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Good morning, folks. Bears. Packers.
If you're here on a Sunday morning and you hear those two words together, you know that means something special in the NFL is going on.
That being said, it's been anything but special for Bears fans the last couple years, as the Packers have had their way with the navy and orange. And that might be a charitable way to describe it. Against my better judgment, I looked back at last year's games - the Bears lost those two by a combined score of 93-31, including allowing 55 points in the second of two consecutive weeks of surrendering 50 points. Three times, last year's Bears gave up over 40. Seven times, they gave up over 30. They never once scored 30 points last season.
Last year's Bears were bad. Against the Packers, they were a chew toy.
But, welcome to a new season. New coaches. New schemes. Maybe an actual defense. And best of all, a chance to sweep last year under the rug and begin anew.
The Bears are 0-0 in 2015. Let your optimism fly.
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Let's hit a few really quick notes before we get into today's pre-game livestream information:
Randall Cobb will play despite his shoulder injury.
Randall Cobb will play today, but not 100%. Likely to wear extra protection on shoulder. Admitted recently still painful, tough to sleep.
— bob holtzman (@BobHoltzmanESPN) September 13, 2015
And there's some really good news on the Alshon Jeffery injury front:
Good news for the #Bears & WR Alshon Jeffery. He’s expected to play even with the calf injury. Running on Monday gave him optimism.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 13, 2015
The rest of the injury report is right here.
The Bears cut Sam Acho yesterday, and in his place elevated linebacker Lamin Barrow to the team.
The best way to learn about the opponent? Ask questions about them. Here's our version. Here's APC's version.
Sam dove into what keys the Bears will rely on to beat Green Bay.
Kev's got you covered on how to watch the game.
And if you love well done national anthems... Enjoy.
Jim Cornelison (@Anthem_Singer) will do his thing before #Bears #Packers today at Soldier Field.
— Brad Biggs (@BradBiggs) September 13, 2015
Gameday procedures for today are as follows: Dane will post the opening thread at noon CT, with subsequent quarter threads popping as we go. Fairly simple. After the game, we'll have a quick recap and the threads for the afternoon games and Sunday Night Football, and we'll have Notes for you in the morning first thing.
Now with all the propers out of the way... For the first time this season (and the first time it'll count)... Bear. Down.
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Now as far as today's WCG Sunday Livestream goes, we'll have the same procedures as last year, and the year before. We'll be live in 30 minutes from the posting of this thread (So, 9:30 AM CT). Sam and I will go for a couple hours, taking your questions, comments, and insults at how poorly I've thus far acclimated to this year's edition of Madden.
There's a couple of ways you can get a hold of us:
- Right here, this site, this thread, this comment section. Hi there. Glad you could make it.
- Over on my Twitch channel right over here.
- Over on our Twitters. I'm over at @SJS_illini; Sam is over at @SamHouseholder.
We'll see you at 9:30 AM. Bring it.