Morning After Thoughts *Doink edition*

Burton was probably caught cheating and suffered a “groin injury”

 

I don't know what the difference would have been....on the Eagles touchdown drive he could have made a difference...but there's no guarantee.

No idea why he was active if he wasn't gonna play. That's mind boggling.

 

If it turns out he faked this injury or was mentally insecure to face his former team, cut his ass immediately. Although maybe this is a Fred Miller situation and he injured himself in a fight or doing something he shouldn't have been doing.

 

The latter seems much more likely.

 

The Eagles were just getting the ball out too fast for the pass rush to be the deciding factor. When Foles held onto it, the pass rush was there to make an impact.

Eddie Jackson being out was a killer. There were numerous first down plays that occurred where he would have been in position to make an impact. Why he dressed but didn't play... no idea. But him not being on the field was the only dagger that could've really wounded this defense.

 

The only thing I can think of is he was dressed and ready to go and tweaked something right before the game? But I feel like we would have been told about it.

 

Then I doubt he'd be out there in pads and a helmet all game, right on the sidelines.

If this year has taught me anything, it's that Nagy is willing to sit guys if they're not 100%. I'm willing to bet that Jackson dressed only because of the extreme lack of depth at FS. Nagy wasn't willing to play him over Bush if he wasn't full go, but needed him in case of emergency.

But that's strictly my take on the situation. Plenty of speculation to be had.

 

Makes sense.

 

Bears kickers in the past 3 seasons have made 76% of their kicks. That's good for 2nd worst in the league with only Tampa Bay being lower. On the flipside.....Bears opponents have a 93.6% success rate when playing against the Bears.

Robbie Gould is 82 for 85 during that time.

 

That is literally the only thing I could think, as that game ended - Pace sending Gould away, and never having replaced him with even an adequate kicker.

We've taken Tampa's leftovers, too. Just in case anyone thought we were looking for kickers in the right places. We're not.

 

The NFL has officially made it a blocked kick.

The Bears now have a good excuse to keep this useless fuck on the roster.

 

Yeah, I think this. I also think it’s possible he was been extra cautious and didn’t want to lose him for the following week, ala Trubisky and the Giants. He could have been 80% or even 90% and I could see Nagy doing what he did.

It’s one of those things we’ll have to live with, with him as coach I think.

 

Yea well they officially fucked the Bears with that bullshit call on Miller and their fukin rules ... I did hear Jurkovic today say he will be out there opening day regardless if we like it or not with the money they owe . Robbie Gould will most likely get top dollar so no way he's making it back and the Bears commit 10 million to kickers against the cap.

 

I heard that as well and I could believe it .

 

I haven't felt this awful after a Bears loss in a really, really long time.

It's like someone died.

 

The reason I feel a little better today is that this season, on the whole, wildly exceeded expectations. I still feel super shitty no doubt.

Yes it felt good, and it could have been a win. But they can take this playoff experience and turn it in the right direction. Of all the things I can blast Nagy for I think he will learn here, and I can think of the positives for Trubs (I LOVED the pump fakes the DBs bit on hard, that was some good growth).

 

I feel pretty low. More disappointment and sadness than anger. I felt anger after our week 1 choke.

 

Yeah I was angry last night. Today it's just like melancholy.

 

This is exactly what we were talking about a few days ago and it happened.

Both Offenses took broadly the same approach to this game. The Bears seemed to employing more curls and combacks which i didn't like but basically it was the same, keep 2 top end DL's off your QB by getting the ball out quick. But there was a key difference on the other side and it was particularly clear in the secondaries.

The Eagles very quickly got into an almost full court press on D when they saw that Nagy was afraid to stretch the field. CB's were jumping routes, guys were flying downhill to the ball, Jenkins did indeed engage Cohen quite a lot. It was pressure tactics without actually blitzing much. Contrast that to the Bears tho, they also wanted to stay out of blitzes if possible but the CB's didn't play nearly as aggressively. Indeed they were playing more conservative off coverages a lot. Now i guess that is Fangio's call but ultimately i have to question if thats a position they felt backed into due to Jackson being out. If Fuller presses and gets beat deep do you have the same faith in Bush to cover it? Hell no you don't.

As it turned out the Bears D approach didn't kill them cos they were able to get some timely INT's(Smith's was outstanding play). But on the other side Nagy shat the bad. I just don't buy that it would've taken Pederson that long to figure it out had the shoe been on the other foot. Nagy was hands-down outcoached in this game.

That is a very good shout Mackladder(dont think i can call you Mack anymore too confusing lol).

There's a lot of similiarities here. The quick turnaround from the previous season, the sudden sense of optimism, and of course the sickening feeling of defeat. I feel a lot today like i did after that game. They were actually two very different games, the Panthers were clearly the better team that day which was where part of the shock came from. This game was far closer, but still every bit as disgusting to lose.

I also thought part of it may be trying to give Bush as much cover as they could early on by not giving any indication pre kickoff that Jackson wouldn't be out there, thus denying the Eagles a quick prep and chance to plan about attacking Bush.

If Nagy actually tried to hold Jackson back for next week he's an even bigger fool than i ever thought. Sad part is we can't rule that out after his Giants game fuckup.

 

No one at work has said anything to me about it. That's helped a lot. I've avoided all media outlets, news stories, etc. That's helped more.