The last time the Bears were 8-3 was 2012. They were riding a high after beating the hell out of the Vikes (28-10) tied with Greenbay for 1st in the Division, and were basically in the drivers seat for at least a playoff spot. They then lost 3 in a row including tough losses to the Packers and Vikes, finished 10-6, and out of the playoffs due to a Divisional tie-breaker to the Vikes. That 10-6 record cost Lovie Smith his job and ushered in one of the worst era's in Bears football in the history of the team; The juice Box Era. Fortunately, this team doesn't have Jay Cutler at the helm. The Giants come in to this game with a pretty crappy defense and a QB who will likely be hanging them up after the season. At 3-8, the Giants should be tanking as they are in legit contention for the #1 overall pick and if they lose out, will definitely be in the top 5. The problem is that their division is so bad, that even at 3-8, they are not out of it to win the Division. And given that after the Bears game, they play 4 teams that are either 5-6 or 6-5 currently including 2 games against the teams leading their division. They are definitely still playing to win. Heck, they could finish 7-9 and still have a chance... This is the 59th meeting between the teams. The overall record is 33-23-2 with the Bears having a 10-game cushion. Here are some things to watch: 1) Prince Amukamara -vs- Odel Beckham - The positive on this is that Prince has lined up against Beckham for 2 years in pre-season when he was on the Giants. He knows him as well as any DB in the NFL or better. The negative is Prince is no match for Beckham regardless. Even in a down year, Beckham is on pace for 110 catches, 1300+ yards and a potential of double digit TD's. Given this will be the first time they line up against each other in a real game, I'd like to say we don't know what we'll get. But,sadly, we do. Odell will be targeted 10-13 times, will catch 10 or more, for 90-12 yards and a TD. Edge: Beckham 2) Saquan Barkley -vs- Roquan Smith - I will be the first to admit I was wrong about Smith. When he had his hold-out, I thought we were looking at another Cedric Benson situation. But, no. Although Smith got off to a slow start, he is clearly a stud. he now leads the team in tackles and is in the top 20 in the NFL. Again, after a slow start... Barkley is the real deal. He's a multi-dimensional threat both as a receiver and a RB. He's not only a game or 2 away from 1000 yards rushing on the year, he's also #2 on the team in receptions, only 3 behind Beckham. He is likely EXACTLY the RB Nagy wishes Howard would be. The key for the Bears will be to shut down Barkley. If we shut him down, the offense will sputter and the game could be a very lopsided victory. If Barkley gets rolling, this game can go either way. Edge: Barkley 3) Chad Wheeler -vs- Khalil Mack - Chad Wheeler is a 24 year old undrafted FA who went into a drugged up rage and fought with cops until they shot him with bean bag guns. He has given up 5 sacks in 8 games started. Mack is a veteran all-pro having another all-pro season. This could be a long day for Wheeler and because of that, Eli. Consider this, Eli has already been sacked 38 times this year. Edge: Mack might set a record for sacks in a game. 4) Oliver Vernon -vs- Charles Leno - We saw this match-up in 2016. Vernon had 1 sack on the day. This was it: But a lot has changed since 2016. Consider this, the Giants are 31st in the NFL in sacks with 14. Only the Mack-less Raiders are worse. No player on the Giants has more than 2 sacks. Vernon, who they originally picked up from Miami on a huge contract (~10% of the Giants current cap) was supposed to be a dominant edge rush specialist, has just 1 sack on the year. Leno has had some fairly pedestrian games as of late and definitely isn't playing as well as he has in years past. Even still, with the way Vernon is playing, this is match-up that he will/should easily win. Edge: Leno 5) Evan Engram -vs- Leonard Floyd - Over the last few weeks, the Bears have been swapping Floyd and Mack a lot to put Floyd on the strong side. This generally means he will line up against the TE and if the TE runs a route when we're in man, Floyd will have responsibility to cover. Floyd has been decent in pass coverage this year and I think this week will be no different. Engram has been nursing a hamstring injury that kept him out lat week. Right now he's listed as questionable and isn't practicing today. If he's a go, he will hampered a little. Edge: Even 6) Sterling Sheppard -vs- Kyle Fuller - Prince and Kyle will generally swap out on Odell and Sterling throughout the game. But Kyle will see a lot of one-on-one with Sheppard. Sheppard is #2 on the team with 610 yards. He's a speedy little receiver that does seem to be able to get decent separation when there s time for him to make double moves. Kyle is having a great season, and is likely in discussion for a pro-bowl nod. He is currently leading the team in interceptions. I think the key on this match-up is to press at the line, disrupt timing, and let the Dline do their job. Eli can't get the ball to Sheppard if he's on his ass. Edge: Fuller 7) Giants Interior Oline -vs- Hicks and Goldman - At 38 sacks already on the year, Eli is just 1 sack away from his worst season ever. That WILL happen this week. One of the many issues the Giants are having on offense is their interior Oline. Spencer Pulley is the Giants starting center. Spencer was cut by the Chargers and picked up off the trash heap by the Giants. Although he hasn't given up a lot of sacks on the year, he is just a middle to lower tier Center who gets pushed back on his heels often letting the pocket collapse. At guard, you have Jamon Brown and Rookie Will Hernandez. Brown, who was released by the Rams and is generally considered a dirty player. I think he has to be because he really isn't very good. Hernandez may have the most upside on the line. But at guard, he has already given up 5 sacks on the year... Eli, who is the epitome of a pocket passer has really not had a pocket to step up into leaving him as a sitting duck for edge rushers. Hicks and Goldman both should be in discussions for the pro-bowl this year. Fangio has been blitzing a lot more recently than he did early in the year. This week, I don't think he'll need to. Edge: Bears 8) Mitch Trubisky -vs- His Shoulder - Want to hear something really funny? When we lost to the Dolphins, Floyd was fined $20K for whiffing on a hit to the QB. Harrison Smith, who took out Trubisky on a blatant late hit after he'd already given himself up and will (likely) cost Trubisky at least 2 games, was fined $10K. Gotta love the NFL Do I think we need Trubisky to win this week? No. But I'd feel a lot more confident if he was out there. As I noted, the Giants still have something to play for. And being they're the home team, I'm sure they're going to give it a go. Trubisky did not practice today. While that dosn't rule him out yet, it's not a good sign. Edge: Bad shoulder. I think Trubisky sits again. 9) Ref Assigment - For some reason, we get Clay Martin again. He's the first year head ref who did the Patriots game. Going back, I didn't think that crew did a bad job. The Patriots were called for 7 penalties to our 5 and we benefitted to the tune of 4 first downs off penalties. I think if anything stands out to me, it's that in his first year, he has ref'd games for all 4 NFC North teams. The Lions, Vikings and Packers all won. We're the only team that didn't. That should change this week.
While I love to read your analysis, it sounds to me that your still hesitant on the Bears. Either that makes them the weakest 8-3 team in the NFL or the Giants are the strongest 3-8 team. But I’m with you. The Eagles might not be playing lights out this year, but that’s a game the Giants should have won. I do think their team is better than their record.
I think that taking the Giants lightly is a mistake. So I don't see this a "trap game". I see this a tough game we need to win to keep this train rolling. Even with all the all the criticism of Eli, he's still on pace for 4400 yards. You note the Eagles game they should have won. They also lost to Atlanta by 3 in Atlanta. They also lost to the Panthers by 2 in Carolina. They Beat the Texans in Houston. Yes. They are having a bad year. But Eli has a lot of weapons and that offense can chew up yards and the clock. We again will likely have a back-up QB playing. Howard has been off all year. So we don't have a juggernaut we can just hand the ball to. By the way, it's supposed to be in the 60's and rainy on Sunday in NY. If those conditions play out, you need to be able to run the ball... We should win. We are the better team. And I'll be happy if we pummel them. I just think it will be a lot closer than we expect.
This is the perfect game to start Chase Daniel. Bears probably aren't going to get a bye unless New Orleans or LA shits the bed 2x. The Rams have the easiest schedule going forward (Lions, bears, Eagles, Cards, 49ers), so them losing 2x seems unlikely especially if the bears pace them. Saints have it slightly tougher, Cowboys, Bucs, Panthers, Steelers, Panthers. If we're probably not playing for a bye, rest Mitch. If the bears lose this game, they're still in first regardless of the division. Eli Manning is noodle armed and is prone to plenty of lame duck passes, so the secondary should be ready to feast, especially if the pass rush is killing it--which they should. He also has been around enough to know when pass rush is coming for him, but he has been sacked 38 times in 2018. If Aaron Lynch and Leonard Floyd are looking to pad stats/test their skills on an inferior OLine to date, this is kind of the game you want them to do it. If Fangio needs bulletin board material, NY sports media believes this:
This game has me worried. Because it should be a win but now with Trubisky likely to miss the game with an injury the team keeps saying isn't long term....I'm a little worried. The style of the Giants offense actually matches up well against the Bears. So if the Bears don't shut down the run game or have a dominant pass rush...they could be in trouble.
I'm also worried about Trubisky's injury as I've been from the start. I was listening to Waddle and Silvy and one Bears reporter who watched the practice mentioned that Trubisky, while donning the orange practice jersey, didn't throw a single pass nor did he once lift his arm above his head. If he can't lift his arm above his head on Wednesday then I'm sure he won't be playing on Sunday. As for the Giants, they are a talented team that finds ways to lose games. They're probably the best 3-8 team in the NFL, for what that's worth. I like that we've been blitzing a lot more. Good things happen. It usually leads to a sack or throwaway and we rarely have gotten burned when we do. I hope Fangio keeps it up. Especially against Eli who might be the most immobile starter in the league. Going to need Chase to have another good, mistake free game. Jordan Howard must get rolling and the Giants d-line might be the team where he can have some success. If we don't give up big plays to Saquan and don't turn it over on offense, I see us winning by 3-7 points.
I don't know if it's a "cover up" but I do think it's more serious than they've led on. If he can't lift his arm above his shoulder after 10 days, it seems recovery is not going well.
Agreed. I was worried the Bears were resting Mitch because they think the Giants are a pushover and don’t need him, but it sounds like it’s more serious.
Not a cover up...just probably worse than they are willing to disclose because when he does come back to play they don't want opposing teams targeting the shoulder. It's been mentioned here before but the NFL really should adopt the NHL's injury policy and simply report injuries as either an upper body injury or a lower body injury and then teams wouldn't need to be so coy about stuff.
If we shutdown Saquan, I think there's little chance we lose, especially if we are consistently pressuring Eli. Containing Saquan is the key.
LOL We lead the NFL in Int's and Fumbles caused. #4 in yards allowed. #2 in Rush yards allowed. #2 in points allowed, #3 in 3rd down %, #3 in first downs allowed... What a fucking tool.
