The Bears are favored!!!!!, by 2.5, which means on an neutral field, HOU would be -0.5 lol.

Interestingly enough, this team is like the Spiderman meme with the Bears. Both have the same amount of pts scored, are near the bottom in the league in yards (Bears 32, Texans 28), have almost the same amount of pts against, same amount of sacks (5), and both teams cannot stop the run (Bears 32, Texans 30). 

The biggest differences are the Bears have a much better rushing game (8 v 27), which plays into the Texans' weakness, and the Texans give up a ton more passing yds (270 vs 183), good for a Fields get right game. 

Just based on yardage, the Texans do nothing well, on offense they are 22nd in passing, 27th in rushing, on defense the are 26th in passing and 30th in rushing. 

This is a perfect game to get things going for the Bears. At home, non-prime time versus a winless team.

Davis Mills at QB, their best WR is Brandon Cooks and their RBs are Pierce and Burkhead. Cooks would be the only player I would roster on the Bears for skill position players. Mills is basically a game manager and they try to play low scoring games.

I feel like this is a good breakout game for just about everybody. Fields, Mooney, and Kmet should all see much more action. I feel like the defense will get a few more sacks and maybe even an INT or FF. 

I am going with Bears 27-13, Bears with 3 TDs, 2 FGs, Texans with 1 TD, 2 FGs, 20-13 late, Bears score a TD to put it away.

Very good news as Patrick returns to Center.  Hopefully this holds through the week. 

 https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2022/9/21/23365794/chicago-bears-lucas-patrick-center-snapping-sam-mustipher-teven-jenkins-nfl-2022

Forgot to add Roquan missed practice with an injury.

I think it definitely makes a difference if Patrick and Jenkins are  on the field at the same time. Mustifer is just to inconsistent. It would be nice for a blowout but maybe that's  being a little over my skis

24 minutes ago, Stinger226 said:

I think it definitely makes a difference if Patrick and Jenkins are  on the field at the same time. Mustifer is just to inconsistent. It would be nice for a blowout but maybe that's  being a little over my skis

Jenkins was out and Patrick in on the Fields goal line play.  GB had 4 down linemen and 2 OLB, making it a 6 man front, 3 DBs lined up man against our WR/TE, 1 ILB and a S, covering Fields and Monty.   

We tried blocking their 6 with 5.  Patrick pulled, leaving Mustipher and Borum taking on 3 linemen.  Jones got pushed back 2 yards and Fields and Patrick hit the hole about the same time. 

I think if they had Jenkins in and ran behind him and pulled Whitehair, it may have worked.  Green Bay did blow it up, they were in the back field from the snap.  

Patrick with cast off snapping the ball at practice. It is an early Christmas. I don't understand how Mustipher can be that big but so weak, 6'2" 330 is huge. 

Mustipher was arguably the weakest link on a bad line last year. If Patrick can come in and solidify the C position while Jenkins gets full reps at RG. The line is looking pretty solid. Bears by 20.

9 hours ago, ASHKUM BEAR said:

Jenkins was out and Patrick in on the Fields goal line play.  GB had 4 down linemen and 2 OLB, making it a 6 man front, 3 DBs lined up man against our WR/TE, 1 ILB and a S, covering Fields and Monty.   

We tried blocking their 6 with 5.  Patrick pulled, leaving Mustipher and Borum taking on 3 linemen.  Jones got pushed back 2 yards and Fields and Patrick hit the hole about the same time. 

I think if they had Jenkins in and ran behind him and pulled Whitehair, it may have worked.  Green Bay did blow it up, they were in the back field from the snap.  

At least Jenkins would not get pushed back. A QB sneak over Jenkins would probably have worked.

1 hour ago, Stinger226 said:

At least Jenkins would not get pushed back. A QB sneak over Jenkins would probably have worked.

Yeah bad call, it was so obvious, just like the Nagy 3rd and short play with CPat. Everyone in the stadium knew what was coming. I would've went with Monty there on Jenkins side. 

41 minutes ago, adam said:

Yeah bad call, it was so obvious, just like the Nagy 3rd and short play with CPat. Everyone in the stadium knew what was coming. I would've went with Monty there on Jenkins side. 

For as close as they were all that really needed to be done was Justin getting right under center, stand up, lean in and extend the ball forward.  Or have Blasingame ramrod it. 
 

‘shoulda, coulda, didn’t’

Good possibility we may see LB Sanborn play this week.  This maybe explains why Smith has been a bit slow.  Hips don’t lie.  ?

 

13 hours ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Good possibility we may see LB Sanborn play this week.  This maybe explains why Smith has been a bit slow.  Hips don’t lie.  ?

 

Yep, that does make sense, because he looked like me out there, old and slow.

I just think he is not up to par yet from the no preseason. A few more games show help. The big thing this year is if he can uptick the wow plays and be worth a big contract.

Looks like Sanborn is your starter for this week to replace Adams.  If Roquan can't go it'll be Weatherford.  I don't think they could be worse against the run than what we saw from the starters but pass coverage is a bigger problem.   Weatherford has the talent to play well in coverage, will he know which way to go?    What if they both play better than the starters did last week?  

https://www.chicagobears.com/news/roquan-smith-jaylon-johnson-questionable-for-texans-game-injury-update

8 hours ago, AZ54 said:

What if they both play better than the starters did last week?

Well for one Roquan would have a shaky case for a HUGE contract extension.  But I think we’d need to see more (than just one or two games) from the backups long before that came the standard. 

That definitely has to be a negative for two starters out. Lovie will attack that as a weakness. Could they play well, hopefully but at best they limit their mistakes.  The DL has to step up. Injuries will plague tihs team and affect our win total. I would love a blowout but more likely just win a close game. 

Houston has some injuries to, their top two TEs might not play. 

6 hours ago, Stinger226 said:

That definitely has to be a negative for two starters out. Lovie will attack that as a weakness. Could they play well, hopefully but at best they limit their mistakes.  The DL has to step up. Injuries will plague tihs team and affect our win total. I would love a blowout but more likely just win a close game. 

Houston has some injuries to, their top two TEs might not play. 

Given the importance of the position to the D, probably more impactful for them is that their starting 3-tech might be out.  But they have other concerns too:

https://www.houstontexans.com/podcasts/bears-preview-is-deep-dish-actually-pizza-vandermeer-s-view 

Color me intrigued if both Sanborn and Weatherford start in place of Smith and Adams.  I think we’ve seen what Sanborn is capable of and I’d be curious to see how Weatherford plays in the position.  Looks like he played Safety in college (Univ-Ohio at Miami) so he’s a rangy speedy player.  If memory serves so was Sanborn.  Would be cool to see two former UDFAs (as of this year mind you) put on a good show.  Playing against a team like Houston right now might just be perfect timing to try them out and give Roquan an extra week of rest.  

https://www.si.com/nfl/bears/news/what-promoting-only-one-linebacker-can-mean-for-bears

Roquan will play himself into shap[e and make the WOW plays, but i dont see us being the team that invests so heavily in him. Both because of his attitude, and because of his position.

The question now is whether we want him on the tag next year, and until he gets in gear, that's probably a no.

Roquan has really screwed himself in ways an agent would have told him not to.

Looks like Roquan is in, Johnson is out.  Who plays in the #1 CB spot today?  
 

 

And Mustipher still in at center.  Fumbles first snap.  

I think we can now see what the NFL experts were saying about the Bears before the season started.  They just do not  have talent and they will finish towards the bottom.  I hope these first few games are just the new regime getting the gel to stick but it isn't looking good.  Fields needs to get some confidence, like this connection just now to Kmet to get himself on track.

This will be a good year to thoroughly evaluate every position on the roster, including Fields. And that is as it should be.

It does not look like he sees the field very well. He has all the physical tools, but he needs to either learn to do it better, or we will take a QB in the first round of the draft. We could probably get some draft picks for Fields too.

Im not giving up on Fields yet, but he has to take the job this year and make it his. He hasnt done that yet.

Gotta agree.

I can't say I am happy about the play calling.

I am disappointed in Fields' performance.

;-(

 

Sloppy first half all around. Justin off target, both Getsy and Flus making questionable calls (3 TOs left at the end of half? among them).  And defense earning another pile of loafs.  How they’re only down by one is a bit surprising.  At least Santos has been on point.  

3 minutes ago, BearFan PHX said:

We could probably get some draft picks for Fields too.

Still WAY too early for this.  Oline is still an issue. Honestly still not seeing much play action or short underneath throws.  Mills throwing a lot like Fields should be.  Maybe focusing too much on the big throws?