Chicago Bears just need to beat teams they should beat

The truth is that there probably is no such thing as a must-win this early in the season.

If the Chicago Bears fall to the New York Jets on Sunday, should they bench all the vets, start playing all the kids and pack up their postseason hopes for next year?

Of course not.

But the Bears' impressive 3-1 start behind a dominating defense and potentially explosive offense raised the hopes of their fans everywhere beyond what reasonable expectations for this team might be this year.

Then came the current two-game skid at the hands of the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots, and now we hear fans and media alike fretting about things that may not really be broken.

Do the Bears need to make changes? Or do they just need to play better football?

To the guy who called me on the radio Thursday to ask if the answer to fixing the Bears' pass rush is to move Kylie Fitts into the starting lineup … really?

The Bears still have potentially one of the best pass rushes in the NFL; it's just slumping a bit with its best player clearly playing hurt and limited.

The answer isn't changes. It's much simpler.

Go out and beat a team you should beat, like the Jets.

Here's what Mitch Trubisky has to say about whether this game is a must-win for his Bears.

"Every game is a must-win for me, so it doesn't matter what happened last week," he said. "I mean it's always a must-win. We have the same attitude going every week, and I guess the last couple of weeks because we have been 0-2, I think we're even hungrier.

"I know I am just (ready) to get back to work and get back into that win column.

"I mean, you can label it as whatever you want, but each week we're trying to go 1-0, and every game is a must-win in my mind."

Good answer, kid.

Head coach Matt Nagy thinks both the devil and the answers are in the details.

Asked how much of the Bears' current woes are more from silly mistakes, like multiple illegal formation calls on the offense, than from the starting lineup, Nagy said, "Details. Details. We have to be better detailed, and there has to be a sense of urgency of that's two times now in critical plays where you score a touchdown and it gets called back.

"That can hurt you, that can really hurt you, so overcommunicate when you're out there on the field. I'll take the blame for that; we can't have that, that's the details they have to have."

Nagy was definitely more focused on what the Bears are doing well and how they can win with that and not making changes this week.

"As a team … I think that we're having a team of guys that stick together, so if something bad happens we stick together, I like that. As an offense, we responded to poor third downs and poor red zone early on in the season - we're doing pretty well in that right now. That's got to stay.

"We can't be complacent. We've had good practices throughout the week, and it's shown, you know … to be 50 percent on third down last week is pretty good. To be 4-for-4 in the red zone is pretty good. So I like that our guys are taking that and doing well with that.

"Defensively, we started the year out with the takeaways, with the pressure, getting the ball away. We're still getting some takeaways.

"We're not obviously where we need to be, but that's the ebb and flows of the season, and so how does our defense respond - to two games now - where we can get more takeaways and get more pressure on the quarterback? That's always the challenge to do that."

Whether Sunday's Jets game is a must-win isn't really the point.

It's a game the Bears should win, and so far this year they have won every one of those with the exception of the Dolphins.

If they can keep winning the ones they should, the must-wins become few and far between.

• Hub Arkush, the executive editor of Pro Football Weekly, can be reached at harkush@profootballweekly.com or on Twitter @Hub_Arkush.