adam

The Bears have a chance to win the Division, while knocking GB out of playoff contention, in front of their home crowd, it doesn't get much better than this. It should be one of those "passing the torch" type of games with a win. We need to stay ahead of Dallas and depending on if LAR or NO tank, we have an outside shot at a bye. GB is 2-5 since their bye and has fired McCarthy. They are 1-0 without him beating a hapless Falcons team 34-20. They do have an easy schedule after us (NYJ and DET), so there is still a sliver of hope if they somehow beat us and win out, which would put them at 8-7-1. The good thing is they can't pass us regardless of the outcome of the rest of the season. We really need to make it a hostile environment for Rodgers with the crowd playing as the 12th man. Rodgers has a consecutive passing attempt streak without an interception, and we lead the league with (25), basically 2 per game. Something has to give. I think the Bears get one. I am hoping for an improved Trubisky and the same defensive intensity as we saw against the Rams. This will be a good measuring stick to see how much Trubisky has improved from Week 1. Bears 31-17

One cool note, some of my Army buddies messaged me this morning from all over the world praising the Bears defense. The consensus is no one will want to face us in the playoffs. I agree with them.

Huge win, for such a low scoring game, I thought it was still very exciting and entertaining. I loved that we got the running game going and essentially neutered a potential MVP candidate in Donald and completely shutout an OPOY in Gurley. Hats off to the coaches and the lines. We won in the trenches. It's nice to see the defense make the plays they have been missing the last few years. Fuller and Mack are earning every penny of their contracts and based on their post game interviews are doing it very humbly. I love that the team is having fun, that becomes infectious. The score shows a 9 pt win but that's a 12 pt win with the spread and felt like it. Even with the Trubisky mistakes, I never felt like we were at risk of losing the game. Trubisky was clearly rusty. He had a terrible game and will have to be better if we expect to have any success into January. The good thing is he knows it. Of the 3 INTs, which all were pretty bad, the two overthrows looked like a guy overcompensating for a tight shoulder. Hopefully this is a one and done thing. All we need with this defense is a slightly better QB than we had in Cutler and Trubisky has shown he can be that. I don't know what the game plan was but there weren't that many quick hitting pass plays. From previous games like the MIN game, Trubisky and the offense seemed to be more in sync in the hurry up. After seeing "Santa's Sleigh", I wondering if Nagy is purposely running a new playbook every week and is not giving other teams any tape on what we will do next. Then come the playoffs, he will unleash exotic and unexpected plays that won't be easily defended without prior knowledge. That's my hope and it seems to be somewhat credible. All in all, a great game and recipe for a long extended playoff run, defense and the run game. If Trubisky can limit turnovers, we will be a difficult team to beat.

Sorry not to get the thread posted, currently on business travel. I am glad that Trubisky is back to 100%. The key to the defense will be to limit Gurley and they got a good taste of an all-around back with Barkley last week. For our offense, the key will be to control Donald. I feel like the best way to neutralize him is with roll-outs and bootlegs. Don't allow his inside pressure to affect the pocket by moving the pocket. I also like the idea of running Howard right where Donald was. Allow him to get inside a gap, seal him off and let Howard go into the next gap. Without Kupp, who was a popular 3rd down target for Goff, they will have to look to Cooks and Woods. We have 5 players with at least 30 receptions, the Rams have 3x playing (Gurley, Cooks, and Woods). We are 3-pt underdogs at home, which is essentially a TD gap on a neutral field. I feel like this is going to be a back and forth game with the Bears getting the ball last and winning. The weather may play a role in the game's outcome, sub-30 temps is expected (Bear weather!). This, with our fans is our home field advantage. Bears 27-24 Minnesota plays in Seattle, and Green Bay hosts Atlanta. A win for us and losses for those two teams would make our magic number 1 with 3 to play.

I was traveling during the game, but saw the highlights. What an epic game by Cohen. I was surprised to see Barkley have so many yards. That play right before halftime that got them into FG was deadly. That was essentially the difference in the game. What the hell were the officials doing on the Cohen TD that was called down by contact. That is the worst call in the game because you can't challenge it. They shouldn't blow those dead. Another game deciding blown call.

I thought I read that whatever suspension he got, it might exceed 6 games due to another incident (punching some dude in the face). What would suck would be for him to come in mid season and disrupt any chemistry with the current team.

Josh McDaniels would be interesting. Very few NE assistants have been successful.

Also, something worth noting, we have held a lead in the 2nd half in every game this season. If not for some freak plays (Cobb 75yd TD, Wilson 75yd TD, NE 2x Special Teams TDs, and Beckham 49yd TD pass), we would be undefeated. I have to also say we have been on the short end of the stick on a lot of calls or blown calls. The Cohen one was another game changing one. Refs have killed us this year.

You are correct, we lost to NE at Soldier Field.

I am going with Bears 27-10

NO looked very ordinary against Dallas. Pittsburgh has a very good defense and a better offense. They can easily lose that one as well.

and MadLith picked up Ware before Hunt was even released, lol.

Howard will eventually go off.

That was quick. This behavior is getting out of hand. How many guys are doing crap like this all the time and getting away with it? Also, what type of idiot chick (19 yr old) is hanging out with dudes like Hunt (23 yrs old) at 3am?

So with the Dallas win, things get very interesting for us for a potential first-round bye. First off, our only chance is to take care of our own business and win out (or at least go 4-1). 4-1 seems realistic, and if we can beat the Rams, we are in great shape. Either way, if we win out, we would finish with a 11-1 conference record and would have the conference tiebreaker over NO and LAR (both with 2x conf loss). Now to move up to the 2nd or 1st seed, we would need some help, but after the Dallas game, I am not as high on NO as I was before the game. NO finishes at TB, at CAR, vs PIT, and vs CAR. If they lose even one of those games, we have a shot at passing them in the seeding. If they lose two, which would not be crazy (at CAR and PIT), they would end up 12-4, which would allow us to go 4-1 and still get a first-round bye. That seems like a very realistic scenario. For LAR, they are at DET, at CHI, vs PHI, at ARZ, and at SF. The only two games they have any shot at losing is vs us at Soldier Field and vs PHI. So it actually seems like they have a better shot at the #1 seed than NO does. What do you think? I am thinking something like this is a realistic possibility: 1. LAR 14-2 (4-1) 2. CHI 12-4 (4-1) ------------------------- 3. NO 12-4 (2-2) 4. DAL 10-6 (3-1) 5. SEA 10-6 (4-1) 6. MIN 9-6-1 (3-2)

Good find, I didn't see the actual quote.

But based off of this comment, the play in the 2nd quarter seems more likely:

Yeah it happened in the 2nd quarter, you can see it here:

Here is Daniels PFF Scorecard for the season, basically 3 straight games blocking at a Pro Bowl level, especially his Pass Blocking in the last two weeks, elite level against some tough competition.

I was searching for something else and found that nugget. Pretty cool and to think he really didn't play much the first few weeks.

Roquan is tied for 9th in solo tackles thru 11 games and 7 total tackles from 10th with 5 games remaining. You may have under-estimated him.

The good thing is we don't have too many top end players in each draft. Whitehair in 2020, then Floyd (5th yr)/Jackson/Cohen in 2021, then Trubisky (5th yr), Daniels, Miller in 2022.

I see the same thing. I can't tell you how many times he went down to the ground after running into to the back of an O-Lineman with minimal contact from a defender.

Oh yeah for sure, Massie is $6M cap hit this year (14th highest paid RT), so even if we gave him $1M more than this year, that would be the only difference coming out of that $25M. Callahan is $1.9, and I could see that going up to $4-5M a year. Even at $5M, that's only $3M more than this year. So we would still have $21M left after re-signing them.

Yeah, to think our oldest player is Chase Daniel at 32, McManis and Scales at 30 and a bunch of dead money comes off the books next year (Glennon $4.5M, Cooper $2M, Demps $1.3M, McPhee $1M, Houston 990K, Young 990K, etc totaling $15M. The only dead money for next year is $325K. Sims can be cut and save another $6M. That's over $20M in cap space without a single starter gone, which immediately goes to $25M with the current available cap space. We are in great shape to make a long sustained run starting now.