bears game eight, at the eagles on monday night

[treebird]

i still get to start the thread because i wisely didn't jump in to do it until the bears started playing mediocre teams every week so they could win.

 

guessing the line right now is fun to do because even if i'm way off, i can just blame it on what happens next week. i'm guessing the eagles will beat the cowboys comfortably and everyone will believe in them again. eagles -4.5.

 

the eagles were supposed to be amazing but instead they just lose all the time. if they have any plans for doing anything this year, they'll need this game badly.

 

the bears will too, though, and we always seem to match up well with vick. hopefully the offensive line can maintain the improvement they've shown with or without the return of carimi. and if earl bennett wants to come back and do something cool as well, i'd be okay with that.

Edited October 24, 2011 by treebird

[bukie]

The Eagles' only wins thus far are against a historically awful St. Louis, and a squeaker at Washington on the annual Rex Grossman Implosion Day.

[UMFan83]

If we can win this game, we hold the tiebreaker on 3 of the 6 teams that are most likely to compete for 2 wild card spots (that is if Philly can afford to lose this game and still get back in the race)

[jersey cubs fan]

I think I have tickets to this game, which would be maybe the 3rd Eagles/Bears games I've attended in Philly. Lovie is 3-2 vs Philly, and the Bears do well against Vick. I like there chances here, especially with Philly's defesne being so ho-hum against the pass. They do sack the QB quite a bit, but they are allowing the 10th highest QB rating against. And their numbers would be a whole lot worse if they didn't catch Grossman in his implosion game.

[UMFan83]

I think I have tickets to this game, which would be maybe the 3rd Eagles/Bears games I've attended in Philly. Lovie is 3-2 vs Philly, and the Bears do well against Vick. I like there chances here, especially with Philly's defesne being so ho-hum against the pass. They do sack the QB quite a bit, but they are allowing the 10th highest QB rating against. And their numbers would be a whole lot worse if they didn't catch Grossman in his implosion game.

 

We have really played Philly well. I am trying to remember the 2nd loss to Philly and I can't. These are the ones I remember:

 

2004 L in Chicago (Philly favored by 10): This is the game I don't remember, but I'm sure the Bears didnt play them in 05 and 06 and Lovie started coaching in 04. Either way, the Bears were terrible and injury decimated that season and the Eagles won the NFC that year so a loss was probably expected.

2007 W in Philly (Philly favored by 4.5): Griese's headset "breaks" and leads the Bears on a last second TD drive while calling his own plays.

2008: W in Chicago (Philly favored by 3): Sunday night game. Eagles came in 3-0 and considered one of the most dangerous teams in football. The Bears won on a last minute goal line stand.

2009: L in Chicago (Philly favored by 3): Another Sunday night game. Bears were in the middle of their freefall and the Eagles were playing well, so it was a bit of a surprise that this one was close. I think the Bears might have been leading or close well into the 2nd half before falling short at the end.

2010: W in Chicago (Philly favored by 3.5): Everyone was gushing over Vick and the Eagles, and everyone was doubting the Bears despite a 3 game winning streak and 7-3 record. The Bears exploded to a big lead, intercepted Vick for the first time all year and held on late for a key win.

 

Pretty impressive overall especially because Philly was favored going into all 5 of those games.

Edited October 24, 2011 by UMFan83

[jersey cubs fan]

If we can win this game, we hold the tiebreaker on 3 of the 6 teams that are most likely to compete for 2 wild card spots (that is if Philly can afford to lose this game and still get back in the race)

they would have at least 5 losses by then, and be behind about 5 other teams for the WC race. I doubt Philly will have much of a chance if they do lose to the Bears.

 

Bears coming off a bye. Philly coming off a tough primetime divisional matchup. Bears do well against Vick and Philly isn't all that great on defense.

 

Lovie is only 4-3 coming off the bye, but 4-1 in the last 5 years.

[Z38Cubs]

Anybody read Peter King's MMQB today? Under his top 15 teams, he lists Atlanta 7 and Tampa Bay, while the Bears are not on the list at all. And there are actually 16 teams listed because he has a tie at 15. Also has the 2-4 Eagles listed #14.

[Z38Cubs]

And in case that's not enough, he also wrote this.

 

Cardinal fans. Amazing.

 

Um, it's a freaking World Series game. Of course the stands will be full, even if it's 40 degrees. You could say the same about 26 other fanbases.

 

What a douche.

[tfarks]

You mentioning that makes me realize I haven't looked at any power rankings what so ever this year. That's pretty good since I usually cave in.

[bukie]

The Bears are now seven games in, and have played their division once each and the entire NFC South.

 

They will also proceed to play the entire AFC West in four consecutive weeks, which seems weird and unusual to me.

[bukie]

Anybody read Peter King's MMQB today? Under his top 15 teams, he lists Atlanta 7 and Tampa Bay, while the Bears are not on the list at all. And there are actually 16 teams listed because he has a tie at 15. Also has the 2-4 Eagles listed #14.

 

In comparison, here's the top 16 according to Sagarin's rating this morning:

 

1. Green Bay

2. San Francisco

3. New England

4. Detroit

5. New Orleans

6. Baltimore

7. Buffalo

8. Chicago

9. Dallas

10. Houston

11. Atlanta

12. NY Jets

13. Pittsburgh

14. Cincinnati

15. San Diego

16. Tampa Bay

 

Sagarin also says the Bears have played the 3rd toughest schedule in the league to this point, behind Atlanta and Dallas.

[UMFan83]

The Bears are the 17th best team in the NFL, losing to the 1, 6, and 9 teams and beating the 7 and 8 teams. Thanks Peter!

 

 

(PS he probably has Oakland and Houston above us too so 19th)

 

Also, I love his comment about TB "Almost came back against the 19th best team in my view. Oh well, Josh Freeman's 8 TDs and 11 INTs on the year make it clear you are definitely a top 8 team in the NFL"

Edited October 24, 2011 by UMFan83

[jersey cubs fan]

The funny thing is he always falls back to the "neutral field" argument when justifying ranking one team ahead of a team they lost to, and yet the Bears just handled the Bucs fairly evenly on the very definition of a neutral field.

[UK1679666180]

If the Bears can split Phil and Det, I think they will end up 10-6. That win yesterday saved their season, it would've been difficult to lose that tie-breaker to TB and also be 3 games behind Det (factoring tie-breaker) had they lost it. The wins over Atl and TB set themselves up nicely. Just have to hope NO can win the division.

[JonJayCutler]

Anybody read Peter King's MMQB today? Under his top 15 teams, he lists Atlanta 7 and Tampa Bay, while the Bears are not on the list at all. And there are actually 16 teams listed because he has a tie at 15. Also has the 2-4 Eagles listed #14.

 

FODDER!

 

*waits for inevitable stoning from Packers fans*

[Soul]

Here's a couple oddball notes:

 

#1: it looks to me like the leadership of Jay Cutler is becoming firmly entrenched. It seems like we changed our offensive focus after his complaints. But more than that, it seems every time a reporter makes a statement they cut to the "cutler quote" to back it up. To me that means something, even if it is a little subtle.

 

#2: it looks like Spencer was a solid pickup. He's doing well at guard at can slip in at center any time. Strange - I thought that move might have smacked of a bit of desperation. Now it just looks very good.

[rawaction]

If the Bears can split Phil and Det, I think they will end up 10-6. That win yesterday saved their season, it would've been difficult to lose that tie-breaker to TB and also be 3 games behind Det (factoring tie-breaker) had they lost it. The wins over Atl and TB set themselves up nicely. Just have to hope NO can win the division.

 

Agreed. If the Bears do split, I'd prefer to take the Detroit game, as to make both wildcard spots attainable, though that would mean the winner of Philly/Dallas would be back into the NFC race too. Like to think coming off the bye the Bears will win in Philly. Also, would like to think that the Detroit momentum is gone and if Stafford has to miss this week, that he'll be a little rusty with 3 weeks off (bye week for Detroit after this Sunday) making that game very winnable.

 

Couldn't hope for much better at this point. The Bears took advantage of the home opener hype vs. the Falcons and took all the punches in NO's home opener and the biggest game for the Lions in a decade. Every other game should pale in comparison to those games.

[Butterscup1679666578]

rest up, get carimi back, win again.

[pitchcs]

No way it's Eagles -4.5, and if it is then every person on here should jump on the Bears. Eagles -3,

 

- Lovie Smith is 4-1 off his last 5 bye weeks

- If I remember correctly, Bears have handled Vick in past

 

 

Bears 23

Eagles 21

[rawaction]

Interesting stat. So, far teams coming off their bye week are 2-10. Historically, teams are pretty good off the bye. But this year, the NFL CBA has mandated 4 consecutive days off for teams on their bye. It's hard to say if this has been a factor so far as the teams that have had bye weeks so far are a combined 28-44, and all but 3 of those games after bye weeks have come on the road. The teams to host HOME games after the bye have been Washington, Tennessee, and Arizona, who all lost. Washington lost to a losing Philly team, but Ten and AZ lost to future playoff teams Houston and Pittsburgh.

 

A lot of good teams had byes last week (as evidenced by my desolate fantasy team), so it will be interesting to see what happens this Sunday/Monday.

[Banedon]

Interesting stat. So, far teams coming off their bye week are 2-10. Historically, teams are pretty good off the bye. But this year, the NFL CBA has mandated 4 consecutive days off for teams on their bye. It's hard to say if this has been a factor so far as the teams that have had bye weeks so far are a combined 28-44, and all but 3 of those games after bye weeks have come on the road. The teams to host HOME games after the bye have been Washington, Tennessee, and Arizona, who all lost. Washington lost to a losing Philly team, but Ten and AZ lost to future playoff teams Houston and Pittsburgh.

 

A lot of good teams had byes last week (as evidenced by my desolate fantasy team), so it will be interesting to see what happens this Sunday/Monday.

 

The Bears are going to use their 4 days as a wraparound long weekend. They'll be off from Friday-Monday. I think that's probably the best way to go, because it best keeps a "game week" schedule intact.

[rawaction]

Interesting stat. So, far teams coming off their bye week are 2-10. Historically, teams are pretty good off the bye. But this year, the NFL CBA has mandated 4 consecutive days off for teams on their bye. It's hard to say if this has been a factor so far as the teams that have had bye weeks so far are a combined 28-44, and all but 3 of those games after bye weeks have come on the road. The teams to host HOME games after the bye have been Washington, Tennessee, and Arizona, who all lost. Washington lost to a losing Philly team, but Ten and AZ lost to future playoff teams Houston and Pittsburgh.

 

A lot of good teams had byes last week (as evidenced by my desolate fantasy team), so it will be interesting to see what happens this Sunday/Monday.

 

The Bears are going to use their 4 days as a wraparound long weekend. They'll be off from Friday-Monday. I think that's probably the best way to go, because it best keeps a "game week" schedule intact.

 

Cool. Been looking for that info all day. I did read that they are practicing today, so I assumed it was something like that. I think I like that idea better.

[Banedon]

Cool. Been looking for that info all day. I did read that they are practicing today, so I assumed it was something like that. I think I like that idea better.

 

Zach Zaidman mentioned it this morning during Mulley and Hanley.

[sneakypower]

Roy Williams became the only player in league history to catch a touchdown pass for both the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions according to Elias.

[minnesotacubsfan]

that's rather amazing considering how long both teams have been around