How Bout Dem Bears?

Oat23 · 05-09-2019 4:15pm

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Thanks for the updates during the offseason Oat, I didn't end up watching more than a few snaps of Bears preseason total but kept an eye on the roster cuts.

Week 1 is a funny one because any predictions are such a lottery. We seem to be a bit of a known quantity on D, the expectation is that we won't change things too drastically. I'm not sure I like that if it's true. Pagano is an accomplished coach and hiring someone like that just to mind the tiller after Fangio left would be a recipe for disappointment. I expect there to be some changes in how they do things, particularly in terms of blitzing.

Still, the Packers are the ultimate unknown quantity right now, and possible week one errors aside I'm bracing for something like Nagy last year, where they have lots of tricks up their sleeve and catch us off guard a few times early. Hopefully we weather it.

And in the end, it all comes back to Trubisky. Will he have progressed in the offense? If he has, we'll know early and I think we'll win, because if he can get some accuracy into his mid and long passes that will open things up for Cohen to do his thing.

But something that's been bothering me...why is the Packers thread so damn quiet? It's not their style...

I'm confident Trubisky can figure it out. All I've heard all off-season is he now knows the offense inside-out, whereas last season he was having to think when the play call came in. That's why he always looked really good at the start of games with the scripted plays, because he knew what the call was going to be and he didn't have to think on the fly. If he knows the offense and doesn't need to spend time thinking when the call comes in, he'll have more time to read the defense and make any adjustments which will hopefully result in his decision making improving at the very least.

As for his mechanics, I don't know but I hope he has improved. Early reports from camp were that he was underthrowing deep balls now rather than overthrowing, so clearly they realised the issue with his mechanics and are at least trying to fix it.

Looking forward to seeing all phases tonight. Lots to be excited about on both offense and defense. On special teams there's obviously Pineiro and I hope it goes well for him. We have a proper return man now too in Patterson so hopefully we are better on kick/punt returns.

ArnoldJRimmer · 05-09-2019 4:19pm

Sitting in work less than two miles from Soldier Field right now. There's a real carnival atmosphere around Chicago today with the day long NFL event in Grant Park.

Hard to predict how it'll go, but I've talked to two different Packers fans today who are normally quite cocky, and they told me they have a bad feeling about this one.

Anyway, looking forward to the pub after work, and Hon' the Bears

Realt Dearg Sec · 05-09-2019 6:25pm

ArnoldJRimmer wrote: »

Sitting in work less than two miles from Soldier Field right now.

I'm not going to pretend not to be jealous. I mean, I'd be jealous of someone working in downtown Chicago any day, but today...

ArnoldJRimmer · 06-09-2019 4:30am

Jesus, that was depressing

thomond2006 · 06-09-2019 4:42am

ArnoldJRimmer wrote: »

Jesus, that was depressing

I'm wondering which Week 1 was worse. This year's or last year's. Both grim in their own way.

Realt Dearg Sec · 06-09-2019 4:55am

This was far worse, because the offense have so drastically regressed. Last year was all psychological nonsense ("the bears are back in their place"), this looks more like a fundamental problem with the playcallng and qb play. Just terrible. Not writing them off on one performance, week one is like that, but it would take a stretch of imagination to think it was just bad luck, the patterns were clear there.

SameOleJay · 06-09-2019 12:21pm

D was absolutely amazing, RRH had himself a night.

Complete meltdown at the other end, Mitch looked like a scared child and Nagy called a rough one. Line was brutal too, it's a pretty over-rated unit. There were 20 odd plays I had my head in hands.

thomond2006 · 06-09-2019 1:15pm

@ DEN
@ WSH
vs MIN
@ OAK (London)
Bye Week

The next slate of games before the bye on Week 6 isn't too difficult. That Denver defense under Fangio could be as good as the Packers D last night though.

Oat23 · 06-09-2019 7:24pm

So Mitch is still getting confused in the offense despite everyone from Pace down to teammates saying he was far more comfortable and had it down.

The Pack were playing with 6 DBs most of the game. I'm not sure why Mitch felt passing was the better option almost every time.

Concerning...

https://twitter.com/AdamHoge/status/1170037210139283457

Christy42 · 07-09-2019 11:57am

Oat23 wrote: »

So Mitch is still getting confused in the offense despite everyone from Pace down to teammates saying he was far more comfortable and had it down.

The Pack were playing with 6 DBs most of the game. I'm not sure why Mitch felt passing was the better option almost every time.

Concerning...

https://twitter.com/AdamHoge/status/1170037210139283457

Fairly well dropping Mitch into it there? Even if it was Mitch making those calls you would think he would correct it in private.

thomond2006 · 16-09-2019 12:35am

Eddy Pineiro. You beaut.

Oat23 · 16-09-2019 12:41am

Cody Parkey kicks that 5 yards wide and 5 short. Eddy nailed it, the legend.

The final throw from Mitch up the middle to make that kick possible gives me a little hope, as before that it appeared Nagy had zero faith in him with the plays he was calling. Almost everything was safe & easy as if he was calling plays for a rookie. Hopefully they build on that next week.

Realt Dearg Sec · 16-09-2019 1:05am

You know it's a nervous have any time my wife starts really paying attention, and at the end today she was near a heart attack. That was unbelievable. I'm going to be honest, i didn't really believe with 31 on the clock and a timeout that trubisky would get us in range. But he has, in the past, Shone in pressure situations like that. Once we got the second on the clock with the timeout though, I had full faith in pineiro. What a way to win though, in terms of expunging the memory of the playoff game and Parkey.

Christy42 · 16-09-2019 7:10am

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

You know it's a nervous have any time my wife starts really paying attention, and at the end today she was near a heart attack. That was unbelievable. I'm going to be honest, i didn't really believe with 31 on the clock and a timeout that trubisky would get us in range. But he has, in the past, Shone in pressure situations like that. Once we got the second on the clock with the timeout though, I had full faith in pineiro. What a way to win though, in terms of expunging the memory of the playoff game and Parkey.

I would not say Trubisky shone. Robinson got wide open (dude is a beast) and a decent chunk of the yards came from a questionable penalty.

Trubisky really has not taken a step forward this year. Certainly the play calling has not helped but he still has some terrible throws in his locker.

Realt Dearg Sec · 16-09-2019 12:33pm

Shone might be overstating it. But when you've been as bad as he has the last two weeks, "hit a wide open receiver" is shining under the circumstances.

Badabing · 16-09-2019 12:37pm

Next 3 games before the Bye are very winnable.

Oat23 · 16-09-2019 2:53pm

Had to be done.

https://streamable.com/gnc2m

Badabing · 16-09-2019 4:53pm

Drew Brees out for at least 6 weeks and big Ben out for the season for the Steelers.

thomond2006 · 23-09-2019 9:38am

Pressure on to win tonight. The NFC North rivals went 3-0 yesterday.

Realt Dearg Sec · 23-09-2019 6:05pm

thomond2006 wrote: »

Pressure on to win tonight. The NFC North rivals went 3-0 yesterday.

Yeah we need to win just to stay in a respectable version of last place in the division.

That being said, if we can't beat the Redskins, we deserve to be in last, and it would be best to face that early in the season. I do think we'll win tonight, but it's a funny game. I don't think we'll be complacent, we're not good enough to take any team for granted, but in a sense it's a no-win situation. Even if we win it doesn't really lift the question marks hanging around this offense, because the Washington D hasn't been at all good. If we still look rusty, if Trubisky is still struggling to read the play at the snap, if the playcalling is still out of whack, we're in trouble. Week 1 you could excuse because it's week 1, the second week the altitude and playing a Fangio defense can be used as excuses. There's no excuses tonight, only realities.

On the other hand, it could be a night to gain serious confidence and get a bit of rhythm going in the offense. If Trubisky gets a little confidence in himself I think we can go far, so this week could be a turning point for the year.

I was a lot more confident about tonight before I heard Eddy Dinero is questionable. That is to say, our main source of scores so far. Probably injured himself carrying around those brass balls of his. Anyway they said he'll play tonight so, fingers crossed.

I'm pretty sure our defense will continue to be dominant, although have you seen Terry McLaurin play? If we don't have a plan for him we could get gashed a few times. He can't make Case Keenum into a good QB, but he could still cause damage. Kyle Fuller needs to have a massive game.

I think we'll still sputter a bit on offense, but hopefully see a better team with a better gameplan, some of the cockiness of the playcalling from last year, especially in the early drives. If we look like crap again you can pretty much write off the year.

I'll go with Bears 20 Skins 14

thomond2006 · 24-09-2019 9:52am

Much better. The underthrown interception from Trubisky was awful but otherwise he had a decent outing. The defense was fantastic again.

Thanks to Case Keenum for icing the game with that brain freeze play to fumble the ball.

The use of Tarik Cohen continues to bemuse.

Realt Dearg Sec · 26-09-2019 3:30am

thomond2006 wrote: »

Much better. The underthrown interception from Trubisky was awful but otherwise he had a decent outing. The defense was fantastic again.

Thanks to Case Keenum for icing the game with that brain freeze play to fumble the ball.

The use of Tarik Cohen continues to bemuse.

Certainly better but I wasn't totally persuaded.

The obvious problem was that the Skins were shockingly bad. That they had something to cheer about going into the last Q should be reason to not get complacent.

Also while we got a decent score a lot of that came directly from the D or from INTs, which are lovely but not indicative of an improving offense obviously. Trubisky definitely played better but that interception he threw...Jeez talk about deflating, it was like all the optimism the drive generated got thrown straight out.

That being said he was definitely better. The running game was also improved but as you say, Cohen is not performing like last year, he looks more like the gadget player I thought he was in 2017, a gadget opponents have figured out. Montgomery is progressing well though, which he gets outside to run, but up the gut he's still not great.

Biggest problem on the O for me is actually not Trubisky right now, it's the O line. Very worrying how badly overmatched Kyle Long has been lately. Not sure if it's the quality of his opponents or if he's just not up to it after all the injuries. Hope it's not that as he remains my favourite player.

I want to say the playcalling was more balanced etc, but to be honest we won't know anything until we've played a good team, which we will this weekend. I expect the D to kick their asses all day long, but what's important is whether the O can replicate what they managed last week, this time against someone competent. A lot of people picking us in the weekly thread, which always makes me nervous in any hard-to-call games.

But then again I picked us as well. I think the D is going to continue to be unstoppable, and I expect them to get more INTs to compete with Haha. I loved hearing Hicks jokingly complaining he was about to get a sack when Mack came out of nowhere and took it. They are back to having fun kicking people's asses like last season. I enjoy every second the D is on the field. But only when they're not in prevent mode, I think we did that too quickly on Monday, and it got edgy. Lots of pressure, blitzes, and general mayhem, and hopefully another few baby steps forward from Mitch, and we will hopefully be 3-1 and out of the cellar.

thomond2006 · 30-09-2019 10:41am

The defense without some key pieces blew the Vikings away. Dalvin Cook held to 70 all purpose yards. Thielen held to 6 yards! Diggs was the only player who put up good numbers. Cousins in three games against the Bears has been a disaster. Chase Daniel against a very good defense went 22/30 for 195 yards, a touchdown and no turnovers. Exactly what you'd want from an experienced well-paid backup. Make a few throws when called upon and don't turnover the football.

Trubisky won't be playing in London by the looks of things. Oakland got a shock win at Indianapolis to keep their season alive but you'd like to think Daniel and a healthier roster will have enough to get it done.

Oat23 · 01-10-2019 6:17am

This situation with Roquan is so strange. Initially it sounded like a family thing like a death, but if it was I don't think they would be so tight-lipped about it and he wouldn't have been on the sideline Sunday either. He would have went home, surely.

Schefter said on the radio that he heard he was deactivated because he had been acting 'strange/erratic' all week. Now his teammates are saying they don't even know what is happening.

Hopefully he's okay mentally/physically and it isn't him considering retirement or something.

https://twitter.com/chisportupdates/status/1178850480354660352

SameOleJay · 02-10-2019 7:34pm

Roquan a full go for practice and says he’ll play Sunday.

Hope everyone who wanted to can make it, I’m hyped.

Realt Dearg Sec · 02-10-2019 8:02pm

SameOleJay wrote: »

Roquan a full go for practice and says he’ll play Sunday.

Hope everyone who wanted to can make it, I’m hyped.

That's great news! Was really getting kind of disgusted with the Chicago media and their prurience over the Roquan situation. My feeling was that if they say it's personal, just leave it at that. The rumours were unhelpful (the car crash one especially) and the wording of Schefter's bit really opened the floor to idle speculation.

I'm also assuming Daniel will play Sunday. I would expect a team with a week to prep for him to be able to limit him more, but I do really like that he can go through his progressions without staring down a receiver, and he made some very nice throws. Hopefully he can do enough. I have no doubt in my mind that the D will stop (I almost wrote stomp, which, I'm guessing Mack would use that word) the Raiders O, but their D does not look as good as the Vikings by a long chalk. They're a limited team and we should be looking to show more progress, and especially I'd like to see us establish the run more, as I'm so far unconvinced by Cohen, Montgomery or Davis, and feel like letting Howard go was a terrible decision.

But there again, after last week's performance by the back ups it's hard to criticise the GM's personnel decisions.

Hope everyone who's going to it has a great time, and that we're heading into the bye 4-1 at the top of the division (I'll be in Dallas cheering, well, not cheering for the Cowboys exactly, but certainly for a Packers loss)

SameOleJay · 07-10-2019 11:06am

Stadium was terrific, Spurs really have gone all out and deserve first priority for sure.

I’m not sure how the game was close. Completely dominated on both lines of scrimmage. On one side it was somewhat mitigated by injury but it’s hard to see the problem on O going away. Kyle Long is cooked and Leno is on a one way street right now. He was absolutely dreadful yesterday.

The defense didn’t show but maybe we’ll have to live with that on occasion. Offensively Nagy needs to figure things out, there’s enough there to be ok. A-Rob is amazing

Well done Raiders anyway, much the better team.

davetherave · 07-10-2019 12:40pm

Yeah Leno isn't having a good innings penalty wise.

Most enforced penalties this year of all players across the league this year with 8.

Raiders deserved to win. Robinson is a beast and Sherrick McManus with the old peanut punch was nice, but not a great day on either side of the ball.

thomond2006 · 14-10-2019 8:54pm

Kyle Long has been put on IR. That could be it for him as Bear. He's owed big money and can be cut.

Realt Dearg Sec · 14-10-2019 9:21pm

thomond2006 wrote: »

Kyle Long has been put on IR. That could be it for him as Bear. He's owed big money and can be cut.

Yeah not a surprise, he was either playing through yet another injury, or his body has completely given up on him. He has been a truly great Bear, soldiering on some truly shocking teams in the Trestman years when he was often the only bright light, it's a shame his decline has come after only one year with a decent team. He was drafted pretty old (like 25 or 26 I think) so was always going to have a short career, but I think the time they moved him to tackle was the moment he started to decline. At his best, though, he represented a spirit of gritty determination and a team ethic that's vanishingly rare in the league, and that put him in the company of some of the best to play with the team. And he was a mean motherfcuker too, nobody messed with his QB without dealing with the consequences.

Would love to see him play well again, but he was struggling so badly this year it would be best for him to move on. He has a great personality; can see him doing some broadcasting work.

Realt Dearg Sec · 16-10-2019 1:43am

Hicks on IR. Now there's a disastrous piece of news for our playoff hopes. Probably the second most important player in the defense, and the most important in run defense.

thomond2006 · 16-10-2019 2:52pm

At 3-2, remaining games:

vs Saints
vs Chargers
@ Eagles
vs Lions
@ Rams
vs Giants
@ Lions
vs Cowboys
@ Packers
vs Chiefs
@ Vikings

December's games are a difficult series. I wouldn't want the Bears to need more than two wins from those four games. This Sunday is a huge game, with a home game against the injury wrecked Chargers to come after.

Realt Dearg Sec · 16-10-2019 4:53pm

thomond2006 wrote: »

At 3-2, remaining games:

vs Saints
vs Chargers
@ Eagles
vs Lions
@ Rams
vs Giants
@ Lions
vs Cowboys
@ Packers
vs Chiefs
@ Vikings

December's games are a difficult series. I wouldn't want the Bears to need more than two wins from those four games. This Sunday is a huge game, with a home game against the injury wrecked Chargers to come after.

It's a tough schedule overall, I can see us getting six wins there maybe (Chargers, Eagles, Lions at Soldier, Rams, Giants, Cowboys) and also possibly the Vikings. I would say predicting those as wins is a pretty optimistic reading of things given our struggles on offense, and it only adds up to 9. I don't think 9 wins will get us to the playoffs the way the division is shaping up. So yeah, no question about it we need a win against the Saints or the path to the playoffs starts to look very tough indeed.

Realt Dearg Sec · 21-10-2019 12:28am

What has actually happened to us? This game is as bad as anything under Marc Trestman. Nagys play calling is disgraceful, trubisky is done and dusted now, the offense can't execute.

But look at the defense. After a good opening few weeks, they've completely cratered as well. Roquan is clearly not himself, he's playing really weirdly. Mack, Floyd, etc etc. Nobody is playing like themselves.

Trubisky is a bust, Nagys clearly not the guy we thought he was, we have no identity. Is Pace on the hot seat as well? I can see a good argument why he should be.

Realt Dearg Sec · 21-10-2019 12:52am

I take back "as bad as anything under Trestman" actually. Need to keep that in reserve...

thomond2006 · 21-10-2019 9:15am

Yo Bears. Next time you decide to lose like that, do it on a 6pm kickoff. I'm exhausted this morning.

Next up is the Chargers who love to lose when they shouldn't. Perhaps the Bears win. I don't think it matters. The season ended last night. This year's 3-3 has a different feel to it than last year. The 3 losses at that stage were Packers away (should have won), Dolphins away (awful performance but at least went to OT before Codymania struck) and Patriots at home (no shame in losing and 2 TDs conceded on special teams).

To avoid being completely miserable, I have to give credit to Allen Robinson. In an awful offense he's been immense.

D9Male · 21-10-2019 3:30pm

Trubisky is dirt. That is your main problem right there. It is demoralizing on the whole franchise when a QB is that poor. A defensive stop is less impactful when you're probably going to be going back on the field again after yet another 2 yard run - sack - 6 yard screen pass - punt by the offence.

Oat23 · 23-10-2019 2:28am

Roquan is tweeting & retweeting some odd stuff. They need to put him on non-football injury list and get him some help for whatever is going on.

thomond2006 · 23-10-2019 12:02pm

Agreed. He started the season on fire but hasn't been himself on the field since his absence. Bears should take the long term view and sit him if it's the right thing.

Realt Dearg Sec · 23-10-2019 12:52pm

thomond2006 wrote: »

Agreed. He started the season on fire but hasn't been himself on the field since his absence. Bears should take the long term view and sit him if it's the right thing.

It's the long term view, yes, and his well being is more important than football. But funnily enough it's the short term view as well. Kwitkoski would have jammed up Bridgewater on that first down play; he played better coming in against the Vikings than Smith has since week one. And he never lacks for intensity and effort, regardless of his limits as a player, which you can't say right now about Smith.

Oat23 · 28-10-2019 2:26pm

Where do we go from here? Season is done, obviously. Mitch isn't the guy. I think yesterday finally confirmed it. 3rd year QBs should not be making the mistakes he makes, especially that horrible INT. That was a rookie QB error. Missing an open receiver for a TD (for the millionth time) and then fumbling the game away right after was dreadful.

At the time he was drafted I remember saying here that Pace would live or die based on that pick, but I think he has done enough good things aside from the Mitch pick to have earned a chance to fix it. His willingness to be aggressive and trade picks to get his guy might not always work, but it's a breath of fresh air when compared with Emery and Angelo.

His & Nagy's heads are on the chopping block though and if they decide to ride with Mitch beyond 2019, they are finished. They need to recognise he isn't the guy and do whatever they can to fix the position. No camp competition or any of that bullsh*t. If we enter 2020 with Mitch having a shot of being the starter, they have failed and we are f*cked.

Who do you go after though?

Alex Smith if he can play?

Bring Kaepernick in for a workout?

Teddy Bridgewater will probably draw interest given his performances for the Saints.

Nick Foles might demand a trade if the Jags decide to go with Minshew.

Literally anyone who can run an NFL offense would be an upgrade on the FBS QB we have under center right now.

There are also other things that need to be fixed of course. We need at least 2 new o-linemen, a new TE and Nagy needs to give up the playcalling duties to someone who knows what they are doing. It's not all on Mitch.

Going to be an interesting off-season with all that is needed and the limited cap we will have. Pace will have to work some cap magic to make it happen.

thomond2006 · 28-10-2019 6:51pm

Lots of Matt Ryan to Bears talk. I call BS.

He was excellent last year in a team wrecked by injury but he hasn't looked good recently. The Bears have problems other than QB and the remaining schedule is brutal. Last year's Bears would struggle to make the playoffs from here.

Realt Dearg Sec · 03-11-2019 9:57pm

I hate football so very, very much.

Oat23 · 03-11-2019 10:42pm

I'm so relieved I learnt from the Trestman era and never got too high. They burned me so bad in 2014 I refused to every get onto the superbowl bandwagon this off-season.

It still sucks to suck again of course.

Badabing · 04-11-2019 4:58pm

What does Nagy do with Trubisky? Stick with him or play Daniel. Who's a viable quarterback for us to get next year?

Realt Dearg Sec · 04-11-2019 8:24pm

Badabing wrote: »

What does Nagy do with Trubisky? Stick with him or play Daniel. Who's a viable quarterback for us to get next year?

The problem is we also know Daniel is not the answer, and he is only there at all because he "knows the offense". It's an indictment of Pace, really, that he managed to go five years and only draft one QB. He went all in on that guy, as we know, which isn't necessarily a bad idea (though it turned out to be) but even if trubisky had worked out, what was the plan if he had gotten injured during our wonderful super bowl run?

For next year we are now pretty much obliged to draft someone in the second, and I have absolutely no faith that anyone in halas is able to evaluate one

Christy42 · 04-11-2019 8:39pm

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

The problem is we also know Daniel is not the answer, and he is only there at all because he "knows the offense". It's an indictment of Pace, really, that he managed to go five years and only draft one QB. He went all in on that guy, as we know, which isn't necessarily a bad idea (though it turned out to be) but even if trubisky had worked out, what was the plan if he had gotten injured during our wonderful super bowl run?

For next year we are now pretty much obliged to draft someone in the second, and I have absolutely no faith that anyone in halas is able to evaluate one

Very few teams have two QBs better than Daniels to be fair. Can't see that as a knock on them.

thomond2006 · 11-11-2019 10:19am

@ Rams
vs NYG
@ Lions

7-5 isn't an insane possibility, all those teams are also struggling. The problem comes with the 4 remaining games.

ArnoldJRimmer · 18-11-2019 5:01am

Another depressing game

thomond2006 · 18-11-2019 10:27am

thomond2006 wrote: »

@ Rams
vs NYG
@ Lions

7-5 isn't an insane possibility, all those teams are also struggling. The problem comes with the 4 remaining games.

I apologise for making anyone read this rubbish.

How Bout Dem Bears?

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