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Good morning. One last time.
A season that started in a way few expected, never got quite right, and leaves the Bears with far more questions than answers ends today.
The Packers clinched the division and play for a first-round bye. The Vikings are locked in at the 6-seed. The Bears, meanwhile, still have a chance to stumble and bumble their way to an 8-8 record behind a still-decent defense and Sideshow-Bob-surrounded-by-rakes offense.
Yeah, that’s less inspiring than I hoped it would sound.
We’ll have an entire offseason to talk about the moves to be made, players added, coaches added, the same cut or fired, and the important question of “Are the right guys in place to bring this whatever-it-is back?”. For now, it’s one last game to close out the season on whatever high note can be salvaged, or whatever can be learned about the team heading out.
The Vikings sound like they’re going full bye-week on this game, because Monday night’s game showed they don’t have anything that needs tweaking, for sure.
Meanwhile, the Navy and Orange have nothing but pride and a .500 to play for, not even the tank value of a first-round pick. Okay, maybe 41 points to reach the 300-point plateau for the second time in four years, although 21 points to eclipse the 279 posted by the 3-13 John Fox 2016 team that was in position to jump up to draft Mitchell Trubisky would suffice.
I guess that fits under “pride.”
One more time.
Bear Down, my friends.
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Today’s a Steven solo show to wrap up the season (Sam may hop on if time allows), but the WCG Sunday Livestream is undaunted, undeterred, and yes, still disappointed. All the usual features of the WCGSL, with additional criticisms thrown in.
If you want to get in touch with us during the stream, there are several ways to do that:
- Hi. Look down. See a comment thread? That’s where you should be;
- Chat over on the Twitch side of things over at SJS_illini;
- And of course our Twitters exist. For the entire WCG Sunday Livestream crew, I’m at @SJS_illini; Sam’s at @SamHouseholder; Jeff’s at @gridironborn; and the main handle is @WCGridiron.
We’ll be live at about 9:30 AM CT. See you then.