Week 11 Official Game Thread - CHI @ MIN, Nov 16th, 12PM CST, FOX, CHI +2.5

[adam]

2 minutes ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Wow bizzaro 4th quarter.  Bears with a special teams redemption for the win after McCarthy came alive in the last two of their drives. 

The defense went into max prevent and it always has the opposite effect.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

3 minutes ago, adam said:

The defense went into max prevent and it always has the opposite effect.

He was nailing his passes as opposed to earlier in the game.  A lot of airball deliveries.

Minnesota is probably wishing they kept Darnold around for at least one more year. 

[adam]

Every week the Bears have the refs against them, inaccurate passes from Caleb, bad play calling, terrible protection, dropped passes, unbelievably bad Special Teams, a porous defense, and somehow they still win lol. 

[50england50]

Top of the North. It probably won't be for long, but when you have a chance to lead the decision it's good for confidence if you can reach the summit. 

Additionally, you never know, the Lions could have a bad day at the office. 🤞🤞🤞

[adam]

3 minutes ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

He was nailing his passes as opposed to earlier in the game.  A lot of airball deliveries.

Minnesota is probably wishing they kept Darnold around for at least one more year. 

They had Darnold and Daniel Jones lol.

There were a lot of wide open receivers with no pass rush. 

[Bears4Ever_34]

This is probably the worst way to get to 7-3. Coach sucked, QB sucked, run game sucked, defense imploded again late in a game, and huge special teams gaffes, but still somehow able to come away with a victory. 

Game ball goes to the TE's today. They were the unsung hero of the game. Kmet had his best game catching, and Loveland had a huge 3rd down conversion after a horrible drop by DJ Moore.

[adam]

3 minutes ago, 50england50 said:

Top of the North. It probably won't be for long, but when you have a chance to lead the decision it's good for confidence if you can reach the summit. 

Additionally, you never know, the Lions could have a bad day at the office. 🤞🤞🤞

Lions have to beat the Eagles. A good chance the Bears are still in 1st after that game.

[Stinger226]

I'll take ugly but we didnt play well on the road again. They keep winnings so I am not going to complain at this time.

[AZ54]

I'm not usually one to brag but my decision to fire the special teams coach in the 3rd quarter paid off.   

[BearFan PHX]

6 minutes ago, AZ54 said:

I'm not usually one to brag but my decision to fire the special teams coach in the 3rd quarter paid off.   

hahahaha game ball awarded!

[Bears4Ever_34]

I'm getting 2001 vibes about this team, and not in a good way. They're winning, but it's definitely starting to feel a little fluky.

Caleb's progress has really plateaued since the Cowboys game as a passer. He hasn't gotten any better being on time and throwing with accuracy. He's been great in the 4th quarter, but he was doing that last year, too. At some point, he has to start putting a complete game together.

There's just no excuse for the game to come down to a FG at the end. McCarthy is the worst starting QB in football and nearly pulled another win out of his ass, because the offense couldn't take advantage of the Vikings self-inflicted mistakes, whether it was drops, errant throws, or interceptions.

Need a MUCH better performance from Ben Johnson and Caleb next week back at home against a bad Steelers defense. 

[BearFan PHX]

48 minutes ago, Bears4Ever_34 said:

I'm getting 2001 vibes about this team, and not in a good way. They're winning, but it's definitely starting to feel a little fluky.

Caleb's progress has really plateaued since the Cowboys game as a passer. He hasn't gotten any better being on time and throwing with accuracy. He's been great in the 4th quarter, but he was doing that last year, too. At some point, he has to start putting a complete game together.

There's just no excuse for the game to come down to a FG at the end. McCarthy is the worst starting QB in football and nearly pulled another win out of his ass, because the offense couldn't take advantage of the Vikings self-inflicted mistakes, whether it was drops, errant throws, or interceptions.

Need a MUCH better performance from Ben Johnson and Caleb next week back at home against a bad Steelers defense. 

youre not wrong. we have serious holes in the roster, and key players, like Caleb, still have to continue to develop.

I think this year if we get to 10 wins, that will be great. We can definitely build on this, but next year i expect us to be a contender for real.

[adam]

What a weird game. Bears had the ball for 37 mins to MIN's 23. Complete domination for time of possession. They held MIN to 3-11 on 3rd Down, and only allowed 265 total yards, yet they allowed 2-3 in the RZ

[BearFan PHX]

3 minutes ago, adam said:

What a weird game. Bears had the ball for 37 mins to MIN's 23. Complete domination for time of possession. They held MIN to 3-11 on 3rd Down, and only allowed 265 total yards, yet they allowed 2-3 in the RZ

another big 4th quarter meltdown by the D. We need a pass rush.

[adam]

8 minutes ago, BearFan PHX said:

another big 4th quarter meltdown by the D. We need a pass rush.

The MIN first half: Punt, Punt, FG, Punt, INT, INT.

3rd Quarter: Punt, Punt

4th Quarter: Bears up 16-3: TD, Punt, TD

To me they are allowing the easy passes over the middle to prevent the 50 yard chunk plays, but in doing so, they are making it easy enough that a middle school QB has 5 TD drives against this defense in the 4th quarter in 2 games. 

Against MIN and McCarthy in 6 quarters (1st-3rd in both games) have allowed a total of 9 points. Then in 2 4th quarters, have allowed 35. So 1.5 pts per quarter for the first 3 quarters to 17.5 in the 4th. 

I will have to check the splits but that just seems bonkers, like the CIN game too.

[jason]

1. I didn’t watch it.

2. Why did Caleb suck? Bad throws? Bad scheme? Drops?

3. How did Santos miss the one FG?

4. Why did the Bears go for so many FGs? Or where did the offense stall?

Outwardly, this looks like a game that the a bears should have won by 2+ TDs.

[adam]

10 4th quarter TDs allowed in 10 games, 6 in the last 4 games, 5 in the first 2.

[Bears4Ever_34]

11 minutes ago, jason said:

1. I didn’t watch it.

2. Why did Caleb suck? Bad throws? Bad scheme? Drops?

3. How did Santos miss the one FG?

4. Why did the Bears go for so many FGs? Or where did the offense stall?

Outwardly, this looks like a game that the a bears should have won by 2+ TDs.

He was airmailing open receivers most of the game, and the ones he threw accurately were dropped on critical downs by Burden, DJ Moore, and Symthe. Rome might have had one too.

Bears offense continued to stall out just outside of the redzone and settled for FG's in all but one drive. Ben got cute a couple times using Bagent as a decoy for 3rd and medium run plays. One of them worked, but the others got stuffed. 

Both tackles were horrible. Wright and Benedet gave up too much pressure in pass pro. The Bears couldn't run the ball most of the game, save for a few later in the 4th, but far too often, they were losing the majority of their 1 on 1 battles with Minnesota's front 7.

Cairo's kick came at a pivotal period when they were up 16-3 with a chance to push it to 3 scores. It was like a 48 yarder he just flat out missed, which allowed MIN to get right back into the game and recapture all the momentum.

The defense forced a punt on MIN's possession, but the Bears offense gave it right back and allowed a big return that set MIN up to score right away. Once it got to 10-16, you knew what was going to happen. The "O" came out on the next possession with another punt, and then the defense imploded late, allowing McCarthy to throw a TD with like 50 seconds left.

Duvernay had a huge kickoff return that set the Bears up just outside FG range. They ran the ball three straight times for 9 yards and Santos narrowly made the kick just inside the left upright for the win.

 

[AZ54]

1 hour ago, BearFan PHX said:

another big 4th quarter meltdown by the D. We need a pass rush.

This is what is really holding the D from being decent.  

[BearFan PHX]

20 minutes ago, AZ54 said:

This is what is really holding the D from being decent.  

yes. CB injuries arent helping, but even bad CBs play better with a pass rush in front of them.

[adam]

Gonna have to rewatch the game as it was hard to assess everything in real time. It felt like MIN blitzed or had instant pressure on almost every drop back and instead of some quick routes, they were longer developing plays that didn't match with the protection.

I would say Caleb tried extending 2-3 plays when he could've just dumped it off. He had for sure 2 overthrows, one on a scramble, and one on a designed pass. Outside of those plays, it just felt like he never had time to do too much.

Play calling was suspect. Johnson got cute, using Homer on a critical 3rd Down, giving Smythe targets, and trying some fake trick plays with Bagent on the field instead of an extra blocker.

I don't remember any turnover-worthy throws, so I believe Caleb was clean in that respect and he is finally throwing the ball away when nothing is open, which is a slight change where he would take an unnecessary sack or make a risky throw.

He escaped 2-3 more sacks and ended up with only 2 for minimal lost yards, so I would say that was a success considering the pressure rate. One time during the telecast they said Flores had blitzed 70% of the time, the most he has done all season.

Receivers are still dropping passes, and now they are on the chest drops. Burden, Odunze, and Moore had at least one each. Very frustrating considering they were in a dome with zero elements to deal with. 

To me play calling and protection from instant pressure were bigger issues than anything Caleb did or didn't do.

Special Teams coverage units are still getting gashed. Hightower needs to go and they need someone to fix the coverage units. Outside of Duvernay's long kick return, the return units were terrible, especially on punts. Duvernay should not be tackled by 7 defenders with only one Bear in the frame. 

The Defense continues to fold in the 4th Quarter when they go into Prevent. They had zero sacks, and very little pressure. Watching Dexter a few times, it didn't even look like he was trying to get to the passer, he looked like a Dancing Bear at times. Jarrett was getting more push than anyone in the middle.

Refs continue to screw the Bears, who had more penalties and yards than the Vikings, the 9th time this season. The worst was the missed face mask on Homer within 5 yards of the ref who is looking right at the play, no call. That is 15 yards and an auto first down.