Still Gotta Come Through Chicago

London Bound, Toward the Light

Happy Friday Chicago!

I’ve mentioned this before in the newsletter. Back in the day, the only thing I ever walked in on my dad doing was him crying about Abraham Lincoln dying at the end of a non-fiction book.

Did he not see it coming?

At that point in my life, I think I would have rather walked in on him with a dimwit mistress or a syringe full of heroin. Abraham Lincoln is dead, Dad, pretty famously.

But as I’ve tried to diversify my interests, I find myself devastated on a Tuesday night over — spoiler alert! — Teddy Roosevelt’s first wife dying at 22.

So then I turn to back to old faithful, and try to fall asleep to a sports podcast before bed.

But instead of the voices in my headphones successfully replacing the voices in my head, delivering me into slumber, the podcast host mentions potential NFC playoff teams, and leaves the Bears off his list.

So now Alice Lee Roosevelt’s 150-year-old bitter death is on my mind, and so is this jagoff overlooking the same Bears team I was overlooking three weeks ago.

Time to count sheep.

Sorry I’m going to go off camera for this morning meeting, team, a podcast I listen to while I try to fall asleep didn’t mention the Bears as a playoff team. My blood pressure spiked and I hardly slept.

Cheryl, can you run this meeting? Hope your house is OK after that hurricane. I guess it is neither of our days.

I ain’t got much, but the little I do have right now is this Bears ascent.

I’m watching playoff baseball and dreaming of the years where I had a stake in it, those years nearing a decade ago now, and also wondering why national MLB broadcasts have become so unbearable.

The Bulls have a new TV network that I cannot watch, a new score bug on that TV network that covers up half of the live action (no, really), and wrinkled jerseys at their media day. They’re going to win 22 games.

The Blackhawks are off my radar, as I can only keep up with 82 games of one dreadful team during the winter. I forgot they kicked off the season the other night, and also forgot Utah now has a hockey team. 0-1.

Iowa has a bottom-five quarterback in college football for the fifth straight year, and I’m already coming up with plans to keep my future wife away from my bank account. She can’t know we’re on food stamps so that I can funnel all my savings to a new quarterback recruit each year.

The Cubs are at a breaking point, the Bulls are a surefire bore, and the presidential biography lifestyle is still too much for me. I’ve thought about going to concerts alone, but don’t want to deal with the wellness checks from loved ones that will come with that. Maybe I’ll start completing puzzles and putting the finished products on my Instagram, or become super active on a Neighborhood Watch online board.

For now, though, all my chips are in on the Bears. The Milano cookies taste like they’re triple-stacked on the Sunday nights they win, and like they’re single-stacked on the nights they lose. Have you ever eaten a sugar free Oreo on accident? That’s what the cookies taste like when the Bears fall short.

I ain’t too proud to beg, now.

I was singing Motown tunes to the Bears as they boarded their bus to the airport this week, unsuccessfully snapping my fingers to the beat.

Ain’t Too Proud To Beg seamlessly transitioned to How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You, and I screamed out This is The Marvin Gaye Version! in between verses to endear myself to the black players. The James Taylor version is only for white people weddings!

This one’s called All I Do Is Think Of You! I yelled as the remaining players boarded the bus.

Alright, I’ll come clean. I didn’t do that. But man I would have, if I thought it would give them a 1% greater chance of winning this week, and keeping the dream alive a few weeks longer.

It’s utter desperation here. On Saturday, I still live the life of a man without a quarterback. On Sunday, there’s an open door, leading to a beautiful and blinding light, with the silhouette of a quarterback.

It’s like Christmas with two sides of the family. On Saturday, I go to one side of the family, where we discuss current events and play board games with complex rules that are supposed to teach you a lesson. It feels like a mandatory company meeting.

The next day, I am greeted with booze and stories about how dumb everyone was when they were younger. It’s night and day, misery and bliss.

I can’t have the bliss taken away. The light taken away. Not now, not before January.

And Caleb Williams did say Michael Jordan was the best basketball player ever this week. Now, he would have been dumb not to say that — we’ve had plenty of dumb ones under center — but it still made me happy. A cherry on top of a victory week. Who cares? I do, dammit!

I don’t want to buy the right cable package to lock in on the Bulls young players’ “development.” I don’t want to do puzzles, and I don’t want to start having genuine opinions on U.S. history. Not yet.

For now, I want to keep following this Bears team. Wherever they go, I want to enjoy the ride. Each win keeps you from having to get off at the next stop, and I don’t want to get off. I can’t get off.

When Teddy Roosevelt’s dear Alice passed away from Bright’s Disease, his next diary entry had an X over the page, as well as “The light has gone out of my life.”

The Bears and Caleb Williams are my light. And I don’t want to send out an email this year with the subject line reading: X.

Let’s get into it.

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The greatest football orator of all time was back at it after another Chicago Bears win last Sunday.

A really good job with the all together, right? All together, awesome job, right? Complementary football, right? Offense, right? Defense, working together with special teams, right? And you saw what that can be.

Matt Eberflus, you’ve done it again! I’m definitely not sleeping tonight, either. BOOM!

It is true that, over the last two weeks, the Bears have played great complementary football, with all three phases getting the job done.

The caveat I’ve been hearing all week is that “it’s the Panthers.” The Panthers do suck, that is true. But I’ll stop you after that.

The vast majority of NFL games are close. Between good teams. Between good and average teams. Between average and bad teams. Between good and bad teams. There’s generally one line per week that is in the double digits, and the Bears were 3.5-point favorites last week.

The ability to blow out a team is as indicative of being a good team as beating another good team is. Or, rather, the ability to do both is indicative of a good team, not just one or the other. Blow outs are rare in the NFL.

I always hear about this early in the college football season. So and so hasn’t played anyone. Sure. They’ve also beaten Division 1 football teams by 50 every week.

When you watch Iowa struggle to surge past Troy in Week 3, then see Texas and Ohio State beat everyone by 50, it’s easier to decipher the tiers.

The tests will come, but last week was a test in itself. All the games matter.

That’s not at all to suggest that the Bears beating the Panthers easily means they should be catapulted in the power rankings, but seriously, who cares about subjective power rankings anyway?

They’ve won three of their first five, and have been on an upward trajectory through those first five games. With a rookie QB — on that same trajectory — that’s about all you can ask for.

And how can you beat a breezy win on a Sunday? The last three quarters felt effortless from a fan perspective, which is hard to come by. I think about the 2018 Tampa Bay game often, because those types of wins just feel like celebrations throughout. There’s nothing better.

I forgive Matt Eberflus for his mistakes in prior games, but I don’t forget. Those go on his permanent record. Likewise, Shane Waldron deserves credit for adjusting, but the fact that his adjustments had to be so drastic in the first place is a red flag. I haven’t forgotten my misgivings around Waldron, but I have forgiven him as we move forward.

I forgive my friend for accidentally ordering deep dish pie on Sunday, but I don’t forget.

If I can change, and you can change…

Waldron still decided to give Roschon Johnson one yard to accelerate on a fourth down play that went zero yards. He still is responsible for an offense that cannot move the ball when it should be easiest to — on the first drive of the game, when play calls are scripted. That’s when good offensive coordinators stand out.

First drive vs. Tennessee: 3 plays, 7 yards, punt

First drive vs. Houston: 11 plays, 42 yards, field goal

First drive vs. Indianapolis: 11 plays, 32 yards, missed 56-yard field goal

First drive vs. Los Angeles: 5 plays, 19 yards, punt

First drive vs. Carolina: 3 plays, -5 yards, punt

Outside of the first Houston drive, in which the Bears actually looked capable, the beginning of games have looked discombobulated offensively. The Indianapolis drive, though it led to a field goal try, did not inspire confidence.

This is a clear area where I’d like the Bears to improve. From a “complementary” football perspective, the Bears defense’s style is just so much more suited for games in which the Bears have the lead.

For one, that’s because there’s a “bend don’t break” element to it, which was on display in the Rams game. It’s a frustrating style for fans sometimes, sure, but it also works in the right situations.

And while a lot of the apprehension heading into the year was around the pass rush, that hasn’t been much of an issue. The Bears late offseason pick up, Darrell Taylor, has the 6th best edge rush win rate in the league, according to ESPN analytics. That’s ahead of the likes of Maxx Crosby, T.J. Watt, Nick Bosa, and Will Anderson Jr., though most of those guys have played more snaps than him.

The Bears weakest link defensively appears to be the run defense. Chuba Hubbard scored easily in what was the Panthers only score of the game, thankfully. But there have been similar long runs in almost every other Bears game, ones that have looked far too easy.

The defense is allowing over 120 rushing yards per game, which is bottom half in the league. But they were also bailed out Sunday by a large lead, which forced the Panthers to throw more.

That’s one area I would like to see the Bears improve at moving forward. Starting fast, on both sides of the ball. But especially during those scripted play situations on offense.

That, plus a few more pre-snap penalties, is about all you can quibble with after a 36-10 win.

Williams was 20/29 with 304 yards passing and two touchdowns. Don’t you understand? Don’t you get it? That just doesn’t happen in Chicago, and he’s now surpassed 300 yards passing twice.

His QBR has improved every game, and he had the best mark in the league last week.

He’s also fearless. My biggest concern — and likely our biggest concern — through two weeks was that the offensive line would ruin him. It has almost been the opposite. He seems emboldened by his experience, unafraid to stay in the pocket, unafraid to get hit.

D.J. Moore also said this week, tongue in cheek, that Williams has been a bit more “bossy” over the last couple of weeks. I love that.

There’s a tendency to compare one quarterback to another, but the on-field and off-field strides Williams seems to be taking this early are incomparable.

There’s been the evasion of sacks, but there’s also been more and more of those last-second throws that have paid off only because he hung around as long as he did.

He is feeling the offensive line out, and I think the offensive line is feeling him out. There’s more synchrony drive by drive.

Teven Jenkins has been sitting out with an ankle injury, which is not ideal. I like Jenkins, but it’s also becoming increasingly likely that he won’t get the deal he desires based on his inability to stay on the field.

On the bright side, Matt Pryor has fit the bill, and looks like he wants to keep a spot on the line. Bill Murray, who will likely fill in for Jenkins, was one of the “standout” guys in camp. Ryan Bates is returning from the IR soon. It will be interesting to see if the Bears find the right mix and match here.

Nate Davis, clearly, is the $30 million odd man out.

Jaquon Brisker is out on Sunday with a concussion, which leads me into one of my biggest contemporary sports pet peeves.

Anthony Richardson can’t be tackled in the backfield, we have to blow the whistle early. You can’t land on a quarterback, you can’t hip drop tackle. We can’t have normal kick offs, all in the name of “player safety.”

But then Brisker has a head-on collision with the Panthers tight end, his body goes limp, and he gets up slowly and clearly confused. He plays the rest of the game and then reports concussion symptoms the following day.

I’m fine with player safety, I’m not fine with performative player safety. We’re worried about all these negligible issues, but still can’t figure out how to get a guy out of the game who is clearly concussed.

Every week, I see a guy that I’m able to diagnose with a concussion from my couch play the rest of the game. Now that is dangerous.

We don’t need Will Smith and the concussion brigade back on our backs. I far prefer the Taylor Swift NFL discussions than the ones we had in 2015.

Now, on the football side, Jonathan Owens will fill in for Brisker. Owens is a more-than-capable back up. For what it’s worth, I thought he looked great in the preseason.

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The Jaguars are not a good team. The Bears were still 1-point underdogs in this game as of last Saturday, and are now slight 1.5-point favorites.

A few factors to consider:

— The Bears *seem to be* growing as an organization. From what I can tell, they’ve been doing all of the right things to get ready for a London game. They’ve been there all week, acclimating to the time zone. The Jaguars, who have an inherent advantage based on how often they play in England, had their trip delayed by Hurricane Milton. As you’re reading this, they’ll just be getting settled in. That’s a legitimate advantage for the Bears.

— The Jaguars are a solid rushing team. They average over 126 yards per game, and nearly six yards per carry.

— They’ve also allowed over 28 points per game, and 35 points per game over their last three.

— Particularly in this game, the Bears need to get ahead and stay ahead. Force them to rely on their passing game, force Trevor Lawrence to drop back, force the offensive line to hold up.

Similar to last week, the Bears can show everyone something this week. Are they clearly better than the league’s worst teams? The Jaguars are better and more talented than the Panthers, but they’re going nowhere. Are the Bears?

Based on the betting line, it appears that no one is sold yet. And I don’t think we are either.

If the Bears take care of business again this week, though, everything changes. Then you’re 4-2 heading into a bye week.

The gap between 3-3 heading into the bye — and the tougher part of the schedule — and 4-2 is astronomical. The Bears can, and should, get it done.

Just don’t do it to us, please. Don’t rain on our parade. Let’s ride into another Victory Monday.

The Bears need it. I need it. You need it.

And then we’ll get back to Chicago.

#BEARDOWN

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What do I always say? I can’t thank you enough for reading this newsletter. If you enjoy it, please do share with you friends and family — and tell them to subscribe at the top. Have a great weekend.

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