Chicago Bears Vs. San Francisco 49ers: NFL Week 13 Pre-Party Livestream and Open Thread

Good morning, Bears fans, and here’s something for you to chew on that means absolutely nothing:

There’s been a whole lotta losing going on, and nobody should be happy with it, though if you want to point to injuries at a bit of a factor, by all means. This week it reached a head with quarterback Jay Cutler being placed on IR with a torn labrum in his shoulder requiring surgery. After his backup, Brian Hoyer, also hit IR with a broken forearm earlier in the year, the Bears turned to... Matt Barkley last week.

Matt Barkley. You know, this guy, who threw the first touchdown passes of his career in his fourth season in the NFL and his first start and got little to no help from his receivers in the process. Yeah, last Sunday was interesting, apparently.

But the Bears are still 2-9 and, for once, get an even more woeful opponent record-wise in the Battle of the Dumpster Fires, the San Francisco 49ers. If you want a measure of how bad they’ve been... 32nd in points allowed. 32nd in yards allowed. 32nd in rushing attempts against, rushing yards allowed, and rushing yards per attempt. Allowed the most touchdowns through the air in the league.

Of course, as for the Navy and Orange, the 49ers draw a team that makes every attempt to get in their own way while playing offense and apparently make as many inexplicable decisions off the field as they do on it (see: two suspensions for PEDs in two weeks). It’s the highly billed and anticipated battle between the Moveable Object and the Resistable Force, live on FOX!

Get your popcorn and enjoy the carnage. When the two teams involved have a combined 3 wins, you can have a little fun with it.

Some gameday linkage for you this morning:

Game Previews: Game Preview (Sam) | Injury Report (Les) | Five Questions With Niners Nation (Jeff) | Stock Report (Zerg) | Four Bears Wearing Special Cleats (Sam) | More Jordan Howard Please (Les)

Cutty On IR: 6 Questions on 6: Part 1 | Part 2 (Jack/Staff) | Cutler to IR (Les) | Cutler Never Had A Chance (Zerg)

Around the League: Ten Thoughts (Les) | WCG “We Watch The Games” Power Rankings (Ken) | NFC North Review (Zerg)

BRAVERMAN!: Expectations for Braverman and Brown (Les)

Bears In The Future: Which Bears Won’t Return Next Year (Les)

A reminder of the procedures today, the game starts at Noon Central Time, so we’ll have the first thread at noon central time with subsequent quarter threads popping up as the game goes on. After the game we’ll have our quick recap as well as the threads for the late slate of games, and we’ll have Notes and other recapping type things first thing in the morning along with our midnight Den.

With all the propers out of the way, Bear down.

The boys are back in town, so we’ll be running the Sunday Livestream as per our usual stuff. So for about two hours, we’ll be talking about the Bears, the matchup, maybe just a little on Jay Cutler. I hear some big news happened.

If you want to get in touch with us, there are a few ways to do that:

• Here. Right here. This comment thread. It is a place for comments. That includes comments for our show. You know the deal.
• Over on the Twitch feed itself at /sjs_illini
• And over on our Twitters. I’m at @SJS_illini, he’s at @SamHouseholder

We’ll be live at 9:30 AM CT and 9:30 AM CT is when we go live. See y’all then.