AZ54

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.

The good news is they still have the GM who gave Jimmy Graham all this money! https://overthecap.com/player/jimmy-graham/1503/

We don't all agree Daniel plays bette than Trubisky. The missing long game really hurt us against the Giants and it fed right into what their DC Bettcher loves to do with blitzes. That rattled Daniel enough early on that he could never relax enough to look at the snap. They weren't that bad but you can't catch anything if you aren't looking at it when it's coming at you. You are correct this is largely the same criticism on blitz reads Truisky had early in the season. He corrected it and I expect in time Daniel will too but no matter what the intermediate-to-long passing game will never be as productive as it is with Trubisky. Which is just like most backups in the NFL.

This far into his rehab this is good news. If true then in another week he should start showing up around practice doing light work.

I fully support this.

How ironic that Kansas City still has on its roster the player who beat up his pregnant girlfriend and choked her. https://pistolsfiringblog.com/report-says-tyreek-hills-girlfriend-was-pregnant/

Coward is a ERFA. Of course we can easily keep him around next year but if he's seriously viewed as the future starter at RT then IMO Pace would be wise to give him a decent low-level deal, perhaps $3mil/yr for 3 years with some guarantee. Otherwise if Coward plays great next year then in 2020 we'll be paying him $8-10mil. The team takes a risk on him while Coward gets something good now and will still be young enough (28yr old) to really cash in 3 years later. https://overthecap.com/player/rashaad-coward/6177/

My daughter was at their game today cheering on her Cardinals. Packer fans had to be wondering how in the world a Cards ended up in Green Bay, and then how in the world they lost.

After two games it should be clear this offense runs better, much better, with Trubisky versus Daniel. Daniel was horrible today and couldn't even focus on basics like handling a snap. He made poor reads on numerous blitzes and it's clear he really likes to throw to Robinson and Cohen. Officials stole a TD from Tarik Cohen. Cohen is a matchup problem and Nagy knows how to use him. I have no issues with Nagy calling the timeout before the half. TV announcers made a big deal of it but we have Tarik Cohen on the return and might have had the ball at midfield. A 10-15 yard pass and we're the team kicking the FG before halftime. Defense just can't give up 18yards to Barkley on a certain running down. I was surprised at the lack of pass rush at times and especially in overtime. Saquon Barkley will be the next RB to rush for over 2000 yards. Beat the Rams and everything will be as it should be. I'm still mad at Harrison Smith.

It's going to be very interesting what they do with Coward and I agree he'll be a future starter at RT. Is that next year? I'm glad we have Hiestand helping to make that decision. In an ideal situation we get to the last week or two and have meaningless games where we can let Coward get some snaps. Long is on the books for 3 more years but with just a $1.5mil guarantee in 2019 and again in 2020. i'd like to see if we could lower Long's cap hit to maybe $5mil/yr in exchange for giving him some more guaranteed money. With his injury history he's not likely to get much in FA if we cut him. He'd likely take a chance on a 1yr deal somewhere hoping to cash in afterwards. With the Bears a team on the rise there could be a middle ground for Pace and Long to agree on.

That may well be true. I was raised to give people a chance to redeem themselves and I still believe that's the right thing to do. I was once thanked by a parole officer for helping their parolee get back as productive members of society. I understand and I'm accustom to being in the minority of opinion, especially these days. Regardless I'm going to be honest with my opinion. By the way I did not say bring Hunt in now. This is absolutely the wrong moment for that. I said I'd be keeping an eye on this situation and doing my own due diligence. If this is all there is in his history, then based on this incident alone I would not be opposed to signing him in the future. I'll have to wait and see what else comes out. Equally as concerning is that he was not forthcoming with the Chiefs' front office. That puts a question mark on any future discussions with him and it will take years for him to regain that level of trust again. I'm not a chronic apologizer for people's bad behavior. You will note that I wanted nothing to do with a serial abuser like Ruben Foster. Foster's issues go beyond women too IMO and that was apparent in his behavior at the combine. As the 49ers found out, you can give someone a second chance but reality is it doesn't always work out. You have to be prepared to move on and you must limit your risk/exposure.