How Bout Dem Bears?

SameOleJay · 05-10-2015 06:51PM

I'm actually happy enough with how it's going. Gase and Vic are doing good jobs but not flashy enough that they'll drew HC gigs I suspect. Gase has done a real job considering all the injuries.

We'll still pick very early but likely not be humiliated to any great extent. And a lot of Pace's early moves look good. Re-sign the key guys, get a top 5 pick and spend the war-chest wisely in the off-season and things could be respectable again quite soon.

padraig's point on McPhee is exactly what I was thinking. Lad has balled all year but for whatever reason all that gets mentioned of the Raven's struggles are Pees and Suggs.

kennyb3 · 05-10-2015 07:09PM

We are away in arrowhead next week, I would defo keep slauson at centre for that game. No way you want grasu making his debut in that arena and against Poe and Bailey.

Realt Dearg Sec · 05-10-2015 07:19PM

kennyb3 wrote: »

We are away in arrowhead next week, I would defo keep slauson at centre for that game. No way you want grasu making his debut in that arena and against Poe and Bailey.

I don't think I want him making his debut this year at all unless he has seriously and quickly increased his strength. He was bullied every snap in the preseason, it would be a great opportunity for him to get experience, but only if he's physically ready for it, which I would seriously doubt right now.

Oat23 · 05-10-2015 07:51PM

The line would be so weak if Slauson stays at C. He should stay at LG and Grasu at C, or sign a veteran C.

Realt Dearg Sec · 05-10-2015 08:08PM

Oat23 wrote: »

The line would be so weak if Slauson stays at C. He should stay at LG and Grasu at C, or sign a veteran C.

I dunno if I like bringing in a veteran, although de la puente and Garza are both free agents.

kennyb3 · 06-10-2015 06:19AM

The line will be weak with and without grasu, probably weaker with based on preseason.

It's really up to the staff to know if he's improved. I'd happily bring in de la puenta or similar to cover 5/6 games till grasu is more ready.

Realt Dearg Sec · 08-10-2015 03:14PM

Apparently Grasu has been at C in practice this week, because Patrick Omameh, who replaced Slauson at G when he moved to C last week, is out with an injury as well. Could be a tough day for Jay. Dontari Poe is a-comin'.

Innish_Rebel · 08-10-2015 03:55PM

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Apparently Grasu has been at C in practice this week, because Patrick Omameh, who replaced Slauson at G when he moved to C last week, is out with an injury as well. Could be a tough day for Jay. Dontari Poe is a-comin'.

Crikey - If I was Jay I'd be feeling that twinge in my Hammie coming on again!!!

That said a few weeks at C to see the real pace & strength needed at this level could stand to Grasu in the long term (as long as his confidence isn't totally shot)

If he survives Poe that would be a good sign - the Lions front isn't that scary (inside anyway) with Wright & Ngata. Vikings bit more though with Floyd & co.

kennyb3 · 09-10-2015 01:15PM

Some good articles for a bit of a read in the lead up to the weekend

http://www.chicagofootball.com/2015/10/08/in-line-for-first-nfl-start-undersized-chicago-bears-c-hroniss-grasu-can-learn-from-kevin-mawae/axmt6y4/

http://www.chicagofootball.com/2015/10/08/will-montgomery-injury-forces-chicago-bears-to-choose-between-potential-or-production/a9la4oo/

Fangio seems very high on Porter & Amos

http://www.chicagofootball.com/2015/10/07/hub-arkush-vic-fangio-chicago-bears-defense-gaining-confidence/a76ufop/

I really really hope Amos continues to develop and turns into a really solid player. Getting that from a 5th round pick is how you build a team.

kennyb3 · 10-10-2015 11:59AM

Jeffrey didn't practice Friday so will likely be out Sunday. I've no clue what's going on here - he's practised intermittently then keeps missing games. He's for all intent and purposes not played yet this year and is in his contract year. Getting frustrating.

He was limited deep ball wise for a number of games last year with soft tissue injuries too. He also missed a big part of his rookie year. Only had that 2nd year as injury free.

Going to be tough Call re giving him big money when he spends so much time injured. Then again he's one of the few young and proven players we have. Very difficult situation

padraig_f · 10-10-2015 12:34PM

kennyb3 wrote: »

Jeffrey didn't practice Friday so will likely be out Sunday. I've no clue what's going on here - he's practised intermittently then keeps missing games. He's for all intent and purposes not played yet this year and is in his contract year. Getting frustrating.

He was limited deep ball wise for a number of games last year with soft tissue injuries too. He also missed a big part of his rookie year. Only had that 2nd year as injury free.

Going to be tough Call re giving him big money when he spends so much time injured. Then again he's one of the few young and proven players we have. Very difficult situation

Yeah its a funny one, I definitely thought he'd be back by now, the injury didn't seem too bad. It must be frustrating for him as well in his contract year, his value is only going down.

In terms of the Bears contract....they have to push for value with his injury history, and not having played yet as a #1 receiver. They can play hardball a bit with Kevin White in reserve (fingers-crossed his injury isn't a lingering one).

I like Alshon, I hope they can re-sign him, but being practical you need to get a bit of value.

kennyb3 · 10-10-2015 08:13PM

padraig_f wrote: »

Yeah its a funny one, I definitely thought he'd be back by now, the injury didn't seem too bad. It must be frustrating for him as well in his contract year, his value is only going down.

In terms of the Bears contract....they have to push for value with his injury history, and not having played yet as a #1 receiver. They can play hardball a bit with Kevin White in reserve (fingers-crossed his injury isn't a lingering one).

I like Alshon, I hope they can re-sign him, but being practical you need to get a bit of value.

Yeah that's it I want to see him resigned on the right money. It would be horrible to lose him, but it would be equally horrible to give him top 10 receiver money and him proving unreliable.

I'd definitely be happy to franchise him to assess him more (and white too) esp if he isn't back soon. We need to see 10 games as a true no.1 to assess him properly.

padraig_f · 11-10-2015 11:09AM

Jared Goff threw 5 interceptions last night?

Goooo Cutler!

Oat23 · 11-10-2015 08:46PM

What a win. So happy to see Marquess out there making plays as well. Who would have thought we'd be competing with players like Meredith, Mariani and Bellamy on offense? Cutler again was fantastic. We would be 0-5 and lost all of them by 14+ if we didn't have him.

After Alex Smith made that throw to the 50 I'm sure many of us were having flashbacks to this sh*t.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmJRVcFrDmE

kennyb3 · 11-10-2015 09:20PM

Cutler will get a lot of credit and rightly so but the defence was immense. 10 points conceded and none in the 2nd half.

Oat23 · 11-10-2015 09:42PM

kennyb3 wrote: »

Cutler will get a lot of credit and rightly so but the defence was immense. 10 points conceded and none in the 2nd half.

Fangio is something else alright. My only concern would be Gase leaving after the season for a HC job and bringing Fangio with him. Seen it mentioned somewhere else and it's worrying me

.

I always thought the plan might be for Gase to take over from Fox and I hope that is the case.

Fair play to Grasu too. He started well enough, then struggled for a bit (around the time of the endzone fumble) and he recovered in the second half. They targeted him all game as the color commentator mentioned throughout. They won't all be as tough as that one.

A win and valuable playing experience for a young center. Pretty good night.

kennyb3 · 12-10-2015 08:05AM

Oat23 wrote: »

Fangio is something else alright. My only concern would be Gase leaving after the season for a HC job and bringing Fangio with him. Seen it mentioned somewhere else and it's worrying me .

I always thought the plan might be for Gase to take over from Fox and I hope that is the case.

Fair play to Grasu too. He started well enough, then struggled for a bit (around the time of the endzone fumble) and he recovered in the second half. They targeted him all game as the color commentator mentioned throughout. They won't all be as tough as that one.

A win and valuable playing experience for a young center. Pretty good night.

Yeah that's a massive fear - which is why you don't want them winning too many this season with such a lack of talent.

Fangio & Gase are both producing nothing short of miracles - particularly Fangio.

The defence had 2 rookie safties, Shea & Jones starting at ILB in their first years, no high profile corner #1 corner, a rookie NT and they give up 10 points all game and none in the second half. They've been getting better week in week out. Give him a quality corner & ILB and he could probably make an elite unit from this defence.

Again offensively - we were missing our #1,#2 & #3 wide receivers. Our oline had a rookie Centre who was playing his first ever game and Leno Jr who for all intents and purposes is a rookie.

For all I've been impressed with the offence given the lack of WR's & constant flux on the Oline - I think without the defence playing so brilliant the offence isn't on the field half as much. That's what was happening the last 2 years - the defence just couldn't get off the field (without giving up points).

The offence has yet to catch fire, but the defence is doing so well we are keeping games tight.

My one note of caution would be not to get carried away with this (not that i think many will) - KC aren't the team they were and are trending downwards massively. I predicted on the vikes tread we'd be within a score (and they'd comfortably beat them). I watched KC against the Packers & Bengals and they look awful offensively this year. they were two 4-0 (now 5-0) teams however.

A win at arrowhead is still impressive by this team

kennyb3 · 12-10-2015 09:01AM

http://www.theherald-news.com/2015/10/11/hub-arkush-bears-rebuilding-a-bit-ahead-of-schedule-right-now/aaov86l/?page=1

Annoying ads, but a good read. I agree that Pace seems to be doing a good job thus far (and it is very very early) in terms of

- hiring experienced coaching staff (take note Phil)
- finding a safety (Amos) that's not an embarrassment (in 5th round too)
- Signing McPhee (who is everything we hoped Houston would be last year and much more)
- Signing Jenkins
- Drafting goldman (a genuine run stuffer)

I do think Hub misses the fact that Alex Smith looks awful jittery this season. He clearly has no faith in his oline and is pulling the ball down too early. He looks like Kap at times in that respect.

kennyb3 · 12-10-2015 02:20PM

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2015/10/12/chi-kc-grades-mcphee-continues-to-be-foundation-of-bears-defense/

McPhee grading out well again. Good to see Acho & amos & Wilson in there too.

I'm surprised Leno was so bad - he did okay from what I could see.

Realt Dearg Sec · 12-10-2015 02:30PM

kennyb3 wrote: »

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2015/10/12/chi-kc-grades-mcphee-continues-to-be-foundation-of-bears-defense/

McPhee grading out well again. Good to see Acho & amos & Wilson in there too.

I'm surprised Leno was so bad - he did okay from what I could see.

Yeah I thought Leno was OK but he was caught for penalties a couple of times.

padraig_f · 12-10-2015 03:54PM

Great game. I was still happy with the performance when they were 17-6 down. The comeback started when McPhee blocked the field goal. Defense were playing lights-out. The offense had legitimate excuses for struggling, with all the injuries on o-line and receiver corps, I wasn't that critical of them. Then when they started to move the ball in the last 6 mins, it was very exciting. That Cutler throw to Forte, back-pedalling after mishandling the snap, beautiful. Agree it was the defense really that kept them in the game to that point. A lot of great performances, too many to mention....McPhee awesome again, Kyle Long blocking Justin Houston on the edge, Christian Jones with that big hit, Someone called Meredith making big catches, DBs breaking up passes!

I think it was my favourite game in about 3 years.

SameOleJay · 12-10-2015 08:37PM

Yesterday's D.

Vet Min, 2nd round Pick, 2nd Round Pick

Vet Min, UDFA, UDFA, McPhee

1st round, 5th round, UDFA, Vet Min

Vic Fangio, you da real MVP.

kennyb3 · 19-10-2015 08:21AM

I don't know where to start with that game. All our old problems came back in one go - couldn't run the ball, defence (secondary) getting destroyed and some strange play calling.

We move the ball all the way up the field with 21 seconds to go via passing.

Then on our last drive in overtime , we run twice and leave ourselves 3 and 6 (7?).

We also got screwed by the refs.

Fuller & McManis were just pure horrible. We need better CB's for sure.

Yet saying all that we should of won the game a couple of times over. How do we manage to lose with a +2 turnover ratio?

Ultimately it probably doesn't matter much anyway.

padraig_f · 19-10-2015 12:43PM

Hard one to analyse there was so much going on. Got screwed by the refs, but also got a number of gifts from the Lions.

Main impressons were:
- Jeffery made a big impact being back. He was a bit at fault for not contesting Cutler's int on the red-zone fade route, but probably lacking a bit of sharpness.

- I'm very happy with Cutler's play in general this season, I think he's at last found his co-ordinator in Adam Gase, and made some great plays again yesterday.

- Fox's conservatism is going to cost us in a big game at some stage. Yesterday you could've picked out a few, but one was running the ball 3 consecutive times, when up 31-27 at the end of regulation:

(2:46 - 4th) S.Martin kicks 58 yards from DET 35 to CHI 7. M.Mariani ran ob at CHI 19 for 12 yards (N.Lawson).
1st and 10 at CHI 19

(2:42 - 4th) M.Forte up the middle to CHI 24 for 5 yards (S.Tulloch)

(2:38 - 4th) Timeout #1 by DET at 02:38.
2nd and 5 at CHI 24

(2:38 - 4th) M.Forte up the middle to CHI 25 for 1 yard (J.Bynes)

(2:35 - 4th) Timeout #2 by DET at 02:35.
3rd and 4 at CHI 25

(2:35 - 4th) (Shotgun) M.Forte left tackle to CHI 26 for 1 yard (C.Reid)

(2:31 - 4th) Timeout #3 by DET at 02:31.
4th and 3 at CHI 26

(2:31 - 4th) P.O'Donnell punts 40 yards to DET 34, Center-T.Gafford, fair catch by G.Tate

So much more value there in throwing and trying to ice the game by getting the first down, instead of running down the clock a bit.

kennyb3 · 19-10-2015 01:33PM

http://www.chicagofootball.com/2015/10/18/hub-arkush-loss-to-lions-a-reminder-of-where-bears-stand/a7iukji/

I think Hub pretty much nails it

None of the reasons for Bears fans optimism coming off the two-game winning streak changed.

Cutler was very good again, Alshon Jeffery made a really strong return from his hamstring injury, the young offensive linemen certainly weren’t the reason the Bears lost and Eddie Goldman, Christian Jones and Adrian Amos grew up a little more at Ford Field.

On the flip side, the Bears still need another receiver, probably two, and they still have a clear talent deficit on all three levels of the defense, most glaringly at inside linebacker and in the secondary.

Much of that won’t change until the offseason, but right now, this team is learning and competing, and after last year, that’s not all bad.

kennyb3 · 19-10-2015 02:46PM

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2015/10/19/chi-det-grades-lions-earn-first-win/

Well done Grasu! McPhee leads the way every week!

McManis :mad: I knew he gave up a lot - but the 5 catches came on only 6 targets! And Fuller gave up 8 catches from 9 targets.

Watching in real time you don't always realise it's that bad!

(Runs off to look at FA corner market)

Realt Dearg Sec · 19-10-2015 05:54PM

I was livid watching the regular time game yesterday because we were sol blatantly screwed on so many vital occasions, almost like the refs were trying to make it up to the Lions for how they got ripped off against the hawks. But then you watch the ludicrously conservative playcalling in OT and you wonder did they want to win at all?

Being more rational about it, we still have a problem generating a consistent pass rush, which probably made Stafford look better than he is. What really didn't help in that regard was the amount of single coverage they gave to Megatron, which was just depressingly naive, especially when our corners suck so very, very hard. Still though, McPhee is looking like the best FA acquisition we've made in a long long time.

But Jeffery's return was everything we could have expected, I thought Langford showed a few flashes (on a day when Forte wasn't getting much in the run game), Cutler is playing as well as I've ever seen (still ended up under a good bit of pressure but did really well to evade it).

So yeah, painful to lose in OT when you're playing against the refs, but the right result while lots of positives remain. Only thing was the optimist in me was looking at our easy schedule, the chance to have a 3-3 record and the outside chance of sneaking into a wild card spot. That seems very distant at this point and you start thinking about the draft again...

SameOleJay · 20-10-2015 12:38PM

Reality is you can't expect wins without a pass rush or run game. Both were awful Sunday.

Pace has recruited well to date but man did he whiff on Eddie Royal. 15 mill and the guy is just so limited.

padraig_f · 22-10-2015 09:07PM

Jay Ratliff cut. Not sure I understand it, given they stuck with him during his 3-game suspension, only to cut him now. He's 34 now though, so hard to get too upset about it.

Realt Dearg Sec · 22-10-2015 09:20PM

padraig_f wrote: »

Jay Ratliff cut. Not sure I understand it, given they stuck with him during his 3-game suspension, only to cut him now. He's 34 now though, so hard to get too upset about it.

I'm kind of shocked. Although reading about it on Twitter he seems to have been escorted off the premises at Halas Hall, and police stationed outside to prevent his return. Whether that's because of his response to being cut, or whether there were tensions before hand that led to the cut, I'm assuming we'll hear soon enough.

EDIT: http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/7/71/1038174/bears-cut-defensive-lineman-jeremiah-ratliff
"Sources described the situation at Halas Hall as an “isolated incident” and said a disagreement took place, leading to Ratliff’s release."

Very vague but seems to imply that it wasn't just an on-field performance issue that led to the cut.

How Bout Dem Bears?

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