WK 11 // Bears (3-7) @ Lions (7-2)

[LacertineForest]

Keep selling this. Despite always having the football pulled out from under me, I want to believe it's possible and we'll see a winner come out of this shitstorm yet.

Poles inherited a team that was taken down to the studs.

He had no first round pick in year 1 and minimal cap space.

When Poles did have resources between year 1 and 2 he did the following:

Trade down of the millennium part of which is yielding another #1 overall at this point.
Acquired a legit #1 WR.
Future franchise RT
Signed two really good linebackers in FA.
Traded a second for a proven pass rushing DE.

Rome was not built in a day.

We are entering this offseason with the following:

1) Most likely a known solution at QB.
2) Enough cap space to buy anybody we need. Most likely DL.
3) Two first round picks of which they stand at 1 and 4 overall right now.

I believe that Poles fires Eberflus and hires a more proven commodity. Realistically speaking somebody like Ron Rivera or if Mike Tomlin gets fired.

In Fantasy Land we get Jim Harbaugh.

Heck, if we got Brian Flores I’d be over the moon.

This team IS being built. We ARE improving.

Just get us a real coaching staff and a DL.

Inject it into my veins, brother. This is why I will continue to watch. I agree - there is progress, but it's clearly being massively hampered by the staff. If they don't clean house this offseason...you know, I don't really even want to entertain the thought of them keeping these literal losers around another year.

[Moriarty]

so a friend trying to commiserate told me he was sorry about the loss, but the Bears looked damn good until the final 4 minutes or so, and it was an entertaining game

so is that our lot in life? to be fans of a group of entertaining losers?

[WagonForce]

My fury for the coaching staff yesterday obscured the fact that I really liked the offensive game plan. I still want Getsy fired, because Flus must be jettisoned and asking a new HC to retain anyone from the previous staff is ridiculous (not to mention, something the Bears have already screwed up in the past).

I don't understand why using Fields' legs wasn't a bigger part of the offense from the beginning of the year. You could see yesterday how the legitimately good Lions D was kept off balance for the majority of the game. The whole situation reminded me of last season and the mid-year overhaul of the offense to leverage the QBs running ability that led to so many impressive offensive performances. Then to start this year it looked so plainly like the team was once again trying to make JF1 into something he isn't (yet).

Against Detroit, Fields was ripping the ball into tight windows, attacking with his legs, and balancing it all with a nice running game from some backs that complement the whole plan well. You could see his competitiveness and confidence on full display. The offensive line seemed to be performing really well, firing off the ball on running plays and generally providing nice protection against some really good pass rushers. Yes the line is actually mostly healthy now, which is a key difference from the start of the season, but wouldn't using Fields as a weapon on the ground more have helped take some of the pressure off the line in that case anyway?

When former director of pro personnel Josh Lucas talked about the original thesis for drafting Fields, he explicitly brought up how the Bears believed that Fields could learn to process the NFL game by using his legs to be a threat and subsequently, be able to stay on the field and get the reps he would need to develop. To my eyes, it looks like the Bears had pivoted to 'trying to see what they have in Fields' and twice now began the year with an approach that would force him into the type of play they believe is necessary for him to succeed in the long term. The first time they did it was somewhat understandable. Last year, when the team saw that it wasn't working and pivoted to using Fields' tremendous gifts as an athlete I was actually thrilled, it showed me that they were capable of self analysis and admitting their mistakes. Then they march into this year and do what looks like the same damn thing they did to start the previous season? It's only now that the team is in the basement of the NFL that the plan has (maybe) changed once again?

We'll never know the real chain of responsibility for what we've seen from the team's leadership but somehow I'm even more frustrated when we see these flashes of how the Bears roster could work as a team rather than them just abjectly failing.

[G08]

My fury for the coaching staff yesterday obscured the fact that I really liked the offensive game plan. I still want Getsy fired, because Flus must be jettisoned and asking a new HC to retain anyone from the previous staff is ridiculous (not to mention, something the Bears have already screwed up in the past).

I don't understand why using Fields' legs wasn't a bigger part of the offense from the beginning of the year. You could see yesterday how the legitimately good Lions D was kept off balance for the majority of the game. The whole situation reminded me of last season and the mid-year overhaul of the offense to leverage the QBs running ability that led to so many impressive offensive performances. Then to start this year it looked so plainly like the team was once again trying to make JF1 into something he isn't (yet).

Against Detroit, Fields was ripping the ball into tight windows, attacking with his legs, and balancing it all with a nice running game from some backs that complement the whole plan well. You could see his competitiveness and confidence on full display. The offensive line seemed to be performing really well, firing off the ball on running plays and generally providing nice protection against some really good pass rushers. Yes the line is actually mostly healthy now, which is a key difference from the start of the season, but wouldn't using Fields as a weapon on the ground more have helped take some of the pressure off the line in that case anyway?

When former director of pro personnel Josh Lucas talked about the original thesis for drafting Fields, he explicitly brought up how the Bears believed that Fields could learn to process the NFL game by using his legs to be a threat and subsequently, be able to stay on the field and get the reps he would need to develop. To my eyes, it looks like the Bears had pivoted to 'trying to see what they have in Fields' and twice now began the year with an approach that would force him into the type of play they believe is necessary for him to succeed in the long term. The first time they did it was somewhat understandable. Last year, when the team saw that it wasn't working and pivoted to using Fields' tremendous gifts as an athlete I was actually thrilled, it showed me that they were capable of self analysis and admitting their mistakes. Then they march into this year and do what looks like the same damn thing they did to start the previous season? It's only now that the team is in the basement of the NFL that the plan has (maybe) changed once again?

We'll never know the real chain of responsibility for what we've seen from the team's leadership but somehow I'm even more frustrated when we see these flashes of how the Bears roster could work as a team rather than them just abjectly failing.

This is why Flus and Friends need to be launched into the sun.

[HisRoyalSweetness]

A day later...

[Mikefive]

I have several Chiefs fans on my work team. I offered them DJ Moore for Andy Reid and told them they can keep Matt Nagy. No takers, however.

[Mikefive]

When former director of pro personnel Josh Lucas talked about the original thesis for drafting Fields, he explicitly brought up how the Bears believed that Fields could learn to process the NFL game by using his legs to be a threat and subsequently, be able to stay on the field and get the reps he would need to develop. To my eyes, it looks like the Bears had pivoted to 'trying to see what they have in Fields' and twice now began the year with an approach that would force him into the type of play they believe is necessary for him to succeed in the long term. The first time they did it was somewhat understandable. Last year, when the team saw that it wasn't working and pivoted to using Fields' tremendous gifts as an athlete I was actually thrilled, it showed me that they were capable of self analysis and admitting their mistakes. Then they march into this year and do what looks like the same damn thing they did to start the previous season? It's only now that the team is in the basement of the NFL that the plan has (maybe) changed once again?

In my view, there's logic to this. If you run Fields constantly (18x this week), history has shown us that he's going to get hurt. He's missed several games every season as a result. Neither coaches, fans, nor Fields himself wants him to absorb the punishment he's taken in his career and be in and out of the lineup every year. He does need to use his athletic gifts. But getting the ball out of his hand to the other playmakers is important for his health.

[dplank]

18 was a lot, more than anyone wants. I think it was game plan specific though

[HisRoyalSweetness]

Here's another 'fun' stat to add to the list for this game, courtesy of Mark Potash:

Teams that have three interceptions and throw none were 9-0 this season before Sunday, with an average margin of 15.0 points. The Bears lost by five.

[Middleguard]

Your game 11 scores provide a good example for how I treat duplicate predictions. UOK and Shadow have the same winning score, but Shadow's prediction was a duplicate of UOK's. Shadow gets credit for a prediction, will receive the same 0.161006199906422 points as UOK in my end of the year contest, and the prediction is also included in my handicapping of this game's difficulty for contest results. What doesn't count for Shadow is mention in my year's review of weekly winners. UOK will be listed as sole 1st place for game 11 and alexwilkins will be listed in 2nd place (rather than 3rd if UOK and Shadow had tied with different predictions).

2 UOK / *Shadow
8 alexwilkins
14 VA_Mountain_Bear
38 Atkins&Rebel
42 HisRoyalSweetness
54 Mikefive / Middleguard
62 crueltyabc
72 LacertineForest
104 Hema2.0
126 Moriarty / Xee
146 46plank
168 southdakbearfan / AZ_Bearfan
182 Otis Day / *Boris13c
206 RichH55
234 G08 / *Noots
254 otis
288 Bears Whiskey Nut
350 spudbear
386 artbest01 / *Richie / *WagonForce
434 The Marshall Plan
512 Grizzled
566 pus
618 wab
632 realred2
686 Bearsoldier
1554 Ditka's dictaphone
4106 HurricaneBear
* duplicate prediction

[HisRoyalSweetness]

Better get used to it kid... it's what being a Bears fan is all about.

[HisRoyalSweetness]

For those who like a deeper look into film and have the time, here's a breakdown of a number of plays from the Lions game by Bearlissimo. Unlike other film reviews that focus on the QB or the offensive line, he looks at what various players are doing on each play selected, highlighting the good, the bad and what could have been done better. It's long and detailed, but interesting:

[Arkansasbear]

Your game 11 scores provide a good example for how I treat duplicate predictions. UOK and Shadow have the same winning score, but Shadow's prediction was a duplicate of UOK's. Shadow gets credit for a prediction, will receive the same 0.161006199906422 points as UOK in my end of the year contest, and the prediction is also included in my handicapping of this game's difficulty for contest results. What doesn't count for Shadow is mention in my year's review of weekly winners. UOK will be listed as sole 1st place for game 11 and alexwilkins will be listed in 2nd place (rather than 3rd if UOK and Shadow had tied with different predictions).

2 UOK / *Shadow
8 alexwilkins
14 VA_Mountain_Bear
38 Atkins&Rebel
42 HisRoyalSweetness
54 Mikefive / Middleguard
62 crueltyabc
72 LacertineForest
104 Hema2.0
126 Moriarty / Xee
146 46plank
168 southdakbearfan / AZ_Bearfan
182 Otis Day / *Boris13c
206 RichH55
234 G08 / *Noots
254 otis
288 Bears Whiskey Nut
350 spudbear
386 artbest01 / *Richie / *WagonForce
434 The Marshall Plan
512 Grizzled
566 pus
618 wab
632 realred2
686 Bearsoldier
1554 Ditka's dictaphone
4106 HurricaneBear
* duplicate prediction

Sorry guys, this loss is on me, it appears that somehow I forgot to make a pick and that's likely the cause of our loss. Wait wait wait, I've made predictions every other week and we still loss most of those, so maybe not.

[Ditka’s dictaphone]

Your game 11 scores provide a good example for how I treat duplicate predictions. UOK and Shadow have the same winning score, but Shadow's prediction was a duplicate of UOK's. Shadow gets credit for a prediction, will receive the same 0.161006199906422 points as UOK in my end of the year contest, and the prediction is also included in my handicapping of this game's difficulty for contest results. What doesn't count for Shadow is mention in my year's review of weekly winners. UOK will be listed as sole 1st place for game 11 and alexwilkins will be listed in 2nd place (rather than 3rd if UOK and Shadow had tied with different predictions).

2 UOK / *Shadow
8 alexwilkins
14 VA_Mountain_Bear
38 Atkins&Rebel
42 HisRoyalSweetness
54 Mikefive / Middleguard
62 crueltyabc
72 LacertineForest
104 Hema2.0
126 Moriarty / Xee
146 46plank
168 southdakbearfan / AZ_Bearfan
182 Otis Day / *Boris13c
206 RichH55
234 G08 / *Noots
254 otis
288 Bears Whiskey Nut
350 spudbear
386 artbest01 / *Richie / *WagonForce
434 The Marshall Plan
512 Grizzled
566 pus
618 wab
632 realred2
686 Bearsoldier
1554 Ditka's dictaphone
4106 HurricaneBear
* duplicate prediction

Sorry guys, this loss is on me, it appears that somehow I forgot to make a pick and that's likely the cause of our loss. Wait wait wait, I've made predictions every other week and we still loss most of those, so maybe not.

Dammit I knew there was a rational explanation for this loss