Bears4Ever_34

Playing with house money today. LFG!

Yeah. If DET loses to DAL, they have the Rams the following week. They'd be 7-7 by then. Hard to see them coming back from that. On the flipside, if DAL does beat DET, the Chargers are the only team standing in the way of DAL winning out barring some crazy upset by WAS, NYG, or MIN, who'll be in tank/vacation mode. Bears would either have to get to 12 wins, or they have to beat SF and maybe DET in the final two weeks, hope SF loses at least one more, so the Bears win the tiebreaker at 11-6 to keep them out.

Much like the last game, our opponents are getting healthier just as the Bears are getting more beaten up. I'm really surprised Devonta Smith is playing after not practicing at all this week with injuries and being sick. As much as the media wants to rag on the Bears for how many backup/journeyman QB's they've faced, the Bears have always been the more injured team just about every week of the season so far. As for the game, the deciding factor is probably going to be whether the Bears can stop Philly on the ground. I worry about Hurts' legs just as much as Barkley's. If they let them gash them up for large chunks all game, this one could get ugly. If they can hold them in check, I don't anticipate Hurts being able to throw the ball all over the field against our secondary with Johnson and Gordon back. Have to keep them out of the redzone, because that's where they are the most dangerous. On offense, the Bears have to get back to running the ball efficiently. That hasn't been the case since the Bengals game, really. This is the same defense that held Jared Goff below 40% completion % a couple weeks ago. With Caleb's accuracy issues, I worry how ugly the passing game could look if they aren't able to run the ball. He has to be able to hit all his open receivers today. Has to.

At the moment, here's what I'm thinking if the Bears don't end up winning the division: I'm assuming SEA and SF are forgone conclusions to be 2 of the 3 wildcard teams based on their relatively weak schedules to finish the season. We will revisit this in the coming weeks. Scenario 1- DAL wins out ---> DET and CHI are eliminated unless they win 12 Scenario 2- DAL beats DET, but doesn't win out ---> 11 becomes the magic number Scenario 3- DAL loses to DET ---> Week 18 Bears vs Lions decides the final spot unless the Bears implode down the stretch

I think DAL will be favored in 4 of the 5 games left on their schedule. 3-2 is certainly possible, but they just beat PHI and KC in back to back weeks. They're playing really good football right now at the right moment, which scares me. They might run the table. Even going 4-1 will force the Bears into needing at least 11 wins to get in. I feel confident getting to 10, but 11 feels daunting. Caleb is going to have to play much better than he has the last couple weeks to get there.

Bears are screwed now if they don't win the division. Pretty much worst case scenario for these Thanksgiving games. DAL beating KC means they're almost certainly getting one of the wildcard spots with their schedule. Their only loseable game left is DET next week, so that result hurts the Bears either way. The Packers winning also hurts, because Detroit's schedule is easier. They're not losing 8 games, and who knows whether the Bears win the tie-breaker vs them anyways.

Probably, but I think the short week could be more beneficial to the Bears. The drama in Philly is always loud. They won't have a lot of time to do much prep work and learn from their mistakes this week. The Bears are playing with house money, and could end up getting Gordon and Johnson back for this game. I do really worry about Barkley against these LB'ers, though. Really, really bad matchup there despite his struggles up to this point.

If the Bears don't win the division, it would be ideal for them to be the 5th seed, because Tampa kind of sucks right now. I'm not so sure Carolina doesn't overtake them at some point down the stretch if they keep playing the way they have. 2-4 the rest of the way gets you to 10 wins. 3-3 gets you to 11. The Eagles got punched in the mouth by the Cowboys today. A win against them, regardless of how it looks, would certainly put them on the map in the NFC.

It's another win, but the quarterback continues to be awful. They are going to get killed in the rest of these games if Caleb continues to throw it like Tim Tebow.

It really shouldn't be this hard.

1 first down, and it's game. Need our best run calls.

Caleb melting down at the worst possible time. Misses wide open receiver, followed by delay of game.

Another embarrassing drive by the defense. 4 3rd down conversions on this drive alone.

Sweat's missed sack is totally going to come back to bite them. How do you whiff on that??

Great drive!

Just when Caleb was looking like he was getting in a groove, Rome drops another perfect pass. Instead, it ruined the drive, and now the Bears punt, giving all momentum back to PIT. This is how you lose games.

Bears continue to get embarrassed in the middle 8 minutes of games. Gigantic momentum swing now that PIT also gets the ball back to start the 2nd half. Poor coaching.

Giants somehow leading the Lions 17-7. Jaimes is balling.

Caleb playing like a bust. Misses a wide open Burden on 1st down. He's freakin terrible.

How the hell was forward progress not called there?? I'm another touchdown away from turning this one off. Feels like the 7-6 will be here shortly.

Moronic play by Caleb. Probably game over now.

Steelers are just going to throw screens all day and challenge our shitty LB'ers to cover ground and tackle, which they can't. Smart strategy.

Hippolyte now down. Give me a break.

The way I see it: If the Bears lose today, they'll be facing an uphill battle to get in to the playoffs. At 7-4, they could be staring down the barrel of being 7-6 real quick before they get to CLE. That would put them in a position to win out or go 3-1 against CLE, SF, GB, DET to finish the season, which does not seem feasible. If they beat the Steelers, they could probably lose the next two and be in decent shape. Get to 9-5 after beating CLE (which should be a must win in every scenario, given the rest of the schedule), and then you maybe only have to win 1 of the next 3 to get in.

Whoever the trainer is in Chicago needs to not have a job anymore. Completely unacceptable to have so many players missing time with soft tissue injuries. If Gordon and Johnson can't play, I have no idea what Dennis Allen can do to salvage the defense in this game. They won't have enough bodies to be in Dime, and playing Dime against a team that runs a lot of 2 and 3 TE sets is usually not a good strategy anyways... I think they might have to borrow a page out of Brian Flores' playbook and start run blitzing on early downs with their DB's to account for the lack of quality LB'ers. If the Bears are going to win this game, they might have to score 40+ again, like in CIN.