DABEARSDABOMB

Would love that - I also want to see the ground attack continue to improve as the oline continues to gel. Defensively my hope is Stevenson has another good game and we see some progress across the board in terms of clean up - and the dline starting to gain confidence than get to bye week and come out of that with Gordon and Edward’s back too plus Booker who was looking real good in camp / preseason and have Jarrett getting back to 100 percent.

Really hope bears can build on the Cowboys game and go to the road and get a statement win. Would be huge to see them stack progress and wins here!

Yeah that was pretty awesome

Well said and it could have been 5 if not for the drop by Rome. They still left some plays on the field too - but that was fun. Still work to do but fun to see them growing. Pass rush is still struggling and to his credit Stevenson played a good game. With JJ and all the other injuries, they really need Stevenson to step up and elevate his game.

The thing with this team - with 3 of the teams top 4 corners out they are going to be in trouble. We have to hope Gordon is back and able to stay on field worse case following the bye week and ideally we have a positive surprise and JJ can get back midway into season (although sounds more likely he’s done for the year) and that somehow Stevenson or someone else on roster surprises us. This D is going to give up points - I also am hoping Turner and Booker will end up making a difference and that will carry over to helping guys like Swear and Dexter. Point being - it’s going to be hard to win a lot of games with a defensive backfield in shambles combined with a dline not generating pressure. Now on offense - I really hope we see them continue to trend up and start to really generate some huge offensive games and a lot of real good offensive games.

I think the challenge is - it takes a lot to turn a culture - and you have issues that come from learning new systems and evolution of systems and then you start to dial it in - but the standard is still the standard. Quite frankly - some players may not buy in and do what it takes - they could be good players too - and those players will be shipped out and new ones will come in. For example - BJ made a point about how you play whether you have the ball or don’t have the ball - used Lions film to show the difference - but players have to fully buy in and it takes a lot - especially for guys who have learned one way. It seems basic to us - but very little things differentiate good to great teams from bad ones in the NFL.

Time as a unit working together does help the 1:1 though and overall dynamics of aligning on comms, match ups, broader strategies…including how run blocking and an effective run game can impact how difficult the 1:1 pass block is (if you know it’s a pass down vs there is uncertainty - that makes a huge difference in blocking effectiveness.

By the way - all that said - I’m not selling on the offense or BJ. I am really down on Poles though (have been a skeptic a while) and I expect this team will get better. Hopefully this was rock bottom for the year but rock bottom might be an 0-4 start if they lose to the Raiders - really hoping this was rock bottom and we see a bounce back here and than real improvement on a consistent basis post bye week.

I thought Caleb has made progress this season so far. Penalties are still too much and Caleb still has plenty of development but this game was more on the penalties, the defense fading (and not having Kyler and JJ is a big deal - plus Smith out for the year - that is 3 of their 4 best cbs all gone). Plus pass rush - Sweat another empty game. Way too much money for no production. Sweat and Edmund’s just don’t make plays to go with their paychecks. JJ has - you could see his defense and it faded once he went out hurt…sucks cause I’m sure he’s out a while given same injury he missed most of preseason with.

This is true - he has not been a good gm. No probowlers drafted, top 4 picks this year have basically done nothing so far. He got the coach and made a good trade - that is about all I can give him credit for at this point.

This is 100 percent true. Poles has sucked in the draft. I hope that statement is proven wrong.

The offense really did a lot to make it extra hard for Caleb.

I should just get it out of the way - but I am expecting they get blown out today. Detroit is a much better team, at home, coming off a loss and Bears are still very much in early season, new coach mode.

Even if Kurt is wrong - for my own sanity I’ll take this as a positive. I also go back to - this is the first real game tape for Caleb with BJ. Preseason helps but it’s vanilla D - training camp helps - but d starts to know the plays. This is first real game action with Ben and against a Flores unit that is usually quite good. Let’s see how they build from here…I am expecting to be 1-3 heading into the bye but hopefully somehow we are pleasantly surprised….

The missed field goal also gave Vikings real good field position.

There was also the phantom hands to the face/facemask on the Bears which clearly wasn’t.

This - I still think Poles has been very weak as a talent evaluator. Drafts are still pretty meh and his real hits are Ben Johnson (hopefully this ages well) and the Panthers trade. They look like they drafted a potential starting RT in Trapillo (but they invested a top 10 pick in Wright (who doesn’t look like a top 10 pick - and they opted for him over Jalen Carter). Turner was hurt in camp so I’m hoping this is more they think he needs a bit more time - I sure hope he is flashing though cause they need to hit on a few. Burden looked explosive in preseason so at least for now I’m going to say that pick, while not the position I wanted, at first glance looks like a potential starter.

Want to give Moore credit - for all the talk last year, dude got annihilated and was back out two plays later.

Honestly - If not for the Bears blowing it we probably would be more glass half full than empty on Caleb in his first game. We saw some of his struggles but he also had some nice plays - reality is he is far more raw then we all expected and was poorly coached and also fairly well prepped and open to coaching in his first year (blame is just as much on him as previous regime). With that said - he has to accept responsibility for what he did and really bring in the work and accept being coached hard and work even harder. He has the physical gifts - but does he really want it. Let’s see how he and the team respond - but man - they likely are looking at Raider game as the next winnable game…they needed this one.

This, special teams, bad challenge (loss of timeout was killer) and Caleb missing on some key opportunities was the difference…but the first three items were by far the difference…those don’t happen and we are probably giving talking about a solid first game for Caleb….Ben is going to be pissed, including at himself. Why they didn’t kick it out of bounds was idiotic too. No reason this should have went the way it did at the end either.

100 percent and I believe Keenum got really rave reviews for his work with Stroud as a backup too. Some back ups aren’t right fit some are. I think Bagent works hard but as a back up he also wants to be the dude given where he is at in his career - keenum just wants to be close to the game and if he’s put in and gets a shot be there to serve as the bridge guy and maybe win a game in sake the qb has to go down.

Regarding Caleb - I said it a couple months back - there are plenty of red flags on him just as there were on the coaching staff. He has to learn from what he did wrong and I legitimately think he bought into his hype too much and did not take it as serious as he should of and also had a bit of an entitled attitude and perspective and that played out and there were enough rumblings of that. He got his ass kicked last year - in many ways. Now I hated that he spent any time wasting it on the quotes that drove the Flus hit piece earlier in the offseason cause it still shows a total lack of maturity. With that said - I think the whole culture has changed and hopefully he had the rude awakening needed and is now all systems go with a staff that is going to really push and some added vet presence in the qb room to help. We won’t know in first 4 weeks - but as season goes on, theexpectation has to be we are seeing some above average and at times high end play from that position.

One thing to point out - but Mahomes burned the Bears multiple times over on plays where he ran around holding the ball forever and than making something special happen. Like Caleb - there will be moments for him to do that - but he also has to take the easy and let the game come with him, because when he does that - the defense won’t be able to cheat as much and a lot more big things will happen. Hopefully the Bears can develop an effective running game this year cause that would go a long ways - especially knowing how adept BJ is at calling and designing the play action passing game.

Makes no sense for him to be this high with what we have seen - doesn’t mean his future isn’t bright though - but he has a lot on his list of things to really develop and to start stacking together.

That is kind of my point - don’t spend cap space and draft capital to acquire on non QBs…it doesn’t make sense and quite frankly when those non QBs come due - be very smart about when in their careers you extend vs parlay into trade that gives you more draft capital and keeps the time young and able to surround your qb (especially when they get paid) with as much talent as possible.