Lovie Smith is known for his defensive wizardry. Now he gets a shot at one of his former teams.
After becoming a head coach for the first time with the Chicago Bears in 2004, Lovie Smith turned a struggling Bears team around. Smith took the Bears to Super Bowl XLI in just his third season and would come up short against Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts.
Now Smith gets a chance to once again face the Chicago Bears in 2022. In the previous matchup he had in 2014, Smith’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers did return to Chicago for a Week 12 game. Unfortunately, that wound up being a 21-13 loss.
Smith has to have this game circled on his calendar, especially after things ended in Chicago. Smith took the team to a respectable 10-6 record, but they did not make the playoffs. It was a bad move for Chicago as they hilariously hired Marc Trestman and his “Toolbox of Concepts.” John Fox and Matt Nagy didn’t do much better, but Nagy did win a Division title.
Houston Texans will need a solid game plan to stop Justin Fields and the Bears.
Once the Houston Texans get settled after the draft and whenever the second wave of free agency is over, then we’ll know what kind of team the Texans have. However, Bears quarterback Justin Fields will most likely improve from his rookie season.
Fields’ dual-threat nature will make him tough to gameplan around, especially if Chicago can somehow land Fields’ former teammate (Chris Olave) in the draft. That will be tough as the New York Giants own the Bears’ first-round pick this year.
It’ll be an interesting game, as new Bears GM Ryan Poles has shipped off players from the Ryan Pace era in a true rebuild. It’ll be a clash of two franchises that are in a similar boat as they try to get back to their winning ways.