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The regular season has finally arrived, where every team is 0-0 and thinks they're in contention for a Super Bowl Championship. I mean, if there's a time for optimism and an undefeated season, why not when your team has 0 losses? May not be that way for long, right?
The Texans are a pretty good early season test for the Bears - one of the game's top young receivers in DeAndre Hopkins (Wait, I thought the Bears had all the Deiondre'/DeAndre/Deons...), maybe the top defensive weapon in JJ Watt (plus Jadaveon Clowney and Whitney Mercilus), and they just dumped $70 million on Brock Osweiler, who made his NFL debut against the Bears last season subbing in for Peyton Manning. And it seems to a lot of analysts, people, et cetera, that all the Texans have to do is show up, breathe heavy, and the Bears will fold like cheap cardboard cutouts of lawn chairs on the Titanic or something.
But that doesn't mean the Navy and Orange will just step aside. The Bears seriously overhauled their front seven from last year, stuffing the middle of the front with Akiem Hicks and two playmaking linebackers in Jerrell Freeman and Danny Trevathan, get back last year's first round pick Kevin White, and added another bruising running back behind, oh yeah, Josh Sittion, Cody Whitehair and Kyle Long.
Wait, Josh Sitton? THAT Josh Sitton?
The preseason didn't show Bears' fans much cause for optimism, and predictions range across the Internet from The Superfans (Hi, guys!) to the rest of us to the SBN Mothership taking the USA Today route. But even now, the Bears are a different squad than the one that finished the preseason. Josh Sitton isn't a deciding piece between 6 or 7 wins and a Super Bowl, but he does bring additional stability to an offensive line that looks to be the core of the team's offensive philosophy.
Week one is here. Let's go.
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Today is September 11. More importantly, it's the 15th anniversary of September 11, 2001, the day of the World Trade Center attacks, Please take a moment today to remember those lost in the tragedies that took place that day.
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Some WCG Gameday Linkage for everybody this morning:
Your Week 1 Game Preview (Sam Householder)
The Week 1 Injury Report (Lester Wiltfong)
Need to know if you can watch? Right here. (Dane Noble)
2016 Team Captains | Robbie Gould: Gone, But Not Forgotten
Bears Over/Under Bets: Jay Cutler | Jeremy Langford | Alshon Jeffery | Miscellaneous
Kyle Long will be with the Bears a bit Longer. He'll be here a Long time. (Kyle Long Extended)
Les is in the big time now. Watch his collaboration with CSN as they talk about today's game!
If you're new here, here's how things go around here on gameday: We'll have the pre-party thread and Sunday pre-game livestream here, in this thread, at 9 AM CT (The Livestream starts at 9:30 AM CT, more on that stuff later!). Sam and I keep you busy for two hours talking Bears until about 11:30 AM CT. The game today kicks off at noon CT, so that's when the first quarter gamethread will show up, with each quarter having its own thread popping up as the game progresses. As the game ends, well have the quick recap up with threads for the late slate of games and the Sunday Night game. Then in the morning after a game, as you've seen, we'll have Notes at 6 AM CT to wrap up the game, and we'll start getting stuff going for the next week.
With the propers out of the way, for the first time this season, hype up, and Bear Down!
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So I mentioned the WCG Sunday Livestream, a feature we've done on Sunday mornings now for about three seasons already (?!). Basically, Sam Householder, anybody else who wants to join us, and I talk football and take comments and questions, I play Madden terribly, you all make fun of me, and we laugh and have a good time before the game gets underway. There are a couple of ways to get a hold of us if you want to participate in the shenanigans:
- Here. This very comment thread. If you've already found your way here, congratulations, you've mastered WCG Site Navigation 101. On to course 102, Making a Fanpost.
- Over on the Twitch site itself. This is hosted on Twitch and I do read the chat there, shots at my ability, game challenges (No, I'm not taking challenges) and MUT transactions (No, not doing those either) all.
- Over on the Twitters. I'm over at @SJS_illini. Sam's over at @SamHouseholder.
Announcement before we get started: There will not be a livestream next week. The WCG Sunday Livestream will return Week 3. Hopefully I'll have something else loaded up in time before Sunday.
We go live at 9:30 AM CT. This window down here will get lit up like the Texans secondary facing Kevin White today (Hey-o! ... Okay, I don't trash talk well) when we do go live, so we'll see you all then.