Chisoxfn

Reality is Bears aren’t making the playoffs. What matters most is Mitch continuing to make progress. That would be huge if it happens.

And since I've complained about Nagy all year, I will flat out say this was a really well called / executed game plan. Minimal penalties, so execution was nice, and most of the night I was kept off guard. We actually executed a few screens too. Nice to see. Hopefully Montgomery is okay. Still waiting for a game or two where the D forces a ton of turnovers. Pass rush was significantly better today.

Some reports he is out for the year already. Seems like torn.

Given how quick he was ruled out, I feared it must be torn. Was glad Wimms injury must not be as bad as it originally looked.

So fucking happy Mitch has strung together some good games. Didn't like that pick he threw (not sure if that was to Miller or if he just overthrew Wims who was cutting under). Still, decision making and speed of getting ball out was quicker...but damn, the use of his legs was huge as well. Let's keep stringing together progress Mitch! If Mitch and the offense can do that...than no matter how much of a bummer this season will be (if they do in fact mist the playoffs and I think they still have only like a 5% chance to make it), the arrow on this franchise will still be exciting. Huge final 3 games of the season for Mitch to build on things. One week at a time!

Just keep making progress. Better each week. Any word on Roquan's injury?

Bummer that Miller had dropped that one 3rd down ball. Could have had another offensive score. Please don't somehow blow this!

The bears could be winning by more if they hadn’t gotten screwed on a couple calls. Two huge missed face masks. Finish strong!

By the way, does Thaddeus Young remind anyone of Jabari Parker? I don't think I realized what a blackhole he was on offense and how mediocre he is defensively, until he came to the Bulls. I might be totally off base, but he always seemed like one of those good vets who was solid across the board...not sure I still feel that way. Would be nice if he stepped it up as he is having a not good year either (but unlike Laurie...he at least is out there playing hard...even if it is to jack up a lot of shots). When him and Coby are in...good god does the ball get shot fast. Good thing is White has shown an ability to play defense. He is going to have to turn in to a lights out shooter to be a well above average player though (or even just above average), imo. His playmaking skills are too limited, imo.

I am trying to figure out, but have no idea. It is becoming a common issue on Safari with other forums (not just Soxtalk).

IT blows my mind how this team can build such big leads, only to see them evaporate so badly. I know someone posted a couple days ago it was good teams and players coasting and it was more the Bulls suck, but I don't buy that. There is something going on with that and Memphis had zero reason to coast, nor are they any good...this team is just young and lacks consistency and doesn't know how to put teams away (after getting up on them). I am on record as saying they trend up and I still think they are in the conversation for a back end playoff spot by the end of the year (doesn't mean i'm thrilled about their long term prognosis though - as they got no one, other than Lavine who has the physical capabilities to be a star).

I don’t think joc is signing anything but a longer term extension. Why would he sign like a one year extension? I don’t think that would be very beneficial. 4 year deal with big enough money...that to me is what it would take to drive him to sign any extension.

I can't explain why the team has had so many collapses. They have collapsed against both good and bad teams, so to me it is less about an elite team ignoring the Bulls and turning it on in the 4th quarter (Portland has not been a good enough team this year to do that). So I actually think this is an interesting, but still statistically limiting argument. I do know the Bulls have missed a shit ton of open and good looks. I know they have had streaks of dominance (in quite a few games to be honest), but very few, if any complete games. Some of that I think comes with being a young team. People always ignore how statistically it is literally damn near impossible to win as a YOUNG team in the NBA. While we thought Thaddeus and Santo would help with that, the reality is Lauri has been so fucking bad (like literally fucking beyond worthless), that it is very difficult to overcome long stretches where your so called best player is an UTTER TURD. I can't even explain how fucking bad he is (and I was always a Lauri supporter). The loss of Porter (from a stability perspective) was huge and he wasn't even that good this season (when he did play...albeit he was rounding in to form right when he got hurt). I think a lot of this is the team doesn't know its identity enough yet and with all of the things that have went wrong, they kind of assume the worse and well, it basically puts Lavine on an island (cause he's the only guy who can create...but when he's on an island he doesn't play his best basketball). But by the 4th quarter, Lauri is usually well onto his way of putting up a worthless effort (and the more he stinks offensively...the more he stops caring on both sides of the ball). If you can't tell...Lauri is an unmitigated disaster this season.

Shocking Stat of the Day. Bulls are 12th in the NBA in defense. I still say this whole season comes down to Lauri being a complete joke. I can only hope injuries have been the brunt cause of it (and with that the case, I have no idea why they haven't rested him). I still say this team will trend positively over the season and improve. That said, they obviously still lack star talent (and a lot), which means they need to get lucky with lottery balls or make a MAJOR trade (which requires teams to like our assets + a player to want to come here). Lavine with 28 points on 13 shots is nice. If they get the Mark from the last 2 years back, plus a healthy OPJ, I think you see this team play slightly above .500 ball for a good chunk of the season (which would be HUGE progress).

If Mark is hurt, they need to sit him. If he isn’t, he needs to be coming off bench. His play is absolutely awful. Awful. Advanced metrics back it. Hard to overcome such non existent play. No idea what happened but what a ducking dud. Literally something has to be wrong with him...he doesn’t look like he is even trying.

Use chrome and it should work. Safari can be slow to shift dns.

I still go back to you don’t trade superstars (ie Butler).

Again...Mitch has been gradually making progress. Made quite a few plays despite again some costly drops. They are getting better...still not good though and these are bad defenses. for those ripping Pagano, Bears are third over all in points against. They haven’t been as opportunistic as the past but some of that is no Hicks and some of that is they haven’t played with the lead very often. That said, very sloppy first two drives of the game. In general this team plays sloppy which is a sign of coaching, imo. i think everyone got ahead of themselves with expectations and forgot how small / razor thin the margin for error is in this league. Either way second straight 3 td game for Mitch and 300 plus yards to boot. Far less three and outs too. as i have been saying for weeks...I just want to see continued progress. Oh and Miller with back to back good games.

There was a DNS issue, which sometimes can take up to 24-48 hours to normalize. I'd first recommend turning off and turning on. Let me know if you still have the issue as of tomorrow.

Closing and setting up new thread to tie into more recent news. As everyone knows, I don't like giant mega threads (for my own selfish reasons - Ie, hard for me to keep up with in the chaos of my life and I want to know quickly if new major news has erupted).

Sorry - Rare (these days) server issue. Was tied up with other items so wasn't able to get set-up.

IF it was that certain, he would have signed. No one sits for 5 days without signing on a "done deal". Teams could feel good, etc, but until it is done, it isn't done. The only thing I'd take by this is the Sox are serious bidders on Wheeler. That said, I expect they will have lot of competition and the other major wild card is how long does the market take to establish himself and at what point is Wheeler (and his agent) comfortable with him making the move (does he want to be the 1st and set the market, would he prefer to wait...all that fun stuff).

NO - Just that for once it wasn't his fault. It stinks because he is very good at getting open. Problem is, when a WR is that unreliable, it is hard to develop trust. So much has to go right for an offense to work.

I will correct this statement. Sounds like ball was to Robinson and Mitch/Robinson both read something slightly different.

Extremely well coached on offense. Extremely well coached. And that defense...so much talent. They play to all of their strengths.