How Bout Dem Bears?

Hurray!

Watched it there, parts of it are a tough watch, with the rookies doing songs (I wish they'd ditch that now, it's a bit cringe).

It picked up when they went to the HOF game, so other episodes might be better, with proper pre-season games.

I gotta say, watching it, Eberflus kind of lacks charisma. You could see it even in that opening speech he gave, that start-of-season pep-talk, which should be a layup really, in terms of saying something motivating. It was kind of uninspiring. That's kind of a worry for me....I do think it's important that your head-coach have a bit of charisma, in terms of getting players to listen to you, follow you, run through a brick-wall for you.

Yeah, the Saban chat was good. He had some good insights, I really liked that bit where he was talking about developing Caleb Williams, and he said "people's tendency is to be average, it's survival". I thought 'he's right'....the Peyton Mannings, the Tom Bradys, they're the real exceptions, it's much more human-nature in fact to be average.

You could assume, because Williams has all this talent and was taken first overall, that he will have the same mindset and habits as Manning & Brady. I think Saban was saying 'don't assume that, don't take it for granted, it needs to be cultivated'. Very insightful psychologically.

Yeah we are in the exact same cycle as the bears always put themselves in. Keep a failing head coach, bring in a hot new QB in the draft. After a year where they don't do that well (bc new QB) fire the head coach and bring in a new one who changes up everything and gradually loses faith in the QB, or blames them while they become a failing HC. Drop the QB and keep the failing HC and bring in a hot new QB in the draft. And so on...

I really, really hope I'm wrong this time, but living in Chicago and hearing the "this is our year, this is our guy" talk again so soon after fields, I have a sinking feeling. Should have started fresh with Williams and a new offensive head coach. But we'll see. Of course if Williams is everything he's cracked up to be we are going to be great. Very good defense, excellent wide receiver room, there's really no excuses for us not to progress this year.

Did you guys watch the preseason game? I thought Williams was sensational. Really further along than I thought.

Yeah, it's only 4 completed passes out of 7, and it's only pre-season, but each one was a beauty. You got a bit of everything, the 3rd-and-long completion from the pocket to DJ Moore, the pass on the run to Cole Kmet, the little improvised dump-off. The run and slide to gain the first down.

The pass to Kmet was maybe the pick of the bunch, but I loved the 3rd-and-12 pass to DJ Moore. For how many years now has 3rd-and-long for the Bears meant they were punting? They may as well have just punted on 3rd down for the last few years for all the good it did them. So it was just kind of an amazing thing to see a 3rd-and-long conversion for a 1st down, that wasn't just chucking it up for grabs.

I'll be honest, I think I saw enough in that quarter to get excited, in a way I never did with Trubisky or Fields!
Yeah, need to wait for the regular season, because no blitzing in those pre-season games, but I'm really pumped.

I was watching it, and said to myself 'he's gonna be so much fun to watch'. I'm sure he won't be perfect out of the gate, but with his improvisational ability and arm-talent, it's never not gonna be exciting.

Usual ****, great defense, bad offense. Could be enough, we just got a lovely recovery.

Fantastic to get that win having done almost nothing all day on offense. Not a sustainable way of winning but it's a win, some craic!

Yeah, they got two real gifts, with the blocked-punt, and Levis throwing it to them (having said that, the defense did quite well as the game went on).

Caleb was ok….the offense kinda stank, but it wasn't all on him. The center looks bad, there was some disorganisation with them missing blocking-assignments, didn't run the ball well. When you've got blocking problems, no run game, and are playing from behind in your first NFL game, it's not easy.

He was inaccurate on some throws, but maybe just first-day jitters. Got a bit of rhythm near the end.

Tough assignment next week, on the road for Sunday Night Football. (have come to dread the Bears being on prime-time in recent years!)

Williams had 37 pass attempts tonight and the team gave up 36 pressures. 7 sacks total and god knows how many hits. 10+ easily.

We've got an ex o-lineman as GM and for the third year in a row we have one of the worst lines in the league because he does not appear to value using early picks on the line or going after first wave talent in free agency. Instead he keeps shopping in the bargain bin, and this is the result. I wish Williams all the best as he tries to survive the season.

Personally I'm shocked that our defensive minded HC doesn't know how to pick a good OC. Never had this issue before in Chicago.

That being said, there have been some better signs from Williams, and Odunze has had two good catches.

It's the hope that kills you

Hopefully that drive injects a bit of confidence into the offense, they have been rudderless before now. Would have been nice to get the two pointer, but at least the game is alive!