BearFan PHX

I agree, swift isnt the issue, the OL is, and the blocking scheme is.

YES!!

The reason our running stats were good last year was the extra yards Justin added. I think Morgan is asking the line to do things that arent realistic. Just block the guy in front of you, or pull a guard and stop pulling tackles and tight ends its not real football, and it takes too long to get there.

Yup - we shouldnt have kept Eberflus. I've been saying that all along. The 4th and 1 call was another total mistake. Unforced error. and a delay of game penalty after a timeout with commercials? Illegal formation? Even false starts - thats coaching.

The run blocking "rules" are broken. I will wait for the film, but did you see guys pulling and arriving too late to make the block? We are trying to do things that arent normal football. Too cute. Chris Morgan is a problem. Shane Waldron is allowing it, he's a problem too. And going for it in the middle of the 2nd quarter down 6 backed up in your own territory? WHAT? AGAIN? Using challenges on things that definitely wont work, losing a timeout in the second half? The coaching is a real problem. Same problems as last year. Caleb grew again this game. More rhythm throws from the pocket than Justin had all year. But they blitzed him all over the place. We did nothing to counter it - no screens, no slants, no draws. We got waaaay outcoached.

Looks like Odunze may play after all. https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2024/9/15/24245502/chicago-bears-inury-update-rome-odunze-to-play-per-report-keenan-allen-houston-texans

Someone offered something for Velus (!) so ya never know. Of course now, something tells me if you call them back, they dont want him anymore.

I agree about Davis. Screw that guy. I also agree that the players will gel and play better, and we wont always be facing a defensive interior that is as talented as the Titans. But I do now worry that the scheme, the blocking rules etc were fundamentally flawed in our first game. We're doing things like pulling a tackle and asking him to come all the way across the line and then turn up and make a block, and of course that player will be late, because it's not sound football. They are trying to out trick the defense, and reinvent the run blocking assignments. That might be something you do when your team sucks and needs an edge, but this roster is pretty good, let's just play football? It reminds me of Nagy's cuteness. Smartest guy in the room crap. I REALLY hope they see it on tape and make adjustments to get back to regular running plays. It's one thing to have a player lose physically, you tell your guys to toughen up and you hope to get better. But when the play is flawed the way it's drawn up, that's something else entirely.

my brother and i still have a bet as to who will be All Pro first; Wright or Skoronski.

right, hes the same guy we had last year. I cant claim to be an expert on blocking fronts, but the guy i watch does, and i think he's right. It may also be possible that there are new innovations that the guy i watch doesnt know about and our team is trying to install. But what he diagrammed and showed sure made a LOT of sense to me. I really hope Im wrong, but I am concerned lets say.

I watched my favorite film study guy, and he made a LOT of good points about flaws with the Bears' run blocking scheme rules. Now Im more concerned about the OL than I was. Hopefully, they find a way to show me that there is more than one good way to do it, and their way works too, but what i saw last week was NOT good. Im not speaking about whether players won their battles or not, that's a whole other topic - but whether the blocking assignments were even solid or logical. Hmmm

hahahaha

you cant handle the bull rush! LOL

youre right about him tripping, in my mind I had that rep happening with one of the DTs, but I was confused. So there is a different rep where the DT blew him up and he didnt trip. And, there were several other awful plays by Shelton too. I feel like if we have Ryan Bates for a reason, and he was the expected starter, we ought to put him in there. Of course the coaches will know better than I do, so I should say "I wont be surprised if there are one or two new starters on the OL this week." looking at you Davis.

I agree with all of this. The Chase Daniels breakdown shows where the errors were - it wasn't that everything was on fire, but in each play a different specific thing went wrong, even as everything else was working. Caleb is definitely playing NFL QB. I am a bit concerned about the batted balls - Caleb needs to find throwing lanes. But i am confident that the coaching staff is seeing everything on the film and will work on making it better. the only thing that's harder to "see" on the film is that we got away from running with Swift. We need to feed him more, and I didnt like seeing Everett out there so much while Kmet was on the bench. Anyone know why that happened? A few times i saw evidence that Waldron is thinking Xs and Os but forgetting how his personel grouping interact with that. So hed put Allen on a speed clearout route for example. Allen did have a pretty good game though. He was open a lot, but he did drop that TD. I also agree that the middle of the Titan DL is special, but that linebacker canning Shelton was just ridiculous. I think we need to look at Ryan Bates in there. Pryor also disappointed me a few times. It's hard to get a great OL, but they need to be better too. But yeah, from the film, Caleb is getting it.

The JT OSullivan breakdown this week highlights some weird personnel groupings. Favoring Gerald Everett over Cole Kmet, and using Keenan Allen on routes that would better fit the skill set of faster receivers. I mean, using Allen as a speedster in a route that is meant to do nothing but clear out a zone makes NO sense if he takes longer to do it?! I think Waldron has some growing to do. We need a cohesive approach, not just calling plays on an Xs and Os basis without regard for who is resting etc.

He had a bunch of good rhythm throws in the second half. Im not saying he was awesome, because he score a total of zero touchdowns. But I am saying that he did make a bunch of rhythm throws. And the playcalling and OL were terrible right along with him. He also needs to be more disciplined in finding throwing lanes. Too many batted balls.

for sure. it has to be much better. this was an introductory offer and the only two reason we arent freaking out are 1) we won thanks to the defense and special teams 2) we know it was everyone's first game. But yeah, that was not a professional offense in the first half. Call it square 1.

fair, I did see Jaylon jog a few steps, which is not his style, and then cut the angle to close the ground. I wanna think it was intentional, but I cant really prove youre wrong either.

Wow, weird game. On offense, we got away from the run way too early. I know that we had a plan to attack the edges, but we needed to at least challenge the middle, else there was no conflict for the defenders. So the offensive playcalling got away from the run. Hopefully, they will all identify that this week in film study. We also went for it on 4th and 1 twice, and I think both were mistakes. Punt! Take the field goal! Sheesh. Williams was under a lot of pressure, but he was truly awful through most of the first half. I told my girlfriend, who Id been hyping up about Caleb all offseason that Caleb was crowning and hadnt been born yet with around 5 min to go in the 2nd qtr. The most rookie moment was when he gave up 15+ yards running backward because he thought he would eventually win and turn a corner - as if other defenders werent bearing down on that location. He will have to learn to play within himself and take the losses as they come and live to fight another down, not gamble away an unobtainable amount of yardage. But Caleb got better each quarter, and threw what should have been his first touchdown pass to Allen right before half time. In the second half, Caleb looked MUCH better. There were a number of fast pocket passes that looked excellent. There were also a bunch of overthrows throughout the game. One assumes that he was trying too hard - too much adrenaline etc. I feel like if he settles down a bit, hes going to be fine. The OL was really exposed by probably the best defensive tackle duo in the NFL. Of course if you want to beat the KC Chiefs in a superbowl youre gonna have to block a pretty damned good DT too, so we need to get players up to that task. Davis only played like 18 snaps and then they replaced him with Bates. It got a little better after that. Sheldon was awful. Jenkins got beat pretty bad a couple of times, but Sheldon was the weakest link. I think next week you're looking at Bates at center and Pryor at right guard. Or the seldom seen Bill Murray, who keeps getting written up well, but I just havent noticed yet. I really wish we'd seen more carries for Swift. that was a problem. But while the special teams were, for the most part, excellent, the Velus Jr returner experiment has to be over. We stopped letting him field punts because hed fumble where there were too many defnders around him, so they figured put him on Kickoffs, no one is near him when he catches the ball so if he fumbles, he can recover it. Velus said "hold my beer" and proceeded to kick the ball back to the kicking team 20 yards forward. DUDE. WTF. But we got a blocked punt. I heard that hightower told the players this week that he had identified a weakness in the Titans punt formation, and he expected a blocked kick this week from his guys. Cool! And speaking of that, and seguing into the defense, hello Darrell Taylor! He blocked a punt, and he got 2 sacks. Amazing. That dude can play, and we have our guy. WHen Booker is ready, thatll be a strong rotation. Walker looks good inside too on passing downs. The defensive front looked pretty good. They had pressure on almost every passing play. it was nice to see the pocket collapse the way it looks when we have the ball for a change. And Billings is a force. Hes not only an unmoveable object in the run game, but hes starting to become a real problem on passing downs. And the Titans OL is supposed to be pretty good. Maybe the defensive line is ready now? Stevenson had his pick, and Jaylon Johnson is incredible. They threw at him twice all game. Once was almost an interception in the end zone, and the other one was a pick. On the near interception he jogged and baited the QB into the throw too. Hes a real impact player. All in all, the offense was on life support, and the defense took this game. Turnovers, defensive scores, field goals - this was a real team win. I was amazed the defense didnt tire out after being on the field so long. The coaches did a good job of rotating guy in and out on the line to keep guys fresher. I do think Caleb was born some time in the 2nd half of the game. He started making fast relaxed reads. But if this is a super hero QB origin story, then today is the first scene where our hero to be is a kitchen slave in a remote prison somewhere. This is the rock bottom the hero rises from. It was a great first scene. Now show me something next week and lets take another step out of this hole, and into the light. Worst: Offensive Play Calling, Sheldon at center, Davis at right guard, Velus Jones Jr. Best: Darrell Taylor, Jaylon Johnson, Tyrique Stevenson, Andrew Billings Hon Mentions: Tory Taylor, Gervon Dexter Jr, Daniel Hardy, Defensive Coaching

yeah this game plan all seems pretty clear. The edges. Of course we are gonna probe the middle early too, and if Davis goes off on his former teammate, then so much the better. I also think the stage is set (but is it too early?) for Booker to show up, given Walker's injuries. Maybe Walker plays, but even so, Booker will get his snaps. I think the stage is set for Booker and Dexter to show up, and for the OL too, if they can fight for it and take it. This level of "want to" is where Eberflus will really earn his money. Cant wait to see where we are.

So the Titans play a 3-4 defense, with a DE, a DT and an NT. The NT is T'Vondre Sweat from Texas who is a tough player against the run. The DT is $100 Million Jeffrey Simmons, also a really good player against the run. The bad news is that our questionable OL interior is going to go against those guys. The good news is that they only have two other DEs on the roster! That's it! Only 4 DL total! wtf So I expect us to run wide, throw screens, reverses, QB rollouts - etc - anything to challenge the edges and get those big guys running. If they dont put another DL on the roster, those dogs are gonna get tired, and then you can give Velus Jones a couple carries in the 4th quarter and break a long run to seal the deal. I would also expect to see some blitzing from Tennessee, because Caleb is a rookie, and because they might be getting tired on the DL. And the recipe for that is of course more screens, rollouts etc. So the game plan seems pretty clear. Could 2024 be the year the Bears bring back the slant?!

OK this is amazing.

I didnt realize that Darrell Taylor was out this week. I was hoping to see him in action.

we need pass pressure, and to read the screens well. If we do that, it's an easy win. This team seems pretty good against the run. I'm also worried about running on their DTs - it'll be a good test for our interior OL.