Morning after thoughts *Week 11...winning division games edition*

"They're not the reason this game moved to prime time. We are." - Kirk Cousins to his teammates on the sideline last night.

Sorry Kirk but Khalil Mack and the defense are why. And they proved it.

Mack was disruptive. Hicks beasted. Floyd was...somewhat dominant actually. Danny and Roquon were awesome. Fuller, Prince, and Bryce (dropped a pick) played well considering who they faced and Jackson and Amos made game changing plays. Awesome all around effort.

Mitch wasn't good. I didn't really expect him to be. The Vikings defense is legit. The first pick was a good throw...a bad decision...and a really good play by the DB. The second pick was Cutler like awful. Mitch could have very easily given the game back to the Vikes if it wasn't for the defense saving him.

Mitch has yet to play a complete game in prime time...and that worries me.

AR was mostly a nonfactor but Gabriel and Miller were good....I have really fallen in love with this receiving group. Even Bellamy played well.

Still too much running backwards for my liking.

All in all that was a great game to watch and today feels really, really good.

 

Three weeks ago when New Orleans played Minnesota on SNF Drew Brees was 18/23 for 120 yards with a 5.2 average and 1 touchdown with 1 interception and an 85 QB rating.

That tells you how good the Vikes defense is.

 

All 3 of these guys deserve an A for last night. Best performance of the season.

Bad game for AR. I thought on the deep ball down the right sidelines, which actually wasn't thrown badly, had he turned to make a play on the ball would have gotten the PI flag. Kind of a lazy effort there. Mitch's second pick was all on Mitch, just a terrible decision and I won't blame AR for it.

I see his confidence waning as the game gets late. It's happened in all our prime time games. Like every time he dropped back to throw in the 4th quarter I was holding my breath. I don't feel that way the rest of the game.


Parkey didn't barf. His leg is weak though.

Good game for Jordan Howard, which was needed. Running between the tackles worked well, running outside the tackles did not.

I do think the defense is vulnerable when teams go no huddle on us, particularly late. There was one several play sequence where they went no huddle and Mack was off the field the entire time.

Would it make sense promoting Bryce to outside CB and having Prince play nickel?

Safeties played well. Not only the picks, but didn't let the Vikings do anything down field. They've really done well in limiting big plays since the Patriots game.

 

Bears defense has 18 interceptions through 10 games. They had 8 each of the last three seasons.

 

I was wondering last night if Trubs gets mentally tired/exhausted by the 3rd quarter (shit I almost typed period). Is that a possible reason why his playing deteriorates in the 4th?

 

He didn’t deteriorate. The Vikings are just really good.

Trubisky made a key throw on 3rd down with under 4 minutes to play from the Bears own 27 yard line to pick up a first.

Key throw at a key moment in an important game.

He’s still a young QB playing in his first season of this offense, not a simple offense, with a lot of weapons around him that he’s still learning to play with.

 

I totally get it. Well not really, but I'm trying.

We're looking at a youngish team learning to work together so there are going to be moments of complete devastation along the way. Balls thrown badly or intercepted ... but in the long run I think what we're seeing is the beginning of an amazing team. As long as no one kills Trubs when he goes out on his insane runs with the balls.

 

Watching Mack chasing the QB down the field in the wrong direction was amazing last night! The guy is TENACIOUS!!

 

Great game and hug win. Enjoying listening to all the talking heads eating crow this morning for picking the Vikings.

Was nice to see the run game game get going against a very good run D. And not just Trubisky's legs. We put up over 100 without Trubisky while holding them to 22!

It doesnt always deteriorate in the 4th quarter and I really dont think his play deteriorated that much in the second half. Yes the int sucked leading to the first points for the Vikings but outside of that play he did well in avoiding 3 and outs, picking up first downs and keeping the clock moving.

Way to go Parkey. Against a tough defense every point was needed and you did your job. Keep it up shit head.

 

This game was satisfying, because the better team won.

What did I like? Start with the defense. They dominated, and when Minnesota did move the ball, Fangio was pretty curled up in shell defense a lot. Dared Minnesota to run and the Vikes couldn't. The bears Dline won the trenches and turned Minnesota into a 1 dimensional offense, making Cousins throw 46 times.

DBs were solid. Prince got picked on a bit in the 3rd quarter when the bears were shelling.

LBs were excellent. Mack is damn good. Floyd needs to keep doing that . Trevathan was excellent, as was Roquan, sans the one play he didn't wrap up Diggs.

Akeim Hicks was unblockable. Goldman solid. They got pressure and hit the $84 million guaranteed man.

Offense was solid against a very good defense, but also a very flawed defense. Chris Collinsworth actually took his head out of the rectum of whomever he was most recently infatuated with and pointed out toward the end of the 1st, Zimmer stopped trusting his 3 lb sets. It was Kendricks and secondary behind, and that opened up Jordan Howard inside. Misdirection on plays with man coverage and a modern nfl offense that makes you defend the entire field. Whitehair, Daniels, and Witzmann did a damned good job in the first half of that.

Except in the 2nd half, Nagy stopped the misdirection but kept with the dive plays. He just kept running at Kendricks, sitting in the normal Mike spot. Frustrating, because Kendricks in the 1st pretty much bit on every time Gabriel/Miller went in motion and by the time his eyes look back Howard was past the LOS and now he's reacting and giving up a 6 yard gain. That's how Jordan Howard works in this offense, Nagy's gotta be better setting that up down the stretch for the rest of the year. Pass to set up the run is still a concept I'm getting used to.

Mitch had a couple beauties and a few jackass throws. Maybe not throw into triple coverage when the Vikes play 2 deep safeties and their nickel was running with Gabriel the whole way, and nobody else's route went deep. Though as BWW pointed out, Mitch made a huge 3rd down conversion in bears' own territory to keep ball out of Vikes' hands. Extended drives his legs too.

Cohen man, hold on to the damn ball.

Leno and Massie were average. Mitch's pocket awareness and "oh shit" clock were on par.

Parkey didn't Barf. ST is still pretty incompetent.

Refs were for the most part garbage.

 

The inside zone runs were really good.

 

Fuck.. 2 picks? No bueno.

 

Is it me or have the last 4 or 5 games we've played have been among the most horribly officiated in memory? Like I don't remember a stretch this bad since the refs went on strike in 2012. Both in our favor or against us. Fortunately we're now good enough to overcome it when calls don't go our way.

 

I think league wide officiating has reached an all time low. It’s been really bad in every game I’ve watched.

 

Adam Shaheen is in concussion protocol.

 

Its not you. The game officials have gone "full retard" across the board. Every team board, after every game, has the same opinion and comments.

IMHO, its time for the NFL to do two things;

• Assign "football people" to actually write the rules. Not lawyers after the fact based on input from the Competition Committee.
• Hire full time officials that participate in reducing the rules to writing.

 

That sucks. Probably means he won't be active on Thursday. Made a real tough catch yesterday on the 2 pointer. Was really looking forward to seeing him in this offense.

 

It was nice to see Howard between the tackles instead of Cohen ripping off 5 yards at a time I'll take that everyday against a strong run D.
It's nice to see the offense progressing at a good pace but still not where they need to be, because everything they do relies on misdirection.
Speaking of misdirection I made note a couple weeks ago the Mitch without the ball standing there going through his progressions. Last night I watched the every player selling that misdirection on every play. I was fooled by it a couple times myself along with the camera crew. This offense is like a shell game and defensive players have to process so much at one time it's no accident they are often leaning the wrong way.
I agree with whomever said in the game thread that sometimes all the movement cancels out the effect.
Mitch and AR still need to hone that chemistry because I think Mitch expected AR to take it inside when he made that throw. Big mistake by Mitch but that is one of those growing pains.
This defense is special, I was a little apprehensive about this game prior to it, but walked away with more confidence moving forward and I'm sure it was a step forward for this team with their confidence as well.
As Mongo stared earlier this season but this truly feels like 1984 now, and I think the dark period we suffered through is over and because we've all suffered through it we are still here and this tastes so much sweeter doesn't it?

 

That's huge