The 2026 NFL Schedule will officially release on Thursday night, but there have been some leaks. The Chicago Bears are reportedly playing the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving, setting up a perfect opportunity for redemption.
It's hard to forget what happened on Thanksgiving in 2024.
The Chicago Bears traveled to Detroit to face the Lions. At that time, Matt Eberflus was the head coach and the team was on a five-game losing streak.
Entering the fourth quarter, the Bears were down 23-7. Two touchdown drives for the Bears and three empty possessions from the Lions brought the game within three points.
Caleb Williams was given one final drive with 3:31 left in the game. The Bears' rookie quarterback connected on some chain-moving plays, 25 yards, 14 yards, and a 12-yard run to name a few.
Chicago moved the ball, but after the Lions sacked Williams on second-and-20, all hope had evaporated. The Bears faced a third-and-26 from the Lions' 41-yard line with 32 seconds on the clock. Williams tried to get the offense organized after the 6-yard loss and valuable time ticked off the clock. The ball was snapped with six seconds left in the game, and Williams' long pass attempt to Rome Odunze fell incomplete.
Eberflus watched the offense's dysfunction all while holding onto one final timeout. He defended the team's clock management in the postgame press conference. The following day, Eberflus was fired.
It's a day that's hard to forget for Bears fans, but Eberflus' firing eventually led to Chicago landing Ben Johnson. The rest is history. The Bears went on to win the NFC North and defeated the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round.
This upcoming season, the Bears will be back in Detroit on Thanksgiving to face the Lions, according to Jordan Schultz.
It's the perfect opportunity to erase the Thanksgiving disaster and create new memories at Ford Field. It's also another opportunity for Chicago to regain its grip against Detroit in the NFC North rivalry.
Since the 2022 season, the Lions have dominated in those matchups, winning seven of the last eight games. The last time the Bears defeated the Lions was the 28-13 victory on December 10 at Soldier Field in 2023.
Although the Bears won the NFC North last season, Johnson didn't secure a victory over his previous team. Dan Campbell's Lions blew out Johnson's Bears, 52-21, in the Week 2 game and sent Chicago into the playoffs with a 19-16 loss at Soldier Field in the final week of the regular season.
The Bears need to prove that the 2025 season wasn't the pinnacle of Johnson's time in Chicago and start beating the Lions, again. The Bears have higher aspirations than making the Divisional Round, and Johnson's team will have to go through the NFC North to put them in the best position to achieve those goals.
There is still a long time before the Bears play the Lions on Thanksgiving, but everyone already knows the broadcast will feature clips from 2024. The best way to prevent those clips from resurfacing anymore than they should would be to simply win, and they do so again against the Lions for the rematch in Chicago.