Windy City Gridiron
I have been thinking lately about when I worked the ovens at the local pizza place in high school. Shoutout and RIP to Pat’s Pizza in Grayslake.
Anyway, like most first jobs or low-paying jobs in general, it had elements of repetition.
Folding the pizza boxes for boxing up the pizzas, for example.
It took me a while to get the process down: take flat box, pop the back perforation, slide down and fold up the two sides and front, then slip in the pizza and fold the sides and top of the lid and close it up.
I did that over and over again and eventually I could do it quickly.
In the context of the Bears and Caleb Williams, I have been thinking about that repetition.
I can only imagine what repping a football play is like at the NFL level. With all of the information and steps you need to process. It would take a long time to truly master. You can do it faster and faster in practice. But now you have defense, with defenders doing different things. And you have footwork, throwing mechanics, where to look based on the coverage, etc.
Caleb took some good steps from week one to week two. Let’s hope he’s going to get sharper and sharper with more game reps.
Pretty soon, he’ll be boxing up pizzas. And by pizzas, I mean touchdown passes. Or something. This wasn’t a well-thought-out analogy.
On to the Cowboys.
Dallas Cowboys
SB Nation site: Blogging the Boys
Record: 1-1, second in NFC East
Last week: 40-37 OT win over the New York Giants
Game day, time, TV: Sunday, noon CT, FOX
Spread: The Chicago Bears are favored by 1.5 points.
Bears all-time record against: 12-16, including postseason
Historical meetings: Back in week three of the 2016 season, the 0-2 Bears went to Dallas to face the 1-1 Cowboys.
The Cowboys scored on their first four drives with three of the scores being touchdowns. The Bears could only muster one field goal before halftime.
Finally, in the third quarter, Brian Hoyer, filling in for the injured Jay Cutler, led a touchdown drive.
Dak Prescott hit Dez Bryant for another Dallas touchdown. Hoyer found Zach Miller for the second time in garbage time as the Bears lost 31-17 on Sunday Night Football.
Ezekiel Elliott finished with 140 rushing yards but no touchdowns as Dallas let Alfred Morris and Lance Dunbar get the short-yardage work.
Last meeting: Week eight in 2022, the Bears got smoked by the Cowboys 49-29.
Justin Fields led the Bears back from a 28-7 deficit to make it a 28-23 game in the third quarter.
But Tony Pollard scored and Micah Parsons returned a Fields fumble for a 36-yard touchdown all but sealing the game.
Injury report: The Cowboys listed four players on their Wednesday injury report.
Limited participation
Did not participate
Offense:...
