Why Do I Like the Chicago Bears This Week?

I always like the Chicago Bears.

And why not? There are only two game left. Might as well enjoy them.

On the Passing of Jeff Dickerson

So…true story.

A few years ago, when the Bears were in NJ to play the Giants, I told Jahns I would book a dinner. A good steakhouse downtown. I also told him to invite the other beats. (As long as Haugh wasn’t on that list, I knew it was fine.) I have good relationships with Fishbain, Finley, etc. so I didn’t think we’d have an issue. We’d eat good food, drink a bunch, and bitch about the Bears. Maybe I’d even pick up the tab for the pricks.

I get a text from Adam a few days before the planned dinner. It more or less said, “What did you write about JD?”

Dickerson, when hearing of my involvement, balked at the idea. Apparently, he did not take kindly to some of the things I had written about his work over the years and viewed me as a toxic figure. (I mean, I am toxic, but that’s just because my blood is about 3% Coors Banquet.) I couldn’t find the things I had written, and neither could Adam, but I also didn’t challenge the notion. When the bulk of Bears media went to the digital realm, this space became a sort of ombudsman for them. It was no longer about calling a radio station or sending a letter to complain a column. I could copy and paste large chunks of text and directly refute ideas. Some didn’t mind. Some really did. (I’ve stopped doing that primarily because I’ve stopped reading just about everyone but Jahns.)

Anyway, I made it easy on Jahns and extricated myself from the situation. I didn’t want anyone to be uncomfortable.

Later that night, Adam brought a few of the boys down to Josie Woods to watch Northwestern play the Big Ten title game. A good time was had by all, except JD. He didn’t come.

After reading the beautiful remembrances of his life this week, I wish that week had gone differently. I wish I’d reached out to him and apologized for whatever upset him and I wish we could have split the candied bacon at Strip House. I think he would have liked me. I know I would have liked it.

____________________

The GoFundMe started for his poor son, a kid who has lost both parents to cancer in two years, is now (through the incredible work of Adam Schefter) approaching nearly a million dollars in donations. If you can give a few bucks, do so.

The Only New York Giant Stat/Fact That Matters

They can’t score.

Their last six games: 10 points vs. Tampa, 13 vs. Philly, 9 vs. Miami, 21 (!) for Los Angeles Chargers, 6 vs. Dallas and 10 vs. Philly. They are averaging 11.5 points a game over this period and some of these points actually came in garbage time. (I know, I’ve been gambling against them weekly.) Over these six weeks the Giants are three point worse than the Jags have been all season.

On the road, against this Bears pass rush, with the combination of Glennon and Fromm at quarterback, the Giants aren’t likely to improve upon these numbers.

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Landeta’s Missed Punt

My Favorite All-Time Giant: Mark Bavaro

Parcells’ Quarterback Commandments

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The Chicago Bears should change the way their football operations are structured, but not in the way many fans are clamoring for. The President of Football Operations many seek, a position that does not include the duties of General Manager, is historically flawed. Many organizations with non-football people owners have tried it and it has universally failed. The failure is often quite embarrassing.

But what has proven to work around the league and is a direction the Bears have leaned in recent years, is making the next head coach the leading football voice in the organization.

That’s the way several successful teams have operated including Seattle, New Orleans, Kansas City, San Francisco, New England and Buffalo. Green Bay has the head coach on equal footing as the general manager, Mike McCarthy answers directly to ownership in Dallas and you can bet that if the head coaches of the LA Rams or Tampa Bay Bucs said, “it’s me or him,” those owners would pick the coaches over the GMs.

The Bears have come close to executing this arrangement in the past.

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All that remains for the 2021 Chicago Bears are the decision on Ryan Pace and the firing of Matt Nagy. Dissecting these individual games just seems like a pointless enterprise. So, after a few days of watching the rest of the league, here are some thoughts on those games, and perhaps some lessons the Bears can learn (but not really).

• Justin Herbert’s numbers don’t reflect how bad he was Sunday in Houston. And that’s not an uncommon occurrence this season. He’s had 5-6 flat out poor performances and it’s a reminder that becoming a great QB in this league takes time and even immense talents like this face road blocks.
  • Side note: Lovie Smith coached a brilliant game against the Chargers.
• Josh Allen was as good against New England as a QB can be and if his receivers caught the football consistently the Bills would have won by 30. Buffalo is going win their final two games and be a team to reckon with in the tournament.
• Nobody compiles more hollow statistics than Kirk Cousins. And Justin Jefferson has had enough, questioning just about every aspect of the organization postgame. The Vikings should listen to him because he’s one of the best players in the league and his statements are the statements of leaders.
• How are the Rams not worried about the Matthew Stafford Experiment? Stafford’s season-long numbers are solid but he’s now prone to these blowup games where he looks like a third stringer. Does anybody trust him to win multiple playoff games?
• The Giants are under the spell of Joe Judge and, while I understand their reluctance to fire another coach, they are making a mistake by not doing it. His postgame press conferences have been the most embarrassing I can remember, continually claiming progress that no one on earth by he can see. Judge was handpicked for this gig by Bill Belichick, but Belichick has proven an inability to produce the kind of coaching tree that many legendary coaches produce. The Giants are lucky Mike Francesa no longer has the country’s most prominent sports radio platform.
• The initial three frontrunners for the Jags head coaching gig – Doug Pederson, Jim Caldwell, Byron Leftwich – are the right guys. And while it might not be conventional, the team should have each meet with Trevor Lawrence before making the decision. That relationship could define the franchise for the next decade and Lawrence knows more about offensive football than the team’s owners.
• I am not a Bill Simmons guy (generally) but his Monday “Guess the Lines” podcasts with Cousin Sal have been excellent this year. Kyle Shanahan’s record, Michele Tafoya’s sabbatical, Kyle Murray as the new Mr. October, the Vegas Raiders as Michael Myers, etc. It’s also a nice way to recap an NFL Sunday if you’re not interested in the excruciating (and frankly, boring) detail of Robert Mays and The Athletic pod.
  • On the latter podcast, I just don’t understand the approach. It is Monday morning. At that stage, most of us have watched MAYBE three games. When Mays and Nate Tice are breaking down specific plays in Bengals/Ravens, I have no frame of reference. Thus, the discussion isn’t interesting. People want the specific details when it comes to the teams they follow. Do they want that across the league? I sure don’t.

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Como la bajó Damiere Byrd para la conversión de 2ptspic.twitter.com/th7fdXZ9Vr

— NFL Latino TV 🏈🎅 (@NFLlatinoTV) December 27, 2021

We’ll be back with original content following Bears at Seahawks on Sunday.

Why Do I Like the Chicago Bears This Week?

I always like the Chicago Bears.

And there’s reason for optimism when it comes to the future of this franchise. There is young talent at some key positions, including quarterback. Seeing that young talent continue to develop over these final three games will only build excitement for the 2022 campaign.

Fields vs. Seattle’s Defense

This is still exclusively about Justin Fields, at least for the next month..

• Seattle currently possesses the league’s worst pass defense, allowing 274 yards per game through the air. This is not a game for Matt Nagy to rely on his “run on first down unless someone pays me not to” strategy. This is a game to put on the rocket right arm of his young quarterback.
• Seattle ranks 26th in QB hits and 27th in sacks. This is not a week where Fields should expect to be under a tremendous amount of pressure. (Seattle also played a pretty physical game with the Rams on Tuesday so this is a seriously short week for them.)
• A Tweet from Nicholas Moreano: “#Bears coach Matt Nagy said that “it can be done” to incorporate more fast-tempo offense. That was something Justin Fields mentioned as being one of his strengths in his postgame press conference.” 
  • It’s obvious to anyone watching that Fields thrives in what we used to call “hurry-up” and is now referred to as “tempo”. One reason is because Chicago’s outside weapons are no good and tempo tires out defenders, giving folks like Damiere Byrd a serious advantage. (When criticizing the outside weapons, Darnell Mooney is, of course, exempt.)
  • Can we talk about how insane it is that the Bears have a rookie quarterback who has publicly admitted what he likes to do and a coach who has yet to seriously implement it 15 weeks into the season? Nagy’s 2021 self-implosion has been a thing to behold.
• Seattle’s approach to the Rams was to limit their deep exposure so Matthew Stafford just peppered them with underneath stuff. This is a week to feature David Montgomery in the passing attack.

Video of the (Christmas) Week: Volume I

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It’s weird to hear a second-year player, in his very early 20s, criticized the way Cole Kmet is criticized. But perhaps we should expect nothing less from a passionate, if sometimes over-emotional fan base.

Kmet is putting together a fine season for the Bears. With three games left, he has 49 catches, averaging 10 yards per catch. Those numbers put him firmly in the top-15 in the league. Oh, and he’s a good blocker to boot. Yet, every game, there are Bears fans calling him some combination of a bust or wasted pick. It truly is weird.

What most fans seem to have lost sight of is that tight end is a grown man’s position, especially those who play in-line, like Kmet does. If you look throughout the history of the league, it is rare to find a young tight end who has produced like Kmet at only 22 years old. Of the tight ends with more catches than Kmet, only one is younger than 24 – that’s phenom Kyle Pitts, who really is more of a wide receiver at this point.

Even freaks of nature like George Kittle and Travis Kelce didn’t break out until well past their 22nd birthdays. In fact, both were not producing much in college when they were Kmet’s age. Kittle had 20 catches at Iowa and Kelce had 13 at Cincinnati.

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Being a beat writer for a losing team is a tough gig. (Nobody has perfected the skill better than Dave Birkett in Detroit.)

In this age where your journalistic value is determined by click totals and uniques, the beats are almost forced to treat meaningless games like they have meaning. Monday night’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings had plenty to discuss but the result really didn’t matter. Still, there were positives to be taken from the game.

Positive #1. Justin Fields.

Fields made plenty of rookie mistakes, which is not surprising because he’s a rookie. (He’s still trying to extend the extendable play and putting the football on the ground too much.) But he also flashed all the traits that give so many fans optimism around Chicago: short memory, remarkable speed, deep accuracy, cannon arm, etc. Fields is playing in an incoherent offensive system, surrounded by one of the worst collections of skill guys in the sport. The arrow is pointed decidedly up.

Positive #2. Thomas Graham Jr.

What a debut! Graham made plays all over the field, including a brilliant PBU in the endzone right after Matt Nagy’s sideline penalty.

Thomas Graham Jr : 7 tackles & 3 pass breakups (NFL debut. 6th round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft) pic.twitter.com/9khneph5Jh

— Lee Harvey (@MusikFan4Life) December 21, 2021

There is reason to be very excited but let’s see this kid on the field, non-stop, for the final three games of the season.

Positive #3. Teven Jenkins

Jenkins actually played a fine game against one of the league’s premier pass rushes. But it was the personal foul penalty, defending his quarterback, that landed with the most important player in the locker room.

Justin Fields said he liked what Teven Jenkins did after he took a shot near the sideline.

“I liked him sticking up for me. That’s what I think we need more of.”

— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) December 21, 2021

If the Bears can see good things from Jenkins and right tackle Larry Borom over these final weeks, they can be in a terrific position upfront going into 2022.

Positive #4. Roquan Smith, James Daniels, Darnell Mooney

This the kind of young core that will excite prospective coaches.

• Roquan continues to be one of the best inside linebackers in the league, as dynamic in space as he is in run support. He’s always had the athletic ability but what’s really become obvious is how intuitively he now plays the position. He’s sniffing out plays pre-snap routinely; the mark of the elite inside backers.
• Daniels is playing like a top guard and is the anchor of the team’s terrific running game. Hard to believe he won’t be receiving a lucrative extension to stay in town.
• Mooney is a winning piece in a logical offense. (Hell, he’s a solid piece in this offense.) Why the Bears, with their complete dearth of top skill players, don’t make sure Mooney touches the ball ten times a game, is beyond me. (But that’s a sideline problem, not a player problem.)

Positive #5. Pat O’Donnell had a 72-yard punt.

That is all.