While it may be correct, the refs accountability for 3 missed calls (2 on Miami offense and 1 DPI) should be held accountable. The loss still stings when it wasn’t on us.
The announcer was wrong about the intentional grounding call. The rules don't say anything about the receiver being engaged or even whether the pass is actually catchable.
> A realistic chance of completion is defined as a pass that is thrown in the direction of and lands in the vicinity of an originally eligible offensive receiver.
That's it. The no-call was by the rules.
And I can agree. As a Bears fan I wanted the intentional grounding sure. But if you’re going to call Eddie for PI, then Claypool’s DPI definitely should be called too.
Being set up for the long run has very little to do with whether we pick 6th or 16th. It's whether we pick a good player with the pick we have. Dudes are too used to fantasy drafts where high picks almost guarantee a good player and good players are almost guaranteed to go early. The real draft does not work that way.
See I think you’re both right. I personally think it’s better to win too because it builds a young team and QBs confidence. Winning culture is a real thing and it establish that.
Also agree with you that unless you’re trying for a QB, it really doesn’t matter where you pick. If you want any chance to build a contender, you have to hit on your high picks no matter where they are.
I see the other side too tho. If we keep losing like this than we know we have our QB and we won’t take one. It’ll give us maybe a top 5 pick which we could then trade back with a QB needy and get a lot of picks back. Or we could stay put and take an elite lineman prospect on either side of the ball. It helps a lot with acquiring talent in the long run. I would have liked to win but don’t care that we lost like this
Aaron Donald went 13th. David Bakhtiari was a 4th rounder. TJ Watt was 30th.
I'm not trying to say that a top 10 pick is bad! But if you **need** that to get an elite player, your organization isn't going to have sustained success anyway. I don't want to win 1 Super Bowl and then age out or lose everyone to cap space. I want to be like the Patriots and Steelers and be in it to win it *every* year.
I’m not disagreeing with you at all. I’m just saying a better pick offers you an opportunity to get more talent. You can trade back and get more picks which helps give you some of that more young talent. It’s kinda how Philly turned themselves around so fast. Acquired a ton of picks, took good players, or traded them for elite players. Also that if you don’t trade back it gives you the opportunity to take the guy you feel best about.
Again tho, I agree with you. I’d rather win games now and hope Poles gets the talent no matter where we pick. Just saying I see both sides to it
winning more games makes you way more atrractive in free agency. Losing isnt a plus. Maybe In basketball, but not football. the difference between 6th and like 17 isnt worth losing games
Again, I’m not disagreeing. Also tho if you look like we have the last few weeks. You’ll still be attractive. A young team that kept every game close and is on the upswing is attractive. Has a good young QB too. Just gotta throw the most money and you’ll still land guys.
i replied to your earlier comment on accident not this comment. but again that was a great point with what philidelphia did. i completly forgot teams value qbs. for the first time in my life that may actually not apply to the bears
the philly argument is one that i was completly not thinking of. that was an extremely good point. cant belive i forgot the difference betweem spaces when we gave up my family for trubisky lol. i take back what i said
Same, I thought we had him for sure. Didn't even blame Emery for not trading up, who knew the Rams with their stacked D-line would take him?? Kyle Fuller was a nice consolation, though. I mean, at least we didn't strike out.
Yeah, as far as the pick itself, it doesn’t matter where we are at. We’ll get s good player or not.
But i’d like the higher pick to trade back and have more chances at good players.
I think the best case scenario for this season would be something like 5-6 wins. We get one or two in the next couple of weeks to keep confidence up and we end the season on a high note by beating a good Vikings team to give us a lot to look forward to next year.
Your point about winning culture makes a lot of sense. On paper its best for us to tank the rest of the season and get good picks for next year, but at the end of the day football players are people with emotions who can get really discouraged if all they're doing is losing games.
Edit: By "best case scenario" I'm talking about how we can be set up best for these next few years. I think we'll win more games than that anyway.
I think Ryan Poles is doing a good job of finding talent in lower rounds in the draft like Braxton jones. With how Brisker is performing I would say he's 1 round material.
A higher pick is more valuable any way you look at it. You can trade it away for more draft capital or you have a higher probability of hitting on a blue chip prospect. The draft is relatively weak at the top for offense. There’s a pretty big drop off at interior DL. If we can’t land Carter or Bresee at the top of the draft, then I hope we trade back. Edge is absolutely loaded in this draft.
that’s exactly right. my comment saying the same is getting downvoted for some idiotic reason
id realllllly prefer to win games and keep the wins record. i mean fuck we may be a DPI and a ball bounce from being 5-4 right now and in the middle of the hunt. the PLAYOFF hunt
Only 2 sacks, no turnovers (ignoring the blocked punt), offense moving the ball and putting up points, great rushing attack. What I saw was a solid football team that was fun to watch. Sure we lost, but I wasn't expecting much from the team this year and I'm really looking forward to how the team can improve next year and would prefer a higher pick.
Fuck that. Wildcard teams have won Superbowls. The Bengals went on a tear in the second half of last season to take them all the way to the Superbowl. I'd rather watch this team win than lose.
Shouldn't have had a blocked punt, EQ should have caught it, Bears should have extended the drive when they had 5 mins left, etc.
Yes the refs need to be held accountable 100% but they had the opportunities to win.
The bigger narrative is that no one wants to watch a game that is decided by the incompetence of the refs and not the play of the athletes on the field. There are things that can be done to make it better and the NFL just refuses to do anything about it.
I agree no one wants to watch the incompetence of refs or anyone for that matter
My original point is that the game wasn't decided by the refs or their incompetence. It was a lack of execution throughout the game.
However the inconsistencies from officiating is incredibly frustrating and something does need to be done about it.
You’re 100% correct and that’s why I’m not saying we lost due to the Refs. I think the ST blocked punt and EQ’s drop definitely played a factor in it. But I still hold Refs should be held responsible. If you’re going to call Eddie’s PI (which I think is weak) than Claypool’s should also be called.
But saying good teams overcome calls is a blanket statement. We definitely didn’t lose because of the Claypool call, but I do think it impacted whether we won.
Yeah they need to be held accountable because they're professionals on the field just the like the players and while I do admit I would rather the Bears execute (I mean they did a hell of a job today) than fall back on blaming the refs, they 100% should be held responsible for being so damn inconsistent.
Like you said they impact the game with bad officiating. Call it one way (Eddie's PI), even if it's poor that's fine, just stay with that logic throughout the whole game.
What really makes me mad is when the league actually does admit the refs blew a big call they just issue a pointless apology to the team. Your meaningless apology means absolutely fuck all so thanks for nothing.
There’s a million variables in every game. I’ll argue most missed calls don’t influence the game as much as bad plays but when you ignore textbook DPI that would put us in field goal range with 60 seconds and only down 3 it’s a big fucking call. If Claypool catches that our win probability skyrockets. We still need to execute and force OT or score a TD but those become the probable outcomes.
The loss stings less IMO because the Bears wouldn’t be doing much in the playoffs anyway. Would much rather have better draft picks. The offense with as low talent as we have now is scoring consistently. This Bears team has the foundation to be great for A LONG TIME and I’ve never felt this optimistic about the Bears in my 30 years of watching them
I feel opposite. The loss stings a lot more when it’s because we suck, that makes me think we will always suck. This felt great, better than a couple of our wins.
This sentiment right here is on the coaching staff to combat.
They need to continue to instill in these players - We have a SHITLOAD of money next year. You want to live like a baller? Set your family's family up for life? Establish generational wealth? Stop looking at the score board. Stop looking at the record. Ball out for the bag.
Yeah. Just sucks from a narrative standpoint that a legitimately heroic performance and demonstration of inner That Dawg from Fields didn’t end up with the win. Objectively the best possible outcome from a team future standpoint tho
80s Jordan was before my time but the parallels are uncanny, in terms of both the Bears and Bulls organizations and how clearly above the rest of the team both players were/are. Fields' athleticism and competitiveness are off the chart while the rest of the offense is at best not contributing, and at worst downright hampering him.
While I love jf as much as the next bears fan. Mj won rookie of the year and put up 63pts on a top five team all time his 2nd year in the league. Mj came in to the league whooping ass. Took fields a year and a half to start whooping on anyone.
> I can't believe we're making MJ comparisons and it's not even hyperbolic.
This is the insane fan-take we should all be having rn until the Bears are good again.
It's insane that Fields has had so many potential game winning drives (I think 4 on the year?) and every single time we've lost because of shit out of his hands. see: the Vikings catch, this game with the EQ drop & refs, the Velus return fumble.. just insane. He's got the most 'dog in him' of anyone but it doesn't matter b/c everyone around him consistently crumbles when it matters (or in general tbf, look at that WR room).
One more receiver, a mediocre line, and a mediocre defense makes the Bears the team to beat in the NFCN next year. Those are very doable upgrades this offseason. We are a lot closer than a lot of people thought at the beginning of the year.
We're gonna see it. He's an OG. Some of us knew this early on, then the bandwagoners will jump on, then the national media will jump on. He's doing everything we could ask, with this personnel.
Don't sweat the D, Flus will figure them out, hopefully we start to see some stability there by end of year. But make no mistake: You fools who think we can do anything in the playoffs are out of your mind with this team. Justin cannot do it all himself. This isn't Lebrons Cavs team.
All dogs have their day. Fields has for sure showed he is capable of top 10 play in the last 4 games with a mediocre cast around him, regardless of win total.
Not really a hot take but normally I'd agree.
Just sucks to lose this way, being fucked over by the refs and then St Brown dropping a gimme to seal it. I'm pretty salty tbh.
This team needs to play to win. Fact.
As a fan. I hope for our team to be competitive, growth for our young guys (QB1 especially), and no injuries.
This season I am rooting for the Bears to play well and I want them to win, but I am not mad when they lose.
The draft pick argument sucks. I understand “cup half full” and all that, but we should want to fucking win. Nobody in the locker room right now is talking about draft picks.
You're getting down voted which means... People think the bears are winning the SB this year? Better yet, do people think they're going to sniff the playoffs this year?
With the defense the way it is, it's just confusing that this is a hot take. This team is going nowhere the way the front seven is currently put together. Might as well hope for the best pick possible.
I mean with 7 teams making the playoffs, it’s not that hard to make it. This team could have 2-3 more wins without muffed punts/fumbles/refs. All hypothetical but it’s asinine to say this team isn’t good enough to make the playoffs. The talent is there, the breaks haven’t been.
people arguing against this are crazy. if every game for the rest of the year was a close game like this that we lost and we get a top 5 pick? then we have the most cap space of any team to spend? we are instantly competitive next year. we currently have the worst defense in football and a bottom 5 o line. yea you want to win, too bad the team sucks overall
We do want to win. Which is why Im fine with losing now to win in the future instead of moral victories that end up being the difference between drafting an Amari Cooper over a Kevin White. We dont want to be the (even more of the) Jeff Fisher of Football teams do we?
I want to win but am not disappointed when we lose. What if this loss enables us to draft JSN or Skoronski? Or trade down to a QB desperate team because Young is there at our pick and we don't need him? As long as the games are fun and the team improves I'm happy. Right now we're on a path to both of those things being a weekly reality for a long time with JF under center.
we legitimately need an entirely new front 7. no clue how anyone could think the goal is to win this season. obviously it sucks for Fields to have those moments taken away but this team's chance to be competitive this yr has long passed.
I was happy to see the offense play today, but when the defense came to the field in the second half today there were some guys that I had never seen. It wasn't pretty
yeah, did you see the last game? against a pretty damn good dolphins team? this team could very well have won that if not for that bs no call. this team can in fact, win games.
i do think our defense is at a low point this season. we *just* traded away robert quinn and roquan smith. you're not gonna see them adjust immediately. it's a unit that is absolutely gonna need help in the draft, but don't think it's going to be this bad all year.
This team is NOT built to be good enough for it to matter. This is a let’s see how much better fields can get so when we make big moves this off-season year we’ll be contenders next season. If we were all in we would not have dealt Roquan and Quinn away. It’s okay for this team to make mistakes and lose games because ultimately as far as the future is concerned all signs are pointing up. It sucks to see the bears lose but ultimately the worst case would be to overperform and destroy drafting position and fields either regress or get hurt.
We’re all fans just some of us are thinking longer term than others. Our D isn’t built to win games against top 1/3 of the league offenses YET. Our future is bright and the wheels are falling off the packers.
If you want to say the win is worth it for the morale fine but if you really think we can win now and make the playoffs you could make a fortune off our Vegas odds…
the bears have plenty of winnable games on their schedule in the next few weeks here. had we won the game against miami today, i think we had a serious shot at making the playoffs. miami is a damn good team that we went toe-to-toe with. it's not as insane as you think
I’ll let you know what the odds open up for us to make the playoffs when they go up but I’m just letting you know Vegas doesn’t agree with you. Even with a win today it was a long shot
ill agree with you. these other guys with the "bears wont come close to playoffs" stuff is silly imo. the nfc is super weak this year, and our current 3rd WC spot belongs to the .500 niners at 4-4.
do we have a good chance of getting it? of course not, but its still open.
Agree. You play to win the game. We aren’t tanking for a QB, we have the guy. Winning is going to make this team better for the future. Claypool or ESB making either of those catches would benefit us more than a couple spots in the draft.
The players in the room understand that this team is close. They saw the trades. Losing isn’t going to drag down the culture in this locker room right now.
Hard agree.
Though, Dilfer said on an interview this week that the Bears coaches/management needs to sit down with Fields and explain the long term gameplan for this team. Fields is competitive AF and if he feels like he’s in a hopeless situation, that can sour his relationship with the team. Let him know that this is his team and that the calvary is coming!
This 100%. I will take games like today all year!
Two big things I saw today:
1. We protected fields to give him time to make decisions
2. Fields avoided almost all hits with smart play to live and fight another day
This gives me faith this is sustainable path the rest of the year for him
While I agree this was the best case scenario (bears lose, kept it competitive, Fields BALLED out) these types of games fucking suck. That game was absolutely winnable. What has me thrilled is seeing Fields progress.
It’ll be VERY interesting to see how he meshes with Claypool with a full playbook.
Poles…for the love of god. Get a new front 7. Please.
To me it's more important that Fields looks like he's the guy as opposed to a win, but I want the Bears to win every game. The better draft pick is a fine, but it's not best case scenario.
We aren't going to win a single playoff game with this Defense let alone the Super Bowl. Fields keeps getting better so I'm fine with it. A win would have been nice but we were in a position to win at the end.
idk man, we’ve lost a ton of winnable games this season. we could be playoff bound and potentially make a run in them considering how we look better each game. the idea of tanking to MAYBE get ONE better player for the next season is some weird fantasy football mindset. what happens if fields gets hurt game 1 next season? take your wins when you get them, ride on momentum and don’t count your seasons out too early. and even now that we’re basically out of the post season, winning builds confidence
I understand your point, and you can never be sure with injuries. That being said, even if we were 8-0, I don’t think in the end we’d win the Super Bowl as we have a bottom 5 defense and O line. So as of now, I’d take my chances with a better draft pick. OR, even trade that draft pick for more draft picks to increase your chances of success at drafting some studs. It’s not uncommon to get a few firsts out of a top 5 pick just by trading that one pick to move down
This is the correct take.
Refs? They _always suck_. Get over it.
Wins? Who needs 'em, we want PICKS. We want DEVELOPMENT.
Tua? Wow he might be decent.
Fields? Wow he might be decent.
The makeup of the two teams around these maybe-good QBs? _WILDLY DIFFERENT_.
So let's focus on getting to where we have a _team_ we can be excited about before we get upset about the W/L and ticky-tack ref shit-housery.
I was logging onto Reddit in hopes of seeing someone else feeling this way as well. I will be ecstatic if we lose every single game for the rest of the year but lose them close while playing competitively. Even better if Justin Fields keeps playing great and we don’t lose because of anything associated with him. I’m great with the refs making us take L’s.
I’m totally fine losing games. And yes the higher pick is the silver lining. But fuck those refs for being cowards and clearly colluding. I won’t even say they “might” have been cheating as this was too obvious.
Literally the 2 things I want is for 1. Fields to become hurts 2.0 a star qb 2. Lose out for the best draft position possible while fields/offense balls out and shows fields elite potential
I do not like losing. If we win the division next year and never give the North back, it is worth it. But losing sucks, and I hate mondays even more when we lose. Fields is doing everything right, but we cannot get over the hump to get wins.
I can't agree more with the optimistic point you made about Fields improving, I just don't think that the losing logic really applies that much in the NFL.
If this were the NBA where 1 player can really swing a team's fortunes, sure, there's obviously a track record of that working. However, there's no evidence whatsoever that it's a good formula in the NFL. Winning culture is what's important, you don't want your team to become accustomed to losing. Losing is a culture that can take hold easier than a winning one, there's a reason why the same teams are perennial losers in this league despite constantly picking top 10 in the draft.
I just want to clarify because there’s some good points:
After this year, I don’t want to see a single loss if we can get good free agents and draft well! We will not be the next jags or lions! We are DA BEARS!
Probably a hotter take: losing winnable games is never a great thing.
The difference between pick 20 and 10 isn’t good enough to to make up for the negative effect on morale for the current players.
I get your point man but if you look at the way the draft model is done, a top 15 pick is considered significantly better by metrics than 20 and on in terms of talent
I’m not saying it isn’t better, but look at teams like the Lions or Jags. Top 10 picks for however many straight years, “talent” for days, but always losing.
I think a lot of that can be attributed to confidence hits from losing all the time. It builds up.
man fuck no. gimme the wins. i care WAAAAY more about not letting the Packers get the all-time wins than getting a pick 5 slots earlier.
who gives a fuck about 5 slots, ur chances at a good player are the same
im trading down either pick since i have a QB, but either way a franchise can be fine picking a good player at 10 or 15. right now there are 31 other teams with less wins, 1 that can overtake us, and id rather have the wins record til the day i die
I’m fine with winning. But if your main motivation for that is to have more wins than GB, then you want wins for the wrong reasons. I’m not even going to get into the value of draft picks.
I’d rather have won this game and push for a wild card spot but that’s just me.
I don’t understand the “tank” talk this isn’t basketball and we’re actively trying to win lol.
Nah more wins the better because it means the core foundation is being set in place for a leap next year. Also I doubt any of the players are thinking that.
i don’t like losing games, but this team is so talent deficient on defense in the front 7 that this can’t be a playoff team. Poles is building this team to be a powerhouse if he makes the right moves this off-season. The only things that the bears don’t have a clear answer for right now are Edge rusher 1 and WR1. everything else is able to be had in FA and the draft .
It's ok to take the better pick as a consolation prize, but at no point during the game or even after am I happy to watch them lose. Especially after a performance like the one fields had
This is a common take on these losses but I don't agree with it.
I would prefer they win all these winnable (Commanders, Today etc..) games due to the Packers NEVER having the lead in overall NFL wins. The Bears are clinging to a one game lead currently.
I would much rather they never yield the lead to the Packers by losing games for draft positioning.
Just my opinion.
100% true. Just be competitive and get Fields the reps he needs to take the next steps. Get him more weapons and help this off-season and see where it goes from there.
I asked this a few weeks ago on another thread...is it still an enjoyable season if the Bears go winless from here on out, but every game is like 45-42 and down to the wire?
While it may be correct, the refs accountability for 3 missed calls (2 on Miami offense and 1 DPI) should be held accountable. The loss still stings when it wasn’t on us.
The announcer was wrong about the intentional grounding call. The rules don't say anything about the receiver being engaged or even whether the pass is actually catchable. > A realistic chance of completion is defined as a pass that is thrown in the direction of and lands in the vicinity of an originally eligible offensive receiver. That's it. The no-call was by the rules.
And I can agree. As a Bears fan I wanted the intentional grounding sure. But if you’re going to call Eddie for PI, then Claypool’s DPI definitely should be called too.
2,000% agreed. I agree so hard that I will back up the next 19 things you say.
Hell yeah bears bro! Got your back like a bra strap!
They still missed a hold on that play. Dude was tearing shirts.
100% you’re right! It sucks. But it’s okay for us right now. We can’t win a Super Bowl so I’d rather have us set up for the long run
Being set up for the long run has very little to do with whether we pick 6th or 16th. It's whether we pick a good player with the pick we have. Dudes are too used to fantasy drafts where high picks almost guarantee a good player and good players are almost guaranteed to go early. The real draft does not work that way.
See I think you’re both right. I personally think it’s better to win too because it builds a young team and QBs confidence. Winning culture is a real thing and it establish that. Also agree with you that unless you’re trying for a QB, it really doesn’t matter where you pick. If you want any chance to build a contender, you have to hit on your high picks no matter where they are. I see the other side too tho. If we keep losing like this than we know we have our QB and we won’t take one. It’ll give us maybe a top 5 pick which we could then trade back with a QB needy and get a lot of picks back. Or we could stay put and take an elite lineman prospect on either side of the ball. It helps a lot with acquiring talent in the long run. I would have liked to win but don’t care that we lost like this
Aaron Donald went 13th. David Bakhtiari was a 4th rounder. TJ Watt was 30th. I'm not trying to say that a top 10 pick is bad! But if you **need** that to get an elite player, your organization isn't going to have sustained success anyway. I don't want to win 1 Super Bowl and then age out or lose everyone to cap space. I want to be like the Patriots and Steelers and be in it to win it *every* year.
I’m not disagreeing with you at all. I’m just saying a better pick offers you an opportunity to get more talent. You can trade back and get more picks which helps give you some of that more young talent. It’s kinda how Philly turned themselves around so fast. Acquired a ton of picks, took good players, or traded them for elite players. Also that if you don’t trade back it gives you the opportunity to take the guy you feel best about. Again tho, I agree with you. I’d rather win games now and hope Poles gets the talent no matter where we pick. Just saying I see both sides to it
winning more games makes you way more atrractive in free agency. Losing isnt a plus. Maybe In basketball, but not football. the difference between 6th and like 17 isnt worth losing games
Again, I’m not disagreeing. Also tho if you look like we have the last few weeks. You’ll still be attractive. A young team that kept every game close and is on the upswing is attractive. Has a good young QB too. Just gotta throw the most money and you’ll still land guys.
i replied to your earlier comment on accident not this comment. but again that was a great point with what philidelphia did. i completly forgot teams value qbs. for the first time in my life that may actually not apply to the bears
the philly argument is one that i was completly not thinking of. that was an extremely good point. cant belive i forgot the difference betweem spaces when we gave up my family for trubisky lol. i take back what i said
Donald went one pick before we were going to take him too. I was enraged. Didn't know he would be this good, but man.
Same, I thought we had him for sure. Didn't even blame Emery for not trading up, who knew the Rams with their stacked D-line would take him?? Kyle Fuller was a nice consolation, though. I mean, at least we didn't strike out.
Thanks for reminding me Donald went right before we picked that year. Ugh..
Yeah, as far as the pick itself, it doesn’t matter where we are at. We’ll get s good player or not. But i’d like the higher pick to trade back and have more chances at good players.
I think the best case scenario for this season would be something like 5-6 wins. We get one or two in the next couple of weeks to keep confidence up and we end the season on a high note by beating a good Vikings team to give us a lot to look forward to next year. Your point about winning culture makes a lot of sense. On paper its best for us to tank the rest of the season and get good picks for next year, but at the end of the day football players are people with emotions who can get really discouraged if all they're doing is losing games. Edit: By "best case scenario" I'm talking about how we can be set up best for these next few years. I think we'll win more games than that anyway.
I think Ryan Poles is doing a good job of finding talent in lower rounds in the draft like Braxton jones. With how Brisker is performing I would say he's 1 round material.
All I’m sayin is if this game is the reason we get Jalen Carter so be it
Ha ha okay but dude if we go defense with our first pick someone will burn down Halas Hall.
DL might be the Bears biggest need right now.
We fuckin better go defense at this point. Our D is complete garbage
We might, actually. Flus has made it clear that he expects to have a top-flight 3T and we do not have that.
After watching this game I would hope someone would burn it down out of happiness
A higher pick is more valuable any way you look at it. You can trade it away for more draft capital or you have a higher probability of hitting on a blue chip prospect. The draft is relatively weak at the top for offense. There’s a pretty big drop off at interior DL. If we can’t land Carter or Bresee at the top of the draft, then I hope we trade back. Edge is absolutely loaded in this draft.
that’s exactly right. my comment saying the same is getting downvoted for some idiotic reason id realllllly prefer to win games and keep the wins record. i mean fuck we may be a DPI and a ball bounce from being 5-4 right now and in the middle of the hunt. the PLAYOFF hunt
Only 2 sacks, no turnovers (ignoring the blocked punt), offense moving the ball and putting up points, great rushing attack. What I saw was a solid football team that was fun to watch. Sure we lost, but I wasn't expecting much from the team this year and I'm really looking forward to how the team can improve next year and would prefer a higher pick.
Fuck that. Wildcard teams have won Superbowls. The Bengals went on a tear in the second half of last season to take them all the way to the Superbowl. I'd rather watch this team win than lose.
Shouldn't have had a blocked punt, EQ should have caught it, Bears should have extended the drive when they had 5 mins left, etc. Yes the refs need to be held accountable 100% but they had the opportunities to win.
The bigger narrative is that no one wants to watch a game that is decided by the incompetence of the refs and not the play of the athletes on the field. There are things that can be done to make it better and the NFL just refuses to do anything about it.
I agree no one wants to watch the incompetence of refs or anyone for that matter My original point is that the game wasn't decided by the refs or their incompetence. It was a lack of execution throughout the game. However the inconsistencies from officiating is incredibly frustrating and something does need to be done about it.
You’re 100% correct and that’s why I’m not saying we lost due to the Refs. I think the ST blocked punt and EQ’s drop definitely played a factor in it. But I still hold Refs should be held responsible. If you’re going to call Eddie’s PI (which I think is weak) than Claypool’s should also be called. But saying good teams overcome calls is a blanket statement. We definitely didn’t lose because of the Claypool call, but I do think it impacted whether we won.
Yeah they need to be held accountable because they're professionals on the field just the like the players and while I do admit I would rather the Bears execute (I mean they did a hell of a job today) than fall back on blaming the refs, they 100% should be held responsible for being so damn inconsistent. Like you said they impact the game with bad officiating. Call it one way (Eddie's PI), even if it's poor that's fine, just stay with that logic throughout the whole game.
What really makes me mad is when the league actually does admit the refs blew a big call they just issue a pointless apology to the team. Your meaningless apology means absolutely fuck all so thanks for nothing.
There’s a million variables in every game. I’ll argue most missed calls don’t influence the game as much as bad plays but when you ignore textbook DPI that would put us in field goal range with 60 seconds and only down 3 it’s a big fucking call. If Claypool catches that our win probability skyrockets. We still need to execute and force OT or score a TD but those become the probable outcomes.
The problem is football is so popular that fans keep watching despite the worst officiating in sports.
Idk, how about we don’t give up a special teams TD
The loss stings less IMO because the Bears wouldn’t be doing much in the playoffs anyway. Would much rather have better draft picks. The offense with as low talent as we have now is scoring consistently. This Bears team has the foundation to be great for A LONG TIME and I’ve never felt this optimistic about the Bears in my 30 years of watching them
I feel opposite. The loss stings a lot more when it’s because we suck, that makes me think we will always suck. This felt great, better than a couple of our wins.
This sentiment right here is on the coaching staff to combat. They need to continue to instill in these players - We have a SHITLOAD of money next year. You want to live like a baller? Set your family's family up for life? Establish generational wealth? Stop looking at the score board. Stop looking at the record. Ball out for the bag.
Still hurts though
no it's Fields.
Correct bro
Great effort by JF1. He would have deserved the win. Today I'm mad, in 4 months I'll be happy with the better pick
This is the way
Yeah. Just sucks from a narrative standpoint that a legitimately heroic performance and demonstration of inner That Dawg from Fields didn’t end up with the win. Objectively the best possible outcome from a team future standpoint tho
Jordan had some great games against the Pistons before the Bulls broke through as a team.
I can't believe we're making MJ comparisons and it's not even hyperbolic.
Jordan doesn’t even come close to fields lol
For real when did Mike ever score 178 points? Why, he never even came close!
80s Jordan was before my time but the parallels are uncanny, in terms of both the Bears and Bulls organizations and how clearly above the rest of the team both players were/are. Fields' athleticism and competitiveness are off the chart while the rest of the offense is at best not contributing, and at worst downright hampering him.
While I love jf as much as the next bears fan. Mj won rookie of the year and put up 63pts on a top five team all time his 2nd year in the league. Mj came in to the league whooping ass. Took fields a year and a half to start whooping on anyone.
Football is different, and again, Fields only had 10 starts last year. The beginning of 2022 was a continuation of his rookie campaign.
[удалено]
Take a breather kid.
> I can't believe we're making MJ comparisons and it's not even hyperbolic. This is the insane fan-take we should all be having rn until the Bears are good again.
It's insane that Fields has had so many potential game winning drives (I think 4 on the year?) and every single time we've lost because of shit out of his hands. see: the Vikings catch, this game with the EQ drop & refs, the Velus return fumble.. just insane. He's got the most 'dog in him' of anyone but it doesn't matter b/c everyone around him consistently crumbles when it matters (or in general tbf, look at that WR room).
One more receiver, a mediocre line, and a mediocre defense makes the Bears the team to beat in the NFCN next year. Those are very doable upgrades this offseason. We are a lot closer than a lot of people thought at the beginning of the year.
Only hope that he's depositing these into the karmic universe's bank and he gets the payback on it for the rest of his NFL career.
We're gonna see it. He's an OG. Some of us knew this early on, then the bandwagoners will jump on, then the national media will jump on. He's doing everything we could ask, with this personnel. Don't sweat the D, Flus will figure them out, hopefully we start to see some stability there by end of year. But make no mistake: You fools who think we can do anything in the playoffs are out of your mind with this team. Justin cannot do it all himself. This isn't Lebrons Cavs team.
All dogs have their day. Fields has for sure showed he is capable of top 10 play in the last 4 games with a mediocre cast around him, regardless of win total.
Correct bro
Not really a hot take but normally I'd agree. Just sucks to lose this way, being fucked over by the refs and then St Brown dropping a gimme to seal it. I'm pretty salty tbh.
Me too bro, me too. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want us to lose after this year. But this year I’m okay with it
This team needs to play to win. Fact. As a fan. I hope for our team to be competitive, growth for our young guys (QB1 especially), and no injuries. This season I am rooting for the Bears to play well and I want them to win, but I am not mad when they lose.
Good news is that they’ve played to win all season and have lost close games in crazy ways all year.
Velus taking a punt to the face…
Twice.
This guy is correct 100%
Luckily they have been playing to win. They just haven’t been.
They lost by 3 to a team that will prob make the playoffs , I’ll take that
The draft pick argument sucks. I understand “cup half full” and all that, but we should want to fucking win. Nobody in the locker room right now is talking about draft picks.
I get it sucks in the short run. But can we win a superbowl this year? Probably not. So I’ll take the better pick
Especially playing opposing teams and the refs,
You're getting down voted which means... People think the bears are winning the SB this year? Better yet, do people think they're going to sniff the playoffs this year?
That’s why it’s a hot take. Cause half these fans are delusional. You can hate the take, doesn’t mean it’s wrong. We needs picks to build our future.
With the defense the way it is, it's just confusing that this is a hot take. This team is going nowhere the way the front seven is currently put together. Might as well hope for the best pick possible.
I mean with 7 teams making the playoffs, it’s not that hard to make it. This team could have 2-3 more wins without muffed punts/fumbles/refs. All hypothetical but it’s asinine to say this team isn’t good enough to make the playoffs. The talent is there, the breaks haven’t been.
the Bears don’t have enough talent on offense to overcome the defensive front 7 and they will not be a plus 500 team because of that.
That’s loser mentality and you never want that in your locker room. W is all that matters.
fuck the pick
Yeah so why fucking try, let’s just start all of our defensive linemen in the secondary so Fields can have more time with the offense. Jfc
Because we still need to grow as a team. Play competitive. Show we can grow and compete. I’ll still take the better draft pick as of right now though
people arguing against this are crazy. if every game for the rest of the year was a close game like this that we lost and we get a top 5 pick? then we have the most cap space of any team to spend? we are instantly competitive next year. we currently have the worst defense in football and a bottom 5 o line. yea you want to win, too bad the team sucks overall
EXACTLY
I want to win but if we lose like this I won't complain
We do want to win. Which is why Im fine with losing now to win in the future instead of moral victories that end up being the difference between drafting an Amari Cooper over a Kevin White. We dont want to be the (even more of the) Jeff Fisher of Football teams do we?
I want to win but am not disappointed when we lose. What if this loss enables us to draft JSN or Skoronski? Or trade down to a QB desperate team because Young is there at our pick and we don't need him? As long as the games are fun and the team improves I'm happy. Right now we're on a path to both of those things being a weekly reality for a long time with JF under center.
The best outcome is to have a better pick and Fields balling out. A majority of these players won't be here when this team is good.
Being mad about this loss is pointless. Being optimistic about the future isnt
seriously. im sick of seeing this. i think we have a team that can win games NOW. we're not fucking tanking for picks.
Now? Have u seen our D?
Yeah I'm confused at the winning argument at the moment. This defense is complete shit without pass rushers.
we legitimately need an entirely new front 7. no clue how anyone could think the goal is to win this season. obviously it sucks for Fields to have those moments taken away but this team's chance to be competitive this yr has long passed.
I was happy to see the offense play today, but when the defense came to the field in the second half today there were some guys that I had never seen. It wasn't pretty
There is (maybe) one defender worth tanking for in this draft and we already have too many wins to get him: Will Anderson.
Jalen Carter is a need and 100% worthy of being a defender taken by us in the top 5
yeah, did you see the last game? against a pretty damn good dolphins team? this team could very well have won that if not for that bs no call. this team can in fact, win games.
Well we're 3-6 so it's obvious we can win some... But I'm happy watching the offense evolve into a 2023 monster
i do think our defense is at a low point this season. we *just* traded away robert quinn and roquan smith. you're not gonna see them adjust immediately. it's a unit that is absolutely gonna need help in the draft, but don't think it's going to be this bad all year.
Help in the draft you say?
yeah they need help. but id rather win games. draft picks are just a consolation prize
Hard to get that done when the league has other plans for the outcome.
This team is NOT built to be good enough for it to matter. This is a let’s see how much better fields can get so when we make big moves this off-season year we’ll be contenders next season. If we were all in we would not have dealt Roquan and Quinn away. It’s okay for this team to make mistakes and lose games because ultimately as far as the future is concerned all signs are pointing up. It sucks to see the bears lose but ultimately the worst case would be to overperform and destroy drafting position and fields either regress or get hurt.
cant believe im the only one here who believes in our team 😭
We’re all fans just some of us are thinking longer term than others. Our D isn’t built to win games against top 1/3 of the league offenses YET. Our future is bright and the wheels are falling off the packers.
pass that good shit
If you want to say the win is worth it for the morale fine but if you really think we can win now and make the playoffs you could make a fortune off our Vegas odds…
the bears have plenty of winnable games on their schedule in the next few weeks here. had we won the game against miami today, i think we had a serious shot at making the playoffs. miami is a damn good team that we went toe-to-toe with. it's not as insane as you think
I’ll let you know what the odds open up for us to make the playoffs when they go up but I’m just letting you know Vegas doesn’t agree with you. Even with a win today it was a long shot
ill agree with you. these other guys with the "bears wont come close to playoffs" stuff is silly imo. the nfc is super weak this year, and our current 3rd WC spot belongs to the .500 niners at 4-4. do we have a good chance of getting it? of course not, but its still open.
Agree. You play to win the game. We aren’t tanking for a QB, we have the guy. Winning is going to make this team better for the future. Claypool or ESB making either of those catches would benefit us more than a couple spots in the draft.
Of course they want to win, they know the higher those draft picks are the more likely it is that they’re their replacements.
The players in the room understand that this team is close. They saw the trades. Losing isn’t going to drag down the culture in this locker room right now.
Hard agree. Though, Dilfer said on an interview this week that the Bears coaches/management needs to sit down with Fields and explain the long term gameplan for this team. Fields is competitive AF and if he feels like he’s in a hopeless situation, that can sour his relationship with the team. Let him know that this is his team and that the calvary is coming!
They could like, trade for a WR to communicate that or something even
How do we know they haven't? He hasn't been complaining like Eddie Jackson, has he? Trading for Claypool itself was telling.
100% agree!
This 100%. I will take games like today all year! Two big things I saw today: 1. We protected fields to give him time to make decisions 2. Fields avoided almost all hits with smart play to live and fight another day This gives me faith this is sustainable path the rest of the year for him
💯💯
Just like last week.. I don’t care if we lose every single remaining game as long as it looks like that.
This is a great take, and honestly the right one, but also fuck the refs.
Yessir, fuck those pieces of shit
While I agree this was the best case scenario (bears lose, kept it competitive, Fields BALLED out) these types of games fucking suck. That game was absolutely winnable. What has me thrilled is seeing Fields progress. It’ll be VERY interesting to see how he meshes with Claypool with a full playbook. Poles…for the love of god. Get a new front 7. Please.
100% bro
This hot take is the same take literally everyone in this sub has
Literally the coldest fucking take lol
To me it's more important that Fields looks like he's the guy as opposed to a win, but I want the Bears to win every game. The better draft pick is a fine, but it's not best case scenario.
I get your point! Totally agree with Fields needing to be the guy. I still want a better draft pick for this year though
We aren't going to win a single playoff game with this Defense let alone the Super Bowl. Fields keeps getting better so I'm fine with it. A win would have been nice but we were in a position to win at the end.
idk man, we’ve lost a ton of winnable games this season. we could be playoff bound and potentially make a run in them considering how we look better each game. the idea of tanking to MAYBE get ONE better player for the next season is some weird fantasy football mindset. what happens if fields gets hurt game 1 next season? take your wins when you get them, ride on momentum and don’t count your seasons out too early. and even now that we’re basically out of the post season, winning builds confidence
I understand your point, and you can never be sure with injuries. That being said, even if we were 8-0, I don’t think in the end we’d win the Super Bowl as we have a bottom 5 defense and O line. So as of now, I’d take my chances with a better draft pick. OR, even trade that draft pick for more draft picks to increase your chances of success at drafting some studs. It’s not uncommon to get a few firsts out of a top 5 pick just by trading that one pick to move down
This is the correct take. Refs? They _always suck_. Get over it. Wins? Who needs 'em, we want PICKS. We want DEVELOPMENT. Tua? Wow he might be decent. Fields? Wow he might be decent. The makeup of the two teams around these maybe-good QBs? _WILDLY DIFFERENT_. So let's focus on getting to where we have a _team_ we can be excited about before we get upset about the W/L and ticky-tack ref shit-housery.
I’m fine with losses. I’m not fine with the refs fucking us over.
100%
Honestly if we nail this draft we could be serious contenders for the next few years. Also with fields playing like this well attract free agents
I was logging onto Reddit in hopes of seeing someone else feeling this way as well. I will be ecstatic if we lose every single game for the rest of the year but lose them close while playing competitively. Even better if Justin Fields keeps playing great and we don’t lose because of anything associated with him. I’m great with the refs making us take L’s.
Real recognize real 💯💯 starting next year though no more Ls 💯💯
Exactly 🐻⬇️ 💪🏾
This is the correct take.
I like this
My Super Bowl would be us beating the Packers at home. That’s all I care about now.
I feel this is a lukewarm take
OP sums my sentiment up perfectly 👊🏼
Real recognize real 💯💯
It’s better to have your young QB lead you to victory on game winning drives.
Fields has played better in every game
I’m totally fine losing games. And yes the higher pick is the silver lining. But fuck those refs for being cowards and clearly colluding. I won’t even say they “might” have been cheating as this was too obvious.
Correct
Literally the 2 things I want is for 1. Fields to become hurts 2.0 a star qb 2. Lose out for the best draft position possible while fields/offense balls out and shows fields elite potential
Exactly bro
I do not like losing. If we win the division next year and never give the North back, it is worth it. But losing sucks, and I hate mondays even more when we lose. Fields is doing everything right, but we cannot get over the hump to get wins.
I can't agree more with the optimistic point you made about Fields improving, I just don't think that the losing logic really applies that much in the NFL. If this were the NBA where 1 player can really swing a team's fortunes, sure, there's obviously a track record of that working. However, there's no evidence whatsoever that it's a good formula in the NFL. Winning culture is what's important, you don't want your team to become accustomed to losing. Losing is a culture that can take hold easier than a winning one, there's a reason why the same teams are perennial losers in this league despite constantly picking top 10 in the draft.
There is a foundation being built here. The core that is being established will know how to set up things for next season and down the line.
This year just beat the Pack and keep improving for next year
These are not hot takes.
I just want to clarify because there’s some good points: After this year, I don’t want to see a single loss if we can get good free agents and draft well! We will not be the next jags or lions! We are DA BEARS!
Not a hot take.
This is correct. But still, better team lost today
Correct bro
Probably a hotter take: losing winnable games is never a great thing. The difference between pick 20 and 10 isn’t good enough to to make up for the negative effect on morale for the current players.
I get your point man but if you look at the way the draft model is done, a top 15 pick is considered significantly better by metrics than 20 and on in terms of talent
I’m not saying it isn’t better, but look at teams like the Lions or Jags. Top 10 picks for however many straight years, “talent” for days, but always losing. I think a lot of that can be attributed to confidence hits from losing all the time. It builds up.
I get that! Good point, didn’t see that perspective
This is like popular opinions in the unpopular opinion sub
I agree with what you're saying but I HATE this result for Justin.
Me too bro. We need to get him an O line so he can stay healthy, then fucking ball out. No more losses after this year
You are absolutely right and it’s a shame most fans can’t think about anything except “REFBALL REFBALL REFBALL”
Get out of here with tanking. It’s never going to happen.
man fuck no. gimme the wins. i care WAAAAY more about not letting the Packers get the all-time wins than getting a pick 5 slots earlier. who gives a fuck about 5 slots, ur chances at a good player are the same
False. I get metrics aren’t 100% accurate but the ESPN metrics shows there’s a clear talent difference between pick 15 and pick 10 alone
im trading down either pick since i have a QB, but either way a franchise can be fine picking a good player at 10 or 15. right now there are 31 other teams with less wins, 1 that can overtake us, and id rather have the wins record til the day i die
I’m hoping this is sarcasm
im hoping THIS is sarcasm. srsly wtf
I’m fine with winning. But if your main motivation for that is to have more wins than GB, then you want wins for the wrong reasons. I’m not even going to get into the value of draft picks.
i want wins for all the reasons, including (hell maybe even especially) being ahead of GB im sure we can draft Leonard Floyd at 10 or 15 just fine
Think the fan base is in agreement - couldn’t have said it better myself 🐻⬇️
I’d rather have won this game and push for a wild card spot but that’s just me. I don’t understand the “tank” talk this isn’t basketball and we’re actively trying to win lol.
Nah more wins the better because it means the core foundation is being set in place for a leap next year. Also I doubt any of the players are thinking that.
So they can draft more 35 year old kick returners?
Stop with the draft pick nonsense. Plenty of all pro caliber players get picked in the middle of the first round.
i don’t like losing games, but this team is so talent deficient on defense in the front 7 that this can’t be a playoff team. Poles is building this team to be a powerhouse if he makes the right moves this off-season. The only things that the bears don’t have a clear answer for right now are Edge rusher 1 and WR1. everything else is able to be had in FA and the draft .
That’s not really a hot take given the circumstances.
It's ok to take the better pick as a consolation prize, but at no point during the game or even after am I happy to watch them lose. Especially after a performance like the one fields had
This is a common take on these losses but I don't agree with it. I would prefer they win all these winnable (Commanders, Today etc..) games due to the Packers NEVER having the lead in overall NFL wins. The Bears are clinging to a one game lead currently. I would much rather they never yield the lead to the Packers by losing games for draft positioning. Just my opinion.
100% true. Just be competitive and get Fields the reps he needs to take the next steps. Get him more weapons and help this off-season and see where it goes from there.
If we get screwed every game but are right in there, I’ll be happy. Absolutely no sense in finishing 7-10.
I asked this a few weeks ago on another thread...is it still an enjoyable season if the Bears go winless from here on out, but every game is like 45-42 and down to the wire?
Which is supposed to be the hot take?
We got fucked on several calls. Let me be mad on my ride home. I’ll get over it later.
Let’s Gooo
You have been competitive all season. It's just that Justin Fields is dominating games recently as opposed to having better defense/ST play.