Preseason Game 2 and Hard Knocks ep 1

Caleb Williams set to play today at noon Central. Maybe one series, maybe more, either way - he has to come out of the game alive and unmarred by how shitty the OL is. No Justin Fields or David Carr situation, where the constant pressure keeps him from feeling secure and developing his game. No horrible injuries because this team was built from the outside first. Maybe the OL will surprise me, but they won't.

Also, the first Hard Knocks episode... boy, that felt kind of underwhelming to me. It was nice to see DJ getting paid and Caleb Williams dealing with struggles at camp. But I could've used all the time spent on Flus's hair on just about anything else. Maybe it was a totally normal Hard Knocks episode, but because I'm a Bears fan and wanting more real content, it seemed underwhelming to me. Eager for more, though.

 

Haven’t seen hard knocks yet,

The kickoff format is still stupid.

Caleb gets the ball first.

 

Lot of ass kissing for a 3 yard gain. Swift isn’t behind Philly’s OL anymore.

 

Drinking at Morgan Wallen's bar in Nashville watching the BEARS!!

 

Don’t care, I’ll gush. Caleb look/ like he has proper grasp of the offense, even if it’s preseason vanilla playcalling. He was sharp in the 1st.

When he said he watched/idolized Erin Rodgers, you saw it on a few plays including the swift monster screen play chunk gain. Very Erin-esque.

 

Damn, I thought for some reason the game was tonight. Stunned when I got home a few minutes ago and realized I missed all of Caleb!

Glad to hear Patg's positive report. I'll watch the youtube highlights of his plays later.

 

First play I see today VJJ takes handoff in the backfield, has a huge hole to the right and tackles himself in the backfield.

 

Alright VJJ gets a TD a few players later. Probably cements his spot on the roster.

 

I didn't quite get thru all of it cos something more important happened......but i thought it was bad. I might not make it thru this series. Who upon who thought it was a good idea, with all the names on this team, to make this the Matt "Personality Donor" Eberflus Show. Here's Matt Eberflus hosting a party(look hes wearing the same outfit as some rando!), here's Matt Eberflus getting a haircut, here's Matt Eberflus' wife telling the story about how she told him to grow a beard and Christ Almigthy LOOK!! Here's the socials reaction to the beard!!!! Get. The fuck.

By far the most worrying thing about that episode tho was that Bruce Almighty, on more than one occasion, was actually giving coaching to Caleb Williams. On how to play QB. Not the QB coach(the hint is in the name). Not the OC. The LB/LB Coach/DC, who knows about as much about coaching QB's as i do about Dry January. My God, they're actually gonna try and fuck this up aren't they. Cos Fields wasn't enough, they're gonna try and set a new olympic record for peak Bears QB sabotage. I really hope he's that talented, cos like every guy before him, Williams is gonna be trying to do it in spite of his coaches, not thanks to them.

One good thing was seeing DJ get paid. And Kmet threw a pretty good pitch. I've seen worse anyway.

 

You’d think they’d have learned from Velus Jones sucking at punts/kickoffs to stop putting him there. Nope.

 

Don't care either, moderate gush incoming. I thought for what it was it was very good.

1st drive, 3rd & Long, hangs back there allowing it to develop, doesn't bolt, and when it does develop rifles an accurate pass right to the marker. Nice. The rollout and intermediate/deep throw to Kmet was really nice. The flip to Swift for the big play, only seen it once but im not even sure that was a screen, he may just have been the safety valve. But to get the ball out early and unprepared was pure instinct, can't teach that. Williams isn't gonna have the raw speed of Fields obvs, but thtat play where he had to scramble was nice. He's athletic, fast enough and he can juke. That will work. The rollout throw to DJ could've ran for yards im sure Fields would've at least thought of running putting the play off timing, but Caleb just threw the ball and DJ got 13yards from a simple rollout. Thats all you need to do.

3 incompletions. One was basically a throwaway beyond the corner endzone and 2 were bad drops by Kmet and DJ. Williams was accurate on every throw. There was no bad easy miss like you used to see from Fields on a quick out.

Its still the very beginning, but very encouraging.

 

That's so positive Ev!

 

I only got to watch the first two series Caleb played, I assumed that was all of it before I had to bounce, but I was very encouraged. As pat/ev say, Williams was sharp. Throws were on time, accurate, didn't get flustered despite getting flushed from the pocket. I walked away from that game thinking, "man, this kid is going to be special". He has every chance here.

For hardknocks, disagree, I liked it. The first 15 minutes with glamour shots of downtown and Wrigley Field, Ray fucking Clay announcing Williams over Sirius? Sign me up. The story of chubbs the lineman getting injured, DJ Moore's signing, Nick Saban. Yeah, I could have done with less Flus, certainly not a reminder of how nice his place is there. Overall it was not bad.

Was there anything else that stood out in the rest of the game? Thanks blang for the VJJ updates anyway, heh.

 

Celeb looked like he belonged and that’s all you can ask for for now. I know it’s just preseason but I am starting to feel like we just might have an OC who understands modern football. I know it’s vanilla time but tastes more like Haagen-Dazs than the discount store brand we are used to.

Best and only good part of Hard Knocks was Saban being real about developing QB’s and warning Flus not to put it all on his rookie QBs shoulders. That even as a top prospect he needs coaching and time to develop.

 

Not gonna lie...got a hard on watching Caleb play. He's got poise. He's got vision. He doesn't have Justin's speed but because he has better field vision his scrambles will produce positive results. He's got some Mahomes like ability to create. He just has uncoachable football instincts.

And can we talk about his fundamentals and the technical parts of his game? The base he throws from in the pocket is perfect. Feet where they should be...knees perfect. Hips doing what they should. Just textbook what you want from a QB. His running style is ideal for a QB about to throw a pass....he strides well and is read to uncork at any time. The physical part of his game is just so sound and far ahead of any rookie we've seen in a Bears uniform....ever.

It was only 7 passes and I'm trying not to get ahead of myself. But there was a lot to like there. That completion to Kmet was stellar. Love it.

 

Agreed, I personally liked the first strike to Moore as well because the fundamentals are so sound. Delivering from a platform, driving off the front foot, hitting him at the sticks with anticipation rather than a yard behind. He's going to struggle, he's a rookie, but the little we've gotten to see so far is very nice.

I didn't watch any other games, but it seems like ALL the rookie QBs did well? Some of them are going to stumble. Lets hope it's JJ McCarthy.

Hook it to my veins! x.com

JT has his review of his performance up too:

I just wish we had a line for him, heh.

 

Either you're prophetic, study witchcraft or voodoo, but he was last seen stumbling after he tore his meniscus, and now has to undergo surgery.

 

Wow. You're right Tuna, he's definitely psychic!

 

Exactly.

The only thing I didn’t like, was on the cross route completion to DJ, he takes off looking like a downfield blocker, from replay—looked like buffalo’s LB saw then didn’t blindside him when he could have and it would have been legal because Caleb looked like a downfield blocker. Remembered wondering WTF he was doing there.

JJ McCarthy underwent knee surgery and Ian Rapaport now saying he’s out for the year.

 

Yeah, I saw the news today and feel bad about that one. I would never wish a player get injured, unless his name is Deshaun Watson. I just wanted him to suck, not be injured. On the plus side, we get to see the Darnold in Purple.

It's also worth pointing out that Williams played against the 1s, where McCarthy and the others were beating up on the 2nds and stuff.