A veteran QB can make this team a contender. For all the complaining about the defense and despite them being on the field as much as they have....they are 6th in points allowed this season.
The Bears have 2 wins that are very convincing. They dominated the Redskins and the Vikings. They have 5 losses but I would say only one of them was a thoroughly convicing loss and that was the blowout by the Saints. They are 1-4 in games you can consider a toss up. With a QB rating in those 5 games of 72.7. Not that there aren't other issues on this team.....but fixing the QB position immediately makes this team a legit playoff team and a SB contender.
We're probably 5-3 with a good QB at this point, right in the thick of the playoff race, with wins over the Packers and Chargers but still losing the Raiders and Eagles games. Our defense wasn't stopping anyone when it mattered in those games. The D being on the field a lot was 50% their fault, something that gets neglected by everyone. Look at the Raiders and Eagles games, two long drives for both teams to start the game, when the D should have been fresh. Then right out of the halftime break another long crushing drive allowed to the Eagles, again when they should have been fresh. If we force 3 and outs in those situations, the whole trajectory of the game changes. If we excuse the D at all it should be late in halves when our offense continues to go three and out time after time. But the D has allowed long drives at the start of halves. That's not the offense's fault.
I don’t reject the defense has been to blame for what they’ve failed to do at times. That last drive by the Eagles Sunday was bad. They repeatedly failed to get off the field on 3rd down. But bottom line...only 5 teams have given up fewer points. That means 26 other teams have. The scoreboard doesn’t lie. Give this team an average QB and all of sudden the defense looks dominant again. QB is unlike any other position in football. You can mask a weakness at most positions. A bad QB on the other hand highlights any problems your team has.
I wish i could get on board with it being that simple, but everything ive seen this season tells me its not. Its far from just the QB, there are guys not doing their jobs all over the field. The TE position does not exist on this team, the closest it gets is FB. The OL may be slightly better since Long vacated but its still a mess. Really want Daniels to be a success but every week i watch those Tape Never Lies vids and the guy is all over them for the wrong reasons. That line has no communication, no diagnosis & no organising. Teams know if they bring heavy blitz they are getting to the QB. And when they're not blitzing they're stunting the ass out of this line cos they fail to pick it up nearly every time. A new QB won't help them pick up a stunt, it won't stop guys getting walked back right into QB's face, it won't stop edge rushers saying see you at the QB. A new QB may get the ball out on time more, but they won't stop the terrible situational playcalling, or the brainless personnel groupings. They might help the HC relocate his balls, but even thats only a "might" at this point. This team has no business at all being mentioned along with SB. They're in a loaded division inside a loaded conference. With stable QB play they would prob be in the hunt for a wild card, but nothing more.
Fair point, but we should consider the opposition as well. Plenty of the Bears opponents did not pass the eye test at all and actually helped the Bears hang around when a good team puts them away. The numbers don't even do that justice but here they are anyway. As of week 9 the Bears have gone up against 0 teams in the top10 for scoring. They've gone up against two bottom 5 teams and a host of mid-pack teams. That is hardly trial by fire. Coming up however its a totally different story. Other than the Giants every opponent left on the slate currently ranks in the top13 in the league for scoring, incl 3 in the top8. Cowboys-5th, Chiefs-6th(without Mahomes for two games) and Rams-8th. Pretty safe to say their Defensive ranking is about to come way down.
There were guys last season all over the field that didn't do their job. All season long. The difference is the production from the QB spot, while not great at all, was far better and therefore masked those problems. Plus the defense was getting more takeaways. James Daniels, in my opinion, has progressed immensely this season. They won the division last season with average to slightly below average QB play. A QB like Rivers or Bridgewater makes them a contender for at least an NFC crown.
You can't control who your opponent is. You can only control how you play against them. The whole who have you played game is silly because you can do it to every team. The Bears defense is legitimately very good. They have had moments and games where they were less than that. But overall....they are really good.
You need to be careful with those vids. Gotta remember just one mans opinion. Yes Daniels needs to get better but he is showing improvement. You know who is the biggest help to an O line as far as getting protections called right? The QB. And ours doesn’t help he hurts. A lot of talk about the TE position and where it isn’t a strength by any means how much of the drop off there coincides with the drop off at the QB spot. IMO you can say that the Bears have more issues than the QB but I would put it at like 80/20.
Complete bullshit. Off the top of my head: Leno, the pro bowler, wasn't playing anything like as shitty last season. Long didn't look like he was about to have a coronary out on the field last season. Burton is a ghost. On course for 30catches, as many drops in 7games as all last season. His blocking is an abortion. Cohen playing horrible, in 8games 6x as many drops as the entire last season. Somehow running east/west even more. Jackson is a shadow of his former self. His most memorable play this year is a dipshit PF in the endzone. Floyd, who after finishing last year strong, and being talked up by you in the offseason, back to being a no-impact turdmeister. Noquan, who when he isn't taking sundays off for mystery reasons is playing like a total pussy and...taking sundays off. The performance of coaching, both in game and during the week, has plummeted. The only difference to last season is QB play and a few turnovers?? If only that were true.
For the most part the clue is in the title rob. A guy whiffing on a block is a guy whiffing on a block. And the continual inability to pick up stunts? You gonna reheat some blame the QB excuse for that too or are you gonna point the finger where it belongs. How much of the QB's dropoff, both actual numbers and confidence, is the fact that all he gets from his TE's are bad routes and drops? Its very easy to play that game. Easy drops, of which there have been plenty, are not the QB's fault they're the TE's. Or the RB's etc. We all know the QB play has been crap, but not 1 guy on this team should get a pass because of that. Every player out there is responsible for his own level of performance imo.
Didnt say it’s the only difference. when your QB plays better....everyone looks better. the defense had more takeaways last season too and that helps greatly.
I'm on board with most of what you're laying down here Ev, but Mitch is missing WIDE OPEN dudes every game. In the differences between this year and last, the biggest difference makers are: 1. Mitch sucks. 2. Hicks is injured. I had an argument with someone around whether Nagy should give up playcalling duties (and maybe this is a good one), but I am in straight up meatball mode with my Mitch hatred. I rationally can't see anything else.
No arguments here, Trubisky does miss open receivers every game. He is the single biggest difference maker, closely followed by Nagy imo. But guys are also dropping passes that hit them in the hands. Guys are blowing protection assignments and whiffing on blocks in both the run and pass game. Multiple coaches flat out blow this year. A lot of people are flying under the radar thanks to Trubisky's play. We can change the QB and things would get better, i agree. But this team doesn't get a sniff at a SB and prob doesn't make the playoffs either. There's too many people playing badly. When we stop losing by 1 score to bum ass teams and start losing by multiple scores to good teams this might become more apparent.
With an average/good QB we are a wild card team, even with struggles by the rest of the team. Last year with an average/good QB we were winning the Super Bowl.
Right now you have the 49ers, Packers, and I guess Saints as the class of the NFC. You don’t think this Bears team, if healthy, could beat those teams in the playoffs with a competent QB? If you say no....get your head checked.
Biggest difference on defense is the takeaways and the average field position the defense leaves the offense in.
My criticism of the defense comes from how badly they've been since the Vikings game. In September they were the best defense in the NFL. Since, they are very mediocre. The last 4 games they've allowed an average of 24.75 points per game, in addition to allowing long scoring drives at the start of halves, failing to force turnovers, and overall losing the battle at the LOS. They're failing the eye test. Right now with the way the D is playing, I think it would be a tossup to beat those teams, even with a competent QB.
