Scheduled as a coronation, Cowboys-Bears now reeks of desperation

For Bears fans wondering exactly how things could be worse: When Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was asked about coach Jason Garrett’s NFL future this week — his contract is up at the end of the year — he said merely that he “will be coaching in the NFL next year.”

No word on where.

Like the Bears, the Cowboys are 6-6. Both teams have won three games since the end of September. The Bears have beaten one team with a current winning record — the Cowboys zero.

That’s not exactly the matchup the NFL envisioned when it scheduled Thursday night’s game between two defending division champions at Soldier Field. For different reasons, but with the same results, the Cowboys and Bears are two of the most disappointing teams in football.

When the season began, the game looked like it could be a fight for home-field advantage in the playoffs — or a prime-time coronation for two of the league’s most popular franchises.

Now it merely reeks of desperation.

“Every team in the league — five wins, six wins, seven wins, even eight wins — that is in that win range, we’re all desperate,” guard James Daniels said. “It’s December. These are the games that matter most.”

Particularly for the Bears, whose flickering playoff hopes are one lake breeze away from being extinguished.

“It’s just understanding that this week is a big week,” outside linebacker Khalil Mack said. “Every game from here on out is going to be a big game. We’re just looking forward to the challenge.”

The Cowboys, amazingly, lead a historically inept NFC East by one game over the Eagles. A loss Thursday would all but eliminate them from wild-card consideration.

But they have a path to the playoffs. Garrett makes sure his players know it.

“I think it’s important for everybody to understand where we are,” he said. “I think it’s important for them to understand that we control our own destiny. Then you have to dig in for one game at a time, one day’s preparation for one game at a time.

“That’s really the approach we’ve always taken: to understand that we have everything in front of us.”

The Bears don’t.

Football Outsiders gives them a 3.6 percent chance of making the playoffs. A New York Times simulation estimates they have a 63 percent chance of reaching the postseason even if they win their remaining four games — the toughest stretch of schedule the Bears have seen all year.

“We know we have our hands full the next coming games, but as long as we just home in on the Dallas Cowboys at home — and we’ve been doing that all year — who knows?” coach Matt Nagy said. “We’re in a position where we need help. But none of that matters if we don’t handle our business.”

The Bears are in this position, of course, because they’ve failed to.

They went 42 days between wins but have since taken three of four — though the victories came against the moribund Lions (twice) and Giants. Quarterback Mitch Trubisky played his best game of the year against a porous Lions defense on Thanksgiving, posting a season-best 118.1 passer rating and 338 passing yards. That offered at least a glimmer of progress.

Competent offenses, though, have had their way with the Bears. Five of the six quarterbacks to beat the Bears this season have started every game for their team. So has Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, whose offense leads the NFL in yards per game.

Of the six quarterbacks the Bears have beaten, two are no longer starters, three didn’t begin the year as starters and one is the Vikings’ Kirk Cousins.

The winning stretch means that “fun is back, and you have that confidence that gets a little higher,” Nagy said. But his narrative — that his team simply got fed up after losing four straight — is less believable than the fact the Bears hit a dip in their schedule.

“I think just we as a team, we as coaches, you get to a point where enough’s enough,” Nagy said. “And at some point if there’s any pressing — that’s everybody — you forget all that. You don’t care, and you just go play.”

It’s easier to play loose, of course, when you have long-shot odds.

“It should be electric, man,” left tackle Charles Leno said. “We haven’t had a Thursday night game since, what, Week 1?”

Week 1 was so full of promise for both teams.

It feels like so long ago.

“It doesn’t matter whether you start good, if you start bad, you’ve got to finish strong,” Trubisky said. “That’s what we want to do.”