BearFan2000

That's one thing the Bears have always been good with. Both players and organization look for ways to give back to the community. These stories are always a joy to read.

My hopes were anywhere between 8-8 and 10-6 and possibly a playoff birth. Would not have guessed we'd not only win the division but clinch it with 2 games to play. If we win those two and LA stumbles one more time we would wind up the #2 seed in the conference. The Bears have exceeded my expectations as well as many other's expectations. At the very least we are likely to be the 3 seed and host the 6th seed. My expectations for this year have jumped to a playoff win. Anything over that is gravy. And to think we're still a work in progress and have a young core. The Bears aren't going away as quickly as they rose up.

LOL well done. Especially liked the little girl holding the big L for loser. Didn't like the original commercial but is actually true to his character at the end of the day it's always all about himself. People are starting to wake up and see him for the selfish "you know what" that he is.

I’d say as long as we have even a slim shot at the #1 or #2 seed, then we play to win. We rest guys only if they are dinged and they can use the time to get heathy. If we’re up big late in games then pull guys. All we need is to win out and if LA stumbles at all we move up to #2.

Now that’s art!

After yesterday's slate of game the playoff picture becomes more interesting. Some key matchups Rams lost and dropped to 11-3 (now only 1 game up on us. We won and moved up to 10-4 Cowboys lost and dropped to 8-6 Philly with a win at 7-7 only a game back of the Cowboys. Minnesota won moving them to 7-6-1 Seattle lost and dropped to 8-6 Saints and Panthers play tonight. A saint's win all but cements them as the #1 seed while Carolina would drop to 6-8 and essentially knocks them out. Should the Rams lose one more and we win out we could end up the #2 seed we hold the tie breaker between us and LA. It's not likely given the remaining schedules but there is a slim chance. I wouldn't have picked the Eagles over the Rams yesterday either. As it stands now #1 seed Saints (Tonight @ CAR, vs Pit, vs CAR) Likely finish 13-3. I feel they could lose one of the Carolina games or Pitt. #2 seed Rams (@ AZ, vs SF) likely finish 13-3. Both AZ and SF are trash. If the Rams can't beat both them they don't deserve a first round bye. #3 seed Bears (@ SF, @ Min) likely finish 12-4. I believe we can win out. Minn is likely playing for a playoff spot in week 17 they will give us all we can handle. #4 seed Dallas (vs TB, @ NYG) likely finish 10-6 they have a favorable bounce back game after getting shutout by the Colts. They should beat the Giants. #5 seed Seahawks (vs KC, vs AZ) likely finish 9-7 I don't think they get past the Chiefs but handle the Cards easily. #6 seed Vikings (@ Det, vs CHI) likely finish 8-7-1 They should beat Detroit but it will be a tough one. I see them losing to us but again a close hard fought one) in the hunt Philly (vs Hou, @ Wash) likely finish 8-8 they will have a tough time against Houston, but I think they take care of the Skins) Washington (@ Ten, vs Wash) likely finish 7-9 I don't see them winning either of their remaining games. If they were to win one my guess would be Philly but won't matter. I'll be rooting hard for Detroit next week. A loss and they move to 7-7-1 and are going to need help get the #6 seed. I can see Philly pushing them for that last spot. We could essentially have a shot at knocking the Vikings out of the playoffs in week 17. How awesome would it be to have eliminated both the Packers and the Vikings from the playoffs in a 3 week span? Should be an interesting next two weeks.

Sure feels good! What a good team win. Only negatives were the fake punt, the 3rd and short wildcat fumble, and Jackson getting hurt. But plenty to be happy with. Mitch looked much more calm and composed. I’m so glad it was us that broke His streak which I feel is inflated due his hug rate of throw aways. Now for the second year he can watch the playoffs from home! We got a monkey off our back today. Playoff bound for the first time since 2010. Bear Down!!!

What's Callahan's contract situation is he a FA after this season? He's had his struggles staying healthy at times. I do think he's worth resigning because of his play when healthy. If we can keep him for a reasonable price I think it'd be worth it. But then again McManis has played well for us, it's his opportunity to step up. Next man up.

Beating the Pack at home, knocking them out of playoff hopes, and clinching our division is like killing a flock of birds with one stone. It would be sweet revenge. I want the Bears to absolutely murder the packers to the point someone will need to call 9-1-1 to ship their lifeless corpse back to GB. Az is right we are a vastly different team not only personal wise but on field play. We are vastly improved that gap between GB and Chicago has disappeared. Rodgers better have his life insurance policy up to date. Bring it on!

Thanks for taking the time to hash all those scenarios. The NFL is where weird things can happen and with 3 weeks to go who knows how it all shakes out. We do have a slim shot at a 1 or 2 seed and for that to happen either NO or LA needs to stumble. Both have favorable schedules the rest of the way. Possibly NO's is harder as they face Carolina twice, Pit is out of playoff contention or at least on the bubble. Carolina is fighting for a wild card. and needs to win out if possible. Rams have Philly who like Carolina is playing for something. AZ and SF have nothing but draft position to play for. If one of them stumbles I feel like it'd be NO but that isn't a given. All we can control is guaranteeing us at least a #3 seed meaning we need to go 2-1 or 3-0. Beat GB, and lock up the division while effectively ending any hopes the cheeseheads have at playoffs. SF has nothing to play for other than draft position, and By week 17 the vikings could be out of contention as well. I'd like to see us win out and finish 11-5 and let the seeding fall the way it will. Worst case we host a home wild card game and likely play on the road for the division round game. If we win the first game and lose or even make it to the conference championship this season will have been a huge step in the right direction. I'm proud of my Bears they have really got things turned around and have a firm stepping stone for next season and beyond.

Second that. As opposed to seasons past instead of finding ways to lose we found a way to win. Tonight it was the D coming up big all night long. We held the best RB in the league to a forgettable night, he had what one good run? We held one of the leagues best offenses to 6 points They didn't sniff the end zone. On a night where Trubiskey was clearly off target much of the night. I agree with Mongo as one of his picks was a bad read and should not have been thrown. The other two if they are on target are big plays. He had a bad game, it happens to all QB's. It's on him now to come out next week and clean up his accuracy which starts with his footwork. I noticed he wasn't always setting his feet to throw. My takeaways - We faced one of the top teams in the NFL in prime time last night, and we did not play scared, we weren't intimidated we took the fight to them. I freaking love that about this team, you can see the confidence growing, they believe in each other and in themselves that they can beat anyone. Over the years I've watch us play not to lose or play scared. I feel like this is an underrated culture shift that has taken place. The Bears didn't look at the Rams and think "they're 11-1 how can we beat them?" They approached it like "Challenge accepted" This bodes well for us going forward. - This time last year our record was flipped, we were 4-9 and went 1-3 the rest of the way to finish 5-11. We could possibly end our season 11-5. That is a heck of a turnaround. Granted our poor record last seasons made for a more favorable schedule this year but such was also the case previous years. Trestman left us with a dumpster fire that Fox took over. but yet in 3 years here he couldn't get us to even 500. Our last winning season was in 2012 under Smith. We are a work in progress particularly on offense this season. Even though we are an unfinished product we have found ways to win and find ourselves at 9-4 and in the hunt for a first round bye. There's a lot of work to be done to get us to where we want to be but we're winning along the way as we learn. Winning helps encourage our guys to buy in and stick with it. They know good things are coming. A Minnesota loss tonight and we could clinch the division at home vs the Packers with two games to go. How sweet would that be! - Our line did a great job keeping Donald in check, particular hats off to Daniels who played an excellent game. Our line did a much better job run blocking and our run game was effective. Schematically we did a good job at using the Rams tendencies against them. It felt like we were more balanced. - Our special teams I thought did a great job in coverage particalarly pinning them deep on multiple occasions. Parkey with a miss but he was 2 of 3. - I think the Rams are not used to having to work that hard to move the ball and score. They are used to dictating tempo and we turned the tables on them. They looked rattled and unsure of themselves. They looked stunned and frustrated at times and I loved every minute of it.

Agree with your assessment, their run D can be exploited. We need a balanced game plan. Running the ball read options, screen passes, make their front seven work and do what we can schematically to slow that rush, and when we throw know where our hots are and get the ball out quick. I'd like to see us run uptempo a little. This is a game we will need to try to dictate the tempo with our offense. On defense we need to play an all around better game, the D needs to get back to form and make them fight for every inch. Easier said than done Gurley is going to be hard to contain, both running and as an outlet. He's the best RB we've faced this season. Having this game at Soldier Field on a day that is likely to be very cold is an advantage. I feel like this is a game we can win but we will have to play at a high level. We need to win the turnover battle and time of possession. While we will at a times need Trubiskey to run, I'd like to see us do what we can to limit the punishment he takes. This offense clearly functions at a higher level when healthy vs Daniels. My hopes are that we find a way to win this game and keep Mitch healthy. Oh and a Vikings loss to the Seachickens on MNF would be nice too.

McCarthy's next stop likely the local Dunkin' Donuts gotta keep up his figure while he looks for his next gig. I have to say though in his defense all the talk about how his play calling was unimaginative yet to hear that Rodgers often changed the calls on his own, one could come to the conclusion that a good amount of the bad play calling is actually Rodgers fault lol. Man it's refreshing and entertaining to see the Packers become laughable and irrelevant while our Bears are on the rise. Definitely one train wreck I can't look away from LOL

agree we've been beaten by some fluky plays, but we've also won games on the backs of big plays as well. Key late turnovers or defensive TDs, or Big plays early in games to put opponents in holes. Football is often a game of inches but it can often be the splash plays or gaffes that can seal a game. The plays you mentioned were backbreakers in our 4 losses. Had we came up with stops on those plays we could be undefeated. But as you noted we have had the lead in the second half of every game. Part of changing from a losing to a wining culture is learning how to finish games. Cobb has been a Bear killer so often it's sickening, if we either stop that play or Fuller catches that pick we win. The Dolphins game was maddening when you put up 20+ second half points you shouldn't lose the game. This was also the game we got screwed out of a TD by Cohen on a bad OPI call on Burton coupled with the D having a terrible second half. NE needed 2 special teams TDs to beat us. Beckham's trick play pass to a guy who didn't have a defender within 10-20 yards of him, yet had we played better as a team all around we should have won that game. We've won some games that were a fight to the end and we've lost some by not finishing. This is all a part of a young team learning and progressing. We sure have been on the short end of the stick on calls missed, blown, etc. But then again what's new. And you have to learn to play through those things. It sucks getting screwed like on that Cohen TD where they blew the whistle, or any number of possibly game changing bad calls/no calls. But we're not alone, it feels like officiating has been bad in recent years. It's hard to find a well officiated game anymore. And a lot of these officiating gaffes end up effecting a game's outcome by either creating momentum, or killing it. We do seem to have more than our fair share of bad officiating though. But we just have to play through those things that are beyond our control. As for Chase, he's a backup and last week is proof why he's a backup, I saw a video where Waddle addressed it and what makes him a backup is that isn't the kind of player who will be consistently good week to week that's why he's never cracked a starting gig. He can fill in for a game or two here and there but he's not someone to start for a length of time. He went 1-1 on the road. I do think it's imperative that we do look for a better #2 behind Mitch. Wether it's a veteran with starting experience, or a promising rookie or young QB that could groom under Mitch.

lol so true. I could see Rodgers being hard to work with, I have no respect for him as a person and while he's unquestionably a highly talented player he appears to have the ability to rub people the wrong way. Thinks he runs the Packers so when decisions are made and he's not consulted he pouts and throws a hissy. The guy has bought into his own hype. Nothing's ever his fault.

getting him back at the end of the season and in time for a playoff run is big.

That is what we have to remember this whole thing is a work in progress, that has had more success that we had expected going in. That success creates expectation we expect to win every game. That's not a bad thing, it's a product of your team becoming something worth rooting for. If todays game were last season I'd have thought nothing of it, put it in context this season and it was upsetting, because I've come to expect more from my Bears. I do think we can beat the Rams at home next week. The fledgling Lions stayed in that game against them and were only down 3 going into the 4th quarter. The Rams aren't this invincible juggernaut and neither are the Saints. Every team has vulnerabilities. A win next week over LA would put us in a really good spot with a favorable schedule the rest of the way. At the very least we should be able to win our division and host a wildcard game. At best we manage a 1 or 2 seed and we have the bye and host a divisional round game and possibly even host a conf championship game. It's crazy to think this isn't far fetched. Getting to the playoffs was my hope this year, anything above that is icing.

I don't think the expectation is for us to win it all this year. I'd be awesome and I'll root for us to go all the way. But this was year to bring the Bears back into the conversation of playoff contenders. We are in good shape to win our division and still have a chance to possibly earn a first round bye. From 5-11 and several losing seasons to this, I'll take it. The urgency to win now isn't as strong as it has been in past years where we'd come out of nowhere have a break out season, then disappear the next. The Bears are being built to compete year after year. We probably won't win it all this year, but we aren't going away like we have in the past. It gives me hope that we're building towards something and the Bears are an ascending team. Yesterday should serve as a learning experience. Plenty of blame to go around in that game, but if we learn from it, it will have been worth it we haven't lost ground on our division lead.

Very un-Packer like thing to fire a coach during the season. I was glad to see them lose again, kinda sad to see McCarthy go, wanted the downward spiral to continue. Their issues go beyond the HC, but here's hoping they botch that hire and the Packers shrink into obscurity for the foreseeable future.

Amen! I was so pissed after that fumble that I shut it off and tossed the remote. After cooling down. I came to the same thinking you did. Had someone told me the Bears would be 8-4 and on top of our division I’d have taken that in a heartbeat. It doesn’t suck any less to lose to a team like the giants but it is one game. Vikings lost to the Pats so we are still 1 1/2 games up in the division. It’s been a crazy week in the nfl.

We lost to the FRIGGIN 3-8 Giats. 3-8!!! Freaking pitiful!

He does need to work on those, when he does slide it often looks like he's caught mid decision "Do I slide, do I stay upright and try to get more yards?"

It took him a couple weeks or so to get into true game shape. He's done what he needed to do after the holdout mess. I remember at the time of the holdout we talked about how he needed to have a Boss like rookie season where he plays at a high level if he hopes to put the holdout behind him. He's played at a high level this year. Keep it up kid. That holdout now feels like a distant memory. Winning helps bury those things too. His future looks bright here.

I didn't see last nights game but had to do a double take when I checked my fantasy stats and saw NO actually lost to the Cowgirls 13-10. I would have never bet that would happen. Their offense looked unstoppable and to only manage 10 points. They certainly look less invincible after last night. But then again it's one game vs the previous 9 where they've been on an absolute tear. I do agree that their schedule is tougher than the Rams schedule from here on out. The playoff picture is starting to get a little clearer. Division winners should be NO, LAR, CHI, DAL. Winning out puts us at 13-3, and would give us some key tie breakers. Crazy to think that for most of the season it was just assumed that the Saints would just roll through the season and playoffs and hoist the Lambardi. Now they are going to have to fight to secure a 1 or 2 seed. If LA beats the Lions they take over at #1. Should the Saints stumble again their best final record is 13 and 3 and we'd leap frog them for the #2 seed. Hosting the saints vs playing in their dome is a huge advantage for us. We need to fight like hell to win out. Who'd have thought after last season ended we'd be sitting here to day last day of November and we are in a three team battle for the top two seeds in the NFC? Take that all you "experts" who were hating on the Bears.

Your right the deserve to suck for eternity. Their deal with the devil may be running out on them.