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Roquan just started practicing so he'll make a difference in their run D. However, he's never been a guy to take on blockers his game is built on running around them. If we can get a hand on him he can be moved out of the play.

The next two games are against teams that have so far this season struggled against the run. Swift and Monangai should be able to take advantage. Rushing Defense rankings. (Last column is rushing TDs allowed)

Right. Narratives are stories that persist above the facts. If you win three games with a last minute scores then you're the "Cardiac kids" and then people expect the pattern to continue. Reality is bumpier than that, and neat little generalizations always fail to capture the full truth. If we keep winning, then eventually the story will change about us, and then theyll say we are better than we are, and that any bad moments dont fit the new story. And it'll be BS then too, but more fun to read. But in the end, it's all nonsense meant to allow a causal observer of the NFL to feel part of a story line thats easy to understand and full of absolutes. Simple and neat, and easy to repeat at a bar to seem like you know football. We here who spend more time on this than that, know that even the best teams have bad plays and games. This is gonna be a bumpy road, but the 4 game view should always be trending upward. So far so good.

The writers built JD up after his ROY and playoff season. They are not giving up on his performances yet when his top two targets are banged up. For the narrative to change with Caleb, he needs to win and be more consistent. Caleb has been carried by the Ds turnovers but hindered by penalties (his cadence partially to blame) and STs (huge return differential). Caleb is on his way to flipping the narrative just by winning. If he/O can clean up the pre-snap Ps and throw on time, the sky's the limit. I think we all see he has some boxes to check and I expect BJ to get those fixed.

Clearly BJ is fixing problems on the run. He got the running game going and playing a lot better against the run. He will work into the offense the TEs. Its a work in progress , we are just the tip of the iceberg. If Caleb becomes more consistent it adds to the number of O plays a game and that adds more options for other weapons to the get touches.

Well if Baltimore is as putrid as you think they are then it should go to reason. Unless somehow Monangai supplants him and does better with his opportunities. The only things I see changing the running game from its current domination are Caleb doing better at passing (overall) and the involving of Kmet and Loveland more than they have so far.

He hasnt all of a sudden turned into Barkley or Robinson. He is an above average NFL back that has a OL that is jelling. BJ and Beiniemy has lit a fire under him and he is productive. With the threat of a good passing game, the other teams arent loading the box to stop the run. Now if Monangai takes off, we have the two back game DJ is looking for. Caleb gets his act together and we have the offense BJ wants to see. We are scoring over 21 points in every game. I cant wait to see where that goes once the offense goes into cruise mode. Every game takes on its own script. Balt is dangerous because they are 1-5, had the bye week and getting some injured players back. I expect it to be a close game and we have a chance to win, but this is a must win for the Ravens . That may be the edge they need. IF we stay physical and can run the ball, we will stay in every game from here out.

Since the bye week, Swift has been a different back than Id ever seen from him before. If he continues like this, it's easy to say we should keep him. That doesnt mean we wont draft a better prospect, or that Monangai wont challenge him for RB1 - anything is possible, but on his own merits, Swift has been a completely different back than I'd ever seen from him before. It's great to see unexpected growth from players, especially unlikely from veterans, and i think it speaks loudly about how effective our coaching staff is.

I know it is asking a lot, but I want to see it for at least one more game. Why? Because Swift never had 3 great games in a row. It is really baffling. Here are his games before and after 100 yard rushing games in his career: 2020 - 22, 116, 27 2021 - 27, 130, 136, 0 2022 - 144*, 56 *-Week 1 2023 - 3, 175, 130, 56 2024 - 91, 129, 51 2025 - 38, 108, 124, ? His highest total in any of the 3 games that follows a 100-yd game is 71. The most likely yardage for him following a 2nd 100-yd game is 53. He has never had 3 straight games with 75+ rushing yards in his career.

Yeah good find. Offense up 7.4% and defense down 7.1% (which is better). Interesting nugget when looking at those. The Bears have the 2nd lowest penalized defense with 30 penalties for 209 yards. That is hard to believe considering how many bogus calls they have received. The offense is the 8th most penalized unit with 53-454 yards. So as a team, the Bears are a net -245 in penalty yards. That is almost an entire game's worth of yardage over 6 weeks, or 41 yards per game. That is way too high. The Bears lead the league in Turnover Differential at +11, which is the total of the 4th and 5th best teams combined at +6 and +5.

If you're looking for reasons for optimism, I think this run game could be legit. If I'm not mistaken, wasn't there some analytic after the first few games that showed Swift was 31st in EPA/rush or maybe it was just YPC, but the Bears OL ranked in the top 2-3 in yards before contact? If I have that correct, that means the run blocking has been good all year, it just took Swift a few games to figure out his timing in order to get in sync with the blocks. There's an old saying that a good run game travels, and I agree. The Bears were 31st in the NFL in rushing before the bye, and now they're 7th. If that trend continues, along with their newfound ability to (maybe?) stop the run on defense, that's going to keep them in a lot of games. They just need to get more consistent play from the quarterback.

Lamar has not practiced yet, so this is something to watch. If he is out, this becomes much easier.

We're going to see a lot of difference in QB play between Rattler and a returning Jackson...after a bye. Add in they are 1-5 and they're looking for a strong and convincing bounce back game. Right now the Bears rank 26th total defense and 31st in Rushing defense - a strong concern when you have players like Jackson and Henry on the slate. The Ravens offense (without Jackson) is ranked 29th in Passing and 23rd in total offense. They are 10th when measuring their rushing production. Sure the Bears leading the NFL in takeaways is great but the offense needs to be able to do something with it when given the chance. Conversely (and as Adam pointed out) the Ravens defense ranks 29th in total defense, 28th in pass defense and 26th in rush defense. There is the chance the Bears can go go back and forth with them throughout the game but they'd have to start scoring from the minute they step out of the tunnel to do it...Or so I think.

Beyond the struggles of Caleb during this last game, I noted a few things that were interesting: 1) the running game seemed to focus more on inside zone rushing this time vs outside zone (or so it seemed from a TV viewership perspective). And as is typical with Swift, the more he ran, the longer the gains...especially late in the game. Monangai even benefitted and of the two is a much better inside runner. 2) despite the promise to improve on it, our TEs were still pretty un-involved. Unless you count their being used for blocking. This could be in part because Caleb kept looking long (and predominantly #15) but still, after halftime it seems that would have been discussed at least and changed to some level

Look at our 3rd down efficiency on O and D. It's a pleasant improvement.

Since the Hail Mary game, Daniels has now went 14 games without passing for 280 yards and has went 8 straight without a Comp% over 75. I still think it is wild that a QB can be getting so much hype for passing for 222 yards against TEN.

Now thru 6 games, the sample size is more meaningful. In 2024, the offense had a league low 283.5 yds a game (32nd), averaged 18.2 pts per game (28th), with a -0.13 EPA/Play (26th). In 2025, the offense is 13th in YPG at 346.5, averaging 25.3 pts per game (11th) with an EPA/Play of -0.01 (T-13th). So points up 7.1 pts per game, yardage up 63 yards per game, and EPA/P up 0.12 per play. I would say that is tangible improvement across the board from last season. QBP Rate and sacks are also down. On defense, the Bears are 25th in pts allowed, at 25.8 PPG, 25th in YPG at 350.0, yet their EPA/Play is -0.09, good for 8th. Last year the defense was 27th in YPG at 354.2, but only 13th in PPG at 21.8, and their EPA/Play was -0.05, good for 14th. So the team is allowing 4 more pts per game, 4 fewer yards, and are 0.04 better per play. The net differential is basically a FG, which makes sense that the Bears are now winning close games they were losing last year. That all equates to the 12th best offense and 19th best defense thru 6 games, the 16th best team, and they currently hold the 7th seed in the NFC heading into MNF.

D'Andre Swift has the 2nd most runs of 10+ yards with 15. Taylor leads the league with 18. However, Taylor has 42 more carries than Swift, so Swift technically has more +10 yard rushes per attempt than anyone in the NFL (16.9%). Gibbs+Montgomery have 15 combined.

This game is a completely different story if the refs called an even game. It is a 40-10 blowout. Same for last week. The silver lining is the old Bears would shit their pants and lose. This is a different team.

Caleb is currently 19th in QB Rating, 17th in Passing Yards per game, not that you would know it, but he has a higher per game average than Nix, Daniels, and Rattler. Penix has him by 9 yards and Maye by 24 yards. There are 18 QBs who have taken more sacks than him and only 5 QBs with fewer INTs with the same number of attempts. Caleb's biggest issue is accuracy which impacts the Comp%. If that improves, he magically becomes a top 10 QB overnight from a top 15-20 right now.

As much as the passing game and Caleb need to improve, they have scored 21 or more in every game. I think there was so much emphasis put on the run game over the bye that it may have impacted the passing game a little bit. Again, no excuses, Caleb has to be more accurate. Odunze needs to catch the ball, and the Bears need to get some calls go there way or at least not have bogus calls against them.

I think it will be close, maybe a team scores late to make it look worse, but I think the game will be back and forth all game within a score. The Ravens haven't scored much with Jackson out, but that doesn't discount the fact that their defense has allowed 37, 38, 41, and 44 pts in 4 of their 5 losses. I think the Bears will be in the mid-20s again, maybe hit 30, while the Ravens will be in that same range. Either team can win 31-21 and I would not be surprised. Would it have made a difference if the Bears scored on the last drive instead of running the clock out to make it 33-14?

our defense was a double edged sword. all in all our run defense has improved a lot. our pass defense was good and bad in coverage. the scheme was also up and down. when we went into the soft zones they ripped us apart. limiting our rush on the qb didn't help. if we go into these soft zones, every play will give up 5-10 yards with an easy reception. most of these came when their qb had open lanes and all the time in the world with no hurry. if this were even a mediocre team we could have lost this game.

Exactly with quicker recognition and accuracy. Better decision making would help to . Several of those throwaways he could have run. These are the same issues Fields had, but Caleb have shown to be better than that. What bothered me was he was always good at throwing on the run, and Im not sure he hit one of those passes. I am the thumbs up guy so Im all in but this year will determine his being great or being average. The rest of the year will tell the story.