adam

Coward was just as bad. You are correct, they both need to go. I actually expect both to be replaced by or during the bye.

He lost his starting job and they weren't going to pay him that much to be a backup. For the league minimum, there is no way he is worse than Coward.

He looks so disinterested. O-Linemen have to want to block. He does not. I would put Spriggs in there to see what he can do. I would also bring in Spain for LG. Something has to be done. Montgomery doesn't even need good blocking, he just doesn't need to be hit behind the LOS or near it EVERY run.

Now that made me laugh.

Coward was terrible as well. I am not defending him, but he is a converted D-Linemen who was thrown in at LG mid-season. Leno is a high paid LT who looks like he doesn't even want to be out there. He doesn't want to block. I could make more videos because every play was the same. Unless the defensive player ran right at him, he would be in their way (like a tackling dummy).

14:07 left in the 2nd quarter, Leno whiffs on #52 who makes the tackle on Montgomery. Harris also completely misses his cut block. Just put a helmet on a helmet. Leno is a lazy POS if you ask me. I have seen enough from him. He is not even making an attempt to block. 9:31 in the 2nd quarter, here is Leno completely whiffing on #52 who forces Monty outside. If Leno blocks him, Monty can cut the play inside of #21 and has only one guy to beat. Due to missed block, it pushes him outside for a short gain.

ok, I am going thru the coach's film now. I would outright cut Leno. I have no clue what the hell he is doing on any play. He whiffs literally on every block, especially run blocking, where the guy he missed gets the tackle on Montgomery. I will post some vids here shortly.

If we split against GB and sweep MIN and DET, we have a realistic shot at 13 wins with losses only coming against IND, GB, and TEN. 12 wins if we split NO/LAR.

I bolded my initial comment. We are well on our way and right on track for 11-5. We are entering the worst stretch, weeks 7-10. We just need a split here to be in great shape after the bye.

I had us beating TB and CAR, then losing 3 straight. Now looking at this, we have winnable games against LAR and NO and a probable loss against TEN and probable win against MIN. So we need to split LAR and NO, and split TEN/MIN to go into the bye at 7-3.

So we are now #10 in the Sagarin Ratings (https://www.usatoday.com/sports/nfl/sagarin/) with the 21st SoS (for record) and are now 14th in DVOA (https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/nfl/team-efficiency/2020) with the 13th toughest schedule in DVOA. Funny how a few weeks playing IND, TB, and CAR changed that theme. Our offense is 26th in DVOA (still bad), and our defense is #5. Surprisingly our Special Teams ranks 24th, which is odd to me with one of the best returners, solid punting and great kicking of late. Using the ELO model at 538 we are ranked 10th, have an 85% chance to make the playoffs and finish with an 11-5 record. btw, that means we only need to go 6-4 in our next 10 games, so we can expect 3-2 twice.

24 First Downs given to opponents compared to 13 for us is insane. That is why these games have felt so tight.

Yeah, especially if they send two linemen to block him and he drops into coverage. Now you have 2x O-Linemen on an island with no one to block while the other 3x linemen are trying to scramble and block the remaining rushers.

Looking back at the pick. If you watch it unfold, Foles has the receiver open but he just can't get enough on it with the pressure hitting him as he throws it. That would've looked like an amazing play if you he a few split seconds more to throw.

I hope Kmet starts to get Harris' targets because Harris has hands of stone. Two huge drops on easily catchable balls. Give those to Kmet.

So we now have a 78.3% chance to make the playoffs, the 3rd highest in the NFC behind Seattle and Tampa Bay. With 7 teams making the playoffs, the 8th place team is actually 4-2 (ARZ), so it's not like there has been any separation from the pack yet. The 9th team is NO at 3-2. SF is still a solid team at 3-3, and they are 10th. So even at 5-1, we are only 1 or 2 wins from being out of the playoffs looking in. With LAR, NO, TEN coming up, one win is a minimum, but 2 may be needed to keep pace.

Yeah I know, just venting. It's very frustrating to watch sometimes. Like everytime there is a big play for the Bears, I am looking for a flag. It happened on the Jackson Pick-6. I just knew a flag was coming. Defenseless receiver is a subjective call. What about any flag 15 yards or more is reviewed? Those are too big to get wrong.

People forget, no offseason, no way to bond with teammates. Trubisky starts the first few games. Daniels and Cohen injuries. Miller inconsistencies. There has been a lot against Foles right now. It doesn't negate his boneheaded INT, but at least he admitted his mistake. Listening to some Bears podcasts, one good point they have brought up. These games are like playoff games, and the Bears are winning a lot of them. They also have a QB built for the postseason. If that presser doesn't get you pumped up, you are a zombie. The team sees that too. It is a stark difference to Trubisky. Now that I have seen Foles play a few games, he is actually worse than Trubisky athletically (arm strength, etc), but he looks like Einstein compared to a 5th Grader upstairs. That difference is huge. Now we need better playcalling and blocking. Look at the blocking on the INT, not that it defends his throw, but damn:

A few players are really stepping up. Roquan is playing at an All-Pro level now and a big surprise for me has been Mario Edwards Jr. He has been playing some great ball. If we can clean up some of the crossing pattern stuff and keep gap integrity on the runs, we are going to be in great shape.

My math was off, we lost 4 on the Arob play and 7 on the Jackson TD (I was thinking 6 for the TD), that's 11, not 10. Then CAR gained 7 on the Johnson PI.

I agree. It's crazy because those calls literally gave CAR pts or took points off the board for the Bears. That game was a blowout yet the refs did everything in their power to keep it close. That has to be exhausting for players. ARob got hit worse than the Fuller play, yet Fuller got called. Then he got called on the same hit he did against TB. When I went back and watched some of the previous games, the same damn thing. The Giants game had several. The game looked close, but it never was. So far here are the first downs by penalty: 4-4 3-0 3-2 4-2 3-2 7-3 24-13 The Bears have lost that battle every game but the first one, which was tied with the Lions. That is 24 penalties for a first down compared to 13 received. At first I was thinking that the inconsistent play was completely on the offense, but watching the games, the officiating has as much to do with that as the offense does. There have been numerous non-calls or phantom calls on the Bears to kill a drive. Then on defense, somehow the Panthers didn't hold on a single play yesterday. How is that even possible? I am all for making every play reviewable.

Another angle of the Fuller hit:

Kyle Fuller's shoulder to shoulder hit, cost 15 yards and an automatic first down:

Ok, so I know this goes without saying and most teams and their fans can complain about the officials, but there is no denying the Bears are on the short end of these calls more times than not. Check out some of these calls/no-calls that have cost the Bears points.

I wonder where the Bears are in the Power Rankings this week. They have been lingering around 15-16, they are tied for the 4th best record in the NFL. It is hard for me to not see them finally crack the top-10 but with so many naysayers, I suspect 12-13. What is funny is they will rate teams like Buffalo and Cleveland higher but what's crazy is both of those teams have 4 wins and a negative pts differential. The Bears have an elite defense and if the games were called fairly, we would all be talking about a 33-9 blowout win.