NFC North 2025

[El Guapo]

We always are. It is part of our history. Generally, in GB, a blister or hang nail will get you on the report.

Jayden Reed and Micah Parsons were on the injury report heading into Week 1.

 

[milani]

Jayden Reed and Micah Parsons were on the injury report heading into Week 1.

And they will be on it right through the bye and then some.
One of the biggest laughs I had about 20 plus years ago was that the Vikings put their coach, Mike Tice, on the injury report because some back getting run out of bounds undercut him on the sideline. Tice had to read the injuries on Wednesday which included himself. And he stated that Mike Tice will be a full participant this week although he will be on crutches.

 

[rmontro]

So much like the Bears of 2023. However, as much as the Bears could have won the game, victories are almost impossible when you commit 12 penalties for 127 yards.

I was wondering what our resident Bear fan has to say. Caleb Williams looked pretty good, until he didn't. Both defenses looked good, although I was more impressed with ours. I love it when the Packers have a great defense, it's such a rare thing anymore.

 

[milani]

I was wondering what our resident Bear fan has to say. Caleb Williams looked pretty good, until he didn't. Both defenses looked good, although I was more impressed with ours. I love it when the Packers have a great defense, it's such a rare thing anymore.

In this sport never show hubris when the fickle finger of fate strikes your opponent or your rival. What goes around can come around. Lombardi said that real victory came from rising from defeat. Who knows better than the 1967 Cowboys who were not able to stop Starr and Co. in those last 68 yards to lose with 13 seconds to go in the Ice Bowl?

 

[El Guapo]

What always still amazes me about that drive, was that after watching the Packers struggle all game to find footing on that frozen tundra, they amazingly were able to keep their balance for one drive that sealed victory.

 

[Zad Fnark]

My Dad was there with his dad back then. Grandpa brought a bottle of schnapps along to keep them warm.

He said there were ladies there in their evening dresses who must have completely frozen to death.

My Grandpa grew up in Green Bay and hung around as a kid with the earliest Packer teams when they were getting started. I know he had season tickets for much of his life.

We even have St Bart's autograph. It says "Thanks for helping Rawhide".

 

[Thirteen Below]

I was wondering what our resident Bear fan has to say. Caleb Williams looked pretty good, until he didn't.

That's a nice summary of Caleb Williams.

I thought Williams looked a lot like... well... Caleb Williams. It's just hard to know which way this guy is gonna go longterm. He's got the arm, and there are a lot of times where it looks like he has the head to operate that arm, but there are times where his "processing" just seems to get stuck - like there's a scratch in the record.

I know it's only his 2nd season, and in fairness, while I think most of us feel like Love is going to establish himself this season as a Top 5 or 6 QB, this is his 5th year in the NFL. If it takes Williams a couple years to develop, it's not outside the curve. God knows he didn't get much guidance or useful tutelage last season. I worry about what Johnson can do with this kid, if he has a couple of years to work with him.

Edit: Johnson was absolutely the last guy in the world I wanted to see go to Chicago. My heart just sank when that news became official.

 

[OldSchool101]

That's a nice summary of Caleb Williams.

I thought Williams looked a lot like... well... Caleb Williams. It's just hard to know which way this guy is gonna go longterm. He's got the arm, and there are a lot of times where it looks like he has the head to operate that arm, but there are times where his "processing" just seems to get stuck - like there's a scratch in the record.

I know it's only his 2nd season, and in fairness, while I think most of us feel like Love is going to establish himself this season as a Top 5 or 6 QB, this is his 5th year in the NFL. If it takes Williams a couple years to develop, it's not outside the curve. God knows he didn't get much guidance or useful tutelage last season. I worry about what Johnson can do with this kid, if he has a couple of years to work with him.

Found the scratch in his record comment funny. Great analogy Thank you !

Just when the party is getting started and you’re going in for the smooch on this hot girl? The record starts skipping and it’s playing Chicago!

 

[Magooch]

I like Caleb - he seems like a nice kid, and I feel like a lot of the criticisms against him are a little out of line sometimes, stuff that is more "personal" or just petty and less actually about football. But that being said, there are some pretty valid criticisms to his game too, and personally if I'm a Bears fan I would've found Monday's game to be very, VERY discouraging honestly.

CW looked really good in the opening drive. But we have seen similar before: he does GREAT when it's all the scripted and rehearsed plays that they've been practicing all week long. But these are the plays where it's almost always designed to be first read, scheme a guy open and hit the easy yards. Caleb is a reasonably good first read QB so it's not surprising to see him do well in these scenarios.

The trouble is that as of yet we have very little to suggest he is anything *beyond* a one-read QB. You don't really see him going through his progressions and for a guy who has previously claimed that the game never makes him anxious or nervous...that's not what his on-the-field mannerisms say. He starts to get happy feet reeeeeal fast and while he doesn't always just bail out of the play and tuck and run, he does get pretty clearly "rattled" and taken out of rhythm. Often times his internal game-clock just seems really out of whack - sometimes he's going too fast on plays that need more time to develop, and then other times he's not processing quick enough and ends up being late to recognize his windows and/or late to actually make the throw

And last year we saw a lot of comments suggesting that Caleb was being held back by Eberflus and "the system" and that we couldn't really grade him accurately because Flus just wasn't getting him open looks and just wasn't doing him any favors. Well, the trouble is that...Ben Johnson HAD plenty of guys open all night long...and CW either didn't see them at all, or just flat-out missed on those throws. You had guys running with 7 yards of green around them and they either don't get noticed or the ball isn't even catchable. It's not a matter of pass protection (he's getting clean pockets), it's not a matter of bad playcalling or guys not being open, he's just not making it happen.

Obviously the sample size is not huge still, but he is 18 games into his NFL career and still has not proven that he can throw a consistently catchable ball to a *wide open* receiver. I'm not talking about "throwing guys open" or squeezing it into tight windows. Not guys who are "NFL open," but guys who have nothing but space around them. Everyone misses some of these throws from time to time but it feels like Caleb misses a half dozen of these every week. If he just hit the wide open guys on Monday he probably is pushing 400 passing yards lol. That's a screaming red flag to me. Accuracy is a HUGE issue at every level. Short throws aren't crisp, intermediate throws are a guessing game, and deep throws are legitimately at a "worst-in-NFL-history" level.

Some of that can be fixed, but some of these are also issues that date all the way back to college, some are new bad habits developed last season...Now Johnson has to try and "fix" these issues - that his predecessor could not (and that his predecessor contributed to) - stuff that is fairly fundamental/basic things AND is trying to install his new offense around this QB...and has a terrible run game. I would not be too optimistic at all right now if I were in Chicago.

 

[tynimiller]

I like Caleb - he seems like a nice kid, and I feel like a lot of the criticisms against him are a little out of line sometimes, stuff that is more "personal" or just petty and less actually about football. But that being said, there are some pretty valid criticisms to his game too, and personally if I'm a Bears fan I would've found Monday's game to be very, VERY discouraging honestly.

CW looked really good in the opening drive. But we have seen similar before: he does GREAT when it's all the scripted and rehearsed plays that they've been practicing all week long. But these are the plays where it's almost always designed to be first read, scheme a guy open and hit the easy yards. Caleb is a reasonably good first read QB so it's not surprising to see him do well in these scenarios.

The trouble is that as of yet we have very little to suggest he is anything *beyond* a one-read QB. You don't really see him going through his progressions and for a guy who has previously claimed that the game never makes him anxious or nervous...that's not what his on-the-field mannerisms say. He starts to get happy feet reeeeeal fast and while he doesn't always just bail out of the play and tuck and run, he does get pretty clearly "rattled" and taken out of rhythm. Often times his internal game-clock just seems really out of whack - sometimes he's going too fast on plays that need more time to develop, and then other times he's not processing quick enough and ends up being late to recognize his windows and/or late to actually make the throw

And last year we saw a lot of comments suggesting that Caleb was being held back by Eberflus and "the system" and that we couldn't really grade him accurately because Flus just wasn't getting him open looks and just wasn't doing him any favors. Well, the trouble is that...Ben Johnson HAD plenty of guys open all night long...and CW either didn't see them at all, or just flat-out missed on those throws. You had guys running with 7 yards of green around them and they either don't get noticed or the ball isn't even catchable. It's not a matter of pass protection (he's getting clean pockets), it's not a matter of bad playcalling or guys not being open, he's just not making it happen.

Obviously the sample size is not huge still, but he is 18 games into his NFL career and still has not proven that he can throw a consistently catchable ball to a *wide open* receiver. I'm not talking about "throwing guys open" or squeezing it into tight windows. Not guys who are "NFL open," but guys who have nothing but space around them. Everyone misses some of these throws from time to time but it feels like Caleb misses a half dozen of these every week. If he just hit the wide open guys on Monday he probably is pushing 400 passing yards lol. That's a screaming red flag to me. Accuracy is a HUGE issue at every level. Short throws aren't crisp, intermediate throws are a guessing game, and deep throws are legitimately at a "worst-in-NFL-history" level.

Some of that can be fixed, but some of these are also issues that date all the way back to college, some are new bad habits developed last season...Now Johnson has to try and "fix" these issues - that his predecessor could not (and that his predecessor contributed to) - stuff that is fairly fundamental/basic things AND is trying to install his new offense around this QB...and has a terrible run game. I would not be too optimistic at all right now if I were in Chicago.

Can you describe what actions you've seen him and behaviors which drive the opinion of a nice kid? Genuine curious.

 

[OldSchool101]

Can you describe what actions you've seen him and behaviors which drive the opinion of a nice kid? Genuine curious.

I swear I saw a video of Caleb where’s going off all disrespectful and highly arrogant. Something to do with blaming the coaching Staff (possibly after last year) At first I thought it might be a fabricated AI video? If it was real I’d be worried as a bears fan.

 

[Magooch]

Can you describe what actions you've seen him and behaviors which drive the opinion of a nice kid? Genuine curious.

I appreciate that he is really involved in mental health advocacy. His "Caleb Cares" foundation is big on anti-bullying and raising awareness/connecting youth to mental health resources. A lot of people clown on him for his painted nails but I thought the 988 (suicide/crisis hotline) on his nails was a nice gesture (he has done it before this week too). He has been doing stuff like that since high school too, so I respect that... the cynical part of me sometimes sees pros get involved in stuff like that *after* they're famous and it feels like they're just doing it for appearances or something. To do that *before* you're really well-known and keep it up makes it seem more sincere (to me, at least)

I do think he is kind of cocky at times, and seems to generally be a bit "flashy." He is certainly more "fashion forward" than I would personally dress and I won't be painting my nails any time soon but I'm not bothered by much of that. At the end of the day I think he is just a talented kid (he is just 23 after all) who has a lot of fun playing football... who also happens to like posting on social media and being into fashion and whatnot but is also not just using his platform for himself.

There was a lot of pre-draft chatter about "diva tendencies" or concerns about maturity and him being "too big for his britches" but in general I don't think there were any serious character concerns and since arriving in Chicago he's been a total class act for them...by all accounts he's a hard worker, he's a good leader, and he takes accountability for his own shortcomings. TBH, not wanting to make it into a big thing but I think most folks complaints with him stem from the fact that they don't jibe with his personality and think that he does things that aren't "traditionally masculine." He doesn't really fit the stereotypical image of "pro football player" that a lot of people have IMO

But, like I said I have serious concerns about his ability to be a top NFL QB at this point...but from what I can tell from the outside he seems like a perfectly decent kid lol

 

[tynimiller]

I never cared if he pained his nails….but for a dude with an anti bullying claim mindset….the messages he put on those nails made him hypocritical in a big way.

I don’t think he’s a bad guy…but I’ve never got the “high morale compass” feeling myself.

Appreciate the well thought out response that wasn’t just a quick “I just do”

 

[OldSchool101]

Oh my Gosh Detroit has 450 yards of Offense against Chicago with a Quarter to play.

 

[milani]

Oh my Gosh Detroit has 450 yards of Offense against Chicago with a Quarter to play.

Burrows went down for Cincy in the first half. Browning at QB. Wonder if he will be OK to face us in 4 weeks?

 

[pacmaniac]

Bears fans are already declaring their season is over.

 

[rmontro]

Oh my Gosh Detroit has 450 yards of Offense against Chicago with a Quarter to play.

I had a feeling Detroit would beat down Chicago badly today, because they would be so ticked off after what happened last Sunday. The Bears put up a good fight for awhile, but just couldn't keep up.

 

[weeds]

Burrows went down for Cincy in the first half. Browning at QB. Wonder if he will be OK to face us in 4 weeks?

A toe?

 

[weeds]

I had a feeling Detroit would beat down Chicago badly today, because they would be so ticked off after what happened last Sunday. The Bears put up a good fight for awhile, but just couldn't keep up.

It was actually kind painful to watch.

 

[OldSchool101]

Alright. Need Atlanta to show up tonight!

 

[Zad Fnark]

Alright. Need Atlanta to show up tonight!

They sorta are.

 

[rmontro]

It was actually kind painful to watch.

Not if you change the channel.

 

[rmontro]

A toe?

I think I heard two weeks. Those can be nagging though.

 

[milani]

A toe?

Had Burrows been able to stay in the Bengals may have won.

 

[OldSchool101]

I had a feeling Detroit would beat down Chicago badly today, because they would be so ticked off after what happened last Sunday. The Bears put up a good fight for awhile, but just couldn't keep up.

The only thing I’ll say is GB held Detroit to 247 yards and 3.8 yards per and 18 points. With 8pts coming in garbage time.

Chicago allowed 511 yards and 8.8 yards per and 52 Points.

Now granted we (GB) had a home game and caught Detroit Week 1. However it speaks to the strength of GB’s Defense. It is another sign that points to GB didn’t play a slouch Week1.