raw

Not that it means much, Brees spreads the ball around like he's horsefeathering Santa Claus on Xmas eve Yeah, but he'll be spreading it around to RBs and TEs and a backup QB. OF course, this could play against the Bears as they typically are pretty good at covering WRs. They've been good at covering TEs this year too, but lack of WRs means lack of spread formations and more Danny Trevathan on the field where he can be taken advantage of in the pass game.

And Marquez Callaway is OUT for New Orleans. Was their top WR last week.

Michael Thomas is OUT Cody Whitehair is OUT Allen Robinson is DOUBTFUL. The Bears initially said he was questionable, but he's still in concussion protocol at least until Saturday. If he passes, he could play. But league rules mandate that he be considered doubtful because he hasn't passed concussion protocol yet. Khalil Mack limited in practice today, he's Questionable

Michael Thomas practiced for the Saints today (as NOLA said). Meanwhile, Robinson, Whitehair and oh, Khalil Mack have yet to practice this week. Whitehair has sucked all year. I'm kinda morbidly interested in the offense without Robinson. But the defense without Mack is just asking for a 34-16 beatdown.

Dontari Poe isn't good at anything. I saw something on Twitter yesterday that graded him as the worst run defender and pass rusher of NFL d-linemen.

Decided to look up his stats since he's getting extended for somewhat decent $$. Figured he must be producing... I was wrong. 5 receptions/58 yards/2 TDs so far. 95% of that came this past week. That is shocking. Do they just need to meet the spending minimum or something? Hopefully bodes well for the conditional pick (7th to 6th) the Bears got for him. It does. They'll get a 6th for him now.

Allen Robinson is in concussion protocol. Obviously on short week, the Bears could be without him on Sunday. So that's fun.

The Packers and Saint's have bad enough pass defenses, that I really don't think its fair to say those are almost certain losses. I don't know what the Bears are going to do about Henry and they have a decent enough D, so I'm okay chalking that up to a L. Now I actually don't think 9-7 is an unrealistic expectation, but the Bears D is probably good enough to carry them a few wins alone, so it really comes down to whether the offense can be consistent or not (even if they're consistently below average). 8-8 is probably my floor, but I don't think 11-5 would be crazy shocking because they've got a lot of house money with their early wins they've squeaked out, and a couple bounces or two can quickly lead to that 2-3 W spread. IF they do go 11-5 I'm already ready to call them the worst 11-5 team ever though. Other than points per game (where they are the best of the 3), the Titans actually have the worst defense of the 3. Worst pass D and run D the Bears will face all season until the Texans.

On paper, I would agree. But Packers week 17 could be pretty meaningless for them (though they could try to keep the Bears out of the playoffs). The Vikings are probably the best of the "bad" teams on paper, but they have either blown leads or comeback for a lot of their games, IIRC. The Bears have beat them 4 straight under Nagy, and I'd like to think those are easier than tossups if this Bears teams hopes to compete, but I could definitely see a split in those games. The Texans had better not be a toss up. They are terrible and likely to get worse as they potentially trade people away to try and get cap space and draft picks, which they have little of either for 2021. 9-7 was thought to be good enough for 7th seed, but that would make things interesting. Assuming TB, GB and whoever wins the NFC East are in. That leaves 4 spots for Arizona, Seattle, SF, LA Rams, Saints, and the Bears. The Bears having 2 losses to the only of those teams they face won't bode well, and that doesn't even mention the Lions who seem about as capable as the Bears.

Time to move on from the disaster from Monday Night. The Bears had a few similar stinkers in 2019 and each time came back with less of a stinker and an ugly win to get some positive vibes going or something. 3-10 L vs. Green Bay in the opener, came back with an ugly literal last second win against the Broncos. 7-17 L vs. LA Rams mid-season, came back with an ugly 19-14 win against the Giants. 3-26 L vs. KC Chiefs late in the year, came back with a boring 21-19 win against the Vikings backups in the finale. Problem is this time, they aren't going into a game against an inferior team or one playing backups intentionally. The Saints come to town with an offense that has put up 30 points per game while missing a top 3 WR in the league for all but 1 of their games. Their defense is allowing 29 per game, though it doesn't seem likely that the Bears are capable of doing much about that. Luckily for the Bears, Michael Thomas is still going to be missing from the Saints offense which is a welcomed sign after his 9-131 performance in this game last year. Emmanuel Sanders' status is up in the air as he's on the COVID list. Sunday would be the first day he could come back, but it would also be without any practice before hand. Unluckily, Alvin Kamara will be playing and he missed the game last year (as did Drew Brees). Kamara is their leading receiver with the same number of receptions as the next 2 leading receivers and 150+ more yards than the next guy. But Brees will throw to any and everybody, spreading the ball around, which the Rams had success with. When the Bears have the ball, they are going to be facing another decent run D. But the Bears won't and shouldn't try to run much anyway because the Saints pass D isn't very good. They aren't good on 3rd downs (29th). And they are the worst team at stopping teams in the redzone. Their previously very good DBs (Marshon Lattimore and Marcus Williams) aren't playing very well right now. They aren't great at rushing the passer, but then again neither was Leonard Floyd for 4 years until he faced the Bears OL. Weather will be on the Bears side as it will be kinda cold and windy for a dome team on the road. But they are simply the inferior team in this matchup and don't have the short week on their side for this one. 6-2 would ease most of the angst surrounding this team as playoffs would be a near certainty. 5-3 would likely take them from the NFC's #1 seed last Monday morning, to potentially out of a projected playoff spot by this coming Monday.

Eh. Mitch got 40 games, Foles can get more than 4, especially since he's the one of the two that has a contract for next year. As for playcalling, it's not like someone else calling the plays will turn this into a 25 ppg scoring unit. Maybe you get to a point where 4th down conversions are made and you don't cut off half the field on the goalline, but this is still a talent issue. Having Foles under contract next year isn't a reason to keep playing him; it's a terrifying reality that Pace has completely mismanaged this roster. No, but it's one of the deciding factors with 2 bad options.

Eh. Mitch got 40 games, Foles can get more than 4, especially since he's the one of the two that has a contract for next year. As for playcalling, it's not like someone else calling the plays will turn this into a 25 ppg scoring unit. Maybe you get to a point where 4th down conversions are made and you don't cut off half the field on the goalline, but this is still a talent issue.

That timeout was taken with 12 seconds on play clock and everybody seemingly disoriented. Foles did't look comfortable with whatever was about to happen. It was a big momentum bummer, but that sack was worse and I think it was avoidable. I'm not a big PLAYCALLING! guy, but that game left me quite confused about their intentions. However, it still comes down to ability and the Bears don't have much of it on offense. There's maybe 1.75 receivers and 2 lineman. They've got nothing in the backfield. 2 linemen seems like a stretch.

I'm willing to let Foles try and start bum slaying some D's before I call for Trubisky again. There really isn't any very good passing defense left on the schedule now, and in fact many of them are very bad. Unfortunately, the bums that need slayed are on the offensive line and sidelines.

Realistic quick fixes (that won't really fix anything) that I'd like the Bears to humor me with: 1. Sign Quinton Spain. I would love for them to trade for Kevin Zeitler from the Giants, but Spain doesn't cost draft picks. Coward has to go. 2. Move Lamar Miller to 53-man roster. If he has shown literally anything in practice, bring him up. Montgomery's vision and quickness are below average. Miller is a nice change of pace that can hit the occasional hole and keep Patterson out of the backfield. 3. More Anthony Miller. More 3-wide sets with him on the field. Put him back there on punts as well. If you're worried about him taking hits and getting injured, all he literally has to do is catch the ball to be an improvement over Ginn. 4. More Cole Kmet. Actually, maybe lock Demetrius Harris out of Soldier Field on Sunday. But seriously, Harris has more targets than Kmet, Ginn, Patterson, Wims, and obviously Ridley. And he's getting fewer yards per target than Bobby Massie did on his deflected reception. Graham should become a 3rd down and redzone player primarily. Kmet should be the every down TE. 5. Less changing personnel. The Bears had a good drive (ended in red zone w/ turnover on downs) when they stuck with 1 personnel group. Of course, that group included Harris getting 3 targets. A Miller, Robinson, Mooney, Kmet, Montgomery/L Miller for a whole drive.

Huge indictment against Nagy that he went to Foles because of things Mitch CAN'T do, but Foles also can't do them. Supposedly, the offense was dumbed down or limited by the QB. If this is the unlimited offense.......

2nd half LAR 22 times in 24 games where the offense has had a half where they failed to score a TD

That last throw was laughably bad.

I know Aaron Donald is doing whatever he wants, but Bobby Massie is getting his ass whooped consistently tonight.

Nothing you can do about that punt. Holy hell.

The touchdown, I think. I mean, I got that. But they're getting their asses kicked, go to the sidelines

The hell are you celebrating?

Holding TD!

And right at Donald who you haven't been able to block all night.