The Venn diagram of people who love snow, but don’t have to shovel it is a circle until proven otherwise.
• FINALLY! The Chicago Bears are honoring the late, great Gale Sayers:
A little extra motivation for #GBvsCHI.
We will honor Gale Sayers at Sunday’s regular-season finale vs. the Packers.
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) December 30, 2020
• The Bears legend died in September after battling dementia for some time. I was curious as to why the team hadn’t honored him prior to this, but I imagine a confluence of factors kept it from happening. Maybe the Bears were waiting for a time when they could have friends, family, and former teammates at Soldier Field to celebrate Sayers. Or perhaps they were holding out hope for fans being in the stands to honor an important figure in franchise history. Even still … it’s inexplicable as to why the wait took so long. It’s very un-like the Bears to fumble something like this. For as long as I’ve been a Bears fan, the one thing they seemed to be good at was honoring the legends of their past. Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad there is a small gesture being made. Better late than never, right? Hopefully, something more is in the works for 2021.
• Just sayin’: A nice way to honor Sayers would be a win against the Packers on Sunday that clinches a playoff berth.
• A word to the wise, don’t target this guy in coverage:
https://twitter.com/PFF/status/1344003007990665216
• Mitchell Trubisky hasn’t done too much challenging with vertical throws this season, and perhaps with good reason:
• Trubisky has been absolute nails throwing short and behind the line of scrimmage. Granted, I’d hope he would be strong in these areas because they were strengths of his coming out of college and early in his pro career. It’s those big red globs that are noted as “worse than average” on the graphics key that worry me to bits. Because, at some point, Trubisky needs to challenge someone down the field. Otherwise, a smart defense will just sit on short and intermediate routes for 60 minutes. With that in mind, I’d love to see an early play-action shot play in an attempt to loosen up the defense.
• Good for Mitchell:
The Chicago chapter of the @PFWAwriters has selected QB Mitch Trubisky as the Bears' 2020 winner of the Good Guy Award, presented to a member of the organization who best helps the media do its job.
As I've noted many times before, Trubisky is well deserving.
— Dan Wiederer (@danwiederer) December 30, 2020
• Here are some stats from Mark Potash of the Chicago Sun-Times:
Is Mitch Trubisky closing the gap on Patrick Mahomes? He's had the better passing rating the last four weeks in a row: pic.twitter.com/h0u3TvvmH0
— Mark Potash (@MarkPotash) December 29, 2020
• Some ideas on how to go about beating the Packers, via ESPN NFL analyst Matt Bowen:
You want to control game flow vs. Green Bay. Get defensive stops, limit/steal possessions vs. Rodgers.
That allows you to use a run-heavy/play-action script — which caters to Trubisky on schemed throws.
Don’t want to get into a dropback/volume passing game here. https://t.co/ub0sGk44Nm
— Matt Bowen (@MattBowen41) December 29, 2020
Anticipate the #Bears sticking to the game plan we’ve seen over the last four weeks…
Heavy run game volume for Montgomery on zone schemes.
Defined play-action throws (and boot) for Trubisky. Isolation verticals to Robinson. And quick passing/RPO out of the shotgun. https://t.co/dh4TX9Scdx
— Matt Bowen (@MattBowen41) December 29, 2020
• Former Bears OLBs Coach Brandon Staley is running the most interesting defense in football, so I’m glad Robert Mays got to profile it. Should Chicago fall to Green Bay on Sunday, the city’s collective eyes will turn to one of the team’s former coaches to push the Bears into the postseason:
In his 1st season with the Rams, Brandon Staley has built a cutting-edge system that's pushing the limits of defense in the NFL.
I talked to Staley about the philosophy behind his system, how to survive in light boxes, Vic Fangio's influence, and more. https://t.co/g3H7AYU77g
— Robert Mays (@robertmays) December 30, 2020
• Even without its starting quarterback and running back, the Rams have a puncher’s chance at knocking off the Cardinals because of Staley’s defense. Obviously, having Aaron Donald up front and Jalen Ramsey in the secondary helps matters a ton. But how Staley goes about scheming things is on another level. I fully expect him to get head-coaching consideration this offseason.
• I don’t know how someone comes up with a stat like this, but I”m glad they did:
Everyday he's hustlin'. 🎶@awscloud | #NextGenStats pic.twitter.com/8k2X1Aho9p
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) December 29, 2020
• The three highest-graded receivers in football reside in the NFC North:
🥇 Davante Adams
🥈 Justin Jefferson
🥉 Allen Robinson IIPFF's highest-graded WRs of 2020 🏆 pic.twitter.com/4UpHOVvLY0
— PFF (@PFF) December 29, 2020
• In case you were curious, Robbie Gould isn’t coming “home” any time soon:
49ers’ kicker Robbie Gould is signing a two-year, $7.25 million fully guaranteed contract extension with SF, per source. It ties him to the team through the 2022 season.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 30, 2020
• Imagine what this deal would’ve been worth had Robbie Gould not left seven points on the field because of missed kicks last week.
• Today is gonna be a day:
Bears Wed: Bears will go with a walk-through only, closed to the media workout today, which has been common over the last few weeks. Mitchell Trubisky will address the media, we'll get our first glimpse of the injury report to see what's up with Jaylon Johnson and Buster Skrine.
— Mark Grote (@markgrotesports) December 30, 2020
The #AZCardinals have practice in about 30 minutes and source said QB Kyler Murray (leg) is expected to practice, at least in part. A good sign for his availability.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 30, 2020