Going to keep this relatively short. But feels good to be posting it again.... 1) Mitch Trubisky's progress - Let's all face facts, Mitch was not great last year. He wasn't even good. The best you can say is that he showed some promise and did look better than his predecessor, No, I don't mean Cutler - he was worse than Cutler. i meant Glennon. Now, a lot can be said about his Oline being beat up, and his receiving crew decimated. Those are valid and tangible things to point to as to why he played poorly. So is the fact that his OC was (maybe) the most predictable play-caller I have ever seen on this team. But, you also have to watch the film. He was not making great decisions. On a positive note, he showed better arm strength than I expected, and his accuracy was also great. His form was far better and more consistent than Cutler. So, I think if this coaching staff can actually "coach a QB", we have the raw material we need to turn this kid into a great QB. We'll have some more clues tomorrow night. 2) Khalil Mack, Starting? - We've heard a lot of discussion in the local media as to whether Mack will start or not. The concern's are that he didn't see any reps in PS and may not be at game speed yet. Well, I have some news for you.. Most of our starters saw very few reps this PS. Now, they did in practices. But in actual competition against a real opponent? Limited is being generous. Khalil Mack is a work-out monster. And he's played the 3-4 OLB since H.S. He may need some help in learning the defensive play-calling terminology, but he knows this defense. So, I am guessing that if he is in good shape, which I assume he will be, he's not only playing, he's starting. 3) Weather - In 2007, the Bears 1st game of the season was away at San Diego. The home team decided to wear their "away" jerseys. Which forced the Bears their home Jersey's. The "almost black" navy blue. It was +90 and sunny. It was fucking hot. Trust me. I was there. We lost that game 14-3 (I think) but it was much closer than that. And the difference in the game very well could have been the fact that the Bears were dehydrated, cramping up all over the field. Especially the D. I've discussed how the Bears starters have played very little this PS. The fact that it's going to be around 70 degrees at game time and going down from there is huge positive for our starters - who cannot be at game speed condition yet. Especially the D. 4) Pee heads -vs- Black-heads - OK, this one requires some background. I was recently having a drunk conversation with one of my alcoholic buds. We were discussion why the Packers have had so many dominating QB's historically, when we have had mediocre to poor dating back to the end of the Sid Luckman era. Truth is they haven't had a lot. They've had 3. But I digress. His drunk theory? QB's look for helmets first to identify their receivers. Which is true. Especially when you're trying to pick them out over 6' + linemen. In that vein, piss-yellow helmets are much easier to pick out than navy blue. So, let's look at the helmets for some of the dominating Team/QB's: Rodgers - Piss yellow Brady - sparkly silver Manning - White Brees - Sparkly gold Montana - Sparkly gold Hmm.... Interesting theory. 5) First Game Against Packers - I honestly didn't look this up. But BWW noted that each of our last 4 HC's beat the Packers the first time they faced them. I suspect that if we look at game's 2 thru X, the record is much different. But, shit, if we can get off to a good start and win tomorrow night, I'm going to say this team will win 9 games. 6) Our RB's -vs- ? who? - Let me ask you all honestly, before our fantasy draft, did anyone on here even care about the Packers RB's? I picked up Jamal Williams in the draft only because I know that he's a decent middle tier RB. and will be fine to use when Gurley is on a bye week. And... he will get all the rushing reps. But that is the point. He will get all the reps, but this team revolves around Rogers. If Williams is a statistical factor in this game, it means we're getting our asses handed to us. Conversely, I expect a very heavy dose of our dynamic duo of RB's getting a shit ton of touches. This season could be very much like the 1984 Bears. 7) Ref Factor - We get Carl Cheffers crew this week. We are 7-8 with him dating back to 1999. He was the ref last year when we faced the Saints. We lost. And we were called for 7 penalties while they were called for 4. The previous game he ref'd for us was against the Seahawks in 2015. We've lost 6 out of 7 games he's reffed for us since becoming a head ref. With that said, as far back as I can find, whether we win or lose, we seem to be on the losing side of penalties called most of the time. in those 15 games, we are penalized more than the other team 12 times. Tied once. The last time he ref'd (sideline ref) us vs the Packers was in 2007. We were called for 12 penalties. They were called for 6. We still won. That game was a Sunday night game. Damn I want to win. I have Bears 17 , Packers 27
I missed these. I'm excited to see the battle in the trenches. Both teams d line can be dangerous. Obviously, Rodgers is much better at beating the rush. I hope the o line can give Trubisky enough time to find the WRs. Which will also be nice to see in action. I want to say I saw that there is only 1 Bear WR from last year that made a roster this year. That's pretty ridiculous. I'm so ready for the game, I have a feeling we will still lose, but I think it'll be close.
1) We need to see progression is this team is going to stop being a doormat. My hope? Nagy tailors a gameplan with Burton in mind and attacks this defense. I cant see Blake Martinez or Oren Burks keeping up with him, and he's got a size mismatch if Packers roll safety coverage with Haha, Dicks and Kentrell Brice. Take a shot down field first play of the game. Also, while the packers' defense is overrated and I actually believe airing it out after a few good run punches is the key, Mike Daniels is a guy you have to respect. Part of being a good QB is knowing where the best guy on the other side of the football is, and the Packers' best defender is lining up against Bobbie Massie and Long's side. Long I trust until he gets hurt again, Massie I don't. Mo Wilkerson changes this game if he found a time machine to 4 years ago. 2) Even if it has to be so simple that he's a pass rush hammer only, he has to play snaps this game. 3) Weather is nice, which goes back to my #1 point, attack this defense. I think a steady mix of Burton tailored plays and Jordan Howard is a solid way put points up on the packers as opposed to run run 1 yard pass on 3rd and 8 punt. 4) So.....change to the fugly bright orange helmets? Apparently the bears are bringing back the fugly orange jerseys 3x this year, 2 home games, one away game in Miami. 5) Besides the best quarterback in the game, probably ever--and Mike Daniels, I'm still underwhelmed by the packers. I want to say 'smack the shit out of Erin' but Cheffers will be having none of that. 6) Mike McCarthy has unsuccessfully tried to mix in so many runs that hasn't been doable for the past 3-4 years. The Packers' oline sucks, and they have tendencies to draft fat running backs with no vision. 7) Just.....great.
Last time we beat the Packers on opening day, the season-opening drive ended like this: I've (perhaps foolishly) bought into the hype for our defense so much that I feel they will play very well tonight and all season. It's all on Trubs not to fuck this up. At this point I'd take a 2005 scenario where Kyle Orton basically never screwed up and relied on the solid run game and our #1 defense to eke out 11 wins. I'm not saying our defense is as good now as it was that year, but really that's my bare minimum hope for Trubs tonight.
It’s been a while for me, so I will keep a look out for a few of these points tonight and see how it plays out. It’s good to have football back!
For almost the entirety of my adult life, I've had to watch the Bears get owned by the team I hate the most. And those fucking packer teams were mostly shit, except for them falling into 2 QBs that are consistently in the top 3 in the league every damn year. That's how important QBs are in this league. It's all about Mitch. That bastard had better be worth what they gave up to get him.
Goddamn it is great to have football back, AND the things to watch. He was also thrown in midseason with Glennon the "starter". The real question will be how much has he progressed as the #1 all through the offseason and in TC. Pre-season was short enough that I don't think it's time to press the panic button. But we do need to start seeing something from our #2 overall pick. Lets face it, without the next two first round picks, his success determines our success for the next probably 4 years. He HAS to be good. I read a few articles that says he's on a pitch count (per Nagy yesterday). It could be a smokescreen, but I think they're going to use him situationally which means I doubt he's starting. Yeh, not quite buying that. Wouldn't the bright orange of the browns work too? That's the kind of discussion I have when blasted myself. This and Mack are the things that give me legitimate hope. Then again, usually year after year I get amnesia about this time. Hoping the rocks of reality aren't too harsh this time around. I found this which I thought was interesting: https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/penalties-per-game Basically the Packers average around the 6-8th least penalized team in the NFL for at least the past decade. You could say this is because McCarthy keeps them disciplined, but I'd rather be a homer and say it's because they are the Packers.
If I wasn't sure it was game day, I sure know now. Mongo throwing down the Things to Watch, as always. Cheers, all. Let's get this thing started.
My biggest fear for tonight is how all these hits on the QB are being called. Bears need to get to Rodgers to be successful.
I am absolutely floored with this whole, "Weight on the QB thing". It's absolute nonsense. I watched it several times today, clean, normal tackles that are getting called for roughness. I have no idea what the expectation of defensive players is. It's unreal.
Sometimes you can stop from landing on the QB. This rule is crap. From the league that still can’t figure out what a catch is...what do you expect?
I saw a lot of pretty shitty roughing the passer penalties today. It looks like if a defender comes at a QB face on then he lands on the QB and it's a flag. Not fun to watch.
