AZ54

I wonder how much of this issue is receivers (i.e. Miller) not running the routes correctly. Still I think overall at this point everyone has a hand in what we've seen but IF we could get consistent blocking up front for both the run game and pass protection it would allow the rest to settle down. At the very least it will let Daniel or Trubisky not feel like they have to get all the yards from the passing game. Getting some stability back with Burton, who was a big piece of what Trubisky did last year, and then Gabriel will help a ton. I didn't expect much from Gabriel when we signed him but he's been worth the contract. I think at the end of the day it's the consistent route running from Gabriel that earns him the snaps, and that's how someone like AMiller stays on the bench. Will we soon see Riley Ridley take some snaps from Miller?

After seeing this week after week I think it just means Sowell is back for practice snaps in the hope that he'll soon get this new position down.

Watch the game against the Colts and pretend the back of his jersey says Trubisky. Especially on his throw into the dirt or one of many over-throws. I know Tru has missed some reads but he does far more scanning of the D than people are giving him credit for. Far more. Plus sometimes the play is executed correctly and the first (primary) read is the correct throw and timing demands it be thrown early. You don't look off a safety on a quick inside slant if it's open. The microscope Bears fans put on Trubisky is like no other even when he has a good game. What we know is that good offensive teams like the Patriots and Saints focus heavily on the Oline play. There's a reason Belichick dragged his Oline coach out of retirement years ago when his Oline was playing poorly. Isn't it odd that our offense played better with former KC Oline castoff Bryan Witzmann last year as opposed to what Kyle Long has done this year? Tru had more issues last year with the offense than this year. He's clearly better this year in the first 5 games than last year but even if he's the same QB we saw in 2018 what's the difference in the offense? WRs? RBs? Oline? TEs? Are we really missing Sims? Doubtful. We are missing a healthy Burton for sure so that is one piece to the puzzle. Trubisky is just not good enough to carry a poor Oline like the one he has had in front of him. Even among the better NFL QBs I'm not sure who is.

I saw the chop blocks during the game especially on Jacobs first TD run. Goldman was right in position to make the tackle and Incognito took out his knees.

Leno is an issue with all the penalties. If you are an average talent player you must be good on the basic stuff to survive at LT. Last year he did those things this year he can't get it together. I don't think Massie is any different from last year. He's far from the problem that Leno and Long have been. He's still good enough that we can Leno has singlehandedly killed two good drives that could have us 5-0. Against GB he earned us a 3rd and 40 IIRC. Against Oakland he helped us get a 3rd and 30. On both of those drives up to that point the offense was in rhythm and momentum was swinging our way.

I just laughed at Mahomes putting up 13 pts against the Colts D. Except he was excused because he had some Oline issues and was missing a WR. Here I assured after reading all the Trubisky reviews that those players don't make a difference in QB play. I saw some overthrows, underthrows, sacks taken because he didn't make the hot read, heck even 1/3 of his passing yards came in garbage time in the 4th quarter. He only completed a miserable 56% of his passes. By the way that mirrors what he did in the last 6 games last year when he lost Hunt, and it carried into the playoffs. Talent matters. So does blocking.

Smart move Mr. Pace. Now the next decision is do we put Kyle Long on IR and bring Bars up to the 53? https://bearswire.usatoday.com/2019/10/07/ol-alex-bars-turned-down-patriots-to-remain-on-bears-practice-squad/

Not much Long(er). I'm a huge fan of Kyle and respect and appreciate all he's done for this team. First and foremost I want to win football games and it's hard to see how he has helped that in any way so far this season. Now that Kreutz is going public it won't stay under wraps much longer. I suspect since he knows Harry that he's been holding this back out of respect for both Kyle and Harry. Now with the bye week it's time to get the negative press out early, let the team make the change quietly when there is no media around, and then get ready for the next game. I'd like to think it's all physical with Kyle but he's not just getting beat physically he's also making too many mental mistakes. https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bears/olin-kreutz-doesnt-hold-back-comments-kyle-long-i-wonder-where-he-his-career You could make an argument that they have to take a good, long look at Kyle Long, and where he’s at, and does he need weeks off… does he need to go on IR, is Rashaad Coward a better option. If you take a really good look at the film, and this is hard for me to say, because I am a big fan of Kyle long, and I’ve watched him for a long time play a high level of football, where he was a dominant right guard… What I’ve seen in the first 3 weeks, and in this week, I wonder about his body, I really do, and I wonder where he is in his career."

We should be amazed we're getting anything out of this offense with Trubisky or Daniel given how poor the Oline is.

According to OvertheCap.com they have just $1.2mil in dead money for AB with cash paid $860k.

Is Kyle Long starting?

Don't forget with the money they saved on Mack they were able to sign Antonio Brown and Vontaze Burfict. Burfict didn't cost them much of course but regardless those were the good football-character players Gruden wanted over Mack. And they are sitting on $27mil in cap space which is really close to Mack's cap hit next season.

Odds of Kyle Long starting ....near zero and I hope he gets plenty of rest. I think we ride with Coward at RG going forward. He didn't have much power but he was better in pass protection than Long. Daniel is like a sitting duck in the pocket, he doesn't shuffle around at all until he finally decides it's time to bail out completely. I still haven't heard anything on Larsen's injury either. He also played better than Long and I think he'll bring a little more punch in the running game.

I noticed that too with KPL out there on 3rd and long situations. He has more speed and flows to the ball much better outside the numbers. Kwit as always in great between the numbers. Play to your strengths.

You must be seeing holes nobody else can find.

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bears/akiem-hicks-expected-miss-vikings-game

Stupid pass when he could have just thrown it away after seeing Norman bear hug Robinson. I'm ok with the predetermined read to go at Robinson because he should do that. Not reading how the route was breaking down is on Mitch. He has to get back to backyard football. OTOH he knows Kyle's getting blown up in his face all game and he has to get rid of it quickly. Sure enough Kyle's big butt was pushed right into him as he threw the ball. I don't see how we can survive against the Vikings with interior Oline play this poor. Mitch needs to get out of the pocket early and often.

How many times is Kyle Long finishing a play on the ground?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1176332790318665735

https://www.chicagobears.com/news/roster-moves-bears-sign-harris-cut-sowell I'm assuming this means Hicks isn't likely to play which is a huge hit to our Dline. Sowell will likely just stay in town for when he returns to the roster in the next week or two.

At this point the best you could do is beat a 2 win team.

They will do what the Packers did and cover over the top forcing Trubisky to his short reads. They have a good enough pass rush with 4 Dline and we have a bad enough Oline for them to get early pressure often. Might be why we just brought Sowell back. Could be we load up with some 3 TE sets or have one of these TEs in H-back/FB position.

https://www.chicagobears.com/news/roster-moves-bears-sign-sowell-waive-whyte It'll be hard to miss Whyte. Not sure what the plan is with Sowell and now 5 TEs on the roster.

Great win, but it was costly. Gabriel I think had a concussion and Hicks left with a knee injury and a walking boot on his ankle. Maybe it was just my impression but did we see a return to Fox-ball (run-run-pass) in the 2nd half? If Montgomery ever gets a running lane he'll be known around the league. I'm not putting him in the same level but I honestly have not seen a Bears RB do that well with that much poor blocking since I watched Payton. The hate for Trubisky is literally off the charts even after completing 80% of his passes and a 116 passer rating. You know that happened only because he was on the road against Washington, on MNF where he always come up short, and you know it was because his Oline was playing great along with a strong complementary running game like Prescott had a week earlier. Comparatively speaking I wish the Oline could play as poorly as Mitch has, and I include all 3 games in that. In the first half fans were complaining about 3 missed passes. Fans are now watching to see if ANY pass is slightly off target and saying he's inaccurate. Yet they have no clue what the receiver is supposed to do after the cut, nor even how consistently the receiver runs that route against that coverage. This is on a completion. For years after his career was over Terry Bradshaw refused to go back to Pittsburgh. I understand why now. All the noise clearly got into Trubisky's head and he hadn't played well in two games. He started out shaky too against Wash. After all the years of struggles we might be happy but we're not willing to give him some time to get back on track. The internet has produced closet QB experts everywhere and they all know exactly what was supposed to happen and how they would have thrown the ball. I have no idea which way Trubisky's career arc will take him. He might melt under the pressure and flame out completely, or he might take off. Now the real question is why isn't anyone asking to bench Kyle Long? I'm a big fan of his but to be honest he can't play much worse than what he's done so far. Yet we get this: https://www.pff.com/news/pro-pff-nfl-offensive-line-rankings-following-week-3-of-the-2019-nfl-season?utm_source=PFF+Newsletter&utm_campaign=e0cbf313ad-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_09_24_QB_and_oline_ranks&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ae3f4210bf-e0cbf313ad-191301673

The Oline has been a bigger problem than Trubisky but you'd never know it if you read the media reports.