Last week was a big week in my book for the team. A loss would have meant (in my eyes) this team wasn't ready to make a run this year. But a convincing win would indicate that they were ready. This weeks game is just as big in my mind. A win would not only firmly cement them in first place in the division, but will also send a signal that not only are they ready to make a run, but also have the talent, mindset, and coaching to make this season special. And don't get me wrong, a loss doesn't mean playoffs aren't still a possibility. But it does mean we're probably not going very far. Playing the Vikings is very special to me as my dad took me to my first Bears game at SF against the Vikes. Bears won. Payton ran for 275 yards. It was my birthday. I was turning 5. I've been addicted to this team ever since. Things to watch: 1) Kyle Fuller -vs- Adam Thielen - In 9 games, Thielen has 947 yards, 8 TD,s and 78 receptions. He is on pace to break every single receiving record for the Vikings. And considering those records are held by guys like Jake Reed, Chris Carter and Randy Moss, that's impressive. He's for fucking real. Interestingly, the only team so far this year to hold him to under 100 yards was the Lions. We're better... Kyle Fuller has seen Thielen the last 4 seasons. He has owned him. Theilen has never even sniffed a 100 yard game against us. I don't think Fuller has even given up a TD with him. This will be a good match up to watch. Fuller, I felt, had a good game last week. But his biggest issue is his eyes. If he would just turn the fuck around once in a while, he'd likely have several more ints. However, I do think Fuller is going to get chewed up this week. Advantage :Thielen 2) Danielle Hunter -vs- Dufus Massie - Well.... This is gonna suck. When you think about the team, and you begin looking at weak spots, who is the very first player you think of? Without a sngle second of delay... Before you can even get the whole question out. "Massie". And it isn't even debatable. Hunter is on pace for 20+ sacks this season. He is obliterating RT's. And he is obliterating some damn good RT's. In fact, the only game this week where he didn't have a sack was against Brees, who very well may be the best QB I have ever seen in getting the pass out quickly. Advantage: Hunter. And it's not even close. 3) Akiem Hicks -vs- Tom Compton - It really sucks that the Bears have to face the Vikes after their bye week. They've basically had 2 weeks to rest up for this game... They went into the Lions game pretty beat up. Compton was one of those guys. He has a knee issue and couldn't go against the Lions. Currently, he's listed as questionable. I think he'll play. Hicks has been great the last 2 weeks. However, hasn't shown up on the sack sheet in 5 weeks. It needs to change. It will this week. And even if it doesn't, he has been fucking murdering running backs. Advantage: Hicks. 4) Kyle Rudolf -vs- Lenny Floyd- I suspect that the Vikings expected more from Rudolf this year. Not that he's been bad. But I think they were looking for a break-out season from him. He's on pace for about 600 yards this year and 4 TD's. He definitely hasn't become the beast they expected. Neither has Floyd for us. Floyd finally got a sack last week. But he's been dropping into coverage - especially on nickel downs - when the TE lines up on his side. I expect this to be a match-up the Vikings will try to explore. On a positive note, I think Floyd has been far better in coverage than he has been in pass rushing. Floyd is a poor mans Hunter Hillenmeyer, And you all know how much I fucking hate that guy. I actually think we have the edge here. Advantage: Floyd 5) Bears Running Game -vs- Vikings Running Game - While I know they don't compete against each-other directly on the field, this very well could be the deciding factor in this game. I think whichever team runs the ball better, will win the game. The Vikings come into this game with the #4 ranked run defense in the NFL in yards per carry........ The Bears come in with the best. The Bears are #2 in yards per game and, again, the vikings are #4. For the record, I feel the YPC stat is far more relevant. On the offensive side of the ball, Bears are #12 in the NFL in rush offense. The Vikings are 28. The Vikings will attack with Latavius Murray and Dalvin Cook. Cook is a wanna-be scat back. Murray is 6'-3" bruiser. The Vikes average 4.2 YPC. That's actually really good. We all know what the Bears bring. Howard has not been his usual self this year. He's at 3.4 YPC. Cohen is fine, averaging 4.4. Our wild card is Trubs. He's the #2 rusher on the team. He's also #2 in the NFL. Advantage: Bears Running game. 6) Stefon Diggs -vs- Prince A. - The Vikings like to pass... Diggs was out 2 weeks ago against the Lions with sore ribs. But, luckily for the Vikes, they got a bye week at almost the perfect time. He's now listed as probable.. He's playing. The injury occurred agsinst the Saints the week before they played the Lions. He torched the stingy Saints D for 120 yards. Prince has played well this year. But not up to the standards of last year. On a tangent here, but the fucking bye week shit is stupid as fuck. And this is not the first time I've said this. We got put on a bye when we were completely healthy and on a roll. THe Vikes get a bye week when they're dinged up and need some time to recover. Fucking NFL extended the season by a week without adding another game. Advantage: Diggs. 7) Rashard Hill-vs- Khalil Mack - So, here is the good thing: Mack looked like the OG version last week. His ankle is definitely much better. What I will say is that he didn't go hard on every down. Not saying he took downs off. But he definitely was taking care of himself - especially in the 2nd half. But when he did go hard? he murdered the Lions Oline. What was interesting to me is that he played better from the right side than the left. They have been swapping him and Floyd a lot. Hill has given up 5 sacks this year. But he's looked far worse than that. Cousins is not a mobile QB. Khalil will get to him. And even if the Bears decide to move him to the right side, he'll be going against Riley Reif. Who was injured and caught a break against the Lions as Ansah was out. Either way, Mack is back and gonna have a big game. Advantage: Come on.... 8) Anthony Barr -vs- Trey Burton - The Vikings have a solid LB crew. But their weak spot right now is their Sam. Barr has been out and injured since week 7. Of course, the bye has helped him to recover. He's playing this week. Barr will line up (obviously) strong side which means that he will draw man coverage of Burton when not in nickel. THE BEARS HAVE TO ATTACK THIS!!!! Barr is 6'-5" and 260lbs. Burton is bacically a WR (he played WR in college and ran a 4.50 at the combine). Much like there is no way Burton can stop Barr attacking our QB if he rushes the passer, there is NO WAY IN HELL he will be able to cover Burton in pass coverage. Advantage: Burton 9) Trubisky -vs- the Home Crowd - One of the things that has always pissed me off about my fellow Bears fans is the dumb as fuck fans in the North End-Zone... My seats are east side line at about the Goal post. So I look out over the north end-zone. Generally, these are the non-PSL seats or PSL owners that sell. You often see tons of opponents fans there because people sell. These seats are the seats where an opponent fan beat up Michael Mckaskey. The fans there are usually drunk as fuck and dumb. Trubisky has been one of the most dominant QB's at home this year. He has 15 TD's in 5 games at home this year (averaging 3 TD per game) which is up there with the top 3 in the NFL. And yes, a couple came on shuffle passes. But still. On a Sunday night, the fans will be drunk as fuck and dumb as fuck. All I want is for our home field advantage to actually be a home field advantage. People, when we have the ball, SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!! Advantage: Likely to be CnH2n+1OH. (AKA alcohol) 10) Ref Factor: There is no way to defend the ref crews we had the last 2 weeks. They were bad. Not biased, just bad. John Parry was supposed to get this game. But because we were flexed, may not. On a positive note, we will not have one of the shitty rookie crews we had the last 2 weeks. There is one rookie crew we may get, and that would be Ed Hoculies kid... We also know it will not be Cleat "the Cheet" Blakeman. Nor will it be Tony Corrente who is doing the Thursday night game. It won't be Jerome Boger who has already done both our game and the Vikes already this year. So has Walt Coleman. Cheffers did a game for us thie year (Packers) and likely is not available because it was a nationally televised game. I am actually thinking they may keep it as John Parry or change it to Pete Morelli. If it is Parry, I am not worried. Although it was him and his crew was the crew that literally called ZERO penalties against the Packers when we played them in 2011. He seems to be fairly neutral when reffing our games. He grew up in Michigan city. So you assume he grew up as a Bears or Lions fan. I got Bears 20, Vikings 23
1) Thielen is a stud. He is physical, he is smart. Fuller can run with anyone, but Thielen will outsmart him and burn him badly at least once for a TD. 2) Bears will de-activate Mizell and activate another tight end and/or tackle. Still a mismatch. 3) I think the Vikings interior line is going to be seriously overmatched against Nichols and Goldman too, which could lead to all kinds of trouble for Cousins and THIS is in my opinion the key to the whole game. Our interior D line, combined with inside blitzes, will win the game for the Bears. 4) Floyd sucks. He will do nothing. 5) The Vikings will try, and fail, to establish the run. Too many weapons running the ball on our side. 6) Diggs is too much for Prince. He’s a stud, however, the interior pass rush will help the corners all day. But I see Diggs working Prince for about 6 and 110 and a TD. 7) Mack gets 1 sack and a tipped ball for a pick.
Again, excellent points. Barr vs Burton is a huge match up. Barr has been slacking this year, after several year of damn good play. Another DLine match up needing light shed on it is Whitehair, who's been more up than down in 2018 vs Linval Joseph. You already brought up Danielle Hunter, but Joseph is one of the better interior disruptors in the NFL, and he's only 30. Point is, vikes can generate pressure, and like the bears' defense early in the season, Nagy has to tailor this game and Mitch has to execute how you deal with teams that can generate a pass rush--get rid of the ball quickly. Eric Kendricks, their Mike is quick and can diagnose plays and run downfield to stop the run very well, but he's got a slow step in pass coverage, Ben Gideon their Will as well. I think that's a huge opportunity. I recall all the games during the Lovie days where on 3rd and 9, Lovie looked so lost when Greg Jennings ran a simple quick slant that went for 12 and a 1st. That's how I attack this defense. Teams have done it, its worked. The Vikes DBs, oft complimented have also looked very, very human this year. Rhodes is banged up, but effective. Waynes has been picked on a lot. Sendejo is a solid box safety, prone to really stupid roughing penalties. Harrison Smith is one of the best, maybe not sail balls in his general direction, Mitch. I still see John Parry as our ref crew this weekend. I have Mack attack the RT Rashod Hill or the rookie Brian O'Neill if he's playing, as Hill has been banged up. That and Compton vs Akeim Hicks are 2 matchups that greatly favor the bears defense.
This game is MUCH bigger than last week. Of our 6 wins, none have been against a team with a winning record. We have had the easiest schedule in the NFL according to the numbers. If we win this week against a good team, we are a legit playoff contender with a shot at winning the division. We control our destiny two games up on the Vikings and Packers. If we lose, I don't see us making the playoffs given our poor history against divisional opponents and the fact that we have the Rams still left on our schedule. This is absolutely a must win game and it is the biggest game we've played since the 2013 finale. I'm with Bear-man on this one. Floyd hasn't shown enough in coverage to convince me he has an advantage against anyone. I still keep wondering why he is batting more balls down at the LOS given that he rarely comes close to the QB. Then when he drops into coverage he's usually beaten. Couldn't disagree more and I'm stunned you think this. We really haven't run the ball well on anyone this year, Jets game was the closest. Trubs is why our team numbers look respectable. But we know how good the Vikings d-line is and without Long I don't know how we run at all this week or what we can do to get Howard going. Meanwhile Dalvin Cook is a home run threat and if he gets into the secondary, I have zero faith our safeties will take the right angle or make a tackle. Watch out for Cook. This is why we made the trade for Mack and paid him $100 million. To step up in games like this and punish the QBs of our divisional rivals. Let's hope he does. I got Vikings 31 Bears 24. My concern is our defense, particularly in the 4th quarter with the game on the line. I believe we have allowed the most 4th quarter points in the NFL. Plus I still need to see Trubs play well against a good defense. We're on the track, but we're not there yet.
I actually felt sans the offside penalty, he had a good game last week. He obviously has not lived up to the hype or where we drafted him. But maybe he's turned a corner?
Cook is nursing a hamstring. I'm sure the bye has helped. But he's been hampred this year. And we have a home-run hitter of our own.. I think our run defense is better than the Vikes. I am really not seeing a big game from either running team. I just like ours better with Trubs and the RPO.
I totally agree man. If either team succeeds with this it won't just allow them to control the clock and keep their own D rested, it will keep the dangerous pass rush off their own QB's while making their passing game much more effective. And this is a problem cos to me, the Bears look to be in a bad spot here. The Vikings are better than their ranking now Cook is back. This will be a legit challenge for our run D. I think they're up to it for the most part, but it almost goes without saying we can't have a "Miami" type performance up the middle or it will be game over. But the bigger problem to me lies on the other side. Its pretty simple, the Bears running game as it has been this season is overmatched in this one. The OL couldn't overcome a statistically weak Lions runD last week and got handled in the run by a good Bill's DL the week before. Well the Vikings DL is even better. Its typical that patg just mentioned Linval Joseph. I remember when the Vikes signed him a few years ago we both went thats not good. Jospeh was a solid, underrated player when he got to Minn, he's only gotten better since. Oh and if that wasn't enough they added Sheldon Richardson in the offseason.... The Bears OL has a world of problems winning at the POA and controlling the LOS in this game. They need something else. I don't mean to bring this kinda thing up on a semi-regular basis this year, but maybe they need designed QB keepers. The Bills used a spy at times on Trubisky and had some success with it. But it never became a major factor cos of game flow. The Lions, as far as i could tell, didn't spy Trubisky nor did Mitch ever keep it and go on those read option handoffs to Howard even tho it was there. It was on all day in AZ too but they never ran it, then the next week v the Bucs they did on the 2nd play of the game and Mitch ripped it for 20+yards... Hopefully the Vikes don't think they need to spy Trubisky. Hopefully they haven't focused much film study on the keeper. Its logical to suggest maybe they haven't cos the Bears haven't ran it much. You prob give it to Howard the first couple times to size up how the Vikings play it. But if its on id like Nagy to use it 1st half, hopefully 1stQ. Its not just the yards Trubs could get, the Bears have to get the Vikings out of rhythm on D. Its risky putting your QB in potential harms way more by running, but i think they need to do it. Sliding is ok. Another thing id look at is things like the jet sweep. The Vikes D isn't slow, but again the Bears haven't been running that play much recently and they have guys who can execute it. They've gotta try and do things that won't be all over recent film study, cos the Vikings D is too good. Assuming they have some success off these things, then you use them as misdirection later on for other plays. Nagy tries to employ a ton of misdirection on his plays and i totally get why. But too often i feel he's doing it with things that the D simply isn't biting on. Cos they don't respect it. Well Defenses learn to quickly respect the things that can hurt them, like plays that have just been successful. One area i give the Bears the edge is in rotational depth on the DL. Lets hope that counts for something. Like a big something. This team feels like its close. We know they could EASILY be 8-1. But they're not Jedi's yet, while the Vikings are further along the line. They have a better team on paper(imo), they're more settled, and crucially i feel they're more experienced both on the field and the sideline. These Bears barely know how to win yet. Well with 33wins the previous 3 seasons, the Vikings do. Im seriously considering moving my monday around to stay up for this one, it feels like they've kinda earned my late night attendences once again. I have the Vikings winning tho, 24-20.
Looks like the Vikings gonna start Rookie (2nd round) Brian O'Neil instead of Hill. Mack is going to eat this kid alove...
One thing to note is the Vikes also have not beaten a team with a winning record yet this season. However, unlike us, they have lost to a below .500 team (Bills). The key in that game for the Bills was a shit ton of pressure on Cousins and some costly turnovers. BTW, I posted this on the Vikes board: Vikings have won 7 of the last 10 against the Bears. However, 3 of last 5 games played at SF have gone to the Bears. Going to be in the mid to upper 20's for the game. I've gone back to every single game played between Minnesota and Chicago in Chicago where the temp was below freezing. The Vikings have never won. The lowest game time temp I can find where the Vikes beat the Bears in Chicago was November 3, 1974 when the game time temp was 45 degreees. Vikings won 17-0. On a side note, The Vikes did beat the Bears several times in below freezing temps when they played in Bloomington. There was also a good game in 2009 played in Chicago where the kick-off temp was 26 and game temps dropped into the high teens that went to OT. It was a Monday night game. The Vikings lost 36-30 when Jay Cutler hit Devin Aromashodu on a 39 yard laser.
Like it, like it. Now if we can just sabotage Joseph's car before the game. Tuna, you got anyone up there we can call upon. I was thinking of the old banana in the tailpipe.
Bananas??? What kind of skinny ass tailpipes you got on those lawnmowers you drive over there anyway? Here we use those big fat Idaho potatoes to do the trick as they offer more resistance to the compression pop blowing them out. I'll see what I can do. BTW It looks like the dog chewed up another brand new visor this week so your sensitivities shouldn't be affected.
Great thoughts everyone. This is the biggest game of the year so far, no question. Given that, I want to see Mitch take off on a keeper in the RPO EARLY in this game. I believe the only chance we have at getting any sort of running game going is if the Linebackers are forced to respect the QB keeper in the RPO. That half second of hesitation before Howard/Cohen get the ball will be the only chance they have at beating this Vikings front 7 with no Kyle Long. But please mitch, SLIDE! I'm worried about Theilin/Diggs/Cook against our Safeties. I love Eddie Jackson's play so far this year, hes been incredible... But if ever there was a game to predict him getting burned in the open field, its this one. I trust our front 7 to get pressure and contain the running game, but boy, If Diggs is healthy im extremely concerned about him lining up across from Prince. Would not be surprised to see a simple double move burn both prince and eddie on a huge TD. Hope I'm wrong! I'll be interested to see what Vic does with Roquan. He could potentially be an enormous difference maker.
The positive is that Cousins is not a mobile QB. So we won't have to waste anyone as a spy. The negative, as I mentioned before, their offense for the first time all season, will be healthy and have all their weapons. Roquan is going to have his hands full with those RB's...
Can confirm. Dude was a 26 year old Tommie Harris lite. without the leg issues. Not sure how he'd be as a 5 tech here if we play the 'what if' game, but I remember before the 2014 season, big money flew around in FA to some bums, and his 5 year, 31 mil deal made me salty, especially because many people knew at the time the Giants didn't have the money to keep him. On an entirely unrelated note, like this game, Bears-Rams next month has also been flexed to NBC primetime.
Great stuff from everybody. It’s nice to have an important game this late in the season. That being said it’s time for this team to grow up and play like a big boy. The Bears roster isn’t going to change much as I believe the core is in place and healthy. If not now when? As for this game I see the. Kings having a harder time dealing with our pass rush then we will have dealing with theirs. That and Trubisky’s ability to make plays with his feet will be the difference in the game. Bears 27 Vikings 24 Bears win on a last second FG. The kicker (who I will not say by name until he deserves it) gives all credit to his lord and savior and the practice reps at SF.
