adam

If Roquan keeps this up, he would have to be in the All-Pro discussions at ILB, he is currently tied for 6th in the NFL in tackles. In the NFC, he is one of four LB's with a sack, an INT and 90+ tackles: 1. Jordan Hicks, ARZ, 110 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 3 INT 2. De'Vondre Campbell, ATL, 99 tackles, 1 sack, 2 INT 3. Roquan Smith, CHI, 98 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 INT 4. Cory Littleton, LAR, 94 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2 INT Jaylon Smith leads the NFL with 112 tackles and has 2 sacks, but no INTs. Now if you only count solo tackles, Roquan has 65, Smith has 68, and the league leader is Budda Baker who has 71. So Smith is really close to the league lead and if he has a few more games with 10 tackles, he might get there.

I think there is a difference for QBs when it is a bad throw vs a bad decision. Like when they completely miss a LB or Safety or a CB drops off and cuts of the pass, compared to just a pass thrown behind the receiver. Trubisky just didn't lead Robinson enough and Slay undercut the pass because he had time to catch up. I can live with some bad passes, it's the bad decisions that are game breakers.

Happy Holidays Mongo! A great looking Bear family!

I hope it is, a bust is a bust. Move on and let it be the end of it. Just like McClellin, remember him?

Check out the stats between Trubisky and Wentz since the start of last season: Trubisky 519-795, 65.3%, 5419 yds, 37 TD, 19 INT, 6.8 Y/A; Rushing: 94-501 Yds, 4 TD Wentz 522-789, 66.2%, 5604 yds, 38 TD, 13 INT, 7.1 Y/A, Rushing: 79-281 Yds, 1 TD After the Thursday game, they are within 3 completions, 6 attempts, 185 yards, and 1 TD. Trubisky has 6 more INTs but also has 220 more rushing yards and 3 TDs. Outside of that, these guys are eerily similar. I know Wentz has been getting some flak, but I don't think I have ever seen a QB have each incompletion or INT analyzed like Trubisky. Have you?

In his career, Floyd (18.5) has 1 more sack than Jordan Jenkins (17.5) and 2.5 more than Kyler Fackrell (16.0). Forced Fumbles, Floyd has one. Jenkins has 5 and even Fackrell has 2. Both Jenkins and Fackrell are 3rd rounders making $2.2M a year. Floyd makes $2.6M, and that would jump to $13.2M next season. If they want to bring him back under $3M, fine, but he has done nothing to earn more than that. The O-Line dilemma sucks. I don't know why Pace would lock up a mediocre line. All the advanced stats said they were below league average and then you reward Massie and Leno with big deals and lock them up long term. Immediately after that, they become lazy bums. Patterson has really shown some good ST value, I just don't know if that is enough to keep him at that price tag. Gabriel is gone. Miller has shown he can be a clear #2 and ARob needs to be locked up for a long term deal. I still like the idea of bringing in a vet at a reasonable salary and drafting a guy in the mid rounds unless someone falls out of the first.

Skrine has been actually played solid in one of the toughest positions on the defense. Kwit has filled in admirably, and HHCD has been better than Jackson and more consistent for the entire season. With the cap crunch hitting next year due to Mack's contract, there is just no way to pay everyone. It seems like it will come down to what the team values more (Floyd, Trevathan, or HHCD), but I only see one of them staying due to their contract expectations. My assumption is they will resign Kwit and keep HHCD. That would be the cheapest option for maintaining continuity with not too much performance drop off. I love Danny and he is a huge locker room presence, but he will be turning 30 in March, and unless he takes a huge home team discount, I doubt he is back (unfortunately). Both Kwit and HHCD are in their primes at 26. Another issue with continuity would be losing two DB's in the same offseason (Prince and HHCD). Now you have half the field to address in the secondary.

Man, am I done with Floyd, Lynch, and Prince. Those three need to be gone next year. They are huge holes in our defense. Floyd can't do anything across Khalil Mack, which is borderline criminal for a top 10 pick. He has 3 sacks, 3 TFL, and 0 PD. He only had 4 sacks last year and only 4.5 two years ago. So in his last 38 games, Floyd has 11.5 sacks. That is not enough for the money he is expected to get, even on the 5th year option. He is not worth that much money. Lynch is a lazy and undisciplined player. He was late on the field for a play and just stood there, and had another penalty, and now has 5 on the season. For a situational player, you can't have that many penalties preventing the defense from getting off the field. Prince is such a liability, he makes a couple of plays every now and then, so he has a lot of passes defended. However, that's just because he is getting more balls thrown at him. He is continually beat on every play and gets burnt a lot when targeted. The Bears have to address that position in the offseason. I am now thinking that it might get bumped up in priority in the offseason.

So in the last 3 games, Roquan has 30 tackles, 4 TFL, 2 sacks, 1 INT, and 1 PD. This is an All-Pro stat line. This corresponds with the 3 games that Trevathan has missed. Roquan has really stepped up. The storyline is going to get interesting this week as some speculation earlier in the season was that Roquan was having some issues with the Bears throwback jerseys. Well, this upcoming week, the Bears will go back to those throwbacks, so we will see if we can rule that out once and for all. Hopefully we do. The Bears needed Roquan to be a top 10 pick and he is delivering. We are also getting great play out of Kwit filling in for Trevathan. He will come in handy against DAL this week with Elliott running the ball.

What's interesting about penalties is, if I asked you have the Bears had more penalties called on us or our opponents? I believe the consensus answer would be calls against us, and we would all be wrong. The Bears have 85 against and 91 for, for a net of +6. We are right around league average for penalties and in the top 10 for calls against the other team. What I think we are seeing is more preventable calls than there needs to be. If we can cut down on even 1-2 of those a game, it will make a huge difference. For me, right now, this team is literally 3-4 plays away from being a playoff team. Cut down on 1-2 penalties, have one less drop on offense, and one less blown coverage or assignment on defense, and this team is a top 10 team. That is how close it feels.

So here we are. 6-6 with 4 games to play. Not where we wanted to be, but I also didn't think GB and MIN would both be 8-3 at this time. That puts us a little further back than expected. If we could've eeked out that win against LAC or OAK, we would be sitting in a completely different spot right now. So to make the playoffs, our target is MIN, since we have the tie-breaker against them. All we have to do is beat them in Week 17 and end up with the same record as them. That means we can go into Week 17 one game back. That also means we need some help and for the Vikings to lose two more games than us in the next 5 games (for MIN). This week MIN gets to play in SEA. This should be a loss. It's a prime time game, and Cousins usually folds in these situations. It's also in SEA, which is always a tough place to play. Let's call this a loss. That puts the Bears 2 games back with 4 to play. Now remember, we only need to be within one game heading into Week 17. That means the Bears need to have a better record in Weeks 14-16 (3 games) than the Vikings. In Week 14, next week, we get Dallas at home on Thursday Night. Dallas is really struggling, just had a team blow up in the locker room after the loss to the Bills. Game time temperature will be sub-40 and Dallas is a warm/dome team. Their kicker missed multiple FGs and the team got embarrassed against a team that is built like us. So the Bears have a fresh blueprint on how to dominate the Cowboys. Minnesota plays the Lions at home, I don't see the Lions winning, but crazier things have happened. So call this week a wash with both teams winning. It's a must-win for us considering Dallas may come into play for WC2. For Week 15, the Bears play in Lambeau off a mini-bye while the Vikings play at the Chargers. For us, it's obviously a must-win. Interestingly, our game is not a prime time game, just a normal noon kickoff. So that's a plus for us. I think we get some revenge against the Pack where Leonard Floyd always has a great game. Guess what, the Vikings get to play the Chargers on SNF, another primetime game and another game for Cousins to choke. I see the Bears have a chance to pickup a game here. So the Bears pull within one game of the Vikings. Another note for us, Hicks might be back for this game, which would be huge against GB. Now to Week 16, the Vikings get the Packers, on MNF. It a home game for Minnesota, but another prime time game, is another bad game for Cousins. This would the only week I would be rooting for the Packers to win (only if we are 1 game back at this point). Packers win. We have an opportunity to play KC at home on SNF. This is the Mitch Trubisky redemption game. If he can beat Mahomes on SNF in Week 16, while both teams are vying for a playoff spot, it would be huge for his confidence and at least a small reprieve for Pace for one week. I don't see the Bears winning, so this allows the Vikings to maintain a one-game lead on us heading into Week 17. For Week 17, of all the remaining games, this is the only true must-win, but it's only that way if we are within one game or tied heading into Week 17. There is no scenario where we are up one game heading into Week 17, so no matter what, either we are playing spoiler at 7-8 or are 8-7 with a chance to sneak in at 9-7 with the tiebreaker over the Vikings. Bears win, 9-7, WC2 slot, which would setup to play DIV3 winner, GB in the first round, a team the Bears might have just beaten two weeks before. Talk about a storyline. Now for 9-7 to work, MIN obviously has to lose to LAC, GB, and CHI, while the Bears have to win 3 of 4 against DAL, GB, KC, and MIN. Also, we have a couple of other teams to worry about that are lingering around WC2, LAR at 6-5, PHI at 5-6, and CAR at 5-6. Here is what those teams have remaining: LAR: at ARZ, vs SEA, at DAL, at SF, vs ARZ. They will split with ARZ, and lose to SEA, DAL, and SF. At most 2 wins here to finish 8-8. I don't see them winning 3, but if they did, they have the head to head tiebreaker against us. PHI: at MIA, vs NYG, at WAS, vs DAL, at NYG. Philly has a favorable schedule, but they have looked terrible since beating us. They probably win 3 of 5, but that puts them at 8-8. I don't see them going 4-1 down the stretch, even with that schedule. If they do, they have the tie-breaker against us as well. CAR: vs WAS, at ATL, vs SEA, at IND, vs NO. Carolina has the 2nd toughest schedule of these 3 teams and have lost 4 of their last 5 including games to NO and ATL who they play again. I don't see them beating SEA or even IND. So if they split NO and ATL and beat WAS, they end up at 8-8, going 3-2 to close out the season. I don't see them winning 4. Even if they did, we would have the tiebreaker against them at 9-7 overall with a better conference record. One other team to watch is DAL, they are currently at 6-6, but if we are going to make the playoffs, a win against them is a must win game. So if we do beat them, they would go to 6-7 and then PHI comes into play for the division. The good thing is, since we would have beaten them head to head. Even if they win out after us and tie us at 9-7, we would have the head to head tie breaker for the Wild Card. This would only occur if Philly got hot and somehow finished with a better record than the Cowboys (DAL owns the tiebreakers). Now most projections have us only winning one of our last 4 and finishing 7-9. That to me would be a disappointment. I would feel meh about 8-8, and I think 9-7 or 10-6 would be surprising.

Trubisky has looked pretty good the last couple of weeks. All his numbers are up and he is almost back to where he was last year. To exceed his yardage from last year, which would be shocking given how poorly he played for the first half of the season, he only needs to average 257 yards a game. After the last two games, it seems like he legitimately has a shot at that. For TDs, if he averages 2.75 a game (11 in next 4 games), he will tie his last season total. This one might be tough, but he can hopefully break 20 for the year (with 7). His comp% is up to 63.7, so that is within 3% of his average last year. The biggest drop off in stats is with his running. He will be lucky to finish the year with even half of what he had his rookie year (a quarter of what he had last year). It seems like this is actually the biggest factor in his play, he is not extending plays with his feet like he did last year, which masked the bad O-Line play, and inconsistencies on offense. The one area he has improved in is ball security, only 2 fumbles (1 lost) on the season. He needs to keep this up the last 4 games. If we get something close to the Trubisky we got on Thursday every game, I am good with that. Low end 250 yds and a TD, high end 350 with 3 TDs. These last 4 weeks will be telling. Every game is a playoff game against a playoff-caliber opponent. Even if our record was better, if we can't beat these teams, we shouldn't be in the playoffs anyway. btw, Trubisky's Passer Rating is up to 84.4 on the season, which is only slightly worse than his career average of 86.6. Another good game and he should be over that mark for the season.

I agree on the QBs, if you didn't know who was who or their past performances, you would think Trubisky was the franchise QB, which is refreshing. We need to see him string together games like this. I would say, if this is who he is, then I am good with it. Just need this more often. The O-Line is still a problem, but did play better. Still some guys getting completely beat or stupid penalties, but overall, an improvement from previous games. They need to keep that trend. Lucas played decent filling in for Massie.

Full body weight, driven into the ground, the exact definition of a penalty for roughing the passer, yet this was not called:

No flag:

The Bears get Dallas next at home, next Thursday. The Cowboys just got embarrassed at home by the Bills. We are a very similar comp to the Bills. Also, game time temperature is expected to be in the mid-30's at game time. Prescott has one game with temps under 40 this year: 19-33, 212 yds, 0 TD, 1 INT, 64.2 QB Rtg. So we should have a favorable matchup at home. You can't ask for much more than that. If we win, then we go to Lambeau after a mini-bye, coming off a THU game. There is a chance that Hicks will be back for that game. If he comes back, the Bears will have a real shot at winning that. Then it's KC at home, who is only 7-4 and has alternated wins and losses every week for the last 6. They are not as dominant as they appeared to be earlier in the season. Then we get MIN in the final game, who we already beat. The hope is we are no worse than one game down entering Week 17. If that is the case, Week 17 basically becomes a play-in game. If we are really a playoff team, these all should be wins. Every game here on out is an elimination game. Win or the season is over. It's that simple. MIN is at SEA this week, then the Lions at home, then out to LAC, which is never easy to do, then GB at home. So all we need is for SEA and GB to beat MIN to have a chance. However, if LAC somehow beats MIN, then we have a really good chance at the playoffs. In regards to the game, Fuller made a shoe-string tackle that ultimately prevented a TD. One of the plays of the game. Something that might be missed is Patterson had two long returns, a 57-yarder and a 33-yarder that gave the Bears favorable field position. Penalties have to be cleaned up, we had 10 for 89 yards. Most were avoidable, one or two were pretty ticky tack. Montgomery was 16-75, 4.7 and had some holes. They need to keep going back to the successful runs and stop the RPO handoff that gets plugged every time. They know Trubisky is not running, so they all crash in. This was by far Mitch's best game of the year. He ended with solid numbers and his INT was on a crossing route where Arob had a step on Slay, but Trubisky didn't lead Arob enough, which allowed Slay who was trailing to undercut the throw and make the INT. Slay actually bobbled it, but still caught it. We had several of our defenders drop INTs. Kwit had another solid game and had one of those near picks. I thought he had it, but they called it incomplete on the field. The officiating was horrible. They missed two roughing the passer calls against Trubisky where he was hit in the head or when the defender landed on him with his entire body weight. Both plays, not call. The refs also gave DET some favorable spots that the Bears didn't challenge. So with all that against the team, they still came out with the W. You can feel the confidence growing and I think they are peaking at the right time of the year.

OMG yeah, he was literally the worst player on both teams on the field. If you watch him, his receiver was open all game long.

Trubisky's numbers today: 29-38, 76.3%, 338 yds, 8.9 Y/A, 3 TD, 1 INT, 1 Sack ,118.1 Rating. He had 9 incompletions, with 1 as the INT, and there were a couple of drops. There were a few that were throwaways, so he had about 3-4 incomplete passes that were his fault.

Connor, just reading your posts, I was thinking the same thing the entire game. It was literally a postive play followed by a negative play, or a great play negated by a penalty. If they can somehow clean up some of these mistakes, this team will actually be pretty good. Also, Prince got completely exposed today. He is not a starting CB, and he will not be back next year. Of all the players on both sides of the ball, he is the donkey today. Worst player on the field for both teams.

Seriously, after that first 75 yard TD pass, I was like oh no. However, after the first quarter the Bears outscored the Lions 17-6, it wasn't really that close, we just never broke out with a big lead.

This was the most Jekyll and Hyde game all year. Great plays followed by bad plays. We should've won comfortably by 2 TDs. It should not have come down to the Lions inside the 25 needing a TD to win. Way to close for me. Outside of 2-3 passes, Trubisky looked much better. Arob had a brutal drop. Miller has answered the call. Get him the ball. All around great team win, offense carried the defense today. Roquan was a beast, best player on the field next to Miller today. Game balls to Miller and Smith.

Bears defense is getting absolutely shredded by Blough, embarrassing. 14-7 Lions.

Now Jackson doing the same thing. Wtf this defense looks like garbage.

Defense playing like crap, busted coverages. Fuller literally covering nothing. He ran the opposite way of the receiver.

Bears score on first drive then the defense let's up a 75 yard TD pass to Golladay on a busted coverage, wonderful.