adam

So I saw an idea that might actually get some legs involving Nick Foles in the next few weeks. Very hypothetical. If the Bears beat the Falcons this week and go to 3-0 behind Trubisky and the Eagles somehow lose to the Bengals to fall to 0-3 with Wentz, do you consider trading Foles to the Eagles if they come calling? I don't think it would ever happen, but just for the sake of the discussion, what would you want in return for Foles? We sent a 4th to JAX but there was no leverage either way at that point. So to me, he is worth at least a 3rd, if not more at this point to the Eagles. So I was thinking of a 3rd and a 6th. We don't have a 4th or 7th next year, so adding a 3rd and 6th would be a nice haul to recoup some draft capital. That would turn a 4th into a 3rd and a 6th. You really can't beat that. What do you think?

Damn, I noticed this out of the WR's but didn't think anything of it at the time. It might be the routes, but even on that Miller TD catch against DET, he had very little separation against a backup DB. With the amount of cushion Robinson gets you would think the catch rate would be a little higher. Both WRs are dropping a lot of balls. If you compare these players (CHI and MIA) with their QBs, then look at others around the league, I don't see any correlation between QB and separation. For once, it looks like Trubisky is not the main problem on offense. With the O-Line and running game going, it looks like the receiving corps is failing. At the same token, Trubisky's QBR is at 54.2, 23rd in the league behind Jeff Driskel and just ahead of Daniel Jones and Joe Burrow. We need him playing around #15 to have a chance at a playoff run.

Yeah, I agree, but like in the Giants game, if Miller holds on to the TD pass that hit his hands, it's a blowout. A lot of games come down to one or two plays, there just not always at the end of the game like the Swift play. The ones at the end of the game are just magnified but have no more value than ones earlier in the game that might have had the same effect/result.

Good news, we are down to 2 GM's left for league fees and we will be paid in full for the season.

We are off to a good start to the 2020 season. However, we still have 4 GMs that have not paid their league dues yet. Leaguesafe imposes a $10 fee on late payments, so there is not much I can do there. https://leaguesafe.com/join/3948858 The updated deadline is now set to Sunday, September 27th. I will need a consensus from the GMs on how we want to proceed for those that don't pay by the updated deadline. I just don't want this to drag out too much longer. If you can't meet the payment deadline, please let me know. Thanks, Adam

RIP to one of the all-time greats.

I know most media outlets had the Bears at 6-10 or 7-9 going into the season, but that is a tall task now with a 2-0 start. Things would have to really go south to end the season with anything less than 8 wins. That's good news. Despite being one of 11 2-0 teams, the Bears crack the top 15 in only two of the national power rankings I could find. NFL.com ranks the Bears 19th, USA Today 19th, Bleacher Report 18th, ESPN 17th, Yahoo Sports 15th, and SI.com ranks us 14th (the highest of the few I looked at). Right now the Bears have played the 2nd easiest schedule besides the Bills. Yet you will see the Bills are being ranked in the top 10 and sometimes even the top 5 in some rankings (which is crazy to me). So how accurate are the power rankings compared to advanced analytics? Using Sagarin ratings (which has been around a long time), the Bears are ranked 18th, the Bills 10th. The Bears play the Falcons who are ranked 22nd, so that is a good thing. We should win a game against the Falcons majority of the time. https://www.usatoday.com/sports/nfl/sagarin/ For DVOA, which is team efficiency, the Bears come in at #18. Offensively, the Bears are 24th, showing that they have not been very good outside of the 4th quarter against Detroit. The defense comes in at #6, which is surprising to me but a good sign. Special Teams comes in at #23, which is not good. We need some better output from that unit. https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/nfl/team-efficiency/2020 According to FBOs playoff odds, the Bears have a 56.1% chance to make the playoffs, currently the 8th team in the NFC, which would just miss the 3rd Wild Card slot (to TB). The NFC West has 3 undefeated teams and the 1-1 49ers. That will all change when they start playing each other. FiveThirtyEight also does simulated predictions. Right now they have the Bears at 13th, which is very promising. They predict a 10-6 finish with a 65% chance to make the playoffs and coming in as the 7th seed. Very interesting to me. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-nfl-predictions/

Also another weird note, the Bears have yet to play a team that has won a game. DET, NYG, and ATL are a combined 0-6 on the season. With the Lions playing in Arizona and the Giants playing against the 49ers. If the Bears win, there is a good chance that they could go into Week 4 with a 3-0 record against teams with a combined 0-9 record.

There is definitely a little reverse psychology going on. However, this is a road game against a solid team that. The Bears have yet to take advantage of bad defenses, so I don't see that changing. The Falcons are going to score in the high 20's or more. So unless we have a dominant defense showing with some turnovers and a full 4-quarters on offense, then this is going to be a tough win.

So here we are, Week 3, with one undefeated team and one winless team. Even with that, the 0-2 Falcons start as 3.5 favorites against the 2-0 Bears. That just shows the lack of confidence in the Bears right now. Who knows which Falcons team or Bears team will show up this week. The Bears have now held on to barely beat bad football teams with a ton of injuries. It feels like this is the first true test for the Bears. The Falcons have faced the Seahawks and Cowboys, two really good teams, and the Falcons offense has put up a ton of points, but their defense looks bad. So it is underwhelming Bears offense vs bad Falcons defense against and solid Bears defense vs explosive Falcons offense. The Bears have to get pressure and cover 3 top receivers in Jones, Ridley, and Gage, plus Hurst at TE AND Gurley out of the backfield. I don't like this matchup as the Bears have not played this caliber of an offense yet, but have played some bad defenses. Unless there is some surprise Falcons injury or huge letdown from their late-game collapse against the Cowboys, I don't see this being a very competitive game. I am thinking Falcons 31-21, with the Bears scoring late to make it look closer.

The biggest difference to me is the run game and play calling before Mitch's play. To me, he is better than 2019, but that is not saying much. Outside of the 4th quarter against Detroit, he still has been pretty mediocre. According to DVOA, he is 26th in the league, which adjusts for the defenses. If you use QBR, he is 23rd. https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/nfl/qb/2020 So most of the advanced metrics say the same thing, he is below league average and still a bottom 10 QB. However, compared to last year, where he was arguably the worst QB in the league, it is a step in the right direction.

Oh I know, I just saw that and thought it was interesting related to ARob's extension talks.

There is this: If Cohen actually did this and it gets ARob extended, huge kudos to him.

Yeah, Fuller has really stepped up his game and Johnson is getting his hands in on a lot of pass breakups. Very encouraging. It was nice to see Quinn and Mack on the field at the same time. I am expecting them to get better as the season gets going.

Something has to give this year at the QB position. Trubisky has done nothing to show he is the long term answer. They will ride him, but with ATL and IND next, if Trubisky plays like he has, the Bears are 2-2 going into Week 5 against TB.

I really don't think they can afford him. I would not be surprised to see Foles start shortly. The offense has looked completely inept for 6 quarters out of the first 8 this season against some terrible defenses. Trubisky cannot process anything beyond his first read and was staring down Arob on the INTs. He is too inconsistent to be a starter. Foles is on contract for next year, Trubisky is not. I almost think they are showcasing Trubisky for a trade before the deadline. I know that would be shocking, but if you don't, he ends up like Floyd with nothing to show for a first round pick. There will be a team looking for a QB with all these injuries. I have seen enough of Trubisky to be honest.

I hated the 2nd half offense. The Bears did exactly what they needed to do in the first half and scored late in the 2nd right before half to go up 17-0. Then they came out in the 2nd half and looked terrible. The defense forced the Giants to punt on their first possession which gave the Bears the ball at their own 25. Trubisky went into fart mode and had a bad INT. That gave the Giants the ball at the Bears 25. The defense held again and only allowed 4 yards and a 39 yard FG. To me, those points are on the offense. On the next drive, the offense moves the ball, then gets stalled at the Giants 38. Instead of going for it on 4th up 14, Nagy punts and it works. O'Donnell pushes them back to the 5. So its late in the 3rd and the Giants have to go 95 yards to score a TD. Jones passes his way to the 1 yard line, then Lewis finishes the drive off with a TD run. This was the worst drive of the game for the defense. 95 yards without Barkley? So now it is pucker time, 17-10 and the offense is doing nothing. So just like clockwork, the Bears get a couple of first downs, then the dreaded stare down your receiver INT by Trubisky. ARob had 4-5 defenders around him when the ball was deflected. At this point, the team had zero confidence in Trubisky. They were playing to not lose the game, and now he has his 2nd INT with good field position in 10 minutes. The Giants march right down the field and luckily the defense only bends and allows another FG on a turnover. That is 6 points on the offense. 17-13 and the wheels are falling off. The offense gets the ball at 7:36, and Montgomery took over. He got the team down to the Giants 31 before Trubisky took a one-yard sack instead of throwing the ball away. Right on character, Santos misses a 50 yarder and the Giants now have the ball at the 40 with 2:02 left. The Giants get all the way down to the 10 and get a shot at a TD. There was no way in hell the game should've been that close. Trubisky looked as bad as he did in the first 3 quarters against Detroit. This was a bad Giants team and we won the 2nd game on the last play of the game. Right now, this team feels like a 6 or 7 win team and will get destroyed against a real opponent.

It is a weird feeling, but the Giants did score more against Pittsburgh who was supposedly a better defense. Even before Saquon got hurt, they had several 3 and outs. The Giants were 8-15 on 3rd Down against PIT but only 3-13 against the Bears. In both games, Jones had 2 turnovers and the Bears sacked Jones 4 times while PIT sacked him 3 times. It does feel like the team is less dominant but the defense looked better as a whole. If not for two bad penalty calls, this game isn't this close.

I wonder if they go to Foles next week. Trubisky has been terrible and incredibly inconsistent. Every throw felt like it was going to be intercepted. He had 2, but should've had 4-5.

Man, another game stolen. 2-0 somehow, someway. Not the way you plan it but you take 2-0 and run to the locker room. It is clear to me the team has zero confidence in Trubisky.

Yeah, officials have been questionable today. Ifedi chop blocked his own guy. That is not a penalty.

At the 2 minute warning, Giants have a 2nd and 10 at their 40. It is all on the defense now, don't allow a TD and Bears win. Allow a TD and we lose. It is that easy.

2:02 left, the Giants need 60 yards and a TD to win.

What a shit show, zero confidence in Trubisky's ability to make decisions after the snap. You have to go to Foles after this game, win or lose. And of course, Santos misses a 50-yd FG. Kicked it left and it barely moved. How about aim center? WTF.

Monty running hard, some nice blocks by O-Line, but then they get too predictable and are left with a long 3rd Down. Trubisky shaky.