Run game great. Pass game shit. Defense 50/50, I guess. Didn't give up 100 yards rushing but 1 or 2 more attempts by Houston and they would have. Should have been able to have more sacks. Love the takeaways though.....this teams only chance to win every week is by forcing turnovers. Lovie Smith lost a challenge....where have I seen that before? Roquan had a good game. Looked faster this week. Jaylon Johnson being out hurt a lot. Need him back in a hurry. Not sure what's up with Kyler Gordon. I know he's a rookie but he looks lost. Monty's injury is said to be minor and day to day. That's good news. Someone please roll up on Mustipher and get him out. He flat out sucks. He spends more time laying on the ground and tripping his teammates than he does actually blocking. And he's had a handful of shitty snaps this year. Hate him. Cut him. The rotation at RG is dumb. When Patrick can cleanly snap a ball....put him at center. Until that time leave Jenkins on the field 100% of the time. On Fields.... I like him a lot. I do think he's the guy that can lead this team to the promised land. I like his attitude....I like his demeanor....I like this humility and the laid back way he talks to the media. I also like his athleticism...his arm strength...his ability to fit the ball in tight windows. All good things. But what's going on? The ball picked off intended for Kmet was a duck. Way off target....flopping. Just a terrible throw you'd expect from a Moses Moreno or Steve Stenstrom. The second pick....no idea what he's looking at. Kmet is wide open but he opts for a triple covered Mooney and then overshoots him into the hands of the DB. He just looks clueless. Almost none of his throws were accurate yesterday. His OC clearly doesn't trust him. I don't know what's going on. But it's all bad right now. This whole season was supposed to be about Fields. Develop him and get him playing well so this offseason you can spend your dollars and your draft picks on putting pieces around him that make you a threat. If he plays like this all season Poles has to at least consider what Plan B is. I think you have to give Fields more time but in a win now league...how much patience can Poles afford to have when he has the resources needed to fix the rest of the roster? A win is a win but this isn't really a 2-1 team. It's an offense without an identity and a defense that isn't good enough to carry the team. The return game is awful. There's just not much outside the running game to really hang your hat on.
Still no regrets from me on firing Lovie after 2012. Herbert has great vision. Not much of a pass rush yesterday. Just 1 sack on a mostly immobile QB. Overall I think the ceiling for the 2022 defense is average. I'm still worried about their ability to stop the run I think he made 1 nice deflection at the LOS on a third down, but otherwise he's lost. On the replay it looks like he also has Pettis running free at the top of the field, a good throw to him and that's a TD. Plus Herbert was open on the checkdown. The second pick is just terrible awareness, literally throwing it the 1 receiver who is most covered with so many better options available. I wonder if he's just guessing who to throw to once the play starts and not trusting his own two eyes. Something is really wrong and I'm not sure it's fixable but it concerns me much more than the overthrows and accuracy problems.
Yeah, this is clearly the worrying part. And if it was one game, I'd be less worried, but he's had issues since the first preseason game. There were times when it looked like he was going through his reads too quickly - now I wonder if it is just like you're saying, he's just kind of guessing out there. Because it's one thing to be slow / fast through your reads, it's another thing to not be going through them at all when you're throwing to a clearly covered man. Faith in his arm, maybe? Whatever it is, they need to work it out soon. Games represent the best opportunities for progress / learning, and he is quickly wasting the only opportunities he may get, at this rate.
Gotta be honest, for all the negative(and more immediate) things about this game I could talk about, I've found myself frequently thinking about the fact this is the most I've ever seen the Bears rush for, single game, in my entire life. That just seems so crazy. How many games would that be, like 400-500? Proper crazy. Never got to see the fabled "Sweetness Game" where he got off his sickbed to run for 275 against the Vikes, tho a couple of Bears fans here may have, lucky bastards. Still, there's been some good memories in my time.... Thomas Jones having that big game against the Saints in the NFCCG always springs to mind. I remember A-Train having a monster day of like 190 in about his 3rd game as a rookie against someone like the Bucs. And then there was Forte's epic 200+yarder against the Panthers in like 2012, first guy since Sweetness to do it surely. Fun fact about that Panthers game, while the Bears were killing it on the ground Cutler had a most Bearsy 102yards passing. Time is a flat circ- oh fuck off. Anyway, I'll get back to hand-wringing about the Bears eternal clown vortex next week. This week I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge what was an historic day. I just wish it could've been part of a more convincing/dominating win. I mean they do all that and it still wouldn't matter if the Defence doesn't make a play at the end to win the game. Time is a flat cir- FUCK!
Ha! Totally unnecessary comment that made me laugh. I also agree. He never used to get that fired up on our sideline btw. That beard has clearly given new powers.
There haven't been many games over the years that I haven't seen....I've probably watched a good 90% of Bears games live on TV or in person. The Payton game in 1977 just happened to be the day my Grandfather passed away and the very respectful old age of 94. My Dad called me that morning and told me and we ended up at my grandparents farm in Wisconsin.....and they never in their lives owned a TV. My Dad called me an asshole for trying to tune into the game on a radio while the family was sitting around talking about my grandpa. So I turned it off. Got home late that night and watched the highlights on the news very pissed off at what I had missed.
Fuck, now that's a story. I mean you have seen a hell of a lot of Bears games in your time, legit maybe 700 or something?. And out of the relatively few Bears games you've happened to miss that was one?! I mean goddam, that's pretty rough. I wonder if tuna saw that game. Did he not tell us once he did? Im pretty certain the rest of us couldn't claim to.
At first I thought, "What a number!", but then I broke it down. Let's say 20 games a year as a round number (preseason and postseason included), that's 30 years to 600. Knowing you'll miss some games, and some years they definitely didn't play 20 games, let's stretch it to 40 years. At your... advanced age... that actually seems a pretty good estimate. I thought about my case and, growing up in Florida without cable, I didn't get to watch many Bears games at a younger age. But, thanks to the internet, I could listen to radio broadcasts (this was when that wasn't locked behind a paywall) and could, years later, watch the games on pirated streams. I think that's something that's largely lost, now - listening to the game on the radio. With streaming to the palm of your hand ever easier, most people don't bother just listening anymore. But, man, I'm not sure there's anything quite like listening to a ball game on the radio. I used to ride the bus to and from work, years ago - between horrid public transit and weather, that's a hard ask in South Florida - and more often than not, I'd leave work an hour or two late so that I could listen to the hockey game or the baseball game on the way home. It was just so comforting, spending hours riding / walking home, and having that to keep me company. Didn't mean to keep going off course, the conversation just brought up some interesting stuff, for me. One day there won't be radio broadcasts of sports, anymore, and damn I'll miss them.
I think a lot of it depends on the quality of the announcers and the broadcast as a whole. I had the full radio experience this weekend for the first time in many years and have to say didn't enjoy it. The magic of radio is a thing of the past. Jeff Joniak is not good at play by play, so many times he would announce a play and then not tell you what yard line the guy was tackled on or how big of a gain it was. That's mandatory when doing radio. The other problem is the constant endless ads "that first down is brought to you by" "the replay review is brought to you by" "the uniforms are brought to you by" "Fields throws it incomplete, hey Bears fans do you need an attorney?" It's a string of ads where every 40 seconds get interrupted by 3-5 seconds of action. Really unlistenable. We used to like listening to Wayne Larrivee back in the 90s with the sound down and he was terrific and you didn't feel like it was a 3 hour string of commercials.
I 100% agree that this is the way football broadcasts have gone, unfortunately. Thankfully, my Florida Panthers' radio is still worth listening to, so if I'm driving and can't watch the game, listening will do. You're right that that's down to the broadcast team, and I'd also wager the sport.
Great thoughts all around. Agree on the run game, that was a real positive. And I'm sure you all noticed but man is it nice have a full back again, giving that extra man to lay some wood and open holes, I love it. While we're on positives, how about Brisker and the resurgence of Jackson? I like what I see back there. Unlike Ev though, the run game isn't enough for me. The immediate future of this franchise rests on Poles, Eberflus, Getsy, Fields, the Line, and the revamped Defense. And there's a lot of bad there right now that's hard to shake. Fields, the media and fans are going nuts, but that's because this is historically bad - comparisons have been made to some of the biggest busts of all time. As I said, I'm not writing him off and at minimum we have the rest of the season to see how he progresses. But, the Texans passing defense, prior to the game against the Bears, was ranked near the bottom of the league, and we get that performance. The decision making, holding on to the ball, missing fucking swing passes, I mean, it's been rough. I loved his response in the press game, owning that he played like shit, that's great. But at the end of the day, he's gotta start showing up, and at this point, it has to be mostly mental. And we were at home. No way to sugar coat it, he doesn't look good. I mean, look at the stat line, 23/45, 297yds, 2 TD, 4 INT, 50.0 rating. That's not one game, that's *THREE*. That said, he's not getting any favors done from the O-line (though I think they are better than the eye test says, it's good to remember exactly how long Fields is holding on to the ball on some of these plays). I feel like Getsy also thinks he's super limited, how often do the Bears drop back and pass from under center? I know I saw a run or two from shotgun but odds are super high that shotgun there's a probable pass coming, and under center a pretty damn low chance it's pass. The defense knows this, they're smarter than I am. Oh, and that play where Fields shouts loud enough the *broadcast* picks it up, "If they..." and then the defense comes in and absolutely *wrecks the shit* out of the play. I don't remember what he said exactly, or if that was enough to tip off the defense, but man was that bad, because they didn't bite at all. Mustipher as BWW mentions is hot garbage. An absolute trainwreck. I know he trains with Kreutz and Kreutz loves him, but he blows. Getsy, we cannot overlook the fact that the running game is historically GOOD under Getsy. And given how Fields has looked, you would think the defenses would oversell to stop the run. I think we're going to really start to see that, and there are going to be blitzes and such coming too. Fields is going to be tested even more coming up. That said, the Giants defense is nothing to write home about, so it might not be this week. Kmet caught two whole passes. Lets throw a parade. That said I'm not ready to stamp the bust label on him just yet, I just want to see more. Mooney as a #1 was kind of always a bad idea, but good grief. 27 yards on the *season*, on 11 targets and 4 rec. Eberflus, call the timeout at the end of the half. He also owned this in the press conference, saying basically they were going to hurry up and had time, but then they substituted so he needed to call timeout and that was on him. They had what, 45 seconds on the clock or something and blew 20+ getting the ball snapped? Terrible. Lovie even called timeout for you on 3rd and 1, and you had all 3 in the bag. You call timeout you have the entire playbook available to potentially score some points. Just bad. Also, where's the "discipline" we saw the first game? Another one where we were worse on penalties, and it's not a Packers suck-off fest, this is the Texans. I don't hate Lovie, appreciate his time here in Chicago. But he is what he is, and the Texans played that game. And lost. A win is a win though. Could you imagine the absolute madness if the Bears had actually LOST this game? It would have been ridiculous.
Damn right I did. I was watching the game at the Grand Manor in Chicago at Archer and Cicero it was the only bar around that actually had a big screen TV. However, it should be noted that it was the week before that when they played the Chiefs that they started their run that year in 1977, and if not for the late touchdown pass as time ran out from BoBo Avelini to Greg Latta in that Chiefs game and then winning out the rest of the season that they made the playoffs first time in the Superbowl era or more importantly the tunafat era. Needless to say, they were one and done that year (fucking Cowboys), but they crashed the party for the first time in my life nonetheless.
As a kid who was in a bowling league on Sunday Mornings, we used to listen to the game on a transistor radio in the early 70s while walking home down the railroad tracks. Listening to the description and then painting the picture in your mind. Bobby Douglass, Jack Concannon, Dick Gordon, or Cecil Turner who was a poor man's Devin Hester, but electrifying nonetheless. I do, I think we should start a class action suit as compensation for our suffering over the years. Even watching Sweetness throughout most of his career when the Bears were mostly a one-trick pony and they couldn't get it done. He was fucking remarkable no doubt, but you have to have more than one dimension. It might be just me but I'm seeing Vince Evans all over again.
All us young kids over here talking Quinn, Krenzel, McKnown, Grossman, Hoyer, Griese, Orton, Barkley, Trubisky, Clausen and my man tuna is over here dropping Vince Evans. Outstanding.
I put this on Fields and the low number of pass plays being called. Plus teams know he's our best weapon and are defending accordingly. I never thought Mooney was a #1 but thought he could be a productive #2 in the right offense. My opinion on that hasn't changed.
Ok ok, you want more, here's a couple. I watched some of the game again. I mostly just wanted to enjoy the boss running plays but wound up getting sucked into the pass plays too. - Herbert is really good. He doesn't have Monty's otherworldly balance thru contact(tho he can run thru tackles), but his vision and feel for where/when to bounce it is at least as good. And I think he's a bit faster too. Basically we've got two starter calibre RB's on this team, its prob the best tandem in the league that no ones talking about. Which, unfortunately, creates a problem. Monty is in a contract year and its getting hard to see how he's back. If Herbert plays too many games this well then they're gonna say "why do we need to pay Monty?". That's if they haven't made that decision already! If Monty plays his ass off and keeps Herbert largely on the bench then the $$$ signs are gonna start flashing up and an agreeable number becomes harder to find. There was a straight up laughable article on sports mockery where they suggested Monty would ask for $12mil per and the Bears would pay it. I don't know enough about that place is it a joke site(it sounds it)? I tend to think yes cos Monty aint asking for $12mil per and Poles sure as shit aint paying that. Nevertheless im not sure what number would work. - Can't remember seeing such a Jekyll & Hyde O-Line. Changes need to be made to try and get something out of the pass protection. Patrick was snapping in practise a week ago Wednesday, why he can do that then and not in a game 4days later I do not know but by this Sunday that'll be 11days. Patrick better be starting at C this week cos Mustipher's got to go and im sick of this idiotic RG rotation thing they're doing. Patrick actually has been shit at RG but im hoping at C his natural spot he will be better. I would immediately switch Borom and Jenkins. Borom can't handle blocking in space in passing downs, but he's been grading some road in the run game. Get him in a phone booth and increase his chances. Jenkins is athletic enough to play RT, hell I would've never moved him inside anyway this is Kyle Long all over again. Braxton Jones needs more time but I can't say he's been good. I hope he can get better but the NFL comes at you fast, it won't be long before the pressure builds for a benching. He's given up 3sacks in 3 games and a whole load of pressures with it(some but nowhere near all, Fields fault). Too much. Right now my line would be Jones-Whitehair-Patrick-Borom-Jenkins. Great? Not at all. Better? Pretty much certainly. - Perhaps the biggest thing that struck me on whatchback was there were more open receivers than I realised on first viewing. Yes the O-Line was shit, but there were places for Fields to go with the ball. Hell even Kmet was open a few times! Does he know where his outlets are? Does he know where to go with the ball? Personally I consider it to be a far worse outcome for Fields to fail with the mental part of the game than for receivers to not be getting separation. This whatchback was deeply concerning. If anything its regression and I don't know why. - I was gonna post about this at the time but never got round to it......but something that got no press here or anywhere else apparently was that Kyrgius Tonga was a surprise casualty at final cuts this offseason. Now I know Tonga didn't give you much in the pass rush and I know there's been a scheme change which to some degree must've brought a change in gap responsibility, but damn! Tonga was very stout against the run last season and in case we hadn't noticed this D is getting run all over every week! I know Tonga was a classic 3-4 NT blob, but I have a hard time believing what's going on now is the better alternative. Hell a guy who wore the same jersey number Anthony Adams was a big ass dude and he played the "big" DT role just fine in a 4-3. I don't believe Poles makes this move(he was also on a rookie contract remember) without it coming from Eberflus/the defensive coaches. This feels like a mistake was made.
