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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Magooch" data-source="post: 1080587" data-attributes="member: 17987">The bears are really an anomaly. Have they improved in some ways? Yeah, sure. Have they improved to the degree that their record suggests? Not a chance. In spite of their great turnover margin their defense is still a bottom-third one and their offense is at best middle-of-the-pack. If I showed a random neutral observer a random sampling 100 plays from this season and 100 plays from last season I doubt many would be able to A. Discern which came from which season (beyond obvious factors like unique opponents, time/weather, that sort of thing. Just speaking on quality of play) and B. point to any appreciable difference or noticeable improvement with any consistency. Interestingly if you look at per play EPA, while their offense has improved in a noticeable way, they have also seen a significant decline defensively. So it’s kind of a wash in some ways.They have also had the 31st-most difficult schedule for the season thus far, and (depending on whose metric you use) anywhere from the 1st- to 3rd-most difficult remaining schedule. I suspect this will be a “regression to the mean” type of situation, but I guess you never know. Sometimes mediocre teams finish with a better-than-mediocre record, it is what it is. As mentioned I suspect if they make the playoffs I would reckon most other teams would be hoping for that draw.</blockquote>

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