The Bears played an overtime game on Sunday, with a Thursday morning up next. That’s not ideal for a team reeling after five straight losses heading on the road to face the NFL’s most dominant team.

That’s what the Bears face on Thanksgiving Day when they go to Detroit.

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They’re coming off an overtime loss where the offense played well, the defense gave up too many big plays and the specials made some big plays and had a few critical errors.

Beating the Lions will be tough. Oddsmakers have Detroit a 10.5-point favorite, and that’s probably fair.

The Bears can be competitive if they play to their potential, which hasn’t happened often enough to get off their skid. It might not be enough no matter what against Detroit, especially with the way they play.

Let’s examine this matchup further and identify questions the Bears must answer against the toughest team on their schedule.

How will Bears handle “Sonic and Knuckles?”

The Bears have allowed at least 105 yards in eight of the last nine games. The Detroit Lions have totaled 105 or more in every game this season, while exceeding 120 nine times.

While there are feature backs out there who might be better individually, there’s no tandem quite like Jahmyr Gibbs and former Bears rusher David Montgomery, who have an excellent nickname. Gibbs is lightning quick. Montgomery’s tough as nails.

They run behind an excellent offensive line that finds way to open lanes for both guys. One brings the hammer. The other flies right by. The Lions average 4.7 yards per carry and will attack a weakness in the Bears defense.

That could spell trouble if Detroit established the run early and then can work in the play action pass to create explosive plays.

Will Caleb Williams keep the good times rolling?

The Bears rookie quarterback had his best game as a professional against Minnesota, with 340 passing yards, two touchdowns, zero picks and 103.1 passer rating. He led the Bears throughout a fourth-quarter comeback that sent the game to overtime.

Williams played well against Brian Flores’ exotic blitz package. He knew when to run, how to set up protections well and when to take the check-down. There were plenty of chances to work the ball down the field, however, and Williams took advantage with several wow passes.

Williams knows that playing well against one stout defense means he’ll get good stopping another.

“This is a totally different defense, a totally different mindset of defense, scheme and players,” Williams said. “Where they’re special, the Vikings may not be. And where the Vikings are special, they may not be on defense. So, it’s a different challenge and like I said before, we look at those and we want to walk straight into those challenges because they only make us better.”

Can the Bears get up off the mat quickly after overtime loss?

They’ll have to, despite so little time between an overtime Sunday game and a Thursday contest that kicks off at 11:30 a.m. CT. That’s a quick turnaround, one that prompted the Bears to switch their entire practice week to walk throughs and focused on recovery.

“You try to take advantage of every moment you get to prepare yourself,” right tackle Darnell Wright said. “Against a team like Detroit, you’ve got to be ready.”

The experience is a routine disrupter. That’s especially for someone like Caleb Williams, who thrives on them. This marks his first Thursday night game, and he wants to be ready.

“Routine-wise, it’s different having to get up and things like that on your Tuesday, which you normally are taking care of your body all day,” Williams said. “It’s mainly mental work and things like that on Tuesday for myself. I had a few mess-ups today with some of the new plays and things like that, just. Because you don’t have that day and a half to go through all the small details that mean a lot and I always talk about.”

He said everything is compacted, with less me-time to rejuvenate. It’s important to learn this routine, though, especially with another Thursday night game down the road.

Can Bears skill players keep the production up?

The Lions defense has few weaknesses, but the pass defense has given up some plays. If Williams can continue Thomas Brown’s trend of getting the ball out quick to top skill players like DJ Moore, Keenan Allen and Cole Kmet, the Bears should be able to move the ball. The Lions front is stout, especially in the middle, so between the tackles runs might be tough. Short passes can get the gains required to stay on schedule, with the explosive potential to do real damage.

It’ll take a steady production level and long, sustained drives to keep the Lions offense off the field and the score tight.

Will Matt Eberflus stem the tide?

The Bears head coach is on the hot steak, with seemingly little chance to retain his position with the team. This long losing streak has done him in, as has the major mistake of hiring offensive coordinator Shane Waldron over Thomas Brown or even Kliff Kingsbury (who ended up in Washington). His game management and work in one-score games hasn’t been good.

That might leave Bears fans to look across the sideline and check out Ben Johnson’s work. The Lions offensive coordinator should be a hot commodity in the head-coach market, should he choose to leave Detroit, and the Bears (among other teams) might want to imagine how his offense would look in the Windy City.