AZ54

Me too, or put Edison out there.

I like this but doubt we'll go with 3 DBs in the middle there, but the 2 CBs....yes. They'll want to give Bush a chance somewhere before the end of the season and after those CBs I think the OT or TE need is taken care of.

Where do we rank: http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?sea...qualified=false Offense: pts/game = 31st yds/game = 15th ( surprisingly ahead of Packers, Vikings, and Lions) Defense: pts/game = 15th yds/game = 12th

I finally completed a review of the win over the Vikings with main focus on the line play, both sides. DLine: Solid play inside in this game mainly from Hicks. Either the coaches or McPhee are getting to him (likely both) because he's starting to play more violently. On his sack near the goal line he just clubbed the lineman with his right arm knocking him off balance and then just ran right past him. After some solid but unspectacular first few games his arrow is now pointing up. Unrein is still unable to get any movement in the pass rush. He's still a solid depth-type player but he's not what we need as a starter. OTOH Bullard is making progress in his pass rush. He's not a powerful player but I can see him moving his feet better to get angles on blockers and then use his quickness to slip past them. At the same Bullard is finding ways to get off blocks and be more effective in the run game. What I don't see is his quickness at the snap as we did in the preseason. Perhaps that will show up as he gains more experience. Washington is right there behind Bullard but I'd say he's still adjusting to the inside game. Still, I like the improvement so far but more remains to be done in the 2nd half. When we get Goldman back into the rotation it will spell Hicks some and might move Unrein back on the depth chart as they keep the quicker Bullard on the field in a 3-man front. OLB: Early in the season when Floyd rushed the passer it appeared he was looking for a perfect path to the QB. Meaning he'd make a move and if it was stopped he was stopped. In the last few games it seems he's learning he doesn't have to win cleanly. He's using his length the work the edges of the blocker and is coming to realize that if he gets that he can force his way past and then he's just so long in reach he just closes on the QB quickly. If he continues to build on that part of his game the speed will win more often. In short, Floyd has been far better in the power game than I expected. McPhee is just a stud football player and having him back is making the rest of the Dline better. With less snaps Young had more burst as we were hoping. He'll play better as McPhee expands his role. Acho continues to impress me, not because he's playing great but he's been good for us especially with some of the high snap counts he's had. In other words nobody is talking about C. Jones. Right now this group is looking good. ILB: Trev and Free have been exactly as advertised. Let Kwiatkoski learn from them for a couple seasons. CBs: Still a lot of musical chairs back there but they did well enough not to lose the game for us. Word is LeBlanc is tearing it up in practice. I haven't seen that on game day but he does improve each week. Bausby was just ok, he mostly seemed to just play it safe in coverage but did offer some good plays in run support. If you look towards next season it feels like we'll have some good depth with these guys (LeBlanc, Glenn, Bausby, and Hall). Hopefully we'll see Hall back on the field soon as he too was showing some promise. Do we keep Fuller at CB or move him to FS? S: I still like Amos and I think he'll continue to improve. HJQ seems more and more like a backup and someone we need to find a replacement for. Obviously the coaches are rotating Prosinski in so they see this too. Can Bush fill this role? Houston-Carson? I'm not sure I see that. Oline: Kush and Larsen played well enough. I actually like what I see in Kush and he may well develop into a good backup for us. Larsen still gets pushed around too much for my liking. I'd rather see Edison out there, he's more stout and a better athlete. Whitehair is good and you have to commend him and Cutler for coordinating the blocking assignments so well against the Vikings. Looking to next year we should have 3 players competing for the backup OG/OC roles in Kush, Grasu, and Edison. Leno played well against Griffen for most of the game. On the sack he gave up he reached for the block instead of waiting for Griffen to get to him. Massie has improved quite a bit since the first two games and is now playing as I hoped he would. He's not great but you can win with him at RT when he plays like this. Nobody was blocking L. Joseph one-on-one. He's a stud but fortunately he's not fast. TE: I have to say Paulsen is now blocking well. Miller is definitely blocking better than he did last year and he's very effective as a receiver. I don't miss Marty B. WR: Jeffrey had a poor game and just wasn't in sync in the first half. He recovered and played well in the 2nd half. Meredith was good when he was targeted it's just obvious Cutler isn't comfortable with him yet but I think that will develop. RB: Blocking wasn't great on a lot of plays (see the comment on Joseph earlier) but Howard showed good vision and decisiveness and often got around defenders in the backfield and got to the open hole. Still I saw a couple plays where he could have had big gains if he'd made a different cut. IMO that just means he's only going to get better as he gains experience. How many fans realize Howard had the fastest on-field speed of any player in the NFL last week? That means he hit a higher top speed than Ezekiel Elliot. He might not be able to sustain that for 50 yards but he does have some serious burst in his step. QB: Cutler played well. He had a couple miscues but far more often he saved the play with his pocket awareness and mobility. Overall he just stayed within the game plan and what was working. Loggains: Prior to the Vikings game people continued to say he'll get fired after this season. Ain't happening. He just built an excellent game plan and called the best game of the season against the best D in the NFL. There will still be things to learn but he's proved that he belongs in this job.

If you like Oline play check out this screenshot of a Jordan Howard run late in the 4th quarter that helped win the game over the Vikings. This is inside 4min, Vikings know we're going to run and the box is stacked with 8 defenders and everyone else keyed into what Howard does at the snap. Our Oline blocks it well, Howard reads it well, and we gain 11yds for a 1st down. We have to start giving more credit to our TEs as well because both Paulsen and Miller are doing a good job blocking. The rest of the PFW analysis is excellent as well. http://www.profootballweekly.com/lists/201...e6c1ee/?page=14

It's the sweet feet he has in traffic that really makes him good.

That they did.

For a team that was supposed to be the best in the NFC this is a dramatic shift.

Congrats! http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...1102-story.html

Kelly is the idiot who after a game came out and said this is not a coaching problem. Then the next day he fired a coach. After that fiasco Kelly should have been terminated.

Congratulations!

FIRE THE CONSULTANT!

But Cutler didn't throw for 300yds? I have much more to say but I'll reserve some thoughts until I watch a replay. This was an ass kicking delivered to the best defense in the NFL. It would have been even better if Howard knew the audible near the goal line and ran left. Our coaching staff just took a bunch of backup DBs, and a rather significant amount of rookies up front (Washington 1st yr at new position, Bullard, Floyd) following the lead of their veterans and stuck it to the Vikings.

Well said and I couldn't agree more. 18 months into a total rebuild, that they (correctly) started, and yet they hit the panic button.

IMO he targeted the correct choices among the top QBs in each of the last two drafts. That at least bodes well for any future QB pick he makes but he has to know now that he'll need to be far more aggressive to trade up and get his guy. Now I don't blame him for not giving up a ton of draft picks. We're overhauling almost the entire roster, I'm ok with getting the bulk of the players early in this process.

Things will continue to change but Trubisky has moved into the top ranked QB spot in this years draft on CBS. http://draftbreakdown.com/video/mitch-trub...ittsburgh-2016/ There is a lot to like about his game and there are some question marks. It's already clear there will be question marks about each of the top QB in this years draft. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/prospec...&school=All

With the emergence of Meredith I'd make that trade but this will be a late first round pick. Jeffrey is hands down the better target for 50/50 balls but Meredith's route running makes him better at getting separation. Then there is Jeffrey's health where he's once again been struggling with hamstring issues. There's no reason to think that will get better as he gets older, or paid more money.

I don't see Rodgers running anywhere on his first sack. HIs first sack is the second play Thayer highlights in this clip. Yes, we covered the receivers for about 2 seconds because that's about how long it took for Floyd to get Rodgers to drop his eyes toward him. That's a pretty good rush on a 1st and 10 and I wouldn't put that into the coverage sack category. http://www.chicagobears.com/multimedia/vid...16-3860ce06dc9f

Very surprised there is not a thread on Leonard Floyd's performance last night. I was at work so I have yet to watch the game but I've seen highlights of his play. Both sacks, and even his "hurry" on Rodgers in the 1st quarter were excellent plays. Most impressive was seeing him cross the face of the OT and then fight through the double team right up the middle to take Rodgers down.

It's not so much who you are throwing to that generates YAC it's more how you throw it to them (i.e. in stride). If you throw a lot of out routes at the sideline you won't get a lot of YAC. There's also the decision on reading the defense as well so throwing to guys that aren't double teamed (as Cutler often did with Marshall, or as Hoyer often does on his frequent dump-offs in the middle) leads to more YAC. Keep in mind the type of routes run in the offensive scheme affect this too as well as pass protection. Wait until Gronkowski runs through the deep middle spreading apart the coverage and then dump off to Edelman underneath and watch him run. I don't think it's as simple as blaming the WRs for lack of YAC. Everyone has a part in it. I don't see Loggains on the hot seat to lose his job right now. It's hard to say our offense has not improved since week 1. Everyone sees where we still need improvement in the red zone but otherwise with a journeyman QB he's shown steady, albeit slow, improvement. If there's no further improvement as the season wears on then yes pressure will build.

True but we haven't yet seen Bush play as he's just now being worked back onto the field coming back from injury. Hall showed some promise before getting injured and it was the same with Houston-Carson. If one of them turns out to be a stud player for us then that gap is solved. I'm not sure that will happen and I think they'll fit the mold of the others who have played so far and appear to be just solid players for us. FWIW I read an article calling for Fuller to switch over to FS. He always seemed more comfortable with the play in front of him so that might be an option.

I've watched very little of Kizer. One full game on Draft Breakdown and parts of two other games I've seen live. There are times he hits guys in stride deep down the field with perfect precision. There are times I don't understand why his coaches have him throwing while on the run because he can't do that well. He can run decently but it's more in the mode of Jay Cutler not Cam Newton. I think he's got enough question marks, along with all the issues surrounding the ND program to have him fall to us. The flip side is Deshaun Watson and Clemson keep winning which will push his stock higher even if he too has some question marks.

No details here but Fangio sees the improvement in the young players. It can be easy to dismiss these comments as typical coach speak, but Fangio is the same guy who once said we have one good DT and the rest we'll see. He also called out Floyd and others at times. Hopefully we'll see some breakthroughs that turn into negative plays soon. My guess is we won't really see that until after the bye and we get McPhee and Goldman back into the rotation. Putting players like those two out there makes the job for Washington, Bullard, and even Floyd a bit easier. http://www.chicagobears.com/multimedia/vid...65-e5f9dd01d450

Just watched a Gamepass replay of the Jags game. I see a team with a good foundation of young players. We lack stars. Losing Goldman on defense was a huge loss. Young players like Washington and Bullard look a bit better each game as far as 2-gap responsibility, but neither is showing anything close to what we need in the pass rush. I expect that will improve as the season moves along and they get more comfortable in these new roles. We have zero speed on the edge rushers. That was where Floyd was supposed to come in but that hasn't shown up yet. OTOH Floyd has been ok in run support and coverage. If we can get him and McPhee back in the rotation it will help considerably. Our DBs are ok but there isn't one guy who is going to get an INT back there. I really like Callahan at NB but we need to get someone on the outside or at safety that can make those big plays for us. This is a definite focus area for the next offseason. On Oline Whitehair looked bad at times getting blown up and pancaked a couple times. He struggles with the big NTs but has been pretty good overall for us. The interior of the Oline has been ok as they settle in with Sitton and Whitehair learning on the job. We need to add more competition at OT this offseason. I can see a couple deep routes that Hoyer missed in the first half that could have been easy TDs (Jeffrey 1st qtr, Miller in 2nd qtr). We have to make those plays to help Howard find open space. Cutler will make those plays but will he also work the underneath routes when that's what the defense gives us? Cam Meredith is the real deal, he reads zone defenses well and moves into the right spots. It's no wonder Hoyer looks for him so often, just give him a bit of time and he'll find the gap. Yet he also handles the man coverage well. If we keep Jeffrey we are in a really good spot with WR for the next few years. If we don't keep Jeffrey it will be because Meredith is taking his spot on the outside.

This is football. A loss is rarely on one player, Brett Favre's 6 INT in the playoffs being one exception. That said, Hoyer's limitations are blatantly obvious when you watch film of the game. He is inaccurate beyond 20 yards. This is nothing new, go back and see what he did in AZ, Cleveland, Houston, etc. He tried to go downfield a couple times against Jax but he doesn't have the arm talent you need to challenge downfield unless a guy is wide open (i.e. blown coverage). He knows what he can do, and he knows what gets him in trouble with INTs, so he makes quick reads and throws for 7 yards. Defenses just bait him into it and drop the LBs back a bit to open up the underneath and Hoyer will jump right on it. Then Posluzny closes to decapitate your WR. When you get in the red zone nobody's dropping back. I don't think he's particularly good at reading coverages either. On one 3rd and long he had a well designed route by two WRs one running beyond the sticks and one underneath. The DB started to go with the over route but then came back to the underneath WR leaving the first down wide open. Guess who Hoyer threw to? If we have 3rd and 10+, already hard enough in the NFL, just forget about it because he'll rarely make the pass needed unless we get lucky on a catch and run. On the last pass he threw he was about 3 feet behind where it should been for Jeffrey. Jeffrey slows up and Ramsey comes underneath to knock it down and it's game over. The Packers D is good upfront and weak on the corners (injuries). We won't be able to consistently take advantage of the edges with Hoyer and they know it. Kizer can make those touch passes deep downfield outside the numbers. I"m not sure how well he reads and throws to the deep middle but he at least has the arm strength to get it there.