2025-26 PLAYOFF CHATTER

[OldSchool101]

Well. The Rams are now figuring out why you don’t go conservative on Chicago. They needed 2 first downs to end the game. They got 1

Then they did EXACTLY what Chicago has overcame all year. Tried not to lose instead of trying for the first down.

OVERTIME

 

[OldSchool101]

4th Q comebacks are fun as heck for the audience, but they are not a sustainable football plan for Chicago. At some point in a career you have to take the lead and build on it. If the playoffs were 2 games you might might get lucky twice. However you face increased levels of competition with each Win and it takes 4 straight 4th Q comebacks and that ain’t happening.

Great year by Chicago they over accomplished what almost anyone thought they might. I had them at 9-8 and a possible Wildcard problem team and I was wrong. They did Win the Division, but I’d call them a weaker Division Winner level team as our Division struggled mightily in 2024.

Chicago has themselves a QB though. That said this game is about 33 starters and their rotational help. That means you pay 53+ players. They are 2 years into a 4yr Window. The Window is wide open and Matt LaFleur had better be thinking about closing their window and not smashing his fingers in the Sill again in the process.

 

[Firethorn1001]

Rams should have tried for a 1st down on that 3rd and 10. pass it. Get a 1st and end the game. Johnson should have took and opportunity for a FG early. My wife said watching the Rams playcalling was like watching the Packers.

 

[ExpatPacker]

For some inexplicable reason the Rams' DB ran away from the Bears receiver when Caleb threw it on that last play in regulation, leaving him wide open in the end zone. All he needed to do was stick on him and there would have been no TD.

Gotta hand it to the Bears though. They almost pulled off another miracle.

 

[Packphin]

And Caleb Williams' luck finally runs out.
Take nothing away from the Bear, they had a great season and they likely have some staying power with Caleb.
Oh and F Ben Johnson and F Da Bears!

 

[OldSchool101]

For some inexplicable reason the Rams' DB ran away from the Bears receiver when Caleb threw it on that last play in regulation, leaving him wide open in the end zone. All he needed to do was stick on him and there would have been no TD.

Gotta hand it to the Bears though. They almost pulled off another miracle.

I know. I thought the same thing.

The game was very reminiscent of when we played them. Except Nixon INT that pass if you recall? 28-21 Packers Week 14

Then it also had elements of our Week 16 contest also. Lower scoring 17-17 Tied. The Bears miracle TD to force OT

 

[pacmaniac]

Who did the choke better? Matt LaFleur or Caleb Williams?

 

[milani]

Well. The Rams are now figuring out why you don’t go conservative on Chicago. They needed 2 first downs to end the game. They got 1

Then they did EXACTLY what Chicago has overcame all year. Tried not to lose instead of trying for the first down.

OVERTIME

No excuse for letting Williams throw a desperation floating Hail Mary from 40 yards away. Secondary fell asleep. At least the Packers would have made him throw a strike down the middle from scrimmage.

 

[OldSchool101]

Who did the choke better? Matt LaFleur or Caleb Williams?

haha. Ummm

They choked and passed out knocking over an antique coffee table

Matt choked and threw up blood on the Sofa.

Pretty tough choice !

 

[scooter_1954]

For some inexplicable reason the Rams' DB ran away from the Bears receiver when Caleb threw it on that last play in regulation, leaving him wide open in the end zone. All he needed to do was stick on him and there would have been no TD.

Gotta hand it to the Bears though. They almost pulled off another miracle.

I didn't think he ran away. Watching the replay, I thought Kmet, a MUCH larger man, shoved him away. I thought it should have been offensive PI. But PI seems to be whatever and whenever the refs desire it, these days.
Nothing with a shred of consistency. Another example. On the pass, prior to the winning FG, to the Rams receiver at the pylon, the DB was all over the receiver and never even glanced back. The lack of a PI call mystified me.

 

[milani]

I didn't think he ran away. Watching the replay, I thought Kmet, a MUCH larger man, shoved him away. I thought it should have been offensive PI. But PI seems to be whatever and whenever the refs desire it, these days.
Nothing with a shred of consistency. Another example. On the pass, prior to the winning FG, to the Rams receiver at the pylon, the DB was all over the receiver and never even glanced back. The lack of a PI call mystified me.

Do not think they want to call it and decide the game unless it is obviously obvious. Like in the Bronco game yesterday. Nevertheless, I thought the Rams secondary softened when they saw Caleb not only get driven back but turned around backwards. No one thought he could desperately throw a 40 yard rainbow like Rodgers. Even if he pushes you, Kmet was like 5-7 yards away with a pass floating like a left field fly ball.

 

[rmontro]

Do not think they want to call it and decide the game unless it is obviously obvious.

Seems like there have been very few pass interference calls in the playoffs this year. I guess they're "letting them play".

I thought the Rams were surprisingly conservative when they were getting close to the two minute warning. They seemed to decide to burn clock by running the ball and letting their defense decide the game. A first down or two would have done the trick though.

I thought it was strange that the two DBs were so far off the receiver on Caleb's miracle play, but I didn't know the one had been shoved. It looked to me at the time like they had given up trying to cover because they thought they was no way Williams would get the ball off.

 

[OldSchool101]

I didn't think he ran away. Watching the replay, I thought Kmet, a MUCH larger man, shoved him away. I thought it should have been offensive PI. But PI seems to be whatever and whenever the refs desire it, these days.
Nothing with a shred of consistency. Another example. On the pass, prior to the winning FG, to the Rams receiver at the pylon, the DB was all over the receiver and never even glanced back. The lack of a PI call mystified me.

The difference between a Receiver pushing off and hand fighting is a fine line. What I noticed about this particular play was Kmet was hand fighting the DB. Just before he broke away he was using a straight arm to keep separation and that’s completely allowed. Similar to how a DB can actually slightly hook a Receivers arm as long as the don’t use their fingers to clasp on the arm or full hook them into a hold maneuver. Both can touch one another though that’s not a foul. ESPECIALLY come playoffs where officials traditionally tend to let them play a little bit more.

Push off isnt the same as a stiff arm that’s held for 1.5 seconds. It has to be a blatant push off and If you look Kmet never extended his arm in the act of separating. It was already extended during the hand fighting
This was really not even close imo and was a good no call and football platers are going to hand fight for positioning. That DB has every opportunity to follow Kmet and Kmet has every right to hold an extended straight arm to mitigate the hand fighting.

Not sure what distracted the DB but imo he underestimated Caleb’s arm strength as he was clear back beyond the 35 yard line falling backwards. Probably 3-4 QB’s in the league have the arm strength to make that throw. The DB gave up on his rep 1 second too early or he couldve interfered with that throw. I’m not a Bears fan and in particular I’m not a Cole Kmet fan especially. This was as clean a football play as you can get and probably a Top 10 best plays of 2025

We either learn to stop giving up on plays before the whistle or we can expect dozens more disappointing finishes. It was actually similar to Week 14 Nixon but Keisean didn’t give up. He’s got that scrappy finisher feel.

 

[milani]

Seems like there have been very few pass interference calls in the playoffs this year. I guess they're "letting them play".

I thought the Rams were surprisingly conservative when they were getting close to the two minute warning. They seemed to decide to burn clock by running the ball and letting their defense decide the game. A first down or two would have done the trick though.

I thought it was strange that the two DBs were so far off the receiver on Caleb's miracle play, but I didn't know the one had been shoved. It looked to me at the time like they had given up trying to cover because they thought they was no way Williams would get the ball off.

Exactly my sentiment. Williams did get a first down on that Ram drive. But in getting the first down he was bumped out of bounds. If he could have stayed in bounds the Bears would have used another timeout and had none on the last drive. I thought with 2:07 left the Rams might throw since the 2 minute warning would hit. A first down and it is over. MLF chose not to play it safe in Detroit and the pass connected and won the game.
Had the Rams lost it would have been a long winter for them.

 

[rmontro]

I thought with 2:07 left the Rams might throw since the 2 minute warning would hit. A first down and it is over. MLF chose not to play it safe in Detroit and the pass connected and won the game.
Had the Rams lost it would have been a long winter for them.

Yeah, it seemed like they were playing not to lose. I guess they actually believed in their defense, but it nearly cost them.

 

[ExpatPacker]

Yeah, it seemed like they were playing not to lose, and it cost them. I guess they actually believed in their defense, but it nearly cost them.

After this year I would like to think that nobody will play conservative like this against the Bears again. Especially the Packers. Given the sh** coming out of Ben Johnson's mouth and the taunting from Bears players after they beat us, I'm betting the Packers will want to kill them for 60 minutes straight every chance they get from now on.

 

[Magooch]

I've been saying all season long that the Bears remind me of last season's Vikings. A lot of things happening that just aren't super sustainable long-term. You would probably expect to see some regression overall. I said it a week or two ago - In some ways I'd expect them to play better football overall next season but probably come away with a worse record still.


I also can't help but to think back a couple of seasons ago to when we had just upset Dallas in the playoffs and ended up losing a winnable game vs SF. Tough loss, but there were a lot of folks who would say that we were "ahead of schedule" and our arrow was pointing up and we'd come back the next season stronger and be more "tested" and ready to go even further.

That was...half true. We ended up better in the regular season, but eliminated sooner in the postseason. As they say, sometimes "NFL" stands for "Not For Long". It's easy to look at a team who appears "ahead of schedule" and assume that they'll be presented with the same or similar opportunities in the next season and find a way to get better results. The reality is that it's almost never that clean; whether "on schedule" or "ahead" of it, you have to take advantage of every opportunity that is presented to you. I don't think the league cares much about your schedule and it's far, FAR from guaranteed that those same opportunities will be available next year. We saw that ourselves firsthand!

 

[rmontro]

After this year I would like to think that nobody will play conservative like this against the Bears again. Especially the Packers. Given the sh** coming out of Ben Johnson's mouth and the taunting from Bears players after they beat us, I'm betting the Packers will want to kill them for 60 minutes straight every chance they get from now on.

I might believe that, except they didn't learn their lesson the first time.

 

[milani]

Yeah, it seemed like they were playing not to lose. I guess they actually believed in their defense, but it nearly cost them.

In our case we could not believe in our defense. Especially without Parsons and Wyatt. The Rams stopped the Bears on several 4th downs. Did not on others. But overall their D was better than the Packers D. They were in the Bears backfield. And held the Bears to 17 points and should have been just 10.
My other take is that Mevis made his kicks. McManus did not.

 

[scooter_1954]

The difference between a Receiver pushing off and hand fighting is a fine line. What I noticed about this particular play was Kmet was hand fighting the DB. Just before he broke away he was using a straight arm to keep separation and that’s completely allowed. Similar to how a DB can actually slightly hook a Receivers arm as long as the don’t use their fingers to clasp on the arm or full hook them into a hold maneuver. Both can touch one another though that’s not a foul. ESPECIALLY come playoffs where officials traditionally tend to let them play a little bit more.

Push off isnt the same as a stiff arm

You make some fair points, but I still disagree. Probably your BEST point is, the difference is very fine.

But I'll tell you this. I'm from Northern Illinois originally, my brother and lifelong friends are all Bears fans, and THEY saw Kmet pushoff, just as I did. But, I was a collegiate ref in another sport, and I'll admit, you can only call what YOU see, in that split second interaction. In the end, pushoff or not, it didn't matter.

 

[scooter_1954]

I've been saying all season long that the Bears remind me of last season's Vikings. A lot of things happening that just aren't super sustainable long-term.

I could not agree more. They NEARLY had 8 come from behind wins this season. That is not a sustainable formula for long term success.

But I will say, they're better than I believed they were. They seem to have a mental toughness, and belief in themselves, that we sorely lack.

 

[Magooch]

I was talking with some buddies about this topic earlier today. Just a little anecdote on how high-variance turnovers can be:

Last season, Xavier McKinney finished with 8 INT. As a team, we had 23 INT.
This season, our whole team combined for 7 INT.

Last season, S Kevin Byard had 1 INT, and CB Nashon Wright had 1 INT in the last 4 seasons combined.
On the whole, the Bears had 11 INT.
This season, Byard led the league with 7 INT and Wright had 5 INT. The Bears as a team had 23 INT this season.

Right now their defense is EXTREMELY turnover-dependent, too. In both EPA and DVOA they are bad-to-mediocre defensively. They are also amongst the worst teams in the league in pressure rate, and consistently were gashed in the run game. If those turnover numbers regress at all, I'd expect that defense to struggle.

And on top of that they have limited room to work defensively. Last year the majority of resources were dedicated to the offense and supporting Caleb (which is fine) but they don't have a ton of flexibility on defense now. And with regards to turnovers - Byard is a FA. Brisker is a FA. (They have no safeties under contract next year currently IIRC) Wright is a FA. Jaylon Johnson has been great in the past but lately has been hurt a ton and hasn't played well much of this season.

Don't get me wrong. As a fan of the game, neutrally, they're a fun team to watch. And of course I'm not 100% objective. But I think Chicago fans may find that the idea of a "open window" is often more theoretical than reality-based and will be disappointed when they don't observe linear progress onwards and upwards next season.

 

[scooter_1954]

I was talking with some buddies about this topic earlier today. Just a little anecdote on how high-variance turnovers can be:

Last season, Xavier McKinney finished with 8 INT. As a team, we had 23 INT.
This season, our whole team combined for 7 INT.

Last season, S Kevin Byard had 1 INT, and CB Nashon Wright had 1 INT in the last 4 seasons combined.
On the whole, the Bears had 11 INT.
This season, Byard led the league with 7 INT and Wright had 5 INT. The Bears as a team had 23 INT this season.

Right now their defense is EXTREMELY turnover-dependent, too. In both EPA and DVOA they are bad-to-mediocre defensively. They are also amongst the worst teams in the league in pressure rate, and consistently were gashed in the run game. If those turnover numbers regress at all, I'd expect that defense to struggle.

And on top of that they have limited room to work defensively. Last year the majority of resources were dedicated to the offense and supporting Caleb (which is fine) but they don't have a ton of flexibility on defense now. And with regards to turnovers - Byard is a FA. Brisker is a FA. (They have no safeties under contract next year currently IIRC) Wright is a FA. Jaylon Johnson has been great in the past but lately has been hurt a ton and hasn't played well much of this season.

Don't get me wrong. As a fan of the game, neutrally, they're a fun team to watch. And of course I'm not 100% objective. But I think Chicago fans may find that the idea of a "open window" is often more theoretical than reality-based and will be disappointed when they don't observe linear progress onwards and upwards next season.

Great points! Was watching "Get Up" this morning, and Rex Reed was making largely the same observations about turnovers, last minute success. Williams was interviewed and talked about "things to come".

All I could think about was Dan Marino's only trip to the Super Bowl, and the prospect of "things to come"! I believe the Bears captured lightning in a bottle this year, and don't realize it yet.

 

[Magooch]

By the rule of the law I think it was absolutely 100% clear cut offensive PI. Any action that hinders the defender's ability to catch the ball, pushing off to create separation, or blocking downfield while the ball is in play are all easy PI criteria. Kmet is "engaged" with Durant while the ball is in the air and extends his arms to make space to make a play on the ball. By the book that's for sure PI.

BUT you're never gonna get that sort of call. The refs are always going to swallow the whistle in these situations. It's the playoffs, it's the 4th quarter, the game is on the line, AND it's Chicago with the ball IN Chicago. For all intents and purposes it's a Hail Mary situation and there's both OPI and DPI on every single Hail Mary play ever lol. Can you imagine the outrage if they HAD called OPI there? By the book it's PI (and if it happened at midfield in the 2nd quarter you'd expect it to be called every time) but ultimately the NFL values entertainment and "moments" more than 100% precise application of the rules every time

 

[scooter_1954]

Hey Magooch, I cannot argue your points. You're spot on. I also believe the refs are "shading" calls to keep games tight. I think the league knows we see it, but will supply "analysts" to tell us we didn't see what we CLEARLY saw, or tell us our understanding of the rules is not sophisticated enough to grasp the situation. I don't think they care if we're distressed, as long as we're watching and discussing their officiating garbage.

One other quick point, as I said, I was a Div 1 collegiate ref, and a high school ref in 2 sports. I ALWAYS hated that "swallow their whistle" crap! If it's a foul in the first 2 minutes, it's a foul in the last 2 minutes. The argument is, don't determine the outcome, but by permitting fouls, YOU'RE INFLUENCING THE OUTCOME!