Saturday’s college football slate will feature No. 1 Alabama hosting a 2-1 Ole Miss team, and the Chicago Bears are among the teams who will be in attendance:
After a demoralizing 35-14 loss to the Green Bay Packers, the Bears won’t play again until October 9. This layoff leaves a ton of time to recharge the batteries, but also allows for us to step back and take a wider glance at what’s going on around the football landscape. As for the Bears, they should be on the hunt for some talent, which leaves this weekend’s slate of college football as an opportune time to focus our eyes elsewhere.
Speaking of having eyes on games, there were 1.6 million streams initiated on Amazon Prime for Thursday Night Football. Variety’s Todd Spangler reports there was an average of 372,000 viewers, which eclipsed last year’s Twitter stream views. However, ratings were down across the board with a 9.9 overnight rating that represents a seven percent drop in viewers from CBS’ first Thursday Night Game in 2016.
If you did stream the game and wanted a break from Jim Nantz and Tony Romo, the British broadcast of the game provided a different kind of perspective on American football.
A lightning delay that caused a lengthy stoppage in play certainly didn’t help matters. The Packers and Bears were sent to the locker rooms and fans were asked to evacuate their seats until a storm cleared the area. In the end, the 48-minute delay did nothing more than drag out what was an already long game the Bears would eventually lose.
Clearly, the Bears could’ve used a $184 million dollar motivational speaker. Especially one with defensive prowess that could have possible covered Jordy Nelson:
Nelson has now played a season’s worth of games against the Bears and his numbers are as dominant as you would expect. The Pro Bowl receiver has hauled in 65 catches for 1,040 yards, scored eight touchdowns, and averaged 16 yards per catch in 16 games against the Bears. A season of 65 catches, 1,000 receiving yards, and eight touchdowns would be an impressive season … and arguably one of the greatest seasons from a receiver in Bears history. To put it in perspective, Chicago has just four players who have put together a 1,000-yard receiving season since Nelson’s debut in 2008.
It wasn’t the first time the Bears have allowed Nelson to run wild against their secondary. After reviewing the film, Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times writes the Bears defense had no answers for anything Aaron Rodgers and the Packers offense threw their way. The defensive let down was a bummer after the unit looked to make progress in the team’s win against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Maybe the quick turnaround had a negative impact, but there should have been no excuses for some of the fundamental breakdowns that allowed Green Bay to pile up 35 points.
Sometimes you have to give credit where it’s due. Knowing they would be without their two starting tackles, the Packers’ offensive game plan was brilliant. That offense started by running directly at the Bears defense, mixed in some play action passing, and didn’t rely on many deep drops. Instead, Rodgers was releasing quick passes often and doing so in an average of 2.28 seconds after the ball was snapped, according to Pro Football Focus.
The Packers sent out a message before Thursday’s game as the team hoped fans in the stands would join players in linking arms with each other in the stands. The movement didn’t really catch on, but ESPN’s Rob Demovsky reports small groups of Bears and Packers fans linked up during the national anthem.
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