Stock up, stock down: Bears-Packers review

Well there’s actually going to be at least one more week of stock up, stock down after the Bears managed to fall backwards into the postseason.

And maybe it is just delaying the offseason by one week, because it’s a tall task to beat the Saints at home, especially when they’re lighting up scoreboards. And maybe it does mean that there will be no meaningful changes at Halas Hall or the quarterbacks room.

But I don’t care.

I don’t watch my favorite football team with the hope that I can watch them pick in the top 10 of the draft. I don’t tune in every Sunday to see them lose. I don’t watch games in November and December with the hope and optimism that I will see a great player in a custom suit on a stage in April.

No, I watch because I hope to see my team winning as often as possible and playing in January. I want to see games that matter and count for the postseason in November and December and the Bears gave me that this year.

Well, maybe not in November, but you get my point.

So don’t get down about what isn’t happening or what didn’t come out of this season and just live in the moment. It’s been a long time since the Bears were in the playoffs two out of three years so just enjoy it.

That said, we still have to look back at bad loss one more time.

Stock up

Darnell Mooney - His stock was up last week too, but after a career day, it’s hard not to include him again. He caught 11 passes for 93 yards and took a few big hits and got banged up. He hasn’t been a volume receiver yet this year, so it was good to see him in a different way. Mooney was targeted a lot near the line of scrimmage, as the game plan called for him to get YAC. While it wasn’t there this week, it shows the trust that his quarterback and the coaches have in him. I’m excited to see what his future will be like.

Cole Kmet - It was a big week for the offensive rookies. Kmet too had a career day and while it also all came on short passes, near the LOS, that was more the game plan than anything Kmet could control. The one more downfield(ish) pass he was was intercepted but that’s because it was a bad throw. Kmet also had a good day blocking from what I saw, but that was mostly just on replays, I don’t pretend to be great at breaking down that sort of thing.

Khalil Mack - Mack was quiet in Jacksonville last week and he was also quiet in the first Packers game, which is why it was so good to see him be disruptive on Sunday. He had a sack, a TFL and a QB hit to go with four tackles. It wasn’t dominant, but he came to play and that’s going to be big heading into the postseason.

Stock down

Mitch Trubisky - Look, he is what he is, no one is pretending he’s ever going to be dominant or better than he has been against bad defenses, but this was just another game showing his worst traits. The gameplan rarely asked him to go downfield, and for good reason. Sure, he hit the deep shot to Mooney, but then the bad interception happened on one of his few deeper shots. He also couldn’t find Allen Robinson early to get him involved. I’m not trying to needlessly dump on Mitch, but my point is that heading into a huge game, where you need your quarterback at his best, I don’t feel great about Trubisky.

Chuck Pagano - I know, he was here last week too, but man the Packers game just proved all of his shortcomings to me. In a week where he said that they were going to “empty their chamber” or whatever, this is the game plan you had? One sack. With your best linebacker out of the game, you call a coverage that leaves your slowest, most over-the-hill linebacker on the Packers’ fastest wide receiver? Too many questions about the defensive game plan and just how far the unit has fallen the second half of the year.

I’m not even going to have a third stock down, because as much as I want to pick another defender or cornerback (who were down two starters), I just keep coming back to how bad a game plan it was against Rodgers. He started 10/10 with three TD passes. Like how do you not do anything to challenge Rodgers?