raw

2013 was a fun game as well. IIRC, the Bears got ahead early. The Steelers came back and the Bears needed a score to ice it. Cutler threw a TD to Earl Bennett (I believe) in the back of the endzone. IDK what the original call was, but it was reviewed and ruled a TD. I was at a buddy's house, who is a Steelers fan, and I fist pumped and got a little too close to punching his 70" TV to his liking (I wasn't really that close, he was just salty). The lasting image I have from this game is the Steelers DB thinking Cutler was going to slide on a scramble, but instead Jay just trucked him. And the announcers got all stupid complaining that it's not fair for defenders to not be able to hit QBs and QBs be able to truck them instead of sliding.

Also, I will be attendance at this game. My first Bears game since Neal Anderson played.

Really? Maybe it's because I'm in Pittsburgh, but this was one of the most fun games in recent years. Wore the throwback jerseys with the orange block lettering. It went to OT and Cohen basically won the game with a long TD run in overtime, but it was called back ruling he stepped out of bounds (he actually didn't) and then the next 2 plays were Howard with back-to-back 19-20 yard runs, including one along the left sideline that featured a questionable hold/block in the back that was let go probably to make up for the call that Cohen was out of bounds.

They aren't faceless. But you see it with the Bears. David Montgomery goes out and they lose nothing because they have one of the other 90. Doesn't mean they both are replacement-level, just means they are easily replaced. There's not really a good way to explain it because there aren't any other positions in sports where almost everyone is a "good" player. But it's like a regular profession. You can get an accountant from any of the B-schools ranked from 11-25 and all would be good at their jobs. You can't just get a guy that took an accounting class in HS and expect the same ability. But also there's a few Stanford guys out there that are simply worth the assets it takes to get them. The diference is there are about 300,000 accounting positions to be filled, and there are only 70 or so RB jobs to fill in the world. Similar to how the RBs ranked rom 11-25 aren't much diferent, the guys ranked from 60-80 are even MORE SO not at all different, and you haven't even had to scrape the Div II College barrel yet. I'm just saying the bottom 5 RBs aren't nearly as much poor than the top 5 RBs are good. There's just no way. There's guys on NFL rosters like Jordan Howard, Ryan Nall, Kalen Ballage, and probably Adrian Peterson (just signed to Titans yesterday) at this point, who are placeholders. You can't replace even a 60-80 RB with these guys long-term and expect the same production. And they wouldn't be on NFL rosters if not for injuries. That's what I mean. I'm just talking about NFL talent. Not going down to D2 and all that. But if there are 80 RBs in the NFL, 5-7 are elite (your Derrick Henrys), 65-70 are different levels of "good", and then 5-7 are guys you bring in if you don't have a healthy RB room and only give the ball in certain situations (usually short yardage or rest after your real RB has a long run).

I turned on last night's game it was 46-35 Bulls. I turned it off when it was 87-69 Celtics, and did not turn it back on. When I watched, the Celtics outscored the Bulls 62-23. When I didn't watch, the Bulls outscored them 105-51.

The top 5 RBs matter. The bottom 5 RBs matter in the opposite way. The other 90 are all the same. That doesn't sound right. Replacement-level players are replacement level because there are a lot of faceless duplicate versions of them around. I can maybe buy the top 5 part though. They aren't faceless. But you see it with the Bears. David Montgomery goes out and they lose nothing because they have one of the other 90. Doesn't mean they both are replacement-level, just means they are easily replaced. There's not really a good way to explain it because there aren't any other positions in sports where almost everyone is a "good" player. But it's like a regular profession. You can get an accountant from any of the B-schools ranked from 11-25 and all would be good at their jobs. You can't just get a guy that took an accounting class in HS and expect the same ability. But also there's a few Stanford guys out there that are simply worth the assets it takes to get them.

With him out, that entire division is now officially a complete horsefeathers show I've been told that RBs don't matter, but all of the people that have told me that have been exasperated with Henry's preformances for the past 3 years. The top 5 RBs matter. The bottom 5 RBs matter in the opposite way. The other 90 are all the same.

So, I just posted in the other NFL thread that the NFC is terrible re: Saints making it in. But really, the NFC is terrible. The Bears are behind the 8-ball with 5 losses, but they definitely can sneak in again as an 8-win ish team. LA, Arizona, GB, Tampa, and Dallas are for sure in the playoffs. Lions are for sure not making it. The other teams are: Saints- starting Trevor Siemien/Taysom Hill 49ers- always injured, Jimmy G better keep playing like yesterday or they'll be playing a rookie QB WFT- QB situation is a mess NYG- Daniel Jones is their QB, team is worst than Bears PHI- Jalen Hurts is their QB SEA- Geno Smith is their QB MIN- Cousins is solid, Bears have a shot to take care of them to get edge CAR- Sam Darnold is their QB ATL- Ryan is old and team is worse than Bears And these teams are fighting for 2 spots. Nobody on this list seems like a sure bet to coast toward a wildcard berth. None are probably winning a playoff game anyway, but in the Bears situation, they gotta try to compete. They don't have a 1st so they need to win as many games as possible to make that pick further down in the draft. I honestly don't think they will trade anyone. Even trying to pseudo compete, I would still try to trade Robinson, Hicks, and one of the QBs. If anyone gives anything for Foles, that's a no-brainer. I'd also give up Dalton for a decent offer, though I think he's a guy they could bring back as the #2 next year. Bears got dead money counting for him anyway, may be able to lower that for a guy that Fields seems to genuinely like and learn from. Hicks, to me, is just taking up space. He's not a big difference maker so far this year. They've had good games without him, bad games like yesterday with him. Give the reps to other guys (Nichols, Blackson, Tonga) to see how big of a role they can have in the future. Robinson is a completely different situation though. He's obviously not performing this year, but maybe not completely his fault. May be killing his ability to get a 3rd round comp for him with his non-production. I think he's looking at a 1-year deal if things keep going this way. So, you're maybe looking 4th or 5th round comp. And that's in 2023 anyway. If the Bears can even get a 4th in 2022 for him, they gotta do it. They only have 5 picks (2 difference making picks) next year, another would be nice. 2022 picks are WAY more valuable than 2023 at this point, given the cap issues and like 32 free agents on the roster.

It's pretty impressive. But it's all about to go to isht when Hill comes back. Payton has been waiting for this moment his whole life. Maybe they'll lose out and get to draft my boy Matt Corral. The Saints defense is elite, like Super Bowl level elite. This is still a playoff contender no matter who is under center. Michael Thomas likely returns next week, and the schedule gets much easier the rest of the way. Maybe I’m nuts, but I’m not totally sold that Taysom is the starter the rest of the way. Sean would be wise to start Siemian and use Taysom in his more natural gadget role. Saints should be pretty safely in a playoff spot, regardless of QB. They are 2 games up on the loss column of everyone other than the shoe-ins in the NFC. NFC East and North are only getting 1 team. Even if the 49ers get healthy and play offense like yesterday, there's still another WC up for grabs. Saints just have to hold off the severely flawed Vikings, Bears, Panthers, and Seahawks if Russ comes back. And we know Sean Payton can win with anyone at this point.

He's definitely in that Kirk Cousins, Nick Foles, young Andy Dalton, Sam Bradford tier of QBs. Very accurate. Will take the occasional deep shot, but more comfortable checking down to short, intermediate area. Of course, unlike those guys, he has the pleasure of playing with Belichick/McDaniels so he may be much more successful than those guys. Not gonna hate though, he's playing pretty well right now. 3rd in the league in passing attempts, so they actually aren't holding him back either. But he's bottom 1/3 of the league in QB rating (to be fair, 3 guys drafted ahead of him that have played are the bottom 3).

You guys (the ones minimizing the best Fields game of the year) are the ones who even mentioned Trubisky. Nobody is acting like Fields doesn't have flaws. You are arguing against nobody. We also aren't going to do the thing where we act like Fields playing a good game is bad. He played very well today. Maybe the best game of any rookie in this class has played this year (read this on Twitter, haven't seen Daniel Jones much). It doesn't mean there's no looking back and he will continue to linearly get better each game......which is absolutely fine because literally NOBODY is saying that.

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Hicks is active. I thought his hamstring was shot after last week

I think their make up is of a team that will win a bunch more regular season games than most think. Derozan and Vooch aren't guys who typically miss many games, and they can win games with those 2 and their depth pieces depending on the matchup. And they have no guys who need to load manage. They don't rely on the 3 enough to have a bad shooting game keep them from winning. They'll just drive to the basket and get to the line if they are struggling from deep. They play good enough perimeter D that the 3 probably won't kill them too much either.

Out for the 49ers: Kinlaw, Hurst, Tartt, Al-Shaair, and Ford are out tomorrow. Kittle, Greenlaw, Gould and Mostert will continue to be out. Trent Williams is questionable (but I'll guess he'll play) That's DT1, DT3/4, SS1, ROLB1, DE2, TE1, LOLB1, K1, RB1. Of course they will have their 2 best players (Bosa and Warner). The Bears arguably will be missing their best 2 players (Mack an Montgomery), but otherwise should be healthy in terms of contributors this season save for maybe Hicks, who I'd guess will miss as well.

I have Kyler, Hopkins and I started Tonyan hoping he'd have a good game as one of 2 familiar faces for Rodgers (plus I have bye weeks and injuries). They combined for 28.3 of their projected 50.1 total.

I've definitely said the last 2 weeks that the gameplan/playcalling has been fine as far as max protection, moving pockets, etc. The problem seems to be route combinations. There's seems to be way too many stop routes where the WRs are sitting down in curls against man coverage. There's not many quick slants (Mooney dropped the only 1 I remember last week). There's not many screens. There's not many plays designed to get the ball out quickly to a guy that creates immediate separation. Part of it is guys aren't creating separation, part is the route combos aren't separation generating routes, and the other part is sometimes Fields isn't seeing them quick enough if they are open/called.

Just getting caught up on all the stuff going on with the Blackhawks organization. All I have to say is horsefeathers the Blackhawks! Guess I won't follow hockey again anytime soon.

There's people making out Lachavious Simmons not getting any practice at RT into a thing. Like who cares? He was the 5th option to play RT this season. That's akin to complaining that Nick Foles is getting no practice reps. He's not supposed to be playing, don't waste your time when the guy in front of him needs all the reps he can get (talking about Fields and Wilkinson). Wilkinson went out with Covid like an hour before the game. It's not a miscarriage of justice that Simmons wasn't prepared to start. He had no reason to be prepared to start. You can argue that Simmons over Bars was a bad decision, but Bars likely had no RT practice snaps either. Simmons at least played entire preseason games at RT this year. He didn't suck because of lack of practice, he sucked because lack of ability. I get neither likely had first time reps, but given they were down to Wilk wouldn't you give some reps to whoever is the swing guy for that game? Even if just scout reps? And if the answer is that Bars was the swing guy, did they over think it by having Simmons jump him? Yes they absolutely overthought it. Bars has been the "extra" linemen on a bunch of plays recently so they probably wanted to keep him in that role. It does make sense to get the healthy backup(s) some practice reps, but when the starter is bad...that guy needs all the reps he can get as well. More important to give Wilkinson reps to improve since he's the one supposed to play than give Simmons/Bars minimal reps. Could just be though that Peters is wrong. His statement made it seem like Simmons has never played RT, when he played entire games there in the preseason.

There's people making out Lachavious Simmons not getting any practice at RT into a thing. Like who cares? He was the 5th option to play RT this season. That's akin to complaining that Nick Foles is getting no practice reps. He's not supposed to be playing, don't waste your time when the guy in front of him needs all the reps he can get (talking about Fields and Wilkinson). Wilkinson went out with Covid like an hour before the game. It's not a miscarriage of justice that Simmons wasn't prepared to start. He had no reason to be prepared to start. You can argue that Simmons over Bars was a bad decision, but Bars likely had no RT practice snaps either. Simmons at least played entire preseason games at RT this year. He didn't suck because of lack of practice, he sucked because lack of ability.

I honestly don't think Mack does anything as far as chances to win/lose this game. Guessing Quinn is going to be back from Covid list or they wouldn't have made this move yet. So, I don't think this moves the needle that much. The Bears will win or lose this game based on their ability to put up 20-24 points. I don't think Mack being gone means the 49ers become an offensive juggernaut (4 of 5 games w/ 21 or fewer scored). Same with the Steelers.

And they're discussing an IR stint. Luckily a 3 week IR stint would only be 2 games as they have the bye. But if they IR Mack, even for the 3 games, and lose to SF Sunday, they actually should conduct a firesale. Shop Quinn, Ogeltree, Hicks, Nichols, Goldman. Really any D piece, but those are the guys who might have positive value. Few are pending FA anyways. ARob will be tricky to deal because of his salary (unless they took a contract back). And I'm inclined to only deal from the D and not take a weapon away from Fields (even one that he hasn't clicked with). Based on what I've read, its not based on weeks its based on games missed meaning the bye week doesn't count. For instance George Kittle went on IR and was expected to only miss the minimum. He's been out 3 weeks but only 2 games, so he's not eligible to play this week against the Bears. https://www.nfl.com/news/49ers-te-george-kittle-calf-to-be-placed-on-injured-reserve Yes, I was going to post this as well. Have to miss 3 games. I don't think they'll IR him because of that. But probably won't see him til after the bye.

Jenkins in a few weeks? Dude hasn't even had one OTA practice, much less training camp or regular season practices/games. I'm sure he's learned the offensive system and worked closely on the stuff he can work on but can he really just be thrown into the lineup with little practice? Back doesn't necessarily mean starting and on the field on gameday. If he's practicing in 3 weeks, I consider it a win for this season's development.

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I mean, evidence that we have point toward that definitely being the way they justify stuff. We are beyond the point of needing the Lord's help.