Bears Week 14 at 49ers, 3:25 on FOX

[jersey cubs fan]

 

Bears are 3.5 point dogs against a flailing San Fran team and could theoretically win this game that everybody wrote off as a loss going into the season. 

[WrigleyField 22]

Bears need to win to push the fire Shannahan narrative.  

[UMFan83]

This is stupid to even suggest but is there a realistic scenario where the Bears could make the playoffs at 9-8?  100% agree there's almost no shot of going 5-0 against this schedule, but would be cool to see the players all get behind Brown and play the kind of football we were hoping they'd play all year.  Sort of like the Lions 2 years ago, except we had to fire our coach to get that spark.

Edit: And as I hit submit, I'm realizing that the 8-5 Commanders are the 7 seed and 9-3 Packers the 6 seed.  So basically theyd need either the Commanders to lose out, or go 1-3 the rest of the season and the Bears win some 3+ team tiebreaker (since they cant win H2H), or the Packers to lose out and the Bears win a tiebreaker.

Edited December 2, 2024 by UMFan83

[SpongeWorthy]

1 hour ago, WrigleyField 22 said:

Bears need to win to push the fire Shannahan narrative.  

yep, and get saleh to run the defense 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

4 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

This is stupid to even suggest but is there a realistic scenario where the Bears could make the playoffs at 9-8?  100% agree there's almost no shot of going 5-0 against this schedule, but would be cool to see the players all get behind Brown and play the kind of football we were hoping they'd play all year.  Sort of like the Lions 2 years ago, except we had to fire our coach to get that spark.

Edit: And as I hit submit, I'm realizing that the 8-5 Commanders are the 7 seed and 9-3 Packers the 6 seed.  So basically theyd need either the Commanders to lose out, or go 1-3 the rest of the season and the Bears win some 3+ team tiebreaker (since they cant win H2H), or the Packers to lose out and the Bears win a tiebreaker.

Yeah, like you said, even if we could get to 9-8 miraculously, and I doubt 9-8 would get in in the NFC and I doubt we'd be the 9-8 team that did.

[UMFan83]

3 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

Yeah, like you said, even if we could get to 9-8 miraculously, and I doubt 9-8 would get in in the NFC and I doubt we'd be the 9-8 team that did.

Because I'm a dork, I'm gaming this out but we're in decent position to win a 3 or 4 team 9-8 tiebreaker with Washington and LA Rams (or 49ers) for the 7th seed lol

And if the Packers did lose out and the Bears win out, I think we'd win the tiebreaker.  But obviously that's not going to happen.  None of this is going to happen but that's especially not gonna happen.

Edited December 2, 2024 by UMFan83

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I just want more focus on Caleb WIlliams' historic rookie season.  Now the bad man is gone and we can talk about other facets of the team.

Through 12 games, he's got 2612 passing yards, 14 TDs, 5 INTs.  That puts him on pace for 3700/20/7.  3700 woud be good for the 11th most by a rookie in NFL history.

He's already smashed all the Bears rookie passing records.  He needs 395 combined passing and rushing yards to beat Justin Fields' most productive season (2022).  

He is currently on the longest interception-less streak in NFL history by a rookie QB, having not thrown one since Week 6 against Jacksonville.

He is 15th in the NFL in passing yards, 16th in TDs, has the 5th lowest INT percentage, 

The number I've really got my eye on is 3838.  That's the all-time Bears record for passing yards in a season, held by Erik Kramer.  If WIlliams can average 246 yards a game down this final stretch, he passes that and takes the record.  It's not a gimme, but he's averaged 276 the last three games under Brown.  I'm hoping that the defense continues to struggle and we get into shootouts and garbage time the rest of the season.

For the first time with a rookie QB, we don't need to ask ourselves "can he be our franchise QB?"  The question is "how good of a franchise QB can he be?"    Will he plateau as a Kyler Murray type or can he keep growing and become a top-5 QB in the league?
 

[Brian707]

Williams also started out the season O TDs 4INTs, the lone pick was Jacksonville since then

[UMFan83]

19 hours ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

I just want more focus on Caleb WIlliams' historic rookie season.  Now the bad man is gone and we can talk about other facets of the team.

Through 12 games, he's got 2612 passing yards, 14 TDs, 5 INTs.  That puts him on pace for 3700/20/7.  3700 woud be good for the 11th most by a rookie in NFL history.

He's already smashed all the Bears rookie passing records.  He needs 395 combined passing and rushing yards to beat Justin Fields' most productive season (2022).  

He is currently on the longest interception-less streak in NFL history by a rookie QB, having not thrown one since Week 6 against Jacksonville.

He is 15th in the NFL in passing yards, 16th in TDs, has the 5th lowest INT percentage, 

The number I've really got my eye on is 3838.  That's the all-time Bears record for passing yards in a season, held by Erik Kramer.  If WIlliams can average 246 yards a game down this final stretch, he passes that and takes the record.  It's not a gimme, but he's averaged 276 the last three games under Brown.  I'm hoping that the defense continues to struggle and we get into shootouts and garbage time the rest of the season.

For the first time with a rookie QB, we don't need to ask ourselves "can he be our franchise QB?"  The question is "how good of a franchise QB can he be?"    Will he plateau as a Kyler Murray type or can he keep growing and become a top-5 QB in the league?
 

My favorite thing about Caleb so far:

• Week 8: Gets the ball at the Bears 38 yard line, down by 5, with 4:21 left in the game and leads the Bears on a 10 play, 62 yard, 3:56 TD drive to give the Bears a 3 point lead with 25 seconds left
• Week 11: Gets the ball at the Bears 30 yard line, down by 1, with 2:59 left in the game and leads the Bears on a 7 play 42 yard drive taking all the remaining time off the clock setting up a potential game winning 46 yard FG.  
• Week 12: Gets the ball at the Vikings 40 yard line, down by 11, with 1:56 left in the game and leads the Bears on an 8 play 40 yard, 1:34 TD drive, converts a 2 point conversion attempt, then after an onside kick is recovered leads the Bears on a 1 play, 27 yard drive to set up a 48 yard FG to tie the game.
• Week 13: Gets the ball at the Bears 1 (!!!) yard line, down by 3 with 3:31 left in the game and leads the Bears on a 12 play, 58 yard drive setting up a potential FG attempt to tie the game.

In the last 6 weeks, Caleb Williams has led the Bears on 4 different last minute drives to set the Bears up to tie or take the lead.  The fact that the Bears are 0-4 in those games does not diminish the fact that Caleb Williams has repeatedly stepped up in the biggest moments and gave the Bears a chance to win all of those games.

Edited December 3, 2024 by UMFan83

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Our team president or whatever not trusting our gm to do his job does not in any way make me feel better.

Save us from ourselves, Caleb 

[jersey cubs fan]

7 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

Our team president or whatever not trusting our gm to do his job does not in any way make me feel better.

Save us from ourselves, Caleb 

When Warren was asked initially who would have the final say on a coaching decision, he gave a 112-word answer about how he and Poles would work together, spending multiple hours a day identifying the right person for the Bears. Pressed on what would happen if they had dissenting opinions, he eventually said Poles would have the final voice. “We’ll work that out,” Warren said. “Ryan is the general manager. He’s the head of football operations, so he will have the final say if it ever got to that point, but I’m confident that we will work through it. … So long as we keep the center of our decisions what’s in the best interest of the Chicago Bears, our players, as we go forward, it will become clear as far as who is the person to lead this franchise from a football standpoint, from a coaching standpoint.”

[minnesotacubsfan]

Bo Nix goes 18/35 294 1 Td and 2 int and he’s lauded through out the game and afterwards. One can argue about how much he really had to do with the win, but hey broncos win and he’s the face of MNF

 

meanwhile, Caleb can’t horsefeathers buy a win

 

horsefeathers  Eberflus, 

[Brian707]

According to Kaplan anyway, Poles wanted to move on from Eberflus last offseason. 

Who knows the truth,  but either way what a clown organization 

[gflore34]

8 hours ago, minnesotacubsfan said:

Bo Nix goes 18/35 294 1 Td and 2 int and he’s lauded through out the game and afterwards. One can argue about how much he really had to do with the win, but hey broncos win and he’s the face of MNF

 

meanwhile, Caleb can’t horsefeathers buy a win

 

horsefeathers  Eberflus, 

Along with Daniels, irritating, ultimately, Caleb will the best of bunch, glad the Bears took the the best QB.

[gflore34]

I'm fairly certain many are thinking the Bears are going to roll over and 49ers are going to get "well".  Wouldn't be shocked if its the other way around, in any case, this game is certainly more winnable now than when scheduled first dropped.

[Wilson A2000]

1 hour ago, Brian707 said:

According to Kaplan anyway, Poles wanted to move on from Eberflus last offseason. 

Who knows the truth,  but either way what a clown organization 

George or Kevin kept that from happening?

[Brian707]

If true, probably George. They could have gotten out of Hard Knocks too lol

[Old Style]

Think I’m going to skip watching this and attend the Texas A&M-Texas Tech basketball game in FTW. 

[Tryptamine]

Both McCaffrey and his back up Mason will be headed to the IR, so the Bears will be facing SF's 3rd string RB.

[Outshined_One]

I'm not expecting it, but it seems like this is the best opportunity the Bears will have for a W the rest of the season.

[cwood218]

38 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Both McCaffrey and his back up Mason will be headed to the IR, so the Bears will be facing SF's 3rd string RB.

so we can expect 200+ yards rushing🤔

[jersey cubs fan]

17 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

I'm not expecting it, but it seems like this is the best opportunity the Bears will have for a W the rest of the season.

At 49ers or home vs Seattle later in season? My guess is if they are competent next couple weeks they might be a slight home favorite over Seattle. 

[Brian707]

Week 18 at GB might also be winnable. GB might lock up the 6 seed by then with no chance of improvement/ or dropping down to 7 seed. They might be resting people.

[jumbo]

2 hours ago, Wilson A2000 said:

George or Kevin kept that from happening?

I read that Warren wanted Eberflus fired, but Poles demanded he stay. Warren OK's Poles' decision. 

Poles wanted to fire Eberflus after New England game, ownership vetoed. Poles and Warren eventually convinced the McCaskeys

Is Warren justified based on the above to be involved or want to sign off on Poles' choice? If true, I think yes. Or you horsefeathers can Poles and pick a new GM.  

[We Got The Whole 9]

I said it several times in the offseason that although I pretty much never want to pay a RB top of the market deals I felt that we were well positioned to make a splash with Saquon and be fine with the cap for the duration of the deal. That would have just been huge for Caleb and the offense. Instead we pay slightly less for way worse.