Bearstalk

Hopefully everyone stays healthy. I just picked up some tickets for the game so I'm hoping to see a Cutler TD!!! Don't get the opportunity to see the Bears out here, so I figured the 22 bucks I dropped per preseason ticket was well worth it.

With the shortened week, this is more about seeing what a few guys can do. Gordon and Velus Jones in their first action, Jenkins at RG and Borom at RT, Robinson and Ebner. Can Sanborn and Coley have another standout performance? With only 6-10 plays for the starters, which will probably equate to 4-7 passes for Fields. Seems like a small sample size but it will be nice to see if the updated O-Line with Jenkins at RG will hold up a little better for Fields.

Actually I'm looking forward to a night of football, starting with the Packers Vs. Seahawks at 7 PM and then switching to the beloved. Not sure the girlfriend is going to be as happy with that plan as I am. This weekend's game is said to be the most telling. We should see at least a minimal game plan and a half of football from our starters, possibly more. I want to see Jay distribute the ball. The offense be more diverse in general with Forte getting some good work. The D to continue to hustle to the ball, get turnovers. McFadden is a good back when healthy. Let's see what he does against the Bears D. And you?

I'm soooo looking forward to Game 3 of the preseason. How ironic that we now have Cutler and we play Denver in game three of the preseason, which if I'm not mistaken the game where the starters play into the second half. I bet Jay's got that one circled in fat red sharpe on his callendar.

Bengals 30 - 27 Here is what I saw: Offense looked out of sync. Trubisky really needed one more drive, but in general, nothing was smooth, which was disappointing. I didn't help that Howard, Cohen, Robinson, and Gabriel didn't dress, but he still had White, Burton, Miller, and Shaheen to start with. Bray looked better than Daniel, which will be interesting to see going forward. The main problem was pressure and O-Line issues. Massie is terrible and I hope Coward shows enough potential to make the move to him before Week 1. Massie is not an NFL starter and borderline swing tackle at best. This is nothing new and he actually looks worse this year than he did …

So most stats are meaningless. Most of the preseason stats leaders never amount to anything in the league. However, I tried to see if there were any trends from players that Fields has been comp'd to in terms of career progression (Year 3 leap, gets true WR1, etc). This is what I found, it might be completely irrelevant, but interesting nonetheless: Preseason Comp% J. Allen - 54.5%, 64.3%, 76.9% (Diggs), 100% L. Jackson - 50%, 62.5%, 75% J. Hurts - 42.9%, 100% (Brown) T. Tagovailoa - 70.6%, 80% (Hill) J. Fields - 61.2%, 76.7%, 100% (Moore) Everyone of these QBs improved their comp% YoY in their first few years. One other note, Fields had a be…

I know Preseason numbers mean next to nothing, but it is nice to see some stats like this: Sack differential 14 - 4 Turnover Ratio +9 0 pts allowed in 2nd half (entire preseason) 6 straight shutout quarters to end preseason I was actually surprised to see the Sacks differential and Turnover Ratios so positive, so I compared them to the last 5 years with regular season comparisons. 2014 Preseason: Sacks 5 - 7 Turnover Ratio 0 for the season: 39 - 41 and -5 2013 Preseason: Sacks 9 - 13 Turnover Ratio +5 for the season: 31 - 30 and +5 2012 Preseason: Sacks 9 - 11 Turnover Ratio +2 for the season: 41 - 44 and +20 2011 Pr…

Based on the preseason predictions, these were the most under and over achieving teams this year with 1 week left: 1. DEN 11-6 > 4-12 (-7) 2. LAR 11-6 > 5-11 (-6) 3. IND 9-8 > 4-11-1 (-4.5) 4. TB 12-5 > 8-8 (-4) 5. ARZ 8-9 > 4-12 (-4) 1. PHI 9-8 > 13-3 (+4) 2. NYG 6-11 > 9-6-1 (+3.5) 3T. JAX 5-12 > 8-8 (+3) 3T. MIN 9-8 > 12-4 (+3) 3T. ATL 3-14 > 6-10 (+3) 3T. SEA 5-12 > 8-8 (+3) DEN and LAR are by far the farthest off their projections. IND was a lot worse than expected. PHI and NYG both surprised. Of the positive teams, only PHI and JAX had a decent point differential. NYG was +0, MIN -19, ATL -34, and SEA…

So the Bears finished 8-8, and actually beat SI.com's prediction by a game. Football Outsiders nailed it. Sporting News had the highest projection at 11 wins. Here were some predictions: Sporting News 11-5 ESPN 10-6 CBS 9-7 Football Outsiders 8-8 SI.com 7-9 This year was a disappointment and the team was literally two plays away from finishing 10-6 (LAC and OAK games). Just think how good this team would be with a top-15 offense. They played so bad, yet won 8 games. That ultimately means we can only go up from here. With the leaner schedule next year, that should be worth at least a game and if we play better on offense, that's another two games. That…

Chicago Bears Week 1: at Carolina Panthers Week 2: San Diego Chargers (ESPN) 8/15 Week 3: at Oakland Raiders Week 4: Cleveland Browns

DATE OPPONENT TIME (CT) Aug. 10-14 DENVER BRONCOS TBD Aug. 17-21 at Arizona Cardinals TBD August 27 at Tennessee Titans Noon Aug. 31-Sept. 1 CLEVELAND BROWNS TBD

per chicagobears.com. Why the f*** do they play Cleveland every preseason? I'm sick of staring at those ugly brown and orange uniforms with those plain, orange helmets for a pointless preseason game every year.

Here are my stand out players who I think will slip into the bottom of the 53-man. OFF - TE - Tommy Sweeney 6-75, 1 TD - With Kmet, Everett, and Lewis not playing ST, I think they carry a 4th TE, and it would be Sweeney. He also has been a key contributor with several ST tackles. WR - Dante Pettis 5-98, 2 TD - I think Pettis ends up as WR5/6 and is the lead PR. He looks healthy this year and reminds me of his time in SF where he looked like a solid WR2/3. Like Sweeney, Pettis has ST value. That might get him on the roster over Johnson and/or possibly Velus. DEF - Edge - Hardy 10 tackles, 3.5 sacks - This dude has really impressed. He is everywhere…

We might get to see Caleb for a series or two in this one. Another decent opponent in the Bills, and an away game.

Here we go, the first dress rehearsal for the new regime. I will be watching to see how the young bucks looks, and how the communication is with the new staff. Hoping for a cleaner game with minimal pre-snap penalties, and no major injuries. We will see if the physicality carries over from the joint practices, or if Miami comes out with some payback in mind. Bears by 20.

With Preseason Game 3 being the last preseason game, this will more than likely be the last game we see Caleb and most of the starters in until Week 1 against TEN. Btw, the early line for Week 1, Bears are 4 point favorites as of today.

Reports are that starters will play, which is nice to see. Bagent and Co started with back to back 3 and outs against Miami, so I hope Caleb can lead a scoring drive and show real progress on Sunday night.

Johnson said starters will play some, so I assume at least one drive for offensive starters. I like how Johnson ramped this up.

The Preseason finale is in 3 days! So we get Hard Knocks on Tuesday and Bears football on Thursday. Obviously with the quick turn around, I can't see the Bears playing any starters. So it will be curious to see how the team handles guys like Velus. If they don't suit up, they are basically on the 53-man roster. So we should know who the bubble players are on Thursday night.

Chicago It seemed that the bears were content to run a small set of plays to build on field chemistry. I didn't notice a lot of two tight end sets or Olsen in the slot or lined up on the outside. I mention these because I see those two sets doing well against Green Bay on Sunday. Green Bay Going to a 3/4 defense is tough having run something different the year before. First: New personel to fit the defense means decrease in team chemistry. This helps our running game due to the changes in the middle. I know Raji looked decent in the preseason but I like our chances up the middle. Perfect time to play green bay in green bay is the first game of the yea…