2021 NFL Season Thread

[caulfield12]

Just had that feeling coming up without points at the end of the first half…then the DL batted ball interception.

All things considered, still believe the Rams (especially at home) are the most complete team on both sides of the ball.  Of course they’ve lost, what, six in a row to SF?

Just hope we continue the string of great games, and thankfully the Chiefs didn’t score again in OT or that would have been the main topic of discussion through the offseason.

Even more incredible to go from 6-25-1 last two years to a Super Bowl.

[bmags]

My thoughts that Demeco Ryan should be a HC now and Cooper Kupp is MVP are unchanged so far.

[Kyyle23]

It felt like everything changed when KC blew that end of first half opportunity within 5 yards.  They were steamrolling until that 

[Chicago White Sox]

41 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

It felt like everything changed when KC blew that end of first half opportunity within 5 yards.  They were steamrolling until that 

Huge momentum swinger and really stupid to not just take the points with five seconds.

[nitetrain8601]

Rams are pretty horrific if they can't figure this out.

[Chisoxfn]

20 minutes ago, nitetrain8601 said:

Rams are pretty horrific if they can't figure this out.

And people thought Shanny was a bad coach earlier this year. They have awful qb play and still within a quarter of going to Super Bowl. 

[Chisoxfn]

Was that Javon Wimms playing DB for the niners right there. That was the easiest Pick you will ever get and be completely whiffed on it. Now Rams about to score. 

[Chisoxfn]

Odell Beckham has played himself into some money. He has looked quite good since going to Rams. 

[SoxAce]

Well... GO BENGALS!

[Chisoxfn]

4 minutes ago, SoxAce said:

Well... GO BENGALS!

 

4 minutes ago, SoxAce said:

Well... GO BENGALS!

This!!! 

[CentralChamps21]

36 minutes ago, SoxAce said:

Well... GO BENGALS!

Week 2 where Joe Burrow threw interceptions on three consecutive passes is a distant memory.

[NWINFan]

13 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Huge momentum swinger and really stupid to not just take the points with five seconds.

Mahomes is a great talent. That is one problem with him. Sometimes the play isn't there and you can't make it happen. That pass at the end of the half was just plain stupid. He should have thrown the ball away and taken the three. Then when KC drove for its tying field goal, he almost blew it. He scrambled when he should have taken the sack. Instead, he lost seven more yards and fumbled. He was lucky a teammate fell on the ball or KC would have lost right there. Mahomes cost his team this game although you have to give the Bengals defense credit for a great second half. 

[raBBit]

15 hours ago, Chisoxfn said:

Odell Beckham has played himself into some money. He has looked quite good since going to Rams. 

I figure you are speaking to the offseason but he's quite literally played himself into some money with the structure of his contract with the Rams. https://fansided.com/2021/11/11/rams-odell-beckham-jr-contract-details-revealed/

[Tony]

Time really is a flat circle. 

[Chisoxfn]

Evidently Fields is in the building and will be up after McCaskey. I think that is a good sign showing that integration.  Kind of surprised to be honest (if it is true that Fields is here).  But if nothing else - it highlights to Fields how important they think he is and I am starting to warm on Getsy.  Really hope they hit a home run on the oline coach as well.  

[bmags]

Love working from home where I can just have this in the background lol.

Poles started off a little shakey, and then by the end he was really interesting to me. It was definitely funny how little they seemed to care about the media questions on the conspiracy process stuff related to their hire.

Eberflus is interesting to me. I think without a doubt given the option you'd take a real savant scheme guy as head coach. But you are in deep shit when you think you have a savant guy and they aren't. I don't think there were any shanahan/belicheck level geniuses in this round, but I could be wrong and Daboll is that guy. Daboll what I liked was how he changed based off personnel. That is in fact what Flus seemed to be implying. They kept trying to pin him down to how his cover-2 system would play, and he didn't commit at all to it. All questions like this he'd basically respond "we'll see what we have and what we need and play a defense on that".

Which, if it fails in 4 years we'll say it was because this guy was an idiot. But I think if it succeeds it's because he's prioritizing teaching the players and relying on his coaches to scheme them up for success. Not having a system defining it. 

Who knows, but this is definitely a different crew, we'll see if it works. Clearly, Eberflus sees his role as more of a Tomlin and John Harbaugh, and was appropriately focused on coaches that can execute. 

Maybe the most interesting thing out of this is they just did not talk about the roster, even fields. I think they are setting the standard that this isn't one player above another?

[bmags]

5 minutes ago, Chisoxfn said:

Evidently Fields is in the building and will be up after McCaskey. I think that is a good sign showing that integration.  Kind of surprised to be honest (if it is true that Fields is here).  But if nothing else - it highlights to Fields how important they think he is and I am starting to warm on Getsy.  Really hope they hit a home run on the oline coach as well.  

I really hope they make Getsy available

 

[Chisoxfn]

9 minutes ago, bmags said:

I really hope they make Getsy available

 

Interesting that Fields/Getsy haven't talked yet. I also dont' know the rules and maybe Getsy hasn't officially signed a deal.  Now that Fields was up there - I almost wish they didn't have him on - cause he really didn't have much more to add since he clearly wasn't super involved (nor should he have been for a QB just finishing his rookie season).  

[The Beast]

I’ve seen a lot of negative reactions from fans over the press conference. To some people, they must have needed to hire someone like Payton or Harbaugh to meet their expectations. We have too many people in this town who have knee jerk reactions and just want to b**** about anything and everything Bears. Maybe take some hope in the fact that they cleaned house and brought in some new faces. It’s what people wanted, but I hope they also consider their expectations, given that they lack a first round pick, need many holes filled are going to have some new faces on the roster. If not, I hope they continue bitching and waste negative energy on something they wanted to happen, to see Nagy and Pace fired and replaced.

Side note, aside from some cheesy things Coach Eberflus said at the press conference and some newness awkwardness from Poles, I saw nothing to be concerned with and instead found it to be refreshing. Can’t wait to see what happens with some hope for success.

Edited January 31, 2022 by The Beast

[Tony]

2 minutes ago, The Beast said:

I’ve seen a lot of negative reactions from fans over the press conference. To some people, they must have needed to hire someone like Payton or Harbaugh to meet their expectations. We have too many people in this town who have knee jerk reactions and just want to b**** about anything and everything Bears. Maybe take some hope in the fact that they cleaned house and brought in some new faces. It’s what people wanted, but I hope they also consider their expectations, given that they lack a first round pick, need many holes filled are going to have some new faces on the roster. If not, I hope they continue bitching and waste negative energy on something they wanted to happen, to see Nagy and Pace fired and replaced.

 

1. I don't think it was a "bad" press conference but it was just full of hyperbole and I didn't feel like I learned anything about them. I wanted more but I don't remember a single word for the Nagy or Pace presser. If they win, no one will care. All comes down to results like always. 

2. Because the results have been so bad, for so long, how can you blame anyone for being more negative toward the Bears than positive? On Jan 31, 2022....we simply can't know if Poles/Fus will work. All we have to go off of is the past history of the Bears under George. Going off of that......can you not understand why people would be pessimistic? They 100% have to prove it to fans to get the benefit of the doubt. 

[SoxAce]

It's not gonna be a quick fix. Poles said they are going to build through the draft. The problem is they only have 5 draft picks this year thanks to the prior regime. Either he's going to have to get creative with trade downs or potentially put some current players on the block (he can also more or less ask for draft capital back for 2023 instead since they will have all of their picks). 

I'm very interested to see how he and the rest of the front office handles this.

[bmags]

Last year Nick Siriani went viral for how bad his press conference was. That team improved to go to the playoffs.

Dan Campbell was pointed and laughed at for his over the top coachiness. He then became a darling of the same people during the season.

These guys haven't even had a chance to know what this team is. The bit about Eberflus not calling plays was definitely the most noteworthy part of the press conference.

[The Beast]

22 minutes ago, Tony said:

1. I don't think it was a "bad" press conference but it was just full of hyperbole and I didn't feel like I learned anything about them. I wanted more but I don't remember a single word for the Nagy or Pace presser. If they win, no one will care. All comes down to results like always. 

2. Because the results have been so bad, for so long, how can you blame anyone for being more negative toward the Bears than positive? On Jan 31, 2022....we simply can't know if Poles/Fus will work. All we have to go off of is the past history of the Bears under George. Going off of that......can you not understand why people would be pessimistic? They 100% have to prove it to fans to get the benefit of the doubt. 

1. When have you ever heard anything specific from a football coach or GM in a press conference? Why would they give what they are going to do away?

2. Fans got what they wanted with the firings of Pace and Nagy. They can be negative all they want but they are such fucking babies. “We haven’t won anything since the Super Bowl!” “This guy said something funny in the press conference, he’s Trestman 2.0!” “The McCaskeys need to sell the team, they are too cheap and didn’t pony up to get Harbaugh or Payton!” “They hired Eberflus, more like Everloose hahahaha!” “George isn’t a talent evaluator, he’s a football fan. He’s admitted it himself. We need a new owner who doesn’t hire Ryan and Matt again hahaha!” I read all of these things and yet, they all still come back and watch and pay to support the team in some way. These fans can do whatever they want, but at least consider the possibility of these new hires and what could happen.

I understand their perspective but they should consider their expectations. Next year could be a bad year and they need to consider that it might take a year to retool. Look at the Bengals. Did it take them one year to get to the super bowl after getting the quarterback in place? No, it took two. And several failed years before that. I guess I’m willing to see what these guys can do and the results they bring before they are written off completely.

[Tony]

3 minutes ago, The Beast said:

1. When have you ever heard anything specific from a football coach or GM in a press conference? Why would they give what they are going to do away?

2. Fans got what they wanted with the firings of Pace and Nagy. They can be negative all they want but they are such fucking babies. “We haven’t won anything since the Super Bowl!” “This guy said something funny in the press conference, he’s Trestman 2.0!” “The McCaskeys need to sell the team, they are too cheap and didn’t pony up to get Harbaugh or Payton!” “They hired Eberflus, more like Everloose hahahaha!” “George isn’t a talent evaluator, he’s a football fan. He’s admitted it himself. We need a new owner who doesn’t hire Ryan and Matt again hahaha!” I read all of these things and yet, they all still come back and watch and pay to support the team in some way. These fans can do whatever they want, but at least consider the possibility of these new hires and what could happen.

I understand their perspective but they should consider their expectations. Next year could be a bad year and they need to consider that it might take a year to retool. Look at the Bengals. Did it take them one year to get to the super bowl after getting the quarterback in place? No, it took two. And several failed years before that. I guess I’m willing to see what these guys can do and the results they bring before they are written off completely.

I mean, at this point you're arguing things that happen in every field, with almost every topic. 

If the Bears hired Harbaugh, there would be a bunch of Ohio State/Bears fans upset with the hire, calling him overrated. If they hired Peyton as head of football ops, there would be people saying "What does he know, you just hired a name, is there any proof he can run a team?"

Those people will ALWAYS exist, with EVERY franchise. If you can't get past that, that's on you. Those fans exist with the Cubs, Sox, Bulls, Steelers, Red Wings, Lakers, etc. Meatballs exist in all 50 states. If you're upset over the meatballs, you're never going to be happy, because they'll never change. 

Now, you bring up the Bengals. When Zac Taylor was hired, I'm sure the Bengals fan base wasn't ecstatic with the hire across the board. They were probably all pleased to be done with Marvin Lewis, but I'm sure Zac Taylor didn't blow anyone's doors off when he was initially hired. Additionally, he was 6-25-1 as Bengals HC coming into 2021, for a franchise that hadn't won a playoff game 1991. The point is, the Bears haven't won a playoff game since George McCaskey took over. Fans have seen multiple cycles of new coaches/GM's being brought in, and the same results follow. 

What you're asking for are fans to give the Bears the benefit of the doubt. In my opinion, they simply don't deserve that at this point. It doesn't mean Poles/Fus are going to be failures, and every Bears fan is hoping they lead them to a Super Bowl. But I don't feel you can get upset with fans that simply don't believe in the George McCaskey lead Bears. They have given fans no indication they know how to run a successful football team. And I don't think it's unrealistic or unfair to say "After Trestman/Emery and Nagy/Pace, I'm going to take the believe it when I see it approach rather than automatically thinking they got it right with this duo." 

[ShoeLessRob]

11 minutes ago, The Beast said:

1. When have you ever heard anything specific from a football coach or GM in a press conference? Why would they give what they are going to do away?

2. Fans got what they wanted with the firings of Pace and Nagy. They can be negative all they want but they are such fucking babies. “We haven’t won anything since the Super Bowl!” “This guy said something funny in the press conference, he’s Trestman 2.0!” “The McCaskeys need to sell the team, they are too cheap and didn’t pony up to get Harbaugh or Payton!” “They hired Eberflus, more like Everloose hahahaha!” “George isn’t a talent evaluator, he’s a football fan. He’s admitted it himself. We need a new owner who doesn’t hire Ryan and Matt again hahaha!” I read all of these things and yet, they all still come back and watch and pay to support the team in some way. These fans can do whatever they want, but at least consider the possibility of these new hires and what could happen.

I understand their perspective but they should consider their expectations. Next year could be a bad year and they need to consider that it might take a year to retool. Look at the Bengals. Did it take them one year to get to the super bowl after getting the quarterback in place? No, it took two. And several failed years before that. I guess I’m willing to see what these guys can do and the results they bring before they are written off completely.

They fired Pace and Nagy because it was the right decision to do.  Nagy was way over his head as head coach and Pace depleted the team with moving up in the draft several times and giving bloated contracts to aging veterans.

They seemed to have been “cute” again with their new hires. Fans want to see a historic franchise pony up and go out there and get a proven winner (a Harbough type) who has experience winning to show that the team can/wants to win NOW.

Obviously that doesn’t seem realistic with the current structure of the team and lack of draft picks this year and I believe next. Unfortunately we will prolly be pretty mediocre again next year. Unfortunately the key to this franchise turning around is solving the QB issue, hopefully these individuals they hired can play to Fields strengths. We have nothing to go off of with Eberflus or the OC they have selected, hence the pessimism.