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I don't know that Royal has been healthy for a snap all season so it is kind of hard to judge his actual performance. I agree it is a disappointment since we signed him to be on the field, but supposedly he's getting close to actually being 100% (Bears have been conservative, reportedly, and are trying not to rush him back this time).

Third...Happy belated Turkey day everyone and hell yeah Bears!!!!

Porter has been balling all season. He's been so impressive and has often been left on an island. Hell of a win. Thank you Bears...now lets keep this momentum rolling!!! Playoffs...why the hell not!!!

I don't know that he is calm, cool and collected, after the game, but I do know he isn't their to make excuses.

We are still in deep doodoo. Those wildcard teams are going to have a hard time losing 3 and 2 more games, respectively and that is assuming we somehow win out (and even then, I think we are in trouble in a tiebreaker scenario given our conference record and fact we lost to Seahawks earlier. That said, its good to at least have a shot.

On punts he hasn't been as brutal (from a return standpoint), however, his fumbling issues have happened their. I do agree though whatever burst / explosiveness he once had (prior to his injury) seems to be gone.

I think they target pass rush...pass rush...pass rush. They also might look at CB or Safety. My presumption is they'll go with a LB or DB, however, that could change. Porter has been exceptional, however, he's a free agent and is injury prone. I honestly don't know how much we can / should count on him in the future.

He's been a pretty valuable weapon filling in for Royal lately. That one first down he got where a linebacker was right on him against the Packers was impressive (he also made some tough catches). I read where all of his catches this year have gone for first downs. Will be nice when we get Royal back and can leverage Mariani as another weapon. Nice that Thompson is looking like a viable return option on kicks.

Marty, Royal, and Carey are out tomorrow. I had no idea Marty was even hurt, but evidently he injured his ribs in the Broncos game.

Harbaugh's brother was a big fan of Fales so could very well have been the Ravens.

My rule is, if you are winning because your core players are getting better, then it is absolutely valuable and needed. If you were winning because a bunch of guys who aren't part of your future are playing well, then I'd argue differently. Right now, we are in a process of changing everything and building new players. We are playing a lot of young players and I love what we are doing. We are also seeing our QB, who is extremely talented, play the best football of his career and it would be invaluable if that were to continue (as it means we have a much earlier window of true contention). I hope we win every freakin game here on out because right now, we are doing it because of young players making plays and other key cogs who will be around.

Bennett is an above average blocker and he was drawing a ton of PI's despite getting all of the attention.

I agree this wasn't Jay's best day, if this is "bad" Jay, then that is a really good thing. Cause he still moved us down late in the game and overcame a really bad pick on his part (the 2nd pick/fumble is what it is). I do agree he could have put some of those fades in a much better spot, but in most instances, he also was dealing with some pretty heavy pressure. To me, we shouldn't be surprised we can't execute in the redzone against the #1 D in the league with our top 3 wideouts out. We lack playmakers and playmakers are needed in the red zone.

Completely agree. We went against the #1 defense in the league without our starting center and our preseason #1 / #2 / #3 wide receiver and we were a 2 point conversion away from sending it into overtime. Look at what Rodgers is dealing with right now. He is struggling with his poor line and wideouts and he is really only down his #1 wideout, let alone #2 and #3. I left this game, yet again, impressed. I really hope we somehow get a 2nd year of Gase / Cutler.

God...that was with Martz around and our offense and team looking so good...all we needed was one win from ole Hanie and he sucked so bad (he could have bought us time until Jay was back). Or am I misremembering. Its funny cause if we win that game, the franchises narrative might have been much difference. Bears have multiple playoff appearances and Cutler probably isn't the pirrahea everyone thought of him as and Martz probably sticks around (which might not have been as bad as we all thought...prior to Jay hurting themselves in that Charger game, that Bears team was firing on all cylinders and looking like a legit superbowl contender).

I don't know if you can correct fumbles. I agree we need to upgrade over Mariani (who is also fumbling) but I don't want to replace him with another turnover machine on special teams. I'd rather we see what this Thompson character can do on our practice squad. All this said, if his fumbles were more great hits, then I could look past that stat.

Remaining schedule is solid, but we aren't a great team. I find it extremely unlikely that we get their, but I do think 6 to 8 wins is a realistic possibility with positive momentum heading into next year, which is a major plus. I think we are favored in a lot of the games (after the Denver / GB games) but @ Minny is a really tough game (yes we should have beat them in our house but they keep getting better) and Washington, Tampa are both playing better football. Would be surprised if we didn't lose at least 3 games down the stretch and wouldn't be surprised if it was 4. I think everyone is fired up over this week's game, but Denvers D is potent and its offense is much better than the Rams offense (even without Peyton). Still...its fun to even be able to discuss this after the dumpster fire that was last year.

Agree with your overall sentiment as well (the progress is what we should all be excited about). 6-3 would be great but we could have just as easily lost 3 of our wins (Chiefs / Raiders / Chargers). So realistically, given the bounces, I'd say we probably should have 1 more win (cause we did a lot of dumb things from a special teams perspective as well) but we also had some total steals. Guarantee the Chiefs fans think that they should have a win against the Bears (vs. the other way around).

If you think Miller is the single stud TE, a 31 year old who in his whole career has less yards then Bennett in his best season, then I think you are delusional. I like Miller, but he is not a single stud TE, Bennett, well he is a single stud TE and Miller is a good, underpriced backup. And even then, we are jumping to the conclusion of good because he made a great catch 2 weeks ago and a big play this past week (which was an impressive one at that, but still just a big play). That is pretty premature given that we are talking about a 31 year old player.

I always presume the refs in the Bears / Lions game thought it was a 50/50 call and given the Lions were screwed out the prior week (Seahawks - Lions game where the Seahawks should have lost), they decided to rule in favor of the Lions. That said, we obviously aren't the only ones confused and the whole league needs to come up with something more conclusive. It was easier to figure out what a catch was 10 years ago then it is now...how the heck is that supposed to make sense. Rules are supposed to get better and easier, not the other way around.

Langford is also a superior receiver. I don't know how you can say well if Carey got these carries then we'd be fine. Langford has shown superior vision and cutback ability to Carey. Carey looks solid (which is good for a back-up) and a guy who can get the tough yards. Langford looks like a bonafine star. Great vision, speed, ability to cut back, solid pass protection, and above average hands in the passing game (despite that costly drop against the Vikings).

We could consider it, but because we are going to draft or sign another guy, not because we are going to take a guy who entering this year played in 4 games over a 4 year span. I hope to hell Miller stays healthy but his past history tells me we shouldn't hand him a starters position based upon it. Especially when the other guy we have is a probowler who is an above average receiver and blocker and still in the prime of his career (especially considering the fact that TE's age pretty solid).

As I've said, I'' okay if we had a top pick / young guy that was cheap and had upside stepping in, but I'm not okay with using a 31 year old who has barely stayed on the field in his career. We have a guy still in his prime and we should leverage the fact that we have a quality back-up around him. Two TE sets work. A lot of teams can't leverage it successfully but the Pats were masters of it with Gronk / Hernandez and we've seen it work well in other places. We also have a bazillion in cap space so I'm not all that concerned about Bennett @ his going cap hit (which is very little compared with his production). Marty is on pace for over 700 yards. Miller has 635 yards since he entered the league in 2009. Prior to this year, over the past 4 years he had played in 4 total games (yes 4, so an average of 1 game per season). If Langord was 31 and was coming off the past two games that he had, their is no way in a million years I'd be arguing to drop Forte for Langford.

Their take on the Bears RB's: Cutler helped, but I believe the Bears had 2nd most rushing yards of any team all season vs. the Rams. Their take on Cutler: Consistent with what I mentioned a post above. Punish the guy for playing within the system. Fuller graded out higher then Porter and Fuller was the highest graded player for the Bears. Aaron Donald, Garret Reynolds and Nick Fairley all graded higher then any Bear yesterday. Fairly certain they don't watch football. Fuller tackled well and is making progress, but the Rams had a ton of drops that would have been catches. The secondaries best defense (outside of Porter) was the Rams & Fole (who couldn't catch or throw accurately). In terms of the Bears RBs, they do realize they pretty much rushed effectively even when it was completely obvious we were rushing.

Presumably because our 3 TD's were on short passes that turned into gigantic runs. Shouldn't be a surprise given their measures (which are in a vacuum) and don't reflect checks by the QB and / or reflect the fact that we played a much different football game given the blowout score. I actually thought it was one of Jay's worse actual performances of the season, but statistically was one of his best. I think part of the "worse" has to do with the fact that we were playing conservative and with the lead and Jay had almost no time to throw. Overall though, the fact remains, he did exactly what you want with the big league and never made the big mistake and was smart to throw the ball away, etc. Plus, that TD pass to Miller (2nd) was pretty beautiful).