Nice writeup Ev. Can we excuse his slower reaction time on his updated mechanics and the new system? I don't know, but I do know if you aren't at least a little concerned, you are a massive homer. The monsoon was one thing, maybe the Packers another, but the awful Texans makes a bad trend. Hoge and Jahns covered it, but they basically gave the excuse you did, he's the 3-4 NT big guy. Saquan Barkley is coming to town this week and he's looked....pretty damn good. Might get ugly.
v2 the reason I mentioned Evans besides IMO that they had similar games was the Bears had Avellini and Phipps in the locker room along with Evans during the 1979 draft. So the story goes that Jerry Vainisi moved Montana's name from the big board over to the draft side when they went on the clock in the third round, and Finks said hold on, not so fast, and didn't want to muddy the waters with the QBs because he thought Evans was coming along nicely. Now I liked Jim Finks don't get me wrong, probably the best GM the Bears ever had in my lifetime, but in hindsight WTF. The Bears then took Willie McClendon the unremarkable RB from Georgia with the pick, and the band played on.
I've withheld giving thoughts this year so far, mainly because I don't have a lot of good ones/nice things to say about this team and the direction its going because (to quote Ev) its an eternal fucking clown vortex (I'm stealing this one btw, you will be cited appropriately). Through three weeks, I've tried to find positives--which you think one should find plenty with a 2-1 team having a great chance to be 3-1 after tomorrow when they play a not-very-good giants team missing a few of their best players like Leonard Williams, Sterling Shepherd, a starting DB, and another starter somewhere. But let me commend y'all for keeping this board going strong in a shitty year. What do I like so far? The packers' offensive element Getsy brings where he schemes guys open (that Fields hasn't been able to see.) Week one that busted play TD to Pettis in the monsoon. 4 years of the offensive guru finding the 'whys' never once did he run situations like that in practice, yet Getsy did. Simple scheming guys open like the Equem St. John (LOL at announcers getting names wrong again) week 1 TD, saw it some against the Packers before I turned it off and saw a ton of guys open last week that Fields didn't see or had been hit or already made a shithead decision. On a couple of questionable plays, they do what Erin does to everybody. March right up to the line, put pressure on opposing coaches to burn a TO then challenge with split second decision making. Playing Lovie though was easy though. The dumb challenge last week made me feel warm, nauseating nostalgia. I like Trevis Gipson, and am glad that I was wrong about him from the start. I didn't think he'd fit with der Flus, but he's leading the team in sacks. I like this Dominique Robinson kid too, as well as what I've seen of JJ (he's hurt now) and even EJax looks like he knows he's a cut unless he removed his head from his ass and we have ball-hawking EJ again. I like this Jaquan Brisker kid. He's gotten beat a few times in coverage, but he tackles and has made a few pass breakups. If run blocking was the only thing that mattered, Teven Jenkins would be a 1st team all-pro. Quan looks like Quan (sans the packers game). Equimanious St. Brown is the best WR so far. I get that's not saying much--but the dude was 5-6th on the peckers depth chart last year. I've shat on Alan Williams, but he's had 2/3 good games so far. Monty and Herbert look nice. I'm infatuated with Northwestern's LT Peter Skronski. Dude's a top 10 pick in next years draft and I want him. He replaced Rashawn Slater--who was only a rookie all-pro but instead of sitting out a year--he's dominating some of college's best pass rushers. I'm also not allowed to have nice things, so I'm expecting a linebacker or some defensive player from Poles, maybe even a trade down clown situation where he trades for the sake of doing so. Now to the part where I want to gauge my eyes out and think about that first glass of wine at 9:50 AM as I type this... Braxton Jones is on my shit list. I never understood the appeal on draft day, I never saw the appeal in preseason (minus the KC game he handled a 1st round pass rusher Karloftis for every play but one), and I feel like deja-vu watching Jordan Mills. Some late round pick sucking as a starter with fan excuses being 'but he needs a year or two to develop' when other teams have guys day 1 like Rashawn Slater, Christian Darrisaw, Tristian Wirfs (the guy Mack hip tossed with one arm a year or two ago) dominating because the OL yet again is half assed in an era where LT, WR, and QB matter more than any other position in this era and the bears still don't understand that. And I don't want to hear 'but he faced Nick Bosa' when Bosa for the entirety of the time he's been in the NFL lines up over the RT 80% of plays SF is on defense, and while I don't have the final snap count where he lined up, the eye test for me confirmed that. Jones drew Ebukam a lot week 1. He drew Bosa a few times too and got pantsed when he did. When Chris Collinsworth took a break from blowing Erin on Sunday night--he said the quiet part out fucking loud--the league and refs want offense. They want points. They want exciting plays. THey want broken plays for big yards, broken tackles, crazy catches, shit that would make Espen top 10. To quote another annoying pundit, Colin Cowherd--the bears are a black and white television from the 50s when we're in the era of ultra-high def 8K. Left tackle, QB, and WR matter. I get they aren't easy to find, but I find the bears again making no attempt to even try finding them. What the fuck was the point of making Riley Reiff the highest paid OL on the roster? His 12.5 mil is more than Whitehair's 12.3 per year. He was the 13th best OT in pass protection last year for the Bengals (most of his games were at RT though I believe) and he can't get on the field now with the garbage starting 5 I'm watching? I wont shit on Cody Whitehair too much because I think this is his last year with the bears, but he's left too much to be desired. What the fuck are they doing rotating RG, and why is Sam Mustipher on my television at all? Larry Borom has not had an easy go at RT. I hate that so far, I'm right about Kyler Gordon. I try not to let a game upset me too much, but I see far too much Buster Skrine in this kid. He's flopped from the snap and rebounded on a couple of plays which I never saw Skrine do, but too often through three weeks is he the guy QBs target, too often is he 3-4 steps behind the WR who punked him on a route. Larry Ogunjobi, the damaged goods DT the bears tried to sign for big money but he took 1 year 7-8 mil in Pittsburgh--has more sacks/pressures than any scrub the bears have playing DT. Angelo Blackson is the best DT so far, and even he looks limited. Nick Morrow is 'meh.' This Adams kid they have at depth LB sucks. I get the rookie local kid from Wisconsin, Sanborn--isn't fast--but put him in goddammit. Was dead wrong about Al Quadin Mohammed. If he made more money, he'd be Bumarr 2.0. He sees the ball and just runs into a block and he's out of a play. I'm certainly guilty of this, but anyone who thought Darnell Mooney could be anything more than a mid-2nd WR option/3rd option needs to readjust their expectations. He may be the X, but he isn't a good one. Cole Kmet is still painful to watch, even though he's gotten open a few times. Justin Fields. I'm not feeling good about him, and I don't understand what they're doing. Right before halftime against the Texans, when the bears had 3 TOs, about 30 seconds, got the ball back and had a big play to get them to their own 40 and Flus lets the clock run out? Eberflus should have gotten the 3rd degree for that all week, but unfortunately local beat writers are too busy pushing their own podcasts/side gigs and lobbing softball questions when he should have gotten an appropriate ass kicking for that. Luke Getsy got grilled about 'trust' and he swears he trusts Fields implicitly. That's just not reflected from the playcalls we've seen, and you can see why. Fields is hit/pressured in under 2 seconds 54% of pass plays this year (through three weeks) per ESPN. I keep seeing the excuse of 'WR separation' and that's just not the problem. Guys have gotten open. He doesn't see them and when he does, he throws a duck to Kmet. Speaking of the duck play to Kmet, NO--St. Brown (or was it Pettis?) was NOT wide open along the sideline. Watch the safety on the replay, because he's deep half. Once Fields begins throwing motion, he breaks towards Kmet because he was staring down Fields' eyes and body positioning, making it look like a busted coverage over the top. Had Fields gone to the sideline route, he would have broken towards the WR. That's how deep half zone coverage for a safety works. Honestly, I see both sides with Fields. The bears have put him in a shitty position to succeed. No protection, and Cooper Kupp (along with 3-4 other WRs) have more individual catches than all bears WRs combined. I get those who think he's a bust. I found on several plays when it looked like Getsy was trying to hide his deficiencies calling for Trevor Simien. If you don't trust your QB because he's young, on his 2nd playbook in 2 years and looks constantly overwhelmed and like a deer in the headlights when someone isn't putting him on his ass because the OL is fucking garbage in pass protection--maybe he needs to sit for a couple of weeks. I haven't given up on him. I think he needs to ride out his year and next to develop. I also think benching him could do him a lot of good (as well as drafting a mid round QB). He's just not progressing. Josh Allen didn't start to look good throwing until the end of year 2 and relied a lot on his legs before then, but then again--as I said last year--Fields was the 4th QB taken in a "stacked QB draft" likely for good reason. The last "stacked QB draft" and the QB taken 4th prior to last year? Christian Ponder in 2011. Does Fields look more like a franchise QB thus far or does he look more like Christian Ponder? I want to complain about Tristian Ebner returning kicks/punts and how he doesn't look good, but I guess if I can be half full--he looks more interested than Ted Ginn ever did. I also haven't seen him run backwards either. Yet. Whatever, fuck the packers.
