It comes down to what you believe.

Do you believe that after the Hail Maryland, after Gutless in Glendale, after Pathetic v. Patriots, the Bears will be able to reverse course by simply changing the offensive coordinator?

Do you believe the rookie quarterback has any faith in the direction this staff is leading him?

Do you believe the absurdly disgruntled DJ Moore will stop calling for the backup quarterback now?

Do you believe the now-injured defense will be able to endure these maladies and keep the Packers offense in check?

Do you believe the Bears can overcome this significant a sideline mismatch?

I would love to be pleasantly surprised Sunday. I’ll be rooting for that extremely hard. Do I believe it? I do not.

Green Bay Packers 34, Chicago Bears 13

Why Do I Like the Chicago Bears This Week?

I.

Always.

Like.

THE.

Chicago.

Bears.

Albert Breer on the Future of Flus

Breer works for SI, which I didn’t know still existed, under Peter King’s old MMQB moniker. His information regarding Flus’s future has been the best in the business:

The Chicago Bears’ move Tuesday morning didn’t come out of left field—Matt Eberflus himself indicated change could be on its way Monday during his press conference. It’s also not wholly unwarranted, given that the Bears haven’t scored a touchdown since losing on a Hail Mary in Washington two weeks ago.

But there is a larger question here, unrelated to an unhappy fan base getting a scalp as Chicago moves away from offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and to Thomas Brown as the team’s play-caller.

And what exactly will this fix?

Brown’s a good coach. But his play-calling experience, at any level, is limited to what he did last year in Carolina, when Frank Reich started as the Panthers’ play-caller, then gave the duties to Brown, took them back three weeks later, and then was fired, which cleared the way for Brown to call the offense over the last six weeks of the season. He’s never coached quarterbacks, and, at least on paper, he doesn’t really fix the problem.

And a big part of the problem is there’s been very little experience on the staff coaching the No. 1 pick in the draft who is starting at quarterback. Waldron had none. Brown had one year of it, and that didn’t turn out great last year. Quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph had none. So while there was acumen and expertise there, the staff was flying blind taking a quarterback like Caleb Williams from an Air Raid offense at USC into the pros.

Maybe the Bears will go outside the organization now to fill that void, and get Brown some help. Judging by how the offense has played, the staff could certainly use some.

Obviously, there are big-picture questions with Eberflus, too, and it’s fair to say his future in Chicago rides largely on Brown’s job performance.

The NFL’s had two offensive coordinators fired in-season thus far this year, and they just so happen to be the two guys that Eberflus has hired to run his offense with the Bears—Waldron, and now ex-Raiders coordinator Luke Getsy.

So it’d stand to reason that ownership probably won’t let Eberflus make a third hire into the position after this year. So Brown turning around Williams and saving the Bears’ season is likely Eberflus’s ticket out of this. And if Brown delivers, then, obviously, Brown would probably become an easy pick to stick as the OC.

Read More …

This is not going to be a post, or a column. This is just going to be a comment, a statement that I believe should be made and I want it to sit as the main post on this site for the entirety of this Wednesday.

To George McCaskey. To Kevin Warren. To Ryan Poles.

You’re losing.

Losing games. Losing the fans. Losing every drop of momentum built up over the previous two off-seasons. You’re losing me, a dedicated supporter and someone who has relentlessly watched this team every week since Bears football was available on the east coast and covered them diligently (at a personal financial cost) since 2005. I’m not abdicating my fandom by any means. What I am beginning to abandon is the burden, the burden of the Bears. You’ve become a chore, and one I am refusing to prioritize moving forward.

I don’t care who the offensive playcaller is. Matt Eberflus is still the coach. Today. But if the Bears watch the Green Bay Packers leave Soldier Field Sunday victorious again, that must change. No more “we don’t fire coaches in-season” bullshit. That’s what you have always done and what you have always done is fail. If the Packers win Sunday and you don’t make an immediate change in the leadership of this franchise, you are displaying (again) a glaring lack of awareness.  If the Packers win Sunday and you don’t make a seismic shift on the coaching staff, don’t be surprised as fan anger turns to apathy for the remainder of this campaign and into the off-season.

You’re losing. Again.

When will you finally have enough of it?

Sincerely,

DBB.

Shane Waldron has been relieved of his duties and offensive passing game coordinator Thomas Brown has been promoted to offensive coordinator.https://t.co/KVd0Innr3d

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) November 12, 2024

Mark and James, both in their early 70s, sit in the same barstools they’ve occupied on football Sundays for thirty plus years. In this bar they talk to no one but each other and the bartender, a lanky fella that knows when one Miller High Life is empty, another should take its place. 

Mark: Did it matter?

James: Did what matter?

Mark: What happened there, did it matter?

James: Everything matters.

Mark: Sure, everything matters, in the existential sense, everything matters, but does everything really matter?

James: I guess that’s a question of perspective, isn’t it?

Mark: Is it?

James: I think so.

Mark: Explain.

James: A man walks into a dark alleyway in the middle of the night. He sees a figure lurking in the shadows behind him.

Mark: Eerie.

James: Right?

Mark: Go on.

James. Thank you. (Beat) He sees this figure and knows he has no choice but physical altercation. This figure is set on menace, and diplomacy won’t dissolve the situation.

Mark: He has to fight the figure.

James: He does.

Mark: Does he?

James: He does!

Mark: Okay.

James: The figure emerges.

Mark: I’m frightened.

James: Fuck off.

Mark: Go on.

James. Thank you. (Beat) The figure emerges and it’s a drunken bum. Down on his luck, stinky hobo, hoping to rip this guy off for a few bucks so he can get a 40 of Old English from the corner. Man gives him a shove. Bum falls down. Situation handled.

Mark: Not very impressive.

James. No, it’s not.

Read More …

• The Bears just played a terrible Cardinals defense and scored nine points. Do we expect them to be significantly better simply by playing at home? Is DJ Moore going to suddenly start caring more?
• Pats are among the league’s worst pass rushing units, registering only 16 sacks thus far. Again, does that matter right now? It seems unlikely this OL can hold up for four quarters against anyone.
• The secret stat behind the Bears even being 4-4? They are +7 in turnover differential. That puts them fifth in the league behind Buffalo (+11), Detroit (+11), Pittsburgh (+10) and the LA Chargers (+9). This is a different season for the Bears if their turnover differential is closer to league average. (The Pats are -3, and this is a point to watch on Sunday. If the Pats don’t turn it over, these teams are far more evenly matched that folks realize.)
• The only team converting third downs at a worse clip than the Bears is the Browns. Does this have any relevance to Sunday? I’m not sure.
• It will not surprise me at all if the Patriots win this game. But I just don’t think the Bears are that bad. So, I’m predicting them to reach an incredibly tedious 5-4, prolonging the Eberflus conversation another week.

Chicago Bears 16, New England Patriots 13

Why Do I Like the Chicago Bears This Week?

I.

Always.

Like.

THE.

Chicago.

Bears.

A Potentially Historic Sunday at DBB

I used to write an awful lot about football around here, but that was at a time when there were fewer people saturating the market (with mostly boring material). Now I write about Sidney Lumet, and one-act game reactions. Why? Because no one else does that. And if this isn’t going to make me rich, it’s certainly going to make me smile.

Since the fall of 2000, I have missed one Bears game. 24 years. One game. I was in Ireland and spent more than an hour at a pay phone, as my buddy Josh relayed to me the play-by-play of a Bears victory over the Vikings in 2005. I’ve been late to a grandfather’s funeral. I’ve watched the Bears from a Paris hotel in the middle of the night. If they’re playing, I’m watching, and it’s been that way for two and a half decades.

This Sunday, at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY, I’ll be presenting one of my favorite films, the 1957 classic Sweet Smell of Success. It will start at 11 AM, with my introduction, followed by a twenty-minute lecture by yours truly and a Q&A. I won’t be leaving the theater until around 2 PM. There is a bar in Pleasantville that will be showing the Bears v. Patriots, and honestly, I will more than likely hustle over there for the end of Q2 and second half. But why I will do that is becoming something of a mystery.

I was so excited about this team a few weeks ago that I went to Washington D.C. to see them. Now, I’m not despondent or dejected. I’m apathetic. I’ve seen this story before, many times. It’s still boring. You want me to use this space to talk about New England’s turnover differential or third-down conversion percentage? You want me to pick three Bears under pressure? Why? You want me to keep a window on my phone open during the Q&A and double-time it to Foley’s on Sunday? I may do that! But it’ll be more instinct than excitement.

I’ll make a prediction tomorrow, and I’ll probably predict the Bears to win. But honestly, it’s more interesting if they lose! If they lose, there’s something to write about Monday morning, something to talk about. Clearly this structure is not working and it’s not going to work. Something has to change. But this is the Chicago Bears. Something always has to change.

Sunday, at least for me, will be a change.

It is a season drifting away. Again.

• This was supposed to be a season where the Bears transitioned to a winning culture. Instead, according to Adam Jahns, they are once again on the brink of a coaching change.
• Brad Biggs suggests it is time for the Bears to consider making a play caller change on offense. He’s not wrong, but the broader point is Matt Eberflus will certainly make that move as soon as he feels his future is in jeopardy. Does he feel that pressure now?
• One of the strangest developments of the 2024 season has been the pathetic and inexcusable attitude of DJ Moore. Sunday, despite various internet excuses, he walked off the field mid-play. His head coach had the opportunity to defend him. He declined. These two men won’t be in the same locker room much longer.
• Drake Maye v. Caleb Williams should have been a fun storyline in Chicago this week. It is, in Massachusetts.
• Flus trails only Doug Pederson in the “next coach fired” odds, and it is historically a bad bet. The Bears have never fired a coach in-season. But if the Bears lose, at home, to a two-win Pats team with a rookie quarterback, how can there not be serious conversations about moving on at Halas Hall?