Fire Ryan Poles | Fire Matt Eberflus

This was another close game. But damn. Talk about fighting it out. Chase Daniel was outstanding. $10 million spent on this guy and he’s earned every penny so far. Sure, he overthrew the ball a couple of times. But he was very much part of this win. It gave Mitchell Trubisky some time to rest. It’s nice to see the Bears actually spend their money wisely on a player. For years, it’s been the opposite. The defense was finally, outstanding in the fourth quarter. There was a stat (cue Yeti) shown that the defense has given up the most fourth quarter points in the NFL. With it being close, the defense stepped up on the final two drives.

Chase Daniel – Read above. In addition, two great touchdown passes.

Running game – This is still a concern. I still wasn’t happy with some of the play-calling by Nagy. There were a couple of situations where it was second and short only to see a passing play. Some may wonder why guys like Jordan Howard can’t get going in a game. He needs more rushes and consistently. Tarik Cohen was great all-around. He had one of the touchdown catches and he put the game away for good by getting a hard-fought first down.

Offensive line – They held it together, despite the four sacks. I guess two games in 85 hours is an excuse. They are missing Kyle Long big time. Credit to James Daniels, who’s been outstanding all year. He helped Cohen get that first down to seal the deal by basically carrying him an extra yard or two. Amazing.

Defense – Eddie Jackson with the pick six for the eventual, game-winner. Kyle Fuller with an interception in the end zone late to get the Bears back on offense. The line did well despite giving up some big runs to LaGarrette Blount, but he was kept to under 100 yards.

Matt Nagy – I am praying he learned his lesson after that idiotic decision to go for two after that first touchdown. That was inexcusable. Take your chances with the extra point. Let’s pray he has faith in Cody Parkey to get points because he did get two extra points and a field goal in this game.

Next up are the Giants a week from Sunday.

Before some well-deserved rest, let’s do this again, shall we?

14-0 lead at halftime? Oh, yeah. I was thinking the same thing too. They were going to somehow blow it. Well, it was looking like we were watching the same movie. Way too close for comfort towards the end.

Cody Parkey – He goes up first in the recap. What a bounce back. He was nails on the three field goals. Outstanding performance and well-deserved.

Defense – They were outstanding for the first three quarters. If it weren’t for turnovers by Trubisky and Cohen, those first six points aren’t even allowed. On the first touchdown by the Vikings, penalties that had no business being called continued the drive and the two-point conversion following. I was still pissed about the last touchdown, but nothing can be done now.

Mitchell Trubisky – Okay, enough of these Cutler-esque passes into triple-coverage. My heart can’t take this shit and my throat is sore from screaming at the TV. Enough. Other than that, I love his mobility to continue drives. The last drive (which resulted in a field goal), he completed a big pass for a first down.

Matt Nagy – I still felt some of the play-calling by him was very questionable. On the third down that lead to Parkey’s last field goal, he called a pass play that ended up incomplete. They could have easily ran it and tried to get the first down or at the very least, make the Vikings burn their last timeout.

A quick turnaround awaits with the Lions this Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Before leaving your comments in the thread, I’ll leave it at this:

Oh, that’s not even what pissed me off the most today. I’m going to continue roasting Matt Nagy and his idiotic decisions until, you guessed it, he stops making idiotic decisions. What should have been a breeze in the park with winning a game by 30 at least was getting too close for comfort late. Leads of 26-0 and 34-10 were damn near close to being blown. That’s inexcusable.

Cody Parkey – Okay, I won’t roast Nagy for this one. Parkey hit the goal posts four different times and all were missed. How do you do that? Eight points were left off the table. Something tells me that there will be auditions for a new kicker this week.

Matt Nagy – This. Fucking. Guy. In the last quarter, the Bears got the ball back up 34-10. Great. Just run the fucking ball and chew off some time, right? Wrong. Instead, Nagy has Trubisky dropping back near the goal line and it was damn near a safety. Jordan Howard didn’t get the ball much at all during the first three quarters. What happened? Did he bang Nagy’s wife or something? I mean, fuck. Up 24 and their airing the ball out? Stupid. Run. The. Fucking. Ball. Nagy is known for pissing away leads. And if it hadn’t been for the offense scoring on the first four possessions, I could be writing about the Bears losing in overtime.

Mitchell Trubisky – 23/30 for 355 yards and three touchdowns. He was money in the first half. More of this, please.

Defense – They were great the entire first half. Stafford was sacked six times. And after Parkey missed those two field goals in a row, I was scared shitless that they were going to fall apart. Instead, they stopped the Lions both times. I know they gave up the two fourth quarter touchdowns, but I am going to blame Nagy for that. That defense was gassed due to the stupid decisions of the head coach. The offense should have been out there most of the fourth quarter and instead, the defense is trying to catch their breath.

Next up are the Vikings at home on Sunday Night Football. God help us all.

Three Stanley Cup Championships. Second all-time with wins as head coach. What a run. It’s very sad that it ended like this.

Ten years ago, I didn’t even imagine one championship by this franchise. As a fan, I was given three of them. Sure, there could have been one or two more. But that’s still amazing.

The Blackhawks fired the wrong person.

I know. Some of you may roast me for this. But this game dragged on. Once again, Matt Nagy made this game harder than it should have been. “But, they won by 32!” Nathan Peterman may not be an NFL quarterback, but it appeared he may have had a chance to make this game competitive. Thankfully, some blown calls went in the favor of the Bears.

Penalties – Way too many in this game. It extended drives and ultimately, allowed the Bills to score a touchdown late. The Bears were the only team to not yet allow a rushing touchdown. Until today. Unless I am missing something, discipline isn’t part of playing for this team. Players who commit constant penalties need to have a seat. And yet, Nagy has the same players out there the next play or whatever. Inexcusable.

Charles Leno Jr. – Three false start penalties. This is part of the problem. Sure, it didn’t factor in the result. But it made scoring points harder.

Defense – If the defense just scored points today, the Bears still would have won. Everyone contributed (even to the penalties). Five turnovers total, I believe. Eddie Jackson made up for his idiotic penalty last week with a scoop and score in the second. Kyle Fuller had another interception. Even Leonard Floyd got in on the action with a pick-six.

Mitchell Trubisky – There was an interception thrown that was unnecessary. I could easily throw that on Nagy since all they had to do was run the ball. But here I was during the whole game waiting for something to change the course of the game. It’s the Bears, after all. They’ve blown big leads before. I was waiting for it.

The Bears remain in first place for yet, another week. Checking the standings, it appears that not even ten wins will guarantee a playoff spot. This is very important for the Bears and it seems that their only path to the playoffs is to win the division. The next three games are against the Lions (twice) and Vikings. If the Bears don’t win at least two of these games, I’m not liking the chances of getting 11 wins. Those Lions are up first at home.

Discuss.