Week 14: John Fox*s Bears at Marvin Lewis*s Bengals Sunday noon on Fox

[jersey cubs fan]

The craptastic Bears visit the bad and dirty Bengals, and the fame features two coaches that probably should not have jobs. It's the last Sunday game until Christmas Eve (next game is a Saturday afternoon event). The Bengals blew a big lead against Pittsburgh, and may have lost their most dirty player this game. The Bears probably have to shut down their now 29-year old guard, leaving their outmanned rookie QB even more vulnerable to injury. Mitch tried to extend too many plays last week and took hits he shouldn't be taking, especially in a completely lost season. Chicago is a 6.5 point underdog and should probably lose by twice that. They have a legit shot at losing out the rest of the way and getting a top 3-5 pick, even though they face the winless Browns in a couple weeks. Cleveland will presumably have the #1 pick locked up, and will presumably fight a little bit to avoid the embarrassment. But it would be so like the Bears to wait until the season is effectively over by winning meaningless game with ugly play.

 

*Possible midseason firing

 

[UMFan83]

Can't wait to see another craptastic performance against a team coming off a short week.

 

I didn't even realize the Bengals blew it last night. If they would have won, they'd still be in the thick of the AFC playoff race but now their hopes are likely gone.

[UMFan83]

Twitter is already speculating that Giants ownership is communicating with McDaniels through backchannels about becoming the new HC. Whether or not you want McDaniels, it would suck to have one of the names off the board already because the McKaskey's don't want to fire a coach midseason.

[David]

Twitter is already speculating that Giants ownership is communicating with McDaniels through backchannels about becoming the new HC. Whether or not you want McDaniels, it would suck to have one of the names off the board already because the McKaskey's don't want to fire a coach midseason.

 

It wouldn't suck to have one of the open positions (in NY, no less) filled with a guy I want absolutely nothing to do with.

[biittner77]

I don't understand why people are so anxious to fire Fox now that the season is officially not about winning games. Not winning games is the one thing John Fox excels at. What other coach could have found a way to not win against SF?

[minnesotacubsfan]

I don't understand why people are so anxious to fire Fox now that the season is officially not about winning games. Not winning games is the one thing John Fox excels at. What other coach could have found a way to not win against SF?

 

Why coddle a dead limb

[David]

I don't understand why people are so anxious to fire Fox now that the season is officially not about winning games. Not winning games is the one thing John Fox excels at. What other coach could have found a way to not win against SF?

 

because fox is still attempting to prioritize not losing (poorly) over player development, for one.

[Derwood]

I don't understand why people are so anxious to fire Fox now that the season is officially not about winning games. Not winning games is the one thing John Fox excels at. What other coach could have found a way to not win against SF?

 

because fox is still attempting to prioritize not losing (poorly) over player development, for one.

 

He hasn’t put Glennon back in

[jersey cubs fan]

I don't understand why people are so anxious to fire Fox now that the season is officially not about winning games. Not winning games is the one thing John Fox excels at. What other coach could have found a way to not win against SF?

 

because fox is still attempting to prioritize not losing (poorly) over player development, for one.

 

He hasn’t put Glennon back in

I'd rather he did, before he ruins Trubisky any further.

[jersey cubs fan]

[jersey cubs fan]

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I don't think we're going to top "Trubisky puts up a 117 QB rating, Bears lose 15-14 on five Robbie Gould field goals, Cohen has a ridiculous punt return that involves running 10 yards backwards" as far as good tank losses go.

 

Obviously I don't care about any of these turds except for Trubisky.

[minnesotacubsfan]

I don't think we're going to top "Trubisky puts up a 117 QB rating, Bears lose 15-14 on five Robbie Gould field goals, Cohen has a ridiculous punt return that involves running 10 yards backwards" as far as good tank losses go.

 

Obviously I don't care about any of these turds except for Trubisky.

 

I’d disagree. The Bears have some young talent. They need more and better coaching

[jersey cubs fan]

I don't think we're going to top "Trubisky puts up a 117 QB rating, Bears lose 15-14 on five Robbie Gould field goals, Cohen has a ridiculous punt return that involves running 10 yards backwards" as far as good tank losses go.

 

Obviously I don't care about any of these turds except for Trubisky.

 

I’d disagree. The Bears have some young talent. They need more and better coaching

They have some young talent, but not much, and virtually zero high end blue chip talent.

 

People keep talking about how Ryan Pace should ultimately be judged on Trubisky, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Mitch could develop into a quality QB but this team could still struggle to win if Pace doesn't do a much better job of filling the entire roster.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I don't think we're going to top "Trubisky puts up a 117 QB rating, Bears lose 15-14 on five Robbie Gould field goals, Cohen has a ridiculous punt return that involves running 10 yards backwards" as far as good tank losses go.

 

Obviously I don't care about any of these turds except for Trubisky.

 

I’d disagree. The Bears have some young talent. They need more and better coaching

They have some young talent, but not much, and virtually zero high end blue chip talent.

 

People keep talking about how Ryan Pace should ultimately be judged on Trubisky, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Mitch could develop into a quality QB but this team could still struggle to win if Pace doesn't do a much better job of filling the entire roster.

 

It feels like every draft we come out of it with a decent number of decent players, but then the roster is mysteriously full of not-decent players.

 

I guess looking back, it's the 2015 draft that was a problem. You got Goldman and Amos, and a little value out of Grasu and maybe someday you'll get something out of White but probably not.

 

2016 was Floyd and Howard, plus Whitehair and Kwiatkowski, and a couple of decent depth contributors.

 

2017 is early but looks promising: Trubisky, Cohen, Jackson and maybe Shaheen.

 

I look at that list and I want to give him at least one more draft to see if we get more 2016s than 2015s. But then I realize that one more draft isn't going to make this wet-fart team good, and do I really want to give a GM five drafts when the whole team is a turd sandwich?

 

All I know is my gut says maybe.

[David]

i truly don't think they were approaching free agency with a win this year mindset in any of his FA periods (granted, he's had some large misses, regardless, and at least a couple good hits in Hicks and Sitton - amukamara also not a terrible signing). i think they will actually use the cap space to go aggressively after the higher end talent this year with grooming trubisky and the new hc and everything in mind.

 

i think of it kind of like the cubs approached the offseasons in 2011-13 (not saying that the bears should have been doing it this way - just that i think they are/have been) and i think this will be more like the cubs' post 2014 offseason. we'll see.

[jersey cubs fan]

i truly don't think they were approaching free agency with a win this year mindset in any of his FA periods

 

But isn't any "win this year" mindset in FA actually when you use FA to round out your roster with good but not terribly expensive players?

 

 

I look at that list and I want to give him at least one more draft to see if we get more 2016s than 2015s. But then I realize that one more draft isn't going to make this wet-fart team good, and do I really want to give a GM five drafts when the whole team is a turd sandwich?

 

All I know is my gut says maybe.

 

Yeah, my gut is similar. I almost feel like it would be best to offer Pace a 2-year extension, so he can go into this head coach hiring season with all targets having full confidence that the Bears are in on this guy and system. And that is crazy to think about with how bad his three teams have been. But this is largely why I hate all those "trading up and drafting a QB was such a bold move" story, when that happened in 2017, and virtually guaranteed Pace would get at least 2 full seasons, if not 3-4, to judge that QB.

[Derwood]

Did I miss a running joke involving using asterisks instead of apostrophes in thread titles?

[Tim]

Did I miss a running joke involving using asterisks instead of apostrophes in thread titles?

You didn't read the complete first post, did you?

[Derwood]

Did I miss a running joke involving using asterisks instead of apostrophes in thread titles?

You didn't read the complete first post, did you?

 

I don't read any posts

[jersey cubs fan]

Did I miss a running joke involving using asterisks instead of apostrophes in thread titles?

 

no, it's more of a desperate plea

 

https://deadspin.com/the-nfl-s-quarterback-middle-class-is-dying-1820880389

 

Fire This horsefeathers!

 

Is there anything more exciting than a coach losing his job? All year long, we’ll keep track of which coaches will almost certainly get fired at year’s end or sooner. And now, your potential 2017 chopping block:

 

Chuck Pagano***

 

Hue Jackson

 

Sean McDermott

 

Jason Garrett

 

Bruce Arians

 

Todd Bowles

 

Adam Gase

 

Vance Joseph

 

Dirk Koetter*

 

John Fox*

 

Ben McAdoo******

 

Mike McCarthy

 

(*-potential midseason firing)

 

I’m still processing the news that Herm Edwards is going to Arizona State. I cannot even imagine the amount of eye-rolling those kids are gonna do when Herm storms into a meeting room in early August and is like ARE YOU BOYS READY TO WORK BECAUSE IT TAKES WORK TO BECOME A TRUE CHAMPION! and the whole room is dead silent for a good minute afterward.

 

Magary had him on the list with an asterisk for week 1, and that asterisk came and went during the first few weeks of the season.

[David]

i truly don't think they were approaching free agency with a win this year mindset in any of his FA periods

 

But isn't any "win this year" mindset in FA actually when you use FA to round out your roster with good but not terribly expensive players?

 

I think he was taking more of a low(er) risk gamble on upside with a lot of guys (much like the cubs did) with a quantity driven approach in hopes that some of them could become core pieces when they were good...but i get what you're saying and i agree.

[Brian]

Every time I see Loggains at the podium for a press conference I think it's a random meatball fan.

 

[David]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

 

[Brian707]

Every time I see Loggains at the podium for a press conference I think it's a random meatball fan.

 

 

 

Looks more like the average [expletive] that shows up to our fantasy football draft every year.