BearFan2000

I like Howard a lot, and we and Nagy know what he can do. Previous seasons he was the offense on a Bears team where opponents KNEW he was all we had. That speaks volumes to his value as a RB. And it is frustrating to see him being underused considering what he's capable of. Howard isn't the type of back that excels in spot duty, he's a momentum reps type runner that needs volume to get on track. But at the same time I agree that play calling thus far has been more focused on developing Mitch, and that means more passing than smash mouth. We've seen games this season where Jordon is involved in the game and others where he's nearly game scripted out. From his perspective I can understand some frustration knowing he can contribute but not getting the opportunities that he'd like. This season is all about the process of installing, and growing the offense, finding this teams identity. It's possible Nagy sees Howard as an Ace in the hole. Leaning more on the pass and developing that part of the offense can help loosen up defenses to utilize the running game more as the season winds down and we get more into the colder weather. I remember something about Nagy wanting our offense to be versatile, and able to beat teams in different ways rather than one trick pony. And clearly coming into this season the passing game had a lot further to improve over last year than the run game. I too can understand though if Jordan leaves town at the end of his contract, but it's also possible that by seasons' end he may be more regularly involved and we're having a different conversation.

The difference being for Crosby it was a rare day for an otherwise dependable kicker. He returned to form the following week. Parkey has be a disappointment for most of the season yesterday was by far his worst day, but it's not been his only bad day. We are likely stuck with him for the rest of this year but no doubt we will be addressing that next year. He alone cost the Bears 8 points by himself It didn't cost us today as we were beating the Lions fairly easily. The issue is when we are in games where every point is valuable we can't trust Parkey to come through and that's a liability. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't bring a kicker or two to try out and see if we can fix this issue this year. The pressure will certainly be there to at least go through the motions of trying to fix it. I wonder how much of it has to do with taking South Florida warm weather kicker and ask him to kick well in the cold swirly winds of Soldier Field. Kicking aside this was a very enjoyable game to watch. We gave up some cheap TD"s in the second half but the hole we put the Lions in was too deep for them to climb out of. Welcome back Mr. Robinson! Could even say welcome to Chicago. His best day yet as a Bear. (too bad I didn't start him on my Fantasy team or I'd have won this week). Hopefully this is a harbinger of things to come and a sign that he and Mitch are getting to be on the same page. By far at least to my eyes the most complete game Mitch has put together. He looks confident, and played under control, and fired up. I love watching him spike the ball with authority after his TD run and celebrating with his teammates. As he grows into his role as leader of the offense his enthusiasm and energy will be contagious that is what endears you to your teammates. He's starting to show the qualities that convinced Pace to make the move to ensure he got him. The last several games the offense has taken strides and they still have room to grow. The D started getting their swagger back with the Jets game and have rounded back into form. They displayed the defensive team stats yesterday and this reminds me a lot of the 2005/2006 D getting turnovers, scoring, getting after the QB, and generally wreaking havoc. But unlike those Defenses we have an offense that has the ability to take over a game. The stronger the offense gets the more they can impose their will. We are watching a playoff team that is my firm belief at this point. After last offseason on paper we looked to be a vastly improved team. There was much to be excited about and a new energy surround the team. On paper we looked to at the very least be vastly improved. Question was could this team go from 5-11 and last in our division to a playoff caliber team this year. I think the answer is yes. I don't se us winning a championship this year but we are certainly in the playoff conversation. Once the playoffs start anything can happen. The Bears haven't been relevant for a long time. Plus we are built for the long term Pace has rebuilt our roster to be younger. We are the only team in the league to not have a single defensive starter 30 years old or older. I have to give Pace a lot of credit for turning over the roster but doing so with a longterm view rather than a win now fade away. Since the 80's the Bears have been a team that will have occasional resurgences only to fade away as quickly as we rose up. This has the potential to be the start of the Bears being a perennial playoff team.

If he keeps up the pace he's on and continues to improve the national media won't be able to ignore him for much longer. But watching the games lately you can tell the announcers taking notice of how well he's been playing. It sure is nice to watch a Bears game and hear announcers coming even remotely close to gushing over a Bears QB. Yesterday was possibly Trubiskey's best most complete performance that I've seen. I've seen stretches and flashes of the potential we all hoped he'd show. But what jumped out at me yesterday was it feels like we are finally starting to see the offense begin to look like what many had envisioned or hoped it would look like when we added the weapons we did and the new coaching staff last off season. Since the Jets game it looks like Trubiskey is playing more and more under control it looks like the game is starting to slow down for him. As Bill noted you can see him going through the progressions and more often than not throwing to the right guy. I also felt his long ball was much better yesterday. I only recall few overthrows. Perhaps the timing is getting better. We had a lot more plays of 20+ yards (explosive plays) than we've had to this point. If we start making more of those chunk plays with regularity this will be a hard offense to stop. With the talent we have on D if we keep jumping out to leads our D can just pin their ears back and go after teams.

Timing couldn't be better either. We will need as many weapons as we can get on offense and getting Robinson back and next week (vs Vikings) will help a lot. It is encouraging that even with the offensive flaws we've had thus far a lot of room to grow we are putting points on the board and winning games. When the offense gets it's legs under it watch out NFL. What a change this season has been. We are installing a legit NFL offense without sacrificing on the defensive side of the ball. Get both phases humming at the same time the Bears could become scary good. Been a long time since we could say that. Still work to be done to get there but the arrow is pointing up.

This is one of those hard to predict games. Having Robinson and Mack back at full would be huge. Detroit started out the season playing much better but as of late just don't look right. That doesn't mean they won't come out swinging. The Bears have to prepare for the team that beat GB, NE, and MIA. But the teams they beat we were a play away from beating GB, a defensive stop away from beating Miami, and a yard from forcing OT against the Pats. I feel like this should be a win, but not one we can take for granted. We need to hold nothing back these next three games. Win them and we are seriously talking playoffs, lose 2 or 3 of them and making the playoffs becomes much tougher.

makes sense for a lot of reasons. This game has potential post season implications.

Well put. In today's age with social media and forums like this and podcasts it's a different environment where games are nitpicked and overanalyzed to death. No win by any team is perfect. I thought the D played great and took what the bills gave them. I feel like we got after Petermen but could have easily had more sacks had we not been called for some very iffy penalties. Officiating was atrocious. I feel like the turnovers for the most part weren't of the dumb luck variety but were good athletic plays. Every week it seems we've had opportunities to make plays like that and missed this week we made those plays. Probably could have had a couple more. The D came up with 3 picks and a fumble two of which returned for scores. We had 4 sacks. Defense got us 14 points and they gave up 9 pts. which really should have been just 3 as the Bills were helped tremendously on their lone TD drive. Seemed like the officials were calling sympathy penalties. It was far more annoying knowing that that TD ended their streak of not scoring. It felt really cheap. Outside of that their offense managed a single FG the entire game. I'd say the D held it's own. The offense added 27 points but the way people are talking (not just here) you'd think they did nothing to contribute. Sure the D got the team rolling and the offense wasn't overly sharp at times. This was a day that the offense didn't need to do a lot. We were without Robinson. This proved to be a perfect opportunity to let him and Mack heal up some more for when they will be needed starting next week. All in all we beat a bad team 41-9. We are 5-3 and could arguably be 6-2 or 7-1. We've already matched last season's win total with 8 games to go. We're in first place in our division with 3 critical games next on the docket. We host a crumbling Lions team (what's new), then host the Vikings, followed by a road game at Detroit on Thanksgiving. Minny is on bye next week so we could go into our matchup in week 11 at 6-3 facing a 5-3-1 Vikings team who is beatable (one of their losses is to the Bills we just blew out). It's not out of the realm of possibility that we run the table on the next three games and emerge 8-3 with a 3-1 division record and well on top of our division. These three games will be very crucial. Even winning 2 of 3 sits us at 7-4. The Bears have put themselves in a good position to control their own destiny. Offense is a work in progress and we're winning games while we learn which is a plus in my book. I don't expect us to make a serious run at the SB this year but do feel we are a playoff caliber team now. At this point New Orleans looks to be the cream of the NFC crop along with LA and even Atlanta getting hot. NFC north feels like a two team race now between us and Minn. Win that and we're guaranteed no less than a #4 seed. Take care of business these next 8 weeks and we can secure that spot. Once the playoffs start anything can and does happen.

We sure are getting called for a lot of BS penalties at key times. Billed helped out a lot on that cheap TD

Hopefully we do come out prepared and focused. This is a game we could afford to let Mack and Robinson get an extra rest to heal up more. If we come out and play the way we're capable of we should steamroll the Bills. It'd be nice to see us blow them out like we did the bucs.

I think Jerseys are a magnet for wing sauce among other food items. I treat my Urlacher jerseys the same way, I just throw it on over whatever I have on. It is a dangerous site what a great anniversary gift, a wife that supports your sports interest is a good wife for sure. Maybe the screen printed ones have gotten better quality wise. I've bought my jerseys off eBay in the past.

The accuracy issues with the long balls looks like it could be a timing issue. It's like Mitch is trying to find that sweet spot. Something that needs more work in practice. At least in most cases he's erring to the side of caution and overthrowing rather than under throwing where the DB has an opportunity to locate the ball for an INT. So while it's frustrating to watch passes sail over the WR's head it's better than making his WR become a DB and have to try to break up an INT.

This has the feel of a potential trap game, with 3 straight key division games after Buffalo. We can't take Buffalo or any team lightly. The Bills have some talent but they average just under 11 points per game and give up an average of 25 points per game. 4 of their 6 losses were fairly lopsided. The Vikings game seems more of an anomaly for both teams. Their last two outings they've been outscored 11-62. This is a game we absolutely should not lose but we can't go in overconfident. They got after Brady, and we have a new RG. We might see Mitch taking off a little more but it's something he does well. The game could be closer than it should, I didn't think the NE/Buff game would be as close as it was for that long till the pats pulled away in the 4th. What I hope happens is we jump out on them and not give them any hope. The longer you let a team like that hang around the harder it is to put them away.

So for our 2 year anniversary my wife wants me to pick out a Bears jersey. I want to go with an orange Mack Jersey, but on the NFL shop online the only orange Mack jerseys (or any Mack jersey for that matter) are the ones with the screen printed name/number etc. I don't see anywhere on the NFL shop to get the version with the stitched names/number, etc. like they used to sell as "authentic" vs cheap screen print. I prefer the stitched as the screened ones crack and peel. I noticed that there are different versions of the Nike jerseys. Where the Limited and Elite both have stitched numbers/name. But looks like the only one like that for the Bears is a Jordan Howard. Seems odd to me that a superstar like Mack wouldn't be available as a stitched jersey. I have found stitched orange Mack jerseys on eBay and other sites for way less than they would be on the NFL.com shop, which makes me leery of getting ripped off by a fake/knockoff.

Why not put Cohen back there instead of Cunningham. I do realize that would possibly hurt his ability to contribute on offense, but if anyone could take a kickoff in the end zone and make it past the 25 more often than not it'd be him. He's got a bit of Hester in him. As it is it is frustrating watching Cunningham take it out of the end zone and get stopped well short of the 25. I don't know if he's given green light to go if he thinks he can return it or if he's taking it on himself to chose not to take a knee. Either way it needs to stop. These are costly hidden yards. Put your offense in a hole and if they go 3-out you are giving up tremendous field position.

Good win, not perfect by any stretch but they got the job done and beat a team the should beat. Coupled with losses by GB (very satisfying loss to watch), Detroit, and Minny, we are now back in 1st place. One thing for sure the NFC north is up for grabs. We face a struggling Bills team while the vikings have a home game against the Lions and the Packers go on the road again and face a surging Pats team. We could theoretically lead the division at 5-3 and GB in dead last at 3-4-1, and the winner of the Detroit/Minny game being in second place. As for today's game, we took care of business. It wasn't flashy. No turnovers by either team though Darnald had a fumble but recovered it. It was nice to see Howard a little more involved in the game. I agree with the other comments on how he just doesn't look like the same back but in his defense Howard isn't the type of back that thrives on a handful of carries sprinkled in. he's a back that needs volume to get into a rhythm. As the weather turns colder we might start seeing him get more action. I felt like Trubiskey was more on target and more decisive today. Still had some bad throws at times but overall felt he played more composed today. The D did what they needed to keep the Jets off the board for the most part. 3rd downs still seem to be an issue as too often get teams to 3rd and even 3rd and long and let them off the hook. Jackson made a bonehead decision on a third down stop to give them a new set of downs and lead to their lone TD at the time pulling them to within 7. Can't make those kinds of mental mistakes against a good team. Just gotta play smart. I hope Long's injury isn't season ending. Not only for the team but for Kyle to have fought through so many injuries already. There were missed opportunities on both sides of the ball. But at the end of the day we get a needed win to snap a two game losing streak. At this point with the division being the way it is, the Bears control their own destiny. Keep winning and you make the playoffs. Hopefully we don't look past the Bills to the three division games ahead. Next week could be a trap game if we're not careful.

It was awesome. A team steeped in rich tradition and Nagy is honoring that with his players is great to see. I loved seeing Mitch arrive at the game dressed like Da Coach. Here's to Mitch and Nagy adding to that great tradition!

Plenty of blame to go around in this one. I thought the second half play calling and end of game time management hurt us a lot. I feel like we miss spent time outs on NE's last drive that could have given us more time with the ball to try to tie the game. when we did get the ball with 30 seconds left and decent field position but no time outs. We throw to the middle of the field and chew up 21 seconds of precious time. Which by the way how is it not a delay of game when 2-3 patriots pile on and try to hold our player down to keep the clock running? But that sequence left us with 9 seconds and a lot of real-estate. So what do we do? We throw a short pass to the sidelines that eats up 7 seconds and nets us 7 yards... With 2 seconds left it's hail marry time and we can't give Mitch time to throw and come up a yard short of tying. With 30 seconds and no time outs we should have used the sidelines. In that situation you only throw to the middle of the field when you have time outs left. It came down to this but it shouldn't have. We gave up two special Teams TDs, two Interceptions. Mitchel was horribly inaccurate. His ball placement was terrible. He looked sharper the previous two games. We know there will be growing pains but then watching Mahomes and KC destroy the Bengals it's hard to watch Mitch have games like this. Teams are going to continue to throw the kitchen sink at him till he proves he can handle it. I will say this game didn't sting as much as the Dolphin's game, that game was there for the taking and we crapped it down our legs. We could be looking at 4-2 vs 3-3. We went from 1st in the division to last in one week. There's plenty of football to play this year but if the Bears hope to make the playoffs they've put themselves in a must win situation. But, we do face two winnable games ahead of 3 critical NFC north matchups. We could be 5-3 heading into home games against Detroit and Minny, followed by a road game at Detroit.

Hope that is the case. At the moment it feels like we are wasting his talent.

Well now that we are 6 weeks into the season, I have to admit I'm starting to wonder are we ever going to fully utilize Howard? Seems especially the last two games he's been mostly invisible. At the close of last season the only proven commodity on offense was Howard. It's hard not to wonder are we purposely leaving him out of the game plan? If so why? In 5 games he's total 78 carries for 272 yards for 3.5 ypc and only one TD. He has 10 coaches for 78 yards (and that was pretty much just the first few weeks). He's averaging just 15.6 carries a game as our "feature back" when he "was" our offense last year. Not liking this trend. We aren't taking advantage of what Jordan can do for this offense. Giving him a carry here and there throughout a game keeps him from getting into any rhythm whatsoever. When I first replied I thought no way do we trade him... but if we're not going to use him why not shop him. If I were him I'd be frustrated and want to be somewhere where I'm used consistently. Maybe his usage will increase as the weather turns cold, he's the kind of back that can chew clock and gain yards for you when you need to close out a game.

Agree, I don't think the D is as bad as they looked and played Sunday. You could tell something was off they were not in sync at all. Be it heat, be it it whatever. The breaks more then not went the Dolphins way. A prayer pass that gets knocked away from the intended receiver only to be tipped right to another Phins receiver, uncharacteristic fumbles by Howard at the goal line and Cohen's fumble late. The critical calls that went against us at key times to help the Phins. Yes pick plays get called from time to time but Burton has a right to run his route, after contact was made he continued into the end one to get open, he wasn't cleaning someone out to clear someone out he was running a route. This doesn't get called often and I stand by my assessment we got screwed. The roughing also call BS. Yeah his hand got near the helmet and may have made slight contact but he was trying to deflect the pass. The contact was incidental at most. Ossweiler wasn't hit or dropped after the throw, no reason to throw that flag. If your going to throw that flag how about nearly every time Mitch slid he was hit and no call? I thought you weren't to hit or touch the QB when he gives himself up. Got sick of watching that happen over and over when they are calling ticky tack stuff on us. All in all There was a lot of blame to go around but still stick to putting most of it on the D. There was some terrible officiating, and bad play calling at times, but if we make just one defensive stop in the 4th we win this in regulation. I do believe our D will have better days. Bad games happen, hopefully this lights a fire under them and motivates them. Our D has a lot of pride and they got punched in the mouth. I'd like to see them take that frustration out on NE. Maybe they can help Brady retire like they did Favre.

Exactly, we easily forget Gould was looking worse and worse his last couple years here. He was costing us games. And I agree 100% and he said it himself getting cut woke him up and made him refocus. He's done well for the 49ers. A lot of times we fall for the grass is greener thing. Players get complacent and sometimes a change of scenery wakes them up. I'm glad that happened with Hicks. On to Trubiskey, from both a stats and the eye test something started clicking with him the week before the bye. What I wanted to see was would he carry that into the Dolphins game after the bye? The answer is yes. He's not yet arrived and consistency and playing biggest in the clutch has progress to make before we start thinking of him in the top 10 of the league. But I like what I'm seeing out of him. Success breeds confidence and confidence breeds success. I feel like Mitch is growing in confidence. Our D had it's worst game of the season. If your offense in a close game blows up for 28 points in the second half you'd think you walk away with a win. But we gave up 28 points and lost in OT. We can talk about the INT in the end zone and it was a bad throw he didn't need to make. His guy is covered throw it out the back of the end zone and live to fight another down and he'll learn from that. But had the refs not screwed us on the previous play we end the drive with 7. Instead they get the ball back and get a quick easy score. that is a 14 pt swing and put us behind the 8 ball. Then after that Mitch leads us right down the field to answer and we're up 28-21 with 3-4 min left. All the D has to do is keep them out of the end zone and we win. Then a stream of bad happens and we allow Friggin Osweiler and Wilson to connect on an improbably TD pass that reminds us of the times Rodgers and Cobb have burned us late in games. But in OT after a very fortunate goal line fumble, Mitch drove the offense down into Parkey's FG range. I don't agree with sitting on the ball once we got into his range. Why not get at least one more first down? We had time, make the FG as easy as possible. We settled. That's not on Mitch that's on the play calling. A bad snap made the kick hard and Parkey misses. Then the mistake of settling at the edge of his range the Dolphins take over needing merely to get 30 yards or so to get their kicker in range. When our D had proved it couldn't stop a nose bleed. I can only comment on the second half as I haven't seen the first half. But from what I saw Trubiskey stepped up and put the Bears in a position to win even with the INT in the end zone. He lead the offense to 28 second half points in most games that will get you a win. So I'm encouraged with Trubiskey's future. When you look at a lot of the greats their careers didn't start off great. Payton Manning threw a ton of picks his first year, Rodgers looked awful at times when he took over, and you can go on. Not saying he's either of those guys, but I like what I'm seeing. And if we keep this staff and this offense around him for the long term he has a good chance to grow into that franchise QB we've been long searching for. We haven't had consistent QB play but we also haven't had consistency around our QBs either. Rodgers, Manning, Brady, Brees, etc. One thing they all have in common is consistency in staff and system.

This loss is squarely on the D their last two TDS were gifts. We made fruit in Ossweiler and wilson look like superstars. This should never have reached overtime.

That really does make sense. I could see McCoy being interested in returning to Philly. Things haven't quite gone well for him this season in Buffalo, or since he's left the Eagles for that matter. Makes sense for both parties. But if it did end up being Jordan, we better get good value for him.

Second that, and while Fox's 3 seasons with the Bears become frustrating from a wins/losses, and ultra conservative play style. He took us the first step from an NFL joke and locker room mess, to a team that while it didn't show on the score board was no longer a pushover doormat of the NFL. It's easy to miss his role in turning the Bears around. The Bears were a lifeless shell when he took over. And I agree we wouldn't have gotten either Vic or Gase were it not for Fox. Were it not for what Fox did for this team it's highly possible we don't land Naggy, and retain Vic. We had an old, slow, uninspired/uninterested team under Trestman. We now have one of the youngest rosters and an ascending team. If Pace and Naggy can bring a championship to Chicago they will own this town.

This is what jumping the bandwagon looks like from the "experts." They continue to stumble more and more bandwagons will jump ship. When they finally realize GB's success is very hollow, and dependent on one player. Without Rodgers that team is mediocre, and it's starting to show. They have wasted Rodgers prime and now his body is starting to fail him. Given the disparity in success between the Bears and Packers, us Bears fans will enjoy every minute of the Packers fall back to earth. They have had rare fortune to go from HOF QB to HOF QB. May they experience decades of Browns level wallowing in suckage. They and their fans deserve a truck load of humble pie.