Week 9: Bears @ Bengals noon on CBS

[gflore34]

Raise you're hand if you knew that somehow the Bengals we're going to recover the on-side kick.  Given they way the day had gone for the special teams, it was a slam dunk they we're going to recover.  Although, as many have mentioned, it was an extremely fortunate bounce for the Bengals and the Bears really did nothing wrong.  Just plain dumb luck.  I'm also glad Loveland was able to take it to the house, if he had been tackled immediately after the catch, they we're looking at around a 52-47 yard FG, can't count on noodle leg from there.

[Banedon]

 

[Wilson A2000]

10 minutes ago, Banedon said:

 

Oh my goodness!

[jersey cubs fan]

22 minutes ago, Banedon said:

 

Fortuitous shift pre-snap

[jersey cubs fan]

That’s a wild ass game. I mostly listened to first half and saw some of second half on red zone. Seems like special teams shat the bed. Somehow Caleb only had 220 passing yards before the game winner. And then delivered a very nice throw with Loveland doing the rest. Good to see the tight end contribute, and KM running all over the bengals. 
Defensively, it’s not that embarrassing to give up that much yardage to Flacco, who has shown he’s capable of doing that and has big weapons. But the lack of pass rush 4 years into Poles’ era is embarrassing. 
 

Thank god Green Bay has two bad losses now and Detroit refuses to run away with the division. Keeping hope alive into November is mildly enjoyable. 

[mul21]

13 hours ago, gflore34 said:

Just curious did it appear Higgins pushed the defender away on those TD catches?

The 44 yarder before halftime was absolutely OPI.  The defender has as much right to the ball as the offense and Higgins clearly pushed him in the back to get room to make the catch.  100% should have been called.

[minnesotacubsfan]

1 hour ago, Banedon said:

 

Mr Wright is a big man

[We Got The Whole 9]

I think Santos should be investigated for that miss. He didnt even look like he kicked it at half-'strength '. 

 

That was a truly embarrassing performance by the ST unit.

[Outshined_One]

14 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

I think Santos should be investigated for that miss. He didnt even look like he kicked it at half-'strength '. 

 

That was a truly embarrassing performance by the ST unit.

I hate that every hinky/weird play in sports for the foreseeable future will come with the nagging thought of, "I wonder if this will be Exhibit A at a criminal trial for illegal gambling in a few years?"

[jersey cubs fan]

36 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

I think Santos should be investigated for that miss. He didnt even look like he kicked it at half-'strength '. 

 

That was a truly embarrassing performance by the ST unit.

What happened? I saw he had one blocked but made all the rest. 

[Bobson Dugnutt]

4 minutes ago, jersey cubs fan said:

What happened? I saw he had one blocked but made all the rest. 

He missed one that thankfully was wiped out by a bengals penalty.

[BigSlick]

I suspect Santos still isn’t at full strength because we all know he doesn’t have a big leg but the misses he had yesterday were…weird. The blocked kick didn’t have the elevation you would typically see.
 

I’d probably bring Moody up, as inconsistent as he’s been, I have very little trust in Santos from anything beyond 45 at this point. 

Edited November 3, 2025 by BigSlick

[Old Style]

If he’s not at full strength then why the horsefeathers is he on the field? Moody was very solid. Think he only missed one. 

[Bobson Dugnutt]

If you have two kickers you have none.

[Old Style]

13 minutes ago, Bobson Dugnutt said:

If you have two kickers you have none.

We don’t have two, though. Santos should not be on an NFL roster. 

[UMFan83]

2 hours ago, BigbadB said:

The play at the end of the game to Loveland is the type of play Caleb should be having all day long. He's got nearly as explosive of a WR room as Cincinnati and he's still not seeing those plays. Way too many missed open receivers in his progressions. Ben is working on this. Once he does start hitting those receivers in stride on the regular, look out. The one other thing about Loveland's catch is he was WIDE open, and Caleb only seems to see those types of plays develop, rather than the guy who is just about to break his route. That and seeing the whole field in real time is what we need next.

The concern right now is these are pretty soft defenses that he's faced so far. Hopefully more of the pieces come together in the Giants game, because the training wheels will be off after that.

 

Side note on Cam Ward: To be fair, Caleb was not drafted by the worst team in the NFL. Carolina traded that pick to the Bears. Cam is like many 1.1's in that he doesn't have much to work with because he was drafted by the WORST team in the league. So it's not really fair to make any kind of assessments as to what he's shown so far. Outside of Calvin Ridley (who is hurt more often than he's not), you can't name a Tenn. WR. Dude is leading the league in getting sacked, also.

And if that isn't bad enough, look at Cam's opponents (in order) to start this season: Denver, LA Rams, Colts, Texans, Cardinals, Raiders, Patriots, Colts and Chargers. Brutal for a rookie QB. I'm not an advocate by any means, but he's had a tough go so far.

Also makes me question Maye's success a bit too.  No doubt he's been awesome, but the Pats have had the easiest SOS in the league this year by a large margin (their opponents winning percentage is .357, the 2nd easiest SOS so far is Buffalo at .431).  But not only that, they have the easiest remaining SOS in the league too by a decent margin (.358 vs. .382 for the 2nd easiest remaining SOS).

Jayden Daniels also had a really light SOS last year and we've seen the Commanders come crashing back down the earth with a more difficult slate this year (albeit with injuries including to Daniels himself)

But seriously though, the Pats schedule this year might be one of the easiest I've ever seen.  

[gflore34]

3 minutes ago, Old Style said:

We don’t have two, though. Santos should not be on an NFL roster. 

Santos, healthy or not, needs to be gone, keeping him puts a big limitation of FG attempts.  Not everyone of them is going to come from the 30 yard line and in.

[WrigleyField 22]

1 hour ago, mul21 said:

The 44 yarder before halftime was absolutely OPI.  The defender has as much right to the ball as the offense and Higgins clearly pushed him in the back to get room to make the catch.  100% should have been called.

No way is this OPI

 

[gflore34]

5 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Also makes me question Maye's success a bit too.  No doubt he's been awesome, but the Pats have had the easiest SOS in the league this year by a large margin (their opponents winning percentage is .357, the 2nd easiest SOS so far is Buffalo at .431).  But not only that, they have the easiest remaining SOS in the league too by a decent margin (.358 vs. .382 for the 2nd easiest remaining SOS).

Jayden Daniels also had a really light SOS last year and we've seen the Commanders come crashing back down the earth with a more difficult slate this year (albeit with injuries including to Daniels himself)

But seriously though, the Pats schedule this year might be one of the easiest I've ever seen.  

I was predicting the big leap from Caleb this season, I still believe it's going to happen unfortunately, it probably won't be this season.  Until then we'll see incremental improvement, little by little, as has been said Caleb' learning to play on schedule, trust the process, getting away from the backyard football that's served him well his whole career prior to be drafted.

[jersey cubs fan]

5 minutes ago, WrigleyField 22 said:

No way is this OPI

 

That’s a hell of a freaking catch 

 

also a reminder that without him getting injured and clock stopping in final minute bears probably lose 

[gflore34]

5 minutes ago, WrigleyField 22 said:

No way is this OPI

 

Did not appear their feet got tangled up, don't know how Wright, looking back for the ball, gets off the ball like that without a push. 

[mul21]

16 minutes ago, WrigleyField 22 said:

No way is this OPI

 

There was a different angle I saw that showed a clear push in the back.  None of those angles showed it.  And as gflore said, there's no way Wright goes flying like that without help.

[WrigleyField 22]

There's two angles, neither show a push.  Wright flailed for the ball because he is a below average CB. Clean clean clean. Any fan would flip of their WR was called for OPI there. 

 

Edit - three angles! 

Edited November 3, 2025 by WrigleyField 22

[jersey cubs fan]

2 minutes ago, mul21 said:

There was a different angle I saw that showed a clear push in the back.  None of those angles showed it.  And as gflore said, there's no way Wright goes flying like that without help.

Guys running that fast down the field side by side go flying with incidental contact all the time. If that was a Bears receiver and OPI was called everybody would be livid. 
 

it wasn’t opi 

[mul21]

Just now, jersey cubs fan said:

Guys running that fast down the field side by side go flying with incidental contact all the time. If that was a Bears receiver and OPI was called everybody would be livid. 
 

it wasn’t opi 

I guess you're the expert.