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Yeah, I am glad all of that is over. This truly is a new era. Hopefully we get Johnson+Williams for the next 15-20 years and the coaching and QB musical chairs finally stop.

Poles finally took the North.

PIT is a common opponent in the Division race, so this game does have tie-breaker importance beyond just a Win vs Loss. 8-3 with 6 games left would really set the Bears up for no less than a Wild Card berth.

He won't last long. They will give him this year to fail and I would expect them to draft another one or sign a proven vet if he does not improve (which he won't). If anyone watched any Michigan games, he handed the ball off 80% of the time, and was only asked not to make mistakes, but because he was a good kid and the ultimate hype man, MIN bought into the "winner mentality". I also think the league got over their skis on KOC. Solid coach, etc, but a little overrated. Not hard to beat teams when you have a Flores defense holding team to under 20 pts and giving you great field position.

As long as he is showing a work ethic and growth, next year is off the table. Regardless of stats, he made winning plays yesterday. No turnovers, rushing for first downs and avoiding sacks isn't pretty, but it's winning football. All of those blitzes can make a young QBs head spin. I agree on the piss missiles, though. He needs to lay off on those heaters. Favre had to do the same thing. His brain will slow down as he sees it more.

I’m guessing they have him, Gordon and Edward’s back for the Eagles game.

If DET and CHI finished at 11-6 each, there is a good chance they both have the same Division record (3-3), Conference record (7-5), and record in common games (8-4), which would then move to the Strength of Victory criteria, which just based on their schedule, DET would more than likely win it. What sucks is you benefit from beating a good team, but are not penalized for losing to a bad team with Strength of Victory. For CHI to win the division outright, they will need to beat DET by at least one game on the season, which may be decided in Week 18. With GB having a tie, that takes all the tie breakers out of the equation. The easiest route to the Division is sweeping GB and beating DET. That would give the Bears a 4-2 DIV record and DET would end up at 3-3. They would then only need to win 1 game against PIT, CLE, SF, and PHI to finish 11-6. Win two of those and you more than likely win the division outright at 12-5, but it still would come down to Week 18. There is crazy scenario where the winner of Week 18 wins the Division, and the loser misses the playoffs (because of GB's tie).

I think you are speaking to his need to be the hero, ego drives him. In college they called it hero ball. If you look at him at the end of the game, he seemed mad and not excited when Santos won the game. At this point in the season when his inaccuracy should be getting better, a lot of misses. He had some drops but on several of those it looks like he threw fast balls when he should have thrown change ups. Last week we won because of Caleb, this week he was just along for the ride. He has some outstanding traits but if he doesnt start being more consistent all of those great traits will not matter. He's not going anywhere anytime soon but at what point does BJ quit trusting him? Half way into the season next year is my guess.

We just went into the Vikings stadium and beat them. I have to keep repeating that to myself because it seems surreal. Especially when Tyrique went out. I’m being captain obvious here but the difference between week one and this win is the coaching. As bad as it feels at times the floor for this team is just at a higher level. When they will put it all together I don’t know. It might be next year. I believe Caleb has a mental hurdle to get over with other QBs in his draft class. Against Daniel’s and Wash he was sailing passes high early on. Today again it’s the same thing. Pressure to prove he was deserving of the #1 overall pick seems to be real with him.

And nothing else matters...🤌🏽🤌🏽🤌🏽

Bears are all alone in first place.

What matters most is that the Vikings got McCarthy

The table was definitely not set well in the first half. The second half had a much better menu.

What this means to me, is either Caleb wasn't hitting the hots or BJ wasn't setting the table very well...

Looks like Rodgers won't play, still possible, but unlikely. So it will be Mason Rudolph. Can't lose to another backup QB after losing to BAL. They need to take care of business and get right at Soldier Field on Sunday. Sunday weather is forecasted in the high 40s to low 50s, partly cloudy, perfect football weather. Bears by double digits!

There it is, 2/3 of his drop backs he was blitzed on. On the other 12, he was at least pressured on half of them (will have to watch the game to get exact number). So potentially, he had no blitz or no pressure on 6 or fewer drop backs the entire game. Wild stat if that's what it ends up being. Johnson has to draw up more blitz beaters.

In their last 8 starts each, Nix and Maye are 8-0, and Williams is 7-1. So combined those 3 are 23-1 in their last 24 starts. Has there ever been a trio of QBs from the same class do that ever?

https://youtube.com/shorts/PkuwI2SB9eQ?si=TffqoT1w2LcnZmbi

I don't think SoS applies for playoff positioning unless you get past a crazy amount of prior conditions. For WC spots, it's head to head (if applicable) first, then record in conference, then common opponents. For divisional tiebreakers, it's head to head, divisional record, common opponents.

Interesting point. And great analysis in the whole post.

PIT only sacked Flacco once. Chase Brown had 99 yards rushing on 5.5 YPC. Flacco targeted Chase and Higgins 18 times and they only had 6 receptions. Rodgers had a 38.2 QBR and Rudolph had a 25.1 QBR against CIN. For Rodgers, that follows a game against LAC where he had a 4.5 QBR. Rodgers has looked really old and slow the last two weeks.

Week 11 - 1. Maye - 83.4 - 281 yds, 1 TD, 0INT, 1 sack, 2 Rush Yds. 283 Total Yards. Won. Season QBR: 73.9, 2,836 yards, 20-5 TD-INT, 36 Sacks, 2 TD (11g) 2. Nix - 53.4 QBR - 295 yds, 0 TD, 0 INT, 2 sacks, 8 Rush Yds. 303 Total Yards. Won. Season QBR: 54.8, 2,421 yards, 18-8 TD-INT, 12 Sacks, 3 Rush TD. (11g) 3. Penix - 90.1 QBR - 175 yds, 0 TD, 0 INT. 175 Total Yards. Lost. (Injured) Season QBR: 56.6, 1,882 yards, 9-3 TD-INT, 13 Sacks, 1 TD 4. Williams - 24.1 QBR - 193 yds, 0 TD, 0 INT, 2 sacks, 26 Rush Yds. 219 Total Yards. Won. Season QBR: 54.6, 2,329 yards, 13-4 TD-INT, 16 Sacks, 3 Rush TD, 1 Rec TD. (10g) 5. Daniels - Gumby Arm. DNP. Season QBR: 51.2, 1,184 yards, 8-2 TD-INT, 17 Sacks, 2 FL. 6. Rattler - DNP. Season QBR: 49.4, 1,586 yards, 8-5 TD-INT, 18 Sacks, 1 FL (benched for rookie). 7. Nine - 22.5 QBR - 150 yds, 1 TD, 2 INT. 150 Total Yards. Lost. Season QBR: 26.7, 842 yards, 6-8 TD-INT, 15 Sacks, 2 Rush TD. Caleb's 2nd lowest QBR game of the season, only the NO game was worse. He now needs to average 239 yards passing per game for the last 7 to hit 4K.

Gonna have to rewatch the game as it was hard to assess everything in real time. It felt like MIN blitzed or had instant pressure on almost every drop back and instead of some quick routes, they were longer developing plays that didn't match with the protection. I would say Caleb tried extending 2-3 plays when he could've just dumped it off. He had for sure 2 overthrows, one on a scramble, and one on a designed pass. Outside of those plays, it just felt like he never had time to do too much. Play calling was suspect. Johnson got cute, using Homer on a critical 3rd Down, giving Smythe targets, and trying some fake trick plays with Bagent on the field instead of an extra blocker. I don't remember any turnover-worthy throws, so I believe Caleb was clean in that respect and he is finally throwing the ball away when nothing is open, which is a slight change where he would take an unnecessary sack or make a risky throw. He escaped 2-3 more sacks and ended up with only 2 for minimal lost yards, so I would say that was a success considering the pressure rate. One time during the telecast they said Flores had blitzed 70% of the time, the most he has done all season. Receivers are still dropping passes, and now they are on the chest drops. Burden, Odunze, and Moore had at least one each. Very frustrating considering they were in a dome with zero elements to deal with. To me play calling and protection from instant pressure were bigger issues than anything Caleb did or didn't do. Special Teams coverage units are still getting gashed. Hightower needs to go and they need someone to fix the coverage units. Outside of Duvernay's long kick return, the return units were terrible, especially on punts. Duvernay should not be tackled by 7 defenders with only one Bear in the frame. The Defense continues to fold in the 4th Quarter when they go into Prevent. They had zero sacks, and very little pressure. Watching Dexter a few times, it didn't even look like he was trying to get to the passer, he looked like a Dancing Bear at times. Jarrett was getting more push than anyone in the middle. Refs continue to screw the Bears, who had more penalties and yards than the Vikings, the 9th time this season. The worst was the missed face mask on Homer within 5 yards of the ref who is looking right at the play, no call. That is 15 yards and an auto first down.

Yeah, there is a good chance that CHI, DET, SEA, and SF all end up at 11-6, and GB finishes at 10-6-1. The Bears would still make the playoffs, but probably as the WC6 or WC7. DET would more than likely win the tie breaker, even if the Bears beat them in Week 18 due to the Bears lower SOS. So that would put the Bears in the Wild Card as the 5th, 6th, or 7th seed with SEA and SF. So they need to beat SF to get the H2H tiebreaker, and they would have a chance to have the tiebreaker against SEA within the conference. WC5 will play on the road against the South Div winner, currently TB. That slot might actually be better than winning the division, then getting DET, SEA, or SF coming to you.