adam

DJ kind of worried me when he let the ball hit the ground when he laid out like he was dead. Hold onto the ball for a few more seconds so there is no way they can say he didn't "complete the catch". I felt like he let it go pretty quick.

That's the issue with them lumping all the players into a single tweet, then everyone retweeting the hell out of that one. Somewhat odd that Moore, Kmet, and Santos were missed though.

Clearly someone scripted something that included McCloud and Booker. No Santos, Moore, or Kmet lol.

Hilarious: 10 Bears players were the #1 vote getters in the @NFL: Dalman, Thuney, D. Wright, Swift, Brisker, N. Wright, Byard, Edmunds, Duvernay, and Taylor 7 others were top 3 vote getters: Blackwell 2nd (1st in NFC) Jackson 2nd (2nd only to Thuney) Daly 2nd (2nd in NFC) Dexter 2nd (2nd in NFC) Sweat 3rd (2nd in NFC) Williams 3rd (1st in NFC) Loveland 3rd (2nd in NFC) 9 Others: made the top 10: Stevenson 4th (3rd NFC) Jarrett 4th (4th in NFC) Odunze 6th (5th in NFC) Benedt 6th (5th in NFC) - lol Burden 7th (6th in NFC) Edwards 7th (3rd in NFC) Billings 7th (6th in NFC) McCloud 8th (5th in NFC) - lol x2 Booker 8th (4th in NFC) Kicker and Fullback were the only two position groups the Bears didn't have a player in. Cairo snub.

As far as I can tell, DJ Moore has the 2nd most games played without a playoff appearance at 129. The only player I have found with more is Justin Simmons (Safety) now with Atlanta at 134 games.

The Bears/Packers game was not typical. The Bears had the 2nd lowest score of any winning team this week. I hope it is not that close. I would like a 2 score lead late in the game.

There are two guys that stand out for me when you consider their draft status and or contract vs performance this year. So far on offense, that is Monangai who has 731 Rush Yards, only 97 fewer rushing yards than Jeanty, but with 69 fewer carries. He also has 140 receiving yards on 14 receptions. With 871 Yards from Scrimmage, he only needs 129 total yards to hit 1K with 2 games left. For a 7th Rounder, that is some crazy production. The Bears are 7-1 when Mongagai gets at least 12 touches, and 4-3 when he doesn't. Feed him! On defense, it is Nahshon Wright. 5 INTs and 2 FF, 1 TD, and 11 PD. The Bears are 6-1 when he forces a turnover, and the only loss was the Week 1 debacle vs MIN. I don't know if there is another player who has made impact plays that have directly contributed to wins like he has this year. Then you consider that he was doing this because everyone else was injured and played a bunch of time as CB1 makes it even more amazing. Other notable guys, are Swift, Wright, Thuney, Dalman, and Jackson on offense. Swift has really changed his running style and I love it. The O-Line vets were expected to be good, but Wright, Thuney, and Dalman are playing near All-Pro levels, and Jackson started off slow, but has really turned into a top 10 RG. The emergence of Loveland and Burden lately has been exciting as well, but somewhat expected for higher draft picks. On defense, Byard leads the NFL in INTs and has held down the secondary thru all the injuries. Edmunds was off to a strong start before the injury, hopefully he can get back to that level. The same with Edwards. On the flip side, the only really disappointing player on offense with a lot of playing time has been Oz. He has dropped a few easy uncontested passes that would've been massive gains and his targets took away from Loveland and Burden's early on. On defense, there are a few guys, but Odeyingbo takes the cake for me. Even before injury, he was not living up to his contract size as Edge2. Billings and Brisker have underperformed quite a bit, Gordon's lack of availability and performance when he did play has hurt, and guys like Sewell and McCloud who have played a lot of snaps have severely underperformed, even as backups. QBs have a 140.7 QB Rating when targeting McCloud, a 140.0 when targeting Gordon, a 128.3 when targeting Sewell, and 125.4 when targeting Brisker. Sewell also has a 13.4% missed tackle rate and leads the team in missed tackles. For the most part it seems like every other player has played within their band of expectations, at least on paper. Did I miss anyone?

Swift now with 993 Rushing Yards with 2 weeks to go. Monangai with 731, which is wild to me.

There has never been a QB to pass for 7K Passing Yards, 45 Pass TDs, with 15 or fewer INTs in their first two seasons. Williams needs 59 Pass Yds and 2 TDs without throwing 4 picks in the last 2 weeks to hit that mark. To break this down, there have only been 18 QBs to hit 7K, of those only 13 with 45 Pass TDs, and none with fewer than 17 INTs. If you include Rushing Yards (800) and remove the INTs, the only QB left is Kyler Murray who had 7,693 Pass Yds, 46 TD, 24 INT, and 1,363 Rush Yards. Williams has half the INTs with 2 games to go. A 50% difference in any raw stat is massive. Kind of funny, but Williams comps to Murray and Luck, while Nix comps to Bortles and Carr, for the first two years of their careers.

2024 QB Class Totals: 1. Nix - 7,383 Pass Yds, 53 TD, 22 INT, 41 Sacks, 659 Rush Yds, 8 Rush TD, 8 4QC 2. Williams - 6,941 Pass Yds, 43 TD, 12 INT, 91 Sacks, 858 Rush Yds, 3 Rush TD, 1 Rec TD, 8 4QC 3. Maye - 6,223 Pass Yds, 40 TD, 18 INT, 80 Sacks, 808 Rush Yds, 6 Rush TD, 1 4QC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Daniels - 4,830 Pass Yds, 33 TD, 12 INT, 65 Sacks, 1169 Rush Yds, 8 Rush TD, 4 4QC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. Rattler - 2,930 Pass Yds, 12 TD, 10 INT, 40 Sacks, 313 Rush Yds, 0 Rush TD, 0 4QC 6. Penix - 2,757 Pass Yds, 12 TD, 6 INT, 17 Sacks, 81 Rush Yds, 2 Rush TD, 0 4QC 9. McCarthy - 1,450 Pass Yds, 11 TD, 12 INT, 27 Sacks, 174 Rush Tds, 4 Rush TD, 1 4QC Two interesting nuggets not in the stats, but in the splits. Williams has the highest Play-Action rate, 29%, compared to Maye at 19%, and Nix at 15% (almost double Nix). The splits are similar to Shotgun vs Under Center, where Williams has the most time Under Center at 37%, Maye at 30%, and Nix at 25%. Thru 32 potential games, Williams is 2nd in Pass Yds, 2nd in Pass TDs, 1st in INT%, 3rd in Sack%, 2nd in Rush Yds, and T-1st in 4QCs. The top tier is clearly Nix, Williams, and Maye, and all for different reasons. Daniels would be in there, but durability and injuries were always the risk. I don't know what Atlanta or Minnesota were thinking moving off Cousins and Darnold for Penix and McCarthy were always head scratchers, and after Year 2, they look worse. Darnold is a top 5 QB and Cousins is at least serviceable.

EPA/Play: CHI OFF: T-9th CHI DEF: T-11th SF OFF: T-9th SF DEF: T-23rd Offenses are identical in efficiency, but the 49ers defense is one of the worst on a play-by-play basis.

Moore has 129 regular season games without a playoff appearance, Billings is at 107g, Jaylon Johnson at 75g (he missed the one in 2020), Daly is at 74g, and Dalman is at 72g. Jaylon is the longest tenured Bear without a playoff appearance. This is feeling more and more sustainable every week.

I am really happy for the dudes that have never been to the playoffs, like DJ Moore. Been in the league for awhile and this will be his first playoff game, and he earned it.

Bears get 2 extra days rest with Christmas wedged in there. Might be a high scoring affair as SF's defense is not that good without Warner and Bosa. We will see how they look on MNF.

The 11-4 Bears travel to SF to take on the current 10-4 49ers. A primetime matchup of two teams that earned a playoff berth with Detroit crapping their pants. McCaffrey accounts for 23.6% of the targets, and has 10 games with over 105 scrimmage yards. He accounts for 34.8% of the 49ers yards from scrimmage. The Bears have to figure out a way to contain him, especially in the passing game. Surprisingly, he has been mediocre running the ball this year with his lowest career YPC at 3.6. He has a -31.0 Rush EPA, which puts him in the bottom 10 of the league in that category. SF will be coming off playing in Indy on MNF. 2 fewer days rest than the Bears with the Bears travel being cancelled by the 49ers travel back home from Indy. Advantage Bears. Warner and Bosa have been out, and that is not the same 49ers defense. They have played better of late, but EPA/Play-wise, their defense is 23rd, but 9th in scoring, 16th in Yards (10th against the Rush, 20th against the Pass), T-21st in Takeaways. So at best this is about a top 15 defense. Compared to GB, CLE, PHI, and PIT, this will be the easiest defense the Bears have faced in quite some time. Their offense is 12th in scoring and 11th in yards, and McCaffrey makes up over a 1/3 of that. It is wild to me that an RB leads the team in targets with 108, followed by Jennings at 74, and Kittle at 54. However, it seems like slowing McCaffrey down running the ball is the key. They are 8-0 when he rushes for at least 55 yards, and 2-4 when he doesn't. They are 0-3 when he rushes for under 50. I am picking the Bears, but I think the score will be dictated by the IND game somewhat. If it is high scoring, I think the Bears win 33-24 or something along those lines, a 2-score win while scoring 30+. If the IND game is low scoring, then I see it more like 24-17 Bears, more like a 6-8 point win.

All eyes on SF at IND on MNF tomorrow night. A SF loss could help for seeding. I just want them to play a long physical game so they are weaker next weekend against the Bears.

The Lions are 3 games back of the Bears, but only one game ahead of MIN for last in the Division, lol.

Lions were 15-2 last year and 12-5 in 2024. So 27-7 with Ben Johnson at OC. This year they are 8-7. They hit their two-year loss total in 15 games without him.

Crazy game, it seemed like the refs were doing everything in their power to keep Detroit in that game. Then on 4th and goal, an OPI, forward progress clearly stopped (by about 4 yards), to have it come down to an official's discussion was wild.

Something that seemed like wishful thinking in Ben Johnson's first year as HC with a completely different coaching staff and scheme, but wow, 2 weeks left to decide seeding. Lions are all but eliminated after losing to the Steelers in Detroit, and now would need to win out and have GB lose out to make the playoffs.

Still lead the league in Net Penalties -25, and Net Penalty Yards -318. Over the course of 15 games, they have lost a games worth of yardage to penalties compared to the other team. That is equal to a full game lost.

Not to poo poo on other young QBs, but the MIN v NYG game is ugly. Dart has 6 yards passing, an INT and 3 sacks in the 3rd Quarter. McCarthy is hurt again, and he left with 108 yards, 1 INT, and 1 fumble.

DAL was his best QBR game, this game was his 2nd best. CLE was a top 5 game.

and talk about high pressure TD passes: 4th Down, 4th Quarter to tie the game, passes to a UDFA rookie, then follows it up in OT with a bomb to Moore, both passes in windy weather.

For Caleb, there seems like there is an emphasis to look to pass over running, unless you absolutely have to. Like he is trading 4-5 yards on the ground for the potential for something in the pass game. Last year, he ran most of the time.