Official 2018-19 NFL Thread

[bmags]

4 minutes ago, AustinIllini said:

I'm not sure what anyone expected, but for a guy with little experience in his first game running a real NFL offense, it's hard for me to complain about Trubisky.  

And don't look now, but he was better than Watson was yesterday.  Watson looked like a rookie again.

The difference to me is that Watson has shown that he can throw up big numbers in a game. I expect highs and lows but the highs for trubisky have been nothing you couldn't get from signing someone like Tyrod Taylor or other free agent qb tier acquisitions.

Okay, he can controlt he ball, but he rarely throws over 200 yards and has terrible time finding end zone. Those should be "low" games but instead we say that is a decent game.

[Bananarchy]

1 minute ago, bmags said:

The difference to me is that Watson has shown that he can throw up big numbers in a game. I expect highs and lows but the highs for trubisky have been nothing you couldn't get from signing someone like Tyrod Taylor or other free agent qb tier acquisitions.

Okay, he can controlt he ball, but he rarely throws over 200 yards and has terrible time finding end zone. Those should be "low" games but instead we say that is a decent game.

I can't draw any conclusions like that yet.  Yesterday was his first game under a real offensive mind.  

[Jenksismyhero]

10 hours ago, bmags said:

At some point, Bears are going to have to win games. It’s been 4 years.

Try 25-30. 

 

9 hours ago, Chisoxfn said:

Mitch wasn’t even bad. Mahomes looked great and let’s remember who spent a bunch of time last season coaching him....

Watson was lousy today against a mediocre patriots defense. 

Lots of qbs were mediocre and inconsistent to start their careers. It tends to be more the norm. Plus, I’m not even really judging that first year with whatever the heck offense they were running. 

 

The problem for me is that those other guys clearly have the tools to sling it around the field. They may be off one game, they may have some issues reading defenses or calling audibles or whatever to get the best matchup, but at the end of the day they have other worldly arm talent to march you down the field and win a ball game for you. Sometimes that talent burns you (Cutler) but odds are that type of QB is going to be more successful than the dink and dunk game manager. Through about 13 games now Trubisky looks like Grossman before he hurt his ankle - elusive, decent speed, good around the pocket, can make one or two throws but otherwise average, average, average. I had zero confidence that he was going to get the Bears into field goal range because he just can't make the throws when the pressure is on. 

8 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said:

The Bears have basically been a joke on and off the field since the end of the 1991 season. A good season here and there but basically Cincinnati Bengals bad over the course of 25 years. Nothing changed tonight and they had a golden opportunity to start writing a new script. Instead they fell flat on their faces.

Totally agree.

 

This is the same Bears team we've seen for decades - solid defense, solid run game, shitty QB = 6 to 9 wins, no playoffs. 

 

 

[bmags]

14 minutes ago, Harry Chappas said:

Here are my hot takes.

The Bears O line cannot run block.  Seemed like very little room up the middle.

How are the wide receivers gassed in the second half.  That is a pretty big indictment of the coaching staff.  Yet again they cannot appear to get open at all.  Robinson looks slower than shit.

The DBs were pathetic.  I have to think they had more YAC then yards of actual passing.

The second half coaching was abysmal on both sides of the ball and the play calling was mystifying.

Pick up Cohen in fantasy football as he appears to be the number 1 option in this offense. 

 

The lack of burton was mystifying to me. I thought pack may make concerted effort to take away middle of field since trubisky has not shown he'll burn you out wide and maybe that was case.

Again, scary to me the packers shifted to zone and bears had no ability to recognize pre-snap. I thought that was the benefit of this offense.

[soxfan49]

45 minutes ago, Harry Chappas said:

Here are my hot takes.

The Bears O line cannot run block.  Seemed like very little room up the middle.

As of like 10 minutes in the 4th quarter, Howard was averaging 5.4 ypc. Kush does suck, however.

How are the wide receivers gassed in the second half.  That is a pretty big indictment of the coaching staff.  Yet again they cannot appear to get open at all.  Robinson looks slower than shit.

Were they not open? Or was Trubisky just not finding them?

The DBs were pathetic.  I have to think they had more YAC then yards of actual passing.

The Cobb play was horrible indeed. Fuller sucks. He can't catch a freakin' cold. Amukamara is soft.

The second half coaching was abysmal on both sides of the ball and the play calling was mystifying.

Pick up Cohen in fantasy football as he appears to be the number 1 option in this offense. 

 

 

[GoSox05]

I thought Rodgers tore his ACL yesterday.  I was like I guess this is going to be a short season.

The throw he made to Geronimo Allison was just insane.  I try not to take that stuff for granted.  He threw a ball 50 plus yards down field and put it on the exact spot for Allison in the back corner of the end zone.  Fuller had good coverage.

[soxfan49]

1 hour ago, StrangeSox said:

if they did a good thing instead of a bad, dumb thing they would be praised for being good, yes.

Don't be ridiculous. In hindsight, yeah maybe the pass works to Sims. Maybe it works at the end of the game, but they have a Pro Bowl RB. The easy call is a run with Howard. If he doesn't get it, they're in the same spot. At that point, everyone and their mom knew Rodgers was scoring a TD, which is why on 4th and 1, I either run it again or QB sneak it.

[Chisoxfn]

2 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

As painful as that loss was, there were some significant positives.  The front seven of the defense looks like it will be elite (health permitting), with Mack looking like an absolute game changer.  The offense has a ton of weapons, perhaps more than I can remember in my lifetime as a Bears fan.  And they all offer different looks/skills, which should work wonders for an innovate mind like Nagy.  Regarding Mitch, he flashed both good & bad at times.  There were moments I thought he looked very composed in the pocket despite being rushed whereas down the stretch when the pressure turned up a notch he was missing passes by a wide margin.  I’ll keep saying it but he needs more time to learn the offense and adjust to the speed of the NFL.  People have way too high of expectations of him here.

The biggest disappointment to me was Nagy.  Whoever said he was playing to not lose in the second half is right.  The play calling was way too conservative (and stupid at times) and it’s clear he didn’t want to risk Mitch turning over the the ball.  And I’ve already said, but not going for it on 4th & 1 while on the road against an all-time great QB with all the momentum was just plain dumb IMO.  Having said all that, one game doesn’t change my long term outlook on Nagy which is incredibly positive.  He’ll learn from this and become a better coach in the long-run. 

Fantastic post.  I'll also say, I think the Packers have a good defensive line, especially against the run, and Howard made things look pretty easy. If the oline stays healthy as does Howard, we should be able to run the ball. Howard's hands also looked good. Hopefully he keeps that up.  

[Brian]

To even think about passing on that 3rd and 1, risk the incompletion, settle for 3, AND give the ball back to Rodgers with over 2 minutes left was mind numbing to me. Even if they stop the run, the clock gets to the 2 minute warning.

[soxfan49]

5 minutes ago, Brian said:

To even think about passing on that 3rd and 1, risk the incompletion, settle for 3, AND give the ball back to Rodgers with over 2 minutes left was mind numbing to me. Even if they stop the run, the clock gets to the 2 minute warning.

And even then, I would have went for it on 4th and 1. Either way, Rodgers is scoring a TD, so a 24-23 loss is the same as 24-20.

[Chisoxfn]

2 hours ago, bmags said:

The difference to me is that Watson has shown that he can throw up big numbers in a game. I expect highs and lows but the highs for trubisky have been nothing you couldn't get from signing someone like Tyrod Taylor or other free agent qb tier acquisitions.

Okay, he can controlt he ball, but he rarely throws over 200 yards and has terrible time finding end zone. Those should be "low" games but instead we say that is a decent game.

I'm not making a comparison, but look at Tom Brady's career progression (ignore the W/L record and the fact that he won the superbowl because of an elite defense). Just look at his statistics.  He threw for 2800 yards in 15 games (14 starts) in his 2nd season (where he came in and took over for Bledsoe).  Please know that I'm not saying Mitch will be Brady, I'm just saying, look at how pedestrian and vanilla he looked early in his career.  

[Chisoxfn]

2 hours ago, soxfan49 said:

Don't be ridiculous. In hindsight, yeah maybe the pass works to Sims. Maybe it works at the end of the game, but they have a Pro Bowl RB. The easy call is a run with Howard. If he doesn't get it, they're in the same spot. At that point, everyone and their mom knew Rodgers was scoring a TD, which is why on 4th and 1, I either run it again or QB sneak it.

As a reminder, early in the game, they handed it to Howard and he got stopped. Just pointing that out.  The Packers made a nice tackle and Sims probably ran a poor route as he should have been about 2 foot further up the field (little things matter and had he done that, we are talking about a 1st down and if they don't make that tackle, potentially a huge play).  

Earlier in the game Sims literally ran into a guy instead of going towards the sideline where he could have gotten a first down. Sims is one of the things that worries me about pace, he literally looks terrible pretty much every time I see him (yet we handed him a pretty sizeable contract a year ago and than followed it up with Shaheen).  Hopefully Burton isn't another one of his FA busts (or Arob). I won't call Gabriel because I don't think of him in the same camp as the other guys.  

[Wanne]

The play calling was completely anemic in the 2nd half.  He kept calling that same ridiculous bubble screen that Pettine figured out after the first few...and they kept calling it.  No slants utilizing Miller's speed...or Gabriels for that matter. No posts.  But for the life of me I can't understand why he kept calling for pass plays on 3rd and short...especially the last series.  Howard was knocking off nice chunks of yards that whole drive.  I don't care if you say "yeah...but they were expecting it"...don't care.  They pay Sims (way tooooo much I might add) to be a blocking TE....why was he continually being targeted?   Really missed Shaheen last night...but thinking it over...would it have mattered?  The play calling in the 2nd half was mind boggling. 

I thought after I slept it off I'd cool down today.  I'm just as irate honestly.  You blow a game like that...on a national stage against your biggest rival....geezus.  I get losing a game...it happens.  But that game was completely given away by this coaching staff.  Inexcusable.

[knightni]

How much of this game is on the secondary?

You don't have a possession like the Packers have without Fuller muffing the INT and the secondary being totally empty on Cobb's TD.

[Jose Abreu]

One thing that isn't being mentioned since bigger issues showed up is how we consistently would break the huddle with 10 seconds left and snap the ball with 1 second left, or burn a timeout. That has to be fixed. 

[Wanne]

Not to mention...how do you NOT pressure basically a one legged QB in the 2nd half.  When you're up 20-0...or 20-3...I don't care if I give up a big play...I'm going to make him beat me.  Not sit back and let him pick you apart.  Geezus.  You pressure the A gaps and send an edge until the cry uncle.  I get you don't do that with a healthy Rodgers...but he was completely immobile back there and in grand Bears fashion...they let them pick them apart.  The played not to lose....

[bmags]

29 minutes ago, knightni said:

How much of this game is on the secondary?

You don't have a possession like the Packers have without Fuller muffing the INT and the secondary being totally empty on Cobb's TD.

I mean a lot of it and if you want a scary thought: if our top two cbs go down our starters are bryce callahan and marcus cooper *shudders*

edit: wrote marcus coopers name as john

[Kyyle23]

28 minutes ago, Wanne said:

Not to mention...how do you NOT pressure basically a one legged QB in the 2nd half.  When you're up 20-0...or 20-3...I don't care if I give up a big play...I'm going to make him beat me.  Not sit back and let him pick you apart.  Geezus.  You pressure the A gaps and send an edge until the cry uncle.  I get you don't do that with a healthy Rodgers...but he was completely immobile back there and in grand Bears fashion...they let them pick them apart.  The played not to lose....

they brought 5 on the deciding play to Cobb, and gave up a big play.   I believe they also brought a blitz on the bomb to Alison, and also gave up a big play.  

 

Anyone else, i agree.  Rodgers has proven time and time again that if you bring extra pressure, he finds the open man

[Chisoxfn]

2 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

they brought 5 on the deciding play to Cobb, and gave up a big play.   I believe they also brought a blitz on the bomb to Alison, and also gave up a big play.  

 

Anyone else, i agree.  Rodgers has proven time and time again that if you bring extra pressure, he finds the open man

This time might have been different, given the fact that he was not mobile. I kept wondering when we were really going to test his ability to be nimble and we didn't. The touchdown to Alison was just a thing of beauty. Not many QB's can make that throw....albeit, as Bears fans, we think they do cause we see Rodgers do it to us at least once a season if not twice.  He's such a special player.  

The Bears lack of conditioning (whether it was because they didn't play in the pre-season or just more because it was the first game of the season) certainly reared its ugly head. Everyone was dying in that 4th quarter. Packers should have been as well, but I think the friendly crowd and momentum helped give them enough energy to push them over the top.  Note, I don't know if the pre-season reps make a difference in full-game conditioning since they wouldn't have played it anyway.  

[ptatc]

4 hours ago, bmags said:

The lack of burton was mystifying to me. I thought pack may make concerted effort to take away middle of field since trubisky has not shown he'll burn you out wide and maybe that was case.

Again, scary to me the packers shifted to zone and bears had no ability to recognize pre-snap. I thought that was the benefit of this offense.

Inexperienced QB and coach. Hopefully, they learned a few things. The whole Bears future depends on Trubiskey learning from the mistakes, along with the coach.

[soxfan49]

1 hour ago, Kyyle23 said:

they brought 5 on the deciding play to Cobb, and gave up a big play.   I believe they also brought a blitz on the bomb to Alison, and also gave up a big play.  

 

Anyone else, i agree.  Rodgers has proven time and time again that if you bring extra pressure, he finds the open man

I think the blitzes could have been a tad more exotic. They were simply sending Smith and Trevathan straight up the middle into interior OL and RB's.

[Chisoxfn]

13 minutes ago, soxfan49 said:

I think the blitzes could have been a tad more exotic. They were simply sending Smith and Trevathan straight up the middle into interior OL and RB's.

How many snaps did Smith get? I didn't see him out there very often.  

[ptatc]

25 minutes ago, soxfan49 said:

I think the blitzes could have been a tad more exotic. They were simply sending Smith and Trevathan straight up the middle into interior OL and RB's.

I think was the right call though with his injured knee. He was going to escape laterally but could step up from an outside rush. Collapsing the pocket in the middle was the correct call because of the knee injury. 

[Kyyle23]

17 minutes ago, Chisoxfn said:

How many snaps did Smith get? I didn't see him out there very often.  

8

[Jenksismyhero]

2 hours ago, Jose Abreu said:

One thing that isn't being mentioned since bigger issues showed up is how we consistently would break the huddle with 10 seconds left and snap the ball with 1 second left, or burn a timeout. That has to be fixed. 

I'm sure that was by design so that they could win the time of possession battle and keep the ball out of Rodgers' hands.