Week 9: Bears @ Bengals noon on CBS

[jersey cubs fan]

Bears might be slight favorites in a game most people assumed they’d lose back when Joe Burrow was alive. Joe Flacco has 7 TD and 0 INT as a Bengal but he’s listed as day to day. This Bears team has shown it does not really matter who plays QB against them. They can lose to anybody. 
 

A loss here puts a top 5 draft pick on the table as they might only get 1 or 2 wins the rest of the way if they can’t beat cincy. 

[The_Achiever]

Yeah, this is a must-win if the Bears want to do anything this season.  Cincy's defense is an abomination, would love to see the offense put up big points on these guys.  

[CubinNY]

This is a game they should win; it's not a must-win, but if they don't, it's real, real bad. 

[Derwood]

Losing to Jake Browning and Tyler Huntley in back to back weeks sure would be something

Edited October 29, 2025 by Derwood

[Brian707]

Bears fans all over still with the DOOM AND GLOOM

 

 

[BigSlick]

Everyone is a little too traumatized from 2024. It's ok folks, Eberflus isn't here to hurt us anymore. 

That being said, I'm more terrified of Jake Browning than Joe Flacco. The worse a QB is, the lower on the depth chart they are, the more I am convinced they are going to tear us apart. It's Cubs-vs-bad-rookies-they've-never-seen-before syndrome. 

Win the game, show some improvement from Caleb. But guess what, even if they lose, the world isn't over. Just go out there and have some fun folks. 

[jersey cubs fan]

This isn’t a Eberflus thing. This isn’t a Flacco, Browning or Burrow thing. This is a Caleb Williams thing. He’s shown no signs of improvement and I have no faith in him turning things around. He’s had more weapons than any Bears QB in history and doesn’t want/know how to use them. They’ve only beat bad teams this year, they have a negative point differential despite only playing one good team. They’ve barely squeaked out two of their wins against two teams that have been outscored significantly. 
 

It’s week 9 of year two for a first overall pick. Caleb needs to be a lot better. It’s way too easy to list a bunch of names that are better than him at his position and that should not be the case. 

[BigSlick]

3 hours ago, jersey cubs fan said:

I have no faith in him turning things around.

Why?

[Derwood]

2024 QB draft class:

1. Caleb - 62%, 1636 yds, 9 TD, 4 INT
2. Daniels - 61%, 1031 yds, 8 TD, 1 INT (5 games)
3. Maye - 75%, 2026 yds, 15 TD, 3 INT
8. Penix Jr. - 61%, 1409 yds, 5 TD, 3 INT
12. Nix - 63%, 1803 yds, 15 TD, 5 INT
150. Rattler - 68%, 1586 yds, 8 TD, 5 INT
 

[jersey cubs fan]

40 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

Why?

Did you not read my post? It’s week 9 of year two and he’s regressing. There are zero signs of improvement. His limited successs this season has been escape jobs vs bad teams, with one big win against a bad team. He faced one good team this year and horsefeathers the bed. The schedule gets way tougher in the second half. I don’t see any signs of hope. The head coach has had success in the past but working with QBs nothing like Caleb. 

[CubinNY]

11 hours ago, jersey cubs fan said:

Did you not read my post? It’s week 9 of year two and he’s regressing. There are zero signs of improvement. His limited successs this season has been escape jobs vs bad teams, with one big win against a bad team. He faced one good team this year and horsefeathers the bed. The schedule gets way tougher in the second half. I don’t see any signs of hope. The head coach has had success in the past but working with QBs nothing like Caleb. 

I agree, obviously progress is not always linear, but it is tangible and measurable. We need to see something even in a losing game. 

[mul21]

12 hours ago, jersey cubs fan said:

Did you not read my post? It’s week 9 of year two and he’s regressing. There are zero signs of improvement. His limited successs this season has been escape jobs vs bad teams, with one big win against a bad team. He faced one good team this year and horsefeathers the bed. The schedule gets way tougher in the second half. I don’t see any signs of hope. The head coach has had success in the past but working with QBs nothing like Caleb. 

This is just a little too doom bonery.  If we're having this same conversation in week 12/13/14, then I'm on board but all the bad habits Caleb has that have to be broken is something that's not going to happen overnight.  He's played sandlot football for 5+ years and getting him to play on schedule and in rhythm when he's never done it before is going to be a challenge but I don't think he's a lost cause yet when we're 7 games into him having a coach who actually knows what he's doing.

[gflore34]

47 minutes ago, mul21 said:

This is just a little too doom bonery.  If we're having this same conversation in week 12/13/14, then I'm on board but all the bad habits Caleb has that have to be broken is something that's not going to happen overnight.  He's played sandlot football for 5+ years and getting him to play on schedule and in rhythm when he's never done it before is going to be a challenge but I don't think he's a lost cause yet when we're 7 games into him having a coach who actually knows what he's doing.

This doom bonery completely ignores what happens when he does play on schedule and in rhythm.  When seen flashes of it in every game, Caleb and the offense are lethal during those flashes.  Just need those flashes to become the norm rather than flashes.

[BigSlick]

I just don't really think Caleb has regressed as such - at worst he's been static. There's one area he's made leaps and bounds improvement: avoiding sacks, where he's cut his sack rate in half. 

I just don't vibe with "I see no signs of hope" thing. If I felt that way I wouldn't watch the games, to be honest. And even if Caleb was playing markedly worse than he is now (which is absolutely subpar), I still wouldn't have zero hope. Maybe this is just a personality thing. I have hope because he's shown enough to me in the last year and a half and there's still plenty of time (we're still less than half of a season into Ben Johnson's career) and learning to go. I have faith in Ben Johnson's acumen. I don't feel the need to make any proclamation yet. I've said before and I'll say again, I'm not making any grand proclamation until after the season is over. And even if he's mediocre he probably still gets much of 2026 to play (and given how many late bloomers we're seeing now, why shouldn't he?). Why make any conclusion? 

I watched Caleb's All-22 and it is one of those things where if you watch his tape outside of the game flow it isn't bad at all - which is a huge dissonance with watching him play as the game is going. Watching him play within the context of the game, the offense (aside from the first two drives) felt anemic and scattershot, and then you watch him play outside of the narrative of a game and you're like "huh, this isn't that bad" and you can see how and why certain plays didn't work out.  But of course, within the flow of the game, it may have been disastrous. I can see why Ben Johnson was softer on Caleb, just looking at his tape abstracted from the game. 

I dunno, maybe I'm deluded and just a "hope springs eternal" kinda person. I absolutely overstayed the welcome on Justin Fields way until the end of 2023. 

Edited October 30, 2025 by BigSlick

[BigSlick]

I actually did completely give up watching the Bears between the Jay Cutler years and 2018 - those were years with literally zero hope. (I guess the John Fox years?) 

[Brian707]

I think the fear with Caleb is that he is going to turn out like Trevor Lawerence or Kyler Murray- a middling QB that you have to pay top dollar for. Not a Mahomes or Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen.

But people need to also stop freaking out 7 games into a regime change. I know he played last year, but lets pump the brakes until this season is over.

[jersey cubs fan]

5 hours ago, mul21 said:

This is just a little too doom bonery.  If we're having this same conversation in week 12/13/14, then I'm on board but all the bad habits Caleb has that have to be broken is something that's not going to happen overnight.  He's played sandlot football for 5+ years and getting him to play on schedule and in rhythm when he's never done it before is going to be a challenge but I don't think he's a lost cause yet when we're 7 games into him having a coach who actually knows what he's doing.

Every week we see no improvement the timeline for when it matters gets pushed back. Week 1 and 2 didn’t matter but check back in week 8. Week 9 doesn’t matter but check back in week 12. 
 

there has been no improvement. He’s gotten worse. Sure, he could improve eventually. But I have no faith that will happen. They have only played one good team so far this season and the results are not impressive. I don’t need to wait until they play actual good teams to express concern. 

[UMFan83]

Not that he's way off base but jersey's posts in this thread make me want to jump off a bridge

[We Got The Whole 9]

I don't much care what happens with the team if Caleb is not very good-great. Sure, it would be fun to make the playoffs but my optimism that it would be anything other than a forgotten one-off would be extremely low. 

Edited October 30, 2025 by We Got The Whole 9

[gflore34]

Main thing with Caleb is I do not believe the game is too fast for him, there isn't a processing problem such as with Justin and Mitch.  Everything else is fixable, will take some time and progress will be up and down but, it's fixable.  If there was processing problems with Caleb, Ben wouldn't have picked the Bears.

Edited October 30, 2025 by gflore34

[Old Style]

1 hour ago, Brian707 said:

I think the fear with Caleb is that he is going to turn out like Trevor Lawerence or Kyler Murray- a middling QB that you have to pay top dollar for. Not a Mahomes or Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen.

But people need to also stop freaking out 7 games into a regime change. I know he played last year, but lets pump the brakes until this season is over.

Who’s freaking out? Bringing up genuine concerns is not freaking out. The dude was a #1 overall draft pick. It’s OK to have some expectations. 

[Soul]

6 hours ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

I don't much care what happens with the team if Caleb is not very good-great. Sure, it would be fun to make the playoffs but my optimism that it would be anything other than a forgotten one-off would be extremely low. 

I don’t know.  I think of BJ as a coach who can put together a consistent winning team without a great QB.  I want Caleb to be a top QB too but more than anything I want a winning team.  And if Caleb is a bust we move on and win without him.  It can be done. 

[UMFan83]

Damn Swift and Roshon out so the backfield is a 7th round rookie, a WR with a bad groin and a ST guy

[Wilson A2000]

On 10/30/2025 at 4:45 PM, gflore34 said:

Main thing with Caleb is I do not believe the game is too fast for him, there isn't a processing problem such as with Justin and Mitch.  Everything else is fixable, will take some time and progress will be up and down but, it's fixable.  If there was processing problems with Caleb, Ben wouldn't have picked the Bears.

Ben Johnson didn’t want the Commanders to draft Daniels, right? He wanted their middling veteran. Maybe he doesn’t know QBs like we think. 

[Outshined_One]

37 minutes ago, Wilson A2000 said:

Ben Johnson didn’t want the Commanders to draft Daniels, right? He wanted their middling veteran. Maybe he doesn’t know QBs like we think. 

Wasn't that just a sour grapes leak from the Commanders camp when Johnson stayed with the Lions?