Caleb Williams almost pulled another rabbit out of his hat in Week 17. And while it could be easy to point fingers or play the woulda, coulda, shoulda game with the final play of the Week 17 thriller between the Chicago Bears and San Francisco 49ers on Sunday Night Football, it was Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson who pointed the finger inward when discussing what happened on that fateful play.
“We didn’t quite get aligned in the formation we wanted to,” Johnson said via the Bears’ official w...
It was fitting that, in a season defined by the 49ers’ ability to overcome injury adversity, they were forced to produce one of their best offensive performances of the season in a must-win game without two of their most important players on that side of the ball. On paper, losing Trent Williams to a hamstring […]
Even though the Blackhawks played back-to-back days coming out of the Christmas break, they still practices on Monday. And… there was a lot going on.
Some good news right out of the gate: Connor Bedard was on the ice before the rest of his teammates. He did not shoot the puck, but was skating and doing some puck handling stuff. Blackhawks head coach Jeff Blashill said there is no change to Bedard’s timeline; he’ll still be evaluated after the calendar flips to 2026. But he was on the ice ...
A report out of Japan indicates that Japanese infielder Kazuma Okamoto is now in the United States ahead of the January 4 expiration of his posting period for MLB teams. He is reportedly meeting with his agent, Scott Boras, and visiting interested teams. This sounds like what we heard over the weekend about Tatsuya Imai, whose posting expires two days earlier.
I suppose that means we need to be on the lookout for clandestine meetings at Wrigley Field this week.
The Cubs should just h...
The final score wasn’t exactly what we hoped for, but the Bears and 49ers played one heck of a football game. No, Ben Johnson’s team wasn’t able to pull off its seventh come-from-behind victory with less than two minutes left this season, but what they did do is establish that they can hang with anyone they’ll come across in the playoffs on a given day.
That doesn’t mean the Bears aren’t flawed. They are. The defense thrives on taking the ball away and struggles mightily when it doesn’t. ...
If you’re wondering whether the Detroit Lions are going to play all of their starter in a “meaningless” Week 18 game against the Chicago Bears, coach Dan Campbell gave a resounding… maybe? Unsurprisingly, Campbell mentioned that the game can say a lot about a team’s set of players, and it’s the standard in Detroit to […]
In one of the most entertaining games of the year, the Chicago Bears fell short in the final seconds to lose to the San Francisco 49ers 38-42. Here are my notes from the wild shootout. Offense: Defense: Special Teams:
The San Francisco 49ers have scored over 40 points in three of their previous six games, and they scored 37 in one of those games. The offense is operating at a level that rivals its 2023 second-half stretch. The quarterback is healthy and using his entire skill set. The running game has finally caught up […]
Although Alex Bregman is one of the most highly sought-after free agents this winter, his market has been fairly narrow and well-defined for a while now. And yet, lately, the specifics have begun to evolve.
A few weeks ago, Bregman’s market was pretty unanimously boiled down to three teams: (1) The Cubs, who made him an offer last offseason, (2) the Tigers, who made him an offer last offseason, and (3) the incumbent Red Sox, who signed him last offseason. Today, that looks a little differ...
The Chicago Bears looked discombobulated on the final play of the game. San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said he “thought about” calling a timeout, but “Wanted to see the look and then they just went fast and let it ride.” Linebacker Tatum Bethune told the 49ers broadcast that he and Dee Winters were […]
The San Francisco 49ers survived their Sunday night tilt against the Chicago Bears by a score of 42-38 in an offensive slugfest that came down to the Bears’ offense simply running out of time. The game started with Brock Purdy and the 49ers’ offense spotting Chicago the first seven points, and from there it came […]
It is, I suppose, a testament to the 2025 Cubs season that all five of these games — plus one of the two “honorable mention” games — were in the season’s first half. That’s when the Cubs offense was cruising and they put together a division lead. Of course, you know about the struggles in […]
Because we’re now just five days away from the posting deadline on Tatsuya Imai (Friday, January 2), I feel obliged to offer some kind of update on the Japanese ace. Reports have long had the Cubs as one of the interested parties, but, as we’ve discussed , details beyond that are ultra slim. It’s starting to look a whole lot like the Munetaka Murakami situation, where the ultimate signing team may be a relative surprise.
Maybe even to Tatsuya Imai, himself!
Consider some comments he ...
You could tell early on that Sunday night football was going to be one of those games. San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan felt it right away, as did most fans. Shanahan went as far as to say that he felt like he lost the game when he decided to punt for the second […]
With three nights off last week, we didn’t have as many games as usual this week. That means that our rankings won’t move all that much from last time. And more importantly, it means fewer opportunities to learn anything new. That’s bad news for me, because there are a handful of teams where I need all the information I can get, because I just can’t figure them out. I’m not clueless about absolutely everyone. I know that the Avalanche are good, and that the Blackhawks are bad, and that all of ...
That stretch of days between Christmas Eve and New Years Day is truly a land of contrasts. Let’s navigate it together while talking about the Chicago Bears.
This captures the spirit of the thing:
WHAT. A. GAME. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/iRp4tWU5sK — DraftKings Sportsbook (@DKSportsbook) December 29, 2025
If you can’t remember the last time you felt “good” after a Bears loss, just know that you are not alone. No self-respecting Bears fan wanted to see that team lose last nigh...
The Pittsburgh Penguins did their part to salvage the Pittsburgh sports weekend by not only beating the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday night, but by also outscoring the local football team. So there is that to hang your hat on. It was a much-needed win for the Penguins, and one that they quite frankly should have […]
Luther Burden III has emerged as a dynamic player for the Chicago Bears during his rookie season, which is why many were more concerned with his health at the end of the game than the resulting loss. Earlier this morning, Adam Schefter spread good cheer, indicating that Burden “suffered a quad injury that is not […]
The Detroit Lions (8-8) and Chicago Bears (11-5) will square off in a Week 18 divisional rivalry game. Unfortunately, this game has lost a bit of its luster, as the Lions are limping toward the end of the season, and the Bears have already clinched the NFC North title, their first since 2018. The folks […]
While the San Francisco 49ers are alive in the race for the NFL’s No. 1 seed after beating the Chicago Bears 42-38, there is one narrative that can die: Brock Purdy not being worth that huge contract he signed in the offseason. If you watched this and last week’s game against the Indianapolis Colts, you […]
The Cubs haven’t made any major signings to date this offseason. This, you know. Not bringing you any new information here. Jed Hoyer and Co., however, have signed a flurry of new relief pitchers to the staff. As of the time of this post, one of those signings has not yet been officially announced by […]
It was bound to happen eventually. The Chicago Bears fell two yards short in a comeback attempt, and they lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 42 to 38. It was an exciting back-and-forth game, but the final pass fell incomplete as time expired. “We didn’t quite get aligned in the formation we wanted to. It’s […]
The White Sox have set the table for an interesting trade with this offseason’s transactions. Rule 5 Draft additions and Chicago’s signings of infielder/DH Munetaka Murakami and pitcher Sean Newcomb maxes out the 40-man roster while upgrading key positions. With a flurry of new talent expected to flood the field in 2026, the Sox must […]
Last week, I posed the question — are the Sixers good? Well, in the time since, the team dropped three straight games to the Brooklyn Nets, Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder. They’ve started a season-long, five-game road trip 0-2 (and the next three games are no picnic) and have a 16-14 record, which is […]
Just a few more days left of having to catch myself when trying to reference the previous season and the following season, without simply being able to say “this year” or “last year” in a very clean and easy way.
It’s TBD what it’ll actually mean , but The Athletic is reporting that, “The expectation is for Baltimore to remain in the market for starting pitching help” even after re-signing Zach Eflin last night . My hope is that they’re out, so that they aren’t additional competition on...