I originally had them at 8-9. Some of the issues you saw Sunday night can be fixed or will be better on some sundays. Some can't. I don't see the coverage magically being fixed. It's a talent and coaching issue. I don't see a remedy. Tackling won't suddenly get better....it's been an issue for a while now and seems to only get worse. The pass rush might have moments but I'm long past thinking it will be consistently good. And Nagy's gameplans and offense aren't gonna change. The one redeeming thing there is eventually Fields will start and the offense will look better with a dynamic QB. But Fields isn't god. So I definitely think my 8-9 prediction looks more like a 6-11 or 7-10 now.
‘‘I guarantee you that entire defense will learn from that, and our offensive players will learn from that, too. If you’re not touched, stand up and run and turn it into a touchdown. I know Sean is teaching those guys the right thing to do, and I know those guys will definitely learn from it.’’ That's Nagy talking about the Rams first touchdown. At this level...if you need to be taught these things....you're fucked.
It can be sometimes excused as a rookie given the difference in the rule between college and pros as far as going down untouched. For a veteran in his 5th year with Pro Bowls on his resume, that's not something that should be taught. It's a fineable/benchable offense for a player of that caliber.
Your instinct as a 5th year player should be to hit that guy whether he's on the ground or not. That should be ingrained in you at this point. The thing that bothers me most about this Bears defense is I never see them swarming to the ball in groups. That used to be a calling card of the Bears defense. One guy didn't tackle you....6 did. Everyone went to the ball on every play and kept going through the echo of the whistle. Now I see guys jogging away from the play before it's even over because they assume one of their teammates has already made the tackle. There's no extra gear for this defense...no hustle....no pride...no toughness...no anger. This isn't a Bears defense I see. It just isn't. Urlacher, Mike Brown, Mark Carrier, and so many others...they would be embarrassed to be associated with this type of defense. This soft bullshit we see. That was a Mel Tucker defense on Sunday night.
This was such a predictable response from Nagy. Not only will the defensive players learn one of the most fundamental pieces of the game of football, but the offensive players will too! And all it took was giving up a touchdown! Great takeaway. How does that babyshit-soft visor-hatrack look himself in the mirror?
So, this is why I'm gonna spend some time watching the All-22 whenever it finally comes back, which we were told was soon (and I'll be happy to share). Clearly this offensive line wasn't going to be able to hold up blocking for deeper routes on a regular basis, so I get why the throws were quick. But your answer to "Bad OL" can't just be "Bad offense", it has to mean that you create solutions. Besides just constant, useless motion, I want to see how often Nagy had his plethora of TE's helping block, vs how often the team went to a 5-wide look and then just threw for four yards. Because I have a feeling that analysis is going to make Nagy look real, real bad. And that's the part that sucks - this high school playbook bullshit not only doesn't work, but it shows how in over his head Nagy is. I hate focusing on Nagy, because I want to focus my hatred on Pace, but fuck... Nagy is just so incompetent.
I think it was BWW who pointed it out - having a WR that weighs little more than tissue paper lead blocking on a screen is generally a bad idea. Then, as multiple people pointed out Sunday, running stretch behind the fifth string OT that just got in the game for his first snap... that also doesn't sound like a great idea. But Nagy knows better. He's smarter than us, smarter than the NFL, smarter than the points on the scoreboard. Bald, mouthbreathing, "moral victory" waste of fucking space.
After 1 game your bringing in DB’s for tryouts and not due to injuries. That is pathetic roster building at its finest.
dline you were on some major form with the insults yesterday. Retrospective game ball for you. babyshit-soft visor-hatrack If you get round to this buddy could you pull up the Jefferson TD where Jackson couldn't be arsed touching him down? Id be very interested to see what happened with the coverages on that play. It looked at the time like the front7 had that play locked down only for the backend to completely fuck the dog. I think the Rams were even in max protect meaning there couldn't have been more than 2 WR's running a route on that bitch. Very telling. A kneejerk panic reaction and an embarrassing admission of failure summed up in one little tweet. Epic fail at roster management even by Pace's standards.
Ugh. DJ Hayden's the best of these chumps and he fell off a cliff after 2018. 2019 Preseason standout Cliff Duck is available. Kenny Vaccaro headlines safeties available. Pretty sure he fell off a cliff around the same time Hayden did. You're stuck and can't add anybody else unless you wanna drag headcase Richard Sherman out of the psych treatment for his CTE-fueled domestic episode involving cops back in summer. Next man up. Where's Artie Burns and Desmond Trufant? Time to see if they can be less offensive to the eyes...
I don't know if you can tell, but I do not like him. Not a fan. I will graciously accept the game ball, and look forward to future repeat performances. I didn't think it'd be up yet, but this made me wanna take a look - and there it is! Whoooo! Give me a few minutes to make a bagel, deal with the depression of watching this again, field some work calls, and I'll try and get screen shots up here. I just watched the play again and had to go vomit.
Nextgen does a good job with these little vids. Watching the actual play is far better but Jackson shits the bed on both of those plays. From what I can tell Tashaun mostly does his job on the Jefferson play. There's no way he should be expected to catch Jefferson. Jackson gave Jefferson his lane instead of keeping him bracketed. The second one is a good play design. But it's bad play recognition from Jackson. He has to see that develop. When you watch the play live you can tell Stafford uses his eyes and body to bait Jackson. On the opposite side the other safety is kind of caught in limbo. If he follows Kupp there's a possible corner route that is wide open. He has to be able to trust his partner there and his partner did absolutely nothing. Really good offensive play design and execution. Piss poor play recognition on defense and just no execution whatsoever.
So, here's the Rams' first TD, where Eddie "Everyone Can Tackle" Jackson and Tashaun "I was good last year, I swear" Gipson not only failed to prevent a catch, but didn't touch the receiver when he was laying on the ground. First, pre-snap. Pretty basic look. Nickel with #23 (useless), LB's are Ogletree and Roquan. Jackson and Gipson playing Cover 2. After snap, nothing changes. Rams run a PA to the right, Stafford rolls back left. Safeties drop to cover 2, #33 mirrors, front 7 plays the PA. VIldor (top of screen) steps up to play the run, then tries to find his WR, but he's already run past his effective zone. Front 7 mostly looks good - Mack and Akiem holding point of attack against double teams. Quinn gets swallowed up and disappears as expected, Nichols at least tries to come back around and pressure Stafford. For what it's worth, Hicks put a hit on Stafford the play prior, and would've been a quick sack if Stafford didn't get the ball out immediately to an uncovered slant. Hicks was doing work. But we came here for the secondary, so... Okay, disclaimer: I wrote a couple more paragraphs on this play, relating to the images given, but lost it when I took a work call and turned my VPN off / tried to upload files. Big bummer. But, the images kind of speak for themselves. The safeties screwed this up, and on a really basic play. They showed cover 2, played cover 2, screwed up cover 2. I included an image showing the moment Jackson commits to his receiver's outside shoulder, then showed an image with him running 3-5 yards over his guy, hips fully turned. This, despite Jaylon taking and running outside leverage the whole time, and doing it well. #4 was completely useless. That same image shows when Stafford starts his throw. Both safeties needed to actually watch the field - Gipson didn't need to sit on the comeback route with Stafford rolling opposite side and his LB's in the area. But Jackson needs to see the field and recognize that his CB has owned outside leverage, and his responsibility is to take away anything inside. How Jackson misreads this so badly, seeing nothing else on the play, and decides that intercepting some imaginary overthrow deep to the outside is the right play... it's beyond me. Pure laziness. Jackson played this like he does every other play - with no responsibility, figuring someone else will do the real job. I also included, for fun, the moment where Jackson is bitching at Gipson, rather than touching the downed man. We saw it WAY too much last season, and it needed to end then. Jackson wants to be on the football field, bitch at other people for not doing his job, and not actually play any football. And it's fucking awful.
Or just watch BWW's vids / read this. Because, yeah. Much less time and energy than my post saying the same. The second TD was good play design, taking advantage of a secondary that had been schemed really predictably all game, and clearly was outmatched talent-wise. The first was elementary stuff that you get in a Madden tutorial, and that's what's so infuriating. In either case, Jackson taking his head out of his ass would've helped. But that hope seems long gone.
I had several people try to tell me that the Bears' OL played well because David Montgomery ran for a lot, and Dalton didn't get sacked a bunch. Those people also probably eat paint. Montgomery might be the most under-appreciated, under-utilized talent on an NFL offense. Matt Nagy, man. For fuck's sake.
