Week 8 Official Game Thread - CHI @ BAL, Oct 26th, 12PM CDT, CBS, CHI +6.5

[Stinger226]

Jesse Morse, MD evaluates every NFL injure every week. He said today will determine if Lamar plays this week. If he is not a full practice, he thinks they wont play him until a Thursday night game for week 9. If he does play , he will not be 100% and usually a players first game coming off an injury is below par. 

[adam]

1 hour ago, Stinger226 said:

Jesse Morse, MD evaluates every NFL injure every week. He said today will determine if Lamar plays this week. If he is not a full practice, he thinks they wont play him until a Thursday night game for week 9. If he does play , he will not be 100% and usually a players first game coming off an injury is below par. 

and BAL has one of the easiest schedules remaining after the Bears: MIA, MIN, CLE, NYJ, CIN, PIT, CIN, NE, GB, PIT, they could easily rattle off 8-9 wins in this run, and there wouldn't need to be many upsets.

[Pixote]

A cut-and-paste from SI.com would indicate the Bears should win easily.

But what is missing is Jackson and Henry. If they are both playing, it will be a challenging game to win.

Quote

Scoring offense: Bears (10th), Ravens (16th)

Passing offense: Bears (14th), Ravens (28th)

Rushing offense: Bears (8th), Ravens (10th)

Scoring defense: Bears (25th), Ravens (32nd)

Pass defense: Bears (17th), Ravens (28th)

Run Defense: Bears (28th), Ravens (26th)

 

[Stinger226]

Lamar Jackson has a limited practice designation. I would say with a short week Thursday game against their division rivals Miami, he doesnt play on Sunday. I dont think they think they need him to beat us . I could be wrong. The key in this game is stopping Derrick Henry. 

[adam]

15 minutes ago, Stinger226 said:

Lamar Jackson has a limited practice designation. I would say with a short week Thursday game against their division rivals Miami, he doesnt play on Sunday. I dont think they think they need him to beat us . I could be wrong. The key in this game is stopping Derrick Henry. 

He was a full participant today but Harbaugh did say this:
 

 

[adam]

This is the longest stretch in season that Jackson has missed and came back. In the two other seasons where he missed a game and came back, he didn't particularly play very well, at least on the passing side. In 2021, when he missed a week and came back, he passed for 165 yards, 1 TD, and 4 INT against the Browns. The offense scored 16 pts. In 2020, he also missed one game, and came back against DAL and passed for 107 yds, 2 TD, and 1 INT.

So this time, including the bye, he will have been out of game action for 3 weeks before this game. 

[adam]

ffs on these injuries, Gordon out, Stevenson out, Kmet out.  Swift, Booker, Santos all questionable. 

Gordon is soo frustrating, they already paid the guy, he has never played a full season, and now going into Game 7 of his 4th year, has missed 14 games out of 58. That is not good. Basically hurt for 25% of his career. 

Kmet is interesting with the trading deadline on November 4th looming. Is he being rested as a precaution?

[ASHKUM BEAR]

43 minutes ago, adam said:

ffs on these injuries, Gordon out, Stevenson out, Kmet out.  Swift, Booker, Santos all questionable. 

Gordon is soo frustrating, they already paid the guy, he has never played a full season, and now going into Game 7 of his 4th year, has missed 14 games out of 58. That is not good. Basically hurt for 25% of his career. 

Kmet is interesting with the trading deadline on November 4th looming. Is he being rested as a precaution?

I do not think Kmet has ever missed a game. 

[Alaskan Grizzly]

57 minutes ago, ASHKUM BEAR said:

I do not think Kmet has ever missed a game. 

Nor does he have any real trade value right now.  He's averaging ~ 1 catch a game for a total of 132 yards so far.  He's doing great as a blocking back though.

[adam]

1 hour ago, ASHKUM BEAR said:

I do not think Kmet has ever missed a game. 

I couldn't find a missed game, and his lowest total snap count in a single game is 13, which is his only game under 20 total snaps. He only has one other game below 25 snaps. So 90 career games, 88 with 25+ snaps, and until this week, has never missed a game or had fewer than 13 snaps in a game (where he left with an injury).

[adam]

40 minutes ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Nor does he have any real trade value right now.  He's averaging ~ 1 catch a game for a total of 132 yards so far.  He's doing great as a blocking back though.

Yeah, true. I guess if there was ever a week for Loveland to explode, this is the week. 

[BearFan PHX]

Wow, with Tyrique Stevenson and Kyler Gordon out, this is gonna be a tough game for the defense. I can see us winning this game, but I can also see us losing it too.

But even if we lose, these losses on defense shouldn't be an excuse for Caleb's performance. He needs to take another step this week. I expect we will be running the ball a a lot too - eating clock limits opportunities for the Ravens to expose our CBs. Hopefully, that should take pressure off of Caleb too. Coming back from multiple touchdown deficits will put him in a bad spot.

We need to limit the penalties on offense, stay of our 3rd and long situations, and play crisp ball. If I see that, and the Ravens run up 35 points and beat us, I'll accept it.

But there is nothing saying we can win this one either. Lets Go Bears! Take another step!

[Alaskan Grizzly]

Bears offense needs to do better when given the opportunity to score.  Bears D caused the ball to be turned over 4 times and only scored three points (in the opening FG) as a result.  12 of the Bears 26 points were from FGs and the other two scores (TDs) were rushing TDs.  Sure the running game is clicking and could run down the clock but the passing game needs to do better and come alive.  The issue seems to be somewhere between scheming and execution.  

Still not a fan of Dennis Allen but I will give him props on leading the TO ratio.  Obviously with a fair number of his starters out he'll  be challenged to put up decent numbers against better teams (is Baltimore one of those?).  During last weeks game against NO there was a time the defense couldn't stop NO from scoring TDs (14 unanswered points). Had the QB been Drew Brees (or maybe even Derek Carr) the game could've had a totally different outcome.  

[Bears4Ever_34]

This game just became far less interesting. I think it's possible we're in for a repeat of Detroit part 2, even with a 50% healthy Lamar Jackson. These secondary injuries are getting ridiculous.

Kyler Gordon injuring himself for a second time in practice? That contract is looking like another Poles disaster. We have to stop drafting/extending players with lengthy injury histories.

This might have to be a ball control, ground and pound kind of gameplan from the Bears in order to keep this one competitive. It would be one of the best wins this franchise has had in years if they were somehow able to pull it off this short handed, assuming Lamar plays.

[ASHKUM BEAR]

1 hour ago, Bears4Ever_34 said:

This game just became far less interesting. I think it's possible we're in for a repeat of Detroit part 2, even with a 50% healthy Lamar Jackson. These secondary injuries are getting ridiculous.

Kyler Gordon injuring himself for a second time in practice? That contract is looking like another Poles disaster. We have to stop drafting/extending players with lengthy injury histories.

This might have to be a ball control, ground and pound kind of gameplan from the Bears in order to keep this one competitive. It would be one of the best wins this franchise has had in years if they were somehow able to pull it off this short handed, assuming Lamar plays.

It makes you think these guys are following advice from Nate Davis. 

At least this draft is one of the deepest for CB in a while, id imagine the Bears take one in rounds 1-3 the way this season has gone.  

[Mongo3451]

Just heard Lamar ran the scout team in practice Friday.

[Pixote]

26 minutes ago, Mongo3451 said:

Just heard Lamar ran the scout team in practice Friday.

Interesting. Could that mean he isn't going to start on Sunday?

 

[Bears4Ever_34]

1 hour ago, Mongo3451 said:

Just heard Lamar ran the scout team in practice Friday.

Yeah, it sounds like he's not going to play now, according to Rapaport. I did kind of think after being limited on Wed/Thu, that they may have been ramping him up for next week's game against the Dolphins. Dan Graziano alluded to this earlier in the week. Friday's are always lighter red zone days for most teams, so the fact he was a full participant isn't as meaningful as it is on Wed/Thu—and also, now that we know he was running scout team is even more of an indicator that this is more gamesmanship from the Ravens.

I suspect they won't officially rule him out until 1.5 hours before kickoff, as they have no incentive to do so, but if he is out, that would be huge for the Bears, who really could use a break, given the injuries to the secondary.

[Stinger226]

He is not playing , I watched several Doctors comment on his injury and said it was to early to come back. Full practice but run the Scout team tells you everything you need to know. 

With Hundley being the QB that helps us with aninjury plagued DB room. Henry is what we have to stop to win the game. Its the power run game up the middle that matters. He is not as effect if he has to go laterally to find a hole. Our LBs, and Ss are intact so we have a shot at limiting him to under a hundred yards by plugging every middle lanes. Effective tackling is important.  The passes will be all in the front zone with the short passing game. 

[AZ54]

https://www.windycitygridiron.com/chicago-bears-news/101613/chicago-bears-lamar-jackson-injury-ravens-news

[Alaskan Grizzly]

A trip back in time when Tyler Hundley last played the Bears.   November 2021. Hundley was informed, as he boarded the bus to the game, that he’d be starting in place of an ill Jackson.   Bears HC was Nagy.  Bears starting QB was Andy Dalton while rookie Justin Fields watched from the bench.  

[Bears4Ever_34]

Kyler Gordon and Braxton Jones just put on IR, lol. Gordon is just stealing money right now. He got paid and decided to go full Nate Davis on the Bears. His body is made of glass.

A trade for secondary help seems like a priority at the moment, especially if they win tomorrow.

[Mongo3451]

23 minutes ago, Bears4Ever_34 said:

Kyler Gordon and Braxton Jones just put on IR, lol. Gordon is just stealing money right now. He got paid and decided to go full Nate Davis on the Bears. Soft.

A trade for secondary help seems like a priority at the moment, especially if they win tomorrow.

I don't know if I'd compare him to Davis.  When you injure a hamstring, your body becomes out of tune from foot to neck.  Sometimes another injury will pop up.  In his case and it's a groin.  Same thing happened with Johnson, as his injury was different than the one he initially missed camp with. 

Davis simply didn't want to play.  Gordon seems to genuinely play with joy.

[adam]

The Lamar news is huge.  Huntley had 68 yards passing in his last start. The Bears have to win this. 

[Pixote]

If we can put pressure on Huntley, even with our CBs being nothing better than street FAs, we should still wind up with a pick or two. This is the time for two players, who I understand will be making rare appearances this week, Booker and Jarrett, to contribute.

On the offense, we will need both the run and pass to work—no more excuses. Caleb needs to step up and help win this one. If he has another game like week 7 against Baltimore, we will probably lose.