AZ54

Found this on the web.. https://twitter.com/SportsByRick/status/1074414309474754561

Where did Burton go for a few games? I think as this season has gone along teams are playing the Bears differently. The announcers commented on a Packers CB covering Burton. Early on it was Burton and Robinson, then Miller and Cohen started showing up. Allen Robinson has had the most consistent targets among our receiving corps. Shaheen picked up a couple passes in the last game, stuff Sims wasn't doing. Sims had 6 games with zero targets. Another thing to note is the last two games were some of the lower totals for pass attempts with 28 (GB) and 30 (LA). The lowest attempts all year were against Buffalo with 20 but our median is just a bit higher at 31 pass attempts.

Floyd is a great Robin to Mack's Batman. I hope we find a way to keep him around because even if he's not a sack artist he's so versatile that it really helps the D overall. We can, and will draft another sack artist although I think in time Fitts can develop in that role. I thought MT played great and stayed within the offense. When we needed big plays we converted. What he did keeping plays alive when they blitzed was outstanding and that soft pass to Shaheen on the sideline was huge. No matter what was going on Trubisky never got flustered.

I've been saying this team has many ways to win and can overcome someone's bad game. Last week it was Trubisky with the bad game. This week it was Nagy.

I never watched Sayers live but even in his highlights its' clear Sayers was a really rare athlete. Cohen is a great athlete but he's not in Sayers class iMO.

Damn that sounds good!

I didn't know off the top of my head but a quick G-search shows this: https://www.profootballrumors.com/2018/04/fifth-year-option-nfl "For top-10 picks, the amount of each player’s 2019 option has already been determined. The fifth-year salary for a top-10 pick is equal to the transition tender at the player’s position during his fourth season. So, because the transition tag for quarterbacks this year was $20.922MM, we already know that Mariota’s fifth-year option will be worth that amount." If Mariota is seeing $21mil we have to expect Mitch's 5th year will be around $23mil. The Kirk Cousins effect will hit QB salaries this offseason and I think teams will be a bit less exuberant when writing these checks.

Is this a 3-game rolling average where you average the last 3 game together for each data point, or did you just group each 3 games together with an average value? I think the rolling average will show a trend better.

The next two years will be where we see the biggest cap % taken up by Mack's deal. In that time frame we have players who make significant contributions like Floyd 1yr left, Bullard 1yr left, Robertson-Harris (FA but will be relatively cheap), Bilal Nichols 3yr, James Daniels 3 yr, Jordan Howard 1yr, Tarik Cohen 2yr, Anthony Miller 3yr , Eddie Jackson 2yr, Adam Shaheen 2yr, Roquan Smith 3yr. On top of that we are set at LT with Leno 3yr $9-10mil, NT Goldman 4yr $10-11mil, DE Hicks 3yr $10-12mil. The big piece to figure out will be Trubisky. Trevathan might have one more year here but I wouldn't be surprised to see him get a 1-2yr extension to sort of sync him up with when Roquan gets his new deal. In the near term, 2019/2020 we are ok because of all the young talent. In 2021, the first year of Trubisky's new deal, we will have be prepared to somewhat reload the roster. Pace has 3 drafts to get that done. Pace has opened a good playoff window in just Trubisky's second season.

After facing Aaron Donald and Suh, James Daniels might feel like the Packers D is in slow motion. I'm very impressed by how well he handled himself against the Rams and that has to boost his confidence going forward.

...and we won! Imagine what's going on with the Rams fans after their QB threw 4 INTs and had a fumble. As the announcers said during the game Goff is still a young QB and it showed. What's great about the talking heads on TV is that none of this applies to Trubisky. I also think we're ignoring history when people say we can't win a Superbowl with an average performing young QB, who has ups/downs during the regular season, but who is backup up by a great defense. Check out Roethlisberger's game logs from 2005 vs. Trubisky. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/R/RoetBe00/gamelog/2005/ https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/T/TrubMi00.htm The excitement from the victory over the Rams is simply the fact that for the first time we saw our young defense put together a dominating performance start to finish. We all knew the potential was there because we've seen it for 3 quarters in most games this season. Those of us who are old(er) know that kind of defense can take you a very long way in the playoffs, and even win a Superbowl. I'm glad we have Nagy running the show. He stays positive through the rough spots and stays behind his players. I see him all fired up on the sidelines during games and I'm sure the players see that too. They know the intensity that is expected of them. I think they've all come to learn that a bad game won't end the season for them.

Low man wins... https://twitter.com/keanukargar/status/1071980751372066816/video/1

Ah the energy Vic Fangio brings as he breaksdown Club Dub.. https://www.chicagobears.com/video/week-14-fantasy-bear-to-watch

We need to finish what we started and then just flat bury them. Our pass rush is better than it was in Week 1. Back then Floyd was injured and playing for the first time with a cast. Mack just got off the plane and hadn't played any football. Plus the interior rush is more consistent now that earlier in the season. Roquan Smith also has learned how to play well in our defense so he's out there instead of Kwiatoski. The DBs are just working so well together right now. One of the most impressive things I saw against the Rams was how much the D communicates with each before the snap. That's at all 3 levels from the Dline, LBs, and DBs. These guys are focused on their job and they've studied the opponent. One of two things will happen on offense. Either the Packers gear up to stop the run and Trubisky and the WRs run wild downfield. Or they sit back and try to cover in which case we will run over them. They can't stop both and Nagy will figure it out.

We all know Trubisky didn't play that well. I'm just not going to beat him up for it. If he does this 3 games in a row maybe then. Today? Heck no. Just like I didn't trash Eddie Jackson endlessly for all his missed tackles against Miami. I commented on it for sure because it's something he had to improve upon because, you know, we weren't going anywhere if he kept missing tackles. Or Roquan Smith had to improve his coverage reads because the D would never be elite if he kept giving up big pass plays. Overall this is a young team learning how to play in the NFL and how to win. IMO they are ahead of schedule but each quarter of the season they continue to grow and improve. At this point not only do we look capable of making the playoffs we look capable of competing with any team. Trubisky came back from a partially dislocated shoulder, a far worse injury than I thought he had, and he didn't throw for two weeks. Plus, he and Goff were throwing in some very cold weather. Say what you want but it affects how you grip the ball and it affected both QBs to some extent. Ironically it wasn't too long ago Bears' fans were wishing for Trubisky to play as well as Goff. The INT Trubisky threw when Gabriel was covered at the sideline was a horrible read. No excuse for him making that throw and he knows that. The other two are his usual over-throws to the same area of the field, 15-20yds on the left side of the field. I'm not sure what he's doing mechanically that leads to this consistent inconsistency but he's worked on it before and improved it greatly. Now that he can practice fully I see no reason he won't get back to making these throws. He's still a young QB learning the game but IMO he's shown the work ethic needed to make the necessary improvements for long term success. Unfortunately in life this takes time and requires experience. There's only one way to get the experience. Even so, across the season I think he's shown significant improvement on the field and the statistics back that up. He's not a finished product and he's tracking closely to what most good NFL QBs did in their second season. Even Hall of Fame QBs like Brees and Roethlisberger. He needs another offseason to work on his mechanics. Fortunately in this upcoming offseason, for the first time since he's joined the NFL he won't have to learn a new offense. I think that helps him next year. In the meantime Trubisky will come back and do his part in helping us win games this season. Just like Eddie Jackson, Kyle Fuller, Cody Parkey, Tarik Cohen, Leonard Floyd, Khalil Mack, Allen Robinson, and today Jordan Howard have. My most important takeaway is that this is the first team we've had in a very long time that doesn't require a perfect game all the way around to beat an elite NFL opponent. That's a rare space to be in and I'm celebrating that.

We won and that's all that matters. I said it before but we have multiple ways to win with this roster. Tonight Trubisky was off and the D stepped up big time. Next week who knows? Just keep winning.

We got your back!

Been waiting for this thread to popup but now it's time to speak my peace before the Rams game. First, no matter what happens I don't want Matt Nagy to call that play with the little inside touch pass to Trey Burton. This would be a good week to leave that off the play sheet. Next, let's run left and directly at Aaron Donald with Jordan Howard. Make him do what he does not want to do in fighting off a block to tackle a bit RB, and make him do it all game long. Donald is still quick enough if you whiff on the block he'll take down your RB for a loss before you can say uh-oh. I just feel we need to have him focused on the running game as much as possible. Their rushing D is among the worst in the NFL giving up 5.1 ypc. They may not appear to give up many yards per game but often they get teams into throwing the ball to keep up with their scoring which may mask how bad their run D really is. Play action and read option. Start early with the read option plays to slow down their pass rush. Again we need to make their run D work to cover all options and that means letting Trubisky run. Throw away from Aqib Talib. He's not great but he's good enough and Trubisky should find some good options with Gabriel, Burton, Miller, Cohen, and Shaheen. The D needs to do what they didn't get done last week: shutdown the RB.

Is this the mark of a man who can self-evaluate and improve his grading and draft philosophy? Time will tell but the fact we see a positive learning curve up to this point bodes well for our future.

He will undoubtedly be with McCarthy at his next stop and likely wanted to be let go so he can start his job search early. Everyone else has to stick around and see what happens in Feb.

So is this...

I was laughing at Rodger's press conference on Monday. Players don't talk to the media on Mondays yet he felt had to get out in front of the coach killer criticism he's facing. He's the same guy who has been calling out McCarthy throughout the season for the play calling. Even worse was how he framed his relationship with McCarthy. He didn't intend to but IMO he came off as a being somewhat distant from McCarthy and it just made things appear even worse. For HC candidates they have several years of a elite QB play available to them and plenty of high draft picks in the near term. If you run a different system (ala Josh McDaniels) then you have to wonder how you will get treated by Rodgers if things start off poorly. Fangio has popped up on couple lists of candidates for Green Bay. I think for now he's really happy where he's at and glad he dodged that bullet. I don't really see him as a fit in GB but crazy things happen.

It hasn't been that easy on the injury front but it's certainly better than years past. Especially in light of the fact we tended to get one position group decimated by injuries. This year it has been spread around. We lost our starting RG for at least half the season. We lost our starting TE Shaheen for over half the season, then his backup is on IR. Say what you want about Sims but coaches are putting their best players on the field and he was out there. What's different this year is the new rule allowing two players back from IR. I think that's great for the league but all teams are benefitting from this. On top of that we lost Khalil Mack for two games and he played poorly through an injured ankle in two other games. We lost AR for two games and now our starting QB has missed two games. Then beyond that we've had issues with missed games from key contributors like Bilal Nichols, Acho (IR), McManis, Kush (neck), Anthony MIller dislocated his shoulder and missed games, Aaron Lynch missed games, Gabriel injured his knee against the Bills and I don't think he played much against Detroit the next week, Amukamara missed a couple games where Tolliver covered for him, Callahan had some injury issues too in one or two games. What is different this year is that the team has mostly been finding ways to win. One game might be the pass rush winning the day, another the DBs and the INTs. Others it has been the offense or Trubisky lighting up the score board. In recent years we didn't have many ways to win games, and for a very, very long time we weren't able to pair together a good defense with a good offense.

I agree. It was always the right call to work for the long haul win and try to get a franchise QB out of Trubisky. Now as the 3rd quarter of the season has closed we can clearly see the advantages he gives our offense.