Perhaps another aspiring coach can come in and take a former Chicago Bears QB and devise an entire system around him as Bill Walsh did under Paul Brown with Virgil Carter and make him look somewhat effective (led the league in completion percentage in 1971) but at the end of the day, even they knew he wasn't the answer. There were just too many flaws in his game to overcome.
While a QB with the Bengals Carter also taught mathematics and statistics at Xavier. That's your fun fact for the day kids.
One thing that I completely forgot was in the magical 2018 season was how often Mitch and the offense had success to start the game. It could just be my memory but I seem to remember solid drives and a good mix of plays to start the games out. There was always talk about the scripted plays. Naggy did show he can put together good drives, it of course faded away as the game went on because he can't sustain success. But he hasn't shown that initial success in quiet some time either.
...Or how badly the offense came out and played the 3rd quarter for that matter. Week after week other coaches could make adjustments and school Nagy and Nagy just couldn't compete with them. Be you
Having a top 2 defense with the best turnover differential/great average starting field position helped a lot. Also having defense not prepare for/respect Mitch as a runner till 2019 made a difference.
Yeah those completely scripted drives to start games that they practiced all week seemed to work quite often. It’s when the defense adjusted and Trubisky got confused while Nagy could readjust that the wheels came off. Nagy isn’t at all good at in game adjustments.
Not starting a new thread just because they won. vvarder said it on the game thread....looked and felt like a 05 or 18 game where the offense mostly sucked and the defense got turnovers and scored. Fields wasn't awful. He held the ball too long at times and made some mistakes that were costly. But he also threw some really good balls that should have been caught. The would be TD to ARob was right in his basket. Gotta catch that. James Daniels and Mustipher had rough days. I though Ifedi was mostly good. Peters looked bad early and got progressively better. Overall hard to have much faith in this group. So glad we cut Fuller and kept Jimmy Graham. What a payoff. Graham played 14 snaps yesterday and for the season so far has 2 targets, 1 catch, 11 yards. Fuller meanwhile, on a 2-0 Bronco team, has like 7 solo tackles and 2 passes defended in 2 weeks because that's simply what Kyle Fuller tends to do. Another taunting penalty. I get it's a shit rule. But you know the rule. So why can't you stop yourself? It's selfish and stupid. Especially when you weren't even the one to make the stop. You weren't even in the play. Shut your fucking mouth. Robert Quinn made some plays. I think I'll wet my pants. The penalty was dumb. But Burrows made that happen. He saw Quinn and knew he could draw a penalty. Ran right into him and did his best Lebron. But Quinn can't allow that. Too many drives extended by dumb penalties. Desai mixed things up. He was wheeling his DB coverage presnap. Giving the front 7 a lot of different looks. Lining up Mack and Quinn together on the same side. Putting Mack down with both hands in the dirt. A lot of different looks and it worked. The slant was there for the Bengals all day. I'm okay with that if you are tackling well. And your safeties keep the lid on the box. The game was too close against a team we really should, and did, dominate at times. Bengals have weapons on offense but they are young and stupid. On defense they have nothing special and we should have scored a lot more. I'm hopeful to see what Fields can do against a good Cleveland team with a full week of practice with the 1s if Dalton is really hurt. Rumors were swirling last night the Bears fear an ACL tear. We will see. Offensive playcalling, as always, was a head scratcher. I just don't get it. No rhythm or flow. Playcalls that come from nowhere and make zero sense. Calls that stall drives. This was a defense you just needed to attack. The side to side plays are useless. Fields looked nervous to me. He will be okay. He's gonna see that INT on film and kick himself. No idea how he prevented the fumble from going for 6. Catch the damn ball guys. And this offense will score points.
And the visor is still implementing his offense... This is what makes rooting for this team not fun. The fact that before I could enjoy a win--which I truthfully didn't expect--I think about how Green Bay, particularly Erin Rodgers would have hung 40 if the Bengals spotted them 3 straight picks and a fumble. Instead, the bears just fumbled around, got cute when they didn't need to, or shot themselves in the foot with a stupid penalty. Just once, before I die--and I'm 33--I want to see the bears take a bad team that makes mistakes out back and just put them out of their misery by halftime. Overall, I think Desai called a solid game. There was one play in the 2nd quarter I think he absolutely fucked up. 3rd and 12 and he rushes 3 guys. Burrow had all day to throw and made a 1st down. Shades of Chuckles. Bad. You cant do that against teams that don't suck. But that's Matt Nagy. An assortment of plays that sometimes can be individually successful followed by something stupid and usually drive-killing, like Allen Robinson lining up at fullback then having him lead block on a sweep left. Which--what the fuck was the point of keeping JP Holtz and 5 TEs? Teams beat the offense by making them consistently impose their will/force the D to change up, which Nagy can't do because to continue running the ball down somebody's throat when you're gashing them for 4+ ypc or attacking the bad DB/LB/Safety mismatch constantly like teams did Buster Skrine last couple of years/Duke Shelly yesterday and probably this year--would be the smart thing to do. Same. Let him prepare/take the week as a starter in practice/meetings. I feel better about the game because Houston stuffed their front 7 yesterday, whereas normally one wouldn't want to line up against Myles Garrett on one side and Clowney the other. The ginger is getting an MRI on his knee today so that's highly possible. Overall--I'm taking this game with a grain of salt. 2 dropped dimes from ARob and Mooney that should have been 6. The INT was a stupid decision, and he copied Burrow staring down his guy but missing the ILB/Noquan watching the eyes and jumping the route. Look at Zach Wilson's game against BB and still can't help but laugh at the Jets.
83 passing yards for the Bears. Just like the good ole days. Agreed. I'm sure it didn't help his confidence when his top 2 WRs dropped perfectly thrown deep balls. How different the narrative would be this morning had those been caught. Every member of the media and nearly all fans would be saying Fields has won the job just for that. I wish we had a real fullback on the roster. I want I-formation runs up the gut with the lead blocker. The guy who can catch dump off passes in the flat and power forward for several yards. I think the Browns are vulnerable in the secondary. If we somehow manage to contain Garrett/Clowney, we're going to hit plays down the field, assuming Nagy doesn't revert to the week 1 game plan. My concern for next week is our D against their offense. The Browns can pretty much run the ball on anyone. And while Baker Mayfield doesn't scare me, his receivers against our secondary does.
Agree. Houston had 4 receivers yesterday with a reception of 20+ yards. If the bears line stuffs Cleveland like Houston did, no reason to think the bears can't repeat that. Granted always have to look out for OBJr and Landry, but they have 3 excellent pass-catching TEs (Hooper/Njoku/Bryant) and a 2 headed threat at RB (Chubb and Felton) that worries me more. Can't believe Landry had only 1 target yesterday.
I think the defenses only chance against the Browns offense is to find a way to make them one dimensional. And that's asking a lot. But you have to take away the run game. Will be a tough task on both sides of the ball.
Getting back to Fields. The good: accuracy, athleticism, speed, attitude. The bad: still mostly a one read thrower, slow release, pocket presence, uncertainty executing the RPO. Speaking of RPO, I'm getting a little sick of this play. I know its something that is huge in college and Fields has experience with it, but it never looks right when we run it. I don't know if that's just the QBs we've had, Nagy, or the defense always being ready for it. I'd much rather see Fields drop back and chuck it, then run it when nobody is open. I'm fine with the designed QB runs near the goal line or in short yardage situations but don't like the RPO with our offense.
I think Fields did well considering the circumstances. The play calling was god awful. I read a stat that said all of Fields pass attempts were pocket throws. Fucking brilliant. Why would you want to roll out a QB like Fields? With our amazing o line I could see why you don’t want to move the pocket. Nagy is a moron.
Actual exchange between Matt Nagy and a reporter today.... Reporter: If Andy is healthy is he the starting QB? Nagy: That's something I'm not going to get into with scheme. Reporter: That's not scheme. Nagy: Of course it is, that's 100% scheme. The fuck?
Not going to lie, you hit the nail on the head here. Our secondary has struggled, despite the additions from the offseason. Because of that, most teams have neutralized Garrett/Clowney so far. This game scares me. OBJ is doubtful to be back and now Landry is down with injury as well. That means 8 in the box and relying on some younger receivers along with Hollywood Higgins, who hasn't been a part of the game plan at all to date. I know I am on the Bears board, but I hope they have something in their pocket on offense that no one has seen yet, otherwise, this will be a tough one to win for us. In the other side of the coin, they must take advantage of the gamespeed for Fields. It will eventually slow down for him, but for now, they must pressure pressure pressure. Make him run the ball and make Clowney and JOK aware it is their job to stop him. If they don't keep that pressure, he can burn us. Good luck to you all, and let's hope for an injury free Sunday!!
Even if OBJ and Landry miss the game the Browns still have lots of playmakers on offense between their TEs and RBs, not to mention a solid o-line. I think that will be the difference. Whether we start Fields or Dalton, our offense is simply not competent enough to keep pace with an offense like the Browns. Take away the pick 6 we had on Sunday, and our offense hasn't scored more than 14 points. I think we'll lose by at least a touchdown.
I like the offense a lot better with Fields practicing all week with the first team. Still doesn't excite me going against a really good defense with the games best pure pass rusher. Fields doesn't settle for quick 2 yard passes...he wants to attack. Peters and Ifedi played well Sunday...if the interior of that line can play better then the offense can do something with Fields under center.
