Alaskan Grizzly

Curious why not Fitzgerald? I get why not Harbaugh (although personally I wouldn’t mind it) but trying to get a read on Fitz. I don’t know enough about the guy but see he’s had a ‘decent’ career at NW. And looking historically at our posts here a few have nominated him as a potential candidate for HC.

This

Relatively speaking yes, what you’re talking about is for an offense that is explosive and can stretch the field. That is not this offense. For this current type of offense to work with the current players in place you have to play smart and control the clock WITH a complimentary defense that can keep the opponent’s offense out of the end zone. You see what happens when they get desperate on offense and they can’t control what the other teams offense is doing.

What’s a ‘jammy’? Lol.

Edit: delete this post. Apparently I had a moment of delusion.

If I haven’t said it enough it bears repeating that I love Moody! He’s an absolute stud little receiver.

Other than the Kmet (questionable) fumble and Triubiskys near miss at the end of the game, the offense is doing well. They were playing smart Bears-type ball-control offense. But with GB being able to do as they please on offense, won’t matter how good the Bears O plays. Weird to have to be worried about the D playing well.

Daryl Johnston’s right. They’ve figured something out with their #3 receiver. That’s the D’s weakest link right now with NB (Shelly) and LB coverage in those situations. With Smith out that’s a big issue.

Don’t really want the Bears in the playoffs if they have to hope somebody else wins to do it.

Hate to say it but Pagano tried to do a blitz and this is what happened. Unfortunately they had old man Danny T doing the coverage in the slot AND while pretending to blitz. If anyone that works better if you have Roquan in...or Urlacher.

DP

Getting pressure on Rodgers will have a bigger affect on this game more than anything. Historically speaking Rodgers and GB has had a hey day against Chicago and it’s secondary no matter who the receivers are or whoever's covering them. If our front seven does their job and (a) stops the run and (b) puts unrelenting pressure on Rodgers, they can win. TB did it, Indy did it and the Vikings did it during their second game against each other and won. The Bears didn’t put pressure on Rodgers in game one, will they in game two?

I’ll borrow the phrase I did a few weeks ago from Al Davis and say “just win baby”. The rest will settle itself out.

All very valid points you made. Not sure I agree with “crippling” the system as much as adapting it. Using the KC offense as a mould and Andy Reid it’s architect; you could make a case that the way Donovan McNabb ran it while in Philly was considerably different than how Alex Smith did in KC before Mahomes came along and changed it again. Each has(d) a different skill set that to some degree are/were able to successfully run the offense with the “tweaks” conjured by Andy and his respective OCs. I agree that ‘time will tell’ how this iteration turns out. The biggest test being tomorrow.

I’m done with Pace more than Nagy. I’ve seen (or ‘not seen’ is more appropriate) enough that I don’t trust him as the GM. Not all that thrilled with Nagy either BUT his finally changing to get the offense to work with Lazor taking over was a good sign. And despite what we may all think has still managed to get the team this far and on the edge of playing in the playoffs. What that means after Sunday still remains to be seen.

I suppose when I say ‘system’ I don’t necessarily mean Nagys adaptation of it. What Nagy does is his own twist of what Andy Reid does in KC and Doug Pedersen does in Philly. I was watching Buffalo play this last week and noticed a lot of the plays Josh Allen was doing resembled a lot of what we’ve seen Mitch do more recently. Especially in the rollouts and Play Action. I think Lazor has tweaked “Nagys” system to work better for Trubiksy. Brian Daboll who is the the OC in Buffalo is similar to Lazor in that he’s been around the league with various organizations and has taken elements of other systems he’s been a part of to make what works for his QB (Allen). With Daboll it’s been successful and so far with Lazor and Trubisky as well.

Isn’t this how we ended up with Trubiksy and KC ended up with Mahomes? The “experts” (aka GMs and draft experts) predicted Trubiksy would be a blue chip prospect and Mahomes a risky gun slinger prone to turnovers? Not that Jones is either of those, just sayin. But as I’ve said before he’s coming from Alabama where if anyone is ready for the NFL, most coming from there are. I’d like to see how he does in the CFL playoffs.

You need at the very least a transitional QB. One that is familiar with the system. Especially if you’re looking at drafting a new QB. As much as I like the guy I don’t think Foles is the best option. (Money and contract-wise with the Bears cap he is but that’s it). With his many faults Trubiksy has shown measured progress even if it means limiting the offense to work for him. He also brings the dimension as a mobile QB (which he’s pretty good at) that Foles definitely does not. Even if they lose Sunday I don’t think both Pace and Nagy are gone. And if that be the case the best option at QB is Trubiksy and a newly drafted QB. IMHO

I think you’re right about Hicks. I didn’t think about it until you said but he was out the last GB game. He is a huge difference in the middle. And with Nichols making steady progress they could be an issue for the interior line. Meaning Mack and Quinn should be a bit more productive than they have in the past several weeks. Im not sure if Johnson or Vildor is the better option right now at LCB. I’m pretty sure that Shelley is a better option at NB than Skrine at this point. Whomever has Adams will need to be on their ‘A’ game.

During last weekend’s game I heard Rich Gannon comment on how well Trubisky has adapted to this new version of the offense. That is Lazor’s adaptation of it. Gannon noted that with the new scheme and having Trubiksy roll out more he is ‘halving’ the field and allowing Mitch to see less and put players more in his field of view so he doesn’t have to scan as much. We all know one of Mitch’s largest flaws is his ability to ‘see’ the whole field. They’re also able to get more effective play action due in part of the oline’s improved play and Montgomery being able to run more. All effective tweaks that Lazor has been able to deploy. A lot of the offenses progress is owed to him. I saw an article recently that talked about who the QB for the Bears would be next year and most of it centered around the idea of drafting a QB next year. The troubling part would be who would support that QB assuming neither Foles or Trubisky were to come back for whatever reason. The top three names mentioned were Garappolo, Newton and Winston. Of those three I would only be interested in Winston due to his strong potential to do well. The other two have had their chance and especially in Newton’s case, failed miserably. Funny thing is I could see both NE and SF looking at someone like Trubisky to be their next guy. NE has something like $50 million in cap space so money isn’t an issue for them. All that being said, I’d prefer Mitch come back. Even if they lose this weekend.

Nice ode to Dennis Green there. I don’t think anyone here suggested he be overpaid, just kept because he knows the system. The cap will preclude the team from “over-paying” him regardless of how well he may have actually improved. I really don’t think both Pace and Nagy will be gone next year. Maybe one, but not both. Nagy does still have an overall winning record and whether it was against crappy teams or not these last few games have been pretty impressive. Especially for the offense who have historically looked bad. And he’s got the team on the precipice of making the playoffs again. This next game will be a true measure of where the team and Trubiksy are.

Who looked like garbage yesterday against Seattle. And you’re right when you say ‘average’ at best.

Best I can tell whomever wins this gets the NFC West title (higher seed) and the other ends up in the 5th or 6th (WC) spot. Think Seattle ends up higher (if they lose) due to their schedule and overall record. Bears are in position for the last (newly added this year) 7th position. From Profootballnerwork.com:

Wow... didn’t realize Illinois was still locked down as much as they are. By COVID21 you mean the new strain coming out of Europe?

So if Arizona loses again Chicago is in regardless of what they (Chicago) does next week?