adam

It really is a shame because I think Mitch could've been right up there between them two if he was able to read defenses. Maybe he can find a fit somewhere and redeem himself, but odds are against him. Tannehill was a little different due to injury. In 2020, the QB with the highest AYTS (Air Yards to Sticks) is still Trubisky at 2.0, meaning he was throwing the ball 2 yards past the first down markers on average. Watson? 0. Mahomes? -1.2. Brees, the 2nd lowest in the NFL at -2.8. Trubisky's 2.0 is the highest of any QB in the last 5 seasons. All that means is Mahomes, like Brees has the skill position players to throw short of the sticks and let them do the work.

I agree that you have to win in the trenches. Future drafts in the first 3 rounds should be focus on O-Line and D-Line but that will be with a new GM. I don't have faith in Pace to do that. What I would like to see, regardless of where the team is at is to go into the draft with the mindset that unless there is some ridiculous talent at your pick, you look to trade down. If you watch the Patriots, that is what they do. Seattle does it too. You don't even need to do that every pick, but a couple of moves down in a draft, and magically, you have 2-3 more picks. Then you have the flexibility to move back up if someone drops. Like if the Bears end up drafting in the 20's, I would rather trade out of the 1st, pick up an early 2nd plus extra picks. You do lose the 5th year option, but for me the extra picks are worth it and there is rarely much difference between a player at 25 vs 35 nowadays. Trading up has really killed the Bears. They are going to have almost no choice but to blow everything up, maybe even as early as this offseason (with the lowered cap).

Graham, Hicks, and Edwards revenge game. Bear weather, Kmet used to playing in these conditions. Get him the rock.

Mack, Jackson, Patterson all questionable, but all expected to play. ARob doubtful sucks as the NO secondary is their weakness. Will need big games from Miller, Monty, and Mooney. The Killer M's?

So for the Saints, no Thomas, no Sanders (led WRs on team in receptions, yards, TDs). No Callaway (rookie WR w/ 13 receptions). That makes their WR1 Tre'Quan Smith and their WR2 Deonte Harris. This game is going to be all about Kamara.

No Michael Thomas:

Trubisky was terrible in that game. He has something like 100 yards passing and the longest drive was a 39 yard FG drive before those last two garbage time drives. This was also the notorious Nagy No-Rushing game where the Bears rushed 7 times all game (5 by RBs). 7 rushes and 2 3rd Down conversions for the entire game. Talk about a bad game. I think if the Bears lose again and the offense looks bad, Nagy will give up play calling. That's the hope at least.

Weather is going to be a factor on Sunday. 38 degrees with 24 mph winds at kickoff.

I have been watching since the late 70s (the earliest season I can remember is 78) so I understand your frustration. Unfortunately, it has always come down to the QB. Without one, you can only be so good on offense. There were so many times the Bears missed on QBs, it kills me. How about Aaron Rodgers? The Bears drafted Grossman 23rd in 2003, but started Hutchinson, Krenzel, and Quinn in 2004, which ultimately gave the Bears the #4 pick. Instead of going with who some thought was the best QB in the draft, went with Benson. Rodgers went 24th, and GB didn't even want him, but couldn't pass up on the value. Jason Campbell went one pick later to Washington. If GB doesn't pick Rodgers, he would've been a Redskin. For now, it is an indictment on Pace. He drafted Trubisky with Watson available. That to me to this day is still inexcusable. It would've been different if Trubisky was the only 1st Round QB picked or the Bears didn't trade up to get him. That to me was a double down. It didn't work, the Bears need to move on and find a GM that can find a QB. Compare that pick to what Washington did in 2019. They picked Haskins, it hasn't worked, but he was the 3rd QB picked. Not the first, and they didn't trade up to get him. Then you look at his year, Burrow, Tua, and Herbert. They all may turn out to be good. The 4th QB taken in the first round? Jordan Love to the Packers. Who knows if that will work out. Also, Pace traded up for Monty, traded into a year prior draft for Miller when guys like McLaurin and Metcalf could've been picked the next year with the original pick. Pace is one of those guys that thinks he is the smartest guy in the room, then looks like a complete ass when his ideas end up like the jump to conclusions mat. These jobs are not that hard. With today's analytics, it is much easier to project what players will do over the course of a season and career than ever before. Even with play calling and play design. Since the offense is the only one who knows what the play is, there should be someone open on every play. If the defense adjusts to take that away, you audible into something else.

Foles knows the play is going to fail because there is not enough time for it to develop. That answers a lot about some of his bad throws.

Watson is playing against a lot of prevent defenses which are padding his stats big time.

Yeah, it was a slightly rhetorical question, but you answered it. That is spot on.

Also, some teams are built for the regular season. ATL reminded me of that for the last few years. Almost always getting 9-11 wins and a playoff berth only to choke it away in the post season. GB feels very much like that.

Nothing for Floyd since we did not pick up 5th year option. I think Kwit's was negated by picking up Quinn. So we only get a 6th for Shaheen (which is better than nothing).

Wow, so he gets that type of deal as the #3 TE that doesn't play special teams. Very interesting. That seems like a lot of money for that type of role, especially with all the COVID cap numbers hitting next year. Seems odd to me.

So with Trubisky done as a starter, it is interesting to see how the other guys are doing. Mahomes now has 4 games with less than 250 yards passing, yet the Chiefs keep winning. The more I watch his games, the more I think he would not be as effective on another team. He would still be very good, but not this good. Someone is always wide open. I don't know why our guys can't get open like that. Watson on the other hand has 4x straight 300 yard games with multiple TD passes, yet they are 1-6. He is now 11-11 as a starter since 2019. Trubisky is 11-7 in that same period. Watson is getting a lot of garbage time stats which makes him look a lot better. He is having a great season even without Hopkins, which is a little surprising to me.

It's funny because when the Packers lose bad, it's a fluke, but when the Bears lose bad, it's who they are. Everyone should know by now that every week is almost a new season. Between player injuries, travel, rest, etc, very little carries over from game to game. Look at KC, they win 43-16, so you would expect a big game from Mahomes, nope, he had 200 yards passing and 1 TD.

A good percentage of those were bogus or questionable calls at best. The league is not being consistent with the calls, especially holding, which is directly affecting the Bears a lot.

Home Dogs for this one. There is a good chance Michael Thomas misses this game. If that happens, the Saints leading WR is Sanders. The only real threat is Kamara who has 75 rushes and 46 receptions. He has to be contained. The Saints defense has allowed 23, 34, 37, 29, 27, and 24 to start the season. They have needed 27 or more to win a game which favors the Bears. After a demoralizing loss, I think the Bears come in pissed off and grind out a tough win. Bears 27-23

Please baby Jesus, give us a Ginn cut this week.

Great work Mongo. I agree with all your sentiments. Ginn should be gone already, Harris should be TE5, and I would rather live with the growing pains of Bars or Mustipher than have Coward in there anymore. What I might look at is the number of plays and the result when it is no-huddle or tempo. To me, it looked like the entire offense and blocking was better when the defense couldn't sub. I also think Foles calls the plays himself without Nagy getting too cute. On the bad INT, which was a terrible throw and decision by Foles. I thought they were driving down the field quickly, then slowed the pace again before that play. That's how Graham was able to be subbed out. If that's the case, and based on how both Trubisky and Foles has looked so far, the QB is clearly not the biggest problem on offense.

First off, Ted Ginn should be left in LA. What a waste of oxygen. What the hell. If he was going to do that on every punt, then rush 11 and go for the block. There is no way the coaches told him to not fair catch the ball. He cost the team at least 40 yards of field position and made it near impossible to salvage a few drives starting at the 1. Secondly, Nagy needs to give up play calling. It can't get any worse. On the 4th Down CP run, EVERYONE in the world knew what was about to happen. You know what would've worked perfectly there, a play fake to CP then a pass back to the other side. He is too predictable and doesn't make any in-game adjustments (see 3rd quarter scoring). Third, Foles is not much better than Trubisky. His boneheaded INT in the end zone took 7 pts off the board. However, did anyone notice the drive that led to the INT, how the Bears were moving the ball with tempo and some no-huddles? It worked, why, because Nagy couldn't sub in a player package that wasn't going to work. To me, that is how you know who the main problem is. On up tempo and no-huddle situations, even the running game gets going. This was also the same thing with Trubisky, if you remember. Fourth, the defense can only do so much. Outside of a couple of plays, they were solid. Skrine was late to his guy for an easy TD. If you are the coaching staff, how do you not see that and call a timeout? The defense gave out 3 first downs with penalties, extending drives again. The Hicks hands to the face was BS and ultimately led to a LA TD. That play and the Foles RZ INT were the difference (both 7 pts) in the game. Fifth, the officiating is still an issue. For me, it's the inconsistency of the calls. How does one team get away with clear holds, yet the other team touches the other team, and that is a foul? If you get a chance to rewatch this train wreck, watch the Rams jet sweeps. On one particular play, I think it was Woods around the right side, there is a clear hold (more than what Ifedi did to Donald that was called) at the edge and nothing was called. EZ first down. If the calls are going to go like that, what can you do? Lastly, the Offensive Line. What an absolute dumpster fire. I get that Daniels is hurt, but what the hell. Massie made Leonard freaking Floyd look like a HoFer. Leno, Ifedi, and Coward looked like they were playing patty cake with the Rams. Then Whitehair goes down. This is on Pace. What a joke. He overpaid to keep Massie and Leno (who are well below average), and then brought Ifedi in for league minimum to be a STARTER. Defenses literally just rush straight into the gaps and either they plug the run lanes or are in the passer's face. With all of that, I am still optimistic about the team turning it around though. The law of averages was going to eventually catch up to them and the Rams were the last good defense they play this year. Every team has a bad game. I will be more concerned if we lose again in NO on Sunday. Right now though, all the naysayers who were wrong for 5 weeks can say they were right for 6 days.

Defense is one of the few that can go negative, so I would bench if you had a 1-2 pt lead since you already technically won. For defenses, I would have to go with the Bears with a slight edge on this one. The Rams have Donald and Ramsey, the Bears have Mack, Hicks, Fuller, Jackson, and Smith all playing at an elite level. Mack and Hicks really seem to ball out on the national stage. I also like Foles over Goff.

The Bears start this game as the #1 Seed in the NFC. With a win, they would have a 1/2 game lead on the #2 Seed.

You are correct that they want even money because that neutralizes any wins and they take their 10%. Here is a great article about it: https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/bears/ct-chicago-bears-underdog-las-vegas-oddsmakers-point-spread-20201016-cm3sj4gnxvfhbg2kmogpyibvby-story.html That article clearly shows that the oddsmakers have their own sentiment about teams. The Bears are the Lions to them.