Alaskan Grizzly

Any possible relation to why they elevated Vaughters?

There are some eerie similarities to where the team was last year at this time. Same 3-3 record. Mack is struggling (last year he was injured for a few games played through some but was noticeably not the same), Parkey was missing FGs and Trubiksy was unpredictable (although I’d say now he’s even less reliable than at this point last year). I have a few friends that are Eagles fans and they’ve told me that they’ve been limping through the season to this point with injuries at key positions. I haven’t gone to really check who those all are but one of them, DeSean Jackson (yes THAT DeShaun Jackson) appears ready to go. Even in his advanced age he could still pose a threat in the long game. And besides the lack of push from the front three the back end of our defense hasn’t proven formidable. Howard continues to do what he does, and catch passes. And Jeffery does what he does, catches TD passes. Although not as of late (last one was two games back - so maybe he’s due?). The Eagle are one game ahead of where the Bears are at 4-4 and second in the NFC East. As you said they’d like nothing more than to go into their bye on a winning streak. Bears are 2-1 on the road (the one loss in London) so there is that. Im going to use reverse psychology and say the Bears have no chance in Philly and probably agree with most of what you say about how the game will go down. But I suspect Smith and Mack will have big games. Nevertheless, Bears will lose 20-10.

Short answer for me is having an Alex Smith / serviceable like QB and balance that with a dominating defense (like we know ours can be) and you’ll get what you want. Realistically speaking I even think that would be possible this year, if not definitely next year. I’ve never been one to give up on a season. In fact I absolutely hate the idea of throwing games to get a better draft pick - see where that got us? There are too many variables that can happen in a season to totally rule your team out of contention. But after today passing without us making a move in a trade makes me think our team has stacked its chips and they’re all in with the way things are. Which I read as extremely unfortunate.

Agree Bear Fan. If the ever increasing boos on your own field aren’t convincing enough, then I don’t know what will wake these guys up. And we all wonder why the national media almost mocks the Bears when they do well and challenges them by ‘ignoring’ them. Like MadLith said in another post, until they are able to string more than one winning season together they aren’t worthy of national respect.

Problem is, he’s regressing. Yes there were spurts of good play today but not one TD and two turnovers. It’s like the old adage of ‘insanity is defined by repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting a different result’. Time for the team to unhitch they wagon from Trubisky. See what someone else can do and maybe that will wake him up.

Not just any LB, but a 40 year (losing ground to Gabriel) LB in Davis.

I would’ve at least like to have seen one pass into the end zone or like you said a handoff for a few yards gained. The time out was still in play. I used to really appreciate Nagy but not so much anymore . Maybe he should start on the motivational speaking tour rather than head coaching.

And we’re back to having kicking problems again...of course. Lol

Absolutely right...on all points. And it keeps on getting worse. The defense has got to be getting tired of this. The fans certainly are.

After that half, Nagy should not be taking the field.

And that last two minutes is the game pretty much sums up the offense’s ineptitude. That was totally on Nagy... what a fu*king mess! Totally embarrassing.

The offense is extremely frustrating to say the least. Spots of good enshrouded by inconsistency.

I see Keenan Allen was on the field warming up. Hm.

Danny Trevathan has become my favorite players on the team, alongside Mack and Hicks of course. His silent leadership quality paired with his overall being a good man and player gives me confidence if anyone is going to will this team to do better it’s going to be because of someone like Trevathan. In my opinion, he should be a ‘Bear for life’. https://www.chicagobears.com/video/player-profile-danny-trevathan-x2579

I’m not sure how this all works but when it comes to making trades doesn’t having some draft capital in the form of draft picks have more meaning to other teams than players? The Bears have two 2nd rounders for next year and really that’s about it. Players wise there aren’t a lot of players I could see other teams really wanting maybe except for a player like Bars or some of the other developmental players. But even then you’re talking about lower quality value. For me I’m really hoping the defense figures it out for this game and we don’t have to worry on replacing anyone on that side of the field. As weird as it may sound I’d like to see how Mariota might do in a different environment. I’ve always thought he and Trubiksy are too similar BUT Mariota did play for Helfrich while in Oregon so maybe it makes sense in that regard? Another one I’ve heard recently is maybe looking for a way to secure Bridgewater would make sense? Finally along the line I’d definitely say making a run for Williams may not be as hard as we thought. He’s pissed at Washington and clearly wants out so maybe they’d be able to make a team friendly offer to see his interest? Lastly P.S. : OJ Howard would be one intriguing piece to add.

Go Pops! Go Bears!

Yeah I’ll admit I don’t know the rules of injury protocol to the minutiae but players come back after injuries like this : see Gabriel. If its something like this it’s possible this is a longer term issue; maybe something carried over from college? (Unfortunately CTE isn’t fully diagnosed while you’re alive but the lingering symptoms are evident). Or maybe it’s not something triggered by physical injury and it’s emotional. I think just before he posted that last tweet there was a death in either his family or a close family friend.

I personally wouldn’t mind seeing Bray sooner than later. He had a pretty good showing in this years preseason even though it may have been a more vanilla version of the offense. But then again so far Trubisky hasn’t really grasped anything higher than the ‘101 version’ yet.

I’m still in the corner that this (with Smith) is either an emotional trauma related reaction (like PTSD) or something akin to CTE. Granted CTE seems to be more in line with players who have had years of collisions not someone quite as young as Smith, but CTE is so relatively new in its discovery that its really hard to say the true tendencies. In my very brief reading up on it, the word “emotional lability’ came up. It ...”refers to rapid, often exaggerated changes in mood, where strong emotions or feelings (uncontrollable laughing or crying, or heightened irritability or temper) occur (Queenslandhealth.org). There are emotional triggers that can activate these type symptoms or a severe concussion or two. These sound similar to some of how he was acting a few weeks back at practice. And his general ‘lost’ look while on the field may be a part of it too. I know the first time I heard about this was when I had heard about Junior Seaus diagnosis was determined to be part of his death at an early age. I was amazed at how fast he fell from his playing days. Whatever the case is for Smith, I hope the team takes good care of him.

Someone drank Jobu’s rum. I think what’s happening are a series of unfortunate incidents and they have some bad juju going on; Hicks’ injury, Long on IR (read probably end of career), offense struggles and now because of that defensive struggles. They need a shot in the arm and a lot of this will get better. Sort of like in the movie Major League and Cerrano told Jobu, “fu*k you Jobu, I’ll do it myself” (to get out of their slump). They need a spark to kick this slump they’re in . As someone else said earlier, winning cures a lot a of ills. Another parallel to Major League just occurred to me, anyone think of getting Trubisky some glasses? ?

Tricky predicament for sure. Could be just as bad if he keeps playing and not doing well, then starts hearing the negativity from social media and the like. Probably staying with the team (family) for now is the best thing at the very least. Playing too? Hard to say.

The Chargers are as determined as the Bears to make the playoffs, so says Philip Rivers anyhow. Problem is, believe it or not they are struggling more than the Bears at this point...and have to come to Chicago. I would have said the same thing last week about New Orleans but as you pointed out, 'if they can't beat the depleted Saints' (missing three key starters) well.... Anyhow, Rivers is returning for his 15th(?) season and has been pretty consistent. He's currently at 66.3 completion % (64.6 career) with 11TDs and 6 INTs this year. He seems to 'almost' always pull off a win and like you said, all their losses have been close ones. (Their last win, four games ago, was against an even more miserable team in the Dolphins). The Clemson version of Mike Williams looks to be the 'next man up' with Allen potentially being out. The three year vet is on a similar pace to his last year stats with 23 receptions for 350 yards receiving at 15.2 yards avg BUT so far 0 TDs. Their TE Hunter Henry has been servicable and with our MLB struggle as of late might prove to be a challenge if he goes into that area. Is Gordon playing because his stats show 36 carries for 81 yards so far. And...they have a FB so I suspect with their WR's limited, they will concentrate more on the running game. As you pointed out, their D is struggling. DE Joey Bosa has been giving some teams fits (5 sacks so far this year - I suspect a few more on Sunday) and the other DE Melvin Ingram is 'meh' with 11 tackles and 1 sack. The 'ancient one, 36 year old' Thomas Davis Sr. anchors the LB corps but he's a shell of his former self. And I want to say RCB Casey Hayward is decent or does his name only make me think of "Ironhead' Heyward? My guess is 21-17 or 14 with the Bears pulling out a win.

Struck me as odd to see the Bears practice in orange practice jerseys. That is, the majority of players not just the QBs like is customary. In the photos below it shows Trubiksy in blue which is normally the color of all the offense save the QBs. Probably nothing more than they’re playing in orange ‘home’ jerseys this week and were getting used to it... In other news, I see OLmen Bars and Mustipher highlighted as was new guy DLman Urban. https://www.chicagobears.com/photos/practice-snaps-10-23-19

Saw an article about a strange post Smith put on Twitter. I agree with this author that it might be time to consider sitting him down and let him take care of himself. Somethings definitely not right. https://sportsmockery.com/2019/10/cryptic-tweet-by-roquan-smith-raises-more-mental-health-concerns/

I’d say I was never a fan but it appeared to have worked last year. It’s hard to put a measure on how to be successful with the younger generation and this and a few other tinkers that Nagy was doing seemed to be hitting a chord. But now he’s facing adversity and needs to figure out a way out of the woods. It comes down to him having to make tough decisions at the expense of being everyone’s friend.