Bears4Ever_34

I think it would be smart to move on from Mack at this point. This team is more than 1 or 2 players away from being a SB contender on offense, and by the time they find the quarterback that can get them there, a lot of their defensive players will be too old. Hicks, Mack, Quinn, Fuller maybe soon.. If they can get a early or mid 1st round pick for Mack this year, I'd think long and hard about it. I wouldn't do it for anything else, though.

As previously stated, the season could very well be on the line in a couple of weeks against MIN. If they lose that game, along with the TEN game, they're done. Minnesota doesn't look like an easy win anymore as long as Dalvin Cook is healthy. The two positives I take away from tonight's game is that Darnell Mooney is going to be no worse than a good #3 WR, and also Dwayne Harris is infinitely better than Ted Ginn as a punt returner. I liked what I saw from him in this game. From this point forward, Mooney needs to be touching the ball at least 7-10 times a game. He's the one guy on this offense that can make plays with his feet, and so they need to start using him in more ways that can exploit a defense. Him blowing past defenders is becoming a weekly occurrence the last couple of weeks, and yet he's only managed to bring down 1 of those balls.

Imagine how bad they're going to look next year without Allen Robinson. The icing on the cake would be if Mitch signs with another team and balls out.

You might not be wrong, but Trubisky also faced probably 3 of the worst defenses in the NFL—certainly at least 2 defenses that are bottom 5, and I'm not sure where DET ranks, but it can't be that good. Foles came in and immediately faced the #1 and #2 defenses in football in back to back weeks, which didn't help his cause, but he struggled against a below average defense in CAR and played even worse against a good but not great defense in the Rams. It's crazy to me how the Bears scored 20 against the Bucs defense, and only scored 3 against the Rams. Makes no sense. As bad as Foles looked, I don't see any way Trubisky gets put back in there, barring injury. I think Nagy has seen enough to know Mitch isn't the answer doesn't want to go down the road again.

Nagy thinks he is what McVay actually is. It was pretty obvious from watching the two offenses out there tonight, who is the better coached group. That quick tempo rushing to the line and snapping the ball at the goal line was a thing of beauty, and it's something you would never see from a Matt Nagy coached team. Everything the Rams do on offense, from a playcalling standpoint, makes sense, logically. He calls a game the way a pitcher and catcher set up a hitter with ball location. You'll see them stretch the edge of the defense out, and then run a playaction rollout on the backside when the D gets too aggressive. With Nagy, every play call is seemingly selected at random. They'll run the ball up the middle for 1-2 yards, then throw a deep out for an incompletion, and then run a play on 3rd down where the ball is thrown short of the sticks... If I had a nickel for everytime that happened throughout the course of a Bears football game, I'd be making some serious money from this offense. They are just a low IQ football team on offense, and I think it starts with the head coach. It's time to give up playcalling duties.

The Bears are going to get their asses kicked in these next two games. This season has the potential to unravel if things don't get corrected before that Packers game. Ryan Pace still probably thinks we don't need help at NT or OL, which is why I can't wait until the day he is no longer Bears GM. So sick and tired of him.

It's getting harder to make a case for Nick Foles remaining as the starter. He has been every bit as awful as Mitch was in his 2.5 games as the starter.

Matt Nagy is the worst play caller in the NFL, and it's not close.

I feel like only the Bears can be 5-1 and still make us think they suck. There's no doubt the defense is still pretty good, run defense notwithstanding, but this offense is abysmal, and it's getting worse! They went from looking like a vastly improved running team after the first 2 games, to looking like a team that couldn't reach 100 yards against a college defense. Nick Foles wasn't very good either, and had his worst throw of the year on that interception. I know he does things pre and post snap that Mitch doesn't, but in terms of productivity, there isn't much of a difference between the two of them. Seems like they're only good for 1-2 TD's and 1-2 INT's a game and less than 250 yards passing. This next stretch of 5 games are brutal. I'm not sure I see 2 wins on paper, and I think they need AT LEAST 2 to remain a serious contender.

Loved the pick when it was made. I think he has a chance to be a pro-bowl CB, and potentially even an All-Pro. I like the fact that he's a true press corner, and has the ability to be a shutdown guy that can travel with other team's best WR's. That said, he's gotten lucky on several occasions this season where quarterbacks have made some bad throws on plays where he's been beaten pretty badly downfield. Matt Ryan had a bad overthrow that would have been 7 points late in that ATL game, and Brady underthrew Mike Evans by 5 yards on a play that Johnson was also beaten badly. Tackling's been an issue, too. All in all, though, he's been pretty damn good this year. I think you could make a solid argument that he and Fuller are currently the best CB duo in the league right now.

Yeah, I loved Foles giving it to Nagy for not allowing him to run a no huddle when he had the Buc's defense on their heels. I hated Nagy's playcalling for most of this game. Too much side to side crap and WR screens. The decision to throw the ball at the end of the game there was an inexcusable mistake. I get that he was probably not comfortable with Santos being able to make a kick from that spot, but if you're going to have Foles pass, you need it to be a higher % throw, and a jump ball down the sideline is the exact opposite of a high % play.

Yet another insane, improbable win. I'm watching that game in real-time, and 90% of the time, I'm angry at the offense and defense for the way they're playing, yet at the end of the day, they somehow end up winning... The offense was terrible again, save for a few hugely important throws by Foles to keep the chains moving. The defense gave up a ton of yards on the ground again, but didn't allow many big pass plays downfield after a shaky start. They've got to figure out the middle of the field, though. I was about ready to call for Trubisky after those two horrendous throws by Foles to start the game. There was one to Robinson on 3rd down, and another one to Mooney that would have been a walk-in touchdown. He honestly looked as bad as Mitch has looked at his worst until the last few minutes in the 1st half. Then, he started rattling off some big plays with those wheel routes to Patterson and Montgomery, and of course the throw to Graham. At 4-1, it's hard to say they aren't in good shape to be a playoff team, but their next 5 games after Carolina is going to be brutal. I think they honestly needed to win this to make that a realistic possibility. Now with Daniels likely out for the rest of the year, and Cohen already out, injuries are starting to become a concern on an already thin roster for talent on the offensive end. Bars was terrible when he replaced Daniels. That is something we'll have to pay attention to in the coming weeks. They can't afford anymore serious injuries.

Wasn't he supposed to be the exotic blitz guy on defense? I have yet to see any semblance of that so far as a DC. Don't know if it's a coincidence, but ever since he's been here, Eddie Jackson has gotten worse as a DB. He's practically invisible out there, and when he's not, he's usually taking a bad route to a ball or missing a tackle downfield. Same can be said about Khalil Mack.

The entire time I'm watching this game, I'm thinking, "How in the hell did the Colts lose to the Jaguars??" The Bears just got outclassed in all 3 phases of that game, and it's becoming more clear with each passing week that this isn't a very good football team. They have holes everywhere. Foles was bad, the run game was pathetic, and Nagy's playcalling has reverted back to 2019 levels. What we thought might end up looking like a pretty diverse running attack this year has gotten stale pretty fast. Montgomery is a complimentary back, not a bell-cow. He didn't have many holes to run through today, but there were multiple occasions where he had some pretty wide open cut back lanes, but either didn't see them or he was too slow to take advantage of it. He runs with no burst or suddenness. He breaks tackles and can be pretty elusive with the ball in his hands, but I don't see pro bowl talent with him. Next week could be an inflection point in the Bears season. The schedule gets tougher from here. 4-1 looks awfully better than 3-2. A win vs Tampa would at least restore some credibility to the 3-0 start, but that offense looked pretty damn good in the 2nd half of that Chargers game. It's unlikely the Bears will see a better defense than the Colts all year, so I expect Foles to play better, but if things go bad against Tampa, we might be under .500 within a few weeks and find ourselves outside of the playoff picture.

We need a fast guy to replace Cohen. Is Keryth White still around somewhere? I remember him being pretty good for Pittsburgh last year in limited time, and he looked good for the Bears in pre-season when they had him. I like the dynamic they had at RB with Montgomery, Cohen, and Patterson. Montgomery was more of the between the tackles chain mover, while Cohen was the elusive runner that can kill you in the screen game, and Patterson is sort of the wildcard speedster who can hit the occasional homerun play if he breaks free. Losing Cohen is going to hurt you on both offense and special teams. The RB depth was already pretty low, but it gets even more critical now without Cohen.

It's a damn crime that Pace has only drafted 1 quarterback since taking over the team. I don't care who is quarterbacking your team, if you only draft one quarterback in 5 years, or however long it's been, that's terrible. I said at the end of last year my plan was to double down on quarterbacks in the offseason: draft one and sign/trade for one. They got the guy I wanted (after Brady, of course), but then failed to draft a developmental guy in the draft, so we end up getting stuck with Tyler Bray again... How fun would it be right now if the Bears had Foles AND a young quarterback behind him that you could have as an option in a worse-case scenario? I look at a team like the Chargers who drafted Justin Herbert and seeing how well he's been playing for them lately. I watched Jacksonville do it last year with Minshew.. To me, it makes almost no sense to not draft a quarterback almost every year, just to have developing behind your starter. Hell, you can even use those guys as trade tools down the road, depending on how good your starter is. Think about Jimmy G. Even if they aren't going to play for you, they can become an asset.

Adam, you took the words right out of my mouth re: Mitch. I was thinking about that idea after the game today. Would Nagy ever consider using Mitch as a gadget play style of quarterback with Foles as a starter, or is that too much of a risky move, given both quarterback's injury history? You say Taysum Hill, which I get, but I was thinking more like how the Jets and Patriots used Tim Tebow. Hill is way more athletic and dynamic than Trubisky is. I don't think we'll ever see Mitch catching passes and putting his head down on defenders. He's built more like Tim Tebow, and has similar athletic ability. I could see using him as more of a read option quarterback that you throw in for 2 or 3 plays a game here and there. Probably nothing more than that.

That was bizarre. Having watched the entire game, you wouldn't have thought Ryan would have under 300 yards passing and a sub 50% completion percentage. Some of that had to do with the fact that they abused the Bears on the ground, so his arm wasn't needed as much, but in that 4th quarter, they were able to generate a little more pressure, and it made a big difference with his ability to throw downfield. I think they had 3 consecutive 3 and outs at one point, which gave the Bears some of that momentum back. That was huge. But, let's be honest: Had Julio Jones been in that game today, I don't think the Bears would have even had a chance, based on the way things started for them.

Nick Foles could have very easily had 5 touchdowns in a quarter. The touchdown to Robinson that got overturned (that shouldn't have been) and the Anthony Miller drop on 4th down happened before his other 3 TD's. Very impressive to have that kind of poise despite the adversity, which is why I loved the idea of getting Nick Foles to begin with. At the end of the day, the Bears are 3-0 against teams with a combined record of 0-9. I've never seen anything like this, and it makes it impossible to get an accurate reading on how good this team is. They shoot themselves in the foot, but still find ways to win the game at the end. That being said, they are a better 3-0 team with Nick Foles at quarterback. They just are. Anybody who watched that game could see an obvious difference in the way one quarterback can throw it downfield versus the other guy. Trubisky can't beat you if you force everything outside the hashmarks. He is incapable of making accurate passes when going vertical, and that's the one thing Nick Foles appears to be really good at. A great example of that is the play to Miller to end the game. Trubisky would not be able to make a pass like that with pressure in his face. Despite the obvious concerns, I am pretty pumped to see how the offense looks next week with Nick Foles getting a full week of practice. Defensively, there appears to be some major problems. Once again, the pass rush is almost non existent, and the middle of the defense is getting torn apart. This is the 2nd game out of 3 the Bears have allowed well over 100 yards in a game on the ground. Eddie Goldman not playing is a big deal, and they need to get it figured out in a hurry. It also looks like the Danny Trevathon signing was a mistake. I called it when it happened, but there's no way they should have let Nick Kwiatkowski walk after the kind of season he had last year. It looks like Trevathon's injuries have caught up with him. He can't cover anybody anymore, and is a complete liability out there. I also don't think Roquan Smith is showing up as much as he should for being a top 10 draft pick. That worries me quite a bit... Very winnable game next week against what I think is a pretty mediocre-to-below average team. They aren't as dangerous offensively as Atlanta, even without Julio Jones, but their defense is much better.

Just playing devil's advocate here, but all 6 of their games to start the year look very winnable based on what we've seen from teams in the first 2 weeks. Obviously it's too early to judge, and a lot can change from week to week, but Atlanta just blew a massive lead to Dallas today, and looked terrible in week 1; The Colts have Phillip Rivers at quarterback, who doesn't scare anybody anymore; The Bucs don't look like the juggernaut many thought they'd be, and Brady looks even worse than he did last year. Also, the Panthers are 0-2. I haven't seen anything this season to suggest the Bears can do something crazy, like start off 6-0 or something, but it's hard to say any of their next 4 upcoming opponents look head and shoulders better than they do right now. The game next week is going to tell a lot, in my opinion. Atlanta will be their most dangerous opponent yet, and despite being 0-2, are very capable of putting up a ton of points. I don't think this offense can win next week scoring 17 points, so it's going to be a huge test. If they end up getting blown out, that changes the conversation back to them being bad again. Like I said before, it's too early in the season to get a solid feel either way. Right now, they are 2-0 but haven't looked that good doing it. I think after the first month, we'll have a better answer.

The only improvement I've seen on offense seems to be the run game. They weren't that effective today until that last series, but I like the way the RB's are being used, and I also like that they stuck with it for the entire game. Outside of that, it's pretty obvious that what's holding them back is the quarterback. Mitch is a backup. He still doesn't have much pocket awareness, and he still doesn't see the field as well as he should. What helped him in year 2 was his legs, but he's practically abandoned that part of his game since then. I know they won't do it, because they won, but I'd really like to see Nick Foles in this offense. It's hard to imagine him being much worse than this. Defensively, the CB's have been the best part of the year so far. Fuller and Jaylon Johnson are balling right now. I really love the way the rookie has played. I think he's good enough to be a future pro bowler with his instincts. He came close to picking off Stafford at the goal line last week, and batted a couple more passes away today. He needs to keep it up. That being said, the pass rush has not been good, and the ILB'ers have been pretty terrible in pass coverage—Trevathon in particular. Quinn playing more regularly should help, but they have got to figure out how to generate a more consistent pass rush or some of these weaknesses will continue to get exposed by better teams.

Kamara was offensive rookie of the year, though.. Montgomery is nowhere near as dynamic. I wonder how many great RB's there are in this league that run 4.6 40's. It's too much of a limiting factor in his game, which is why I think his ceiling is so low.

Bears got dominated on both sides of the LOS tonight. The Packers had more hurries, sacks, and tackles for loss than the Bears did.. and it was by a lot. Trubisky had two pretty fluky interceptions that make his numbers look a lot worse than the game would indicate. At the end of the day, he's likely never going to be the 'win because of' quarterback like they thought they had with the #2 pick. Unless they find out how to run the ball next year, the same thing is going to happen in 2020. It is absolutely imperative that they fire Harry Heistand and invest heavily in the offensive line in the offseason. I think we've also figured out that David Montgomery is not a high ceiling RB. He is so god damn slow, and I think would be best served as a change of pace guy to somebody with some actual speed. He should be the Packer's version of Jamal Williams to somebody's Aaron Jones.. When you have a quarterback who is not an explosive play maker, you can't pair that up with a running back that doesn't have game breaking ability playing behind him.

Had it not been for that terrible interception, Mitch might have played his best game as a pro tonight. I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing through 3 quarters, offensively. For the first in years I was actually more nervous about the defense giving the game away than I was the offense. It just goes back to what I've been saying for months now: Mitchel Trubisky is a different quarterback when he's allowed to run the ball and get outside the pocket to throw. And it's frankly ridiculous that it took this long for Matt Nagy to do what most of us can see with our own eyes when we're watching games. He's an athlete. Use the legs to your advantage. I think you saw tonight how much different this offense can be when Mitch can scramble for first downs and extend drives. Not only does it help you with that, but it also keeps defenses on their heels. Some of those RPO runs Mitch had tonight even confused me. Unfortunately, it's probably going to be too little too late, but at least now they know what kind of play calling Mitch needs to be successful. Stop trying to make the guy into Drew Brees. This defense seems to be losing guys left and right this year. They are just not a good pass rushing team these days. They're not getting the takeaways they got last year, and they're not sacking the quarterback as often either. They did enough to win tonight, but they're going to have to play much better these next 3 weeks if they want to even have a chance to sniff the playoffs.

One thing I will say though: If the Bears somehow miraculously finish the season 10-6 and get into the playoffs, they're going to be a team nobody wants to play. They'd have won their last 6 games, including finishing the season beating 4 current playoff teams in a row. Their confidence would have to be through the roof.