AZ54

The road to the Superbowl in 1985 wasn't always pretty either. Not saying we have a Superbowl team this year because we don't. We have no choice but to accept a win anyway we could get it.

The thing is we aren't getting anything out of our TEs/h-backs and Nall is actually a decent receiver. Plus we've been going with a bit more I-formation plays and Nall would give us a dual receiving threat out of the backfield if we choose not to run from that formation. They might be happy with Holtz in that role. FWIW: The Bears depth chart still lists Cohen as our starter with Montgomery as the 3rd string RB behind Davis. I still don't see Whyte as a different player from Patterson and see no reason to have two players for the same role. Patterson for sure is the better special teams coverage guy.

Y'all are good GMs. Thanks for working this issue. Now do we finally get to see the Ryan Nall experiment take flight? If the standard is 2 special teams play a week I think we'll be alright.

Brady of course. Belichick has won with lots of different QBs. Including QBs who never amounted to much anywhere else.

I agree with him. Find me one person who wants to come to work all listen to people (who aren't part of their team) constantly criticize him and his coworkers?

I've been critical of Nagy but he does deserve time to learn and fix this. Some of what he has said lately makes me think he's starting to see the light. Proof will come in the form of his play calling and post-game press conference.

You blame Trubisky for the WR screen call ..that's a zero read play. Just throw the ball as quick as you can. Then the spiking of the ball? If the PI is legit then it's fair to say it interfered with the play and disrupts the timing. However, I can't remember that play in particular but I believe at least one of those Trubisky passes was a bad throw, if not both so he's a part of the issue too. Regardless, I'm in broken record mode because venting is at least making me feel better: IF Mitch is the problem why is Nagy giving him the reigns to the offense in a close game at the goal line when he has frickin' David tackle-breaking Montgomery on the roster? If you want to do the cute WR screen why not do that with David tackle-breaking Montgomery out of the backfield? If you want to give Mitch a shot to pass why not do it off play action with a run fake to (you guessed it) David tackle-breaking Montgomery? I freely admit my bias here since I'm an Iowa State alum.

Seems like we need a good TE and we might get that groove back. Again, Nagy has to call plays recognizing he doesn't have that player on the roster right now with Burton still working his way back from injury.

I have not seen this Davis you speak of.

Wow, I'm not the only one who sees the Matt Nagy issues. Tarik Cohen up the middle at the goal line. I'm sure he only called that because he has no confidence in Mitch.

The one who is broken in the head coach and he's spreading it across the entire team. Even the defense is now making boneheaded mistake after boneheaded mistake. He needs to quit hiding behind his QB for all the offensive woes because he's really torn down Mitch's confidence. If we just had the Mitch we had in to start the 2nd half of the season last year we'd be ok. Fans would still be bitchin' because ...you know he missed a pass or two despite his 66% completions. Point here is we shouldn't be totally shocked to see a very young team get smitten with themselves and believe it was "easy" to be good. Take that into the preseason with a HC who tells them they are good enough to win and don't need any practice snaps during preseason games. Then when your QB struggles in the first week let it all fall on his shoulders when clearly the entire offense was out of sync. Follow that later in the season by telling your QB to go look at the TV copy to see how he is carry himself. Yep, that'll fix it. If he wants to see someone who needs help why didn't Nagy go look at film of his post game press conferences? It starts there. So we arrive in Week 9 with a team with little confidence in themselves. We see mistakes all over the field both offense and defense early on. Yet despite that I think the 2nd half was the most complete 30min this team has put together this season considering both offense and defense. Not to say it was perfect just that we had good plays on both sides of the ball and from many different players including Mitch and there was some good energy. Nagy has to bottle that up and build their confidence in themselves. I still think Mitch can play winning football in the NFL. He needs a good Oline and running game but so do most QBs in the NFL except for the elite. Believe it or not even Mahomes completion % falls way off, about 10%, when his running game struggles. I just don't know if Mitch can do that here where fans panic over every incompletion. That clearly is something he struggles with mentally. The reality is all QBs and all offense have these same gaps they just don't have such a small margin of error and can still get successful plays. So to fix it... 1) We need a good OT either left or right side. They might sit behind Leno/Massie to start the season but this has to be addressed. It's still possible Coward is that guy and his experience playing inside this year gets him ready for the LT spot. Regardless we're drafting an OT early. 2) Draft a good TE in Rd 2/3. This offense is broken without an effective TE, and that was blatantly obvious with Ertz on Sunday. It was clear last year in the playoff game too. Or KCs playoff game when they lost Kelce. Maybe the bigger problem is Nagy doesn't know how to call plays without a receiving TE. Either way we need to fix TE. I think Burton will eventually get his speed and agility back but this late in the season we might not see that until next year. 3) Draft OLB in Rd 2/3. Re-sign Floyd to a lower contract, he's very valuable and makes more plays than he is given credit for but he's not getting the sacks we need opposite Mack. Let Floyd handle 1st and 2nd down where he's really good and find a pass rush specialist who can't play the run (they drop) and plug him in on 3rd downs. 4) Fire Chris Tabor. Hire Dave Toub's protege. Special teams makes too many mistakes even giving up blocked punts. 5) Give Matt Nagy a new contract that requires him to ensure David Montgomery has to have 20 touches every game. 6) Give Akiem Hicks a big bear hug when he returns from injury.

Seriously? Absolutely nothing? Like his cadence where he drew an offsides penalty last week? You're nervous when he's under center because he often fumbles the snap? He completed 66% of his passes Sunday, under John Fox he only completed 59%. I'm not saying he's playing well but stating he's the same QB as he was his rookie year, or even the same QB we saw against the Arizona Cardinals last year (when he was completely lost against blitzes) is not correct. He's averaging a mere 5 yards rushing per game this year, versus 30 ypg last year. His passing yards per attempt is also way down from 7.4 last year to 5.6 this year so there are some issues to fix. Mostly he just needs to get his mind off the media and Bears fans reports and just go play football. My main concern is his ability to just focus on the game and put the other crap out of his mind. If he cannot do that he will become a career backup and likely fall into a Ryan Fitzpatrick type of QB (part-time starter/backup).

Or is it a recipe for finding good young people and being patient enough to allow them to learn on the job? Look at Belichick and remember he once got run out of town. Andy Reid got run out of town. Funny thing is if you are old enough to remember why he was run out of town it was because ... Some of the same fans who chanted ”Fire Andy” during a game in 2011 and desperately wanted him gone last year cheered Reid, showing their appreciation for the 14 mostly successful seasons he had in Philadelphia. Reid, for a long time, had issues with falling in love with the passing game. But there was always that little bit of mad genius behind what he was doing. It just sometimes fell flat on its face. Pace is not the worst GM out there. He built a team that is very close to competing at a high level. Last year a lot of things went our way, this year not so much. I still think we could add a LT like Trent Williams and a good TE and the offense will become quite productive even with Trubisky at the helm. Nagy might actually be a great head coach someday. I think he's more HC than OC material. He was inexperienced as a play caller when he arrived and it's obvious he's still having growing pains. He is also guilty of what many of us do when we're successful early on in our careers...we fall in love with what got us there even when it's the wrong thing to do. Right now he's struggling to look in a mirror. He's always talked about the times when his players will be tested. Right now he's the one being tested. If he is willing to look in the mirror then I think he'll grow as both a play caller and HC. Remember Nagy, and others, said Reid's greatest achievement in helping his assistant coaches become so successful was his willingness to let them own it. It might be time for Nagy to step back a bit from the offense and let his OC do some play calling. He should at least make sure he's in his ear all game long to keep him grounded. We have found a lot of good pieces for the future. You don't throw the baby out with the bath water but the baby definitely needs a bath.

I thought Trubisky played well. At least well enough to win. He wasn't great but his overthrown pass to Gabriel is way overblown. Every QB has those moments in every game but Bears fans demand perfection. Meanwhile after winning his initial upfield move Gabriel was getting caught by an ancient LB in Thomas Davis. Where did the turbo go? Trubisky's INT was a poor read and he should have held the ball just a hair longer to see if the DB peeled off. It happens....see future HofF Rivers and Fuller's INT. I thought Trubisky had poor decision making holding the ball too loosely when he fumbled... until I watched the replay and saw how fast his LT got blown up into him. We've seen Mack do that to other teams QBs including guys like Rodgers. That's what Joey Bosa does. I felt beforehand I'd rather see Tru come out guns blazing and just making the throws and quit worrying about every little thing even if he threw a pick or two. He did and made a lot of really nice throws on target and in stride. Nice to see Anthony Miller involved once again. Rashaad Coward killed one drive all by himself, but I think he's going to be pretty good. He is making a difference in just two games and that will only get better. Montgomery ....Go Cyclones! We need one more like him and we'll have a good running game. Cohen was definitely, and finally, working up field for extra yards instead of constantly running out of bounds. It was nice to see but an NFL RB he isn't. He's our spot 3rd down RB, occasional slot WR, but he is not Monty's backup. No player is missed more than the old Trey Burton. This offense cannot survive without the move TE. It's so clear that he's the guy filling in the gaps in coverage. TE in Rd 2/3 here we come. Now the coaching... Knowing we have a guy like Bosa out there why wasn't he double teamed more often? When did we become that confident in our OTs? Why are we using CPatt on a jet sweep 5 yards off the endzone? He has no hands and will NEVER go up and win a 50/50 ball so what else is a DB going to look for? Further, you have the safeties within 10 yards of the LOS so speed will not help Patterson there. I thought that was a really stupid play call, among others. On the same series we also didn't give Montgomery one shot at the endzone. Question: Should Trubisky be lining up under center more often? If we're not going to have him run very much why not take better advantage of the running game and play action? It's not been said much but the whole RPO thing has passed it's expiration date. The NFL figures things out quickly. A couple here and there maybe in the right context can work but it is not a staple play so again why not have Trubisky under center? It seems obvious to me that defenses know what we are about to do on many plays, especially the "cute" ones like the Patterson jet sweep mentioned above. Plays like that cannot be a staple play and Nagy over uses them and is not really calling them based on what a D is doing. After seeing how much we use him it's clear Cordarelle Patterson was his pet FA signing. He's really good on special teams both as a returner and in coverage. Nagy goes to the well too often with him on the same plays.

Brave. Epic. Lots of browsers to choose from.

I'd still keep him at what will certainly be a much lower cap hit. He's not a very good pass rusher but he's not horrible. He is disruptive and can affect the pocket enough plus he covers a lot of ground in both the run game and coverage. Unfortunately we have nobody else that's even close to what he can do. Lynch looks like a fat old man. Behind him we have?

This is the same as we've had each week. If we can run the ball we can win.

I would definitely not make any judgment about what's best for him when we have no idea what he's battling. If it's depression then shutting him down and keeping him away from the team and the work he loves might push him over the edge. We just don't know.

He was an average QB last year. What Nagy did to change that I have no idea but it sure seems like he was told to stop running and focus on the passing.

I agree, let Trubisky play the game he's good at. When we're not doing that let him handoff the ball to David Montgomery.

EVERY play? I agree he waited too long for Gabriel to wake up and move into a passing lane but this is cleary an overstatement when there is plenty of evidence Trubisky has made multiple reads on many plays this season alone. If I knew then what I know now would I even want Nagy as my head coach? The guy is scared to commit to the running game, even when he knows his QB is struggling. How stupid is that? We went through this last year too with little emphasis on the running game until games were all but won. At the time many of us said well it's Jordan Howard and he doesn't fit the inside scheme (myself included). Give him a chance with his hand pick RB and we'll see better this year. His hand picked RB got two carries. Last year we reached a similar point with the running game and about 2/3 through the season we finally started leaning on Howard earlier in the game and his yds/game improved. At least until he had 10 carries against the Eagles. Last year Trubisky had nearly as many rushing yards as Cohen. This year so far he's rushed 5 times for 21 yards. Some of that were QB scrambles but still we've lost 25% of our running game. Fact is we have a former Arena League QB calling plays in the NFL like he's still in the Arena League. His OC Helfrich is nearly non-existent but if not him, someone should be the voice of the running game on this team. It's fine to say Trubisky is struggling but there are too many aspects of the offense in the same spot. Trubisky certainly isn't struggling on handoffs and if that and running are his best attributes why are we doing that?

It is laughable that Mitch is the crux of the problem yet our HC keeps calling passing plays. He did it against GB and now again with New Orleans. I hear he's not an idiot.

The only issue I have with Gabriel is he sits down right behind the LT/RDE and he's hard to see there, much less dropping a pass in over the top of the RDE. It seems to me he should have continued his route out to the numbers so he's underneath Robinson who is doing the clear out route. There's no way for me to know if that was the read Trubisky was really looking for and Gabriel never shows himself out there wide enough for Trubisky to complete the pass. The assumption here is that he's looking for Robinson on the pump fake but maybe he's expecting Gabriel to come out wide and when that didn't happen he pulled the pass down. Without that option, and Robinson covered, he should come back quickly to AMiller and take the quick short gain. He who hesitates is lost.

Mitch needs a coach like Bruce Arians. Arians will call plays downfield all day. When there's an INT he takes the blame and tells his QB just keep throwing. I remember when Carson Palmer had 3 INT games and the next one they came right back and kept pushing down the field. Oddly for a coach who calls just 7 runs, Nagy reigns it in, and right now he's killing Mitch's confidence. What do you think Montgomery feels like today? He fumbles the ball at a critical time (it's always critical) and he got zero carries afterward! You should never do that to a player unless it's been a chronic situation. FWIW that was a successful 4yd run. A few more of those would have been helpful in the 2nd half.

Cutting Burton saves a whopping $1mil in cap space next year. Unless he never recovers from this injury he'll be back. He was productive when healthy, and he is the only TE on the roster who can say that. Likewise cutting Shaheen saves $1mil but I wouldn't do that unless/until we have his replacement signed. Again, a FA blocking TE is going to cost a similar amount so we might as well stick with Shaheen unless he gets bit again by injury. This spot has to get fixed in the draft.