BearFan2000

I don't think the officiating had a bearing on the outcome. We can micro analyze every play and find missed calls both ways. What did have an impact is Atlanta not making halftime adjustments and the Patriots made adjustments. I feel like Atlanta got complacent up 28-3 and let off the gas, NE took advantage and went to work. Lack of super bowl experience played a part in it. I remember thinking when Atlanta built that lead and they were celebrating on the sidelines that they need to keep working cause there is a lot of football left to play. You can't let your guard down or take your foot off the gas against a team like the Patriots. Once you lose momentum it's very difficult to recapture it. What ultimately killed the Falcons was the drive where they were in field goal range up by 8 with a chance to extend it back to a two score game. Ryan took a sack because he held the ball too long, then a holding penalty put them out of FG range and rather than a lead extending FG attempt or a TD, they punt and the rest is history. It sucks because I was rooting hard for the Falcons because I'm sick of the Patriots for a number of reasons. But they played a whale of a second half to come back and win and you have to give them props for that. The SB was there for the taking for the Falcons and they failed to realize it's a 60 minute game not a 30.

I'd take the Wilkerson trade in a heartbeat. We'd have to sweeten the pot for sure. I'm sure most of us would take what we can get for Cutler. He has no future here, but to a team looking for a 1-2 year stop gap might be interested. No one like us looking for a long term solution will be interested outside of being a backup and he'd make for an expensive backup. It'll for sure be interesting to see what we do at the QB position this offseason and next season.

Definitely, you look at teams in the league that are more often than not in the conversation/mix and look at the teams that have had or tend to have consistent coaching vs cleaning house every 3-5 years or so. As dirty as it makes me feel you can put the Pats in there too, minus the cheating. Lovie was our longest tenured coach since Ditka, other than that they've short lived. Since Ditka (11) it's been Wanny (6), Jauron (5), Lovie (9), Trestman (2), and now Fox (2 and counting). Our front office hasn't been exactly stable either. Here's hoping that things become stable and we grow a culture of winning that will last. Not sure how long Fox will be here. Fox/Pace inherited a dumpster fire and if you go on record alone you'd say things haven't improved. But I feel like the culture has improved vastly from Trestman's time, and the team has young talent, and will need to keep adding to that through the draft and FA. The Bears were more competitive this year, but didn't have enough talent or healthy body's for it to show in the record. This offseason will be crucial (I know that's obvious).

No argument here, I think we'd all rather see our Bears as a perennial playoff team than what we've had. Can't win it if you aren't it. It remains to be seen if the current ownership/coashes can build the Bears into just that. Sometimes you have to reach bottom before you climb. It's been a drought since mid-late 80's with occasional playoff appearances sprinkled in. We all long for our team to get out of the rut of mediocrity where we aren't bottom feeders but aren't regular contenders either.

Shame on me for missing this game. Sounds like it was a thing of beauty seeing the pompous Packers cut down to size. They are making a habit of choking in the playoffs. Seeing Rodgers frown instead of that arrogant smirk is always a welcome site. While we've struggled to find a franchise caliber QB we've watched the Packers virtually waste one by surrounding him with crap.

I like the enthusiasm, and he has a valid point with the injuries and we were a far more competitive team than our record indicates. Superbowl though is awful lofty. What I find interesting to me is that Jeffery having finished the season as a tagged player. Talking about next year. Now I've been pretty busy and haven't kept up with all the latest news on his contract situation or new contract talks. It at least indicates he wants to be here next year or assumes he will be. Whether that's under the tag again or a new contract. I would be interested in having him back under a new contract but don't want to see us pay him a crazy contract. His health has been a question mark the last few years. Hate to invest a lot of cap space on a player you can't always count on to be on the field.

TY Still getting used to married life, but enjoying the adjustment. We booked a cabin in the Smokey Mountains for the honeymoon. Tuesday was our first day back to the real world lol We didn't want to leave TN it was so beautiful this time of year. She's a Colts and Bears fan so I did well lol Thankfully she isn't a Packer fan that would be tough to overcome

Good hard fought series for both teams. Cleveland played a heck of a series as did our Cubs so proud of them for hanging in there when things seem to be slipping away for them they hung tough rallied and played their hearts out for a win. What an amazing game 7! Hats off to the Cubs for the win and to the Indians who have had their own drought and they played their hearts out too. Glad to see Ross retire a champ and with a key HR in the biggest game of the WS. If they can keep this team together they could win multiple titles. Go Cubbies!!!

wouldn't be opposed to doubling up either. We obviously need to find our QB of the future. Whether Jay's here beyond this year or not he's not getting younger or healthier. Can't go into next year with just Hoyer and Barkley or some other scrub. I personally haven't had a lot of time this year to pay much attention to the who's who of QB prospects. Been too busy this year with wedding plans, and just got back from our honeymoon. The Kiezer and Kaaya matchup should be worth watching.

One thing about Kizer's situation with ND's bad record is that the record has more to do with bad D than bad offense. Keizer has played well, overall, and the offense puts up points they just can't hardly stop a nosebleed on defense. They fired their Defensive Coordinator during the season and one would think Kelly might be on the hot seat whether he'd admit it or not. It is still early to tell who we should target at QB this coming offseason.

Pass as well. Spiller has rarely lived up to his potential, hence why he's bounced around the league a bit and why he got cut. Like others here have pointed out we have young RB's that I'd rather see get game action than bringing in a guy who's failed most everywhere he's been. I really want to see Howard, he could be the future. Langford doesn't really impress me I felt he left a lot of yardage on the field last week. A few times he had big holes and seemed to stumble or trip over his own feet or something it was weird seeing him with open space going down virtually un-hit. He goes down way to easy. Let's see what Carey and Howard can do.

A "lifer" here too, though thankfully not living in packer country but have plenty of packer fans in my circle of friends. I think it's way too early to pass judgement on White and Floyd and still too early to completely judge Pace/Fox. In 20/20 hindsight sure they've made some mistakes and so has every GM/coaching staff. I think part of the emotion behind our approval/disapproval is we as long time Bear fans are starved for a winner, starved for a dominant team. We will always remember the dominant Bears teams of the 80's that should have won more than one super bowl, or the 2006 season where we should have won it all and came up short. We so badly want our team to be a winner that it's hard to be patient and let the process of rebuilding happen when we've had seemingly more bad years than good in the past few decades or so. It's hard when you watch other teams at the bottom work their way up while our team seems to stay stuck in the mud. But I personally will give Pace and Fox the chance to prove they can right the ship, we have to remember what a dumpster fire this team was when Management had no choice but to can Trestman and Emery and the damage they did to our roster would not be fixed in one offseason, and not even in two. I feel like to this point they have done a good job retooling the roster. When they took over this was a lifeless shell of a team, full of turmoil, bad blood, and distractions. That doesn't get fixed overnight. We have to be patient. Fangio's comments were taken out of context and just another example of journalists attempting to misslead to generate ratings, clicks, hits, etc. Controversy and negativity gets people riled up.

This is why he wears out his welcome every where he goes after a couple years. I bet he either gets traded this year or at the end of the year or just retires don't know what his current contract situation is and I honestly don't care to look it up. Loads of physical talent, and ability, but what always has and likely always will hold him back is his innate ability to become a malcontent, whether it's disrupting practice, throwing teammates under the bus, etc. His ability to appear lucid and down to earth in interviews when he has time to prepare what he will say is what sells the illusion that this time will be different. When he first got here the arrows seemed to be pointing up and he seemed like a guy who was turning the corner and maturing. That didn't last long.

good to hear it is nothing major. Is it heat related it's been super humid here in the midwest

Class act on the field and off the field he will always be one of my favorite Bears, glad to have seen him play. The precision with which he punched the ball out was amazing the Peanut Punch will live on in our memories. Young players in the league and coming into the league should follow his example of a true professional, hard worker, smart player, great teammate, etc. And as great as he was as a player, he is and was an even better representative off the field. He did and no doubt will continue to do great things for whatever community he is in. Thank you Peanut for the memories, and the pleasure of watching you play for many years in Chicago. Enjoy your retirement, you've earned it.

Most new staffs and regimes make changes to schemes, systems, and roster because they bring with them their own schemes and systems. It would be abnormal otherwise and the reason Pace, Fox, and Fangio are here changing things is because the mess the previous regime left them with. Emery, Trestman, Tucker turned the Bears into an embarrassment. Change was needed and change has been happening. The Bears needed to get younger, the moves made have been geared towards doing that. A culture change was desired and I think needed and that has been addressed. Time will tell how the drafts shake out on the field but when was the last time the Bears were lauded by a large number of sources for their draft classes. We have been more often than not in recent years one of the teams that made people scratch their heads and laugh at us on draft day. Personally I've been pleased in general with the first two drafts and the moves we've made in FA. Have I agreed with every pick or move? No, but I have a lot more optimism in this FO and staff than I have had in years.

Agree, speed and versetility has been a high priority with the guys we've brought in through FA/Draft especially this offseason. The less one dimensional your players are especially in the front 7 the better. Like you said it gives Vic more options to be creative with blitzes, stunts, coverages, and being able to disguise and confuse offenses. It should be interesting to see what he does now that he has a better feel for the guys who are still there from last year and the new guys coming in.

Does remind me a little of Urlacher

On paper we've strengthened the front 7, which should in turn help the secondary but won't by default fix it. That area still is a question mark and has been for years. I do like how we are going about things by focusing on the line first and working outward. It all starts up front, if you don't get pressure on the QB or stop the run it only further exposes your weakness at second level both as a safety valve and coverage ability. But if you can contain the run and get after the QB you can force them in to bad throws giving your secondary more opportunities at big plays. When our D was last dominant one thing we did extremely well was take the ball away. It gives the secondary more freedom to make plays. Don't know how our D will look this coming season but I have to think it will be improved but only time will tell.

I LOL'd at the comment/question about Clausen "Will he piss everybody off immediately or capture the locker room?" They nailed Clausen an average at best QB who possessed the arrogance and attitude of a player 10 times his skill level. He got humbled pretty quickly.

The irony of him injuring himself celebrating a sack in a game that his team is getting it's arse handed to them still sticks in my mind when he's ripping Rodgers for celebrating. But I agree with his take you can't deny Rodgers game and skills. But I like the animosity and that the rivalry means something to these guys. They shouldn't treat Bears Packers week like just another game. Bring some extra nasty for the cheddar heads!

With Stafford's struggles that may be a good thing for them.

I agree and the mess that Pace/Fox inherited will take multiple good drafts to fix and turn the roster over completely. There is where the patience comes in, the last few years defense has been the weakest side of the ball pass rush needed addressed, we needed to get faster and more athletic, and that was the overarching theme to the draft. Let's face it QB/TE was not strong in this draft so why take chances on someone just to draft a QB and TE. We weren't going to get either Wentz or Goff. This was however a good defensive draft and a good opportunity to take a good number of picks to bolster our D. Strengthening the D will help keep us in games. This draft should also have a good impact on our ST by improving the team speed/athleticism of the bottom of our roster. Reality is our needs this offseason outnumbered our resources to fill those needs. But by having good drafts year after year that issue will go away and we can really start stacking our roster.

I agree, it takes a few years before you get a real picture of how well a new GM, coaching staff, etc. works out. We need to have patience, the Trestman /emery experiment sunk this team to a new low and we as fans have to realize that it wouldn't get fixed overnight. Every GM and every coaching staff makes mistakes or misjudges players, they are human and we all are fooled by potential or there'd never be any busts in the NFL The difference between this staff and the previous is they seem to have a clue, and a vision, and a plan. They haven't entered the drafts last year and this year, like a student that didn't study for the final exam, they are prepared have their plan, and have prepared scenarios that may come up. We've had enough drafts in the past where they seemed to be making it up as they went, and you had to have google open cause we'd pick and you'd be like "Who???" No more drafting like we think we're the smartest person in the room while making the dumbest calls. We as fans don't have to agree with every move and we won't. This staff/FO gives me a sense encouragement, and optimism that we can turn this once proud franchise back into a consistent winner. I like the enthusiasm, vision, and most of the moves we've made. You can see the difference on the field even though we didn't make the playoffs, we finished under 500, the eye test spoke volumes to the difference between this past year's 6-10 team vs the 5-11 team the previous year under Emery/Trestman that felt more like 0-16 or worse. With them in charge the Bears had hit rock bottom and begun to dig for new lows. It was embarrassing and probably the first year I lost interest in watching the games simply cause I didn't want to put myself through that. While it was an up and down year as expected, I saw a team that didn't quit, played with enthusiasm, played their hearts out, record wise it wasn't good enough, but the wins will come. Building the solid foundation and changing the culture will be worth it down the road. The true test will be time, I have to say I'm encouraged by what I've seen so far.

The pick is growing on my too. My first reaction was disappointment, but then again I wanted Buckner but he went two picks ahead of us. While perhaps not who I would have taken, we did get a freak athlete with one of, if not the quickest first step. Speed is huge in today's NFL today. If he adds more bulk that will only help, but not enough bulk to negate the speed. I do like that he played all over the field at Georgia giving him versatility and understanding of more than just OLB. I remember hearing somewhere that he sat in 3 different position meetings and that he has a high football IQ. If he could develop into a leader on D he could be one of those guys that helps his teammates get in their spots. He was clearly someone our coaches, scouts, and FO had targeted and were aggressive in moving up a couple spots to ensure they got him, tells me they see something in him that made the move worth it. Giving up a 4th to move up 2 spots hurts a little but when you have 9 picks you have some ammunition to move up. We very well may trade down in the next few rounds pick up more picks too. These next few rounds will be interesting. With the work that Pace did this offseason we have more flexibility this draft than we did last year.