DABEARSDABOMB

Stellar game.

Getsy play calling left a lot to be desired today.

I am hoping we put up another 30+. Could care less what the defense does and whether we win or lose - want to see the offense keep rolling and young players get better and guys stay healthy. If we win - great, if we lose - than that could be a huge loss relative to the draft position battle (since Vikings are clearly headed into tank mode so getting them a 2nd win could be huge as Vikings, Panthers, and Patriots look like the 3 worst teams in the league.

Young is small but if he stays healthy he is going to be quite good. Very good intangibles etc.

One thing is - Fields had such bad talent at wideout / skill positions for 2 years, did it really take him time to actually realize - now that I have weapons, I can actually throw them open, but he was so ingrained in his mind not to do it, because for 2 years it didn't really work, because his guys couldn't get open (I mean the wideout corps were horrific last year and the year before).

I won’t be surprised to see Claypool do wellin Miami and he probably can thank Bears for sending this message. If it doesn’t work than he is toast. Unfortunate cause this was a big miss, but I have zero issue dumping him.

Yep - big miss.

There is no way he stepped out. Why was there no replay shown by Amazon. But that was fun. Still not a complete game and I want to see more wideouts involved but Fields looks like he has so much more confidence and tempo. And he has Moore who can get open and Fields still missed on a few open throws - a couple to Darnell and one td to Moore. Crazy fun. They should be healthier coming out of bye week - with Eddie Jackson and Gordon set to come back and Jenkins should be healthier. I think Jaylon Johnson is back too and hopefully Roschon and Herbert are ok and ready to go next week.

I thought he looked great yesterday and there were a few throws that fields just missed an open Mooney and Mooney had a td ball he probably wishes he had back.

Peter King speculated mentioned he wouldn’t be shocked if Bears moved on from Flus if they lose this one. While I don’t believe it - King doesn’t just say stuff. I don’t know what they do in that scenario - but - if Flus has lost the lockeroom (and I don’t yet get that vibe but maybe he has), I still don’t know who and what you can do. If you lose Flus - you now have no DC and no HC - so you are going to be super short……… Unless McCaskey calls in a favor and hires Lovie Smith who brings his old friend Marinelli in. Getsy and everyone else stays in their roles - but lovie brings clout and respect to the situation and Marinelli can call the D. More than anything you get two highly respected leaders of men - not saying they are long term fits - but to be honest - we have had worse coaches than Lovie. But they both know this defense so from an adjustment perspective it might just work. I also can’t ever remember a team firing a coach and hiring an interim coach from outside so this would clearly be unprecedented.

I feel like zone has consistently killed recent Bears QB's. Trubisky always struggled with zone - Fields is the same. Cutler was never great against it either. Inverse was Trubisky was usually pretty solid when teams played more man defense. Made it easier for him to see and throw people open. The inverse is - I feel like Bears defense is awful when we play zone and good QB's torch us - because they know the soft spots in the zone and just torch you for it. But a lot of nuances in disguising it, etc. But Rodgers would just torch us in zone.

The Bears are not going to shut down Jones with half the season left. They need to see whether he is a transcending player or if he's just a meh LT. The only way he's shut down is if his injury is really serious. I thought the reports were it was more of a stinger type of injury, but was multiple weeks - but I thought expectation was he'd be back close to the 4 week IR window.

From a glass half full perspective - there are positive things on the horizon, if the team can hold it together: Oline: Jenkins, back following the Washington game -> Whitehair should be healed up and ready to slide to center -> Davis should have rust wore off. Downside is Carter was playing pretty well -> Wright will have chance post Washington to get a breath after first quarter of season - but overall oline should be better positioned going forward, especially the interior of the line. Should be a boost to running game, play action, and better allow Fields to step up in the pocket Defense: Kyler Gordon, Jaylon Johnson & Eddie Jackson should be back. Secondary is in dire need for help. Additionally Brisker is playing hurt - but I think Brisker will benefit from having Eddie Jackson back. Defense will also have had a bit more time for the players to have gelled and some of the young DB's and Dlinemen will now be 5 weeks into the season and have a long week to take a breathe. --------------------------------------------------------- Note: Lets hope no one new goes down / suffers significant injury against Washington. Would be nice for Fields to build on last week(s) effort and start stringing together some STRONG passing performances.

Poles is still being evaluated. Trading the #1 pick is probably one of the easier things he could decide as the GM. It was the right move in my mind - but getting value for that isn't the hard part - its how you actually use those assets going forward and do you actually get value out of them. Will he draft well, can he and his pro scouts help him find the right free agents, etc. The assessment on Poles is less W-L (don't get me wrong, those count) - but right now it is more about the individual W-L's. Did he make the right draft picks, are they progressing and developing, how did he do on the free agent front, etc. Those things are going on. Right now - the jury is clearly still out and if I said anything, my lean is a negative lean. His free agents haven't hit (not saying Edmunds or Edwards are busts - but they haven't HIT). Davis is a pass right now (that is an upgrade from where I had him throughout training camp, but he deserves that pass given what was going on). Nadakoue isn't very good - but I think everyone knew that and its a 1 year deal, so I don't lose much sleep on that. Walker has done absolutely nothing - so that seems like a miss (I don't see what he has done for 3yr 21M that Tevis Gibson couldn't have done). That may seem harsh - but Walker has literally done ZILCH. Now all of the above grades can clearly change - but free agent wise - NOT a good start. His trades - the Roquan Smith move was fine on paper. Respending that money on another off-ball linebacker, even though Edmunds is good, is probably a questionable allocation of resources (at best). Trading for Claypool - clearly a mistake, but I respect fact that they seem to be admitting that mistake quickly. Trading Mack was 100% the right thing to do - even did hurt the team in short run. On the draft - Wright, Braxton Jones, and Carter show promise. The two young DT's have really done nothing during the game's at this point (it's early though - so still a pass - but you need to see some flash out of them now that we are through 1st quarter of the season - especially post the long break coming after Washington game. In the secondary Brisker had a good rookie year, but has struggled in year 2. Stevenson and Smith have had some good and some bad - but got to hit. Gordon has been the same. But thus far - no one has emerged as a building block - Wright looks like the closest thing to that. Now its still early - especially for this most recent years draft - but that isn't exactly a good mark. Scott is TBD - but could emerge - he definitely has speed. Velus Jones also has speed, but clearly can't do much else. Hopefully Scott has more in him than Jones. If we finish the season and the above list looks the same - no one has really flashed and you haven't identified clear difference makers 2 years into this (hard assessment because there was so little to work with in terms of capital in year 1) - but that WOULD not be a very good start for Poles and in my mind would warrant Warren and McCaskey to have to make some hard choices. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are still 13 games left - I FULLY expect we should see growth in this year(s) draft class and there is LOTs of time for Brisker, Gordon, & Jones to get back to 100% and take strides forward you hope to see out of 2nd year players. Carter may also get a chance to show us something - in which case, getting what they got with as "bare" of a cupboard as Poles had in year 1 (no high end draft picks to work with, etc) - and I am saying there is enough there to warrant a longer term commitment to Poles.

Agree with this - he is a super easy guy to root for. Nothing would make me happier than to see him become an all time great for the Bears.

Not a bad idea. Best outcome is fields plays well - bears have two good picks, Panthers pick is one that is 1st overall - Bears pick is also good, but ok if not #2 because Fields has played well. To your point you have competition - you also have an asset in Fields. Not saying you get a bunch for him - but you still draft Caleb and than you let them push each other, eventually trade Fields but hey let’s see Fields do well - that gives more competition and more push. If Fields crushes it from here on out - even better.

He literally didn't play at all in week 1 - he was so bad. It does sound like based upon beat reporters - that there is more to this story and it gets into how he practiced, how he acted in meetings, etc. The fact that he had to apologize to everyone in week 1 tells you a lot and maybe he played with more effort the following week, but sounds like it quickly dissipated.

The key is they have to see young guys develop and improve. That is really critical - cause this could get really really bad in which case you compound the negatives and we see a lot of bad habits created, toxicity, etc. All of that of course can change with a new HC with the right swagger and obviously right QB around them (whether Fields or someone else).

I had a theory that hit me last night - did Poles actually see this coming. I don't know if he did or didn't and I don't know what to think about him if he did (it may not be a good thing). But if I think about the Bears off-season moves, they clearly didn't committ to Fields - but focused on building better parts for him (or a new QB) while ensuring they had an eye on the future. Very clear that Poles didn't go all in on Fields - he also smartly didn't go all out. On the defensive side - Poles upgraded LB and ignored Defense, with exception to the 2 draft picks at tackle. With that in mind - Poles knows that for the Tampa 2 to work - you need to have a good dline - stop the run, etc. Bears can't do that and I almost wonder did Poles ignore that because if Flus didn't work out (and he saw the writing on the wall that this system didn't work) - he didn't want to be locked in and stuck in a bad spot in terms of dead assets/cap on players who aren't scheme fits (in the case that they wanted to flip to a 3-4). Reality is - TJ Edwards and Edmunds are both clear fits in either scheme, the DB's being invested are somewhat scheme agnostic (and more about zone vs. man coverage). Just something I was thinking about - probably nothing to do it.

Lets see how they do on Thursday. I don't think he has lost the lockeroom like Trestman has, but he is butchering the Claypool words. Claypool being inactive was the right decision - stick with it.

He's a keeper and really good player. Mooney also played well and benefited from more targets going his way (vs. Claypool). Moore is good though, Kmet is solid, Mooney is solid. They need some more young players around him - maybe Scott can develop into a nice 3/4 wideout and than find another playmaker early in the draft. Keep building the oline and obviously upgrade Dline....but if you do the above on offense - with Roschon and Herbert - I think whomever Bears have at QB next year is going to be in a decent spot.

And with lousy QB play. I don't think he is top 3, probably not top 5, but he is top 7 and he is a quality TE. What would be great is to pair him with another really good TE plus some good weapons on outside and quality line. If you do that - than I think this is a pretty good spot for any QB to develop.

I know they lost - but Fields played extremely well today. He was making confident throws, reading the d, and just looked good. Why the Bears got scared and stopped letting him pass late in game is beyond me. They got super conservative and paid for it.

On single coverage - is anyone really covered. I feel like that is where you throw ball downfield and put it where your receiver can make a play. That’s how you get chunk yards and than the db has to adjust for that and next time you put it over the top.

Look at Biggs sentiment in his piece in the Tribune. I know not everyone likes Biggs - but he is probably my personal favorite Bear writer. I feel like he is fair and balanced, but also plugged in and works hard to come up with new info and insights from scouts. It is pretty clear - reading between the lines - that he, who was really suggesting for a long time not to go to Bagent, is now starting to foreshadow that they need to make the switch, sooner vs. later. One thing about Biggs is - he is connected, but smart about what he says (to maintain those relationships). I think what he is saying is probably also based upon feeler(s) and thing(s) he is hearing from various coaches and personel men across the league (and within the Bears) who are all seeing what we are and that is that Fields an adjunct disaster at QB, so bad that you literally can't evaluate anyone around him. That is a different level of dsyfunctional. When I think of Andy Dalton - he was limited to mediocre to poor, but he could execute an NFL offense to a level where despite those limitations, you could evaluate talent, etc.