I only watched this but he shows up a few times with some really poor plays. Dunno what the F is going on with this guy. 1.36 - 3rd down conversion on just a shallow TE cross that goes for 25yards. There can be little doubt the TE is Smith's responsibility on this play cos everyone else seems to be playing man and also Smith immediately locks onto him as he goes out on his route. Then for some reason he stops and next thing the TE is wide open and its 25yards. Either he got caught peeking at the QB which is undisciplined, or (more likely)he thought he was playing zone and had help which was stupid cos he had none. Busted coverage. 6.05 - A pass for 1st down in the 3rd Q. Pagano, clearly trying to force the issue by now(2nd & short as they were all day) sends Jackson on a Safety blitz. I've watched this play a dozen times and i really don't know what Smith is doing here. Jackson blitzing must surely mean Smith has responsibility for the right flat(no one else could be), which is where the pass goes. But a TE also runs right by Smith up the seam and is also open. As it is Smith covers neither and just bobs his way to the line before realising holy shit. Total breakdown. 1.28 & 3.21 - Not Smith, but just two more ive got to highlight cos these killed me. Pagano may have tightened this up in the 2nd half but this was there for the Raiders all 1st half. Fuller playing 10yards off on 1st down and giving away a 2nd & short. And in the first of these two clips he's playing 10yards off a friggin RB!! I mean what the hell. The Raiders don't have a WR to be scared of anyway, but some of you guys spoke about this exact thing before the game. How the F can this board be aware this shit and Pagano can't??
I didn’t re-watch it. In fact, I was so fucking disgusted I walked away for awhile. But I did see him make two plays that I can recall. Did he do anything remarkably well looking back that you saw?
Bump The answer to my question is a resounding NO. The focus will continue to be on Trubisky/Nagy shortcomings, understandably so, while this defense shits the bed yet again. Today the Eagles chewed up 8 minutes of clock on one drive in the 4th quarter to put the game away, converting multiple third and longs with zero pass rush and receivers running untouched passed the sticks every time. That after Jordan Howard had his way in quarters 1-3. But today was merely a continuation of alarming trends we've seen all season: We have failed to force a turnover in at least 4 of 8 games, all losses We have failed to force a three and out in 2 games, perhaps the most remarkable stat of all considering neither offense in those games (Raiders, Eagles) are that good. We have allowed 6 90+ yard TD drives. We have allowed 3 go-ahead TD drives late in 4th quarters and the 8 minute drive to ice the game today. The loss of Hicks and Amos (and Pagano) cannot make that much of a difference. This defense is bad, last year was the fluke, and this year's numbers are much closer to 2017 than 2018.
I agree they aren’t on last seasons level. But they are not bad. They are not even average. They are still a good defense. A good defense put under the microscope because they have to be perfect for this team to win a game.
Does a good defense allow 6 90+ yard TD drives in half a season? Or go 2 full games without forcing a single three and out? Even against the Chargers when we dominated TOP, the D still gave up big plays and long TD drives in crunch time, so fatigue should not have been an excuse. The front seven has been completely manhandled for 4 straight games. I remember when I was confident that the Raiders game was an aberration. It's the norm. They suck.
If you honestly think this defense sucks than you are just football stupid. There is no other way to explain it. They aren’t the dominant unit they were last season but they are far from a shitty defense. As for your made up stats Bears have given up 4 90+ yard TD drives not six. One against the Redskins when the game was done. One against the Vikings when they needed 2 scores and 2 against the Raiders. Not highlights for a defense by any means but also not proof that they are shit. I haven’t found a single game that the defense didn’t force at least one 3 and out so please explain that one. I’m at work so I will have to get back to this later.
They gave up one long TD drive. In the first half. That’s crunch time? The second TD was off a turnover at our 26 yard line. GTFOH!
Serves me right for basing that off a tweet from an unverified account. You are correct. It's 4, not 6. As for the two games we didn't have a three and out... Broncos and Raiders, we had one in each game, and it's not surprising why I had forgotten both considering the context around each, see below: For the Raiders game, it came in the final minute of the game (after the Chase game-sealing interception and I had stopped watching) when the Raiders were trying to run out the clock (we were left with 13 seconds at our own 20). We allowed 9 yards on the drive. For the Broncos game, it came right at the end of the first half, when the Broncos were trying to run out the first half clock (we ended up calling timeout and forced them to punt, got the ball back with 13 seconds left in the half). We allowed 7 yards on the drive. Neither of those offenses are prolific and yet we only got one three and out each game, when both of their offenses were literally trying to sit on the ball and run out the clock. Not good. So sure, you can count them, but barely.
Dude your just not getting it. The Bears don’t suck because the defense isn’t getting enough 3 and outs or are giving up too many long TD drives. They suck because the offense has wayyyyyy too many 3 and outs and very few TD drives. Never mind long TD drives. Nobody should be worried that if by some miracle Nagy gets the offenses going that the defense is gonna blow it anyway. The last drive yesterday sucked. It was not good defense. Would have been nice to give the offense another crack at scoring a go ahead TD. But if the offense would have had its shit together it never comes down to that.
We've all hammered on the offenses struggles enough. We all agree, they are awful and most responsible for the regression of the team this year. The D should be evaluated independent of the offense. The 2005 Bears had a pretty crappy offense with rookie Kyle Orton, averaging only 16 points per game, with a handful of defensive TDs upping that average. But the TD was dominant, not only keeping us in virtually ever game, but also was able to close out games, something our D has not done well this year, outside of maybe the Vikings game. This D is missing the clutch gene, I don't have faith they can get a stop when we need, and again every game from the Raiders game on (as well as the Broncos game) demonstrates that. They got mauled at the LOS for the third time in a month yesterday, RBs frequently gaining 5-6 yards before contact. The pass rush has all but vanished, the sacks, when we do get them, have been coverage sacks. They aren't stopping the run, they aren't forcing turnovers, they aren't rushing the passer. It starts with the front 7 and they aren't playing well, all of them. The secondary has been hit or miss but they obviously suffer when the front 7 makes little impact. It just doesn't make sense to call them "good" anymore.
