The Rams have had a sensational rise in the past two seasons, going from four wins in 2016 to 13 wins in 2018 and an appearance in Super Bowl 53. Unfortunately for the Rams, Sean McVay and Jared Goff were stumped by Bill Belichick and the Patriots in what should serve as a cautionary tale for anybody interested in Bears' Super Bowl futures. To be clear, these are two separate franchises and nothing that happened in Atlanta on Sunday night precludes the Bears from winning Super Bowl LIV at Hard Rock Stadium. But when we look at how the Bears were constructed and all the ways that they resemble the Rams, you’d be doing yourself a disservice as a bettor to pretend like it doesn’t matter at all. __Play to win:__ [Enter our free contests to win BetChicago prize packs and even cash!](https://betchicago.chalkline.com/) The primary issues for the Rams against the Patriots were the post-snap decisions from Goff and the inability of McVay to adjust to the fronts that Belichick and soon-to-be Miami head coach (current Patriots defensive coordinator) Brian Flores [threw at him.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMcLDKQ1pxI) And while we can’t say with certainty that those struggles were the result of inexperience, it does appears that it was at least a factor. Looking at the Bears, it’s pretty easy to see how the same issues could arise. Matt Nagy is an offensive innovator who was often able scheme over inconsistency from a young offense, particularly in high-leverage situations. Mitchell Trubisky is a solid athlete who is still learning the subtleties of the most nuanced position in professional sports. They were imperfect, but the flashes were often mesmerizing. And when they weren’t good enough, they were lucky to have the NFL’s most disruptive defense at their side. That’s at least one advantage that they have over the Rams. Aaron Donald is fantastic and Wade Phillips attack opposing offenses, but the overall quality of Los Angeles defense isn’t in the same realm as Chicago’s defense. All that being said, the defense wasn’t the reason the Rams lost on Sunday night. Their playmakers showed up and made plays the way that you’d expect the Bears defense would, holding the Patriots to 13 points by ratcheting up the intensity on third down (where they held New England to just three conversions in 12 attempts). The Rams lost because Goff and McVay weren’t ready for the stage and the opponent. It doesn’t mean they’ll never get there, though we’ve seen other franchises’ forward momentum halted by losses like this (Cam Newton with the Panthers and Matt Ryan with the Falcons come to mind recently). It just means that the 24-year-old quarterback and the 33-year-old head coach still have a lot to learn. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMcLDKQ1pxI" class="embedly-card" data-card-width="100%" data-card-controls="0">Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMcLDKQ1pxI</a> Coming this far this fast and at such a young age already says a lot about their ability to adapt to the incredible demands of being their respective roles. But the experiences gained on Sunday night has the obvious potential to help them. The problem is, there isn’t a substitute for learning that lesson. So as the Bears look towards Super Bowl 54 as their best chance to compete for a championship since Super Bowl 41, it’s reasonable to be concerned if they’ll have to deal with a similar learning curve. From a general standpoint, it’s nothing to lose sleep over. The path to the Super Bowl isn’t a linear one, so there’s nothing that says that the Bears’ learning curve will parallel the Rams’. Yet, from a gambling standpoint, that concern has to be weighed against the odds. We have to try to assign value to the concern. Right now, the Bears are 14/1 at Westgate to win Super Bowl 54 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. Those are the [fifth-shortest](http://www.vegasinsider.com/nfl/odds/futures/) odds in the NFL, with the Saints and Chiefs joining tonight’s Super Bowl participants as the only teams with a better shot of winning in the eyes of oddsmakers. And given what we saw from Trubisky and Nagy in 2018, those odds do seem short when you try to project what the Bears would have looked like in the Rams’ place on Sunday night. __More:__ [Super Bowl 53 prop bet results](https://www.betchicago.com/super-bowl-53-prop-bets-live-updated-results) Trubisky struggled with spatial awareness at times and he’s still thrown off his game when he’s forced to work too far into his progressions. Nagy got too cute at times and had a couple instances during the season where he mishandled game situations involving the clock or a decision. With two weeks to prepare and over 100 million people watching, the Super Bowl has a tendency to magnify those decisions. So it’s reasonable to wonder if Nagy and Trubisky would be ready to handle that stage with their franchise’s progression following behind the Rams’ by a year. It’s possible that the Bears are more like the Eagles than the Rams, but it’s hard to make the comparison considering the extraordinary circumstances of Philadelphia winning their title with backup quarterback. The NFL is a copycat league, sure, but that’s a formula too risky to replicate. The Bears and Rams are similar because they’ve made similar organizational decisions. So while a Rams loss doesn’t mean that the Bears are guaranteed to fall short in the same ways, it does feel like it could be foreshadowing in all the ways that make a risk-averse person’s stomach turn. Even if the Bears take the next logical step in their progression as a franchise and rise towards the top of the NFC, they might not have what it takes to get over the hump in their first Super Bowl -- whenever they make that appearance. Which makes 14/1 feel like too steep a price to pay in 2019-20. __Read on:__ [Super Bowl 53 a reminder that defense can still be the trump card.](https://www.betchicago.com/super-bowl-53-defense-matters-NFL)