Bears4Ever_34

Bears are going to win this game, because they have to. I like the way the offense is trending. Through the first 2 weeks, they are 2nd in the NFL in explosive plays. Penalties are holding them back. Everything is setting itself up well for a breakout performance against an atrocious DAL defense, and I think they will.

Funny, because Kaleb Johnson was the one guy I absolutely did not want from the RB position. He was a product of a great OL, and that was clear to me after watching a few minutes of his highlights. The majority of his best runs were him not getting touched at all, or at least not until he reached the second level. I thought he looked slow and lacked the lateral agility necessary to be anything more than a complimentary back in the NFL. Steelers look like they've already given up on him.

Super small sample size, but more numbers continue to show he's getting better. They scored 17 points against MIN (taking away the pick 6) and 21 against the Lions. They had 317 total yards against MIN, and 339 against the Lions. Penalties continue to kill this team, but if they can ever clean that up, there are signs of hope with this offense. Next week will be a big test. DAL's defense is horrible. If the Bears don't put up big numbers against them, It will be concerning. If they do, it will give some validity to the idea that they are improving.

Watching ATL handle MIN with such ease tonight makes last week's loss even more embarrassing. McCarthy stinks. ATL got pressure on him all game and ran the hell out of the ball. Penix didn't even play well, and they still won on the road.

Poles is the worst GM of my lifetime—or at least since I became cognizant of what I was watching as a kid around the early 2000's. I know a lot of people would say Phil Emery, but Emery at least gave us 3 pro-bowl players in the draft (Long, Fuller, Jeffery). Two of them became All-Pro's. He also traded for Brandon Marshall and broke the cycle of WR futility. His misses were catastrophically bad, but he didn't have as much time as Poles did to do as much damage to the franchise. He also didn't ruin a quarterback. Poles has quite literally been bad at everything, from drafting to public speaking. His free agent signings are almost always terrible. His trades are even worse. Hasn't drafted a single pro-bowler in 4 years on the job. 0 playoff appearances. 2 double digit losing streaks.

I get the general cynicism, but the timing of this statement is strange considering the QB was the least of their problems today. He's honestly been fine through 2 games. I am seeing incremental progress. First game looked rough until I saw Kurt Warner's breakdown. This week, I think he improved until the game got away from them.

Cowboys are going to put up 50 on this defense next week, too. Season's on the line.

Legit think this team might end up competing for the 1st overall pick. Already seeing quit. Not a good sign for this coaching staff.

Darnell Wright blows, and Odunze can't catch a freakin pass. Ryan Poles, ladies and gentleman.

Caleb was mostly good in the 1st half. His OL and Swift have taken points off the board.

Can't wait until Swift is off this roster. Horrible RB. False starts on the first play of the half, and then trips on a 2nd and 10 run. He always goes down on first contact. Please run anybody else other than him.

This team looks poorly coached. No discipline whatsoever. OL continues to make things impossible for the offense to succeed. Caleb was playing great until that last boneheaded play.

Yeah Daniels looked like crap. Had like 125 yards or so through 3.5 quarters, and ended up with a garbage time TD. It honestly felt like a Caleb Williams game from last year, watching him. His deep ball accuracy is not as good as people think, either. GB shut down those slants and screens he benefited from last year and didn't let him escape the pocket. He didn't have an answer for it. Saw this circulating on X during the game. If this were Caleb, he'd be getting excoriated for "missing" open receivers. Curious to see if this is more of a blip than a trend, but this is two consecutive weeks of mediocre-to-poor play. This is what happens when: A.) Teams have had all off-season to study film on you B.) You no longer have the easiest schedule in the NFL C.) You actually play against teams with great defenses

Thought this was interesting. Kurt hasn't usually been quick to praise Caleb in the past, so the fact that he's doing so now makes me feel a little better about last night.

The Bears should take a page out of Sean McVay's book from the first couple years he had with Jared Goff. He ran a mostly no-huddle offense that wasn't necessarily up-tempo, but it allowed Goff to look to the sidelines for the playcall, like in college, and gave them plenty of time to get all their motions in. Part of the problem last night is that they weren't getting to the line quick enough to do all the motions, and I think it affected the thought process of the QB. It's been clear to me that Caleb Williams has been at his best in the no-huddle offense. I'm not going to skewer Johnson after one game, but he's got to use this to his advantage at some point and not be so rigid about his preferred methods. I really think it could make a huge difference for this offense if they integrated the no-huddle more often moving forward.

Caleb still surprisingly finished with a better QBR than McCarthy(63.8 vs 52.6). Guessing those nearly 60 ground yards helped, and of course the McCarthy pick six. McCarthy got better as the game went on, Caleb got worse until, of course, the final drive when he always seems capable of running a successful 2 minute drill against shell coverage.

Lost in all this bad is the fact that the Bears drafted 3 second round players, and only 1 played tonight and had 1 catch for negative yards. Shemar Turner was a healthy scratch. Unacceptable.

Caleb WIlliams kind of sucks, doesn't he? It's getting harder to ignore how bad he is.

Bears are about to implode. Just inexcusable to go from 1st and 10 on the 24 to come away with zero points, even if the penalty was bullshit. Cairo Santos is horrible. MIN's kicker confidently makes a 59 yarder with ease while Santos misses a 50 yarder horrible and damn near missed an XP in the same game. Time for a new kicker.

God, they needed that pick 6 in the worst way. If the offense can stop sucking and get it together for at least one more TD drive, that should do it.

Swift sucks. 9 carries: 22 yards. No reason Monangai shouldn't be given an opportunity. They have to change something this half. One dimensional football against this defense is sub-optimal. Honestly, neither of these defenses have blitzed a lot. I expect that to change, especially from MIN in the 2nd half to generate something. Feels like a game where the first team to force a takeaway or have an explosive score might win. Bears missed a lot of opportunities in that half, including poor clock management by Johnson to take a timeout so early, to give MIN enough time to get in position for a FG.

Absolutely brutal OL performance. Dumbest line in football? High school teams are more disciplined than this.

And, of course, no Gordon OR Jaylon Johnson. Bears, for some reason, didn't elevate anybody from their practice squad for depth, so we could be looking at a safety playing corner if one of those guys goes down in this game.

If Gordon, Edwards, and Johnson are all out, my opinion on the outcome of this game is going to take a dramatic shift. Those would be three brutal losses. Those are arguably your 3 best players on defense. Bears offense might have to play a lot of ball control, ground and pound football tonight to come away with a win, because this Bears secondary without those two guys is awful.

It sucks for us, but it's a big gamble by GB, because it puts everyone on the clock. They are Superbowl or bust for the next couple years, and I'm not sure they are a clear favorite in the NFC after this trade. Everything is going to ride on Jordan Love. Losing Kenny Clark figures to hurt the middle of their defense, potentially leaving them more vulnerable against the run. Parsons himself is not a good run defense. He'll make them better, but how much? This defense isn't stacked like the 2018 Bears. He probably had a more talented defense last year with the Cowboys than he's walking into with GB. Again, it will all hinge on how good Love is. If he can replicate his success at the end of 2 seasons ago, they're definite SB contenders, but if he looks more like he did this past year, I don't see them as a serious threat to PHI, DET, or even WAS.