BearFan PHX

Oh, and the one I am the MOST sure needs help is Morgan. i think he is a primary cause of the trouble. And then I blame Waldron and Flus for not doing something about it, but a lot of it starts with Morgan's responsibilities. He needs a partner at least. Call it OL quality control or something. But someone has to teach the scheme better to the players. They often look lost on who to block, and that's been true since at least when Morgan got here.

Yeah that makes sense. For you, being loyal is supporting them no matter what as long as they are on the team. For me, being loyal means calling out the weaknesses and wanting them addressed. But we are both wanting whats best for the Bears of course. And I'll say this too, to echo what Mongo just said. While I am certain the Eberflus will never be a top ten coach (even if he wins coach of the year due to team performance) I would like nothing more than to be proved wrong about that. If Eberflus looks good to me, i will happily say it. My views on Waldron have morphed somewhat over the past weeks. I see the positives he has in the architecture of the passing game. I can see why he is (or was) well thought of. I still see poor rhythm in play calling, and a real problem with ignoring personnel groupings, being too fixated on Xs and Os and not enough on who's gonna be the one doing it. But still I have definitely seen growth from him over the past few weeks, and if I see more, i will definitely admit it. I dont need my current narrative to be right, I like to think my current narrative is really just where the player or coach is as far as what theyve already done and shown. Show me something new, and I have no problem seeing it and adjusting what i think. But winning games alone wont change my mind on Eberflus. His situational choices have to be sound too. So, like you, I am rooting for them to change for the better. I just see what I see, and when its a long time pattern, then I become more sure that it's real and isn't gonna change. but show me something new, and I'd be a fool not to see it. Then I'd probably say something like "OK that was one game, I liked what i saw, let's see if he can do it over a sustained period of time" and if they do that, then I'm on board. But if I had to bet, I'd bet that Eberflus will never be the head coach on a team that wins a Superbowl. And I'd put the odds pretty heavy on it. But yeah, I'd LOVE to be wrong about that.

Good coaches, even on the pee wee level dont make those mistakes. It's not like he dropped a pass, he just chose something he should know better than to do? A coach should be 100% error free on that one. There is nothing forcing them to make that error? I dont think anyone thinks hes going to be fired soon, I think he is just saying that he wants him gone when the time is right. And I dont think he is miserable. I think he just wants a competent coach. We all do of course. All (95%?) of the sports commentators seem to agree so its not like he is out on a ledge in some extreme way? I get that youre an optimist for the team, and i respect that. But it isn't traitorous to want bad coached and players gone, its just another way to want the Bears to be great, which is what we all want.

this is where I'm at too. Players make mistakes, but there is no reason for a coach to make those kind of errors. Going for it on 4th an 1 down 6 in the 2nd quarter from your own 40 is just WRONG, and that's the second time hes done it this year. Players have other players playing against them, and sometimes they lose a battle. But it is not hard to know that you need to punt. no defender is trying to force your lips to say go for it.

one point - Eberflus' contract is up at the end of this year, so they don't need to fire him per se. EDIT - NO he is signed thru 2025 I suspect the McCaskey's cheapness is why they didnt fire him last year - didnt want to pay two head coaches at once. EDIT for two years It's crazy. You throw a quarter of a billion dollars around on player salaries every year, and you cant find a few million to pay Flus while you get a new HC that aligns with Williams? Hopefully they will eat one year of double paying. I think we need the owners to sell this team.

Ben Johnson's pretty cool. Notice the absolute trickery, but in no case, do you ask anyone to do anything they dont have a skill for as an athlete. No linemen.

Yeah great culture Eberflus.

Wow. So here is Shane Waldron on the handoff to Kramer: “But I have all the confidence in the world in all our players. It’s something we’ve repped and worked on. It came up in the moment, as a third-and-one call. It didn’t work out.” So you have confidence in Kramer to what? do everything? run a go route? kick a long field goal? all your players have your confidence in everything? You cant freakin admit that you asked a guy to do something that wasnt in his core skill set and that made a miscue more likely, and that handing to it Roschon would have been better? Why not put in Roschon at center then? If you have confidence in everyone to do everything? Maybe Billings can play slot receiver? What a load of crap answer.

ah cool. I am against rash decisions, so I agree with you - no one game should decide anyone's fate.

yeah Im not saying they will fire him now. Im talking about at the end of the season. Im also not saying that because sportswriters are saying it that Im right or it will happen, Im just noticing how fast the tide turned, because of last year. Id said before that if he wins this year, everyone will forget about last year, but if he repeats last minute losses on bad defense likehappened 3 times last year that everyone would see the pattern fast. Just talking about what people are thinking on this thread, thats all.

I thought this probably deserved it's own thread. I just wanted to note how much talk there is about replacing him from all the sportswriters and radio people. No one is holding back at all. We really crossed a threshold fast this past week. I guess people are remembering the three games he blew at the end last year too. I posted over the offseason that if the pattern repeated this year it would gain momentum fast. And conversely if we were winning, last year would be forgotten. Sure seems like that's how its working out. THe past two years forgiven until the pattern reestablishes and then there would be VERY little patience at that point.

I would not argue with that at all. He might be too old, but if we can get players with that kind of attitude, I'm ALL for it.

That was a great read, and the article linked in the tweet too. Thanks for posting it. I admit some of it goes over my head, for example, I understand the point of calling a 'play' as opposed to calling all the parts, because if people understand the whole play, then you can swap receivers around, or replace them with tight ends or backs and the concept of the play is still known to everyone. that sounds smart. But then he says you dont need specific players to run the offense, and Im not really sure what that means. no matter the concept, or what you call it, lesser players dont make more plays because of how you titled the play? You dont hand the ball to Kramer no matter what you call it Either way, it did make the reader think about all the complexities of calling any play in the NFL and give me more sympathy for Caleb and how much he has to grow. No matter what system they are running, Caleb is still seeing more new defenses than ever, and he has to face them, and then go process film so it's clearer the next time he sees it. I'm sure for example that he's know how certain route concepts work against standard defenses like cover 2, cover 3, man under etc. That's probably been comfortable for him since early in college. But now, defenses are disguising their looks, and playing exotic defenses to confuse him. Exotic defenses have inherent weaknesses, they arent fully sound, and when Caleb can see it, he will punish them for it. This past week, it took him a while to digest what he was seeing. It didnt stop him as a winner from driving the team down the field to win the game twice for us though! I personally wonder if the OL was doing a better job, how much quicker the offense could find the rhythm? Whatever the offense, they have to do a better job of teaching the blocking assignments or rules to the players. And it's kinda clear, we need some more players too. All good stuff to think about.

no doubt finding a good QB is the hardest. I also agree on your analysis of both QBs in that game. I think CW is learning to process though. games 4-6 were a huge improvement over 1-3, especially against the blitz, so he is showing that hes learning and reading. I think Washington did an excellent job of showing some really advanced looks and confusing Caleb. They basically dared him to beat them with the long ball, and dropped into unconventional looks underneath. And it worked. Caleb will see everything over the season, and hopefully he can learn to adjust. But everything ive seen from him so far says he is smart and processes well. I do think a real concern about him is long ball accuracy. That's something we've seen lacking even in his college film. And you have to be able to punish defenses in every way that they slack on anything in order to be stronger on something else. Hopefully Caleb clears that up. But I dont think he is bad at processing, I just think he came up against a really good defensive plan, and this is part of his rookie growing experiences. At least you can say he has that winner thing since he basically took an offense that wasn't working, and drove the field to win the game twice in the last 10 minutes. But in that game, yes, everything you said is true for sure.

hahahaha "Ill have what the rest of the league is having" LOL

yes yes yes yes yes yes yes absolutely yes. its freakin football not a tampon commercial.

the McCaskeys need to sell this team

all that assuming Bates isn't good at center. I hope he will be, but after all this, i wont be shocked if he isnt. Also, as dangerous as it sounds, this coaching staff have not been shy about playing rookies either. Then again, they probably wont be the coaches next year anyway.

If a guy is organized, has leadership skills, and isn't a moron, he can be a head coach. The job isn't THAT hard. I mean just the head coaching part. If you've come up the NFL ranks, and you're a natural leader. We all know the rules and techniques about timeouts, end game, challenge flags, when to go for it etc. And if youre already a coordinator who has shown leadership, then you can do the team leading stuff too. The harder part is adding value to at least one side of the ball. That's hard. And we end up with a lot of nerds, like Flus, Trestman and Nagy, who are considered modern and innovative. And I get it, that's really hard to be good at. But it seems like they're choosing that stuff over the requisite leadership talent. For example, guys like Wannstedt, Jauron and Fox were tougher as leaders, but probably not as inventive in schemes. We need a smart modern offensive coordinator with a chip on his shoulder. Someone who isnt scared of losing the players. Ive been saying for a couple of years that Flus' body language in social situations seems very weak. Then i see him yelling on the practice field, and i think "ok, hes tough when hes actually coaching, but more beta when people are standing around talking." But then i see the state of discipline on this team, and i wonder. And all that not including the long list of stupid coaching decisions that most of us and any pee wee coach would know to avoid. I dont want him fired today. But I cant imagine Poles keeping him next year. And if were going to do that, why didnt we do it this past offseason?! I mean, a bunch of us were screaming about it at the time. Its not like this is hindsight. Flus had shown all these issues the past two years too. The first year we knew was a teardown. BUt didnt he lose THREE games last year where we had the lead with not much time to go, and coached them away to improbable losses? This isnt a mistake, its a pattern!

well youre right writers always take everything to the extreme. Narratives becomes stories for sure.

right, an improvement, but not someone you want to be tied to next year. If you signed him it would be to start this year - probably getting Kiran more reps is better long term

My guess is Kliff Kingsbury or Ben Johnson

no, we have a pretty good roster, but we need help on the OL. Caleb is a star in the making, and the coaching is holding us back. THis isnt about being negative, it's about wanting good people at all the positions including coaches.

Not predicting that, but it is a possibility. Our offense has done nothing much yet against any defenses other than the worst ones. I believe we have talent on the roster, but we aren't putting it together (yet?).

Not saying he's great or we need him long term, but we could have done this I suppose. https://www.nfl.com/news/vikings-acquiring-ot-cam-robinson-from-jaguars-in-exchange-for-draft-pick-compensation