Happy Nov. 1, friends. We made it through October relatively unscathed. The start of a new month presents a fresh opportunity to manifest greatness. Let’s do that by starting this set of BN Bears Bullets on a good note.
- The Super Bowl is 100 days away. Is it too early to manifest that or should we start small with a win in Arizona? You have to crawl before you walk, I suppose.
- It would be an honor if you would join us this Sunday:
- I’ve never been to Jefferson Tap. And I’ve also never seen Bears Head Coach Matt Eberflus win a Sunday road game. Let’s dance.
- Even though I love a good mess, I don’t necessarily vibe with it when the Bears are at the heart of it. Even still … I’m getting a kick out of this:
- Shout out to Shane for doing the leg work here. Well done, sir.
- Everything the Bears do is going to be under a microscope. As will everything surrounding the team. You wanted that Hard Knocks life? Well, you’re getting it.
- How thin is the line between winning and losing? If the Bears win that game against the Commanders, we’re having very different conversations. Sure, I’d still have concerns about the slow starts, I’d still be bothered by coming out of the bye sloppy and unprepared, and I would definitely be raising red flags about persistent penalty problems. Maybe losing the way they did is a good thing because we’ve allowed ourselves to have those conversations from the perspective of how that could conceivably be the type of game that costs this team a playoff spot.
- Marquee’s Scott Bair went down the rabbit hole looking at the slow starts. As you might expect, it’s not great.
- I’ll say this in defense of Bears Offensive Coordinator Shane Waldron: I admire his gumption and that he dares to stand by his call of giving Doug Kramer a hand-off. Do I like it? No. But fortune favors the bold. And if that hand-off goes off smoothly, we’d probably be discussing a theoretical Kramer TD the same way we did when Akiem Hicks scored on a goal-line plunge in 2018. Plus, if the Bears practice that play as often as the players and coaches have said then maybe it isn’t that controversial of a play call. At a minimum, it is far less controversial than Matt Eberflus’ coaching mishaps on the final two plays of the game.
- Today always gets me in my feels:
- Given what we know about the NFL, its popularity, head injuries, Walter Payton, and the connection between head injuries, football, and the rapid decline of one’s post-playing career body, it disappoints me to think that the football community hasn’t used all that information to better protect itself and the players it claims to love.
- In this clip below from @AwfulAnnouncing on Twitter/X, ESPN’s Mike Tannenbaum displays (1) why he is no longer an active NFL general manager and (2) why he is perfect for ESPN:
The rest of 'Get Up' couldn't believe Mike Tannenbaum's trade proposal:
Detroit Lions get: Myles Garrett
Cleveland Browns get: Three first-round picks, a 2026 second-round pick, Jahmyr Gibbs. pic.twitter.com/DNyf5W1ddg— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 1, 2024
- Is pitching the idea of the Detroit Lions trading three first-round picks, a 2026 second-round pick, and stud running back Jahmyr Gibbs to the Cleveland Browns for pass rusher Myles Garrett absolutely bonkers? Yes. Would it be proposed? No. On the off chance it was proposed, would it be accepted? Also, no. But this clip has gone viral, which is exactly what this exercise was meant to do in the first place. Don’t get it twisted. I’m very much here for conversation starters and pushing the envelope. But this seems egregious.
- College football drama: There are concerns that coach-to-player helmet communications in Power 4 conference games happening on unencrypted frequencies might have been compromised. Ah, the wonders (blunders?) of technology. (ESPN)
- Old friend Velus Jones Jr. has a new number in Jacksonville:
HAPPY FRIDAY! Check Out BN Fantasy | Subscribe to The BN Newsletter
- Jorge Soler remains one of my favorite players to watch swing a bat even after leaving the Chicago Cubs. The two-time World Series champion has been traded once again. Brett Taylor has the latest on Jorge’s next stop at Bleacher Nation’s baseball wing.
- Over at BN Blackhawks, Tab Bamford hands out grades from the first month of hockey.
- Autumn 2022 was a special time for a lot of us. A time when we didn’t know what we didn’t know. And we really didn’t know what we had. So I feel ya, Patrick: