Loveland shines as Bears gear up for Giants showdown

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 2 hours ago

CHICAGO - After Chicago’s last thrilling victory, head coach Ben Johnson and the Bears set their sights on the New York Giants on Sun. Nov. 9 (Noon / FOX), who come into the game with a 2-7 record and are down their top receivers and running back for the season.

“Since they made the quarterback chance, you can tell he’s really given them a spark. Their offense can score some points and they have playmakers and then defensively, you could argue this is the best defensive front that we’ve seen so far this year,” Johnson said. “So, huge challenge at hand. We’re going to have to be on our stuff here again this week and I know the guys are going to be ready for this challenge.”

Perhaps given New York’s record, their defensive line’s dominance has gone widely unnoticed this year. The Giants’ edge rusher, Brian Burns, already has a league-leading 11 sacks through the first nine games. That puts him on track to potentially hit 21 sacks, which would make him the seventh player all-time to have at least 21 sacks in a season; the league record is 22.5 set by Michael Strahan during his time with the Giants and tied by TJ Watt with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2021. Therefore, Chicago has quite a battle at the line of scrimmage on their hands.

Looking beyond the Giants’ game, Chicago has quite a difficult schedule. Seven of their last eight games of the season are against teams that currently have a non-losing or winning record; four of those games are division games, including two against the Green Bay Packers.

Through the first half of the season, the Bears have struggled to play complementary football. With this tough stretch ahead, they will need that to change.

“We need to be able to win with all three phases and so, when one phase isn’t doing as well as their capable of, the other two need to be able to pick us up and take us the rest of the way and that’s going to be the name of the game,” Johnson said. “We got some really good teams coming up on the schedule, starting with this week, and so, the better Caleb plays, the better off we’re going to be in the long run obviously. But, it’s going to take all of us here - coaches, players. It’s going to take all of us this last stretch.”

Winning these remaining games and securing a playoff spot will require players to step up. One such player that has already risen to the challenge is tight end Colston Loveland. Loveland finished last Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals with six receptions for 118 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winning touchdown right near the end of the game.

His performance earned him the title of NFC Offensive Player of the Week and Johnson certainly believes Loveland has earned that recognition.

“It’s well deserved. I thought he came through for us and it really wasn’t the first week that he’s done that. We’ve kind of put him in some positions there throughout the season so far where fourth quarter and we needed to close a game out and the ball tended to find his hands and so, I think he’s that type of a guy,” Johnson said. “When called upon, he’s going to answer it and the bigger the moment, I think he’s going to rise to the occasion. So, he did a great job there last week. I think it’s a good stepping stone for us. He’s exactly what we thought we were acquiring when we drafted him and so, I’m very pleased with that.”