Welcome into First and Final Thoughts, one of our weekly columns with a title that's a little too on the nose. Here we'll have Insider J.J Stankevitz and Producers Cam Ellis and Paul Aspan give some insight into what's on their minds between games.
Final Thought on Week 13
Paul Aspan: That one felt off from the very start. But on the bright side, the once mighty Packers are the ones going thru the once all too familiar coaching turmoil routine, and the rest of the division held serve in losing fashion. A pick 6, a trick play TD, and a questionable time out decision was just slightly too much for the Bears to overcome, though the comeback effort was certainly characteristic of a playoff contender.
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Cam Ellis: Most every NFL team is good for at least one dud loss per season, and the they-don't-quit reputation is about as reassuring as silver linings come. Still, all week we heard that the Bears could walk into New Jersey with Chase Daniel and that defense and walk out with a win, and they didn't. And minus a late-season collapse from either of the NFC's best two teams, the Bears' stumble probably cost them any shot at playing for a first-round bye. The Bears are still very much a team that can be confident favorites heading into a home playoff game, but Sunday's loss illustrated just how important every win/loss has the potential to be in a 16-game season.
First Thought on Week 14
Aspan: Aaron Donald vs rookie James Daniels and the rest of the Bears interior O-Line. The Giants got a lot of pressure up the middle , and while the Bears will obviously help on Donald, that’ll leave opportunities for the rest of the Rams pass rushers. That matchup aside, We’ll know just about everything we need to know about the Bears after Sunday.
- Scenario 1: They shock the world. If that happens, nothing else I write here will matter, and I’ll just see you all in Atlanta.
- Scenario 2: and IMO mostly likely. They hang with the Rams, keep it close but the LA offense is eventually too much to keep up with and the Rams pull away in the second half. This basically reinforces what I think most reasonable people assume. The Bears are a good football team but a tier below the Rams, Saints & Chiefs of the world.
- Scenario 3: They get blown out. It would be silly to overreact to one game, but it would depend how it plays out. The only thing I would be worried about is that this is the 2012 Houston Texans 2.0. That Texans team, built on a stout defense and eventual defensive player of the year in JJ Watt, won a matchup of 7-1 teams against the Bears that November. That sent the Bears spiraling and ended the Lovie era. The eventual 12-4 Texans meanwhile got blown out by an elite team- the Patriots - later that season and again in the playoffs because their offense couldn’t keep up and they were a clear tier below. So like I said, my $ is on scenario #2 - which every Bears fan would have run to the window to sign up for at the beginning of the season.
Ellis: The Rams are soul-crushing machine and Sean McVay's offense is the most difficult the Bears will see all season. With that out of the way: there are a whole bunch NFL tropes that are still taken too seriously, and the one that I refuse to give up on is the idea that warm weather teams always play a little worse in rough conditions. With gametime temperatures going to be in the mid-20s, and that lakefront wint blowing around, the under all of a sudden doesn't seem so ridiculous. I think the Rams are still good for 25-28 points, but I think the Bears are too. Also, realistically, a win on Sunday does more for Chicago than it does LA, who already clinched the division last weekend . The point I'm trying to make is that there's a lot of reasons to believe in a Bears upset on Sunday night. I don't think I necessairly do, but the signs are there.
