adam

As much as I hate to say it, I think Cunningham is back. Of the others, they will probably bring Lynch back at a lower number. I do not want O'Donnell, and if you cut Sims and Parkey, you save some additional cap there as well even if you do incur some dead money. For those wanting Parkey, he had the 2nd lowest combined kicking pct in the league (only behind Boswell) and had the lowest percentage of kicks missed inside 42 yards.

Oh I was just saying that I see this as an average year of injuries and this should be what we expect going forward. I don't think we were better off than other teams, just better than our previous teams.

There is a good chance that most of the players that made mistakes in the Philly game won't be on the team next year. Parkey, obviously; Amos, who did have a pick but also had a bad penalty and was burnt on the first Philly TD. I don't know how the team sees Amos, but not signing him like Goldman should've been an indication. Massie, who played ok, but seemed to get beat more times than not. I am ok if he is gone. Priority in the off-season needs to be OLine and Secondary.

It doesn't excuse the lack of Cohen in the game plan though. The most dynamic player on the field had one carry. We also had 3 timeouts after PHI had a first and goal. Time is the most important thing at that point and Nagy allowed 40+ seconds to come off the clock when he didn't use a timeout after the first down play. To me, the game came down to Pace (Parkey not replaced earlier in the season) and Nagy (game plan and clock management). I am being critical but the season was a huge success so it is easy to be picky. I just think they had another week of football in them.

I don't know, we lost Trubisky, Long, Robinson, Mack, Jackson, Callahan, Miller, and Lynch to several games. 3 missed the playoff game.

After Watson's terrible performance yesterday, it's Trubisky's time to shine. No turnovers from the offense and we win.

Yeah, I don't want to be over-confident, but we should win handily. Minnesota is a better team than Philly and we dominated them with a few guys out. We just can't beat ourselves. All the analytics point to a win. My biggest concern is Parkey shitting the bed and missing a couple of kicks and keeping the Eagles in the game.

Who knows, looks like he is still a project. Hopefully we will see more usage in the playoffs.

Baldy's breakdowns are great too, he has the same sentiment as Orlovsky:

Yeah, we were all expecting some bigger numbers, but he did miss two games, played hurt in the Minnesota game and seemed to be sore/not 100% against the Rams. If you just project his averages for 16 games, he would end up with 3680 yards and 27 TDs, which would be much closer to the initial projections. If you take out the MIN and LAR games, his averages go way up to almost 4k yards and 30 TDs. I think that is where he will be with a full season next year. I know you can't cherrypick numbers, but he was hurt, missed games, and seemed way off against LAR. He had 5 INTs in those two games, and 7 in his other 12 games. Also, Burton and Cohen all ended with career highs in receptions, yards, and TDs, and Gabriel had his best year in terms of receptions and yards. The Robinson and Shaheen injuries might have had a slight impact on Trubisky's numbers. In his last 3 games, Trubisky completed 75.9% of his passes with 3 TDs and 0 INTs with a 3-0 record and 2 wins on the road. Ultimately, I think we over-rated the raw numbers a little bit. Did he need to reach 4000 passing yards and 30 TDs to have a successful season? What if he did that and we went 8-8? Mahomes threw for over 5k yards and 50 TDs, yet KC ended up with the same record as CHI and Trubisky ended up with a better winning pct with an 11-3 record (.786) compared to Mahomes 12-4 (.750).

Here we go, the first playoff game thread since January 2011. We have knocked GB and MIN out of the playoffs, and now get a chance to knock off the champs. Our defense is elite and our offense is balanced and efficient. I feel like we are going to finally unleash the full offense next week for the first time. I think we win handily and the defense creates a few turnovers. I am praying for good officials and no BS calls. Bears 27-13

Bears allow the least amount of points on the season as Indy scores 33 on Tennessee. 5 straight wins at home, and 9-1 overall in the last 10 games.

Trubisky ends the season 289/434, 66.6% Comp%, 3223 yds, 24 TD, 12 INT, 95.4 QB Rating. He also ends the season with the 3rd highest QBR at 72.8, behind only Mahomes and Brees.

Refs were crap again, game should not have been that close. The Vikings only TD drive was gifted by the refs. Phantom calls left and right keeping the drive alive. Complete BS. Otherwise, a huge win in a very hostile stadium in a game that meant everything to the Vikings. So we knocked both the Packers and Vikings out of the playoffs, won the Division, and now get a home game against the reigning SB champs.

Looks like Kyle Long is going to play. Nice to see him back. He is going to be a huge upgrade for our O-Line.

Funny you should say that. I don't know if any of you are on Twitter, but if you are, you should follow Dan Orlovsky, yes, the ex-Lions QB. He breaks down Trubisky's games and loves him and Nagy. Here is his last one about in-game adjustments:

Just look at the Passing Defenses, we don't want to play Minnesota again and Philly has a horrible pass defense (worst in the league allowing 280+ yards a game). I am taking Philly.

What are they not buying into? He has a 96.0 QB Rating (15th in NFL) and with his running, his QBR bumps him to #4 in the league. That is about right where he is as a player. What's wrong with that? He didn't get a year to sit and learn the system, and in some ways Loggains and Fox set Trubisky back some.

If we can't beat the Vikings on the road, then can we beat the Rams or Saints on the road? I would rather win and knock them out of the playoffs and go into the playoffs with a win.

I agree, that was a huge drive. He also had another one earlier in the game that was over 7 minutes long. The narrative stuff is beyond ridiculous. Now the national media is praising Jackson from Baltimore for doing less than Trubisky has done all year. Funny to see Trubisky have the best record (10-3) out of all the 2017 QBs (Mahomes is 11-4 and Watson is 10-5). KC is 0-2 in their last two games, Houston is 1-2 in their last 3, while the Bears went 3-0 against LAR, GB, and SF (who beat SEA).

Thru Week 16 (13 games): Trubisky: 271/408, 66.4%, 3060 yds, 7.5 Y/A, 24 TD, 12 INT, 96.0 QB Rating Bears Records: 1. QB Rating is the highest for a Bears QB with more than 10 games started 2. 24 TD's is 5th all-time for the franchise 3. 66.5% Comp % is the best of all-time in franchise history passing Jay Cutler (66.0%) 4. Needs 5 completions in Week 17 to move into 5th all-time for a single season NFL QBR Leaders: 1. Mahomes - 81.4 2. Brees - 81.2 3. Roethlisberger - 73.5 4. Trubisky - 71.1 5. Rivers - 70.7

Week 17 - Flexed to the afternoon slot to align with LAR/SF and PHI/WAS games. Early line has the Vikings favored by 5. If they are assuming we are resting starters, fine, but it seems odd that the Vikings are favored by more than 3 at home against an 11-4 team. In comparison, the Ravens are favored by 5.5 at home against Cleveland. A lot on the line. Potential to get a first-round bye with a win and Rams loss. Also, the outcome of our game directly impacts who we play as the #6 seed. If we play everyone, I think we win another tough game 23-20. If we rest players, I think Minnesota wins 27-17.

Tough call, Cousins completely chokes in Prime Time games, but Minnesota is probably the better team on paper. Philly looks like they are playing with confidence with Foles at QB and with the return of Sproles. It is really tough to beat teams in back to back weeks, so I would lean towards playing Philadelphia. Also, it wouldn't even feel like an achievement to beat a team in Week 17 just to get to play them again in the WC round. At least a game against Philly would feel like a step forward. Also, it would suck to lose to Minnesota, at home, in the playoffs (regardless of the outcome of Week 17). That would really be a bad ending to a truly unexpectedly great season. This is my favorite narrative: Beat GB, clinch Division and knock them out of the playoffs, then beat Minnesota in Week 17, knocking them out of the playoffs. Then beat the World Champs in the WC round, followed by the Rams and Saints, before beating the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Talk about all demons exorcized in one year. That would be insane.

Congrats to Brad and MyDeflatedBalls as the TalkBears Keeper Champion for 2018. He completely dominated down the stretch riding Mahomes, McCaffrey and Kittle to the promised land. I got cold feet and started Jones over Anderson and it will cost me the championship. Crazy how one or two moves decide the season.

1. NO 13-2 (vs CAR) 2. LAR 12-3 (vs SF) 3. CHI 11-4 (@MIN) 4. DAL 9-6 (@NYG) ------------ 5. SEA 9-6 (vs ARZ) 6. MIN 8-6-1 (vs CHI) ------------ 7. PHI 8-7 (@WAS) Seeding Scenarios (4): 1. First Round Bye and #2 Seed – CHI win and LAR loss 2. #3 Seed and plays MIN: SEA win and CHI loss or CHI win and PHI loss 3. #3 Seed and plays PHI: CHI and PHI win 4. #3 Seed and plays SEA: SEA loss and CHI loss So if we win against MIN, we can get the #2 seed or play PHI or MIN. If we lose to MIN, we could play SEA or MIN. The only way we play SEA is if they lose to ARZ, which is very unlikely. So it ultimately comes down to the CHI vs MIN game and the PHI vs WAS game. Assuming PHI wins like SEA, then with a win we play PHI, with a loss we would re-play MIN at home WC weekend. Interesting scenarios. I would rather win to have a shot at the #2 seed and bring on PHI. That would give us a chance to win the Division at home against GB (while knocking them out of the playoffs), knocking MIN out of the playoffs in MIN, then knocking off the World Champs in Soldier Field before heading to play LAR in LA. Our playoff path would be at home against PHI, at LAR, then at NO. That would be an impressive run.