Chicago Bears vs. Kansas City Chiefs: Three Things To Watch
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's Patrick Mahomes vs. Mitchell Trubisky, Matt Nagy vs. his mentor Andy Reid, and a Super Bowl contender vs. a super disappointing team. That last one saps a little of the juice out of this one, but I've still got you covered with three things to watch.
MAHOMES CHALLENGE: You probably don't need me to tell you to watch Patrick Mahomes. He's regressed statistically from his 50 TD year in 2018, but don't let that fool you. The Chiefs'offense is still really good and so is Mahomes.
He only has nine TD passes in his last 6 starts, but he's second in the NFL in QBR, ESPN's quarterback rating system, and the Chiefs are second in the league in yards per play. Expect the Bears good defense to be challenged and if they tackle like they did at times against the Packers last week, it could be a very long night for them.
K.C. DEFENSE: That Chiefs defense may be better than you think. They've been long known as the team's big weakness and even early this season they struggled a bit. However, they've been dominant lately allowing just over 11 points per game during their current four game winning streak.
Additionally, Football Outsiders has them as the eleventh-ranked defense when you weigh in strength of opponents. They're also tied for sixth in the league with 14 interceptions so watch out for a couple Trubisky turnovers. He's thrown seven interceptions in his last five games. Also, keep in mind, Trubisky has done almost all of his good work against bad defenses this year.
A IS FOR EFFORT: Finally, what will the Bears effort look like now that they've been eliminated from playoff contention? It's their first so-called meaningless game under Matt Nagy.
Well, despite their very disappointing season, there hasn't been much in-fighting with this team, and the players seem to have stayed pretty positive in the locker room. All things considered, I don't think effort will be an issue, especially with this game being so important to Matt Nagy, a coach whose players do seem to truly like and respect.