Week 9 - Bears (4-3) @ Cardinals (4-4), 3:05 p.m. Sunday 11/3

[CubinNY]

Never would have guessed this (from the Athletic):

• Eberflus is 0-17 in road games on Sundays (he’s 3-17 on the road overall). The Bears’ last Sunday road win came on Dec. 26, 2021, in Seattle.

 

[UMFan83]

I'll still take Caleb over Jayden but figures that the Commanders are the fun sexy team that players want to go to while we're falling apart over here with players questioning the coach, etc.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/42154288/sources-players-want-traded-commanders-deadline

 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I'm sure Bears internet had a good week of freaking out and calling for everyone's heads. It was probably good for my mental health to avoid everything for a week. 

Looks like Brisker is still out. Which solidifies the point that you never really have a position locked down safely in the NFL, especially on defense.  It's the Not For Long league.  We could very easily be drafting a safety next draft.  Personally, I've never been Brisker's biggest fan and wouldn't necessarily lock him in long-term regardless of health.

One of the underrated storise for me earlier in the season was how the Bears had weathered a lot of OL injuries, but that finally hit the breaking point last week with even more injuries and now it's in shambles.  WTF is a Jake Curhan but apparently he's been activated from the PS.

So we're down to a starting OL of

Borom (questionable)/Jenkins (qusetionable)/Shelton/Pryor/Wright with Davis, Kramer and Curhan as the backups?  That's ugly and thin.

If the Bears drop this game, another mid-tier conference opponent, we can stop talking about playoffs as more than a fringe possibility and go back to just Caleb-watching.


 

[BigSlick]

I’m gonna miss most of the game because I’ll be at a wedding, which, honestly will be best for my nerves. Just gimme the good or bad news doc and I can watch the replay without too much stress. Last week was tough. This week is: are you a serious team or not?

[jumbo]

11 hours ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

I'm sure Bears internet had a good week of freaking out and calling for everyone's heads. It was probably good for my mental health to avoid everything for a week. 

Looks like Brisker is still out. Which solidifies the point that you never really have a position locked down safely in the NFL, especially on defense.  It's the Not For Long league.  We could very easily be drafting a safety next draft.  Personally, I've never been Brisker's biggest fan and wouldn't necessarily lock him in long-term regardless of health.

One of the underrated storise for me earlier in the season was how the Bears had weathered a lot of OL injuries, but that finally hit the breaking point last week with even more injuries and now it's in shambles.  WTF is a Jake Curhan but apparently he's been activated from the PS.

So we're down to a starting OL of

Borom (questionable)/Jenkins (qusetionable)/Shelton/Pryor/Wright with Davis, Kramer and Curhan as the backups?  That's ugly and thin.

If the Bears drop this game, another mid-tier conference opponent, we can stop talking about playoffs as more than a fringe possibility and go back to just Caleb-watching.


 

My comment on page 1 of this thread discusses this as well, and I was assuming that Bates would be back to take snaps ahead of Davis. 

Amegadgie should always have been T4 at best (#1 swing tackle is T3). I can't imagine that Pryor wouldn't be better suited to be T3, moving out from G if/when needed ahead of Curran, but we didn't see that last week . I'd have to look at the actives/inactives from last week to see if there was no other way. 

The whole "best depth" statements from the team early on really make you wonder who they were watching. 

[BigSlick]

We had questions about three of the starters on the line even before injuries hit us, it’s no surprise the depth would be weaker. It’s concerning, though the fact they could effectively run the ball even when getting ravaged by injuries last week is comforting. Hope both Caleb and the game plan is prepared for pressure.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I think the fact that we were up to 7 or 8 injured linemen at one point is the issue.  The depth actually has been pretty good.

[raw]

19 hours ago, CubinNY said:

Never would have guessed this (from the Athletic):

• Eberflus is 0-17 in road games on Sundays (he’s 3-17 on the road overall). The Bears’ last Sunday road win came on Dec. 26, 2021, in Seattle.

 

Stats are weird when you completely tank 1 season and start 0-5 the next season. They don't have an issue winning on the road on Sundays. They have an issue winning, because almost half the time, they weren't capable of it.  Since they've been capable of winning games (aka not tanking, not having a UDFA rookie starting, and taking out 0-5 start last year), they are 8-6 with 3 games they had a 90%+ chance to win. 

[raw]

57 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

We had questions about three of the starters on the line even before injuries hit us, it’s no surprise the depth would be weaker. It’s concerning, though the fact they could effectively run the ball even when getting ravaged by injuries last week is comforting. Hope both Caleb and the game plan is prepared for pressure.

Arizona doesn't apply pressure. Last in the league in pressures (not last in sacks though). 

I also think the questions on the OL were overblown. I mean you had Jenkins health questions, Davis desire questions, questions on who would start at C, and then if the tackles could take a step. But all 6 of the guys who competed to start in camp were guys who have been average-ish or better in their careers. The injuries were predictable, but every team has had them.

[Wilson A2000]

Stevenson not starting today. Is the “that didn’t go over well in the locker room” referring to Tyrique’s benching or Tyrique pulling himself out of practice? 
 

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2024 by Wilson A2000

[UMFan83]

1 minute ago, Wilson A2000 said:

Stevenson not starting today

Get your house in order Flus

 

[Old Style]

Stevenson doubling down on the stupid decisions. Wonderful. 

[Wilson A2000]

More context. Not quite as bad as it seemed. Sounds like Tyrique went into the locker room only briefly and then came back out.

 

 

Edited November 3, 2024 by Wilson A2000

[UMFan83]

 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

3 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

 

How often does that happen to the average defense over a similar period? 

[UMFan83]

12 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

How often does that happen to the average defense over a similar period? 

thats the right question to ask.  but i dont know, its pile on Flus week though so I'm all for it lol

[PosterToBeNamedLater]

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if lots of defenses give up a go-ahead score late in the game just because so many games are close.  However, I do remember reading something when he was hired that even when his Indy defenses were ranked relatively high, they were last in the league in 4th quarter defense.  I remember wondering if it had to do with the fact that he stresses hustling all the time and maybe they tired out by the 4th quarter or whether it was because he has a relatively simple defense where players are supposed to do their job well as opposed to trying to confuse the other team and that by the 4th quarter, the other team got comfortable with calling the types of plays that would be successful.  

[SpongeWorthy]

sweat inactive too wtf

[Hairyducked Idiot]

4 minutes ago, SpongeWorthy said:

sweat inactive too wtf

Optimism fading quickly

[UMFan83]

Was Sweat even on the injury report? Yikes. By far the best pass rusher, starting nickel, starting safety, starting LT. All with the season “on the line” (not really but still) and the coaching staff under fire. Gonna be fun

[Hairyducked Idiot]

1 minute ago, UMFan83 said:

Was Sweat even on the injury report? Yikes. By far the best pass rusher, starting nickel, starting safety, starting LT. All with the season “on the line” (not really but still) and the coaching staff under fire. Gonna be fun

Yeah, he was questionable all week.

They could still easily turn it around, but the pieces are in place for a collapse if they lose today.  I'm not specifically worried about the coaching, but I am worried about the injuries, the strength of the division/second half schedule, and the potential to be down H2H tiebreaker on two key conference rivals.

I'm not interested in firing Eberflus for having a losing record in two tank years and one rookie QB year, but if he loses the locker room then you probably have to, and the locker room is starting to feel a little shaky and a loss today would really not help.

[Brian707]

19 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Was Sweat even on the injury report? Yikes. By far the best pass rusher, starting nickel, starting safety, starting LT. All with the season “on the line” (not really but still) and the coaching staff under fire. Gonna be fun

Bears 37 Cardinals 13

[BigSlick]

Offense and Caleb need to just go off and smother the Cardinals. They’re capable of it. Please give us a replay of the Cardinals game of last year, kthxbye

[Wilson A2000]

 

[Irrelevant Dude]

45 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

I'm not interested in firing Eberflus for having a losing record in two tank years and one rookie QB year

I'm interested in firing him to get a better coach.  I'm fine with the Rick Renteria treatment.