So here we are again...

[PeterMbangala]

Week 11 rolls around and we’re totally out of contention under Fox and Pace. I can only speak for myself when I said that as Barth was lining that kick up, not only did I not expect him to make it, but I also started thinking that maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if he missed. Always an exciting moment when the spectre of draft position intrudes for the first time in a season.

The problem now of course is that we have what looks like a franchise QB and we can’t let him be infected by the losing culture at Halas Hall. I didn’t realise until this week that Sherrick McManus is the only player on the roster that has experienced a winning season with the Bears. Just let that sink in for a moment.

Anyway, a few points for discussion that I’d be interested in getting your views on...

- A few weeks ago when the secondary was playing at a high level and Fuller was looking like he could be an extremely good corner, I was starting to think that Donatell deserved a medal for turning this unit around. But currently I believe only Marcus Cooper of our outside corners is under contract and he looked terrible on Sunday - another big fail from Ryan Pace in free agency. We have no corners that are capable of getting INTs - both Fuller and Leblanc should have had turnovers against the Lions. Are we really going to have to go after someone like Fitzpatrick in the draft when we have such big needs elsewhere or are there any DBs that can catch a ball in the middle rounds of the draft?

- Just how bad to you think this is going to get? We’ll be 3-8 this time next week and an injury or two away from losing out in my mind. And does it matter? Does the reality of losing 4 or 5 of our last six games matter to the development of Trubisky, Cohen and the other young players on this team?

- When we lose to the Eagles, do you think Fox gets fired? I’m praying he does but can’t really see it. Can anyone apart from DaaBears give me one solid reason to keep him?

I’ve never been so apathetic towards the Bears in my 30 years of fandom from the other side of the world. Can you imagine what this place would be like if we didn’t have Trubisky? Imagine being 3-7 with Glennon and the QB class for 2018 looking, shock alert, not as good as advertised. This place would be in full revolt. Ironically it would probably be those that didn’t want a QB at 2 leading the charge. Where was that guy that wanted Peterman or Kaaya in the second round? We need to catch up!

 

[SugarWalls]

I’ve never been so apathetic towards the Bears in my 30 years of fandom from the other side of the world. Can you imagine what this place would be like if we didn’t have Trubisky? Imagine being 3-7 with Glennon and the QB class for 2018 looking, shock alert, not as good as advertised. This place would be in full revolt. Ironically it would probably be those that didn’t want a QB at 2 leading the charge. Where was that guy that wanted Peterman or Kaaya in the second round? We need to catch up!

I don't get this at all. How hyped were you on Cutler and for how long? Sure Cutler led teams were winning more games but it was quite evident they were not going to play for the superbowl. I'm more excited for Trubisky and the overall future of this team than I have been in a long time. Would you rather have a middle of the road 8-8 team with no hope for the future, or a 5 win team that looks like they are actually building something.

 

[One Team]

I'll say this...

Look at the Cowboys game last Sunday night.

A huge game for their season and they looked awful.

A casual fan might look at that game and say their entire team needs new players... from the QB to the OL, to the Defense.

Another fan might look and say that this team is totally different with Elliott and Tyron Smith.

Hence, there can sometimes be a very small difference between the No. 1 seed in the NFC and a team on the outside looking in.

Perhaps the Bears are also capable of looking competitive with a couple of additions/subtractions.

 

[PeterMbangala]

I don't get this at all. How hyped were you on Cutler and for how long? Sure Cutler led teams were winning more games but it was quite evident they were not going to play for the superbowl. I'm more excited for Trubisky and the overall future of this team than I have been in a long time. Would you rather have a middle of the road 8-8 team with no hope for the future, or a 5 win team that looks like they are actually building something.

I’m really excited about Trubisky but I have no confidence that the coaching set up will be in place to support him next year. I’m not sure what Cutler has to do with this - fair to say I was not his biggest fan.

To clarify, I’m excited by some of the talent we have but am starting to run out of faith with Pace and the organisation in general is so poorly run. I know this isn’t news but after a while the attritional incompetence is just too much to bear.

 

[ZenBear34]

I am excited for the future but this season is another wash. At least there are some potential playmakers here. In the end it's all about Trubisky. If he ends up being a franchise QB, the Bears will be in good shape. They need to do everything possible to facilitate that happening.

And no, I don't expect the Bears to fire Fox during the season. They should, but they won't.

 

[PeterMbangala]

I'll say this...

Look at the Cowboys game last Sunday night.

A huge game for their season and they looked awful.

A casual fan might look at that game and say their entire team needs new players... from the QB to the OL, to the Defense.

Another fan might look and say that this team is totally different with Elliott and Tyron Smith.

Hence, there can sometimes be a very small difference between the No. 1 seed in the NFC and a team on the outside looking in.

Perhaps the Bears are also capable of looking competitive with a couple of additions/subtractions.

Counterpoint: we’ve been saying if we just had X or Y for the better part of a decade....

- If Cutler just had a good OC, WR, OL
- If we could just get a good HC
- If we could just draft a QB
- If we could just develop our QB

At some point, you do need to start winning games and turning the hole and faith into concrete signs of progress.

 

[SugarWalls]

I’m really excited about Trubisky but I have no confidence that the coaching set up will be in place to support him next year. I’m not sure what Cutler has to do with this - fair to say I was not his biggest fan.

To clarify, I’m excited by some of the talent we have but am starting to run out of faith with Pace and the organisation in general is so poorly run. I know this isn’t news but after a while the attritional incompetence is just too much to bear.

Pace's last drafts have been incredible and his FA has really not been as bad as you want to whine about it, really. Amukamara and fuller are the starters and you choose to say that his FA was a fail because of marcus cooper? I'll bet you were leading the charge with fire Pace for missing out on Gilmore. Fox needs to be fired for sure, and if he is around next year I'll be livid. Demanding a mid season change isn't really going to change much. What happens next year will be extremely important.

 

[Bears_804]

I’m really excited about Trubisky but I have no confidence that the coaching set up will be in place to support him next year. I’m not sure what Cutler has to do with this - fair to say I was not his biggest fan.

To clarify, I’m excited by some of the talent we have but am starting to run out of faith with Pace and the organisation in general is so poorly run. I know this isn’t news but after a while the attritional incompetence is just too much to bear.

I have a major problem above Pace's head. I don't think the organization is capable of bringing in the right GM/coaching staff. The jury is still out on Pace for 2 seasons for me. That's more than some want to give him. I would hope they let Pace make an executive decision on his own and see how it works out. The Fox hire screams of the higher ups doing. I could see Pace buying into it as he was a really young GM, and Fox had a SB pedigree (despite the talent he inherited and the losses).

 

[PeterMbangala]

Pace's last drafts have been incredible and his FA has really not been as bad as you want to whine about it, really. Amukamara and fuller are the starters and you choose to say that his FA was a fail because of marcus cooper? I'll bet you were leading the charge with fire Pace for missing out on Gilmore. Fox needs to be fired for sure, and if he is around next year I'll be livid. Demanding a mid season change isn't really going to change much. What happens next year will be extremely important.

I didn’t want Gilmore no. I do think his last FA class is a total failure, not sure how anyone could argue otherwise to be honest.

The arrow is pointing up on his drafts for sure so I am positive about that as was a big proponent about taking a QB.

 

[ZenBear34]

I have a major problem above Pace's head. I don't think the organization is capable of bringing in the right GM/coaching staff. The jury is still out on Pace for 2 seasons for me. That's more than some want to give him. I would hope they let Pace make an executive decision on his own and see how it works out. I hope that they prove me wrong eventually.

That is the unfortunate reality of being a Bears fan. We basically have to hope inept owners can make the right moves despite themselves.

 

[Washington]

Under FoxPace, we've been eliminated from the playoffs by Oct 1. This year, they did something crazy and won a game in Sept giving us another week of hope.

With Trubisky, we at least have some hope going into next year and something to really look forward to. Pace has lots of work to do this offseason so we hopefully sniff .500 in his 4th year of the perpetual rebuild. It all starts though with the firing of John Fox.

 

[xer0h0ur]

Flush Fox for all I care and fwiw I am about ready to say bye to Fangio too. I simply can't forgive the fact his defense looks and acts so differently just by missing one inside linebacker on the field. I already gave Fox his due credit and he was never going to be more than just the locker room rebuilder and the coach to bridge the gap during the roster torching and rebuild. Pace however should see out his 5 year contract in its entirety before they consider extending him a 2nd contract or replacing him. Not a single GM in the NFL can possibly carry out a 40+ player turnover and have replaced every single one of those players with keepers in 3 years. People need to realize Pace has been renting a lot of players in free agency and trying to find some keepers from that bunch without over-spending to do it. He's done that down to an art form. His drafting has been above average as a whole so aside from major blemishes like Mike Glennon and Alshon Jeffery for instance, he's still doing fine. I want to see his vision out to completion. Good or bad, whether it pans out or not, it needs to be seen. This team will never be anything if they don't allow one GM to actually fully turnover the roster without dipping hard into free agency to fill it out.

 

[Ej63090]

I have felt like this for 4 years now.

 

[CAP BOSO]

I was hyped for Cutler. Terribly disappointed after he road the excercise bike in the NFC title game, but the dagger in the heart was the year he broke his thumb after making a tackle following a pick against the Chargers. I thought that was the best team we had since 2005. They were beating the shit out of teams.

I am excited about the future, but next year there needs to be a significant increase in wins. 9-7 at minimum.

 

[xer0h0ur]

Sadly, I was present at both of those games.

 

[1ke]

Week 11 rolls around and we’re totally out of contention under Fox and Pace. I can only speak for myself when I said that as Barth was lining that kick up, not only did I not expect him to make it, but I also started thinking that maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if he missed. Always an exciting moment when the spectre of draft position intrudes for the first time in a season.

The problem now of course is that we have what looks like a franchise QB and we can’t let him be infected by the losing culture at Halas Hall. I didn’t realise until this week that Sherrick McManus is the only player on the roster that has experienced a winning season with the Bears. Just let that sink in for a moment.

Anyway, a few points for discussion that I’d be interested in getting your views on...

- A few weeks ago when the secondary was playing at a high level and Fuller was looking like he could be an extremely good corner, I was starting to think that Donatell deserved a medal for turning this unit around. But currently I believe only Marcus Cooper of our outside corners is under contract and he looked terrible on Sunday - another big fail from Ryan Pace in free agency. We have no corners that are capable of getting INTs - both Fuller and Leblanc should have had turnovers against the Lions. Are we really going to have to go after someone like Fitzpatrick in the draft when we have such big needs elsewhere or are there any DBs that can catch a ball in the middle rounds of the draft?

- Just how bad to you think this is going to get? We’ll be 3-8 this time next week and an injury or two away from losing out in my mind. And does it matter? Does the reality of losing 4 or 5 of our last six games matter to the development of Trubisky, Cohen and the other young players on this team?

- When we lose to the Eagles, do you think Fox gets fired? I’m praying he does but can’t really see it. Can anyone apart from DaaBears give me one solid reason to keep him?

I’ve never been so apathetic towards the Bears in my 30 years of fandom from the other side of the world. Can you imagine what this place would be like if we didn’t have Trubisky? Imagine being 3-7 with Glennon and the QB class for 2018 looking, shock alert, not as good as advertised. This place would be in full revolt. Ironically it would probably be those that didn’t want a QB at 2 leading the charge. Where was that guy that wanted Peterman or Kaaya in the second round? We need to catch up!

First, I think the secondary as a whole is playing down. Maybe not Prince. But to call Cooper a bust is a bit harsh. Started the season off playing well against Julio, A.B. Mike Evans. That's not bad, and he played damn good. G.B. then injury. He's played about 15 snaps since the vikings game. But that's more because Kyle has been playing so well. But that play has regressed, by all of them. Kyle, Eddie, Adrian, not that they're bad players, they're just not playing as well. And I wouldn't be afraid to say that Danny T missing time and the whole defense playing worse is not a coincidence.

I think they'll beat Cleveland, and S.F. But in reality for me, it doesn't matter. Not even if they lose by 30 to Philly. I'd keep Fox till the end of the year. It's not that he doesn't deserve to be fired. He does, but the teams still playing hard for him. It really does not matter. What matters most is playing time for the kids. And they're all playing. As long as the kids are playing, I'm fine with my Chicago Bears for the rest of the year. This season was never about this season for me anyway.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[Mjiton]

Year 3 of a 5 year rebuild it would seem.
Dump rebuild coach after year 3.
Hire coach of the future for year 4.
Playoffs year 5
Superbowl year 6,7,8,9,10....
All apart of the master plan

 

[mecha]

if you want optimism, I'm sure the Bears had a few more games won this year, and just didn't due to abcxyz. that's with a fuckhead QB for 4 games (3 of the losses), a nerfed QB, weak WRs, misused RBs, lopsided pass/run playcalls, and a defense that has split personality disorder and completely shits the bed at the absolute worst times.

we've also had series of debates over the last 2 months as to who is to truly blame for the offensive failures, with no clear resolution. they were also IRing 2 players a week for about 6 weeks, so that was also helpful.

all this said, I don't think Ryan Pace should be getting fingers pointed at him. he's done good business, and he's drafted relatively well, his only blunder being a good receiver that turned out to be very fragile.

given history, I predict John Fox and the entire staff is retained next year.

 

[Mjiton]

if you want optimism, I'm sure the Bears had a few more games won this year, and just didn't due to abcxyz. that's with a fuckhead QB for 4 games (3 of the losses), a nerfed QB, weak WRs, misused RBs, lopsided pass/run playcalls, and a defense that has split personality disorder and completely shits the bed at the absolute worst times.

we've also had series of debates over the last 2 months as to who is to truly blame for the offensive failures, with no clear resolution. they were also IRing 2 players a week for about 6 weeks, so that was also helpful.

all this said, I don't think Ryan Pace should be getting fingers pointed at him. he's done good business, and he's drafted relatively well, his only blunder being a good receiver that turned out to be very fragile.

given history, I predict John Fox and the entire staff is retained next year.

Sounds about right.

 

[Bearly]

Flush Fox for all I care and fwiw I am about ready to say bye to Fangio too. I simply can't forgive the fact his defense looks and acts so differently just by missing one inside linebacker on the field. I already gave Fox his due credit and he was never going to be more than just the locker room rebuilder and the coach to bridge the gap during the roster torching and rebuild. Pace however should see out his 5 year contract in its entirety before they consider extending him a 2nd contract or replacing him. Not a single GM in the NFL can possibly carry out a 40+ player turnover and have replaced every single one of those players with keepers in 3 years. People need to realize Pace has been renting a lot of players in free agency and trying to find some keepers from that bunch without over-spending to do it. He's done that down to an art form. His drafting has been above average as a whole so aside from major blemishes like Mike Glennon and Alshon Jeffery for instance, he's still doing fine. I want to see his vision out to completion. Good or bad, whether it pans out or not, it needs to be seen. This team will never be anything if they don't allow one GM to actually fully turnover the roster without dipping hard into free agency to fill it out.

The thing I like about the 3/4 is that it's easier to compensate for lost players and personnel. Somehow, we can't pull that off. I don't dislike Fangio but I do feel he's overrated.

I don't think anyone should get there hopes up about anything happening to this staff before the season ends and I actually think that's the correct way to handle it with this roster. I'll be disappointed if Fox is back next year. Like Lovie, he's a poor game day coach but supposedly is liked and has his team ready on to play for him. The way they played flat after the bye was embarrassing and the game management was worse. Should be the final nail.