One of the foundation principles that John Fox sought to shore up when he took over as coach was the football character and culture of the Bears. The positive culture of Lovie Smith and leaders like Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher had been replaced by the internal malaise under Marc Trestman and players like Brandon Marshall and others.
The losing has not ended, but the losing mentality has, with players now looking forward to next year but with an eye toward using the final two games of this dismal season as last chances to reinforce the mentality.
“The only thing positive is that we’ve got two more games and we can go and try to make a positive statement out of that,” said linebacker Pernell McPhee, one of the foundation pillars of the internal attitude shift.