Chicago Bears: Chase Daniel can keep winning ways alive

Riding a high off of a primetime Week 11 win, the Chicago Bears now must turn to Chase Daniel on Thanksgiving, but the team can survive still.

With the arrival of Matt Nagy as the new head coach and the roster moves made coming into 2018, the Chicago Bears appeared to be trending up. However, it’s hard to say anyone fully expected how things have transpired in the Windy City through the first 11 weeks of the year as they sit at 7-3 and in firm command of the NFC North.

Their latest feat happened on Sunday Night Football in Week 11 as the Bears took on the second-place team in the division, the Minnesota Vikings, in primetime. With a relatively soft schedule to this point, everyone circled this game as one in which Chicago would be able to prove themselves — which they did, winning in resounding fashion and in an effort more dominant than the final score would indicate.

In that Sunday night win over the Vikes, however, the Bears saw starting quarterback Mitchell Trubisky injured, though he did not leave the game. After the game and a couple of days, though, the injury reported will keep the second-year quarterback out of action on Thanksgiving Day against the Detroit Lions (per NFL.com), making the way for Chase Daniel to start.

Daniel is a name that many NFL fans are familiar with from throughout his many backup gigs over his career. However, the simple fact of the matter is that the Missouri product hasn’t seen the field all that much. For his career, he has only two starts (1-1 record) and has attempted just 78 throws, completing 51 for 480 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

With the limited game-experience of Daniel, there is a viable concern how he will perform against the Lions on Thursday’s opening Turkey Day affair. While that may be so, one thing working in the favor of the Bears and the backup signal-caller is that they can win without him having to do much.

Though Trubisky has been impressive at times in his second year, much of the talk about him has been about his shortcomings. As he’s working in his second offense in as many years in the NFL, Trubisky has been up-and-down and still looks far from a finished product. Even still, though, he’s done enough to keep the Bears in games for the most part (though he’s shone brightly in some) and allowed the defense to do a great deal of the work.

Against a Lions team that has struggled at times with their offensive line play this season and that  has been a sieve defensively in moments, the Bears and Daniel should still find success. Daniel is experienced playing under Nagy, even if he rarely saw time on the field under him, from their time in Kansas City.

More importantly, he’s not going to have to single-handedly win the Bears this game. At this point, that’s not how they’re constructed in Chicago. And on Thanksgiving, that’s a positive as it means Daniel playing in relief can still help guide this team to a victory to maintain their division lead.