I knew Khalil Mack was good but I’m honestly glad he’s on the resurgent Bears now because he seems like he’s getting the recognition he deserved in Oakland. Of course, part of that is due to the circumstances that landed him on the Bears, but still. Mack is a force, the Bears defense is probably this year’s playoffs nightmare matchup, and everything is fun. Except Oakland. The Raiders aren’t fun.

I honestly think the Bears are big Super Bowl favorites. There is always the one team with a killer defense and a mediocre offense that makes it farther than people expect. The Ravens. The Giants. The Broncos. Hell even the Colts vs the Bears in 2006 was between a team that finally found a defense when it mattered (Colts) and the best defense in the league (Bears). The Rams are the well oiled offensive machine and the Saints seem like the strongest all-around team in the conference, but something about the Bears feels right. This feels like a team that, if Mitch Trubisky decides to pull a playoff Eli/Flacco, this team could just march into the big game and win it. They really are that close. Coach Matt Nagy deserves respect around his name. Between him and Anthony Lynn on the Chargers we have some quality competition for Coach of the Year.

If we could have a sort of “worst coach of the year” award Gruden would certainly be the favorite. On one, very very small hand, I sort of respect that he’s committed to making the team his way. Jettison everything, plan for the long term, deal with the suck in the meantime as you tear it all down. He ousted Reggie McKenzie and soon Reggie’s work will be mostly gone. Hell the Raiders may not even be playing in Oakland next season. I think I’ve gone on record before in stating that they should embrace the Mad Max look and just become road warriors, never playing at home and always traveling on a big fancy bus.

Comic updates: This is that stressful stupid time of year where a lot of shit is going on (including travel), so expect a lot of checkdowns in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully a few regulars will be involved, but I don’t expect things to have a regular schedule until 2019. I might just do a bunch of extra checkdowns to keep up.