row. However, the bigger story is their opponent after that. Coming into 2024, the Jacksonville Jaguars were widely considered a probable playoff team. They just paid star quarterback Trevor Lawrence and had Super Bowl-winning head coach Doug Pederson at help.
As is often the case, what you see on paper is not what you get in reality. Something is seriously rotten in the Jaguars’ foundation. They are 0-4 to start the season and have lost nine of their last ten dating back to 2023. It would be one thing if the team was just struggling. Yet based on recent reports, the problems go much deeper than that. Insider Jordan Schultz shed light on this during an appearance on the Sharp Football Show, where he indicated Pederson has completely lost the locker room.
While Jacksonville might be a talented team, they are also a rudderless one. It feels like they haven’t been quite the same since the 34-31 overtime loss to Cincinnati last year. It was extra brutal because they lost Lawrence to an injury in that game and then had the ball in Bengals territory in overtime but coughed it up with untimely mistakes. Then, a drive by Cincinnati backup Jake Browning produced the winning field goal. A week later, Lawrence threw three interceptions in a 31-27 loss to Cleveland. After that, it was all downhill.
If there is one thing the Chicago Bears have been good at in recent years, it’s kicking teams when they’re down. Their beatdowns of Washington and Las Vegas last year were major contributions to both Ron Rivera and Josh McDaniels getting fired. They did the same to the Atlanta Falcons later in the year, who fired Arthur Smith not long after that. If this team senses a head coach is in danger of losing his job, they go for the knockout blow. Don’t be surprised if it plays out that way in London.
