Week 6: Saints at Bears Sunday at 3:25 (2weeks2stew)

[NOLA]

Watching the "Should've Been Bowl" between KC and Hou was painful at best.

 

Mahomes should have been picked off twice in addition to one time he was - we're always reading this about Mitch. Mahomes and Watson both looked terrible at times, made dumb mistakes, Mahomes threw the ball up grabs on several occasions. I'd imagine most would still take either over Mitch and rightfully so, for the most part Mitch has been terrible.

 

Keep hearing about a "good" Saints defense, don't see it, statistically, they're middle of the pack perhaps, it's the sacks, think it's the only statistic in which they're top 10. Do not think it unreasonable that the Bears should be able to move the ball and score some points.

The D had a rough start against Houston and the Rams but has been lights out since then, especially vs the run. Here's how RB's have fared against them in the last 4 weeks:

 

Chris Carson 15 CAR 52 YDS 3.5 AVG

Ezekiel Elliott 18 CAR 35 YDS 1.9 AVG

Ronald Jones II 9 CAR 35 YDS 3.9 AVG

Leonard Fournette 20 CAR 72 YDS 3.6 AVG

 

They also have had Rankins and Onyemata return to the D line and are running 9 deep there now. The front 7 is definitely the strength of the defense. Lattimore is becoming a shut down corner, but on the opposite side Eli Apple has been picked on a bit.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Stopping the run doesn't matter.

[gflore34]

Stopping the run doesn't matter.

 

It does matter, especially vs. the Bears, right now, if they resort to relying on Mitch and the passing game that's almost a guaranteed Bear loss. They've got to be patient with running game, keep pounding, eventually, it'll start to be effective.

[raw]

Watching the "Should've Been Bowl" between KC and Hou was painful at best.

 

Mahomes should have been picked off twice in addition to one time he was - we're always reading this about Mitch. Mahomes and Watson both looked terrible at times, made dumb mistakes, Mahomes threw the ball up grabs on several occasions. I'd imagine most would still take either over Mitch and rightfully so, for the most part Mitch has been terrible.

 

Keep hearing about a "good" Saints defense, don't see it, statistically, they're middle of the pack perhaps, it's the sacks, think it's the only statistic in which they're top 10. Do not think it unreasonable that the Bears should be able to move the ball and score some points.

 

Shouldn't have to score too many. Other than a 31-point outburst against the terrible Tampa Bay defense, the Saints under Bridgewater have scored 9, 12, 20, and 13 offensive points in 4 of 5 games. Put up 33 against Seattle on the road, but got a defensive and special teams TD, and 1 of their 2 offensive TDs on a 28-yard drive.

 

That being said, I'd really like to see 4-5 scoring drives in this game by the Bears offense. Whether that's 2 TDs, 3 FGs, or 3 TDs, 1 FG. I'll feel a lot better if the Bears can put up 22+ against a decent defensive team. Trubisky played pretty well out of the bye last year vs. Miami. But he played his worst game after coming back from the same injury last year. So which Mitch we get will determine the outcome of this game.

[jersey cubs fan]

Watching the "Should've Been Bowl" between KC and Hou was painful at best.

 

Mahomes should have been picked off twice in addition to one time he was - we're always reading this about Mitch. Mahomes and Watson both looked terrible at times, made dumb mistakes, Mahomes threw the ball up grabs on several occasions. I'd imagine most would still take either over Mitch and rightfully so, for the most part Mitch has been terrible.

 

Keep hearing about a "good" Saints defense, don't see it, statistically, they're middle of the pack perhaps, it's the sacks, think it's the only statistic in which they're top 10. Do not think it unreasonable that the Bears should be able to move the ball and score some points.

 

Shouldn't have to score too many. Other than a 31-point outburst against the terrible Tampa Bay defense, the Saints under Bridgewater have scored 9, 12, 20, and 13 offensive points in 4 of 5 games. Put up 33 against Seattle on the road, but got a defensive and special teams TD, and 1 of their 2 offensive TDs on a 28-yard drive.

 

That being said, I'd really like to see 4-5 scoring drives in this game by the Bears offense. Whether that's 2 TDs, 3 FGs, or 3 TDs, 1 FG. I'll feel a lot better if the Bears can put up 22+ against a decent defensive team. Trubisky played pretty well out of the bye last year vs. Miami. But he played his worst game after coming back from the same injury last year. So which Mitch we get will determine the outcome of this game.

Mitch sucked at the beginning of the Miami game. Bears were expected to blow them out but did nothing early and allowed the defense to get heat stroke.

[BigbadB]

Not sure if I understand the promotion of Abdullah Anderson. Bars is still on the practice squad, right?

[jersey cubs fan]

[BigbadB]

 

Ahh. I spoke too soon.

[WrigleyField 22]

Well that sucks.

[jersey cubs fan]

Mitch is expected to practice in full

[NOLA]

Kamara and Jared Cook ruled out for Sunday. That is going to make things pretty dicey for the Saints. I'd expect a larger roll for Taysom Hill at QB Sunday to get the offense moving.

[UMFan83]

Well good break for us re: Saints injuries.

 

Unfortunately with Maholmes out I realized the Bears don’t play the Chiefs until Week 16 so we can’t take advantage there.

 

But the rest of the North also plays the Chiefs. When are their games?

 

Packers: next week

Vikings: week after

 

Ugh

[raw]

I actually think the Saints run offense gets tougher to stop without Kamara. Latavius Murray is a good tough runner, who will run more straight ahead, inside the tackles than Kamara typically. I feel like the Bears are better against quicker backs that try to jump cut laterally than just hit the hole straight ahead. They've stopped smaller, quicker guys like Dalvin Cook and Philip Lindsay. But they gave up some to bigger backs like Jacobs and even in that same Broncos game where they shut down Lindsay, they gave up nearly 5 ypc to Freeman. The Saints have a really good OL too, and I'd imagine the gameplan will look a lot like the Raiders game.

 

In the pass game, they don't have to worry about Murray as much as Kamara, which will be huge. They can pay extra attention to Michael Thomas. But the key with or without Kamara is to rush Bridgewater and get him off his spot. He had a really bad knee injury and still hasn't played much the last 3 years. He's not extremely mobile and can be forced into bad throws on the move.

 

Offensively, gotta get a run game going. Hopefully, NOT having Kyle Long anymore and Leno's soul searching during the bye week is enough to get this group putting a hat on somebody. Robinson will likely see a lot of Marshon Lattimore, a top 5-10 CB in the league. I wouldn't completely shy away from Robinson, because he can get the ball over anyone, but someone else has to step up. Gabriel is back after a few weeks off, but his last game was a 3 TD performance. Anthony Miller, Trey Burton and Tarik Cohen showing up in the pass game would be welcomed too. Mitch needs all the help he can get. Don't imagine he'll be great today with a few weeks off and against a solid defense with a good pass rush.

 

Defense should be hungry after their last game. I'd vote the under in this one. Bears should win, and while over 20 points would be very encouraging, I'm thinking this game could settle in the 17-9 range.

[NOLA]

Latavius Murray has been completely unimpressive so far this season. Kamara’s toughness between tackles beyond his shiftiness is what makes him a special RB. The Saints run game will absolutely suffer today. Again, if the Saints can pull this off, I’d expect Taysom Hill to play a big role.

[UMFan83]

3 and out followed by a special teams blunder for a safety. Great start coming off the bye

[OleMissCub]

3 and out followed by a special teams blunder for a safety. Great start coming off the bye

 

Getting out of that with a safety was one hell of a victory for the Bears

[UMFan83]

Bears are never going to be able to move the ball effectively until they get the run game going. Looking at that last drive, the Saints aren’t really putting a lot of guys in the box to stop the run because they don’t need to. Then Mitch drops back and there are no receivers open.

 

I think the offensive line is a huge reason why but when the running game is this bad, part of the reason has to be the running backs too. Bears might have botched their offseason approach to the RB position.

[UK]

I'm going to dislike every Bears' QB for as long as I live.

[Wilson A2000]

[UMFan83]

Why does it have to be a bottom 5 offense? Why can’t we just have a slightly below average offense to go with our dominant defense? It would make games so much more enjoyable if we could occasionally drive down the field and score points more than 1-2 times a game, but instead it’s like stabbing yourself in the eye to watch bears games

[Soul]

II think we’re seeing the real bears now

[UMFan83]

II think we’re seeing the real bears now

 

2001-2002 Bears are remarkably similar to the 2018-2019 Bears

[SpongeWorthy]

lol we’re a trash team now

[UMFan83]

Needed that big time

[Wilson A2000]

Special teams and defense might have to do all the scoring today for the Bears