2017-2018 NFL Thread

[Dick Allen]

Deonte Thompson, 4 catches 107 yards in his Bills debut.

[LittleHurt05]

Deonte Thompson, 4 catches 107 yards in his Bills debut.

 

I saw that, I had to look him up to see if it was the same guy or a different Deonte Thompson. And it's not like the Bills are a proficient passing offense either.

[Dick Allen]

The Bears are boring without a doubt, but is it just me, or is the entire NFL getting pretty boring? Most games are pretty one-sided.

Edited October 23, 2017 by Dick Allen

[Kyyle23]

I just don't see why Pitt would. Sure he's disgruntled, but to this point he's still playing. The Steelers are 5-2 and he's a big part of offense.

 

He actually hasn’t been a big part, that’s why he is so upset. He is getting less targets than Ju Ju Schmidt-Schuster and that’s why he demanded a trade

[LittleHurt05]

Bears defense has been good enough for about a year now (I feel like end of october was turning point) that even with our offense I feel we could have a winning record save for one thing holding us back: our terrible terrible turnover ratio.

 

It's amazing how much turnovers help. And good special teams.

 

Having a legit pass rush to fun to watch. And of course it makes everyone else's job on defense that much easier. Hicks is earning that big payday.

[Balta1701]

The Bears are boring without a doubt, but is it just me, or is the entire NFL getting pretty boring? Most games are pretty one-sided.

There has not been a lot of exciting games this season, and Rodgers being out makes that worse.

[Balta1701]

So you see no progress in the Bears defense? Offense sucks and will suck the rest of the season, but since 1979, 7 times an NFL team has completed 4 or less passes in a game. They are 6-1 in those games.

Frankly, the Bears offense should have taken a step back from last season. They have switched from an (albeit unreliable) experienced veteran QB to a rookie, and they let their top WR (albeit unreliable) walk as a free agent. It's flat out obvious that their offense was going to take a step backwards in the hopes that it could develop a long term reliable QB and then fill talent positions around him in future drafts to take a larger step forwards in the end. They could have managed the offseason better by signing Kaepernick to a smaller deal than they gave to Glennon and spending the difference on a Pierre Garcon type, feel free to criticize management for that. They will clearly have to find several players at the WR position this offseason, draft and FA.

[bmags]

They should not have relied on Meredith but I think it's underrated how big of a loss that was. They filled out the rest with a bunch of slot guys and hoped White could take a step. So when Cam/White went down, you had a guy that was supposed to be a really good slot player be your #1.

 

But, they could have more of a pass game if they wanted. Their passing offense to the Rbs under glennon wasn't terrible. But their refusal to threaten to throw during 1st and 2nd down has forced the WRs to run longer, vertical routes which they aren't that good at instead of some slants and mid-field work to get a rhythm going.

[bmags]

There has not been a lot of exciting games this season, and Rodgers being out makes that worse.

 

Depends, if you've watched every chiefs and texans game post watson it's been pretty exciting.

 

Main stuff that hurts is Carr/Mariota have been beat up. Eagles and Rams, two teams that haven't had much national love, have also been pretty fun.

 

Instead NFL has bet a lot early on on staple franchises like Bears/Giants/etc and it hasn't paid off.

[Balta1701]

Depends, if you've watched every chiefs and texans game post watson it's been pretty exciting.

 

Main stuff that hurts is Carr/Mariota have been beat up. Eagles and Rams, two teams that haven't had much national love, have also been pretty fun.

 

Instead NFL has bet a lot early on on staple franchises like Bears/Giants/etc and it hasn't paid off.

2 of the good Chiefs games I have missed because they've been buried on Thursday nights. That Chiefs/Texans game wasn't as close as the score.

[Kyyle23]

It seems like Eli Manning should be thinking about hanging it up. Good lord the Giants are dreadful and it doesn’t look like it will get better any time soon

[bmags]

2 of the good Chiefs games I have missed because they've been buried on Thursday nights. That Chiefs/Texans game wasn't as close as the score.

 

Not every close game is exciting or blowout boring. Chiefs/Texans had a lot of fun moments.

[Chisoxfn]

So I'm not saying any of this means Trubisky will suck, but I keep seeing people say he looks good, blah blah blah. He's looked really really bad. He's a rookie, but you can see why the Bears were trying to be patient. The Bears certainly haven't "let him loose" and our receivers stink, etc, but he's been extremely indecisive with the football and taken a lot of "bad sacks". His receivers haven't helped him with some drops (I would have liked to see Cohen pick him up on that throw on the 1st drive of the game), but I don't even know what to think about our offense (other than the fact that despite tons of guys in the box, Howard is a beast). It looks historically inept.

 

Again, not making any hottake on Trubisky but I certainly haven't seen a QB who has shown any ability to read defenses too well (as he has seemed extremely "tentative" out there). Inexperience is definitely showing. I hope we see some serious progress during the second half of the season.

 

Defense was studly.

[Chisoxfn]

They should not have relied on Meredith but I think it's underrated how big of a loss that was. They filled out the rest with a bunch of slot guys and hoped White could take a step. So when Cam/White went down, you had a guy that was supposed to be a really good slot player be your #1.

 

But, they could have more of a pass game if they wanted. Their passing offense to the Rbs under glennon wasn't terrible. But their refusal to threaten to throw during 1st and 2nd down has forced the WRs to run longer, vertical routes which they aren't that good at instead of some slants and mid-field work to get a rhythm going.

I don't even know how you evaluate this offense. Glennon played bad, but literally, look at Trubisky. Only thing he has done is not turn it over as much and that probably has more to do with the fact that we barely let him drop back (and I feel half of the time Trubisky gets sacked because he makes "no decision"). It literally seems that the only way he's throwing the ball is if a guy is wide open.

[iamshack]

I don't even know how you evaluate this offense. Glennon played bad, but literally, look at Trubisky. Only thing he has done is not turn it over as much and that probably has more to do with the fact that we barely let him drop back (and I feel half of the time Trubisky gets sacked because he makes "no decision"). It literally seems that the only way he's throwing the ball is if a guy is wide open.

Yeah, I felt the same way yesterday. I still feel very good about Mitch. I suspect he was erring on the side of caution, and I'm sure the coaching staff told him to do so, but I was certainly frustrated we couldn't at least unload the ball to avoid the sacks and hits.

[Dick Allen]

So I'm not saying any of this means Trubisky will suck, but I keep seeing people say he looks good, blah blah blah. He's looked really really bad. He's a rookie, but you can see why the Bears were trying to be patient. The Bears certainly haven't "let him loose" and our receivers stink, etc, but he's been extremely indecisive with the football and taken a lot of "bad sacks". His receivers haven't helped him with some drops (I would have liked to see Cohen pick him up on that throw on the 1st drive of the game), but I don't even know what to think about our offense (other than the fact that despite tons of guys in the box, Howard is a beast). It looks historically inept.

 

Again, not making any hottake on Trubisky but I certainly haven't seen a QB who has shown any ability to read defenses too well (as he has seemed extremely "tentative" out there). Inexperience is definitely showing. I hope we see some serious progress during the second half of the season.

 

Defense was studly.

Hampton and OB were ready to call Trubisky a bust, wondering why he hasn't "improved". He doesn't have receivers who can get open, and the line hasn't exactly given him all day to throw, and he needs some experience.

 

Like you wrote, we are seeing why the Bears are being patient and didn't want to throw him to the wolves based on a couple of exhiibtion performances, which, at least one of them wouldn't have been so highly thought of except for some bad defense.

[bmags]

I don't even know how you evaluate this offense. Glennon played bad, but literally, look at Trubisky. Only thing he has done is not turn it over as much and that probably has more to do with the fact that we barely let him drop back (and I feel half of the time Trubisky gets sacked because he makes "no decision"). It literally seems that the only way he's throwing the ball is if a guy is wide open.

 

If the Bears wanted to have a passing game then I'll evaluate Trubisky. They don't want a passing game. The Minnesota game he was fine against a pretty good defense. Since then John Fox has decided that running the ball will be the whole offense. It's "worked" due to our defense so congrats to him.

 

But consistently putting him in 3rd and longs as his only passing situations where teams blitz and press receivers who can't release and then saying "man he looks bad" isn't really interesting to me. Has he been given the chance to have 3 straight passes in a series? He had 12 passing plays called in an entire game.

 

Good way for Trubisky to get as many attempts as glennon is to immediately turn over ball multiple times and have us behind 17-0. Maybe this is what we'd look like with a Glennon who didn't turn the ball over.

[Chisoxfn]

Hampton and OB were ready to call Trubisky a bust, wondering why he hasn't "improved". He doesn't have receivers who can get open, and the line hasn't exactly given him all day to throw, and he needs some experience.

 

Like you wrote, we are seeing why the Bears are being patient and didn't want to throw him to the wolves based on a couple of exhiibtion performances, which, at least one of them wouldn't have been so highly thought of except for some bad defense.

I'm literally going back to the fact that you really don't want to put guys in "too" soon because they might not be ready to learn and get better quick enough. We'll see...nice that they have gotten those wins but as we get into the second half of the season, if he keeps playing like he did the past couple weeks, people are going to get pretty negative pretty fast. Look at the Browns...rushed Kizer and now he's been benched.

[soxfan49]

So I'm not saying any of this means Trubisky will suck, but I keep seeing people say he looks good, blah blah blah. He's looked really really bad. He's a rookie, but you can see why the Bears were trying to be patient. The Bears certainly haven't "let him loose" and our receivers stink, etc, but he's been extremely indecisive with the football and taken a lot of "bad sacks". His receivers haven't helped him with some drops (I would have liked to see Cohen pick him up on that throw on the 1st drive of the game), but I don't even know what to think about our offense (other than the fact that despite tons of guys in the box, Howard is a beast). It looks historically inept.

 

Again, not making any hottake on Trubisky but I certainly haven't seen a QB who has shown any ability to read defenses too well (as he has seemed extremely "tentative" out there). Inexperience is definitely showing. I hope we see some serious progress during the second half of the season.

 

Defense was studly.

Not that every beat writer is correct, but Adam Hoge among others said only one of the 4 sacks taken was a bad sack.

 

I also would disagree that he has looked "really really bad." He's looked average. To me, "really really bad" would be like 2-7 with 2 INT's and a fumble lost.

[Kyyle23]

Cohen dropped a perfect back shoulder pass on the first drive and also dropped a bubble screen pass. His numbers should have been better, and the playcalling is doing him zero favors. He also isn’t throwing to guys that are only wide open, he is hitting guys in stride within windows

 

https://twitter.com/nflfilmstudy/status/922283325288599552

 

https://twitter.com/_marcusd2_/status/922162218896183297

 

 

[Balta1701]

I'm literally going back to the fact that you really don't want to put guys in "too" soon because they might not be ready to learn and get better quick enough. We'll see...nice that they have gotten those wins but as we get into the second half of the season, if he keeps playing like he did the past couple weeks, people are going to get pretty negative pretty fast. Look at the Browns...rushed Kizer and now he's been benched.

What you've got to hope is a Jared Goff like situation here. Goff was completely overmatched in the 7 games he started in 2016, he was legitimately terrible. Like, Trubisky's current passer rating is 19 points ahead of Goff in 2016 terrible. Goff was inexperienced and coming out of a small school so he had never played against that kind of talent. This year, including a few trades and an upgraded roster around him, he's currently 6th in the NFL in Passing Yards, 6th in yards/attempt, 14th in quarterback rating. He's not the best QB in the league, but he's playing like a legit starter on a 5-2, top of the division team. That's where you hope Trubisky can get within a year.

[Balta1701]

Not that every beat writer is correct, but Adam Hoge among others said only one of the 4 sacks taken was a bad sack.

 

I also would disagree that he has looked "really really bad." He's looked average. To me, "really really bad" would be like 2-7 with 2 INT's and a fumble lost.

I definitely feel like on many of the sacks I saw he is holding the ball too long, but when your receiving corps is a weak as the Bears', he's not going to have many open, well-positioned targets either. These issues aren't unrelated.

[bmags]

What you've got to hope is a Jared Goff like situation here. Goff was completely overmatched in the 7 games he started in 2016, he was legitimately terrible. Like, Trubisky's current passer rating is 19 points ahead of Goff in 2016 terrible. Goff was inexperienced and coming out of a small school so he had never played against that kind of talent. This year, including a few trades and an upgraded roster around him, he's currently 6th in the NFL in Passing Yards, 6th in yards/attempt, 14th in quarterback rating. He's not the best QB in the league, but he's playing like a legit starter on a 5-2, top of the division team. That's where you hope Trubisky can get within a year.

 

Gonna stand up for Cal here...not that small of a school. Maybe you were thinking Wentz?

 

Goff was playing in as silly-simple an offense as ours is last year, but he was at least getting 25ish attempts per game if not more, except the last game where maybe it was partial, hard to tell.

[Balta1701]

Gonna stand up for Cal here...not that small of a school. Maybe you were thinking Wentz?

 

Goff was playing in as silly-simple an offense as ours is last year, but he was at least getting 25ish attempts per game if not more, except the last game where maybe it was partial, hard to tell.

D'Oh, yeah, I crossed up Wentz's school and Goff's school.

[Chisoxfn]

What you've got to hope is a Jared Goff like situation here. Goff was completely overmatched in the 7 games he started in 2016, he was legitimately terrible. Like, Trubisky's current passer rating is 19 points ahead of Goff in 2016 terrible. Goff was inexperienced and coming out of a small school so he had never played against that kind of talent. This year, including a few trades and an upgraded roster around him, he's currently 6th in the NFL in Passing Yards, 6th in yards/attempt, 14th in quarterback rating. He's not the best QB in the league, but he's playing like a legit starter on a 5-2, top of the division team. That's where you hope Trubisky can get within a year.

I agree with you. Goff looked a lot worse. And I think I caveated a few times, it is hard to truly evaluate him based upon the playcalling. Yes, he's thrown into some windows but his drop back to sack percentage is pretty freaking high (and I don't think our oline is that bad). It very well might be that our receivers are just that bad and he has nothing else he can do. This week will be interesting because I see no scenario where we are going to be able to not throw the ball. New Orleans is going to score points and we will have to throw the football.