Anyone actually catch it? I know pre-season is worthless, I watched the latter half of the 4th quarter because I completely forgot it was on.
1st team offense looked fun for the 2 series. Fields looked comfortable and 60+ yard TD passes from Fields to Moore I can get used to. The Moore and Herbert TDs were YAC beauties. Starters only played 2 series. Interior OL struggled. Wright looked good. Braxton looked good but no DE ever tried to bull him. 1st team defense? Uhhh get #94 (Rasheem Green) off my television. He’s the new Bum Mohammad, getting too much playing time. Zack Pickens looked the part. Gervon Dexter got hurt then made it worse, was clearly in discomfort over his knee but for some reason stayed in, looked worse and it bothered him way more the next play then was done. Rookie Tyrique Stevenson looked rough early and got picked on. He buttoned it up and started making plays. He’s very chippy/likes to chirp. Like EJax, who gave a bad Ejax effort on some tackles. Will Levis sucks. Malik Willis too. So does PJ Walker. Dude was sailing INTs bad Jay/Rex style, forcing bad bullets WRs couldn’t catch. Missing easy throws. Nate Peterman outplayed him for QB2. Cutting Simien was a mistake. People will say Trevis Gipson had a good game. Eh. Got blocked and lucky on his sack (qb kinda danced right into him). #52 Lewis played well enough at DE late 1st/early 2nd half for Seth. #73 the 7th round pick from Kennesaw State named Bell was late game wrecking DT I’m rooting for. He was in the backfield frequently. 44 Noah Sewell was flying all over the damn place. Velus Jones is a fucking bum. And is back to muffing punts.
I was out at the time, only watched the highlights on youtube after following some of the game on play by play. On paper Fields' performance looks great, in reality it had a lot more to do with others. The WR screen was actually thrown to the wrong side of Moore, it was behind him. You wanna get it slightly in front so they can immediately use their eyes and setup the blocks. So i've got that as a bad throw. No evidence on that play that Fields has ironed out the fuckups on easy throws he has no business missing. After that Mooney nailed his block, Braxton missed his but it didn't matter cos Moore put a move on and then he was gone. I like that guy. The 2nd TD, the OL shat the bed and Fields was immediately under pressure(sound familiar?). He did a good job of getting away from it tho and yeah its just a dump off pass but Herbert made a lot of it, again getting good blocks downfield. PJ Walker's INT was fucking horrific! PA rollout that totally worked, D bought it, he got good blocking, Equidistant is wide open... then the throw??!!! It should've led the WR at least 5-6yards further out to the boundary for one thing, but it was also 10-12yards over thrown! For a pro QB that play needs to be a layup and he damn near threw it out the stadium. It was all terrible from Walker tbh, Peterman appeared to outplay him by a lot. Don't be surprised if Velus Jones doesn't make the 53. His muffed punt was bad in every way. Misjudged in the air(which we saw last year), meaning he had to let it bounce when it shouldn't and then tried to field it and fucked it up when, having missed the catch, should've just got out of there. For a WR he has exceptionally bad hands, The Thing from Fantastic 4 could catch better than Velus. What i don't get is how does that not show up on film when you're doing draft prep?? Don't know how he sees the field on Offense given that room now, and don't know how they trust him on punts when it matters. A 3rd rounder getting cut after 1 season for on-field reasons is an utter indictment, but could totally see it happening. So more Pettis then. Ugh. Nice seeing Zack Pickens showing up on tape. TBH i expected him to look more undersized than he did, i wonder if he's bulked up a bit since the pre draft measurables? It was nice getoff to beat the LG for his sack. I didn't like the Sewell pick for positional reasons. LB was already stacked and no C had been taken. But i read a lot afterwards about high value at that draft slot. Like hearing pat say he was flying around. I have big hopes for the WR crops this season, but LB looks clearly the strongest position on the team right now. What position was it Eberflus coached before he got the co-ordinator gig? Oh yeah
Good, all things considered. Wont pop out on the stat sheet, because every time he had a shot he just couldn't get going and it didn't appear to be on him. His first touch of the ball he was the safety valve on a vanilla play in the flat and Walker bullets a bad throw, he catches it off balance, and turns a -4 yard in to +1. Not all that great if you missed the play and see 2nd and 9 but that play should have been 2nd and 15. He got hit a lot around/before the LOS. He was in with the back ups, and Doug Kramer (a 7th rounder from a year ago) and JaTyre Carter were the only proficient blockers at that point. Travis Homer had a couple nice chunk runs off the C/LG, but Johnson they kind of used all over/spread out his carries. We didn't like how no C was taken. And to overpaid (Whitehair)'s benefit, he didn't fuck up a snap on 2 series. Edmunds didn't play, so it was Edwards and Sanborn early, then Sanborn and Sewell before numbers I don't know names on took over. Sewell to me at least, played as best he could against a rookie deer in the headlights without perfect protection but the bears didn't always get home right away. Some patience, good eye reading (he blew up some throw in the flat from Levis) and took some good angles as a rusher (got a QB hit or two) and chasing down ball carriers. He's a good ST/depth to have. WRs did look nice. The kid from Cinci, Tyler Scott looked nice on ST and as a WR 3/4 option, minus a bad fumble. Dourice Fountain from Northern Iowa had a great 50/50 ball catch for 25-30 yards. A couple of other no names also made plays. That was the point it was Peterman and whomever #17 was/4th string QB.
It was a screen the whole way. The two linemen let their men through them headed down field. Field’s hesitation almost lead to an ineligible down field. It was well disguised but when you watch it you can see its development.
Took another look and you're right good catch rob. Slightly unusual in that it was the C & RG out blocking for a screen to the left, that threw me a little. Fields wasn't the problem on the play tho, he did well to avoid the double pressure of the guy who legit beat Jenkins and a blitzing DB. If he hadn't checked his initial move to throw i'm not sure the timing would've worked. Herbert was pretty alive to it all and maybe would've caught an earlier throw but using the C/RG as lead blockers slightly increases development time on this play imo. By the time Herbert does catch the ball its setup perfectly, but i cant help wondering if this play succeeded so well in part because it didnt go quite as drawn up heh. Its nitpicking. It was a well timed playcall into a blitz and a rare example of the Bears actually executing a RB screen heh.
