I understand all angles of the situation when it comes to resting/not resting starters if the LA/SF game should get out of hand in the 1st half. I happen to think a bye is absolutely pivotal to any team's SB chances. Others do not... that's cool.
Only one take on this Sunday seems silly to me. Which is the "remember what happened in Week 17 2010" bit. "We let Green Bay in and then they beat us in the playoffs! Play hard to win and don't let Minnesota get in!"
Okay... a few things.
First - We played our starters throughout the entirety of that game. Did the play-calling make it appear as though we had little interest in winning at times? Yes. However, to my knowledge... we pulled nobody.
Second - Green Bay making their way to the NFC Title game and paving the way for the playoffs to go through Chicago was the ABSOLUTE best case scenario for us that post-season. It all worked out beautifully. Which leads to my main point...
Third - The problem wasn't letting Green Bay into the playoffs. It was not beating them IN THE PLAYOFFS. The problem was that we didn't beat a fierce division rival at home on our own field with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. You give me that post-season scenario again and I couldn't draw up a better way for it to unfold. Right up until that fateful January 23rd, 2011 when one of the most surreal football games I can recall unfolded.
If you don't want to play Minnesota, that's one thing. I just think the above analogy is silly.
The Only Take I've Heard This Week Which is Silly to me
Moderator: wab
- The Marshall Plan
- Hall of Famer
- Posts: 8411
- Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 11:47 am
- Location: Parts Unknown
- Has thanked: 909 times
- Been thanked: 1277 times
Agreed.
That viewpoint isn't valid to me. Well in 2010 we did this and it bit us in the ass so now we should....
It's 2018. Apples and oranges. We didn't lose that game because of bad engineering of who our opponent would be. Cutler got hurt. We went through three QBs in that game yet we still could've won. We lost by a TD.
We're going to play who we're going to play. Its the coaches job to do the homework and get a gameplan together for that and then for the players to execute.
I have my preferences, but where I ultimately stand is that I don't give a fuck if its the Vikings, Eagles, Cowboys or The Avengers. The Bears are back and I'm a hungry MF'er. I want us to defend our home field, win that fucking game, go on the road and kick their ass too. For the first time in a long time I got my favorite team back and I want at least one win in the playoffs and for my guy Anthony Miller to get at least 1 TD in the process.
Bear Down.
That viewpoint isn't valid to me. Well in 2010 we did this and it bit us in the ass so now we should....
It's 2018. Apples and oranges. We didn't lose that game because of bad engineering of who our opponent would be. Cutler got hurt. We went through three QBs in that game yet we still could've won. We lost by a TD.
We're going to play who we're going to play. Its the coaches job to do the homework and get a gameplan together for that and then for the players to execute.
I have my preferences, but where I ultimately stand is that I don't give a fuck if its the Vikings, Eagles, Cowboys or The Avengers. The Bears are back and I'm a hungry MF'er. I want us to defend our home field, win that fucking game, go on the road and kick their ass too. For the first time in a long time I got my favorite team back and I want at least one win in the playoffs and for my guy Anthony Miller to get at least 1 TD in the process.
Bear Down.
Indeed. I really did care about our opponent up until the last 24 hours or so. I'm sick of that talk. I think we handle whomever at Soldier Field and would actually love to shutup the media with all of this "Foles has the Eagles dangerous" stuff. We're a superior team to the 2018 Eagles... AND we ain't losing at home, IMO. I like our chances of battering Foles. They can't run and their secondary is pure trash. Let Philly come here. Let Minnesota come here. Let Seattle come here. I do not care.The Marshall Plan wrote:Agreed.
That viewpoint isn't valid to me. Well in 2010 we did this and it bit us in the ass so now we should....
It's 2018. Apples and oranges. We didn't lose that game because of bad engineering of who our opponent would be. Cutler got hurt. We went through three QBs in that game yet we still could've won. We lost by a TD.
We're going to play who we're going to play. Its the coaches job to do the homework and get a gameplan together for that and then for the players to execute.
I have my preferences, but where I ultimately stand is that I don't give a fuck if its the Vikings, Eagles, Cowboys or The Avengers. The Bears are back and I'm a hungry MF'er. I want us to defend our home field, win that fucking game, go on the road and kick their ass too. For the first time in a long time I got my favorite team back and I want at least one win in the playoffs and for my guy Anthony Miller to get at least 1 TD in the process.
Bear Down.
I post on another forum and some outside of Chicago seem to have us pegged as like 4th or 5th in the conference. Behind Seattle and I've read a lot of "Chicago won't go one and done if they play Minnesota... but Philly or Seattle will beat them"... "I just don't think they're that good"... blah, blah, blah.
It's like we've played 3 "prove it" games, we win them... and then they keep moving the needle back for us to gain respectability further and we're back where we started in everyone's eyes. How could anyone watch that LA game and not see that we deserve a lot of respect? Especially at Soldier Field.
Whatever...
- Bearfacts
- MVP
- Posts: 1693
- Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2018 8:33 am
- Location: Colorado
- Has thanked: 721 times
- Been thanked: 157 times
To even get to a SB this year we'll have to beat whoever is in front of us and on the road as well so why not set the table by beating Minny on the road. If we can win we should.....period.
Okay, but...Bearfacts wrote:To even get to a SB this year we'll have to beat whoever is in front of us and on the road as well so why not set the table by beating Minny on the road. If we can win we should.....period.
If we beat Minnesota and lose Mack, Trubisky or Hicks. The trip to Minnesota was a colossal failure.
I am fine with playing the starters, but we can't simply gloss over that.
- Pagan
- MVP
- Posts: 1408
- Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2008 11:19 am
- Location: South Bend, Indiana
- Has thanked: 40 times
- Been thanked: 3 times
They're professionals playing a game for tons of $.Richie wrote:Okay, but...Bearfacts wrote:To even get to a SB this year we'll have to beat whoever is in front of us and on the road as well so why not set the table by beating Minny on the road. If we can win we should.....period.
If we beat Minnesota and lose Mack, Trubisky or Hicks. The trip to Minnesota was a colossal failure.
I am fine with playing the starters, but we can't simply gloss over that.
Following this line of thinking.... starters should never play in the preseason games.
If you played games with the idea of avoiding possible injuries to starters = you'd never play starters.
I understand what you're saying, I just feel like you play the starters until the victory is secured.
This team has already had WAY too many years of playing "not to lose"
- Bearfanuk
- Assistant Coach
- Posts: 669
- Joined: Wed Nov 13, 2013 3:48 am
- Location: England
- Been thanked: 1 time
- Contact:
You play to win even more so because of the message that sends to the Vikings. This is our division and there isn’t anything you can do about it even if it’s the most important game of your season
Have a great day
- southdakbearfan
- Head Coach
- Posts: 4600
- Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2011 11:23 pm
- Location: South Dakota
- Has thanked: 763 times
- Been thanked: 328 times
This, you live to eliminate divisional foes every single time.Bearfanuk wrote:You play to win even more so because of the message that sends to the Vikings. This is our division and there isn’t anything you can do about it even if it’s the most important game of your season