Alaskan Grizzly

GOD I hope Not!!! Losing Vic alone would be painful let alone to GB. I was just thinking what if GB had managed to sign away Fuller and win the trade war for Mack earlier this year? What would our season have looked like? And if they were to get Vic? Aye carumba. I’d say our team would have a very short window for success if he went there. But if he should go and none of the D staff were to stay (assuming most would go with him) I’d think getting someone like the recently canned Greg Pires to take over the D might be good as a patch. He’s more a scheme player rather than set 3-4 or 4-3. Might make a good transition. (In the worst case scenario).

I agree. Although I think he did a few during the Minny game. Although I missed a lot of the game due to travel. In the highlights I saw it seems he threw a couple that were on target. The one that comes to mind is the TD/no TD to Gabriel up the left side.

Completely agree. And I agree with Jason in that for what he cost the team I’d still expect more. I will say this, he has progressed. He looked solid yesterday and confident. And against a solid D in their home turf. That’s an accomplishment. Whether it be Nagy managing Trubiskys talent or Trubisky meeting expectations, right now I have confidence they’ll make us proud going into the playoffs. I’m charged to see them at home with the D the way they are. This is going to be a fun ride. Fwiw; absolutely loved seeing Jordan play like he did. He’s again become a huge factor for the team. And absolutely loved seeing White and Wims play well too. Wims I think is going to be something special.

I take everything Dan ‘run out of the back of the end zone’ Orlovsky says with a grain of salt. But perhaps he’s a better analyst than QB. And I think with Nagy being a former QB helps a lot with Trubisky. Similar to Peterson in Philly and Frank Reich in Indy have been and are effective with their teams (funny they all are tied to Reid too).

At the risk of tarnishing my football acumen and since you asked...here’s my hot take. Yes we should play to win. But... at what cost? Some are under the impression that Minnesota plays cheap. You certainly make a case for it in the above statement and we all witnessed what they did to Rodgers last year (slamming him to the ground). So there’s that. Many will make the case in order for our offense to be effective we have to have Trubisky running it (as I’m sure you’re aware I’m not completely sold...not yet). But I digress... There was an article recently written about some observations the Vikings made and were specifically talking to HC Zimmer who said ‘Trubisky is a lot more elusive and fast than I originally thought.’ (Not exactly a quote but something to that effect). Knowing that and being a defensive minded coach I’m almost certain he will game plan for that. He’ll probably set up to defend for the short and intermediate pass game and spy Trubiksy with an LB or NB, who may or may not have it in their mind that if he runs loose their job is to plant him. We know Trubiksy is not as effective long range and is prone to mistakes, especially if rushed. I see a variation of an eight man front with middle zone coverage. Probably disguised blitzes and the like. It’ll be up to Trubisky to analyze those plays and audible out to something more effective. I will say that Trubiksy has gotten better at that; calling alternative plays. Something Cutler was absolutely abhorrent with. You can bet Zimmer will change up the look from the last time they met. Nagy will probably scheme a similar game plan to what they did with SF; play actions, Jordan Howard runs and attempts at short - intermediate passes; despite Zimmers anticipation. Of course there may be a few trick plays on the slate one of which I’m sure will frustrate us. On the other side it’s pretty simple. Their offense is a bit of a hot mess. Zimmer canned OC DeFillipo back at the beginning of this month (his third such move in two years(?)). Now there’s a cat by the name Kevin Stefanski who is running the O. He’s been with the team for 13 years and got his start with the team when Brad Childress was the guy calling the shots. Didn’t Childress once advise the Bears on offensive stuff? Anyhow, I think the key to our D and essentially winning the game will be to do what they’ve been doing the last few weeks. Open the flood gates and get to Cousins fast and often. He’s playing not only to get his team into the playoffs but really a future to stay on the Vikings next year...or anywhere...as a starter.

oops DP

Let’s hope when it’s time to play the Rams again #1 hopefully it’s in Chicago, #2 if in LA, the Bears do a little better at waking up to play. The melee was just ridiculous . I get the reaction of the guys on the sideline while Trubiksy is getting hit, but Bellamy and Miller were just plain dumb...and justified in getting ejected. Sherman is easily the dumbest of all. He’s always been a shithead and his jumping into the fight ‘just because’ is completely ludicrous. The guy is a veteran and should know better. In other news; watch out for SF. Mullens looks to be a legit QB and it’ll be hard for Shannahan to decide between he and Jimmy G next year. Other than that late throw on 4th down, he was connecting with some nice frequency. Their D is about 1/3 rookie (all in the backfield) and looked pretty good. Considering where they are ranked with all that, they could be a force to reckon with in the near future.

Very nice solid drive with a score capped by Howard.

No comment. ?

And Vikings won too... next week will be a big deal for them. At home... And ack...forgot Gould was on the 9ers. Hope it’s not a bad omen for a close game....?

“Defense travels” as they say. I’m hoping for a solid performance from the D with no injuries. IF a lead is built I’d be go ok with them putting in backups to test the reserves. On offense I’m hoping for a more conservative effort like last week. More WCO looking in high percentage mid yardage passes with plenty of running from Howard, Cohen and Mizzel. The 49ers D is no slouch ranking 12th against the pass game, 14th against the run and 12th in total yards given. Their D coordinator Robert Saleh has spent time with the ‘Legion of Boom’ in Seattle and was the Jaguar’s linebacker coach until getting hired by SF last year.

Nice. Couldn’t help but notice in this depiction that both Mack and Trevathan have the Captain ‘C’ on their unis yet in real life no one wears them. I seem to recall some discussion early on about this and there were some captains that were designated. Wanna say he was going to do something similar to how Trestman (urp...I just threw up in my mouth typing that) did with deciding each week on the captains. Wonder what his philosophy ob that is?

Nice Greek mythology reference! Gotta agree like Icarus our team needs to especially be mindful of hubris. I don’t think Nagy or especially Vic will let it happen.

I’m a softie for stories like this. Seems appropriate for the holiday season. Encouraging to see so many members of the team to help push the positive juju for this boy.

Was wondering if we should edit this to include status checks on Jackson and Lynch? Haven’t heard whether Callahan will be ready for the post-season(?). But thankfully McManis (as MadLith pointed out) is a good option as back up. Looked solid against GB. Speaking of ‘next man up’ I saw that Deon Bush will be filling in for Jackson while he recuperates. I’m intrigued by seeing Bush play. Always wondered how he would work out. Seemed like a decent player out of Miami. Is a big Safety like Jackson. Just curious how rangy he is. Good time to test him out with the next two games.

Heck I’d be happy to see Trubiksy get Super Bowl MVP.

Rub it in (about the sunlight). Not that I’m one to complain (lol) but add in that we recently had a significant earthquake up here and are now getting feet of snow, it’s no wonder I seem edgy! Haha Anyhow, yes I totally agree with the idea of Nagy’s willingness to take risks. And I’m good with it. I truly think he thought it was appropriate to do the plays when he did due in part because of the success of the defense. I’m sure it weighed on his decision. And you’re right that Nagy has built enough positive character capital that if he screws up, his players and other coaches will forgive him. I like the gimmicky stuff as long as it’s not done to the team’s detriment.

Are the Bears ranked 5th in the league with plays of 20+ yards or more? ‘68 of (??) with 35% completion margin’ doesn’t sound good. I grabbed an ESPN widget that shows the Bears offense ranking and it shows them near the top in categories like total points and points per game but have to ask is that TOTAL points scored by the team or just offense? Because we know the defense has been scoring too. Part of why I ask this is if you look at stats like yards passing per game and total yards gained through passing, the Bears rank 22nd. Whereas they rank 14th in rushing and rushing yards per game. Which I find curious. http://www.espn.com/nfl/statistics/team/_/stat/total/sort/totalPoints

Cmon AZ. I’m actually trying to be on my best behvior here...‘‘tis the season, we won the NFC North and all that. My comment was more a ‘tongue in cheek’ metaphor than anything. I am not disillusioned at all to think this is a repeat of ‘85 when Buddy ran the D and Mike ran the rest of the team and they agreed on pretty much nothing. I know the chemistry between Vic and Nagy is better than that. But if you think for a second a traditionalist old school type of coach like Fangio didn’t somewhere in the back of his mind think the ‘head in hand’ emoji when they flubbed the fake punt AND wildcat play back to back, you’re kidding yourself. I mean this guy co-existed successfully with the likes of Harbaugh for Pete’s sake.

Was thinking about this too as I was heading home tonight. I was surprised to find out he’s in the neighborhood of ~500 yards for the season so far. That puts him about fourth with Cohen getting roughly 700 yards receiving so far. I would’ve thought Burton was the leader in this category with how involved he was early on. But to AZ’s point with less pass attempts and the resurgence of Howard I can only surmise they are trying to diversify the offense a bit. Which I think is brilliant. Makes it harder to scheme against.

Love it!!!

Color me intrigued too. I took a look at a ‘like’ receiver in Gabriel to see if the drop off was because of that. Nope. In the first 11 games Gabriel averaged 4.6 receptions and had one 100 yard game (Detroit part II I believe). The last three games he’s had exactly three receptions each. For the season he’s averaged 10.0 yards per game. In the same first eleven games, Miller averaged 2.3 receptions and has had two 100 yard games in that time (Miami and TB). As you pointed out he’s gotten 1, 0, 0 receptions in the last three games. Crazy thing is he’s averaged 13.3 yards per game for the season. So he’s done more with less. Gotta think it’s the ST angle that has caused the reduction.

Yes it does. There was one shot I saw during the broadcast where right after his last sack (I think it was) Rodgers was walking over to the sideline, his shoulder pads all askew, jersey hanging off on one side...I looked at my wife and said ‘that right there sums up today’s game’. And how sweet it is. Still looking for a still on that shot.

In watching yesterday’s game I observed the same things. He had one that I think was on the fringe of +15-20 yards and that was the TD to Burton (which was right on). That being said I want to say yesterday’s result was more learning from their past mistakes. I say ‘their’ because Trubisky is only going to be as good as Nagy can prepare him. I think Nagy saw the same issues crop up over the season (that being overthrows on long passes) and adapted the game planning accordingly. You may have noticed that Howard was also carrying the ball a lot more. Nagy is adapting to what the offense will give him and tailoring where the skill level is at. That’s what a coach should be doing. As far as his ‘mistakes’ yesterday; I’ll give a pass on. I think, like the rest of us, he knew the D was capable of bailing him out IF he were to fail but I’d bet ‘dollars to donuts’ that Vic had a few words of advice to him after the game. Somewhere along the line of ‘don’t press your luck.’ One great thing I did like about Nagys play-calling is that he is mixing up the offense. The announcers noted yesterday that almost every receiver and RB caught a pass yesterday . That’s excellent play calling in my book. Makes in that much more difficult to scheme for when all the options are being used; even Bellamy. And lastly...not for nothing but the Rams last three losses have come at the hands of Andy Reid or one of his ‘disciples’. Hmmm....

Yeah ok... I’ll be happy for today. ? But I actually see the Bears more like last year’s Eagles (minus the SB) to this year.