Bears Week 1 vs Titans: Sunday 9/8 noon on Fox

[Brian707]

35 minutes ago, BigbadB said:

I shoulda tossed a few bucks at the Bears winning it all. I'm not anticipating it, but I was in Las Vegas for 2 damn weeks. I blame not doing it on getting Covid the moment I got there. Kinda ruined the whole trip.

Not sure what state you live in but Circa sportsbook has the Bears at 51-1. Most other books are in the 30-1 range. I might throw a $20 on it

[Derwood]

ESPN power rankings start the Bears at #19. Fair start until they prove otherwise.

They have the 10th easiest schedule in the league.

Carolina is dead last (nice) while the Patriots are #31, have a rookie QB, and the hardest schedule in the NFL

[Brian707]

2 hours ago, Derwood said:

ESPN power rankings start the Bears at #19. Fair start until they prove otherwise.

They have the 10th easiest schedule in the league.

Carolina is dead last (nice) while the Patriots are #31, have a rookie QB, and the hardest schedule in the NFL

Yeah #19 seems fair  They need to win week 1 because Houston and to a lesser extent Indy on the road will be tough 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

My first instinct was that 19 seems a bit low, but I guess it's probably fair.  

[CubinNY]

I saw a pop up story that said Flus was conservative with the offense in the 4th Q because he didn't trust Fields to make a play or not take a sack to put them out of field goal range. 

We shall see if the conservative play calling continues with the new OC and QB

[Derwood]

Week 1 maps are out. 
 

I’m 0 for 1 on seeing the Bears

[BigbadB]

11 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Week 1 maps are out. 
 

I’m 0 for 1 on seeing the Bears

Plenty of bars with Sunday Ticket.

[mul21]

13 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Week 1 maps are out. 
 

I’m 0 for 1 on seeing the Bears

Methstreams is very reliable for me.

[Brian707]

12 minutes ago, BigbadB said:

Plenty of bars with Sunday Ticket.

For those that have Fanduel, just opt in bet $5 on the Thursday or Friday game and receive a 3 week free trial of Sunday Ticket thru Youtube. 

Me personally, hate going to bars when my team is playing. 

[gflore34]

21 hours ago, CubinNY said:

I saw a pop up story that said Flus was conservative with the offense in the 4th Q because he didn't trust Fields to make a play or not take a sack to put them out of field goal range. 

We shall see if the conservative play calling continues with the new OC and QB

Seems reasonable, however, I don't agree what that coaching philosophy, if you don't trust your players how the horsefeathers are they ever going to be confident in themselves?

[gflore34]

I'm over the Cubs for this season, can't wait for Sunday, I'm very hopeful, Caleb may not light-up the league, but, I'm certain he won't be as terrible as Mitch and Justin.

[jb10194]

I'm not sure if I can share it on here, but there is a solid Bears discord server that live streams each game and RedZone. If anyone is interested, I can try to DM an invite.

[jumbo]

Saw someone on Twitter who was reposting every year the #1 pick record versus the league. It's 0-14-1 

Can Caleb and the Bears break this streak?? 

[Tank]

2 hours ago, Derwood said:

Week 1 maps are out. 
 

I’m 0 for 1 on seeing the Bears

Where you at man? Bears coverage stretches pretty far.

[minnesotacubsfan]

7 minutes ago, jumbo said:

Saw someone on Twitter who was reposting every year the #1 pick record versus the league. It's 0-14-1 

Can Caleb and the Bears break this streak?? 

Do you mean their first game?

[We Got The Whole 9]

17 minutes ago, minnesotacubsfan said:

Do you mean their first game?

Has to. I'm curious who had the tie and who was the last to win. 

[UMFan83]

On 9/2/2024 at 3:14 PM, Derwood said:

ESPN power rankings start the Bears at #19. Fair start until they prove otherwise.

They have the 10th easiest schedule in the league.

Carolina is dead last (nice) while the Patriots are #31, have a rookie QB, and the hardest schedule in the NFL

The Ringer has them at 12 which kind of surprised me.  I really don't know what to expect from the Bears this year.  12 wins wouldn't shock me, ut neither would 6.  Because of that I think somewhere around 15 or 16 seems reasonable.

(omg umfan is talking about power rankings)

 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

2 hours ago, mul21 said:

Methstreams is very reliable for me.

The Bears reddit has a discord with a guy who does a stream of the game that's always HD and reliable.

[Tryptamine]

46 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

The Ringer has them at 12 which kind of surprised me.  I really don't know what to expect from the Bears this year.  12 wins wouldn't shock me, ut neither would 6.  Because of that I think somewhere around 15 or 16 seems reasonable.

(omg umfan is talking about power rankings)

 

6 would be a major disaster. This is a far more talented team than the one that won 7 games last year and ,outside of epic collapses, really should have won as many as 10. 8 is about as low as I consider not a big disappointment. My guess is somewhere between 11-8 wins this year. They'll lose a couple games they shouldn't because rookie quarter back and they'll win a couple they probably shouldn't because Caleb flashes.  

Edited September 4, 2024 by Tryptamine

[Derwood]

1 hour ago, Tank said:

Where you at man? Bears coverage stretches pretty far.

Ohio. We have PIT vs ATL

[Brian707]

It seems like the Pit/ATL game is the main one. Bears Titans seems to be upper midwest thru northern Mississippi only.

 

I would think the Bears would be a bigger draw to have a larger audience than Pit/ATL

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Yeah, it's hard to make hard predictions about any NFL season because it's such a high-variance sport.  A single flukey bounce can change a win or loss, and each game is 6% of your season.  Then throw in injuries, an NFL season is a meat-grinder and the team you take into week 9 may not be the team you started with.

This team in particular is even harder to predict. Maybe I'm being a huge homer, but I don't think Williams is the downside risk.  He might not be the Patrick Mahomes 2.0 of our dreams, but I don't see how he's noticeably worse than Kyler Murray (3722 yards, 20 TDs, 12 INTs as a rookie) or Baker Mayfield (3725, 27/14 in 13 starts).  Bryce Young (2877 12/10) was pretty bad but I don't think he was on Williams' level as a prospect. The last 10A to really crap the bed as a rookie was Goff, who was widely considered to be "not nfl ready" going into his rookie season.

My main concern is that we need to see steps forward for our big 2022/23 draft classes and we may or may not see that.  I'm a big believer that at most positiosn for most prospects (i.e. not Williams-level superstars), year 2 and 3 is when you find out if you hit on the spot or not.  That covers:

Gordon, Brisker, VJJ, Braxton Jones, Robinson, Thomas, Wright, Dexter, Stevenson, Pickett, Scott.

I think all those guys have shown that they can be some sort of contributor if the NFL, but we don't really know how good, and we'll find out this season if they're actually good in their roles or just kinda there.

If this team falls apart, I think it's the defense that is the most likely culprit. It's sort of right on the cusp where if those guys take steps forward it could be really good, but it could also fall apart.  The defensive line is praying that Sweat can draw double teams *and* be productive, because there's not much else there unless some of those 2nd/3rd year guys take an unexpectedly good step forward.  

I think Bears fans overrate the non-Johnson secondary: Gordon, Brisker, Stevenson. It was definitely exploitable in coverage last season.  But again, those guys are in that "could take a step forward" category, and if they do, it *could* be one of the best secondaries in the league.  But if they don't, then it's not.

Actually, I guess I'm talking myself into this team more than I planned to when I started this post.  I don't really care if the defense is disappointingly average or even a little below average.  Screw defense.  I have a very hard time seeing this offense being anything but solid absent wide-spread injuries or a Caleb Williams season-ender, and it's an offense-driven league.  I have a hard time seeing this team win fewer games than last year.

[Tryptamine]

Reserved a table at this place near me that is supposed to resemble a "Wisconsin fishing bar" because that's very much my Dad's vibe. I called to make sure they will have the Bears game on. They will, but they weren't sure if the sound would be on. They have like 8 TVs in a smaller venue, but they might not have the sound on? It's noon on a Sunday at a bar, what could possibly be going on that would make it so that they can't have the sound on? I'm not sure if I should find a new place or not because it still seems like that can't possibly be right and I'm trying to keep it to a small venue where there's not a couple hundred people going nuts. By the way, if anyone has been here, opinions are appreciated

https://www.dukesnorthwoods.com/

 

Edited September 4, 2024 by Tryptamine

[jersey cubs fan]

33 minutes ago, Brian707 said:

It seems like the Pit/ATL game is the main one. Bears Titans seems to be upper midwest thru northern Mississippi only.

 

I would think the Bears would be a bigger draw to have a larger audience than Pit/ATL

The bears have been a national laughingstock for so long the networks aren’t going to count on them as a ratings driver until they prove it on the field.
 

They’ve played so many unwatchable games this decade 

[Tim]

14 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

The last 10A to really crap the bed as a rookie was Goff, who was widely considered to be "not nfl ready" going into his rookie season.

Can you at least do 1OA for first overall? 10A just makes me wonder what ten-A means each time.