Alaskan Grizzly

We may have found a keeper with this kid. He’s had some solid sticks today and isn’t the least bit afraid to stick his head in there (literally).

Yeah, I was a bit premature. They need some time to gel. That last sequence was all out of whack. Reminded me a little of Jason’s favorite former Bear J’Marcus Webb and Cutler having to yell at him and help him put on his shoe. ?

Maybe a little early but I like having Feeney in as Center. So far up the middle runs and protection there have been solid. *except when he causes delay of game . ?

Mahomes and Jackson have made a career out of playing like that.

Meh. The play calling out of the gate was solid and creative. Played towards Justin’s strengths. Detroit started blitzing more and Chicago continues to run up the middle. That’s on the scheme aka play-calling. During those same stretches of blitzes you could see Justin get the ball out quicker (ergo the “knuckle ball”) but he’s reacting instinctively knowing the pressure is coming. Goff’s style of ‘standing cool in the pocket’ is only good if you don’t get any pressure. We see what happens when pressure gets to him once or twice. Two INTs and another near miss.

This game reminds me of the old “black and blue” division games. At the risk of making excuses for Justin some of his passes are coming out duck-y, especially the longer ones. Still has the power to push them through though.

Justin Jones is having a solid game inside. On the play inside (just before the near pick six) he was able to shove the RB down despite being blocked away from the play. And had a nice stuff on Montgomery a few plays before that.

Now Detroit’s defense starting to turn up the aggression with some physicality.

I think Greene brought the pressure that time (from Goffs left). Chipping away. ???

I think that pressure “love tap” from Justin Jones one or two plays before helps shake his confidence. Need more of that. Doesn’t have to be a sack every time. We used to call stuff like that psy-ops

Of note, Jones is a “healthy scratch”. Otherwise no starters on the list. This is the time gents.

To me this will be the key to having a chance today. I’m going to guess that Swear knows it’s time to “feast” and maybe Ngoukue will finally get in on the action too. The one x-factor for me will be Gibbs. Gibbs could be key to Lions playing really well especially if Goff has to resort to a lot of dump offs / screens .

Meanwhile … Chubba Purdy (brother of Brock) making his first start for Nebraska (5-5) tonight against Wisconsin (5-5). Both teams playing for bowl eligibility. Far cry from when I was growing up in the 70s and 90s when Nebraska was a perennial powerhouse.

Purposefully watched this game today to see what all the hype about Maye was. And quite honestly didn’t see it. He had two nice passes, one for a TD early in the game and another where the receiver dropped it. Other than that his passing was off. As you pointed out in the stats he’s (so far) under 200 yards and mostly getting yards by scrambling. Which puts him on par with his predecessor Trubiksy and Fields. So we’d consider drafting Fields’ replacement with a player that can run like him. ??‍♂️ I think it safe to say Williams isn’t all that and a bag of chips either. Neither he nor Maye are “it”. Not to me anyhow. One player I did see today that played really well was Clemson RB Will Shipley. He ran for 119 yards (7.9 avg) for one TD. He also had two receptions for 53 yards. Solid player if we were in the market for RB or slot receiver in later rounds .

Exactly this.

Historically the team has tried (ever since Lovie was canned) to get it right and cater more to what they think the trend is or would work best for them. After Lovie we needed an offensive minded guy to work with Cutler so they went with Trestman. After he made a shambles of things they thought bringing in an “older coach with a winning pedigree” would help level things out so they brought in Fox. Unfortunately time had passed him by and he was no longer effective as a coach so they pivoted back to going offense as they needed someone to help develop Trubiksy and we got Nagy. And well here we are. Once again discussing blowing it all up; coaches and players (at least at QB). I agree with your analysis (and appreciate the positive vibe). I agree that things, although not at playoff level yet, do appear to be making positive trends for all the things you said. And keep in mind, this is despite all the behind the scene turmoil of coaches resigning and getting fired mid-season. All of that has to affect (or at least distract) some of these young players to some level. I don’t know whether Flus is the answer but I’m also not 100% sure he needs to go just yet.

Bills just fired their OC after Josh Allen is reverting back to his turnover prone ways. And Burrow went down with yet another injury last night. And from what I just read out for the remainder of the season. With a wrist (?) injury.

FWIW I read that the oline configuration for this week will be Jones-Jenkins-Patrick-Davis-Wright. I don’t know whether Jenkins and Davis are interchangeable. As it was mentioned as well, this will be the best we could have it with the current staff. Allegedly, this will be the first time in his 8(?) years with us where Whitehair will be in a reserve role when the starting lineup comes out. Thus I suspect this means 2023 will be his last year with us.

Welcome back to "normality" and congratulations! I'm with you on agreeing their win should be dedicated to you!

You wanna talk about a team snake-bitten by QBs, Cleveland I think has Chicago beat.

So stats being what they are, how do you account for this years’ Denver game? Fields and the offense built a 21 point lead on Denver up through the 3rd quarter before losing by 3 (31-28). The same Denver that has since beaten KC and Buffalo in Buffalo. In this game Fields set one of his newer records by making 16 consecutive completions (a team record) and 335 yards (at the time a personal high). To me this may have been about the time he was starting to show an upward trend. And to revive a ‘dead horse’ only to beat it again, the defense was not performing as it was more recently and the oline was still being figured out.

UNC's record is 8-2 this year with the two losses to Virginia and Ga Tech. I didn't notice this until today but he also wears #10. And to your point about playing against tougher competition (I agree with this point) but was reading a scouting report on him and they (and several other scouts) say they will be paying close attention to the rematch against Clemson this coming weekend (18 Nov). The last time they met the Tar Heels lost 39-10 in the ACC Championship game at the end of the '22 season.

Someone please explain to me why Maye is such a hot commodity.

FWIW I'm hoping to see more of Sanborn in the middle for a bit longer, and I like Edmunds. If we need pressure on Goff this next weekend that (and Sweat) is where it'll come from. I am curious to see how Sewell fits into the defense. He is listed as the #2 behind Sanborn at his position so they must like the NB option over having Sewell play right now.

Detroit made some significant halftime adjustments yesterday. It was actually cool to see a team effectively do that . After pinning 175 rushing yards on the Chargers in the first half the Lions’ well ran dry and they asked Goff to do more with passing. It is incredible how accurate (see dangerous) he is when given time. They also used ESBs brother Amon in some gimmick plays (reverse jet sweeps and the like) and were matching Herbert TD for TD. Although LAs defense was ranked in the top 5 against the run (before yesterday) the Bears are still there and are getting help from the defensive backfield. I’d have to think with the improved pass rush (3 sacks, 9 QB rushes and 6 tackles for loss last week) Montez Sweat and crew will be on a mission to hurry Goff. I’m not confident of a win but I don’t know that it’ll be a blowout. For me the big key will to see Justin continue to play solid.