Lucky Luciano

my take on this: DEFENSE - we are going into a prevent defensive scheme when we have a lead of more than one score from the middle of the 4th quarter on. it is clear as day we are giving up a very soft zone very much similar to what lovie ran in his tenure. our db's are giving up more ground than the first down marker making for easy receptions that move the chains down the field quickly to put your opponent in scoring position. this makes for the type of points scored that we saw at the end of this game. a prevent defense does nothing but prevent wins. OFFENSE - in the middle to last 9 minutes of the 4th, nagi started to run an extremely conservative offense. it was supposed to eat up the clock. in my opinion it does the opposite. again, like the defense, this is a recipe for disaster in many games especially if your opponent has a proficient passing attack.

trubisky looks serviceable to me at this time. he looks like he could *possibly take a step forward as an good to good + qb in the future. it is hard to really judge his talent or improvement behind this offensive line and the amount of drops this receiving corp has displayed. 1. he has no running game. the rb's are getting hit nearly at the handoff 1-2 yards behind the line of scrimmage. no qb i know of can operate an offense with only one dimension of the game for any sustained positive results. 2. this line can't even hold the line of scrimmage on passing plays. they are getting pushed back into the pocket (where it appears he is being taught or forced to operate from) or actually pushed into the qb and the ends are coming in as a pincer move to make the tackles or hurry or disrupt the play. 3. this smacks almost as badly as cutler running for his life at the snap. he has lost confidence that this OL will protect him. that alone will cause serious growth problems and his ability to see the whole field and wait for the open receiver. 4. the consistency of this receiving corp and the amount of drops are disgustingly bad. throw in either the receivers don't know or quit on the routes or trub doesn't. this not only upsets the drive but puts the qb in a forced to throw situation, negates long gains due to YAC or just longer routes which stretches the defense. 5. penalties: it's like a merry go round of penalties. which lineman will have one or more penalties per drive. these are drive stoppers. 6. quite frankly he is injured at this time. you can see him limping during the game that says the hip problem is real. he also has the non throwing arm injury that will ultimately cause some problems with his game. 7. the play calling and coaching staff are not doing him any favors either. * trubisky has many things to fix even to become that average qb over time. it all depends on his mental capacity to read defenses and see the whole field QUICKLY as apposed to locking in on one receiver and forcing the ball in. he may never do this but with the supporting cast he has it will take longer to evaluate. he has shown pretty good accuracy on the shorter throws up to 10 yds. he has the arm strength and quickness. his biggest problem (see above also) so far is touch on anything over that mark. that HAS to be fixed if he is to succeed. is he an elite qb? at this time certainly not and probably not in his future although that 'could' change with a good supporting cast and a few more years of experience. that said, there should be a serious, honest qb competition in his future. finally, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater quite yet but keep a tight rein on him as standard practice. if it doesn't improve with better line play then cut your losses.

i think that post was sarcasm in it's finest moment.

this is an instance where statistics are misleading. 1. the difference between ryan's attack defense and tobin's read and react defense was very noticeable and not for the better. tobin inherited arguably the best defense in the history of the nfl and changed the way they ran their scheme for no apparent reason other than he just wasn't smart enough to step into ryan's shoes. the defensive line was intact with HOF quality players who were extremely aggressive off the LOS. to have them play in a 'read and react' first scheme was nearly criminal. they also lost wilbur marshal an excellent LB (thanks mikey) and replaced him i believe with r. rivera. not even a close comparison. 2. this point is also critical.... they lost discipline as a unit. the ryan headmaster/taskmaster replaced by tobin was like letting the inmates run the asylum. it was very noticeable throughout the season.

i never watched any games with him in it. just from the highlights on espn this is what i thought to myself (never having heard his quotes about payton) is that he reminded me of payton's running style. it's the balance that really made me sit up straight. after taking a hit or moving through traffic the balance he displayed was very paytonistic. whether it was too much to give up to get him remains to be seen. if he turns out fantastic it will seem like a steal.

agree. NO favio.

i have said this since preseason... this guy is a liability and one of the weakest points on our entire special teams squad. i don't care how much we owe him in guaranteed salary. CUT HIM. if you have to go for 4th down and whatever because you can't trust a field goal kicker to make extra points or reasonably long field goals that is an offensive detriment.

one other item i forgot to mention. this offseason we NEED a good kicker as a top priority. parkey (or butter) just is not reliable. the miss last night could have cost us big time. it would have put us up by 4 points if the rams had scored late.

out in the 2nd half with a foot injury. hopefully this is a minor injury. callahan is one of the most improved players this season and really anchors our defensive backfield when on the field. this guy is a keeper.

agree, trubinsky is a work in progress. i believe he only gets better with another year under his belt. what i am seeing so far: the good: this guy can throw lasers on target in the short range. great zip on the ball, great accuracy in that range, great mobility, great ability to throw on the run and put some heat on it. his mental clock is pretty dammed good. he can feel the heat coming and doesn't just stand there like some big dumb buffalo. even though i scream in outrage at every dumb INT he throws i cool back down and see this guy can be something special in our future. the bad: his worst detriment is 'touch' at this point in his career. the long and intermediate balls need to be worked on for accuracy and i believe they will come together in time once he becomes more comfortable with this offense AND his receivers. he still needs work on his receiver progressions but that too is getting better. that to me is about it. one thing does bother me. it is a good/bad thing that makes me nervous every time i see him play. i really do NOT want to see him running so much. it's great he is picking up these first downs but eventually he is going to get seriously injured if he doesn't temper this aspect of the game.

just to clear the air... i am a huge nagy fan at this time. so, did i ever say we fire fangio or nagy? the answer is no. but that does NOT give either of them a free pass for stupid or bad coaching! it needs to be stated and improvement needs to happen over time. NOBODY gets a free pass in this league from constructive criticism and if it IS replaced by total blind faith we will end up eventually in the same sinking boat we have been in forever. as far as daniels.... i don't care how many starts he has had or hasn't had. he is NOT a starting qb in the nfl any more than johnathan quinn was. at the best he is a working coach designated as a 3rd string qb who if we are relying on this guy for more than short time game filler we are done for the season anyway. he doesn't think quick enough, he has no arm, he has no feel for pressure, he has no escapabillity and most of all he is INACCURATE!! this is not some practice squad walk on unfamiliar with the nfl. this guy has been in the league for years (just like quinn). there is a very good reason why he has had only two starts before coming to chicago.

i agree with you we are ahead of expectations with this franchise and realistically it should take another two years to compete for winning a sb. but... those were bonehead calls and plays in any kind of season. fangio needs to step up on this. the soft zones even in this game were glaring but i still say two blown coverages for td's is not acceptable. nagy has exceeded expectations but that was a completely bad decision on that timeout. i still stand by my estimation of daniels. he is definitatly not starter quality. sub for a play or two? ok. nothing more. if we are going to throw that kind of mess out there i would rather see bray fail than watch daniels again. 3rd stringer for daniels or cut him.

every aspect of this game was BAD except, for a change, the special teams. almost EVERY point the giants scored was from a mistake by the bears. i was a bit concerned with daniels after last week, he looked bad. this week? he could have fit in perfectly with any of the horrible qb's we have had over the last 30 + years. this guy has absolutely no business being in the nfl. no possible way he starts any games the rest of the season. put in HIS backup, it couldn't be much worse. i also have to disagree about the timeout before the half. we GAVE the giants 3 points and gave them momentum going into the locker room. it was an incredibly stupid call. first if nagy was going to try and get the ball back (which was stupid with that amount of time left on the clock and our offense as stagnant as it was) why in god's name did he let those seconds tick off the clock before calling it? even IF the bears stop them there is absolutely no time left to generate any offense to get into position for a field goal. all it did was created a remote window for the giants to score. and that is exactly what happened - it was a lose/lose situation for chicago. no timeout and the giants run the clock out. next... what in the hell kind of coverage was fangio calling? not once but TWICE we give up uncontested touchdowns due to blown coverages. there is no excuse for that to happen twice in one game. we win and we are in the drivers seat in our division. we literally gave this game away.

double post

in my opinion, callahan is one of the most improved players on defense this season. i would offer him a good contract to stay. he's worth it.

TOTALLY DISAGREE.... may they suck for the next 2 CENTURIES.

the key to this game is limiting the intermediate passing plays. if we use a soft zone it could get ugly on quick outs with our DB's giving a lot of cushion.

the overtime play calling was dumbfounding. run the ball 3 times to set up a 53 yd field goal? with OUR kicker? i like nagy but that was a gutless set of calls. i believe the TD called back because of the burton flag was due to a pic by burton. not called all the time but legit call. the roughing the passer call on floyd was legit. when his hand came down he hit the qb on the side of the head. in today's nfl it gets called nearly all the time. the throwing down of the wr for U.R. was bogus. that was totally on the officials. why they would wait so long to blow the whistle when momentum was legitimately stopped especially so close to a first down? crap call. all-in-all this was a garbage game. for the life of me i can't figure out how you gain so much running yards right up the middle. some of the worst run D i have witnessed in some time. fangio NEEDS to figure out how to stop those soft zone giveaways for 5-10 yards whenever an opponent needs it. it's shades of lovie's defenses of the past. even an average qb will beat you to death if he can gain that kind of yardage every play. what a steaming bucket of drool this game turned out to be.

Here are some of what I believe are confirmed 40's... SBNATION: Franklin didn’t get an invite to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, but he did participate in the smaller National Scouting Combine. He ran a 4.44-second 40 as timed by lasers, and a 4.32 as measured by a hand-timed stopwatch, per the event’s records. https://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2018/2/27/17013358/john-franklin-40-yard-dash-fau-nfl-2018 It appears he was a QB at Auburn to start his collegiate career and then transferred to Florida Atlantic as a WR. His size is not bad. He is listed as 6'1 or 6'2 weighing in at 187 I believe. With the speed and size I can see him competing for a special teams slot in the future and if Fangio can convert him into a viable CB it would be in the realm of Jerry Azumah and a major plus for the team. He is also a guy (if he makes the transition) who could return kicks, even play backup QB if we were down to our last one left on the field if injuries hit during a game. As stated he is probably looking at either a special teams return man or practice squad if lucky and a player with some real potential.

Admins: I have a question in regards to the new site. I liked on the old software that it showed who was on the site at the bottom of the page. Is there a button or preference that I can turn on to show that? Also, great job on the new update. Thanks!

i never said he was mediocre or not. i don't know anything about this guy at all. just posted some info on him i read.

don't know much at all about him but here is some info:

i think dumping sitton would be a mistake. he can literally play another 3-4 years at a high level. he is a much needed QUALITY pro-bowl veteran on the interior of our line who has missed only 3 games per season in his tenure in chicago. i don't believe any injuries were joint injuries which is very important. in 2016 he had a rib injury and 2017 an ankle injury. long has had a lot more serious injuries than sitton and yet i don't want to see him cut either. long and sitton are cornerstone players on the inside of our OL. to start over seems silly to me. we can keep/draft lower round guards for future replacement. if whitehair is not the player they are looking for at tackle he projects to fill in as a replacement quality starter at guard/center. we have an abundance of guards to choose from in our future either on this squad or drafted over the next 3 years. we can't throw a top ten pick (or first round pick for that matter) at another guard. our salary cap in the future just will not support it and we would lose either long or the newly drafted high pick guard within the next 2-4 years. we need to focus on the tackle positions in the first or possibly 2nd round. these are our weakness's in the future.

somewhere in the late rounds we need a kicker

i too like the quick decisiveness our GM and coach have shown. agree we get the pick of the litter moving this fast. gotta agree with the others on sitton though. we need a solid, better than good veteran. we have the money so i say stay with quality until another takes his place by earning it.