UMFan83

I wish I was at that Saints game. I was at the Seahawks game and you could cut the tension in the crowd with a knife late in the game when the Seahawks had 2 drives at midfield where a FG would have won it. Amazing feeling to see a game winning kick to advance in the playoffs in person though.

He should get cheered but I'm guessing indifference since it's been 10 years since he's been our coach, he's coached against the Bears at Soldier Field before (he got cheers), Illini fans may have soured on him a bit and mostly because they don't typically spotlight coaches on the video board so there probably won't be a moment to cheer specifically for him.

Offensive DVOA rank by year since 94 (playoff years = *): 13* 3 18 26 17 18 23 18* 28 30 32 28* 18* 30 23 28 (first Cutler season) 28* 30 25 6 (the one good Trestman year) 16 10 (Gase season) 17 (Cutler last year) 28 20* 25 25* 26 30 (through 2 games)

Meh while the Bears sucked most of the time I was too busy being a kid/teenager to care if they were bad. I was a Bears fan because I lived in Chicago and that was that. The losing didn't start to bother me until the early 00's. The 2001 season gave me a taste of winning and I wanted it to continue but it was a fluke year.

I dont follow barstool at all but I see him appear enough in various places to know hes a giant douchebag. They all are but he seems even bigger than the others. He has one of the most punchable faces out there.

I was actually a Steelers fan when I was very young because I had very blonde hair as did Bradshaw. But somewhere in the early '80's ('82 or '83) I started to love to watch Walter Payton more, and glad I did I liked the Raiders as a kid because they were evil or something that made sense to my kid mind... And they had Snake Stabler, the original outlaw QB who I still look upon fondly. I think it was Stabler going to the Oilers, and Payton with the Bears, combined with living in Chicago, that sealed it for me. I then was introduced to true misery as a football fan, but got to see the SB win too. 1994 was Wanny - that's a difficult introduction to the Bears. I'd say at least they got to see 2006. People tend to forget that year for some reason? It was pretty awesome. Didn't win the SB but I still consider that a fun year as a Bear fan. Because I'm an idiot and have rarely seen adequate football from the Bears I remember the Wanny years with a small amount of fondness. Like I mentioned 94 was the first year I remember following the Bears. I remember the Halloween rain game against the Packers and remember watching the scores the last week of the season to see if the Bears would make it despite losing. I drew pictures of Lewis Tillman in school because I thought he was awesome, though looking at his stats now wtf. The playoff win over the Vikings was a lot of fun. I watched the 49ers game with my dad. He told me there was no way the Bears were going to win but I was convinced they would. When the Bears forced a TO and then kicked a FG to go up 3-0, I gave him a high five. By the time the game hit the 4th quarter I was playing with toys or baseball cards or something. 1994 wasn't bad. Then Wanny told us the pieces were in place....95 wasn't bad either but I remember being crushed that we didn't get the help we needed the last week to make the playoffs. Then in 96 we started off the season by crushing the Cowboys on MNF and thought we must be awesome. It was all downhill from there except for the Lovie years basically.

I love when Bernstein gets all excited and geeks out when he's doing interviews like this.

And the Cubs will lose less than 100 games for the 55th time in the last 56 seasons

Sampson 1 ER in 6 IP Bote annoying continues to play well enough to be in the picture for next years team (I think)

Dating back to 1994 they’ve had a defensive minded head coach in all but 6 seasons. The rest have all been defensive first and the bulk of those were guys in their final job, with minimal prior head coaching success. You can say they’ve changed coaches and still same results, but those changes have rarely shown a concerted effort to prioritize offense. It’s not some weird hex, it’s organizational but philosophy. Defense first. Maybe hire an offensive coach on occasion but if that fails go right back to defense first. We are back in a defense first situation and have to pray they magically find a qb or have a Ron Turner situation where the OC cobbles together a good season once or twice. Nope. It's a curse. Are we sure a goat never walked across the endzone in Soldier Field? Obviously its not a curse but like the Cubs "curse" it sure feels like it at times. We are the only franchise to not have either a 4000 yard passer or a 30 passing TD season (albeit these are much more common things in the last 15 years than they were prior). They've had three 400 yard passing games in their entire history, the last being in 1999. There were fifteen 400 yard passing games in 2021 by 9 different QBs (including Mike White). We traded for a young QB who threw for 4500 yards in his 3rd season and then never hit 4000 yards again. Jersey correctly pointed out that there hasn't been an emphasis on offensive hires, and while Nagy was a complete disaster, Trestman did get results his first season before his inherent creepy weirdness alienated the team. While it feels like defense was the priority during those first chunk of years, it seems like they've tried to build a coherent offense in recent years (Cutler trade, Marshall trade, Trubisky/Fields trade ups, 2/4 HC hires offensive minded). They just haven't been able to put all the pieces together at the same time. But its not that the Bears haven't had elite offenses, its that they rarely have even average offenses and more often than not its anemic. At the end of the day, a good QB makes everything else a lot easier and that just hasn't happened here.

Not making excuses for being bad overall but some of that might be affected by small sample size. We know Fields is capable of big time throws...that's supposed to one of this strengths but he hasn't done it so far this year for the most part. OK it definitely sounds like I'm making excuses.

Add it to the list of Bears offensive futility. I swear that since I first remember watching the Bears regularly (1994) we've had about 10-12 offensive seasons that would be on most teams bottom 5 offensive seasons ever. Change the players, change the coaches, change the FO and we just cant figure out how to have any sort of success offensively, particularly passing offense. 70 passing yards in a game with good conditions would seem unfathomable to virtually any other NFL team, but for us its just another crappy offensive performance to throw on the pile. Every season's offense (except 2013 when the defense fell apart) can be broken down into one of 3 categories: Inexplicably pathetic, marginally passable, adequate but inconsistent (basically the Cutler years).

That doesn't mean Gordon wasn't BPA for Poles. I don't think any FOs rely on PFF rankings to determine their drafting I never said it was for Poles....hell I never said Poles drafted BPA and I'm not sure he did I'm not even sure what you are saying anymore lol You: Bears should have drafted BPA Me: Gordon may have been BPA for Poles You: But PFF has other guys higher Me: Gordon may have been BPA for Poles You: I never said Poles drafted BPA

You say the best policy is BPA but in the next sentence say the Bears should have drafted a WR. Which is it? My understanding is Gordon was BPA for them based on their board entering the 2nd round. Also seems silly to call Gordon a wiff after 2 games, even with how bad he's looked. Edit: Wrigley just basically said the same thing. Anyways I'm not sure any of the WRs picked between Gordon and Velus Jones are worth lamenting right now (yes even Pickens). But like with Gordon there's still plenty of time to be wrong on that. So far the 6 have combined for 4 receptions in 2 weeks (though one is on IR and another has leukemia) should have been in retrospect, could have been during the draft. Gordon wasn't BPA, PFF had our own Brisker as well as Pickens and Tolbert higher then Gordon That doesn't mean Gordon wasn't BPA for Poles. I don't think any FOs rely on PFF rankings to determine their drafting

I couldn't believe how many Bears fans online were talking themselves into winning against GB. Even ones I wouldn't consider homers were jacked up about the game and seemingly thought we would at least make it a very competitive game. But like you said, I think a lot of the 'gutted' feeling has as much to do with Fields' performance as the outcome of the game.

You say the best policy is BPA but in the next sentence say the Bears should have drafted a WR. Which is it? My understanding is Gordon was BPA for them based on their board entering the 2nd round. Also seems silly to call Gordon a wiff after 2 games, even with how bad he's looked. Edit: Wrigley just basically said the same thing. Anyways I'm not sure any of the WRs picked between Gordon and Velus Jones are worth lamenting right now (yes even Pickens). But like with Gordon there's still plenty of time to be wrong on that. So far the 6 have combined for 4 receptions in 2 weeks (though one is on IR and another has leukemia)

Russell Wilson was 14-31 for 219 yards, 1/1 and a 66.4 QB rating last week. Not sure if the Texans pass D is any good or if this is an anomaly though.

Good news: Bears still tied for first! Bad news: Bears tied for last :(

I wanted so bad to be the first one to say something like this but I was saving it for at least one more week Haha. Hey, he hasn’t been good, it’s only week 2 and I’d love to see him play better and succeed but I find myself searching for positives. Week 5 may have been a little aggressive but if there are plays that can be made - and he’s simply not progressing and pulling the trigger - another move is necessary. You already know what Siemien can bring to the table which is adequate backup QB. Siemien will not start unless Fields is injured or he’s still garbage in week 16 and both parties have mutually agreed to move on after the season.

I’m a bit lost on why this separates QB play from playcalling. I did see that Fields had the second highest Depth of Target in the league this week which immediately makes me question the validity of this statistic

Just creating a thread to create one. Miley got hit hard in the 3rd

Yea, you said it much better than I've tried to. We as fans are looking for hope. The coaching staff is trying to win games. The coaching staff believes the best way to reach its goal is to essentially make Fields make as few decisions as possible and throw as few passes as possible. We as fans (or at least, most of us) understand that success in the NFL all but requires top-tier quarterback play. We understand we're not getting that now and that it's highly unlikely we'll get that at any point this season. But it'd be nice to know if there is any chance we *ever* get that with Fields. I'd rather know the answer definitively--even if that answer is no--than scratch out 7 or 8 wins with gimmicky sets, an old-timey run-based approach, and 10 passing attempts a game. None of those things (individually or collectively) prove or disprove whether Justin Fields can actually be a starting NFL quarterback and would/will simply leave us back where we started--"too soon to tell," "needs more time," "can't evaluate him with this supporting cast," "needs an opportunity to show what we can do in a 'real' offense," etc. etc. etc. This doesn't make sense though. Eberflus was hired presumably knowing what Poles plan was the first couple of seasons. It doesn't take a genius to know that step one of building an NFL team is to get the QB right. So while he absolutely should be trying to win, I don't think he should be doing it at the expense of what should be the organization's priority number 1 - develop Fields. Even if you don't believe in him - this is basically a free year to evaluate. Maybe you'll surprise you and you'll get praised for fixing Fields and you can use your 1st round pick on a WR or something instead of a QB. But if Fields fails no one is going to hold it against them (unless they cut him loose and he becomes an elite QB elsewhere)

This is what they mean by processing time. He sees St. Brown and if he pulls the trigger right away he's got 6. But he delays for a second and in that time it seems like the CB has recovered to close some of the gap and ultimately he doesn't think its a safe throw because if its underthrown its an INT. At least that's how I see it as a complete amateur film watcher. Beyond a doubt, nearly any other QB would have pulled the trigger, overthinking, lack of confidence, playing scared, fearing a TO, is not going to work. He should know that if he doesn't, he 's as good as gone. I'm talking myself more and more into the belief that they just need to let him play freely and sink or swim. I think back to the Browns preseason game (yes I know it was a meaningless preseason game with starters sitting) but you could just see Fields start to get comfortable after a few throws and then suddenly he was electric and confidently throwing bombs all over the field. I think back to the Steelers game last year. In the first half he struggled with a gameplan that didn't involve many passes, in the 2nd half he hit a couple of perfect throws and then became unstoppable. I think if you give someone only a handful of attempts to make something happen, they're going to play more tentatively and scared because the margin for error is razor thin (like WrigleyField22 said). It certainly seems like the case with Fields.

This is what they mean by processing time. He sees St. Brown and if he pulls the trigger right away he's got 6. But he delays for a second and in that time it seems like the CB has recovered to close some of the gap and ultimately he doesn't think its a safe throw because if its underthrown its an INT. At least that's how I see it as a complete amateur film watcher.

For those that care about PFF grades, for the 2nd week in a row Justin Fields was the lowest graded Bears player on offense. Top 3 offense: Ryan Griffin (TE) - 82.5 Khalil Herbert (RB) - 77.6 (on 8 snaps) Equanimeous St. Brown (WR) - 77.2 Bottom 3 offense: Justin Fields (QB) - 40.8 Cole Kmet (TE) - 47.0 Tevin Jenkins (OG) - 48.3 Top 3 defense: Justin Jones (DT) - 77.0 Trevis Gipson (DE) - 73.4 Kingsley Jonathan (DE) - 68.6 Bottom 3 defense: Angelo Blackson (DT) - 33.9 Kyler Gordon (CB) - 35.2 Roquan Smith (LB) - 36.00 Roquan was the lowest graded defensive player in week 1 so hey improvement.