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Good morning, Bears fans. Week 4 is upon us and the Bears are still searching for their first win. That’s... not what we like to call a “great start.” Between injuries and three losses that mirror last year’s to some degree, there’s not a lot to be cheery about in Bears-land.
The Lions come to town after winning their first game against the Colts, then losing a close one to the Titans and falling behind huge to the Packers before mounting a furious yet ultimately futile comeback (you know, kind of like the Bears’ own, except even closer than that). Calvin Johnson may have suddenly retired, but that hasn’t stopped Matthew Stafford from jumping out to start out at a career-season pace, as he currently sits at a 105 passer rating with a 5.8 TD%, 1.7 INT%, and a currently career best 8.6 Adjusted Yards/Attempt and 8.2 Yards/Attempt. Marvin Jones has stepped in nicely, to put it mildly, as he leads the league with 408 receiving yards. And with as banged up as the Bears’ defense continues to be, things could get rough.
As for the Navy and Orange, there are two things to think about or give you a little optimism. First, that the Bears’ first win of 2015-16 came in week 4 against the Oakland Raiders. And second, the Lions’ defense may (may) be as banged up as the Bears - okay, maybe not as banged up, but a defense missing DeAndre Levy, Ziggy Ansah, Devin Taylor (possibly), and Tavon Wilson (possibly) isn’t anything to sneeze at. The Bears’ pass protection comes off a game where they only allowed one quarterback hit (against a pretty anemic Cowboys pass rush, but still!), so maybe, just maybe? Jordan Howard picks up his first start of the season, so we’ll see how that goes.
Either way. It’s Week 4. Let’s go.
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Some WCG Gameday Linkage as we barrel into the future!
GAME PREVIEW TYPE STUFF:
Week 4 Game Preview: Bears Vs. Lions (Sam)
Five Questions with Pride of Detroit (Jeff)
Three Important Bears (Sam)
Injury Report (Les)
Hey, so about the Lions, we need to talk... (Jack)
ROSTER SHENANIGANS:
“Braunk” doesn’t have the same ring as “Gronk”, Robert. Braunecker elevated, CJ Wilson signed.
Kyle Fuller to IR, John Timu Promoted
The Bears added Joique Bell as well. Langford Out 4-6 Weeks
LOOKING AROUND THE LEAGUE AND RANKINGS:
WCG Power Rankings (Spoilers: The view up is pretty long and ugly) (Ken)
Power Rankings Roundup (Spoilers: The view up is pretty long and ugly) (Les)
Stock Report Week 3 (Robert)
NFC North Review: Week 3 (Spoilers: The view up is yadda yadda yadda) (Robert)
REBUILDING TALK:
Should we look towards 2017? (Lescast!)
The Trials of a Proper Rebuild (Robert)
Whitehair Developing under Mentorship of Kevin Mawae (Dane)
Testing the Bears’ Depth (Josh)
Heading into the propers for the week, it’s a little weird that we’ve had two primetime weeks back to back and we’ll have two more, but today, we have that noon kickoff! So the first quarter thread will pop up right at noon central time, with subsequent threads popping up over the course of the game with injury updates and the like getting their own posts (So we’ll have a lot going on today). After the game, we’ll have a quick recap and the threads for the late slate and Sunday Night Football. In the morning, we’ll have Notes at 6 AM leading off our coverage with additional breakdown of the game as we go.
Now with all the propers out of the way... Bear Down. (Apparently the video I used to post got pulled.)
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The WCG Sunday Livestream rolls on in week 4, this time with a solo act, as Sam is off celebrating his anniversary (congratulations y’all!), so I’ll be here talking with you guys for two hours about anything Bears - or anything, really. If you want to participate, there’s several ways to do so:
- Right here. You know, in this comment thread, this comment window, that kind of thing! (Look down!)
- Over on the actual Twitch side at my Twitch channel.
- Over on the Twitter at @SJS_illini. If Sam were here, he’d be at @SamHouseholder.
I’ll be live at 9:30 AM CT, as per the usual. Reminder that next week I’ll actually be in Indianapolis for the game against the Colts, so we won’t be doing a livestream then. After this week, see you for week 6. But today, see you in half an hour!