Bears get long break after practices Tuesday and Wednesday

The reward of winning two road games in seven days will soon be an extended break away.

The Bears will practice Tuesday and Wednesday then coach Lovie Smith is giving his players time off until next Monday when they will begin preparations for the Oct. 22 Monday Night Football game against the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field.

“You want to have a good taste in your mouth going into the bye week, which we have. But a lot of work needs to be done,” Smith said. “In an ideal world for a coach, you want to have the type of game we had yesterday. But when you watch the video, you can correct and make improvements and be critical a lot easier coming off a game like that.”

In my opinion, the bye doesn’t come at an ideal time for the Bears. By and large, they’re relatively healthy, and they seem to be getting into a groove, even on offense. And given the way the defense is playing, you’d imagine the Bears would want to keep rolling along. But they have no say in the matter, and they’ll have a Week 6 bye.

Smith wants his players to take advantage of the break.

“I want the players to get away, enjoy the bye week, get away from football, whatever they want to do,” Smith said, “then get ready for this long haul hopefully we’re going to have the rest of this year.”

Frankly, the schedule isn’t too bad. The Lions at home followed by the Carolina Panthers at home. Then comes the best litmus test yet, another home game against the undefeated Houston Texans — perhaps the most well-rounded team in the league — then a Monday night game in San Francisco.