W11vsMIN: For real

   The Bears managed to defend their home turf against the former NFC north champs in a well fought game, they got the lead early in the game and shut the Vikings defense for no points in the first half and would need every point because adjustments where made and the score got uncomfortably close at the end but the Bears didn't break and held the lead until the end giving them a healthy lead in the division and maybe some well deserved respect around the league.

   Cody Parkey got his mojo back and nailed all of his 3 field goal tries very nicely, what was weird is that he didn't have any extra point tries due to the Bears going for 2 point conversions on each of their 2 scores, some kind of security blanket for Parkey? Mitchell Trubisky had a rough time against a stout defense throwing for two picks, the first one was an aggressive well thrown ball intro triple coverage but wasn't on time to beat one of the safeties, it was a good try but the second one was a bad one throwing it to no mans land with the game on the line, he cant be giving the other team life with late turnovers, add this one with Tarik Cohen's lost fumble and it almost spelled catastrophe, luckily the Bears have great receivers this year specially the rising youngster Anthony Miller had a good game completing a difficult catch in the end zone for the only touchdown for the offense, great route, great reaction, great hands, awesome score and even better celebration. To watch Jordan Howard still able to punch the hole for more than 3 yards is a breath of fresh air and shows teams that they cant ignore him. Matt Nagy really showed he can game plan in this game, really putting the Vikings defense on their heels at least for two quarters, but still doing enough to finish the game on top.

   What more can you say about the defense but that it has to be taken seriously and that they can still get better with the young talent they got, which only makes them scarier. The fact that this defense  is a turnover machine only helps the offense in a big way, especially Trubisky who gets more playing time which he really needs and it helps that he has the weapons necessary to extend plays and get points on the board. So yeah, although this offense can score, its still fueled by the defense and that is not a bad thing.

   Its a short week for the Bears and hopefully they can treat us with a thanksgiving win at Detroit while also ending that nasty losing streak they have at Ford Field in the process. Again, they cant let Matthew Stafford get comfortable, without Kerryon Johnson they will be more vulnerable on the ground and on screens. With the News that Trubisky hurt his elbow at the end of the Vikings game, one can only hope its nothing serious, no team wants his franchise QB not playing but it hurt more when he is still young, correcting his mechanics and learning the system. Any time he loses by not being on the field seriously hurts the teams future. 

W10vsDET: Doink!

   The Bears manage to get a solid win against their first division foe of the second half of the season, beating the Lions with a well executed game offensively and defensively, cant say the same about the special teams unit although Cody Parkey did manage to do something spectacularly stupid for the ages without hurting the team enough to cost them the game.
   Mitch Trubisky played very good, even on some missed overthrown passes, I liked how he kept the ball to fall inside the field near the sideline giving only his receiver a shot to get it, even if it was to far from his target I prefer to see these misses instead of the ones where the ball falls on the side line or get under thrown for a potential interception, that for me shows improvement and can be fixed with repetition and chemistry with his receivers. He managed to throw some pinpoint passes through tight coverage, his scrambling is getting better and his vision was the best thing, using his eyes to move defenders and create opportunities for himself was awesome to watch. Impressive and at the same time concerning was that the Bears did most of their damage through the air due to the run game not getting enough push, this may be something to watch out for very closely, the Lions may have game planed to stop the run but still this years defense is not known because of their tough run defense. Allen Robinson's return to the field was huge and showed how he is establishing himself as a true WR1 in this team, this only makes the receiving core look even more dangerous with the improving game of Anthony Miller, Taylor Gabriel as a true deep thread and finally having someone who can really stretch the field, the all around thread that is Tarik Cohen, Jordan Howard showing he can catch the ball makes him a complete three down back, Trey Burton as a mismatch TE and when Adam Shaheen comes back to complements Burton as the big bruising TE, this team can only get better as Trubisky keeps progressing. its up to the coaching and the O-line to keep him on his feet and get better.
   The defense is real when Khalil Mack is on the field, he really makes the defense go up a notch from good to solid defense. Bryce Callahan is playing his hart out and letting the Bears know he deserves to get payed next year. This defense shows they are loaded with talent and how good they can be is based on Vic Fangio getting them where they need to be. One thing that just needs to go is the stupid penalties that extend the opponents drives that have been resulting in garbage time touchdowns, they cant let teams creep back on them like that, they may lose a game because of it especially against good teams. This is also a warning to Parkey, I mean congrats or whatever on successfully missing four kicks by hitting the goal post on all of them, but those where 8 points that didn't get to the scoreboard, if those four where all field goals I would be pleading Ryan Pace to redeem himself from his biggest mistake and give the Niners a ransom for Robbie Gould to get him back, nothing againt Pace hes been great but come on!

   Next game they get to host the Vikings on Sunday night, it loos like a mirror match against two big defensive squads with explosive receiving cores, good runners and shaky O-lines. Penalties and turnovers have to be at the minimum to get this one done. The Bear have let slip these kind of big games against Packers and Patriots who are contending playoff teams, they need to win these games now to assure not just their pass to the playoffs but to earn respect from the league that they deserve to get to the post season and even get them thinking that they have a shot of winning in January.

W9vsBUF: Who's bad?

   No big surprises in this game, the Bears pulled the easy win against the Bills who have shown little to no offense this year, their defense tried the best they could but there was little they could do once the Bears made two defensive touchdowns out of the four total takeaways made. Kyle Fuller had a great game and was involved on three of the turnovers made getting a well fought interception of his own. Bears offense was slow and at one point it didn't matter, they failed to score touchdowns on the other two turnovers created by their defense but did manage to score 27 points with some good plays from the special teams to give them good field position. Mitch Trubisky had an average performance throwing for one touchdown and one bad interception floating one deep where it seemed there was some miscommunication with Trey Burton, this play didn't affect the score but one that did was another dumb personal foul on Aaron lynch for an inappropriate celebration that kept the Bills drive alive and ended in their only touchdown. Against tough opponents these penalties will be very costly, honestly the Bears where playing very clean football the first 6 games and on this one they committed 14 penalties in total, many by the offensive line, this cant happen again especially when playing at home.

   The Bears have reached the mid point of the season on first place in their division, they could have ended with a better record but also could have been worse, let the Packers game slip away, they beat a rather lost Seahawks unit that right now seems to have found their way again, struggled against a bad Cardinals team, kept the win streak going by beating a hot Bucs team, fell to a solid but basic Dolphins team, then fell a yard short to force overtime losing to the almighty Patriots, so any given Sunday right? Unfortunately I didn't evaluate the schedule very well as I thought the first half was the though part, now looking at things as they are, the second half is though enough and more important than the first half as they have five division games left, a struggling Giants team, a resurfacing 49ers team and the conference leading Rams. For the Bears to get to January they have to win at least 5 maybe 4 but only if these are against the divisional teams. The next three games, two against the Lions and the other against the Vikings, could determine if they can get to the post season. Just getting there, even as a wild card, would speak volumes on the direction the team is going especially the coaching side of the team. But first things first, the Lions travel with several injured key players unlike the Bears that are getting back some of their star players back, they have to take advantage of this but staying focus on Matthew Stafford, he can get it done if he gets the chance.

W8vsNYJ: No Mack, no sack?

   The Bears where able to win the game that they should have won against the Jets depleted offense led by still very raw Sam Darnold. 

   Again, the offense started slow, aside from the long touchdown by Tarik Cohen, they didnt do much. Once the second half hit, the Bears offense put enough point to seal the deal. Mitch Trubisky was off again on his throws but did enough with his legs to open the field for some big plays, still a work in progress but wins make it easier to be patient. The defense never did let its guard down until Eddie Jackson's late hit that ended being a personal foul that cost the Bears not to get the ball back and ended in New Yorks only touchdown, other that that the defense was solid and made the very intelligent choice of not playing Khalil Mack. It never was a necessity to play him on this game because even if Mack didnt get traded to Chicago, the Bears still where viewed as a good defense before the start of the season, so they had to show that they were good enough to take down a team like the Jets and so they did, so its best to have him as close to 100% as possible heading against the more difficult opponents.

   The injury to Kyle Long will hurt, maybe more on moral and leadership on the field that in the playing itself, last time he got hurt Erick Kush did a good job in filling in for him but its looking more and more like this team is not all in on the power run with Jordan Howard, working more with Cohen skill set while using diversions with Taylor Gabriel. Howard is the short and goal line hammer, on this game he pounded the line to end the game, but that's it. So it seems the line is more focused on protecting Trubisky and confusing the defense to create holes for the runner. I'm still waiting for Howard to one cut and go but he gets trapped at the line too often due to bad blocking or the defense piling up at the line of scrimmage. I guess its a good thing that Howard got better at catching the ball.

   Next the Bears go to Buffalo to take on what I consider to be the worst team of this season (although the Raiders don't make this an easy pick), this means that I expect the Bears to win this one by taking care of the ball and not letting LeSean McCoy beat them with side line runs and screens, the Bill got size in their receiving corps led by Kelvin Benjamin and newly acquired Terrelle Pryor so safety's Jackson and Adrian Amos have to be ready against the deep ball, or just beat up the QB, that would be better. Trubisky needs to protect the ball like last time, the Bills secondary is their pride and joy and only the group that makes them have a chance to compete. Even so, I believe the Bears should keep Mack out of this one until next game against the Lions, they have to prove one more time that they are good enough to beat low tier teams even if its on a hostile environment with some of the weirdest fans.