Chisoxfn

This - and they have a good defense. Let’s not ignore fact a week ago the same team shredded a good Titans team. Bears are not in Packers league but that might be because they are the best team in the league (yes I am counting chiefs in this too - I don’t think anyone is playing any better than them).

The bigger question is why did Nagy take back play calling for this game. I really couldn’t figure out why they weren’t throwing any intermediary routes. Mitch should have had plenty of chances for 10-20 yard play action strikes but it just didn’t look like they were calling it. Mitch is clearly not a top5 QB - no debating that. But I still think you keep him and look at someone like Trask or if one of the many top qbs are there in 1st go ahead and think about it. I’m also digging into what happened with Wentz. Last year he was special with crap around him. I think Pederson is a mess right now and Wentz failed this year - but he had a lot of franchise qb in him.

Bears need a perfect game to beat Packers. They were in it into fourth quarter despite their own screw ups (Kmet fumble and the long TD). They also didn’t execute in red zone at all - got too cute/conservative. They will lose to Packers 8 or 9 of every 10 games - because Green Bay is as good as anyone in the league. Mitch might have had Robinson on his bad, nearly INT red zone pass in first half if through an accurate ball. Ball got away from him. That Kmet fumble hurt - partly because I thought he was done and partly because it happened when they were driving.

Yeah - that play was just a disaster of a play call. It was like asking Danny T to guard Randy Moss while running with his pants down at his ankles.

Is there any word on Roquan and Mooneys injuries?

This team was in it up until they failed on that 4th down. That was with defense stinking again - but this time with two bums getting picked apart in secondary plus Danny T getting put on a big play wideout for who knows what reason. They played a bit too conservative on offense but had a chance into fourth quarter. I think they can beat the Saints. I think they can beat any of the NFC teams but the Packers and as I mentioned above they had a shot - score was way worse than reality. Packers are freaking really good though - like really really good. Bottom line - Glad they are in the playoffs.

This is actually a really deep oline draft and I believe another good wide out draft class as well. Not 100 percent on wideout but have read quite a bit that this is an extremely deep oline draft and some really good top end tackles as well - albeit none projected guarantee starting left tackles where bears pick but plenty of opportunity to invest. I would be shocked if they didn’t draft a tackle early and maybe even two. Could be good draft to get another guard later as well who can develop into something but I imagine bears feel decent about where they stand at guard, especially with Daniels being back next year.

I would be shocked if the team doesn’t draft a qb in first 3 rounds (with or without Mitch coming back). Let the draft pick be the 3rd stringer behind Foles and Mitch if he is here and just absorb for a period of time. Than decide in future. You can still draft another one the following year with a higher pick too - no issue to me. Beastly said it best - invest in the lines and position this team well but don’t be afraid to take some shots at QB along the way as well. If it isn’t Mitch - I am going after Winston and letting him Foles and the draft pick app compete. Maybe Winston grew from his time with Payton and if not oh well test the young draft pick and see what you have. Only reason I keep Foles in these scenarios is I figure Bears are stuck with him and that is bad from a cap perspective but he is a good teammate and totally fine as a backup / guy to mentor a young QB. My expectation is Mitch will be back too. Even if they miss the playoffs (which is what I expect - but hey you never know and I’d love to see Mitch ball out against the Packers (win or lose).

You need to start investing in QB though. Just like Packers have done over years. Brunel, Aaron Brooks, Rodgers, Love, etc. packers missed with Huntley but that is fine - try. Eagles took a shot on Hurts when they thought they had their guy in Wentz. Now Hurts might be the guy - if they are right - great for them - if not, missed 2nd round pick not the end of the world. Decent shot Florida QB is there in 2nd round - if you like him, take a shot at him. You can’t find a qb if you don’t acquire them (free agency / draft).

Beyond terrible, but defense is probably the part of a system that takes the longest to implement. So I will give it a bit of time to see and it can’t be much worse. Was real nice to see Carter play with some swagger and I have loved all of our head coach’s quotes the past few games. Boylen would have already benched the starters for entire quarters multiple times by now haha. You can see the motivation tactics in his quotes and I hope the team takes into it cause it sounds like there is a huge gap in the players minds vs coaches minds in terms of how much work it takes. I have some optimism that this staff over time will get most of its players which should enable more pieces to be assets. They aren’t on paper good enough, but they certainly can have parts that work and can be dealt - especially if they land a free agent and can pivot for trades. Looks like they will have another shot at lottery pick too - but young teams almost always struggle and this team is super young. Lauri also looking better - want to see him stay aggressive and play through this calf injury.

I respect Ron a lot for how they handled this. I would also say this pick is a true definition of a bust. Maybe Haskins benefits from a change of scenery but talk about an awful pick for Skins. I feel same way about Tua - who looks pretty mediocre for Dolphins. Good thing phins have that Texans pick. Hurts looks better than Tua as does Herbert. Herbert hasn’t been as great late but his arm talent is special.

The bears barely lost to the Titans and Colts, two playoff teams. And that was with Foles and an oline / rush attack that was non existent. I’m not saying Bears are great but Packers are in a league of their own in NFC right now. Bears also were hanging with Saints until wheels fell apart in second half. Packers own them though and that combined with Rams having no offense will probably mean bears miss out, but hey I prefer for the season to still mean something.

Plus - if they can get a good lt and Mitch still is meh - than you have a good oline for whatever qb you insert in. Whether a veteran or a draft pick - that oline will be an asset if you can build it. Crazy that any of us are saying Bears aren’t a lot away from having a good oline - no one would have said that Six weeks ago. I will caveat finding a good lt where bears are picking won’t be easy.

Ifeldi wasn’t terrible at guard but white hair and Daniels are just not good centers. The biggest difference is Mustipher settling the center position. Whitehair is much better at guard and so is Daniels. The tackle play isn’t great but Bars has been okay and as a unit they have worked well. Kmet helps as a blocker and Mitch at QB also helps the line a ton. The line isn’t solved but my god what a difference six weeks have made.

This - plus tanking doesn’t do what every fan seems to think it is. There are few examples in any sport of teams who truly tanked and benefited. Baseball is probably the one outlier - where recently the Sox, Padres, Astros and Cubs all benefited from a heavy tear down. That said - in many ways it was rebuild vs pure tanking. When I think of tanking - I really only think of teams maximizing draft picks anyway. In basketball - the 76ers are the one team who kind of tanked their way into things and they aren’t anything special. The Lakers tried but the tanking failed miserably - it took Lebron wanting to come to LA that changed their destination and desirability combined with another star forcing its way to them. Bulls tried tanking - maybe they weren’t good enough at it - I don’t know, but right now they sure would look better with Jimmy Bucket and a super max and whatever other stars he convinced to come to them. Would they be a championship team - probably not - but you never know what star will want to join you but normally you need stars to get stars (unless you play in LA). In football Jets were god awful and they are not even going to get Trevor Lawrence. Pathetically bad. But in NFL turn arounds can be instant and at times do not require top draft picks - although having a top qb usually helps.

Why - because he scored the potential game winning shot with five seconds left on the clock?

Maybe it made their offense worse but defensively - I don’t think those score analysts are correct. It is easy for everyone to just rip on everything Boylen did and there could be something to say that the blitz defense wasn’t sustainable - but it isn’t as if the unit ranked poorly. It was horrific offensively though.

The bulls actually graded out decently defensively last year. The blitz style Boylen introduced was actually pretty solid and probably a pretty good use of his personel (on the d side of the house)s

Coby will be better. Wendell - I have no idea. Williams looked solid for a first game but good god what an ass whooping. I do think the Hawks are good - but not this good. I’ll hold major judgement for at least 10-15 games given change in system, minimal preseason, etc - but what a dog of a first game.

He was decisive, accurate and confident. He also ran better than he has since 2018. He’s putting a real nice stretch together. Would be awesome to see him keep rolling and they win out. Ideally get in playoffs too.

Yeah - Mitch shouldn’t have thrown it but the play design was bad. Leads me to believe someone made a mistake. My guess was that was supposed to go to Allen Robinson and Holtz ended up in wrong spot. Either way - Mitch still played real well. He was rolling in first half - though momentum went the other way a bit in second half but he still had a lot of solid 3rd down throws and there was that one Wims drop. Defense wasn’t great but did enough in the end and they were playing down in the secondary.

I don't think it really did. Look at Harden, look at others. He got his supermax and deep down knows that if he wants out - in the future he will just leverage himself out and demand a trade. That just means if you are the Bulls - you can't straight up sign him in FA - you need to move assets to get him, but still, the player can put a lot of pressure on the opposing teams.

Really nice and complete game. Keep it up Mitch. Who knows what can happen. It at least says something that they didn’t shut down after last week.

TEchnically - I think the Sox view is big FA long term deals don't work well. In general, they aren't wrong. I think instead they prefer to give LT deals to younger in house pitchers where they look to buy out arb years and kind of get locked in cost controll. They prefer the risk that the young player doesn't pan out and/or is less likely to have significant drop off from injuries vs. going 5YR plus in the FA pitching market (at huge bucks). If you think about Lynn and buy the reports - there trade may lean that way too...where they kind of think of Lynn making less today enabling them to maybe give him a 2-3 year extension at a good rate (Lynn is happy because it gets him one last big pay day without betting on an injury and I think the Sox are happy cause they probably look at the average AAV over that horizon and feel pretty good about what they did).

About time Disney created some new content that isn't the Mandalorian. Maybe there is something that I"m not aware of (and don't get me wrong - Mando is awesome). But outside of the handful of episodes I watch during the year of Mando - the whole rest of the year Disney+ is basically only used by my kids.