adam

This game also comes down to roster building. DET is without their best defensive player, Hutchinson, who impacted basically every play. They also lost Barnes and Anzalone, two of their top LBs. The Bears are down Billings and Brisker. If the 2023 Bears team competed against DET and should've been 2-0, there is no reason why this 2024 team shouldn't be able to go toe to toe with this roster.

I thought we had a chance, I really thought 9-11 wins was possible based on the schedule.

The Bears currently have a <1% chance to make the playoffs, but there is a chance. First, they would have to take care of business, winning no less than 5 of their last 6, preferably all 6, which would be more than they have won in their first 11 games. Scenario 1 - Win the last 6 games and 1. have WAS (7-5, 5-3 Conf) lose to at least 3 of PHI, ATL, NO, DAL or TEN, and finish no better than 9-8, and 2. have ARZ (6-5, 3-4 Conf) lose to at least 3 of MIN, SEA, LAR, and SF, and finish no better than 9-8. 3. by winning all 6, CHI would have the H2H tiebreaker against SEA, SF, and LAR. * - Both the WAS and ARZ steps are very possible, winning 6 straight after losing 5 straight is not. Scenario 2 - Win 5 out of 6 (w/ wins against SF and SEA) and 1. have WAS (7-5, 5-3 Conf) lose to at least 4 of PHI, ATL, NO, DAL or TEN, and finish no better than 8-9. 1-4 in last 5. 2. have ARZ (6-5, 3-4 Conf) lose to at least 4 of MIN, SEA, LAR, SF, CAR, or NE, and finish no better than 8-9. 2-4 in last 6. 3. have TB (5-6, 5-3 Conf) lose to at least 3 of LAC, DAL, NO, CARx2, or LVR, and finish no better than 8-9. 3-3 in last 6. 4. by winning 5 out of the last 6 and beating SEA and SF, CHI would have the H2H tiebreaker against SEA, SF, and LAR. This week, we need TEN to beat WAS, MIN to beat ARZ, and CAR to beat TB (which would hurt Bears 2nd round pick slot). We could be on to Scenario 2 by Thursday night.

About half of the current playoff teams are teams that just came out of a rebuild. The other half are perennial playoff teams with long standing coaches and QBs. DET - Year 4, MIN - Year 3, HOU - Year 2, WAS - Year 1, ATL - Year 1, LAC - Year 1, DEN - Year 1. 4 of those teams have new QBs this year. DET had a winning record Year 2, was in the Conf Championship Year 3, and is a SB contender Year 4. KC, BUF, BAL, PIT, GB, PHI, and SEA have not been in a rebuild for 5+ years. We want to get into this group, but we have to get into the above group first. Unless the Bears go on an unprecedented heater and win out, then it will be another year below .500 pointing figures at the previous regime. At some point this is on Poles. At what point do we stop accepting losing seasons?

It is a challenge, do you try to keep continuity in hopes of improvement, or do you start all over hoping for greener pastures? I think in football, the standard has been set. 3 years for a rebuild should equate to the playoffs. Right now we are in Year 3 of the rebuild and the team is 4-7 with one of the easiest schedules in football. We are now 45 games into the rebuild and are closer to the worst team (2 games) in the NFL than we are to a playoff spot (3 games). Right now the Bears have better odds at a top 10 pick than they do to finish with a winning record. Last year they were a 10 win team that won 7 games. This year, they are a 7 win team that has won 4 games.

Me either, but is there a better audition than the live thing? I mean if the Bears had any interest in promoting Brown or any other coach or coordinator to HC, why not see how they actually perform on the job before hiring them to do it without the interim tag? I agree that Brown should stay in the booth as the OC calling plays, and let someone else make the 3 decisions per game on the sideline that Flus the Muppet is incapable of doing. Flus in action:

I agree with everything except for the Poles comment. He didn't even talk to Daniels, and Williams was pretty much a no-brainer pick. The trade that got them the pick was also an easy button. Credit for just doing your job is like a participation trophy. To be a truly successful franchise, you have to be better than the norm. I don't know where Poles has done that yet holistically. Coaching hires have been subpar, free agents have been mixed, and draft picks for the most part have played only to their draft status and not beyond. For every Dexter there is a Stevenson or Pickens. For Caleb, there is Velus. In the big picture, Poles has done nothing spectacular that makes you think he can build a long term winner. I am assuming that he doesn't get fired (unless they lose out), so if he addresses the trenches and doesn't draft a ILB and a TE in the first 3 rounds, then I will be ok with keeping him. The fear is we lose Cunningham this offseason and he was the one keeping Poles in check.

Stroud's record is for the beginning of his career. He threw 192 passed before his first INT. Which also means he has thrown all 14 of his INTs in the last 703 passing attempts. It is wild how pedestrian Stroud looks this year after adding Diggs and getting Dell back plus adding Mixon in the backfield. He is down in basically every category and up in INTs.

Yeah, they were top 5 early on but I think that was also due to the level of competition. So there was some fool's gold in the 4-2 record. The last 5 games have solidified that even with the loss of Billings and Brisker.

Geno Smith passed for 395 yards against DET in Week 4, Stafford passed for 317 yards in Week 1. Those are the only two 300-yd games against DET this season. However, since their Week 5 bye, the highest passing yardage was Love in Week 9 with 273. No QB has thrown for more than 1 TD against DET this season. They have had an INT in every game this season except for Week 12 (last week), so 10 straight weeks before last week.

For overall OFF grade for OTs, Jones is 18th, Wright is 21st. They are not the only pair in the top 30, PHI has #1 Mailata and #8 Johnson, LAC has Slater #3 and Alt #15, DET has #4 Sewell and #22 Decker, MIN has #7 O'Neill and #12 Darrisaw, CAR has #26 and #27, and HOU has #20 and #30. So 7 teams with 2x OTs in the top 30. DEN has #13 and #31. For Shelton, he is 16th OVR, 9th Pass Block Grade, 22nd Run Block Grade. He has had 6x elite level pass blocking games and 2 bottom of the barrel games. Kind of funny, but he has played a Pro Bowl level since Week 5. For Guards, Pryor has the 5th best Pass Block Grade for Guards and Jenkins is 8th. Jenkins is 15th Overall and Pryor is 34th. Funny note, the #1 rated Guard is James Daniels and Lucas Patrick is 21st. As a team, the Bears are 8th best pass blocking team now and 12th best run blocking team, according to PFF grades. The Bears have the 17th best team OVR PFF Grade, Defense is 5th, Offense is 26th.

Right now it is Fields 405 vs Wilson 349 vs Allen 2. So right now Fields has 53.6% of the snaps at QB. With 6 games remaining, the Steelers average 68.8 snaps per game, so they should end the season with approximately 1168 snaps, and 50% of those is 584 snaps. Fields needs 179 more snaps, so just under 11 quarters of play (just over 2.5 games). Depending on their record, they may rest starters in Week 18, so Fields should get the start there. That would leave 1.5 games worth of snaps in the next 5. The only way this happens is if RW gets hurt or is just absolutely terrible and they go on a 4-game losing streak (3 more games) and then try Fields to salvage their playoff hopes in the last 3.

Not that it matters much, but if they are going to keep Flus for the remainder of the season, he should be forced to give up defensive play calling to Washington, and let him concentrate solely on game management since it seems that he is overwhelmed with both duties during the game.

The weirdest thing about the defense seems that the problems are mainly scheme outside of Stevenson shitting the bed. When you only rush 4 and play soft coverage, you are playing the most predictable type of defense that good OCs can dice up. Flus' defense comes down to forcing the offense to make routine plays over and over. Good teams can easily do this, it is like playing in the preseason with vanilla defenses. Unless you have elite talent that can beat 1v1 consistently, the defense is average at best.

St. Brown and Decker are huge. St. Brown gets a 1/3 of the targets from Goff and Decker compared to backup is a huge downgrade. If Caleb and the offense keep it up tempo, this could be a high scoring affair.

I had to boot the last GM that did not make the league due payment. I am now in control of that roster for the remainder of the season. The updated winnings are as follows: 1. $395 2. $180 3. $75 4. $25

I would love a win, but I have almost zero hope left. Detroit is playing lights out, and it seems like there are only 3-4 teams that have a chance to beat them (BUF, PHI, BAL, and KC). Their only loss is a 4-pt loss to TB in Week 2, so they have a 9-game win streak going right now, and in their last 2 games, they have combined for 76 pts to 12 against. It would seem like the only way the Bears surprise them is because it is a short week and they are looking ahead to GB next Thursday.

You know it is bad when Jaylon Johnson is making comments AND playing like crap. HIs play has dropped off a cliff and Sunday was his worst game since 2022.

McConkey would've been cool. 😐 The Chargers literally did the opposite of the Bears and look at them now. They signed Harbaugh, got draft picks for Williams and Allen (instead of giving up picks for them like the Bears did for Allen), drafted Alt and McConkey (I love Odunze, but the Bears could've traded out of that spot for a top tier OG/OC and WR + another pick), and decided to keep Mack, who they traded for with the Bears for a 2nd rounder. The Bears have to fix the trenches with quality depth on both lines. The defense may be in for a change with a different DC and different style defense next year. The defense may look vastly different than it does today.

Yeah, I am out on Poles too. What has he done exactly? Again, if not for lucking into the Carolina trade, this team would look nothing like it does now. Even with that trade, he still messed it up (trades up for Stevenson, uses draft capital on Pickens, Scott, and Velus, wastes pick #32 on Claypool. The Bears would've been better off auto-drafting. No joke, just draft BPA every year and you look like Minnesota's roster. Sweat does not look worth all that money plus a high 2nd rounder right now. Washington looks fine without him. People may not even realize, but Poles has already used 2x draft picks on punters in 3 years when 80% of the rest of the league signs guys as UDFAs or off the street. I was fine for letting Roquan walk, but Edmunds was overpaid, and is not lighting the world on fire by any means. Then we get to the OLine. You would think, as a former O-Lineman, that he would at least know what it takes to be a good OLineman, but nope, he literally brought on passive guys like himself, Jones, Wright, Davis, Shelton, Bates, etc. The only dawg is Jenkins who was not drafted by Poles and is hurt a lot. For Cunningham, what is his role in all of this? If he is just an echo chamber, maybe he is not the right guy for the job either. All I know is, if they finish with 6 or fewer wins, both Flus and Poles need to go. Flus should be gone regardless of outcome, but just say Caleb puts it together and they win 8 or 9 games and the roster plays to it's potential, then you have some proof that Poles built a solid roster. Right now it is hard to tell.

Terrible coaching, game plan, O-Line play, receiver drops. This dude has overcame a lot.

Yeah, it is beyond embarrassing at this point. We are so far gone already. I knew Eberflus was just larping this entire time. Like the staged meeting with Caleb in Hard Knocks with Flus telling Caleb the number of plays they have like that is some amazing factoid of knowledge. Caleb sat there the entire time saying "yeah, yeah, yeah". I thought it was awkward then, and it is still awkward now. There were so many signs last season that this season did not need to go this way. I guarantee if Flus wasn't retained, Waldron would not have been hired.

The QBs and teams a Flus-led team has beaten in the last 3 years: 2022 - Trey Lance/13-4, Davis Mills/3-13-1, Bailey Zappe/8-9 2023 - Sam Howell/4-13, Brian Hoyer/6-11, Bryce Young/2-15, Joshua Dobbs/7-10, Jared Goff/12-5, Kyler Murray/4-13, Taylor Heinicke/7-10 2024 - Will Levis/3-8, Matt Stafford/5-6, Andy Dalton/3-8, Trevor Lawrence/2-9 The combined winning pct is .371, 79-134-1, ironically enough, that winning pct is better than Flus' at .311. He has won 2 games against teams that finished the year with a winning record, the 2022 49ers, that the Bears beat in Week 1 in the monsoon, and the 2023 Lions in Week 14. So one signature win, that's it.

Since Week 3, in 9 games, Caleb is 196-306, 64.1%, 2,089, 6.83 Y/A, 11 TD, 3 INT, which averages to 232 yds a game, which also equates to 3,946 yds, 21 TD and 6 INT for a full season.

The Lions defense is very similar to GBs in terms of production, so I would expect similar production out of Williams compared to the last two games. Also, these stats don't take into account the loss of Hutchinson, who still leads the team in sacks at 7.5. That is the same amount as the next 3 guys combined. Kirby Joseph is the guy to avoid in the secondary. He is who we wanted Eddie Jackson to be. On offense, their passing game is lopsided. St. Brown has 71 receptions, the next highest is Williams with 29, then LaPorta at 28. Gibbs and Monty are right behind with 26 and 24 receptions. So St. Brown has 33% of Goff's completions and the 2 RBs account for 22%. So 55% of the passing game goes to St. Brown or to an RB. Their rushing game is off the charts, Gibbs has 886 and Month has 632, and both have over 10 rushing TDs. With how bad the Bears run defense has been, they are going to have to commit an extra guy to stopping the run while shading to St. Brown's side to have a chance.