Correct
All I know is their needle is pointing North and we have been heading towards the south pole since the 1st half of the NFCC game against the 49ers
Hopefully Brad and Dan have not bounced off their ceiling and can get us back in the playoffs and make a legit run.
100% both are true.
Ben is a way better coach than people here want to give him credit for. And he is making the case that HE was the engine behind Dan’s success.
And we certainly have been decimated by injuries the last two seasons. Defense had an insane amount of guys go down last season and this season our Oline got crushed with injuries and were gutted with Rag’s sudden retirement. That certainly had an impact on our team’s success.
The $100 Million question is what do Brad and Dan do about it?
I hope they can right the ship because it has been sinking since halftime of the NFCC game
Yep. Will be interesting to see what both teams get done in the offseason and how they react.
Dan absolutely has to nail the OC situation.
But until the offseason…the Bears story is not finished yet. 
The Lions window is allegedly open forever. I just wonder if the window contains any actual championships or it just lets out hot air?
Speaking of windows, when you’re watching your favorite pee pee movies, please close your window. The neighbors and I have had enough.
It is repeatable if you do it 5 times.
I’m not seeing many teams play strong defense at the end of a game. Not sure why.
Season to season…. it is almost NEVER repeatable for a team to win that many games in come back fashion… or a high percentage of close games for that matter. I’m pretty sure that is what @CuriousHusker was alluding to with the Bears.
This is particularly difficult to do when a team has a last place schedule in the year they are winning many close games in miraculous fashion… and then playing a 1st place schedule the following year.
I can’t disagree with any of this. At this point anyone shiting on Johnson is just coping. He is a very good coach.
But you guys are completely ignoring the possibility that Ben’s team could be even better in Year2 of the Ben Johnson era than it was this year so they might not need miracle finishes to win.
Dan’s team got better in Year2.
The difference is that both Dan and Ben took over 5 win teams that finished in 4th Place in the NFCN and had the 4th place schedule in their first season.
Dan went 3–13–1 then got better in Year 2 to go 9-8 then won the Division with 12 wins in Year 3
Ben got 11 wins, won the Division and won a playoff game in Year1 and achieved in one season what it took Dan 3 seasons to do.
So no…the Bears probably won’t have as many 4th qtr wins next year. They could possibly be a better team and not need them.
They might also digress but it is a complete hypothetical to predict the Bears get worse next year just because they won coming from behind so many times this year. The two things are not connected.
Forcing turnovers is extremely hard to duplicate year over year. Ben can be a good coach and the Bears aren’t as good next year
Could be.
Who knows how many turnovers the Bears will create next year. Could be more, could be less
I am not. I specifically said that it was possible but it would need to happen bc Caleb takes flight. Short of that I don’t see how they could be enough better to outperform given the almost certain regression in scheduling difficulty, turnovers and crazy clutch/lucky shit.
I just don’t find that stuff to be repeatable. So they need something significantly more. It’s either Caleb or a big turnaround on defense. I think they are a ways from the latter personnel wise.
Thing is…I am pretty sure Caleb won’t get worse the longer Ben has him.
And I bet “D” is the offseason priority for the Bears.
But I agree, one if not both of those need to happen for the Bears to be a stronger team.
I just don’t think it is much of a stretch to think Ben will help Caleb.
The Defense? TBD
The league leader in turnovers forced hasn’t increased year over year in 20 years. Might have never happened but I stopped looking after 20 seasons