AZ54

A bit? It was pretty classless group on the field for the Vikings with all the late hits and shoves out of bounds. They were clearly trying to bully the Bears but it didn't work. In the past I have liked Harrison Smith but after this game he's off my list of respectable players. That hit on Trubisky was late and clearly leading with the helmet. It should cost him at least $10k and hopefully more.

You do realize when their name is not Trubisky you are supposed to only count the positive plays? Don't even get into the "that should have been an INT" realm either. If this was a Trubisky game there is zero doubt he gets roasted by the national media for all those mistakes. He would have been the guy who was leading the race by far and crashed into the wall with nobody around him. People wouldn't forget how he overthrew a 6'5" Travis Kelce early in the game. It's week 11 why can't he get his timing down on these routes! How he threw a pass at the ankles of a wide open 6'5" Travis Kelce as he crossed the middle for what would have been a big gain late in the game. Or when he threw the ball into the dirt missing an open Kareem Hunt in the right flat near the end of the game. The Pick Six? OMFG when is he ever going to fix his throwing mechanics! Yep, Mitch blew this game. He scored or his turnovers were responsible for nearly as many points for the Rams (21pts) as their offense delivered. At the end of the game, with his team still in it needing just a game tying FG, he fails to step up in the pocket and instead throws one more INT trying to force a ball into deep triple coverage near the endzone. I said back in Week 4 or so, this is Mahomes and with him you live by the big plays and you die by them too. If he does not have elite offensive talent around him you will see more of these high turnover games. If Andy Reid can corral him and bring him back a bit closer to Alex Smith in the future he'll be great. For now I think he's most likely to follow Favre's career (TD leader and INT leader) with the highs and lows, some great seasons and maybe a few not so great. In the meantime, if you can get to him he'll press and make mistakes.

Yes, good deal. I usually don't advocate for trades like this where you give up multiple or even a single high draft pick but in this case Mack is an elite game changing player. Equally important is that he's a high character guy, great in the locker room and on the field on game day. I love seeing him celebrating and congratulating his teammates when they make good plays. For a young rebuilding team looking to find it's way he's a perfect fit.

First INT i agree, not a pass he should have thrown. Second INT I have no clue what happened with Robinson standing still on the route. On the deep passes I said at the beginning of the season I supported him taking those chances so he can learn to make the throws, and when to make the throws. I don't want Trubisky to become like Alex Smith was 3 years into the league and become Captain Checkdown. When we needed a score at the end Trubisky delivered it, and so did Parkey. That was a huge drive. If we can just get Fangio's prevent defense to be more prevent I'd be happy. On a side note: I didn't see much of Bilal Nichols in this game. Maybe I just missed him. Akiem Hicks ...now everyone knows your name and your game. Great win for a young team. This is the kind of game I expected especially from Minnesota with two weeks to prepare. This was their best shot and they came up short. In the next game against them Nagy and Trubisky will be more prepared for what they will see.

https://www.chicagobears.com/news/roster-moves-bears-activate-shaheen-move-sims-to-ir This is good news. I'm surprised they are putting Sims on IR and effectively this is the end of his Bears career. They would rather have Smoke Mizzell in the mix and apparently prefer Brown and Braunecker at TE as well.

Lose and he plays poorly and it will be a bunch of "I told you so" on Monday. If he plays well and we win we're going to need a bigger bus for all the bandwagon media. The most likely outcome is a middle of the road performance because they have a good defense.

https://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/grizzly-detail/chicago-bears-minnesota-vikings-anthony-barr-andrew-sendejo-500701671.html No word on Shaheen. Team is keeping this one very close to the vest. Sims is ruled out for sure so we really need Shaheen this week. I expect him to come off IR on Sat.

I believe we'll have to overcome some mistakes to win this game. I also think it will be the same for the Vikings. That showed up in Week 1 against GB. I believe the Bears have grown a lot in recent weeks and there is more belief among players they can affect the outcome with a single play. This is all part of becoming a playoff contender and I really look forward to the matchup and seeing how far we've come in this process.

3rd and 2 and Rodgers threw the ball in the dirt. I'd love to see him get the Trubisky treatment. Calling Michael Lombardi!

There is no doubt improving the passing game is Nagy's focus. However the Bears have the 11th most rushing plays in the NFL. Nagy is not disregarding the run plays but he is definitely sharing the workload among his RBs. There are some extenuating circumstances for Howards poor YPC such as some games where he's just grinding out the clock on back to back possessions. Still it's clear he's not seeing things as well in this offense and his favorite off-tackle stretch plays more often than not seem to go to Cohen. Howard is a very good back but he's not one to bounce a play from a closed hole in the planned gap to an open hole in the next gap, much less two gaps over. In short, there's no jump cut. Kareem Hunt has a lot of similarities to Howard but I think he has a little more lateral quickness. I think this offseason we are likely to add an Alvin Kamara type RB.

Not bad for someone who can't throw half his passes in bounds. https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bears/mitch-trubisky-named-nfc-offensive-player-week

https://www.chicagobears.com/news/bears-players-visit-children-s-hospital It's awesome to see 33 players give up their day off to visit a children's hospital, especially given the very tight schedule they have in the next 10 days. Best wishes for Will Rodgers' daughter in her battle with Leukemia. We usually see this stuff in the offseason when players have more time available and even then I don't recall seeing a group this large. I think it says a lot about the character of the players on our roster.

Actually the Bills have a better defense than the Vikings. It might not seem that way because they get zero help from their offense. Giving up just 4.9 yards/play is 2nd best in the NFL while the Vikings are 7th and give up 5.3 yards/play. The Bears are right behind Buffalo at 5.0 yards/play. The Vikings are still a very good and sound defense. With Everson Griffen back that helps them but we have Mack back in action. My point is just that Trubisky has already seen this kind of pressure and stout run defense and that was on the road where audibles are hard to do. If you consider the defenses an even match, and on offense there is reasonable mix of good talent on both sides. This game could simply come down to how well Trubisky plays versus Cousins. That should be a huge advantage for the veteran Cousins. I know this much, a veteran team like the Vikings is going to arrive ready to deliver a knockout punch. I think we can deliver a few of our own.

Interesting approach to the analysis. I'm not sure about the ranking at the end of it.

I scanned a couple Vikings forums last night. Since they've been on a bye there were plenty of comments before we played Detroit and they were pretty much of the usual variety talking about the upcoming easy game, Bears are over-rated, etc. The tone changed after we won Sunday because that is the same Detroit team (think active players) they faced and they didn't dominate them like we did. They still have trouble pass protecting and we must take advantage of that in a big way. Cousins will throw up a prayer now and then when he's under pressure. On offense we could use a boost from Shaheen. At a minimum I'd like to have Sims on the field again to help contain some of the edge rush and help the running game. I'm sure someone will say he's not very good blah blah but he's a better blocker inline than Burton, Braunecker, or Brown.

Based on QB Rating, which has it's demerits, Trubisky is now ranked in the top 10 NFL QBs with a 101.6 rating for 2018. He is ahead of Newton, Roethlisberger, Watson, Rodgers, Luck, Brady, Stafford, Carr, Dalton, Garropolo (limited stats), Mariota, and Prescott. I'm not saying he's a top 10 Qb, but on that list there are many QBs who have been paid a ton of money. He's played just 17 games in the NFL and he's not getting much help from the running game. I don't know how the national media can keep putting him at 28th best in the NFL.

Certainly Bears fans are starting to burn their Trubisky jerseys. How many fans are even old enough to even remember seeing this type of performance from a Bears QB in a season before, let alone 9 games? https://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2018111100/2018/REG10/lions@bears "This was Mitch Trubisky’s 3rd game this season with 300+ passing yards and 3+ pass TDs, the most by a Bears QB in a single season since 1950." "Mitchell Trubisky has 2+ passing TDs in each of 5 home games this season"

Trubisky is starting to breakdown the complex defensive coverages. https://www.bleachernation.com/bears/2018/11/08/week-9-video-room-mitch-trubisky-is-starting-to-take-to-matt-nagys-coaching/

Not too quiet... https://twitter.com/adamjahns/status/1060600800534241280?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1060600800534241280&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbearswire.usatoday.com%2F2018%2F11%2F08%2Fallen-robinson-declares-himself-100-percent-healthy%2F

Me too, I really wanted Cam to stick around but at that time we didn't know what would happen in FA. Even so it looked like we'd be better off with him than without him. Javon Wims your time is now, make the most of it.

The good throws when he's off-platform are when he stops thinking and just plays the game. Being too deliberate with his throws was a common issue for him very early in the season. You could see he was more trying to place the ball than just throwing it out there. That can also come from not being certain how the receivers are going to run the route and being uncomfortable with the timing of the play. HIs footwork though is still an issue at times and has led to some errant throws, even on short passes. I worry less about those things because over time and with experience it is correctable. Bad reads into triple coverage in the endzone? I don't want to keep seeing flashbacks to the Cutler era. As I said before when looking at the list of things he had to improve upon at the beginning of the season starting with snaps under center, calling protections, knowing when to change plays at the LOS, throws to his left, reading defenses pre and post snap, knowing when to step up in the pocket vs. when to run, throws downfield, throwing multiple TDs per game, and I"m sure there are more, he's come a long way in just 8 games.

Shaheen represents another chance to take advantage of a defense's weakness. They can't all be on the field but having a viable 2 TE pass catching threat definitely changes what Nagy has to work with when calling plays.

Yeah he's still on the journey to being a top 10 starter but as of now I feel he's definitely in the top 20 and very close to a top 15 QB. I do think it will take the offseason for him to fully settle into the offense and that will allow him to again focus on the fundamentals of the position. Just 8 weeks ago he was still working through how to call the plays in the huddle. I'm really curious to see what this offense looks like when Shaheen is out there with Burton. Once Trubisky gets outside the pocket to extend a play, if Shaheen was in blocking then he can release up field and actually catch the ball. He's a big safety valve right in front of the QB. Reportedly he's close to returning and I'd really like to have him on the field against the Vikings in two weeks.

I forgot to add the complaint that Trubisky can't throw to his left. Early in the season there were also fans upset about all the passes behind the LOS.