The Bears defense was awful when the Bengals played them in the middle of the season, but they almost carried a flawed QB to the NFC championship game anyway.

Chicago has a real defensive coordinator who figured out how to use his players as the season went on, so that’s an obviously advantage over the Bengals.

Last winter the Bears also hired the best candidate to be their head coach, and they won their division with a diversified running game and improved quarterback play.

Of course this was also a reminder of why Caleb Williams is polarizing. He made that amazing throw to tie the game (which was a prayer) in the fourth quarter but threw three interceptions to undermine his team’s ability to win.

The Bills seemed like the obvious pick to win the AFC, but they blew it by committing five turnovers against Denver.

Now the Broncos will go into the AFC Championship game handicapped by the loss of QB Bo Nix against likely frauds New England.

The winner gets to be torched in the Super Bowl, especially if it’s Seattle.

Both AFC games were decided by lopsided turnover margins, though I didn’t get to see much of the Patriots-Texans game so I don’t know what was going on with C.J. Stroud, but that is another team that has a good young coach who seems to make his team better rather than the other way around.

I didn’t weigh in on the Duke Tobin press conference last week because there was a lot of other stuff going on, but I think the fatal flaw is faith in the coaching staff.

I’m much more OK with hoping some of these young defenders (not the linebackers) could improve (while adding a few key free agents and more draft picks) aside from the fact I just don’t believe they have the coaching staff in place to do it.

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I guess I’ll have a similar feeling tonight when Indiana and Miami (Fla.) play each other for the college football national championship.

It should be a fun game, but I’d rather be there.

Also: Did Ohio State blow it, or were the Buckeyes just not good enough to beat these teams?

Yes.

I wrote right after the Cotton Bowl the 2025 Buckeyes were really not that dominant force we made them out to be for most of the regular season. I was a little wary of that all season as the hype built, but still maybe that reaction was a little knee-jerk.

With some nuance, I still think it’s correct. Ohio State was not an all-time great team, but they were certainly still good enough to win it all, especially with a better plan on offense in the last two games.

How do you feel with a little more time to think about it?

As far as being on the right track, I still like what they were trying to do all season as far as lean into more heavy formations and learning to play bully ball. They just didn’t get there.

The NFL Playoffs provided more proof of this as so many teams were leaning on the running game and also using three tight ends frequently. Formations with six offensive linemen were also popular this season.

The problem was Ohio State still wasn’t quite equipped to do it. The offensive line was not able to just punish people (except Michigan), and the running backs left a lot of yards on the field. So did Julian Sayin, who needed to be more precise (maybe unfairly for a redshirt freshman) for this plan to work because it lowers the margin for error when there are fewer plays and fewer opportunities to attack.

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We got a report Monday morning from fellow Buckeye Sports Bulletin alumnus Mike Wachsman that Day is looking at three NFL offensive coaches to be his next offensive coordinator.

That is an intriguing list to me so we’ll see if anything comes together this week.

(It’s also a signal promoting from within again is not fait accompli.)

Nagy struggled as a head coach for the Bears, but he was part of the rise of Patrick Mahomes as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for the Chiefs before that.

Bringing the Andy Reid West Coast offense influence to mix with Day’s schemes could be interesting.

Greg Roman is known for developing powerful running games, and so was Jonathan Smith before his quick and painful stint as head coach at Michigan State, so it would seem Day still has a certain vision for this offense that involves a diverse running game that is an asset rather thank a weakness.

Flashback: Ohio State hires Jim Tressel