Alaskan Grizzly

Was just going to come back and apologize for hijacking the thread. So I’ll stick to the theme... After seeing last night’s game I’m having a hard time measuring how the Bears will do against Minny. Bears lost to GB at home 3-10 and Minny lost to GB (in GB) the week after us 16-21. Then GB lost to Philly last night in GB. The game last week against Washington would indicate the Bears did great; but those of us who watched it went away unsatisfied. The score was more a result of one half of good play and another half of crossed fingers. Minnesota is capable especially at RB. Cousins is an unpredictable player but has Thielen and Diggs at WR and Rudolph at TE. The current OC Stefanski (sp?) is the most recent OC ‘up-to-bat’ after DeFillipio was let go last season. He’s been with the Vikings since ‘06 and credited for helping Keenum to his best career year while the QB coach (remember Keenum’s 2-0 record against the Bears?). HC Zimmer is a defensive minded coach and a good one to boot. Hunter is an ‘up-and-comer’ at DE and they still have Griffin on the other side who (to me) is hot/cold. There’s Anthony “slam Rodgers to the turf” Barr at LB and Smith and Rhodes in the backfield to be concerned about. Hard for me to predict the weakness on D. To have a chance, I think the Bears will have to do more of the same from last week; short/intermediate passes with a fair amount of running mixed in. The D will do it’s thing but I’m concerned about how the corners will hold up, especially Amukamura and a little bit Skrine. This could be a close one and I see Bears either losing by 3 or winning by 7-10.

All trolling aside; I should’ve said their offense was more balanced with a good control of the passing game. A fair amount of the overall rushing yards came later in the game (at least according to the radio broadcast). A look at Howard’s stats are interesting; he ended up the lead rusher with 87 yards (5.7 avg) and 2 TDs. And... added 3 rec for 28 yds and another TD. The “rookie starting ahead of him” had no receptions and 15 less yards rushing...and 0 TDs. Jordan was targeted 4 times where the #1 WR (Jefferey) was targeted 9 times but both had the equal number of receptions at 3.

Beg to differ....mostly passing game that seems to be doing the job. As a matter of fact, one passing 20 yard TD reception by former Bear Jordan Howard. Yes that’s right ... passing reception...Jordan Howard. Oh and one running TD to boot. Why did the Bears get rid of him again? Running stats so far (into the 3rd quarter) show all three RBs for Philly with less than 100 yards...combined.

Its more apparent this year than last that taking the whole preseason off wasn't a good idea. I get the concerns of injuries but the opposite issue is what we're seeing now and as NY points out our team was 'this close' to going 1-2. Had the Redskins been a better team; like Minnesota, like Dallas or maybe even Philly we could have very well been looking at that record. 'So far' everyone in our division has a winning record so its even more imperative our team get their collective sh#t together. I honestly haven't seen the breakdown in the OL as much as the rest of you have claimed, or at least for the same reason. The troubles I see reflect more of the lack of Trubisky to stretch the field so the opposing defense is able to stack the box, putting as many as 8 defenders within 5 yards of the LOS. When they are playing man-to-man on coverage knowing Trubisky can't hit the tight window or long range throws they can afford to send more people on the rush or to stuff the run. Montgomery's success at running isn't coming from his first effort, its when he bounces outside or even catches in the flat. With regards to the OLine struggles, it comes down to simple math. Five blocking linemen (or even 7 if you add two tight ends) will lose every time to a rush of 6-8 people.

Agree with needing Whitehair back at Center. But... need to put Trubiskys performance in perspective. Remember this is the 30th ranked defense he’s playing against . They came out early with him doing a heavy dose of game management plays and what appeared to be college level sideline play calling. That meaning I got the impression the offense would line up and once they saw what the D was doing, Nagy would call in a play adjustment. Early on I don’t think Nagy was comfortable with Trubiksy having the autonomy he needs to run the offense. However as the game has wore on, Trubisky has been allowed to do more (ergo that nice throw to Gabriel). Nevertheless, he’s looking more confident as the game wears on. Which is really important as they start get ready to play better caliber teams.

X2!!!!!

Bears are their own worst enemy. Penalties are killing any momentum they gain, especially on defense. Redskins should already be out of this game with no ability to produce and offense.

Said it was a pinched nerve. (?) hmmm... looks ok on the XP earlier. Not doing kickoffs which makes sense.

HHCD with a pick six!!!! Welcome back to Washington HaHa!!

Looks like Pinero will be playing. As will Jackson(?). Didn’t know he was injured. Also of note; Maddie out, Coward in. https://bearswire.usatoday.com/2019/09/23/bears-week-3-inactives-eddy-pineiro-good-to-go-bobby-massie-out-vs-redskins/

Dang...the FG gods are not happy with Chicago for some reason. Curious to see if O’Donnell had to step in temporarily. Really hoping our team’s success this week isn’t dependent on a FG to win it .

Right on Bill!

To be fair, Trubisky has open receivers. He just doesn’t see them.

...and he does stuff like this...

In other news; how about that cat Gardner Minshew? Looked pretty sweet in last nights convincing win over Tennessee? Was 20 of 30 for 204 yards and 2 TDs. He’s looked solid over the last 2 1/2 games he’s started in. And the round he was picked in? 6th.... hmmm

The fact that Keenum is 2-0 against the Bears is concerning, but this isn’t Minnesota. I suspect we’ll see more of the balanced attack like last week on offense. And, for Trubiksy I have a strange suspicion this will be the Bucs ‘18 game of this year. Probably not 6 TDs but more like 2 or 3. Oddly enough the Redskins D is suspect in the secondary and that’s with a player like Josh Norman back there. On the D side we’ll see more of what we have so far. Difference from last week and this week is that they won’t be getting gassed as quick as they were in Denver. Maybe even a Def TD? Predict a score of something like 20-3 or 21-7 *EDIT: ack!! I didn’t know Landon Collins was on the Redskins...yikes. We’ll probably see him a bunch working on the run.

Why...in retrospect and at the time it happened I still haven’t seen why the Bears got rid of Howard. Between Davis and he, Howard is the better back. Between he and Montgomery, he’s definitely a change of pace back and will almost unquestionably get the short yardage needed. I don’t feel the 3rd and longs would have been quite as long. And before you say ‘but the stats’, remember that Wentz is a heck of a lot different QB than Trubisky. He’s getting passes downfield (and scoring TDs) where Trubisky is not.

Funny you ask. Just watched a good analytical video of some of the progress and areas still in need of improvement.

Hey Bill (and others). I hear what you're saying and like you have suffered through too many disappointing years to believe this is the year...until I'm proven otherwise. But in order to be a true Bears fan you 1) have to stay on the bandwagon even when the wheels appear to be ready to fall off 2) be a pessimist and 3) have eternal faith in your team. With this, you are not alone. Similar to what NYC said, this is essentially a 'prove it or lost it' year for Trubisky, but I wouldn't think that holds true as much with Nagy...and here's why. Besides all the maladies I illustrated with the other teams above you have a TON of prima-donna, 'me-first' players on other teams that are dismantling the integrity of the league and in some cases, ruining the teams they are on or were on. Look no further and you'll see Antonio Brown and his ridiculous shenanigans, or Jalen Ramsey and his wanting off his one year removed playoff team, or Minkha Fitzpatrick jumping the sinking ship that is the Miami Dolphins, or Zeke Elliott pouting in Cabo (or wherever the hell it was) before he got is $90 million payoff, or Melvin Gordon essentially doing the same...but with no results...yet. From the coach's perspective, look no further than last week and you'll see Nagy learned his lesson from the week one loss where he tried to be too cute and instead changed the script and pace to match more where his players were for week two. They still looked shaky in some cases but I got the idea improvement was being made, if only incrementally. Then from the team's perspective, take a look at all the young 'up and coming' players within the Bears. To include some high caliber superstars and solid character veterans among them and you'll find not a one thinking about themselves first. I think it safe to say that Nagy and to some extent Pace have to take the credit for that. The team isn't outwardly expressing their dissatisfaction or frustration and focusing on "stacking the wins" and working towards that common goal. I think Adam is right that as the team progresses they will meet the challenge accordingly and surprise a lot of us, even those of us who are more pessimistic than others.

I’m putting a positive spin on how most of us feel about our offense at the moment with this; Eli Manning was benched for rookie Daniel Jones, Drew Brees is out six weeks after surgery on his throwing thumb, Roethlisberger is out the remainder of the season after surgery on his throwing elbow, Nick Foles is out indefinitely after breaking his non-throwing clavicle/collarbone and the Jets were down to their third seat QB after their starter was lost to mono for several weeks and their #1 backup to an injury last night. And Miami is a plain hot mess. So things could be much worse. On the lighter side; Pinero is ranked number one (and only) when kicking FGs beyond 50 yards. He’s one of only five who are perfect overall on the young season. O’Donnell is 5th in the league net punting yards (and apparently improved each year in the league - according to the link below). R. Smith is taking the lead in tackles and the defense hasn’t lost a step...according to this: https://www.chicagobears.com/news/where-the-bears-rank-statistically-after-week-2 *EDIT: almost forgot. If you look at the link, take a look at the videos. Top one shows who the fastest player was last week. Hint: he’s on the Bears and he’s not a young player....

Was thinking the same, but still need to see how he does in the swirling winds of the winter months. Crazy to think he’s scored more than the offense has at this point.

Lol!!! If after the first playoff game and instead of ‘double-doinking’ he carries the team into the next round...maybe then.

They had them under those shades for part of the game. Maybe sucking down 02 during that time(?). But psychologically don’t want to give too much away either and let them see you pant. Mack looked gassed for sure at the end of the game. In context, to see them fight to very end was pretty impressive. Considering this was an early season game where they aren’t quite in their groove and don’t have a lot of games under their belts. Had this game been later in the season (like week 10 or 11) I’d bet the Bears would’ve looked a lot better. Packers and Vikings both play against the Broncs too but both of their games are at their respective ‘homes’. I see Denver splitting their games with them; win against GB (next week) and loss to the Vikes.

I want to say this was the first home opener for Denver in a lonnnnnngggg time. They flashed that stat earlier in the game. Think they had the winningest home opener streak in the NFL...until today.

Gotta hand it to Trubiksy. He was clutch up to the last minute. Looked a lot better this game than last. And how about that PINERO?!?!??