I tend to be very critical of the Bears, but right now I am fairly optimistic. I expected the Bears to go in to December with two wins. They already have two wins. They won two games I thought they would lose, and in this one this week, they had a chance to win and they didn't get it done. Overall they have already exceeded my expectations, but they aren't a very good team. They will lose some games they have a chance to win.
I am pleased with what I have seen from Pace and the coaching staff. Fact is the cupboard was bare on this defense coming in to this year. Pace has signed some solid free agents. McPhee is probably the only Pro Bowl level talent on the defense. Yet the Bears D is ranked in the middle of the pack. That is much better than the last few years. Fangio has done a really good job getting the most out of this group of players. There isn't a great deal of talent here, but Fangio managed to make this group an average D. I think this is really good coaching. Gase has done a good job getting what he can out of this offense. Cutler is playing better, which I think is a direct result of Gase. And this is despite the WRs being dinged up, and probably a below average offensive line.
Pace did a good job signing McPhee, Acho, Jenkins and Rolle. All is not perfect. I think Royal was overpaid, and he has been a disappointment. But Pace seems to have made some reasonable free agent signings. Pace's first draft seems pretty solid. We haven't seen Kevin White yet, but Amos, Grasu, and Goldman look solid so far. If the Bears can get four starters out of this draft that is a huge improvement over what Emery did. But the thing we have to recognize is that it is going to take a couple of years to really stock this team with enough talent to compete at a playoff level. But if Pace can continue to draft well, and sign sensible, solid free agents, the talent level on this team should be greatly improved. And after seeing what this coaching staff has done with the talent they have now I am optimistic about where they are headed.