Week 7: Bears vs Saints, Sunday at noon on FOX

[jersey cubs fan]

The Bears remain in the basement of the NFC North as the only team with a negative point differential. But they are in the discussion for the playoffs as long as they continue to win, however ugly those wins may be, during this stretch against lower level competition.
 

Chicago is a 5.5 point home favorite against the basement dwelling Saints. Plenty of crappy teams have beat good teams this season, and Chicago absolutely cannot afford to fall victim to one this week. Their three wins are against bad-to-mediocre competition, with no wins over a team currently over .500.

We should expect a TD+ victory. But this team still has so many faults, and struggles to finish offensively even when they put together solid drives. This is one where they should be able to finish consistently. If they don’t, the likelihood of making the playoffs will plummet. 

[BigSlick]

Yeah this is a game they simply cannot lose. The Saints may be the worst team in the NFC, you can't lose this at home. May be a good opportunity to clean some things up and tighten things up offensively and defensively (and hell, special teams, the kick coverage was really bad last night). 

I don't want to repeat my over-optimism last year when they hit 4-2 after beating some bad teams and then... what happened, happened. But they have a real opportunity to go on a run here, before they hit the real meat of their schedule. It would be super cool if they did. 

[Tryptamine]

I still don't believe they're more than say a 7 to 8 win team, but these last two wins have been huge for their confidence and they're going to need all they can get for that brutal last 1/3 of a season.

[The_Achiever]

After not getting Bears action for what felt like a month, I'm ready for this game right now.  Last night was fun, and not just because I decided to get randomly drunk for it.  

Happy Win with a Hangover Tuesday!

[bukie]

If the Bears D does anything in the 4th quarter against the Vikings in week 1, the Bears would be leading the division and have the 2nd best record in the NFL.

[Tryptamine]

22 minutes ago, bukie said:

If the Bears D does anything in the 4th quarter against the Vikings in week 1, the Bears would be leading the division and have the 2nd best record in the NFL.

The Bears of 2024 and earlier are 100% 1-4 right now. 

[bukie]

NFL Tiers after week 6:

Good news, the Bears are basically even with the 49ers and Eagles. Plus...they may have already played the best teams int he NFC East?

Bad news, there are really only 9 teams clearly worse than the Bears right now, though each of their next 4 opponents is in that list.

Defense has come a long way the past 3 weeks though.

[BigbadB]

I feel like the game plan this week will be similar to the Washington game. Rattler likes to throw it, has two legitimate receivers in Shaheed and Olave, and he likes to take off running like Daniels. If the Bears give Rattler time to throw deep, they could reel off some big plays against our defense. 

 

[Soul]

Kind of surprising to see the Saints aren't all that far off from the Bears on that graph though.  This Bears team cannot take any game for granted and can't consider themselves dominant over any other team.  They make mistakes, the offense is still developing (in the right direction, but still a work-in-progress).  The defense is better than I thought and they have some players back, but to me a defense that can't get pressure can make any QB look way better than he is.  I don't see the Bears blowing the Saints out.  24-20 Bears.

[gflore34]

3 hours ago, Soul said:

Kind of surprising to see the Saints aren't all that far off from the Bears on that graph though.  This Bears team cannot take any game for granted and can't consider themselves dominant over any other team.  They make mistakes, the offense is still developing (in the right direction, but still a work-in-progress).  The defense is better than I thought and they have some players back, but to me a defense that can't get pressure can make any QB look way better than he is.  I don't see the Bears blowing the Saints out.  24-20 Bears.

Don't trust the defense much, there's something building on offense though.  From the OL to Caleb while still learning of it's personnel and capabilities, it's improving, come late November/December I've no doubt they're going to be lethal and very dangerous.   Within the last the gauntlet of games there's going be a playoff bubble team hurting for win and the Bears are going to deny them.

Edited October 15, 2025 by gflore34

[Banedon]

On 10/14/2025 at 9:08 AM, jersey cubs fan said:

Their three wins are against bad-to-mediocre competition, with no wins over a team currently over .500.

Fun fact: The Lions have only one win against a team currently over .500.  That team is the Bears.

[Banedon]

1 hour ago, gflore34 said:

Don't trust the defense much, there's something building on offense though.  From the OL to Caleb while still learning of it's personnel and capabilities, it's improving, come late November/December I've no doubt they're going to be lethal and very dangerous.   Within the last the gauntlet of games there's going be a playoff bubble team hurting for win and the Bears are going to deny them.

I mean, the defense is generating turnovers pretty consistently.  They were much better against the run this week....against a team that had been running well!  The QB got a lot of yard scrambling, which sucked, but, while they are not a world beating defense, I feel like there was improvement this week.

[mul21]

4 hours ago, Soul said:

Kind of surprising to see the Saints aren't all that far off from the Bears on that graph though.  This Bears team cannot take any game for granted and can't consider themselves dominant over any other team.  They make mistakes, the offense is still developing (in the right direction, but still a work-in-progress).  The defense is better than I thought and they have some players back, but to me a defense that can't get pressure can make any QB look way better than he is.  I don't see the Bears blowing the Saints out.  24-20 Bears.

I don't know if they changed what they were doing, but it felt like the Bears were getting much better pressure on the QB in the 4th quarter than they were the rest of the game.  Maybe better effort, maybe the Washington line was tired, I don't know, it just seemed better late.

[BigSlick]

16 minutes ago, Banedon said:

I mean, the defense is generating turnovers pretty consistently.  They were much better against the run this week....against a team that had been running well!  The QB got a lot of yard scrambling, which sucked, but, while they are not a world beating defense, I feel like there was improvement this week.

I just feel like the Bears D generating turnovers is the equivalent of a slap hitter having a high batting average with an inflated, unsustainable BABIP. They aren't doing it because they're getting a lot of pressure on the QB (it was slightly better this past week. Slightly) They've just played some bum teams and one team who had a bad night in the rain. 

I'd love to be wrong, of course. 

[minnesotacubsfan]

On 10/14/2025 at 9:07 AM, bukie said:

NFL Tiers after week 6:

Good news, the Bears are basically even with the 49ers and Eagles. Plus...they may have already played the best teams int he NFC East?

Bad news, there are really only 9 teams clearly worse than the Bears right now, though each of their next 4 opponents is in that list.

Defense has come a long way the past 3 weeks though.

I know we like to bag on the D, but considering we beat Dallas as we did and looking at that chart makes me think the D is also developing, and maybe faster then the O!

[minnesotacubsfan]

4 hours ago, BigSlick said:

I just feel like the Bears D generating turnovers is the equivalent of a slap hitter having a high batting average with an inflated, unsustainable BABIP. They aren't doing it because they're getting a lot of pressure on the QB (it was slightly better this past week. Slightly) They've just played some bum teams and one team who had a bad night in the rain. 

I'd love to be wrong, of course. 

They’ve done it with a depleted secondary and no name LBs through a chunk of this 5 game set

[Banedon]

15 hours ago, BigSlick said:

I just feel like the Bears D generating turnovers is the equivalent of a slap hitter having a high batting average with an inflated, unsustainable BABIP. They aren't doing it because they're getting a lot of pressure on the QB (it was slightly better this past week. Slightly) They've just played some bum teams and one team who had a bad night in the rain. 

I'd love to be wrong, of course. 

The last one they obviously got very lucky on.  The Bears had almost nothing to do with that one other than recovering it.  But the rest of them they very clearly had something to do with.  Interceptions obviously require a mistake by the QB, but they have done a good job being in the right place at the right time on those.  And that first fumble was a pretty clear punch out.

[Soul]

I enjoyed watching Rodgers lose as a Steeler as much as when he was a Packer.

but that Cincy game on our schedule probably got a little harder.

[gflore34]

9 hours ago, Soul said:

I enjoyed watching Rodgers lose as a Steeler as much as when he was a Packer.

but that Cincy game on our schedule probably got a little harder.

At times, to me, Flacco runs hot and cold, he'll look like world beater in one game, next, he'll throw bad interceptions.  Flacco is a an improvement over Browning that much is true.

[jumbo]

9 hours ago, Soul said:

I enjoyed watching Rodgers lose as a Steeler as much as when he was a Packer.

but that Cincy game on our schedule probably got a little harder.

Flacco has been a huge help to my fantasy team. But I'd rather the Bears play against Browning, no doubt

[jersey cubs fan]

9 hours ago, Soul said:

I enjoyed watching Rodgers lose as a Steeler as much as when he was a Packer.

but that Cincy game on our schedule probably got a little harder.

Competent veteran QBs have eaten this defense up for a few years and Flacco could definitely do that. But he hasn’t exactly been a consistently productive QB for a long bit. He has weapons now. So he’s probably going to get a couple big hits. But if this team is any good they should be able to beat the Bengals. 
 

But remember, the Steelers aren’t that good. They’ve beat up dregs of the league, and the one good team they beat was led by Carson Wentz. 

[Derwood]

Flacco is also like 57 years old

He's one hard hit away from retirement

Edited October 17, 2025 by Derwood

[Brian707]

Weather looks a bit dicey Sunday. Rain and wind.

 

Bears can't have a letdown game against the Saints.

Bears 20 Saints 19

[Soul]

23 minutes ago, Brian707 said:

Weather looks a bit dicey Sunday. Rain and wind.

 

Bears can't have a letdown game against the Saints.

Bears 20 Saints 19

Yeah I’m not looking at the records on this one.  I think it will be close.

[BigSlick]

It would be nice to have a safe, handy, victory, but unfortunately I don't think the team is polished up enough yet and the weather is gonna be a mess so this will be a real slopfest