AZ54

We need to see the youngsters in the next two games. Bench Amukamara and let Tolliver play. We're already seeing Horsted and Holtz at TE. It's time to give Nall some carries and see what happens. Ridley needs more snaps (he did today) as does Wims, even if some come at the expense of Robinson. We might as well take care of the best WR we have but this also has to be measured against making sure Trubisky has every opportunity to continue his improvement. There were at least two passes today where receivers either slipped (Cohen) or quit on routes (Miller) and the ball looked like it was thrown to nobody.

Two penalties...one called one (Pass Interference) not called at the end of the game. If grabbing a WRs arm before the ball arrives is not PI then what is?

Montgomery will not be HoF caliber but he can be the bell cow because of his versatility. He needs a Kamara type to handle 10 snaps each game. Cohen is not that player, he's the 3rd down specialist.

IIRC Braunecker had concussion issues last year too. If it weren't a recurring issue I'd be more inclined to think he'll stick around. He's still a fringe roster player who at this point has already been out played in the passing game by two players who weren't on the team to start the season: Holtz and Horsted. He's a good special teams player and emergency backup at TE. He might stick around especially because there's a chance he could get a Superbowl ring but anytime you go on IR because of a concussion it's not a good thing. They could have easily put Horsted back on the practice squad when Braunecker was ready to return but they chose the rookie. I saw rumors this past week that Trevathan was getting close to returning. Clearly if we make the playoffs we'd want him on the roster. The choice between putting him or Braunecker on IR was an easy one.

Braunecker to IR to make room. He won't be back full strength but having his experience in the rotation so others get less snaps will be a big help to our Dline. https://www.chicagobears.com/news/roster-moves-hicks-activated-braunecker-to-ir I would not be surprised at all if Braunecker retires this offseason. He has long term plans to be a doctor or medical researcher. Weeks off trying to recover from another concussion might be the trigger for him to make the career change.

I was against the signing thinking we paid too much for him. After watching him all season he's a flat out stud on special teams both as a returner and cover guy. Nobody can stop him from getting downfield first on punt coverage. We pay tens of millions of dollars for a defense to stop an opponent from gaining 10 yards. Patterson can do that on each punt by preventing a return. On top of that he occasionally offers enough of a spark on offense to give us a big play. I don't think we've been able to truly utilize him mainly because our TEs have been so weak in the passing game. As a LB, if you see Shaheen coming at you are you worried that he'll go out on a route and catch a pass behind you? Or do you just assume he's blocking for Patterson who was coming behind the LOS on a possible jet sweep play? I'd just go after the player most likely to get the ball. Missing Patterson could mean giving up a big play. Missing Shaheen might mean giving up 10 yds... at most.

I'm happier with him vs. Alshon. Stats are similar but I still think ARob is a better fit in the locker room. We absolutely should extend him for 4 years. First off he's the right type of player you want to extend. Second we can structure the contract so we lower his 2020 cap hit from $15mil (currently) to as low as we want. Let's just say we take his cap hit from $15mil to $5mil. That alone gets the team from around $13mil to $23mil. I'm also one of the few who wants to extend Leonard Floyd for 3 years. His versatility is still an important part of our defense. If he develops into the pass rusher we expected he'll still be young enough to get his really big contract. We can do the same on the contract structure so we open up another $5-10mil for 2020. Call it $30mil in cap space. Kyle Long is getting cut which frees up $8mil now you have $38mil. Prince is another candidate to be cut. I still like him but reality is at 31 years old in 2020 he's not likely to be more durable. Tolliver looks ready to take over the spot. Add another $8mil now we have $46mil. Gabriel's concussion issues concern me. I like him and he's a consistent part of the offense when he's available but one more concussion and he could done (if he's not now). We have WRs waiting in the wings (Wims/Ridley) who have already shown similar production in games. Cutting him saves $4.5mil now we have $50.5mil. I see zero reason we can't extend Robinson's contract and free up this cap space. With that we can look at doing a 2 year deal with Trevathan (should be modest) and keep Kwit. Eddie Jackson also deserves a contract extension. It won't be as high as it was looking like last year but it will still be a big deal. Even with that Pace can still be a player in the FA market to bolster depth at OLB, TE, OT, WR.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say they grew more lax calling holding penalties the more focused they got on QB safety and keeping them from getting injured. That comes from the owners who understandably want to protect their main asset. Fans feel the same way when it's their QB who got injured.

I'm in agreement here, TE is one of the top priorities. Small fast WRs are found on day 3 in the draft every year. I also agree with Ashkum that a legit #2 RB is a higher need than the WR. Cohen is not an RB2, he's an RB3. I'd like to see more of Nall as a runner but it doesn't appear we'll see that, and Holtz has taken over the role (FB/H-back) I used to think Nall could fill. That's an indication Nall isn't a fit there. We can find a good RB2 on day 3 too.

I think earlier in the year I put him right behind Kyle Long for worst blocker on the Oline. Unfortunately we put our backup OT Coward at RG and now with Massie out we have our other backup OT Lucas at RT. At least I can say Hiestand was right about keeping both of them. The only other option I was hoping for was that Bars was ready to take over at RG and we could have moved Coward to LT. Leno's not going anywhere unless we know his replacement is on the roster. That won't happen until training camp next year. I agree with the engagement, contract, and now a baby is reportedly on the way, are all distractions that pulled his focus away from the job. Hopefully he can turn it around this offseason. He was always an average talent who succeeded by not making the big mistakes. Not this year.

We really need someone with some speed among the WR corps. Gabriel has serious concussion issues but we should expect to see someone fast added this offseason.

It must be fake news but Watson only completed 56% of his passes and had two INTs.

Going into this offseason this young team will know not to take anything for granted. I think there will be a much better focus on the details of what needs to be done from the coaches all the way down.

The Bears won 3 games in 11 days. First, that is always a difficult challenge (see Dallas who didn't travel on T-day). In that short time a lot has changed.

https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/news/bears-javon-wims-injury-not-major/ Wims only suffered a slight knee sprain in Thursday's win over the Cowboys, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports. Wims' injury isn't deemed to be major. However, a recovery timeline has yet to be announced. Having played on Thursday, the 25-year-old has the benefit of a few extra days to heal before the Bears take on Green Bay in Week 15. ----------------- I wouldn't be surprised to see him play against GB given the extra days of rest.

Roquan, Trevathan, Prince, and Hicks all out. I don't like prevent defenses unless you are inside 4min with a big lead, or maybe last min or so. IMO we went into prevent too early, around the 7min mark. We had key players out and I think it affected some things in the prevent that ended up giving up more yards and let them stop the clock. Initially I think Pagano wanted to protect the sidelines and was willing to give up some easy plays in order to force Dallas to burn their timeouts or burn the clock. We didn't always do that well. Then late in the game it seemed they constantly went toward Tolliver and the coverage on big pass near the end that gave them the FG was totally blown. The DB went for the INT where if he just tackles the WR at the 20yd line and keeps him in bounds that game was over right there. I recall seeing about 20sec left when he caught it, and maybe 12-14 when he got out of bounds. If he's tackled inbounds by the time the offense runs 30 yd downfield and gets set Dallas might have had time for one more play. Even if they clock it, there would be a few seconds left and they could choose FG try or TD. Instead we missed the INT and then we left the sideline open and the WR ran for another 10 yd and stopped the clock.

I've been hard on our HC this year and think he's been a big part of the problem with our offense. I just watched his press conference and I'm going to give him some credit for turning it around. One of my criticisms weeks ago was that after Montgomery fumbled he never gave him the ball again in that game. Last night, after Monty's fumble and we were setting up for our next offensive series I told my son if Nagy has learned anything he'll give Montgomery the ball on this play. Lo and behold he did just that and Monty gained 5 yards off LT. Around the 18min mark he is asked about the fumble and his response is one of trust in his young RB. He even mentions the fact he just gave him the ball again on the very next play. https://www.chicagobears.com/video/nagy-we-re-mentally-callused-right-now We saw it on the field too when Trubisky threw an incomplete pass to Wims in the endzone. some have argued there was PI there. Anyway, after the play Tru gave Wims a thumbs up, and threw it right to him again on the next play. It was incomplete and Wims was injured on the play. That might be the first time I've seen Trubisky express that kind of confidence in a player not named Allen Robinson. I think he made good reads on both plays choosing to go at the WR who was 1on1 with a LB. All of this just tells me guys are starting to play for each other and they're not pointing fingers when something goes wrong.

I was assured this couldn't happen against a top 10 defense.

Lots of positives in this game especially overcoming some negative plays (INT/fumble/Miller drop).

I'm with you. Eddie had a pretty significant injury and played through it to his best ability but it clearly affected him. To be criticizing him for a lack of touchbacks when for about half the season he's been limited in his leg strength doesn't make sense to me. It was also obvious during that time he was not kicking with the same technique and it affected his accuracy. The last game was the first time I felt he looked like he did at the beginning of the season, both on kickoffs and FGs. Let's see how he finishes the season. Plus the Bears kept Eddy around despite knowing many of the options available when he was injured. From what I've seen, none of those other options have panned out for their respective teams. I like the fact the Bears stuck with Eddy through the injury. There is no problem with the team bringing in good competition for him this offseason either. Let him keep working to prove he belongs.

We must run the ball in this game and we'll need more out of our TEs, whoever they may be. TEs need to be good at blocking or good getting out in the route for quick gains to offset the pass rush. Dallas' Oline against our Dline is a concern but if there is a game where you want Kwit playing run defense it's this one. On top of that Roquan is back to elite play. Those two need to keep Zeke in check. Dallas started off the season with NYG, Wash, and MIami. At 3-0 they were on the way to the Superbowl. Since then they are 3-4 with two of those wins against the Giants and Lions. These two teams might as well be looking in the mirror as at each other. I'll say the better QB wins the day and I have no idea which one that will be.

Good find, not a lot of analysis and no happy faces.

Immature in what ways? By all accounts he's putting in the time. Is he immature like Goff who makes similar mistakes reading defenses?

One thing we know is that neither Mahomes nor Watson have been through the crucible like Trubisky has. If he somehow survives through these mistakes and stays on the learning curve to where he needs to be we'll have a very mentally tough QB. I watched Russell Wilson make several overthrows tonight and all he gets is a comment that it was just outside the receivers hands. That is not meant to compare QBs it's a comparison of comments about bad passes. Trubisky was about 6" behind AMiller, still hitting him perfectly in stride over the shoulder on one 30yd completion, and Troy Aikman was telling us how under-thrown the ball was. He started to say similar stuff on the next 30yd pass to Miller then just moved on to talking about how David Blough could bring back Detroit to win the game. When the facts don't fit your story just change the subject and ignore the facts.

Every time I watch Watson play I don't see a QB who is much different than what Trubisky shows on the field. That includes the game against NE. Sometimes he's holding onto the ball too long, sometimes he's inaccurate, sometimes he's really good. Mahomes seems to read defenses better than both yet his numbers, both last year after he lost Kareem Hunt, and this year when he lost Hill fall into normal mix. Among abusers there's a reason they kept Hill over Hunt. Mahomes is at the top but IMO all three QBs can lead a winning roster. That means Watson and then Trubisky need more help around them. I don't think this past game was Trubisky's renaissance but it might be the beginning of an upward trend that gets him there. If he arrives there it won't be until next year.