Wild Card Week: Bears vs Packers Saturday 7pm on Prime

[bukie]

 

[Bertz]

 

 

[Banedon]

Ben Johnson basically said he doesn't like the Packers, and that it's a rivalry, and was very unapologetic about the handshakes and language usage after the game.  Love it.

[gflore34]

Watching some of film break downs one can see Ben badly out coached LaFleur/Hafley in the second half.  I mean Hafley, I guess because he's the Packer DC, is a supposed coordinating genius and Ben obliterated him.  Ben has his moments where he out thinks himself nevertheless, he's far and away the best Bears in the last 15 years, it's not even close. 

Another observation, from re-watching the game, 2nd half, Sweat and Dexter were monsters, most especially Sweat.  Numerous times Montez bummed rushed the Packers OL, knocking them to the ground, getting pressure on Love and effecting his throws.  Same with Gervon, he tossed the Packers C aside like he was nothing and pressured Love.

Finally, the Packers kicker, McManus, someone correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't he hurt for a bit and Packers brought in some guy from the street who set their franchise record for FG distance?  Whom the pushed back to the practice squad after McManus recovered?  I don't know, McManus might lesser legged version of Santos, I would have strongly considered staying with the big leg.  Very grateful the Packers chose to stick with McManus.

Edited January 12 by gflore34

[PosterToBeNamedLater]

3 hours ago, Banedon said:

National football sports talking heads do not know how to analyze the Bears...and it's understandable.  Like, there's a lot of "was this a great Bears comeback or a Packers collapse" and...obviously it's both, and also obviously, it's just a fun discussion topic to get eyeballs...but the idea that it was just sorta gifted to the Bears is so silly to me.  This is the 7th time this year they've done this!  At some point you have to call a spade a spade and just admit that this thing that nobody thinks is sustainable...sorta is for the Bears.  They are just really, really good at this.  Will they always pull it off?  Obviously not.  They couldn't against the 49ers or the Lions for one reason or another.  But it's a defining trait of this team at this point.

Richard Sherman in the postgame had me laughing when he was talking about the Bears being like Bane from the Dark Knight Rises.  He said something like, "We were born in the darkness, we've been coming back the whole season.  The packers, they merely adopted it.  You haven't lived this way.  You could see it with the lack of execution and mistakes down the stretch.  The bears are like, 'hey this is where we've been.  Welcome to the party. Oh the playoffs are different for you?' " 

I don't know if they are just great at halftime adjustments.  Or maybe with Ben's whole make different things look the same, his early plays help set up later plays.  Not that they aren't trying to be successful in the first half obviously, but things like the go-ahead touchdown to DJ.  Wasn't that the same play in the first half where they threw the screen?  Then at the end of the game all of the defenders bit at the fake to the screen and DJ is wide open for a score.  

[gflore34]

3 minutes ago, Banedon said:

Ben Johnson basically said he doesn't like the Packers, and that it's a rivalry, and was very unapologetic about the handshakes and language usage after the game.  Love it.

Me to, it was okay for Rodgers to be a disrespectful ass all those years.  Now the Packers are getting the same horsefeathers thrown right back their faces and it's bad?  horsefeathers them. 

[Brian707]

Give the Packers fans a break. They don't have horsefeathers to do now until summer besides drink and ice fish

[mul21]

7 minutes ago, PosterToBeNamedLater said:

I don't know if they are just great at halftime adjustments.  Or maybe with Ben's whole make different things look the same, his early plays help set up later plays.  Not that they aren't trying to be successful in the first half obviously, but things like the go-ahead touchdown to DJ.  Wasn't that the same play in the first half where they threw the screen?  Then at the end of the game all of the defenders bit at the fake to the screen and DJ is wide open for a score.  

It was actually the exact same play the Commanders used to take the lead against them earlier this season when they played.

But also to your point, the heavy package on the 2 point conversion was absolutely brilliant deployment of personnel.  The Packers only had one DB in the game and he split out wide left to cover Smythe or Kmet and that left Loveland 1 on 1 with a special teamer who essentially played zero defensive snaps this season.  Ben knew exactly the look he was going to get when he sent the heavy package in and they came out in the bunch formation to make sure it stayed that way before they motioned out to the spread formation they ran the play out of.

[mul21]

15 minutes ago, Banedon said:

Ben Johnson basically said he doesn't like the Packers, and that it's a rivalry, and was very unapologetic about the handshakes and language usage after the game.  Love it.

I didn't realize until way after the game that the handshake was a response to MLF being a douche about after the week 14 game when the Packers one.  He's such an arrogant tool.

[jersey cubs fan]

3 minutes ago, Brian707 said:

Give the Packers fans a break. They don't have horsefeathers to do now until summer besides drink and ice fish

Historically there is one other past time associated with a packers loss, but let’s hope that trend has discontinued. 

[gflore34]

Man that 2nd Caleb INT, if DJ doesn't slip that's an easy TD.  Would have been wide open.

[BigSlick]

Just realized how perfectly analogous this season, so far, is to the 2015 Cubs. New administration, a bunch of young guys coming up/drafted, a magical year where they come out of nowhere to make the playoffs and vanquish their hated rival. I guess we can assume they'll make the NFCCG and get plastered. 

Now, the real question is if 2026 matches 2016. 

[minnesotacubsfan]

4 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

Just realized how perfectly analogous this season, so far, is to the 2015 Cubs. New administration, a bunch of young guys coming up/drafted, a magical year where they come out of nowhere to make the playoffs and vanquish their hated rival. I guess we can assume they'll make the NFCCG and get plastered. 

Now, the real question is if 2026 matches 2016. 

I dont think you can assume anything, the Bears will write their own destiny

[raw]

Caleb was charted with 7 big time throws on Saturday. I think I read that was the most charted in the last 5 years? And man, this was an Arm Talent 101 performance. After the scripted drive to start the game, there were maybe 2-3 legit checkdown throws, another 3-5 maybe that were underneath throws, but everything else was in the 15-25 yard window, if not deeper (not including "& goal" situations with short fields). So just estimating, I'm guessing a solid 30+ throws that were legit pushing the ball down the field on in the end zone. 

So completion percentage be damned when you are taking all these big shots. It's like complaining about Steph Curry's shooting percentage being under 50% when he's shooting 45% from 3 (stole this comparison).

Don't let anyone tell you Caleb isn't a good QB. He will be a great QB once he takes what's given to him about 15% more. Hell, even if he doesn't, just limiting the mental mistakes, drops, bad routes from his teammates will take him to greatness levels statistically. 

Guys, this is real and it's spectacular!

[Soul]

20 minutes ago, raw said:

Caleb was charted with 7 big time throws on Saturday. I think I read that was the most charted in the last 5 years? And man, this was an Arm Talent 101 performance. After the scripted drive to start the game, there were maybe 2-3 legit checkdown throws, another 3-5 maybe that were underneath throws, but everything else was in the 15-25 yard window, if not deeper (not including "& goal" situations with short fields). So just estimating, I'm guessing a solid 30+ throws that were legit pushing the ball down the field on in the end zone. 

So completion percentage be damned when you are taking all these big shots. It's like complaining about Steph Curry's shooting percentage being under 50% when he's shooting 45% from 3 (stole this comparison).

Don't let anyone tell you Caleb isn't a good QB. He will be a great QB once he takes what's given to him about 15% more. Hell, even if he doesn't, just limiting the mental mistakes, drops, bad routes from his teammates will take him to greatness levels statistically. 

Guys, this is real and it's spectacular!

Completion percentage is great but it seems a little bit like batting average.  Sure if you make contact more often it's great, but it loses its luster if they are all singles.  I can't remember where I found it, but Caleb's up there in terms of yards per completion.  Sure I'd love for the Comp% to go up but only if he keeps the chunk plays intact.  I don't want him obsessing over his sub 60% comp and just checking down.  I don't think he will.  Dude's a monster.  He's looking to slay defenses all the time.  That's why he doesn't run very often.  He's cold as hell -- wants to rip your heart out over and over.

[Thurman Merman]

The thing with how this offense operates compared to a dink and dunk offense that has a much higher completion percentage is that it's just so much more aesthetically pleasing to watch. I'll take this and 55% completion percentage over a 70% shoop offense any day.

[BigSlick]

Yeah Caleb was great. The completion percentage is simply not something I'm super worried about and I know it will organically go up 4-5% as he gets better, he better understands Ben Johnson's system, and he gets on the same page with receivers that will be here for a while. He's never gonna be a 70% completion percentage guy and that really doesn't matter for me. He'll more than make up for it with the chunk plays and his legs. He's already a good QB, he's only gonna get better.

Even the two interceptions didn't bother me much - both were on 4th down, one of them was objectively worse for the Packers than an incompletion. One had Burden running the wrong route, one of them was on Moore falling down. These things happen. 

[Soul]

1 hour ago, mul21 said:

I didn't realize until way after the game that the handshake was a response to MLF being a douche about after the week 14 game when the Packers one.  He's such an arrogant tool.

Here’s Ben’s quote on it.  Why the hell not?  They hate us too.  So what?  It’ll make next year’s games even more fun.

”"Like I said before, there's a rivalry that exists between these two teams, something that I fully recognize and I'm a part of," he said. "I mean, I just... I don't like that team. So, [owner] George [McCaskey] and I have talked, and we're on the same page."

[UMFan83]

1 hour ago, Soul said:

Completion percentage is great but it seems a little bit like batting average.  Sure if you make contact more often it's great, but it loses its luster if they are all singles.  I can't remember where I found it, but Caleb's up there in terms of yards per completion.  Sure I'd love for the Comp% to go up but only if he keeps the chunk plays intact.  I don't want him obsessing over his sub 60% comp and just checking down.  I don't think he will.  Dude's a monster.  He's looking to slay defenses all the time.  That's why he doesn't run very often.  He's cold as hell -- wants to rip your heart out over and over.

Right... incomplete, incomplete, 24 yard dime = 33% completion percentage, 24 yards and a first down.  2 yard screen, incomplete, 6 yard pass = 66% completion percentage, 8 yards and a punt.

He does need to get more accurate at those seemingly "easier" passes, but this version of Caleb is good enough to be a problem for any defense

[raw]

1 hour ago, Soul said:

Completion percentage is great but it seems a little bit like batting average.  Sure if you make contact more often it's great, but it loses its luster if they are all singles.  I can't remember where I found it, but Caleb's up there in terms of yards per completion.  Sure I'd love for the Comp% to go up but only if he keeps the chunk plays intact.  I don't want him obsessing over his sub 60% comp and just checking down.  I don't think he will.  Dude's a monster.  He's looking to slay defenses all the time.  That's why he doesn't run very often.  He's cold as hell -- wants to rip your heart out over and over.

6th in yards per completion. 9th in Intended Air yards per completion, but ahead of him are Mariota and McCarthy who combined have 100 less attempts, and Lamar who has barely over 1/2 the attempts. Also, guys like Hurts and Maye are ahead, but throw more true "deep" balls. Caleb isn't throwing a bunch of 40-yard beyond the line of scrimmage balls. He's just consistently attacking that 20-25 yard range. 

[Old Style]

Bears game showing at 2pm on Sunday on my DirectTV guide. No game times on ESPN.com yet.

[Old Style]

[Banedon]

Ok but...hear me out here...what if AI is actually good sometimes?

Ben Johnson ROCKS Matt LaFleur during their postgame handshake. Not only did Ben’s Chicago Bears win the game, Ben humiliated the Packers’ coach by manhandling him in the postgame. #chicagobears #dabears #chicagobearsfootball #nflmemes #mattlafleur

[Banedon]

 

[SpongeWorthy]

https://www.reddit.com/r/chicagobulls/comments/1qb8b41/silvy_calls_out_chuck_swirsky_on_air_chuck_is_a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

lmao silvy went thermonuclear on chuck swirsky