The Bear’s Den, December 7, 2021

IN MEMORIUM

BEARRRSSSS

Justin Fields’ status for Green Bay unknown, Roquan Smith steps up again: Bears Monday Rewind – The Athletic - The Bears will wait to see if Fields will be medically cleared to play this week, plus observations from Sunday’s loss to the Cardinals.

Bears vs. Cardinals: Takeaways from Chicago’s Week 13 loss - Bears Wire - Here are our takeaways from the Bears’ brutal loss to the Cardinals on Sunday.

Bears coach candid about concerning firing rumors - RSN - Reports swirled that Matt Nagy would be fired after the Lions game on Thanksgiving. One Bears coach said it’s something he definitely thinks about.

Matt Nagy Is Putting Winning Ahead of Critical Development Because the Bears Aren’t “Mathematically Eliminated” Yet - Bears Wire - Teven Jenkins made his NFL debut on Sunday, but if you blinked, you might’ve missed: Jenkins was limited to a grand total of two special teams snaps. And when Bears Head Coach Matt Nagy was asked about Jenkins’ status moving forward, he did so in the most Nagy way possible.

Mitch, Matt & Missing Playmakers: Why the Ryan Pace Era Should Be Over - Da Bears Blog - I’ve seen enough. Forget reassignment. Forget restructuring the front office. When George McCaskey finally fires Matt Nagy, he must also fire Ryan Pace.

Bears haven’t deemed Teven Jenkins ready for full -time role - 670 The Score - “Right now, we’re trying to work him and get him ready,” Castillo said. “In an emergency thing, if something happened to Jason (Peters), right now he would be the one to come in. We’re trying to catch him up. I mean, he hasn’t done a lot of football. We’re working hard, trying to get him ready in case something like that happens.

Bears exercising patience while Justin Fields (ribs) heals - 670 The Score - The Bears anticipate the return of rookie quarterback Justin Fields at some point before the end of the season, but they’re exercising patience and want to ensure his fractured ribs are fully healed.

Matt Nagy, Bears getting exactly the season they should’ve expected - Chicago Sun-Times - Everything has gone as expected for the 4-8 Bears. The formula of a castoff quarterback plus a shaky offensive line plus a coach who can’t get his own offense working plus an eroded defense with glaring holes in the secondary equals a bad team.

Film study: Bears can’t contain Kyler Murray on the ground - Chicago Sun-Times - Breaking down the biggest players of the Bears’ depressing, soggy 33-22 loss to the Cardinals on Sunday:

Matt Nagy: Justin Fields’ health ‘an ongoing discussion’ during Packers week - Chicago Sun-Times - Fields has been out since suffering cracked ribs against the Ravens in Week 11, and Andy Dalton has started in his place.

Bears-Cardinals podcast: A big ball of depressing - Chicago Sun-Times - Is there still any point to the Bears’ season?

Chicago Bears: 3 things we heard at Halas Hall - Chicago Tribune - Justin Fields’ availability for Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers will be “an ongoing discussion for us all week long,” Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy said.

Chicago Bears: Brad Biggs’ 10 thoughts on Week 13 loss - Chicago Tribune - 10 thoughts after Andy Dalton was intercepted four times — giving the Arizona Cardinals a short field on all four occasions — in the Chicago Bears’ 33-22 loss in cold, rainy conditions at Soldier Field.

POLISH SAUSAGE

Career day puts T.J. Watt in very elite company, gives him shot at single-season sack record - ProFootballTalk - Unexpectedly cleared after an absence of only five days, Watt had a career-high 3.5 sacks against Baltimore, despite not practicing. He also didn’t bite on the fake handoff on the game-deciding two-point try, getting in the face of quarterback Lamar Jackson and forcing his hand on a throw that went off the hand of tight end Mark Andrews.

Matt Rhule on Joe Brady firing: I feel like we can be better on offense - ProFootballTalk - The move was announced just after the early slate of games kicked off on Sunday and Rhule said he planned to fire Brady on Saturday, but Brady wasn’t available to meet with him until Sunday.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ON WINDY CITY GRIDIRON

Leming's 10 Bears Takes after another bad home loss that drops Chicago to (4-8) - Windy City Gridiron - The Chicago Bears’ winning streak stops at one, as they turn the ball over four times in route to the eight loss of the season. Does anything change this week? Is there anything left to salvage? All of that and more in this week’s 10 takes.

Wiltfong: Bears vs Cardinals - Takeaways from the snap counts, stats, and more - Windy City Gridiron - Here’s the full playing time breakdown for the Bears, a spotlight of some individual stats, and also a few team statistics in Chicago’s latest loss, a 33 to 22 defeat at the hands of the Cardinals.

Infante's Notes: “Bear Weather” doesn’t play into Chicago’s favor in loss to Cardinals - Windy City Gridiron - The Bears’ already slim playoff hopes were severely dashed with their loss on Sunday.

THE RULES

Windy City Gridiron Community Guidelines - SBNation.com - We strive to make our communities open and inclusive to sports fans of all backgrounds. The following is not permitted in comments. No personal attacks, politics, gender based insults of any kind, racial insults, etc.

Windy City Gridiron Podcast Channel which includes Bear With Me from Robert Schmitz, Bears Over Beers featuring Jeff Berckes & EJ Snyder (their BOB YouTube Channel can be found here), Bears Banter hosted by Bill Zimmerman, Rule of 3 with R. Schmitz, Danny Meehan, and Brandon Robinson, Bear & Balanced from Jeff and Lester A. Wiltfong Jr., and T Formation Conversation from Lester; EJ also co-hosts The Bootleg Football Podcast with Brett Kollmann; R. Schmitz has a film breakdown show on YouTube titled Run Pass Opinion; Will Robinson II has his WhiskeyRanger YouTube channel, and Steven’s Streaming Twitch Channel from Steven Schweickert.

Click on our names to follow us on Twitter: Jeff Berckes; Patti Curl; Eric Christopher Duerrwaechter; Kev H; Sam Householder; Jacob Infante; Aaron Lemming; Ken Mitchell; Jack R Salo; Steven Schweickert; Jack Silverstein; EJ Snyder; Lester Wiltfong, Jr.; Will Robinson II; Robert Schmitz; T.J. Starman; Robert Zeglinski; Bill Zimmerman; Like WCG on Facebook.