Bearstalk

Since Matt Nagy took over in 2018, this is the combined regular-season records of the NFC North with the Division record in parentheses: 1. CHI 24-13 (10-3) 2. GB 23-12-1 (9-4-1) 3. MIN 19-16-1 (5-7-1) 4. DET 10-25-1 (2-12) I was actually pretty shocked to see that the Bears had the best record (most wins) and the best record in the division. I was also shocked to see Minnesota near .500 and with a losing record in the division. It just doesn't feel that way.

No matter what metric you use, Johnson is near the top for all CBs this season. As much as I am on Pace about Kmet and other draft picks not to be named here, Johnson was a steal in the 2nd round. It almost makes Pace look dumb for not drafting Johnson first. I was just hoping for play equivalent to Prince, but Johnson has far exceeded that and at times has been the best DB on the team, which says a lot. If he keeps this up, he has a chance at Rookie, Pro-Bowl, and possibly All-Pro honors. He will need a few INTs to be in the All-Pro discussion, but he is right there right now in every other metric.

This is a great example of the difference between Foles and Trubisky. Foles does this all game long. Trubisky has to get the call from the sidelines, then just executes it to the first read regardless of coverage. So he does make some amazing throws like the ones to Miller but then also throws into triple coverage to ARob. Foles adjusted this play, the receiver, the rub, and the protections all while the defense shifted. Very cool to see a play broken down to this level. So now Foles needs to work on the timing of routes with his receivers. Nagy mentioned that not all routes are being run to the exact spot they are supposed to and he wants that level of detail on eve…

Any info? I see it on the scroll on ESPN.

As we know, the national media or even our local media have not been very high on this team. Some preseason predictions had us winning 3-8 games, which we have already exceeded some of those predictions by Week 5. However, there is something else going on. The media pointed to a weak schedule for our record but have not used the same reasoning for teams that are very similar to us through this week. Check out these teams and how much different they are rated than us in power rankings. 1. First we have BUF. They are top 5 in most rankings. On NFL.com they are #4. Here is their breakdown: BUF 4-0 (beat NYJ, MIA, LAR, LV = 6 combined wins), 2 wins by 3 or less, all…

Somehow, someway this team is 4-1. I will take it. Now the team gets a mini-bye before heading to CAR.

Thursday Night Football, where home teams normally have an advantage. Both teams come in 3-1, but the Bucs are favored by 5. The Bucs are stingy against the run, which won't help the Bears running game, but the passing defense is in the bottom half of the league. I am not as impressed with TB as the media is. They beat a rookie QB in Herbert at home (West Coast team playing on East Coast) by 7, a bad and depleted Denver team, and another injured team in Carolina. They have led in every game and scored first in all 4 games. So they have always played with a lead. OJ Howard was lost for the season and Godwin is still injured. With a short week, injuries will be …

So Bray got activated for the Colts game and Trubisky doesn't have backup QB duties on the sidelines. I know Nagy tried to downplay this, but there has to be more to this. Nagy said that Bray knows the offense, here is the quote: To me this is a huge knock on Trubisky. So the guy that has started in the offense since you've arrived, has more reps in your offense than any other QB in the league doesn't know the offense well enough to help out the new starting QB, but a PS QB does? Doesn't that seem odd to you? There are several theories floating around but if you peel the onion back, there has to be more to this. Trubisky doesn't want to handle in-game ba…

Did anyone see the GB-ATL game on MNF? The announcers were gloating over how good Aaron Rodgers played, but no one said anything about the fact that he was throwing to wide open receivers and at times had 2 or 3 guys to choose from. That has nothing to do with Rodgers, he had the easy job. It was the scheme and play calls. You could tell that the routes played off each other to create artificial picks and rubs and cleared space in specific areas of the field. This was what every play basically looked like. Just watch the game highlights on NFL.com, Rodgers doesn't have to do anything. The scheme is working, putting the defense on their heels, and making them ov…

The 2-1 Colts come to Soldier Field as 2 point favorites against the undefeated Chicago Bears. No one picked the Bears to win in Atlanta, and no one is picking the Bears against the Colts. With the QB change (which was the biggest variable for the last 3+ yrs), this should be a good matchup for the Bears. Phillip Rivers comes to town and is a very turnover prone QB. I like our chances against him. In a way, our teams are very similar in composition. Vet QB that is not very mobile, young RB, solid WR's, good Edge Rushers, etc. If you do a player by player breakdown, I like our chances against them. I am going with Bears 27-17 and the Bears go to 4-0 with a decisive w…

So thru a quarter of the season, the Bears are 3-1 and have a 52% chance to make the playoffs. The NFC East will only send one team, so the competition is going to come from the West and South. After TB, NO has a 72.6% to make the playoffs, which would put them in the #2 Wild Card slot. In the West, after Seattle, LAR has a 72.8% chance to make the playoffs for the #1 Wild Card slot. So the Bears are the WC3 slot (7th) ahead of SF at 40% and ARZ at 33%, both teams are 2-2. What is interesting is we faced the #1 DVOA team last week against IND (they are now 4th), and will face TB who is now #1 this week. So we are definitely hitting a gauntlet right now. Our de…

"Big D&%# Nick" comes up big. 2.5 quarters with Trubisky generated 10 points against a terrible Falcons defense. He also gave them great field position on his interception. 1.5 quarters with Foles generated 20 points. He also had a TD taken away when Dennard took the ball away from ARob in the end zone. So it could have been 27. Night and day difference running the offense.

https://www.nfl.com/news/bears-hc-matt-nagy-announces-nick-foles-replaces-mitchell-trubisky-as-starting-q

3-0 baby! And the defense doesn't have a damn thing to do with it. Our offense has done the work as our defense totally underwhelmed me. Through this start, the offense is leading their opponents in yards, points, 3rd down conversion % and time of possession. The defender was supposed to be a strength, but is has not shown yet. Whether it is the long drive or the big play, they keep getting gutted. A few things I have noticed: The pressure is there, but nobody is getting there! The result is this; QB has time to make reads and throws. DB's can't cover forever. In the run game I've noticed 3 things. Aside from Hicks, the d line is getting turned at the poi…

We are off to a good start to the 2020 season. However, we still have 4 GMs that have not paid their league dues yet. Leaguesafe imposes a $10 fee on late payments, so there is not much I can do there. https://leaguesafe.com/join/3948858 The updated deadline is now set to Sunday, September 27th. I will need a consensus from the GMs on how we want to proceed for those that don't pay by the updated deadline. I just don't want this to drag out too much longer. If you can't meet the payment deadline, please let me know. Thanks, Adam

So here we are, Week 3, with one undefeated team and one winless team. Even with that, the 0-2 Falcons start as 3.5 favorites against the 2-0 Bears. That just shows the lack of confidence in the Bears right now. Who knows which Falcons team or Bears team will show up this week. The Bears have now held on to barely beat bad football teams with a ton of injuries. It feels like this is the first true test for the Bears. The Falcons have faced the Seahawks and Cowboys, two really good teams, and the Falcons offense has put up a ton of points, but their defense looks bad. So it is underwhelming Bears offense vs bad Falcons defense against and solid Bears defense vs e…

Sucks to see an injury on a fair catch. Thankfully he got a new contract before the injury. Hopefully he recovers quickly and is ready for next season. Now we need another RB for sure.

MItch is a heck of a teammate. He's a really good dude and it's easy to root for him. He's also better than 99% of the people that play QB in the world. However, he's not better than the vast majority NFL starting QBs. I wish it would have worked out for him but it didn't. Where he was drafted was not his fault. I wish him all the best going forward. Drafting QBs is a crapshoot. The year Cade McNown was drafted, there were 5 QBs taken in the first 12 picks (Tim Couch, Akili Smith, Donovan McNabb, Dante Culpepper and McNown). Three of the five were complete busts. All the draft analysis I read had Trubisky as a top-10 draft pick. Pace obviously loved all the …

1) Is Foles the starter now? 2) Should Foles be the starter now? For me, I hope #1 is a yes but i dont know what this staff thinks, and whether they are willing to move on, but #2 is an absolute yes for me.

I know most media outlets had the Bears at 6-10 or 7-9 going into the season, but that is a tall task now with a 2-0 start. Things would have to really go south to end the season with anything less than 8 wins. That's good news. Despite being one of 11 2-0 teams, the Bears crack the top 15 in only two of the national power rankings I could find. NFL.com ranks the Bears 19th, USA Today 19th, Bleacher Report 18th, ESPN 17th, Yahoo Sports 15th, and SI.com ranks us 14th (the highest of the few I looked at). Right now the Bears have played the 2nd easiest schedule besides the Bills. Yet you will see the Bills are being ranked in the top 10 and sometimes even t…