The other day on our podcast, Kevin Fishbain brought up a good point: Why were reporters, mostly TV ones looking for a soundbite (which is harder than it looks sometimes), treating the Bears like they’re a playoff team facing a garbage team? As in, how can you ask the Bears, who have made the playoffs exactly one time since making the Super Bowl in the 2006 season, if there’s a risk in being overconfident going into Buffalo this week?
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The Bears shouldn’t be overconfident about winning an intra-squad scrimmage. They haven’t earned that yet.
While the Bears’ playoff drought is only at seven years, Buffalo erased its own playoff drought, which goes back to the 1999 season and the 2000 postseason, last season. It was a big deal, and not just in Buffalo. I went to Delilah’s, the most authentic Bills bar in Chicago, to watch them lose a relatively bad game to Tennessee.
I was really happy for those Bills fans — some of whom were toddlers in January 2000 — to get enjoy a playoff game, even though they wound up losing. Given the state of the team, it might’ve been a memory to cherish.
In those 18 playoff-less years, the Bills only lost 16 more games than the Bears, but Chicago played seven postseason games, winning three, all in the Lovie Smith era.
My son is eight and the last time the Bears made the playoffs, he was four months old. When will he see a playoff team again? This January? One would hope.
The questions about supposed overconfidence weren’t really wrong because this is a quarterback’s league and Nathan Peterman is the Bills’ quarterback. If Josh Allen were healthy and developing even at an average pace, this would be looked at as an interesting game, at least. The Bears would be favored, but not by much. We’d be talking about a Bills defense ready to narrow the gap between the team. We’d wonder if the Bears’ lack of pass rush would turn this into another Brock Osweiler situation.
But Josh Allen can be tall on the sidelines, while Peterman shrinks in the face of the Bears’ front seven.
Peterman has been so bad — he’s thrown four interceptions in 32 attempts this season, which gives him nine in 81 career throws — he’s the main reason the Bears should win this game on the basis of their defense’s depth and athletic ability, even without Khalil Mack, the pride and joy of the University of Buffalo.
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Yes, the Bears lost to Osweiler, but Peterman looks nothing like the Senior Bowl QB that John Fox and Co. liked in Mobile, Ala. a couple years ago. Given that the Bears lead the NFL with 11 interceptions, the defense should be keyed up and ready to catch more passes than Kevin White this Sunday.
Defensive players, most notably the affable Akiem Hicks, were getting annoyed at questions about Mack after last week’s game, ones that were implying they were raising their game because of his absence or that it was a surprise they could beat Sam Darnold and the Jets without his all-world skill.
Considering how mediocre the Bears defense was in the two games Mack tried to tough out his ankle injury, it didn’t surprise me they played better against the Jets. While Mack’s addition pushed the Bears into playoff contender status, it was about more than his mere presence.
The Bears shouldn’t need Mack to beat Buffalo, but they will in their NFC North gauntlet, which begins the next week with a Detroit-Minnesota-Detroit run through Thanksgiving.
No, this game isn’t an exhibition. The Bills’ defense should make life hard for Trubisky if the Bears can’t establish the run with Jordan Howard. The Bills are only giving up 4.1 yards per rush, 10th best in the NFL, but teams are getting plenty of opportunities to grind out runs (201 attempts, 12th-most in the NFL) against the 2-6 team. I’d put the over-under on Trubisky rushing yards at 48 with 1 1/2 touchdowns.
You don’t have to overthink this one. Bears win and improve to 5-3.
My prediction (6-1): Bears 33, Bills 6
Kevin Fishbain (5-2)
The Bills are fifth in the NFL in yards allowed per play and third in passing yards allowed per play. If the Bears want to use this game to run the ball a ton, Buffalo is ninth against the run in terms of yards per carry. Matt Nagy’s offense has been effective controlling the clock, though, as the Bears are fourth in time of possession and seventh in first downs. It’s hard to envision the Bills getting amped for an out-of-conference matchup on a short week after all that went into keeping up with the Patriots for three quarters. This will be another ugly, low-scoring affair, but I have more confidence in the Bears scoring 10-plus points than Nathan Peterman (or Matt Barkley!) and the Bills, and that may be all a team needs to win.
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My prediction: Bears 13, Bills 6
Dan Durkin (5-2)
This will be a big test for the Bears offense on the road in a hostile — and highly inebriated — environment against a strong Bills defense. It’s a great opportunity for the Bears to challenge their reshuffled offensive line to win at the line of scrimmage and pave the way for the run game against an (at times) overaggressive defensive front. Establishing Jordan Howard, then sprinkling in some reverses and jet sweeps with Tarik Cohen and Taylor Gabriel, will move the chains. Defensively, the Bears should rest Khalil Mack against a slow, talent-less Bills offense led by turnover-prone Nathan Peterman. Big win for the Bears heading in to three straight divisional games.
My prediction: Bears 20, Bills 10
Lauren Comitor (4-3)
With Nathan Peterman under center, the Bears’ run defense should be ready to assert itself for the second straight week, this time against LeSean McCoy. If they can do that, and Mitch Trubisky avoids turnovers and heeds all of Matt Nagy’s positive affirmations, the Bears should win this one pretty easily.
My prediction: Bears 27, Bills 10
Mark Lazerus (3-2)
I think I’ve finally figured out why Bills fans throw each other through tables before games. They just need to feel SOMETHING after what might be the most numbing fan experience in sports. The Bills average a league-worst 10.9 points per game and Nathan Peterman has thrown an interception on 12 percent of his career passes, so Khalil Mack should just take off another Sunday and rest up for games against actual NFL teams. Buffalo’s quarterback woes make the Krenzel/Hutchinson/Quinn era look like Bledsoe/Brady by comparison. The best quarterback on the roster is probably newly acquired wide receiver Terrelle Pryor. Put it this way: Buffalo’s a great hockey town. Come to think of it, can Jeff Skinner play quarterback?
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My prediction: Bears 20, Bills 6
Joe Ostrowski (6-1)
Crown their ass! If the Bears remain a 10-point favorite against the Bills, it’ll represent the second time in 31 years that the Monsters of the Midway are double-digit road chalk. The last time was when Brian Urlacher recorded 19 tackles and a forced fumble to help the Bears come back from a 20-0 halftime deficit to defeat the Cardinals 24-23 on Oct. 16, 2006. The Bears were favored by 10 points at Lambeau Field in Week 8 in 1987 and won 26-24. A one- and a two-point victory. Don’t let ’em off the hook (this time)!
My pick: Bears 20, Bills 10
(Top photo: Quinn Harris/USA TODAY Sports)