Gird Your Loi(o)ns - 11/19 noon on Fox

[jersey cubs fan]

The Lions are off to the start many predicted and many more scoffed at in the preseason. They squeaked by the Chiefs to open the season, blew out 5 bad teams, lost to a decent Seattle team and got their asses handed to them by Baltimore. This is a team that absolutely deserves to be on top of this division, and favored by 8 against the Bears, but is pretty clearly outside the top group of NFL teams. 
 

In other words, they are beatable. Detroit goes to LA this Sunday to face the enigmatic Chargers, who come into the game on the heals of two blowout wins, most recently against the boringly decent Jets. 
 

If Detroit wins big, the spread will widen. If they horsefeathers the bed, might it go back under a touchdown? If Fields is back the offense could theoretically be explosive. The defense is not the porous blob it had been over Eberflus’s first 20+ games. It is still easily exploitable by quality NFL veteran QBs, and Jared Goff is apparently playing like one of those things. 
 

A win here will go on the top of the resume when it comes to Eberflus positioning himself to stay through the rebuild. A hard fought loss won’t damage his reputation in the least. But another blowout loss is what most expect. 

Edited November 10, 2023 by jersey cubs fan

[BigSlick]

Sucks for Fields this is the game he's (most likely) coming back to. Going to Detroit to play the best team in the division (not high praise), and will likely be required to put some points up early and often to stay competitive in the game. Not ideal. It's too bad he wasn't healthy enough to return for Carolina, because we saw that a straw-filled dummy approximation of a Quarterback was all that was required to beat them. So it goes. 

Will be a big test of the defense. Don't expect to keep these guys under 20 points. They're gonna move the ball and score. It'll be nice to see what kind of pass rush they can get with Sweat another week into the system and in a dome. 

I'm also curious to see how the Oline holds up. Hopefully they give Fields a nice cushion to let himself ease back in. We shall see. 

[jersey cubs fan]

10 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

Sucks for Fields this is the game he's (most likely) coming back to. Going to Detroit to play the best team in the division (not high praise), and will likely be required to put some points up early and often to stay competitive in the game. Not ideal. It's too bad he wasn't healthy enough to return for Carolina, because we saw that a straw-filled dummy approximation of a Quarterback was all that was required to beat them. So it goes. 

Will be a big test of the defense. Don't expect to keep these guys under 20 points. They're gonna move the ball and score. It'll be nice to see what kind of pass rush they can get with Sweat another week into the system and in a dome. 

I'm also curious to see how the Oline holds up. Hopefully they give Fields a nice cushion to let himself ease back in. We shall see. 

Definitely not ideal, but I’d rather baptism by fire this stretch, and potentially final, run of Fields’s career in Chicago than keep putting off the inevitable. He needs to play well and produce in challenging circumstances to justify a 4th season. 

[Tryptamine]

Oh this is most definitely the game the Bears lose and probably by a decent margin and the meat heads go crazy about how Bagent won 2 of his 4 games and demand he start again, completely ignoring who those 2 wins were against.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

In before Fields is sacked 5 times and we argue over whether the offensive line was actually getting better or not

[jersey cubs fan]

2 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

In before Fields is sacked 5 times and we argue over whether the offensive line was actually getting better or not

The game is 9 days away there is no reason to rush. 

[BigSlick]

11 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

In before Fields is sacked 5 times and we argue over whether the offensive line was actually getting better or not

Will there be an argument at all? Barring any injuries, I think we've seen that this current Oline is at least competent (snaps aside) 

[jersey cubs fan]

Lions pulled off a big win on the road yesterday and are 9.5 point favorites in this game. It could be a let down game for Detroit, coming back from the west coast with the division well in hand. Chicago might be able to make a game of this if the defense continues to trend in right direction. 
 

But the bears don’t seem to be a team that benefits with more time for coaches to game plan the opponent. 

Edited November 13, 2023 by jersey cubs fan

[BigSlick]

No, the team gets actively worse when the coaches get more time to plan for the opponent, for some reason. Not a great indicator of the strength of the coaching staff. 

My heart says the Bears keep it close and they cover the spread, but my brain tells me they're gonna lose pretty handily. It'd be nice if Justin has a nice game and keeps it close though. 

[Tryptamine]

My prediction. Bears lose, Fields puts up a solid performance but doesn't win so the mouth breathers continue their chant about Bagent just being a winner and needing to be the starting QB. With that snark out of the way, I'd just like to see the defense continue to look solid and not backslide like they did in the Charger game. I'd like to see Justin take advantage of an improving Oline and limit his sacks. One thing I hope he did learn from Bagent was calling out blitzers at the line and switching the play to a quick slant or run. There's too many times where he has free rushers and he makes no adjustments at the line to do anything about it.

[Brian707]

Line is now +10.5, I think the Bears keep it within 10 as the Lions also play 4 days later against the Packers on Thanksgiving

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I'll waer this one: Fields isn't capable of running the game plan we used to win the Carolina and Oakland games.  You're never going to win a super bowl that way, but minimizing mistakes and milking clock is a way to avoid going, say, 6-25.   Would the Bears with Bagent be .500 the rest of the way? Absolutely not.  But was going 2-2 with him after going 6-25 with Fields entirely independent of their intrinsic QB traits? I don't believe so.

Fields has had exactly one start in his career in which he took zero sacks.  That was a loss to Green Bay last season, where the Bears had a two-score lead going into the fourth quarter and lost while the offense had possessions of 3:01, 1:57 and 1:07, two of which ended in Fields interceptions.

It doesn't matter though. All that matters is that neither of them starts another game for the Bears after this season.

Edited November 13, 2023 by Hairyducked Idiot

[Soul]

I think this is a really good test of a few things.  Is the OLine really getting better or is it kind of a mirage.  Is the secondary with starters back really pretty good, or was it just the Panthers.  Is Fields really going to look much better with what appears to be better protection than he had earlier in the season.

I don't think the Bears have to win to answer some of these questions.  I don't think they will win.  And they're going to have to score well over 20 points to make it close.

[BigSlick]

33 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

I'll waer this one: Fields isn't capable of running the game plan we used to win the Carolina and Oakland games.  You're never going to win a super bowl that way, but minimizing mistakes and milking clock is a way to avoid going, say, 6-25.   Would the Bears with Bagent be .500 the rest of the way? Absolutely not.  But was going 2-2 with him after going 6-25 with Fields entirely independent of their intrinsic QB traits? I don't believe so.

Fields has had exactly one start in his career in which he took zero sacks.  That was a loss to Green Bay last season, where the Bears had a two-score lead going into the fourth quarter and lost while the offense had possessions of 3:01, 1:57 and 1:07, two of which ended in Fields interceptions.

It doesn't matter though. All that matters is that neither of them starts another game for the Bears after this season.

Fields may be incapable of running the gameplay from Carolina and Oakland but that same game plan led to a 3 score loss against LA, and I think you'd likely have a similar outcome here. You can't play that way against a team that can put up points. 

I'm not out on Fields yet. I'm going to give him the final 7 games before I make a final evaluation. But to paraphrase Laurence Holmes, I've grabbed my jacket and I'm walking towards the door. He's gonna have to do a whole lot in these final games to sway my mind. Even if he does, I'm not sure I'd pass up a Caleb Williams if given the opportunity. 

Also, it doesn't really matter whatever me, you, or idiot sports callers decide. Ultimately that call rests entirely on the Bears organization. And they may already be out on him, or at least the coaching staff is (if the leaks about Getsy are right). 

Edited November 13, 2023 by BigSlick

[CubinNY]

2 hours ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

I'll waer this one: Fields isn't capable of running the game plan we used to win the Carolina and Oakland games.  You're never going to win a super bowl that way, but minimizing mistakes and milking clock is a way to avoid going, say, 6-25.   Would the Bears with Bagent be .500 the rest of the way? Absolutely not.  But was going 2-2 with him after going 6-25 with Fields entirely independent of their intrinsic QB traits? I don't believe so.

Fields has had exactly one start in his career in which he took zero sacks.  That was a loss to Green Bay last season, where the Bears had a two-score lead going into the fourth quarter and lost while the offense had possessions of 3:01, 1:57 and 1:07, two of which ended in Fields interceptions.

It doesn't matter though. All that matters is that neither of them starts another game for the Bears after this season.

That is a strong, doom boner post. 

My prediction is that the Bears are in the game but lose by a touchdown. Fields looks like Fields, which is to say, he holds the ball too long and somewhat makes up for it with his scrambling ability. Maybe has a few long passes to Moore, maybe a touchdown or two. But clearly, he isn't getting better. 

The defense holds the Lions down enough that it's a lower scoring game. 

[CubinNY]

1 hour ago, BigSlick said:

Fields may be incapable of running the gameplay from Carolina and Oakland but that same game plan led to a 3 score loss against LA, and I think you'd likely have a similar outcome here. You can't play that way against a team that can put up points. 

I'm not out on Fields yet. I'm going to give him the final 7 games before I make a final evaluation. But to paraphrase Laurence Holmes, I've grabbed my jacket and I'm walking towards the door. He's gonna have to do a whole lot in these final games to sway my mind. Even if he does, I'm not sure I'd pass up a Caleb Williams if given the opportunity. 

Also, it doesn't really matter whatever me, you, or idiot sports callers decide. Ultimately that call rests entirely on the Bears organization. And they may already be out on him, or at least the coaching staff is (if the leaks about Getsy are right). 

what are the leaks?

[BigSlick]

9 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

what are the leaks?

The theory from the Chicago sports media people was that the reason why Cris Collinsworth was so effusive in his praise for Bagent (and negative on Fields) during the LA game was that it all came from Getsy. I thought it was ridiculous when I heard it, but now I'm not so sure, honestly. 

 

[CubinNY]

3 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

The theory from the Chicago sports media people was that the reason why Cris Collinsworth was so effusive in his praise for Bagent (and negative on Fields) during the LA game was that it all came from Getsy. I thought it was ridiculous when I heard it, but now I'm not so sure, honestly. 

 

I thought it was from the running backs coach they fired. 

[minnesotacubsfan]

you guys, it could just be that Collingsworth is a giant douchebag. in fact, it's likely

Edited November 13, 2023 by minnesotacubsfan

[Tryptamine]

23 minutes ago, minnesotacubsfan said:

you guys, it could just be that Collingsworth is a giant douchebag. in fact, it's likely

There's no likely about it, he's a tremendous douche who, despite talking constantly, offers almost nothing of any actual substance. I've still never heard anyone say, "you know that Collinsworth is a really good announcer". 

[raw]

I believe Fields has historically played well against good teams. And he's played well indoors, other than last year's game in Detroit. Detroit's defense isn't great, but it's not terrible either. And they can rush the passer which works against Fields. But they can't cover that well on the outside, which plays into Fields hands. 

Anyway, Detroit wins going away and covers.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Pretty crazy to see the difference in usage with Montgomery. He has 6 catches in 6 games played. He still has the open field cutting ability working for him - check out the 75 yd rush TD yesterday - but he's also been a lot stronger fighting off tackles and pushing the pile. Having a really good season. I'm sure he's gonna be fired the horsefeathers up Sunday. 

 

Keep losing please.

Edited November 13, 2023 by We Got The Whole 9

[Outshined_One]

I feel like this is a game where Fields comes out in the first offensive drive with scripted plays and marches down the field for what seems like an easy TD, followed by the Lions slowly taking over on defense as the offensive play calls become more reactive, Fields starts making bad decisions by either not audibling out of Getsy's moronic plays and/or by failing to read disguised blitzes and coverage, and the Bears' defense gets worn down due to their inability to get off the field and the offense's inability to sustain long drives in the second half.

It'll be a team loss that does absolutely nothing to move anyone's needles regarding Fields because his defenders will have plenty of ammunition for the rest of the team and coaching staff being bad, and his detractors will also have plenty of ammunition regarding his bad decision making and slow passing mechanics.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

[minnesotacubsfan]

bears will win

 

[minnesotacubsfan]

the coin toss