BearFan2000

The players seem to have their heads in the right place and are working to stay mentally focused and trying to tune out the outside distractions. Which the more we win, the more easily it can be to get caught up in hype, excitement, and attention that success brings. To this point the Bears have kept a workmanlike attitude and have stayed hungry. That is a reflection of good coaching. They aren't satisfied with 8-3 and playoffs. You have to have the mentality of enjoy each win in the moment, but keep your eyes on the road ahead.

Jackson has turned out to be an absolute steal where we got him. I agree with Adam as the first comparison that comes to mind is Mike Brown but quicker. Dude appears to have a very high football IQ and a real nose for the ball. His picks in both Detroit and against Minny are somewhat reminiscent of Brown's back to back OT pick sixes. He can become the leader in the secondary we've not had in a long time. With his football IQ it could be like having a coach on the field helping his teammates be in position to make plays. And he's in just year 2 of his career. Here's hoping he avoids the injury bug that constantly bit Brown.

Not sure I see LA relaxing. They'll have the division wrapped up but they will want to lock up a #2 seed to have a bye and a home divisional game. I don't see them not fighting till they either get it or are eliminated from getting it.

Just keep winning and the rest takes care of itself. We can't take the Giant's lightly, but if we contain Barkley and make Eli beat us that bodes well for us as Eli is turnover prone. We could sit Mitch this week so he's fully healthy for the final stretch starting with the Sunday nighter vs the Rams. But if he's healthy to play I'd like to see him play and be in game rhythm heading into the matchup with the Rams. It sure was nice to see the Packers put out to pasture with 6 weeks to go in the season. Their fan base is gathering wood to burn McCarthy at the stake. May they suck for the next 2 decades they deserve a cargo ship full of humble pie. I had hopes that we'd be in the hunt for a playoff spot. Then fast forward and we're in great shape to win our division and get at least a #4 seed, but have a realistic shot at a first round bye. By about the midway point through last year I stopped subjecting myself to Bears football. Darn you Pace and Naggy! My weekends are now consumed with watching the Bears, and scoreboard watching!

I think the Saints will most likely represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. They finally have a defense to go with their offense, they are a more complete team than the previous saints teams that could only play offense and had to score a lot because they would typically give up a lot. Now I do feel that with our D and and improving offense that's already putting up about 30 a game can give them a fight. Win or lose I don't think we'd get our butts handed to us. The Rams are great on offense, but their D is capable of giving up lots of points as well. When they played the chiefs (who's offense ours is based off of). There was an ungodly amount of points scored by both teams. I see the Rams as a beatable team. More beatable than the saints. Our Sunday night matchup vs the Rams at Soldier Field could be the biggest win of the season and would put us in a solid position to shoot for the #2 seed. There could be a lot riding on that game for both teams. Till then we have to take care of the Giants. Could be a field day for our D. Eli can be very generous to defenses, and we have a pretty decent one Who'da thunk we'd be at this position where we could face the current #2 NFC team with us being 9-3 and the Rams at 11-1. A win puts us at 10-3 and drops the rams to 11-2 making their lead on us for the #2 seed a virtual half game due to tie breaker. Whatever happens from now on is gravy, Bears playing meaningful games in December is a great feeling and one we've not enjoyed for some time. Nagy is proven to be a great hire. I know it's only 11 games into his coaching career here but what a turnaround!. Last night's game was bitter sweet. On one hand, had the Packers won they'd both be 5-5-1 and it's give us more distance from the Vikings. But the Packers losing ends their season. And how can't I enjoy a Packers loss it's like enjoying your favorite candy. It always tastes sweet.

I didn’t realize his usage stats were as similar as past seasons. I think his overall lack of production makes it feel like he’s not being utilized. I agree that a big part of it is blocking and run blocking schemes. Jordan is at his best in a zone scheme where he can pick his hole vs running straight up the gut. Missing Long hurts too.

The rest will at least be helpful for Mitch. I have a feeling we'll be fine if Chase does in fact start. I have a feeling that decision has been made but it's gamesmanship to keep it as a game time decision. One thing for sure, Mitch needs to work on his sliding, he's had some awkward looking slides and given defenders seem to be allowed to hit him no matter whether he slides or goes down otherwise. He needs to do what he can to at least try to not expose himself to hits when he's giving himself up.

Well if there were a game to let Mitch rest and heal this would be it. I feel like the D will be all over the Lions. Chase will just need to manage the game. He's very familiar with the offensive system. As long as he can take care of the ball and keep drives going. The offense may not have to put up a lot of points. The Lions are very short handed. They are coming off a win but more like a game the Panther's gave away. There will be a revenge factor as they won't want to be swept and especially beat twice in 11 days by the Bears. Patricia will have them fired up to start the game we just need to remind them how bad they suck.

The best part of all this IMHO is that we Bears fans have have endured mediocrity for the better part of the past 3 decades. In that time we've seen the Bears have the occasional surprise season(s) only to disappear again. What we are seeing now has the possibility to be sustained success. We could become a perennial playoff team who can contend for multiple titles. If Pace can continue to draft well and add talented depth to keep this thing going long term the future is bright.

Something that I've mentioned before and it is getting old in my opinion. When a QB gives himself up and slides I though defenders weren't allowed to hit him. More often than not when I've seen Mitch slide he's been hit (not just contacted but hit). Shouldn't these hits be 15 yard unnecessary roughness or is this something league wide that's just being allowed. Minny's dirty play to me is a reflection on the coaching and character of players they have. There could have been a few more personal fouls, late hits and targeting penalties. It makes me glad that our players don't play that way in general. Seems the Vikings look for opportunities to take cheap shots and the refs only called them on a handful of them. We've had some bad judgment plays on our team at times but it's the exception rather than the rule here.

Non Bears related. But need some fantasy advice. My team is on life support. 10 team full PPR I'm sitting at 5-6 with 3 games left. I pretty much need to run the table to have a shot at the playoffs (not looking good). We start 1 QB, 2RB, 2WR, 1TE, 1 Flex (RB/WR/TE), 1 K, 1 D/ST. Current roster QBs - Cousins and Prescott RBs - K. Hunt, Mixen, Howard, J. Richard WRs - D. Adams, Cooper, Allan Robinson, Sammy Watkins, Anthony Miller TEs - Ertz, Graham K - Lutz D/ST - Bears Trying to decide who on my team is expendable to open up roster spots to add players that can help these next three weeks. I plan on dropping Prescott. Considering dropping Howard, Allen, Watkins, Graham and possibly Richard. These are the players on my roster that I don't have a lot of confidence starting each week for various reasons. I have the #10 waiver priority so my chances of getting my top pickups aren't great either but gotta try. Available players: RB - Gus Edwards, Josh Adams, Theo Riddick, Payton Barber, Frank Gore, Ware (Hun'ts handcuff), Bernard (Mixen's handcuff), E. McGuire WR - DJ Moore, Tre'Quan Smith, Keke Coutee, Fitzgerald, Chris Conley, Christian Kirk TE - Jonnu Smith, G. Everett, Jeff Heuerman, and a lot of yuck Who would you drop, and who would you target and in what priority. RB is high on my list with Hunt on bye. Who would you start?

8-3 and 3-1 in the division would be great. Especially if minny were to fall to Green Bay. They’d both be at 5-5-1. What would really be funny is if they tied again. They’d be 4-5-2 lol not likely though. Get the win and a much needed rest. Almost like a mini bye. We face a depleted Lions team who are coming off of a win that was an accurate Newton pass away from a loss. We can’t let this be a trap game. We’re coming off a huge win in a hard fought game. I don’t feel like we’ll overlook them. Our D should feast on them all day. This could be similar to the Bills game. Where the offense isn’t asked to do a lot.

Vikings sure took a lot of cheap shots. They strike me as a bit of a dirty team.

First of all huge win. We've all noted how critical this win was. A loss and we drop to second place in the division, a win and we're a game and a half up on the Vikings. While the Packers and Lions fight it out for 3rd/4th place. We have put ourselves in a great position we are 7-3 and on top of our division by a game and a half. 6 games to go and we have a favorable schedule going forward, Minny's gets tougher. 10 or more wins is very doable even if we drop a couple and go 4-2 the rest of the way that's a flip of last year putting us at 11-5 and at worst a 4 seed possibly even a 3 seed with the NFC East being a bit of a mess. The number 1 see will probably be NO, the #2 the Rams. So our playoff road would likely be a home wild card round game, then a road divisional round likely vs the Rams, win that and we'd be on the road again to face the Saints in the NFC championship game. That's a tough road but however that shakes out will be icing on the cake of a massive turnaround this team has made over the past 4 years (I include Fox's years here because we wouldn't be where we are as a team without his time here rebuilding the locker room and bringing competitiveness back to a lifeless Bears team that Trestman left). Making the playoffs and possibly even advancing to the second round is a successful season for the first year under Nagy, and the new offense. We are fairly young, and are built for the long term. The Bears are becoming a force to be reckoned with going forward. To the game itself The offense looked sharp and put the Vikings in a 14 pt hole at half time. The bad is that the offense managed just 3 points in the second half, but the D added a TD. It was the kind of game I expected. It was a hard fought close game. It wasn't pretty but when we needed to we found ways to make critical plays. Up 14 at the half but a pair of FG's cut the lead to 8. Their FG's set up by turnovers with great starting position and huge stops by the D to hold both of those to FG's. We get a key pick 6 and 2pt conversion to go up 22-6. They matched our TD and 2 pt conversion to pull to within 8 points 22-14, Then the offense comes through with a critical FG to make it a 2 score game at 25-14 inside 3 min left. We give up a TD but stop their 2pt conversion 25-20 their only hope is an onside kick that Cunningham snagged out of the air ending the game. It wasn't pretty but we did what we needed to to come away with hugely important win. I'm proud of my team. We are winning games this year that the last 3 years we would have lost. This kind of win is huge for the Bears, they refused to give up, refused to let Minn steal this game. The good teams find ways to win when the chips are down. We served notice to the rest of the league that the Bears are back.

I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't someone who felt it was possibly too steep initially. It's hard to part with 2 first but two first round unknowns for a player of Mack's caliber is worth it. I don't think there was a great deal of handwringing on this move more of the excitement and anticipation of what he could bring to an already high caliber D. I know last night I thanked Jay Gruden for being dumb. He's made his presence known from the first game even in limited snaps he made a huge impact. If there was any regret over what we gave up that's long since disappeared. I loved that play and it proves how well he uses leverage and his opponent's momentum against them. He can beat you in so many ways.

How friggin crazy would that be??? To go from dead last in our division at 5-11 last year to possibly being in a position to secure a 1 or 2 seed in the NFC playoffs? Let's not get ahead of ourselves though, one game at a time but sure is nice to think that it's not out of the realm of possibility. KC is humming, and so are the Rams but there are some chinks in the Rams armor.

Amen! I like that we are considered the underdogs on our own field against the Vikings who while they are good are not without their flaws and not an unbeatable opponent. I have a feeling this one is going to be hard fought. This game means so much to both of these teams. For the Vikings they need thew into close the gap in the standings, we need the win to increase the gap. There's so much riding on this game that I expect both teams come out fighting. They are the more rested team but they also have a history of coming out flat after a bye. I don't think that will be the case this time. They will be prepared and gunning for us. So we need to bring our A game.

Well done Mitch! Keep up the good work and most of all stay hungry. Lead the Bears to a title or multiple titles and you will own this town. It's been great watching how much he's grown from the start of the season to now. At the start of the season he looked good till we got past the scripted plays to where you could tell when we were going off script he'd drop off a ledge with his play. He's gone from that guy to what we saw last week against the Lions. He's gone from trying to figure out the offense to commanding the offense. The confidence, the moxie, enthusiasm, and his growing ability to work the defense has really shown up from the Jets game on. I feel like we are now seeing something we haven't seen in Chicago. Development of a franchise QB. The concept is totally foreign to us. He's on pace to smash single season records for a Bears QB, and he's still only 9 games into a brand new offensive system. We are seeing why Pace wanted him so badly feel it was worth moving up one spot to get him rather than risk someone jumping up to 2 for him. We can debate that till the dead horse has risen from the grave but at the end of the day if Mitch does turn into what we hope and what he is on track to become. No one will care or question the move on draft day.

I like Howard a lot, and we and Nagy know what he can do. Previous seasons he was the offense on a Bears team where opponents KNEW he was all we had. That speaks volumes to his value as a RB. And it is frustrating to see him being underused considering what he's capable of. Howard isn't the type of back that excels in spot duty, he's a momentum reps type runner that needs volume to get on track. But at the same time I agree that play calling thus far has been more focused on developing Mitch, and that means more passing than smash mouth. We've seen games this season where Jordon is involved in the game and others where he's nearly game scripted out. From his perspective I can understand some frustration knowing he can contribute but not getting the opportunities that he'd like. This season is all about the process of installing, and growing the offense, finding this teams identity. It's possible Nagy sees Howard as an Ace in the hole. Leaning more on the pass and developing that part of the offense can help loosen up defenses to utilize the running game more as the season winds down and we get more into the colder weather. I remember something about Nagy wanting our offense to be versatile, and able to beat teams in different ways rather than one trick pony. And clearly coming into this season the passing game had a lot further to improve over last year than the run game. I too can understand though if Jordan leaves town at the end of his contract, but it's also possible that by seasons' end he may be more regularly involved and we're having a different conversation.

The difference being for Crosby it was a rare day for an otherwise dependable kicker. He returned to form the following week. Parkey has be a disappointment for most of the season yesterday was by far his worst day, but it's not been his only bad day. We are likely stuck with him for the rest of this year but no doubt we will be addressing that next year. He alone cost the Bears 8 points by himself It didn't cost us today as we were beating the Lions fairly easily. The issue is when we are in games where every point is valuable we can't trust Parkey to come through and that's a liability. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't bring a kicker or two to try out and see if we can fix this issue this year. The pressure will certainly be there to at least go through the motions of trying to fix it. I wonder how much of it has to do with taking South Florida warm weather kicker and ask him to kick well in the cold swirly winds of Soldier Field. Kicking aside this was a very enjoyable game to watch. We gave up some cheap TD"s in the second half but the hole we put the Lions in was too deep for them to climb out of. Welcome back Mr. Robinson! Could even say welcome to Chicago. His best day yet as a Bear. (too bad I didn't start him on my Fantasy team or I'd have won this week). Hopefully this is a harbinger of things to come and a sign that he and Mitch are getting to be on the same page. By far at least to my eyes the most complete game Mitch has put together. He looks confident, and played under control, and fired up. I love watching him spike the ball with authority after his TD run and celebrating with his teammates. As he grows into his role as leader of the offense his enthusiasm and energy will be contagious that is what endears you to your teammates. He's starting to show the qualities that convinced Pace to make the move to ensure he got him. The last several games the offense has taken strides and they still have room to grow. The D started getting their swagger back with the Jets game and have rounded back into form. They displayed the defensive team stats yesterday and this reminds me a lot of the 2005/2006 D getting turnovers, scoring, getting after the QB, and generally wreaking havoc. But unlike those Defenses we have an offense that has the ability to take over a game. The stronger the offense gets the more they can impose their will. We are watching a playoff team that is my firm belief at this point. After last offseason on paper we looked to be a vastly improved team. There was much to be excited about and a new energy surround the team. On paper we looked to at the very least be vastly improved. Question was could this team go from 5-11 and last in our division to a playoff caliber team this year. I think the answer is yes. I don't se us winning a championship this year but we are certainly in the playoff conversation. Once the playoffs start anything can happen. The Bears haven't been relevant for a long time. Plus we are built for the long term Pace has rebuilt our roster to be younger. We are the only team in the league to not have a single defensive starter 30 years old or older. I have to give Pace a lot of credit for turning over the roster but doing so with a longterm view rather than a win now fade away. Since the 80's the Bears have been a team that will have occasional resurgences only to fade away as quickly as we rose up. This has the potential to be the start of the Bears being a perennial playoff team.

If he keeps up the pace he's on and continues to improve the national media won't be able to ignore him for much longer. But watching the games lately you can tell the announcers taking notice of how well he's been playing. It sure is nice to watch a Bears game and hear announcers coming even remotely close to gushing over a Bears QB. Yesterday was possibly Trubiskey's best most complete performance that I've seen. I've seen stretches and flashes of the potential we all hoped he'd show. But what jumped out at me yesterday was it feels like we are finally starting to see the offense begin to look like what many had envisioned or hoped it would look like when we added the weapons we did and the new coaching staff last off season. Since the Jets game it looks like Trubiskey is playing more and more under control it looks like the game is starting to slow down for him. As Bill noted you can see him going through the progressions and more often than not throwing to the right guy. I also felt his long ball was much better yesterday. I only recall few overthrows. Perhaps the timing is getting better. We had a lot more plays of 20+ yards (explosive plays) than we've had to this point. If we start making more of those chunk plays with regularity this will be a hard offense to stop. With the talent we have on D if we keep jumping out to leads our D can just pin their ears back and go after teams.

Timing couldn't be better either. We will need as many weapons as we can get on offense and getting Robinson back and next week (vs Vikings) will help a lot. It is encouraging that even with the offensive flaws we've had thus far a lot of room to grow we are putting points on the board and winning games. When the offense gets it's legs under it watch out NFL. What a change this season has been. We are installing a legit NFL offense without sacrificing on the defensive side of the ball. Get both phases humming at the same time the Bears could become scary good. Been a long time since we could say that. Still work to be done to get there but the arrow is pointing up.

This is one of those hard to predict games. Having Robinson and Mack back at full would be huge. Detroit started out the season playing much better but as of late just don't look right. That doesn't mean they won't come out swinging. The Bears have to prepare for the team that beat GB, NE, and MIA. But the teams they beat we were a play away from beating GB, a defensive stop away from beating Miami, and a yard from forcing OT against the Pats. I feel like this should be a win, but not one we can take for granted. We need to hold nothing back these next three games. Win them and we are seriously talking playoffs, lose 2 or 3 of them and making the playoffs becomes much tougher.

makes sense for a lot of reasons. This game has potential post season implications.

Well put. In today's age with social media and forums like this and podcasts it's a different environment where games are nitpicked and overanalyzed to death. No win by any team is perfect. I thought the D played great and took what the bills gave them. I feel like we got after Petermen but could have easily had more sacks had we not been called for some very iffy penalties. Officiating was atrocious. I feel like the turnovers for the most part weren't of the dumb luck variety but were good athletic plays. Every week it seems we've had opportunities to make plays like that and missed this week we made those plays. Probably could have had a couple more. The D came up with 3 picks and a fumble two of which returned for scores. We had 4 sacks. Defense got us 14 points and they gave up 9 pts. which really should have been just 3 as the Bills were helped tremendously on their lone TD drive. Seemed like the officials were calling sympathy penalties. It was far more annoying knowing that that TD ended their streak of not scoring. It felt really cheap. Outside of that their offense managed a single FG the entire game. I'd say the D held it's own. The offense added 27 points but the way people are talking (not just here) you'd think they did nothing to contribute. Sure the D got the team rolling and the offense wasn't overly sharp at times. This was a day that the offense didn't need to do a lot. We were without Robinson. This proved to be a perfect opportunity to let him and Mack heal up some more for when they will be needed starting next week. All in all we beat a bad team 41-9. We are 5-3 and could arguably be 6-2 or 7-1. We've already matched last season's win total with 8 games to go. We're in first place in our division with 3 critical games next on the docket. We host a crumbling Lions team (what's new), then host the Vikings, followed by a road game at Detroit on Thanksgiving. Minny is on bye next week so we could go into our matchup in week 11 at 6-3 facing a 5-3-1 Vikings team who is beatable (one of their losses is to the Bills we just blew out). It's not out of the realm of possibility that we run the table on the next three games and emerge 8-3 with a 3-1 division record and well on top of our division. These three games will be very crucial. Even winning 2 of 3 sits us at 7-4. The Bears have put themselves in a good position to control their own destiny. Offense is a work in progress and we're winning games while we learn which is a plus in my book. I don't expect us to make a serious run at the SB this year but do feel we are a playoff caliber team now. At this point New Orleans looks to be the cream of the NFC crop along with LA and even Atlanta getting hot. NFC north feels like a two team race now between us and Minn. Win that and we're guaranteed no less than a #4 seed. Take care of business these next 8 weeks and we can secure that spot. Once the playoffs start anything can and does happen.