bukie

He didn't maintain control of the ball throughout the process of going to the ground.

Bo Nix broke his ankle on the second to last play of the game and is out for the rest of the season.

Wild stat that may only interest me: Sean Mcvay has made the playoffs in 7 of his 9 years with the Rams, and Sunday will be his 15th playoff game. He has never played the same team in the playoffs twice.

Just waiting for Tomlin to the Browns, Harbaugh to the Steelers, and Stefanski to the Ravens.

And the ones that aren't are probably holdover Cardinals fans from the St. Louis days.

Tomlin is stepping down in Pittsburgh. The Steelers have had 3 coaches total over the last 56 years, which is insane.

It reads of "Looking at stats with no context". Even last week, Caleb threw 48 times for 361 yards and 2 TDs/2 picks. The picks? A 4th down arm punt where Burden ran the wrong route, and a floater with a hand in his face near the goal line on 4th down where if he doesn't throw it it's a turnover anyway. The 50% completion rate seems bad on its own, except that the weather was windy, Love also threw for a near 50% completion rate, and the vast majority of passes Caleb was throwing was downfield. His "on target rate" is worst in the NFL. He also throws the ball away more than anyone in the NFL to avoid sacks and negative plays. Sometimes he gives up on plays a little early, but most of it is just throwing it to locations nobody else can catch it, which is either "throw away" or "throw it to a low percentage catch chance with a 0% INT chance". It's also a complex offense with a lot of movement that has to work together, and sometimes the timing is just off still. I'm not sure if that plays into why it takes the offense until the 4th quarter to really click in many games, but if the receiver is not on the right route, or the blocking isn't setting the pocket correctly, or Caleb has to scramble and improvise, things can still look a little messy. But you can see the offense being very effective in spurts, and it feels like it's right there for really clicking. Some day soon, all facets of the offense will click and they'll run someone off the field. I'm not sure if it'll happen yet this year, but it's right there.

So has Kyler Gordon.

The last time the Bears played the Rams was week 4 last year, where they beat them 24-18 at home with Caleb Williams throwing for 157 and a TD to move the Bears to 2-2 under Matt Eberflus. The loss dropped the Rams to 1-3 (they'd fall to 1-4 before rattling off 9 wins in their next 11 games to win the NFC West). That was before Puka Nacua was Puka Nacua, and the Rams didn't have Davante Adams, but beyond that they're largely the same team from then. The Bears have an entirely different coaching staff, offensive line, and a new skill player at each position, but their defense has regressed. As for the weather, the temperature at game time is projected to be around 15 degrees. The Rams under McVay have played 4 games in freezing temperatures in total, going 2-2, but none of them have ever been projected as that cold. Also, Matthew Stafford, despite playing a significant portion of his career in Detroit, only has played 6 games in freezing temperatures, going 3-3 (but with 15 TD and 3 INT). Last one of those was last year's divisional round game in Philly in the snow, which they lost 28-22.

Also, the Bears as a team are up to #10 in weighted DVOA, so every one of the 8 teams left in the playoffs are in the top 10. The two teams above the Bears that are not still playing are the Jags and Ravens (who, while going 8-9, did beat the Bears handily, and probably should have made the playoffs).

Bears' offensive DVOA was updated from the weekend, and they're up to 4th now, behind the Rams, Pats and 49ers. Next 3 opponents?

I'd guess it'll be the 5:30 pm game, since LA is the only west coast team playing on the day.

I have a hard time believing these are 2 of the best teams in the AFC. Both teams in the early game looked better.

QB wins are a pointless stat, but it's still kinda fun to see that Caleb now has 3 wins against the Packers, when the previous 15 years of QBs accumulated a grand total of 3 wins against the Packers.

First time seeing the Chargers this year. Their offensive line reminds me of last year's Bears O-line. Just no resistance at all.

I would agree, since the winner of tomorrow's game can't play the bye team in the AFC (Bills win means either Pats-4/5 and Broncos-Bills or Chargers-Broncos and Bills-4/5)

Well...the last time the Bears played the Rams in the playoffs, it ended well.

I'm leaning Eagles because I think the Rams can beat the Seahawks and give the Bears a home game for the NFC championship.

Bears will play the Eagles or Rams next, pending the outcome of the Eagles-Niners game.

Bears also had more offensive yards and first downs than the Packers.

Bears didn't win the turnover battle, didn't have good fumble luck, were 2 for 6 on 4th down, couldn't buy luck in the first 3 quarters, and won the game.

That stat is misleadingly specific, though, as the NFC was a tiebreaker away from having a 62 year old coach (Bowles), and the most successful franchise has the oldest coach (Reid, 67), and the AFC field this year has 3 of the 6 oldest coaches in the league (Jim Harbaugh, Sean Payton, Mike Tomlin).