Week 17: Bears @ Vikings Sunday, 3:25 on Fox

[UMFan83]

I wonder what percentage of 12-4 teams win a bye historically. Has to be over 90%

[gflore34]

Last year’s game against Philly was probably the low point of our season as they absolutely obliterated us with minimal effort on their way to winning the Super Bowl. One year later the Bears will be hosting them in a playoff game. Looking forward to it.

 

 

Add their in your face celebrations, know it doesn't mean much year to year but, it'd be sweet if the Bears returned the favor.

[raw]

When will we know when next week's game is?

 

I would really really appreciate a Saturday night slot.

 

It's believed to be Sunday 1pm start. Reports came out that FOX will be in Chicago for the early game Sunday.

 

I hope so. Joe Buck mentioned he assumed he would do Bears-Eagles.

 

If I had to guess

 

Saturday 3pm Colts/Titans vs Houston

Saturday 7pm. Seattle vs Dallas

Sunday noon Eagles vs Bears

Sunday 330pm Chargers vs Ravens

 

Yeah. They aren't going to make a west coast team play a 10am game their time.

[Butterscup]

What a hell of a year it has been. It's fun to love this team again. Let's keep it rolling.

[Tim]

If you search my posts from preseason, I'm pretty sure I was confidently predicting a 12-4 season or better.

 

 

(not)

[TarzanJoeWallis]

 

It's believed to be Sunday 1pm start. Reports came out that FOX will be in Chicago for the early game Sunday.

 

I hope so. Joe Buck mentioned he assumed he would do Bears-Eagles.

 

If I had to guess

 

Saturday 3pm Colts/Titans vs Houston

Saturday 7pm. Seattle vs Dallas

Sunday noon Eagles vs Bears

Sunday 330pm Chargers vs Ravens

 

Yeah. They aren't going to make a west coast team play a 10am game their time.

I know the league screwed over the Bears earlier in the season when they flexed them to Sunday night before the Thanksgiving game, but if the Colts win tonight I have a hard time believing they’ll make a road Sunday night team play the first playoff game on Saturday.

[Wilson A2000]

Twitter is saying looking like Saturday afternoon. Lower 40*s for a January game is nice.

[David]

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yay

[raw]

 

I hope so. Joe Buck mentioned he assumed he would do Bears-Eagles.

 

If I had to guess

 

Saturday 3pm Colts/Titans vs Houston

Saturday 7pm. Seattle vs Dallas

Sunday noon Eagles vs Bears

Sunday 330pm Chargers vs Ravens

 

Yeah. They aren't going to make a west coast team play a 10am game their time.

I know the league screwed over the Bears earlier in the season when they flexed them to Sunday night before the Thanksgiving game, but if the Colts win tonight I have a hard time believing they’ll make a road Sunday night team play the first playoff game on Saturday.

 

Well, they are making the Chargers play a 10am LA time game.

[raw]

And the winner of this game will play the playoff opener.

[Forgotmyoldlogin]

 

Yeah. They aren't going to make a west coast team play a 10am game their time.

I know the league screwed over the Bears earlier in the season when they flexed them to Sunday night before the Thanksgiving game, but if the Colts win tonight I have a hard time believing they’ll make a road Sunday night team play the first playoff game on Saturday.

 

Well, they are making the Chargers play a 10am LA time game.

Yeah but no one cares about the Chargers.

[TarzanJoeWallis]

And the winner of this game will play the playoff opener.

Well, so much for what I said earlier!

[raw]

Really would prefer the 1pm slot.

 

Also of note, if the Bears win next weekend, they'd play the following Saturday night in LA.

[Soul]

When will we know when next week's game is?

 

I would really really appreciate a Saturday night slot.

My mom's been planning a surprise party for my grandma's 90th birthday... on Saturday night.

 

Sorry, grams.

 

I have a flight to Mexico Sunday morning... I'd arrive 10 min before kickoff and would literally have to sprint to the sports bar at the resort and hope that there isn't some soccer game that everyone cares more to watch.

I just came from there. Bears & Packer fans everywhere they had no choice but to oblige [emoji2]

[Wilson A2000]

How did Kyle Long look?

[Wilson A2000]

According to Pro Football Doc, Miller dislocated his shoulder again, but he could play next week https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/profootballdoc/sd-sp-pfd-anthony-miller-shoulder-bears-playoffs-1230-story.html

[Bertz]

 

Roquan Smith was 10000% right to hold out

[mul21]

I wonder what percentage of 12-4 teams win a bye historically. Has to be over 90%

 

Interesting that there are 2 just this season.

[Tim]

Bears defense ends up #1 in points allowed.

[Cubfanintheknow]

Great win in what essentially was a playoff game for the Vikings and a playoff atmosphere from the crowd. At least early on before the Bears crushed all their hopes and dreams.

 

The passed a good test with the victory.

[BigbadB]

Maybe I haven't been paying close attention on punt formations, but was it rather unusual that every guy on the front line for that punt attempt after the time out was a guy with a 40 #. It was the punt where they were going to punt, then they made a full roster switch, then called time out because Minnesota's defense looked prepared enough to not risk going for it. After that time out, there didn't appear to be a single guy on offense over 230 lbs.

[Tim]

While a team's point spread is a better measure of their dominance than the record (and better predictor of future success), I'd argue that there is a better measure than pure point spread.

 

A point spread has to be placed in the context of the point environment for that team. A 100 point spread when a team only allows 10 points in a year (so 110 points scored vs 10 allowed) is a much, much better result than when they allow 500 (600 ps, 500 pa).

 

A better measure of success is the point spread divided by the points allowed for each team. Here are the NFL leaders by that measure. The Bears just might be the best team in the NFL by a reasonable margin.

 

NFL Team              NPP
Chicago              48.8%
New Orleans          42.8%
Los Angeles Rams	 37.2%
Baltimore            35.5%
Kansas City          34.2%
New England          34.2%
Los Angeles Chargers 30.1%
Houston              27.2%
Indianapolis         25.9%
Seattle              23.3%
Pittsburgh           18.9%
Minnesota             5.6%
Philadelphia          5.5%
Dallas                4.6%
Tennessee             2.3%
Carolina             -1.6%
Atlanta              -2.1%
Denver               -5.7%
Green Bay            -6.0%
Cleveland            -8.4%
Detroit             -10.0%
New York            -10.4%
Tampa Bay           -14.7%
Cincinnati          -19.1%
San Francisco       -21.4%
Washington          -21.7%
Jacksonville        -22.5%
New York            -24.5%
Miami               -26.3%
Buffalo             -28.1%
Oakland             -37.9%
Arizona             -47.1%

[mul21]

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[raw]

Trubisky was 8-10 for 119 yards on 3rd down passing. He converted on 6 of those 10 third downs, with the only two non-conversions being a 9-yard completion on 3rd and 10, and a 5-yard completion on 3rd and 15 which came after he completed a 25-yarder which was wiped out by a bogus holding call on Kevin White. Also does not include him running for a conversion on 3rd and 5. None of the other 3rd down conversions were under 6 yards.

 

Trubisky had a really good game, that isn't necessarily reflected statistically. And he's been that good for the last 3 weeks. He also hasn't lost a game since October 21st.

[WrigleyField 22]

Trubisky had a really good game, that isn't necessarily reflected statistically. And he's been that good for the last 3 weeks. He also hasn't lost a game since October 21st.

Yup. For instance, only a QB rating of 85.9, but seemingly executed the game plan to a T, just ended up with three close runs to score TDs. And the run game and clock management (37 to 23 Top margin) was the conservative route to success yesterday.