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One day after the first game in the history of the NFL in which both teams scored 50 points or more, Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio wondered if he thought the Rams-Kansas thriller City Chiefs of Los Angeles, Monday night, was a turning point for the league.
"I thought 1958 Giants and Colts was the big game," said Fangio. "I do not know, I think we're living in a week-long news cycle in the NFL, let's see what happens next week."
Fangio's answer was a fantastic answer: the 1958 Giants-Colts NFL Championship game is considered "the biggest match ever played" and its huge growth is attributed to the popularity of the sport. Sixty years later, an extremely entertaining 54-51 game in front of a national audience in prime time may not have been a turning point for the NFL – but it was certainly indicative of the direction taken by the madness passes.
"The score is not what I would like to see as a geek," Fangio said.
While the Rams and Chiefs totaled 105 points and 1,001 yards, the outcome of the match was still heavily influenced by the defense. Rams' defensive end Samson Ebukam scored two touchdowns, and Aaron Donald – Khalil Mack's biggest defensive player of the year – still managed to destroy games Match. The Rams intercepted Patrick Mahomes three times, including two from the last two possessions to win their three-point victory.
The point here is this: It's not necessarily that one or the other team played a "bad" defense. The fact is that to succeed in defending against one of the best NFL offenses, turnovers must be generated because even the poorest offenses can generate yards and points. The Rams won largely because they generated five turnovers, while the Chiefs had only two.
We do not know what the Bears defense would do if they were given the opportunity to play against one of these teams, but we'll know it in the 14th week when Los Angeles will show up at Soldier Field for a Sunday night date. This is an exciting test for the NFL's position in 2018: what can the league's best defense against the Bears do against one of its top three Rams offenses?
What should give the Bears a bit of optimism is their penchant for creating turnovers – Fangio's group is leading the NFL with 27 takeaways, two more than the Cleveland Brown and seven more than the Rams, which ranks fourth. No NFL team is better at keeping their opponents out of the end zone and creating these critical turnarounds.
And the way this will be played in a few weeks could actually be a decisive game for the NFL compared to the one we saw Monday night.
Point taken
Matt Nagy, to say the least, enjoyed Monday night's game a little more than his defensive coordinator.
"It could be a moment when people look back," said Nagy. "… Now, people were excited. When you have teams in the NFL, both teams have records as good as they are – 9-1, one against the other. His NFC, his AFC. It will always be a big advance. And then you have an amazing coach with tons of experience against an amazing coach with little experience – that's what people like.
"It was great, in my opinion, great for the league. There were still a lot of good defensive games in there. It's just, shoot, to see these defensive touchdowns, interceptions, there were fireworks. And I think that's what people like.
Illegal and dirty or just illegal?
The Bears were certainly not happy with the Minnesota Vikings' safety, Harrison Smith, who had hit Mitch Trubisky in the game where he was injured in the shoulder, but no one was safe. is publicly complaining of him as a dirty player coming from Halas Hall. the week.
"It was not intentional," Nagy said. "Again, it's football. It's an illegal move. You always want to look at things from both sides and you hope it is not malicious. But if it is a late success, it can be difficult for you. But, again, there are so many variables that go into that. Mitch is a tough kid. We will see what happens. "
Chase Daniel – who is virtually guaranteed to start Thursday against the Detroit Lions – seemed a little more troubled when asked about success.
"I knew it was a very late blow, something that I do not think it should have happened," Daniel said. "It's a bit crazy how it went – it should not have happened that way."
Yet, as former quarterback Donovan McNabb pointed out at "SportsTalk Live" on Tuesday, Trubisky's way of slipping – his head in the foreground, not the feet first – allowed him to be hit the same way. way that Smith. And security, Eddie Jackson, who did not take a look at the hit, explained that it was difficult for the defenders to try to determine the quarter's intent when he had the ball in his hands.
"It's difficult as a defender trying to get in because you do not really know if a guy is going to slide or stand up," Jackson said. "Especially with Mitch, he can have you now. But it's our quarterback. We always want to play and try to play clean. But it's difficult in two-part decision making.
"But Mitch is our guy, man. He will surely rebound.
Bears officially bring aboard Bray
The Bears announced Wednesday afternoon, as expected, that they have recruited quarterback Tyler Bray from their training squad to train 53 players. Bray will support Daniel, who should start, against the Lions on Thanksgiving. Trubisky has certainly traveled with the Bears to Detroit, but signing Bray makes it even more unlikely that Trubisky will play Thursday.
To make room for Bray in the lineup of 53 players, the cornerback freed from the Bears, Marcus Cooper.
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