AZ54

I realize there will be tougher defenses but one of them was GB and we ran for 180yds. Sadly our D has been equally as bad at stopping the run but at least against Houston the LBs showed signs of slowing that down. The Giants have been nearly as bad stopping the run so they know what's headed their way.

At what point can we start saying we have a good run blocking Oline?

After watching the film I posted elsewhere he had options on almost every play. One of his biggest mistakes was the tendency to roll out of the pocket instead of stepping up when it was wide open in front of him. I don't see anything magical needed, just a QB who needs to relax and take the quick and easy play the D gives him. He doesn't need to lock onto the deepest target for so long hoping for big gains. Based on what I saw last night the Giants will give him similar opportunities to complete easy passes.

Montgomery is the better back in tight spaces. Herbert makes better decisions for daylight at the 2nd or 3rd level where too often Montgomery seems to be looking for another cut. Compare their runs against GB and you can see how Herbert gains less than Montgomery on similar plays with tight spaces/blocking, a lot less on many runs. Then you switch to plays where the Oline gives them a good initial crease and Herbert is in and out of there, while Montgomery is making another cut. There is nothing wrong with having two backs who have complimentary styles. Ebner is still finding his way and had some poor runs, poor decisions.

Brisker has had his share of mistakes too and Gordon has the more difficult job by far. I still think both have a good future.

He might have more credibility if he'd at least spend 1min to do some research. This take is also stupid because Pringle signed a 1yr deal betting on himself to get a big deal next year. He literally has millions of dollars at stake every time he misses a game. https://overthecap.com/player/byron-pringle/7313 "Byron Pringle signed a one year, $4.125 million contract with the Bears. $3.9 million is guaranteed."

There are a couple plays I disagree with him especially the first one because that is a bad pass. Overall the breakdown does explain a few of the bad plays but also shows some positive stuff that I didn't pick up during the game such as Fields switching the play from pass to the Herbert 50yd run. He's still locked on some reads too long but it's still early in the season.

Yes Nickel. Gordon in slot at left of Morrow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPwaWw6USpw

I hope our 2nd string TE Griffin can return this week. I'm just wondering if with him out did we have a different set of plays last week from what we ran in Wk1 and 2? If so, was that one piece of the puzzle for Fields not being comfortable with his reads or protection? Maybe Adam knows where to dig up stats on formations and how often we use 2 TEs?

https://www.chicagobears.com/news/roster-moves-bears-put-byron-pringle-on-ir-sign-joe-thomas

We are starting Pettis who they discarded. I imagine they are saying the same.

After watching MNF I'm not sure what to think of the Giants matchup. Their losing a WR in Sterling Shepard will help but that was a freak no-contact injury on the last play of the game.

I agree with this assessment. Eddie Jackson just led a secondary comprised of 3 rookies, 1 a UDFA, and Vildor in just his 16th start. It wasn't always pretty but they also kept their heads up and made some big plays that helped win the game. https://www.si.com/nfl/bears/news/eddie-jacksons-guiding-hand-leads-bears-secondary

Post-game Eberflus said it wasn't serious and he expected him to be day to day. I'd say week to week might be more accurate.

100% agreed. He can't force passes to Mooney just because he hasn't had many catches and it felt like that was on his mind today. It also seemed as if when Montgomery went down he felt he had to make bigger plays and it just spiraled down from there. That was not the case at all and the rest of the team carried him to victory. Hopefully he'll learn from that. I remember the biography video about him and when he transferred to Ohio St. he wasn't comfortable and felt he'd made a mistake. He said he called his father who told him he had to stay there and work through the issues. I said earlier this is really the first time I've seen him lose his confidence. I'm not saying he's not comfortable with the Bears but I would bet money he had a similar heart to heart conversation tonight. In this case it's about learning and adapting to the NFL. There is nothing easy here and it couldn't be more obvious on a weekend where Rodgers and Brady (backup WRs like Fields) put up 14pts and 12pts. Mahomes 17pts, Allen 19pts, Herbert 10pts (I know he played injured but if you're on the field...). As a QB you have to get a perspective like a CB where you can't let the last bad pass or bad game ruin things going forward. People will focus on yards thrown but the job is to score points and they didn't score enough. Nobody cared about Roethlisberger handing off early in his career because they won games. In year 4 it turned around. Fields needs to do what needs to be done to win games and right now if it's handing off so be it. I still believe the passing game will show up down the road.

I should add that I'm always looking for the moment where a young team finds ways to overcome adversity and win close games. This team did that today and we shouldn't overlook that on a day where Miami beat Buffalo and Indy beat KC. I'm not comparing our victory to those, just the fact of how close the NFL is on any given Sunday. We had a lot of key players out, especially after the 1st quarter, and still found a way to get it done.

Fields didn't look like an NFL QB at all. This was the first game I've really seen him get so mentally out of it. Poor throws poor decisions. If the heat from the poor game against GB, or all the crap he got after the post-game press conference got to him then we have a problem because I don't want another shrinking violet trying to run the offense. In the past if he made a mistake he had a fighters mentality and came back throwing another punch. The Oline was really poor today too and I'm not happy they keep benching Jenkins for Patrick. I was ok early on to help Patrick get back into game shape but Jenkins has done enough to earn his spot and Patrick hasn't done enough to take it away IMO. If Patrick can't beat out Mustipher to start at C then sit on the bench. These snapping issues need to stop. I can't say it's always Mustipher but for sure on the 2nd one that snap hit his right leg. That said the bigger issue today was both OTs. However, we ran the ball well so at least that part of the equation is something we can hang our hats on. This might be the first game ever where I felt like missing our 2nd TE caused so many problems. Or maybe it just exposed the other gaps because we couldn't rely on the 2 TE sets and had to rely more on the WRs. I'm not totally down on Fields yet because I'd like to see him in a few games at least with Pringle and especially Velus' speed on the field. The D lacks talent in a few spaces but they kept plugging away. Roquan woke up from his slumber and started playing downhill again, as did Morrow. That was great to see. I'm not sure Roquan makes that INT if the ball isn't tipped. He might defend the pass.

We haven't won a division game and GB/Minn have both won a division game so we're in 3rd place. Still a better spot to be in that I was expecting especially with quite a few starters still out.

https://www.si.com/nfl/bears/news/what-promoting-only-one-linebacker-can-mean-for-bears

Given the importance of the position to the D, probably more impactful for them is that their starting 3-tech might be out. But they have other concerns too: https://www.houstontexans.com/podcasts/bears-preview-is-deep-dish-actually-pizza-vandermeer-s-view

Looks like Sanborn is your starter for this week to replace Adams. If Roquan can't go it'll be Weatherford. I don't think they could be worse against the run than what we saw from the starters but pass coverage is a bigger problem. Weatherford has the talent to play well in coverage, will he know which way to go? What if they both play better than the starters did last week? https://www.chicagobears.com/news/roquan-smith-jaylon-johnson-questionable-for-texans-game-injury-update

He doesn't have it and in large part it's because he's never invested time into fixing his mechanics. With the money he's made it's not hard to hire a QB coach in the offseason. From the time we are kids playing sports we are taught (should be taught) fundamentals. I realize elite athletes can still succeed in lesser levels without them but NFL players will take your lunch money if you don't get it right. That is simply a lack of work ethic, not workout ethic because Trubisky had no problem staying in shape for photos with his girlfriend. That work ethic had to play into his slow learning curve on reading defenses. https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bears/bears-justin-fields-tremendously-improved-mechanics-luke-getsy

In the world of statistics there is a thing called sample size. With this small of a sample, 2 games, one of which had some really bad weather, combined with the NFL learning curve for a young QB we just have to be patient. Listening to the coaches they aren't worried at all about Fields. Getting the passing game going yes. That doesn't mean there aren't things Fields needs to improve upon. Called pass plays was closer to 50% but on several Fields just ran with the ball including the first TD run. On the deep ball to Mooney it was interesting to hear Getsy describe how Mooney ran the route wrong. Then Fields threw the ball where it was supposed to go but should have thrown to fit the route Mooney ran. Both players were at fault and Getsy took ownership for making sure they know the details better. The part I liked most from Getsy was him describing how he wants to take what a defense is giving us. It wasn't just a platitude. He has a clear what and why for those coverages, personnel, fronts, etc. That's why he kept running in the 4th quarter because that was what GB was giving us. I think that's worth noting because 1) I've had years of watching Nagy call plays without consideration for what the defense was doing or where their strength was (i.e. don't run C. Patterson up the middle on 4th and 1 just because you think they don't expect it to happen). 2) they were specific types of runs planned to attack the weakness of that D and 3) it worked for 90yds. It worked well enough that it got Aaron Rodgers and Aaron Jones up off the bench to watch what their former coach was doing to their defense. The passing game has more variables and takes a lot more work to get timing down. Of course we have the inexperience at QB but Fields isn't giving up on figuring it out. Getsy made me optimistic to see this come together over the course of the season.

As the NB Gordon lined up in same spot as the LBs on many plays so yes he had his fair share of misses. At least he was doing that closer to the LOS not 5 yards behind it. For the 2nd quarter it seemed GB literally ran right at Gordon but it's probably more correct to say they just ran the ball if we were in Nickel.