August 12, 2023: The Return of the Bears

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It was finally here. What, week 1? No, preseason… who cares…haha. Still, it WAS the return of the Bears to the football field, playing an actual game against an opponent; we should definitely take note. Unfortunately, the preseason doesn’t count in the big scheme of things, because the Bears made their return to Soldier Field a triumphant one, beating the Titans 23-17.

I wasn’t happy, because I did take the Titans ML; I thought their QB depth was better than ours… it is, and they had their shot to beat us, multiple shots, but blew it… of course; my undefeated 3-0 record in the preseason was ruined… haha. That’s OK. I was hoping that Fields would complete a big pass or two, show off the arm; when I saw the scores come across ESPN Gamecast, I got what I wanted… well, sort of. The 2 big plays to DJ Moore and Khalil Herbert were short passes that were turned into long gains ending in a TD. It looked great on the stat sheet, but in actuality, they weren’t the big down field throws that I was hoping to see in the preseason. Still, they WERE long gains for TDs. Justin DID throw the passes. Are we supposed to apologize for that? Heck naw. It was GREAT to see some explosiveness on offense for the Bears; now there’s a phrase I’ve rarely used in my lifetime as a Bears fan. Explosiveness on offense?!?! Yeah, how about that? Is this a preview of what we have to look forward to when the games count?

The defense held its own too. In fact, they pitched a shut out in the 2nd half. Not sure what all of that means except the above fact that they blew my bet, but… hey, we’ll take it. A W is a W, and if we’re going to stack them this year, no time like the present to start. What else can we take from this preseason victory?

Well, everybody came out healthy (I think); that’s a biggie. In fact, keeping Justin Fields healthy for the entire season is near, if not AT, the top of the list of items we want to achieve this year. That rookie RB from Texas looked good too; having some depth in the backfield could prove important as the year goes on. I’m not going to rewatch a preseason game; I missed most of it due to prior commitments. From what I’ve seen and read, it all feels pretty good coming out of this one.

Thankfully, they did make the preseason only 3 games long instead of 4; that made a whole lot of sense, especially when it was replaced with another regular season game. Other than skewing the stats for all the previous 16 game regular seasons, who doesn’t want MORE football, especially games that actually count. I’ll stick to my feelings about preseason, and that it matters little in the big scheme of things, unless you have money on it. Yet, I will take this as a positive development leading into the season; let’s keep ramping it up… let’s keep the mojo rolling. Week 1 is right around the corner. Bear Down!!!

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