Bears at Rams Official Game Thread

[AZ54]

We won and that's all that matters.  I said it before but we have multiple ways to win with this roster.  Tonight Trubisky was off and the D stepped up big time.  Next week who knows?  Just keep winning.  

[Alaskan Grizzly]

54 minutes ago, Stinger226 said:

When I said you were a negative person, this is the perfect example of it. We hold the top scoring team in the league to 6 points and your complaining about MT. Seriously

Blah blah... you say a lot.  With little substance so I’m not all that worried about your opinion.  Trubisky stunk it up.  Like it or no.  Yes a win it was and quite frankly I liked it because it got ‘back to basics’.  That being; a solid and dominating defense and Howard ground out 100 yards rushing.  Yes, a win’s a win.  

[eback]

At what point did frustration turn into a big fat smile that lasted the rest of the game? Kneeling out with almost 2 minutes against the best team in football, left no matter how anyone person played, is always nice. 

[Bill]

"Kneeling out with almost 2 minutes against the "best team in football"?   Not tonight.  I like our "chances" against any team in the NFL after the way they played tonight.  

 

The off. line did a great job against one of the best  def. lines in football!  And the def. did more than enough to DOMINATE a great offense!!  But you will not go anywhere with QB play like Mitch showed tonight.  I can remember all the years from 86 on!!  Great def. is just not enough in todays NFL.  Hell we came back last week in the final two minutes with no real off.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

5 minutes ago, Bill said:

But you will not go anywhere with QB play like Mitch showed tonight.  I can remember all the years from 86 on!!  Great def. is just not enough in todays NFL.  Hell we came back last week in the final two minutes with no real off.

Thank you Bill.  You don’t think I’m happy with how the ‘team’ played?  You bet I am. If I offend a couple simpletons because I’m frustrated by Trubiskys play tonight, so be it. The kid has some glaring weaknesses and despite some hand picked stats to support the arguments in his favor, it’s painfully obvious he has A LOT of growth ahead of him. But like I said a few weeks ago so does Mariota.   

Im still happy with Nagy (for the most part), Fangio, the D and most of the offense.  So there is that.  🤓

[BearFan PHX]

i dont think anyone thinks Trubisky played well tonight. The question is will he continue to grow?

I am all on board with Trubisky. I see progress and more good than bad. But to be good you gotta do 15 things right. I see him doing 13 or 14 things right, and the results are still not great. At this point, right now. But I remember when he was doing 7 things right. I think hes getting close.

I also applaud Nagy for how he isnt a "dont make any mistakes first" kind of guy. Hes trying to teach mitch to be an assassin, not Trent Dilfer. He wants him confident and aggressive, and he knows the path there will be rocky. I believe in his heart of hearts Nagy thought this would be a growing year. I dont think he imagined we'd be as far along as we are this year, especially before we signed Mack.

But the window opened early. Everyone knows the formula is to get a young QB and surround him with talent. Well if you do that, then the young QB will be the weakest link, for a while, until he gets it. He gets a lot, but he's just not fully cooked yet, and that's OK. Nagy knows it's OK, and Trubisky knows it's OK. That's all that matters.

But god help our opponents when the light comes fully on for Mitch, because scoring 40+ points a week is very possible with just some more even play by Trubisky. Soon.

[AZ54]

34 minutes ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Thank you Bill.  You don’t think I’m happy with how the ‘team’ played?  You bet I am. If I offend a couple simpletons because I’m frustrated by Trubiskys play tonight, so be it. The kid has some glaring weaknesses and despite some hand picked stats to support the arguments in his favor, it’s painfully obvious he has A LOT of growth ahead of him. But like I said a few weeks ago so does Mariota.   

Im still happy with Nagy (for the most part), Fangio, the D and most of the offense.  So there is that.  🤓

We all know Trubisky didn't play that well.  I'm just not going to beat him up for it.  If he does this 3 games in a row maybe then.  Today?  Heck no.  Just like I didn't trash Eddie Jackson endlessly for all his missed tackles against Miami.  I commented on it for sure because it's something he had to improve upon because, you know, we weren't going anywhere if he kept missing tackles.  Or Roquan Smith had to improve his coverage reads because the D would never be elite if he kept giving up big pass plays.  Overall this is a young team learning how to play in the NFL and how to win.  IMO they are ahead of schedule but each quarter of the season they continue to grow and improve.  At this point not only do we look capable of making the playoffs we look capable of competing with any team.   

Trubisky came back from a partially dislocated shoulder, a far worse injury than I thought he had, and he didn't throw for two weeks.  Plus, he and Goff were throwing in some very cold weather.  Say what you want but it affects how you grip the ball and it affected both QBs to some extent.  Ironically it wasn't too long ago Bears' fans were wishing for Trubisky to play as well as Goff.   

The INT Trubisky threw when Gabriel was covered at the sideline was a horrible read.  No excuse for him making that throw and he knows that.  The other two are his usual over-throws to the same area of the field, 15-20yds on the left side of the field.  I'm not sure what he's doing mechanically that leads to this consistent inconsistency but he's worked on it before and improved it greatly.  Now that he can practice fully I see no reason he won't get back to making these throws. 

He's still a young QB learning the game but IMO he's shown the work ethic needed to make the necessary improvements for long term success.  Unfortunately in life this takes time and requires experience.  There's only one way to get the experience.  Even so, across the season I think he's shown significant improvement on the field and the statistics back that up.  He's not a finished product and he's tracking closely to what most good NFL QBs did in their second season.  Even Hall of Fame QBs like Brees and Roethlisberger.   He needs another offseason to work on his mechanics.   Fortunately in this upcoming offseason, for the first time since he's joined the NFL he won't have to learn a new offense.  I think that helps him next year.     

In the meantime Trubisky will come back and do his part in helping us win games this season.  Just like Eddie Jackson, Kyle Fuller, Cody Parkey, Tarik Cohen, Leonard Floyd, Khalil Mack, Allen Robinson, and today Jordan Howard have.   My most important takeaway is that this is the first team we've had in a very long time that doesn't require a perfect game all the way around to beat an elite NFL opponent.  That's a rare space to be in and I'm celebrating that.  

 

[Mongo3451]

Good morning all!  I'm still beaming from last nights game.  On the Trubisky talk, I tend to focus on the positives, as that is all my simpleton mind can handle.

Let's compare last nights quarterbacks and see how they stacked up.

Trubisky lead in: TOP, passing yards, completion pct, TD's, first downs, 3rd down conv, rushing yards and head to head wins. 😁

Goff lead in turnovers, sacks and YPC.  Yay!  But, he'll go to the pro bowl as a consolation.

Trubisky made one dumb decision, all game, that we know of.  Two of his INT's were great reads to wide open receivers.(Yup, he sailed them)  Shoulder, check.  Win, check check!!  💪

[ChileBear]

5 hours ago, AZ54 said:

 

In the meantime Trubisky will come back and do his part in helping us win games this season.  Just like Eddie Jackson, Kyle Fuller, Cody Parkey, Tarik Cohen, Leonard Floyd, Khalil Mack, Allen Robinson, and today Jordan Howard have.   My most important takeaway is that this is the first team we've had in a very long time that doesn't require a perfect game all the way around to beat an elite NFL opponent.  That's a rare space to be in and I'm celebrating that.  

 

You nailed that. Yes, Trubisky's not perfect. Which QB is?

[Stinger226]

8 hours ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Blah blah... you say a lot.  With little substance so I’m not all that worried about your opinion.  Trubisky stunk it up.  Like it or no.  Yes a win it was and quite frankly I liked it because it got ‘back to basics’.  That being; a solid and dominating defense and Howard ground out 100 yards rushing.  Yes, a win’s a win.  

Blah blah blah,  MT played a lousy game, coming off of missing 2 weeks, an injury and it was cold for him too. So lets get back to the point, we won the freakin game, deal with it.

[Lucky Luciano]

6 hours ago, AZ54 said:

We all know Trubisky didn't play that well.  I'm just not going to beat him up for it.  If he does this 3 games in a row maybe then.  Today?  Heck no.  Just like I didn't trash Eddie Jackson endlessly for all his missed tackles against Miami.  I commented on it for sure because it's something he had to improve upon because, you know, we weren't going anywhere if he kept missing tackles.  Or Roquan Smith had to improve his coverage reads because the D would never be elite if he kept giving up big pass plays.  Overall this is a young team learning how to play in the NFL and how to win.  IMO they are ahead of schedule but each quarter of the season they continue to grow and improve.  At this point not only do we look capable of making the playoffs we look capable of competing with any team.   

Trubisky came back from a partially dislocated shoulder, a far worse injury than I thought he had, and he didn't throw for two weeks.  Plus, he and Goff were throwing in some very cold weather.  Say what you want but it affects how you grip the ball and it affected both QBs to some extent.  Ironically it wasn't too long ago Bears' fans were wishing for Trubisky to play as well as Goff.   

The INT Trubisky threw when Gabriel was covered at the sideline was a horrible read.  No excuse for him making that throw and he knows that.  The other two are his usual over-throws to the same area of the field, 15-20yds on the left side of the field.  I'm not sure what he's doing mechanically that leads to this consistent inconsistency but he's worked on it before and improved it greatly.  Now that he can practice fully I see no reason he won't get back to making these throws. 

He's still a young QB learning the game but IMO he's shown the work ethic needed to make the necessary improvements for long term success.  Unfortunately in life this takes time and requires experience.  There's only one way to get the experience.  Even so, across the season I think he's shown significant improvement on the field and the statistics back that up.  He's not a finished product and he's tracking closely to what most good NFL QBs did in their second season.  Even Hall of Fame QBs like Brees and Roethlisberger.   He needs another offseason to work on his mechanics.   Fortunately in this upcoming offseason, for the first time since he's joined the NFL he won't have to learn a new offense.  I think that helps him next year.     

In the meantime Trubisky will come back and do his part in helping us win games this season.  Just like Eddie Jackson, Kyle Fuller, Cody Parkey, Tarik Cohen, Leonard Floyd, Khalil Mack, Allen Robinson, and today Jordan Howard have.   My most important takeaway is that this is the first team we've had in a very long time that doesn't require a perfect game all the way around to beat an elite NFL opponent.  That's a rare space to be in and I'm celebrating that.  

 

agree, trubinsky is a work in progress. i believe he only gets better with another year under his belt. what i am seeing so far:

the good: this guy can throw lasers on target in the short range. great zip on the ball, great accuracy in that range, great mobility, great ability to throw on the run and put some heat on it. his mental clock is pretty dammed good. he can feel the heat coming and doesn't just stand there like some big dumb buffalo. even though i scream in outrage at every dumb INT he throws i cool back down and see this guy can be something special in our future.

the bad: his worst detriment is 'touch' at this point in his career. the long and intermediate balls need to be worked on for accuracy and i believe they will come together in time once he becomes more comfortable with this offense AND his receivers. he still needs work on his receiver progressions but that too is getting better. that to me is about it.

one thing does bother me. it is a good/bad thing that makes me nervous every time i see him play. i really do NOT want to see him running so much. it's great he is picking up these first downs but eventually he is going to get seriously injured if he doesn't temper this aspect of the game.

[BearFan2000]

59 minutes ago, ChileBear said:

You nailed that. Yes, Trubisky's not perfect. Which QB is?

Second that. As opposed to seasons past instead of finding ways to lose we found a way to win.  Tonight it was the D coming up big all night long.  We held the best RB in the league to a forgettable night, he had what one good run? We held one of the leagues best offenses to 6 points  They didn't sniff the end zone.  On a night where Trubiskey was clearly off target much of the night.  I agree with Mongo as one of his picks was a bad read and should not have been thrown.  The other two if they are on target are big plays.  He had a bad game, it happens to all QB's.  It's on him now to come out next week and clean up his accuracy which starts with his footwork.  I noticed he wasn't always setting his feet to throw. 

My takeaways

- We faced one of the top teams in the NFL in prime time last night, and we did not play scared, we weren't intimidated we took the fight to them.  I freaking love that about this team, you can see the confidence growing, they believe in each other and in themselves that they can beat anyone.  Over the years I've watch us play not to lose or play scared.  I feel like this is an underrated culture shift that has taken place.  The Bears didn't look at the Rams and think "they're 11-1 how can we beat them?"  They approached it like "Challenge accepted"  This bodes well for us going forward.

- This time last year our record was flipped, we were 4-9 and went 1-3 the rest of the way to finish 5-11.  We could possibly end our season 11-5.  That is a heck of a turnaround.  Granted our poor record last seasons made for a more favorable schedule this year but such was also the case previous years.  Trestman left us with a dumpster fire that Fox took over.  but yet in 3 years here he couldn't get us to even 500.  Our last winning season was in 2012 under Smith.  We are a work in progress particularly on offense this season.  Even though we are an unfinished product we have found ways to win and find ourselves at 9-4 and in the hunt for a first round bye.  There's a lot of work to be done to get us to where we want to be but we're winning along the way as we learn.  Winning helps encourage our guys to buy in and stick with it.  They know good things are coming.  A Minnesota loss tonight and we could clinch the division at home vs the Packers with two games to go.  How sweet would that be!

- Our line did a great job keeping Donald in check, particular hats off to Daniels who played an excellent game. Our line did a much better job run blocking and our run game was effective.  Schematically we did a good job at using the Rams tendencies against them.  It felt like we were more balanced.  

- Our special teams I thought did a great job in coverage particalarly pinning them deep on multiple occasions.  Parkey with a miss but he was 2 of 3.  

- I think the Rams are not used to having to work that hard to move the ball and score.  They are used to dictating tempo and we turned the tables on them.  They looked rattled and unsure of themselves.  They looked stunned and frustrated at times and I loved every minute of it.  

 

[adam]

Huge win, for such a low scoring game, I thought it was still very exciting and entertaining. I loved that we got the running game going and essentially neutered a potential MVP candidate in Donald and completely shutout an OPOY in Gurley. Hats off to the coaches and the lines. We won in the trenches. 

It's nice to see the defense make the plays they have been missing the last few years. Fuller and Mack are earning every penny of their contracts and based on their post game interviews are doing it very humbly. 

I love that the team is having fun, that becomes infectious. 

The score shows a 9 pt win but that's a 12 pt win with the spread and felt like it. Even with the Trubisky mistakes, I never felt like we were at risk of losing the game. 

Trubisky was clearly rusty. He had a terrible game and will have to be better if we expect to have any success into January. The good thing is he knows it. Of the 3 INTs, which all were pretty bad, the two overthrows looked like a guy overcompensating for a tight shoulder. Hopefully this is a one and done thing. All we need with this defense is a slightly better QB than we had in Cutler and Trubisky has shown he can be that. 

I don't know what the game plan was but there weren't that many quick hitting pass plays. From previous games like the MIN game, Trubisky and the offense seemed to be more in sync in the hurry up. 

After seeing "Santa's Sleigh", I wondering if Nagy is purposely running a new playbook every week and is not giving other teams any tape on what we will do next. Then come the playoffs, he will unleash exotic and unexpected plays that won't be easily defended without prior knowledge. That's my hope and it seems to be somewhat credible. 

All in all, a great game and recipe for a long extended playoff run, defense and the run game. If Trubisky can limit turnovers, we will be a difficult team to beat. 

[adam]

One cool note, some of my Army buddies messaged me this morning from all over the world praising the Bears defense. The consensus is no one will want to face us in the playoffs. I agree with them. 

[Chitownhustla]

6 hours ago, Mongo3451 said:

Good morning all!  I'm still beaming from last nights game.  On the Trubisky talk, I tend to focus on the positives, as that is all my simpleton mind can handle.

Let's compare last nights quarterbacks and see how they stacked up.

Trubisky lead in: TOP, passing yards, completion pct, TD's, first downs, 3rd down conv, rushing yards and head to head wins. 😁

Goff lead in turnovers, sacks and YPC.  Yay!  But, he'll go to the pro bowl as a consolation.

Trubisky made one dumb decision, all game, that we know of.  Two of his INT's were great reads to wide open receivers.(Yup, he sailed them)  Shoulder, check.  Win, check check!!  💪

Smiling ear to ear!!!!!! What a freakin game. Tru sucked last night but I have no time to even think about that. Im too busy enjoying that W. I have sat in that stadium for far too long watching terrible football. Watching that defense is a thing of beauty!!!!

[DABEARSDABOMB]

21 hours ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Not because of Trubisky.  GFY!!!

Trubisky played terrible. He didn't have bad reads, but just awful throws. Only the pick at the end of the first half was a bad read...the rest of them were just horrific throws. No way around it, the Bears offense left chunks on the field and it was because of Mitch. I said it when I ripped Daniel, Mitch could have just as bad of a game, if not worse than Daniel did against the Giants...but it meant nothing. Daniel is not a starter...Trubisky could be an all pro. He might not be...but I know Daniel isn't...doesn't have the tools. Mitch has shown he's capable of it...albeit he has a lot of room to grow still (and he knows it as much as anyone).

I said forever, Mitch's development is week to week and his next step forward (or major expectation) will come after a full off-season where the game can truly slow down another level (imo). I do hope he goes out this week and crushes the Packers though!  

[Alaskan Grizzly]

5 hours ago, DABEARSDABOMB said:

I do hope he goes out this week and crushes the Packers though!  

Yep.  Couldn’t agree more.  It would be absolutely sweet to vanquish the Packers from playoff hope. 

And yeah I realize Daniel isn’t a starter but dang it sucked to watch Trub suck so bad. His mid range tosses were ok but man those long range chucks were absolute garbage. It was echoes of ghosts past (Cutler). We can only hope he continues to improve on that aspect. Thankfully the defense is as good as it is. 

Something else that needs to be considered is that he seriously needs to lessen his running for gains.  He did less this last game but he can’t try and go RGIII on us or he’ll end up crippled.  

[AZ54]

Ah the energy Vic Fangio brings as he breaksdown Club Dub..

https://www.chicagobears.com/video/week-14-fantasy-bear-to-watch

[jason]

I don't understand why everyone is jumping all over a guy for wanting not just the defense to do well, but also to have a stud QB?

The D was awesome. The win was awesome. Trubisky kind of sucked. What's so hard about that? Why can't we want a dominating Defense AND a great QB? Especially considering he was a highly touted first rounder that required extra picks.

We should expect by now that he's figuring it out a bit more than he is. His problem for weeks and weeks has been sailing the intermediate and long passes. It's been pointed out numerous times on this board. I'm not a QB or throwing movement expert, but someone on the team professes to be. That's something to be addressed. It's not acceptable to just say, "This team is winning! It's great to win! Who cares if our first round QB is still making the same mistakes."

16/30 for 1 TD, 3 INTs, and one or two other bad passes that could have potentially been INTs. That's not acceptable. Middle of the road in just about every other passing stat, except for INTs where he's near the worst in the league. That's not acceptable.

Is it possible to criticize without being called a negative person? Is it possible to wish for perfection without being called a negative person?

I love this team. I love this defense. I just want everyone else to be as good, or at least close to that level.

[Stinger226]

MT deserves to be criticized, I think the general consensus here is  we just beat the best team in the NFL, just rushed for a ton of yards , and had a dominate defensive effort against the highest scoring team in the league, and the first thing out of AGs mouth is (to criticize MT)? I think most people would be excited about the victory and you can do the criticizing later in the week. Its fine to want and expect more out of MT, but he is a developing QB, he will have good moments and plenty of bad ones. He just come off a injury, two weeks off and it was freaking cold out. Those are all components of having a bad game. 

[ChileBear]

43 minutes ago, jason said:

I don't understand why everyone is jumping all over a guy for wanting not just the defense to do well, but also to have a stud QB?

The D was awesome. The win was awesome. Trubisky kind of sucked. What's so hard about that? Why can't we want a dominating Defense AND a great QB? Especially considering he was a highly touted first rounder that required extra picks.

We should expect by now that he's figuring it out a bit more than he is. His problem for weeks and weeks has been sailing the intermediate and long passes. It's been pointed out numerous times on this board. I'm not a QB or throwing movement expert, but someone on the team professes to be. That's something to be addressed. It's not acceptable to just say, "This team is winning! It's great to win! Who cares if our first round QB is still making the same mistakes."

16/30 for 1 TD, 3 INTs, and one or two other bad passes that could have potentially been INTs. That's not acceptable. Middle of the road in just about every other passing stat, except for INTs where he's near the worst in the league. That's not acceptable.

Is it possible to criticize without being called a negative person? Is it possible to wish for perfection without being called a negative person?

I love this team. I love this defense. I just want everyone else to be as good, or at least close to that level.

Well said Jason, and then Stinger. Criticize, but also realize, we are on the verge of ending the Pucker's season AND clinching the division. I'll take it every season.

[Mongo3451]

1 hour ago, Stinger226 said:

MT deserves to be criticized, I think the general consensus here is  we just beat the best team in the NFL, just rushed for a ton of yards , and had a dominate defensive effort against the highest scoring team in the league, and the first thing out of AGs mouth is (to criticize MT)? I think most people would be excited about the victory and you can do the criticizing later in the week. Its fine to want and expect more out of MT, but he is a developing QB, he will have good moments and plenty of bad ones. He just come off a injury, two weeks off and it was freaking cold out. Those are all components of having a bad game. 

Exactly!  It's context related and "for the love of God", consider the source. 

We've had wins because the defense killed it and some because MT did.  Those old enough to remember our last Superbowl know Jimmy Mac was far from perfect, yet he's a Bear legend for his contribution.

MT had a clunker of a game, but still made plays to help us while out playing his counterpart.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

1 hour ago, Mongo3451 said:

Exactly!  It's context related and "for the love of God", consider the source. 

Funny you use the word “context”.  Given that when I made my comment it was during the game and right after Trubisky made his third INT.  Your instant reaction to my comment was to tell me to GF’myself’ to which I replied in kind.  

I have since commented that I’m happy with the win.  As Jason points out I’d like to see a lot more positive production out of our 1st round Franchise QB.  Enough to know that if our defense plays like they did against the Giants or Dolphins he will be able to carry his weight.  So far, especially after playing like he did last week, I’m not convinced he can - yet.  And like Jason and many others here have pointed out, Trubiksy has a tendency to throw dangerously in games like this and produce “klunkers”.  He’s had a fair amount of non-statistical supporting near misses.  And in the ‘context’ of that view, I worry.  

Yes I can relish the win and watch the highlights from the efforts by the defense and running game.  But deep down I worry about the scenario I posed above.  Are you good with us just making it to the Super Bowl like we did in 2006 (with Grossman as our QB) or do you want to actually win it?  I’m personally tired of saying ‘maybe next year’. 

[Mongo3451]

That is exactly the point regarding context.  We were beating the brakes off of the number one team in the league and you were critiquing.  That's just weird to me.  Trubisky is more than Grossman ever was.  He'll win us a Superbowl, but it may be his way, not yours.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

4 hours ago, Stinger226 said:

and the first thing out of AGs mouth is (to criticize MT)?

Oddly enough it wasn’t the “first thing out of my mouth”.  If you look at this history of this thread the ‘first thing’ I commented on was about my looking forward to the game (like Mad Lith) and my concern with Trubiskys long game.  It was actually the 9th post on this thread made sometime Saturday afternoon.  

My first comment during the actual game on Sunday was how I just heard about the severity of Trubiskys injury and again my concern with how it would affect his play.  I also quipped that I had hoped he would have improved his sliding game (or something to that effect).  

It’s your focus of my negativity, or at least proving it, that clouds your perception.