AZ54

First off I like Coach Hoke and think he'll do good things with the DBs. It's hard to know much with so many depth players seeing time on the field already this season. With new pieces everywhere on a scheme extremely reliant on assignment discipline. I see people asking for more variety in scheme in coverages too but again, how much of that can you do effectively with a practice squad guy and two rookies out there? Dline... Dexter has clearly improved from his college tape yet is nowhere near where I think he can get to. Pickens has much to learn and with less physical talent than Dexter will take longer to show up consistently. Justin Jones continue to play at a backup level and he's not going to be any different ever at this point in his career. Billings has looked good. Edge... DRob is playing better and setting the edge far better than he did last year. He's not getting anywhere on pass rush so that's either going to take another offseason or he plateaus this year. We still have to remember he's a oonverted WR still learning his new position. At least his trend is upward. Ngakoue is doing what he has always done but he's been a little stouter against the run than I expected. He's still a player who often needs help from inside pressure to get his sacks. LBs... I'm not worried about long term. Each week there are more splash plays, some of that as the Dline comes together, some no doubt from time in the scheme. Washington totally abandoned the run to feast on our poor coverage and lack of pass rush. Of course the score had a lot to do with that but giving up 29yd rushing is good even if it's for one half. Oline... better this year is Carter who wasn't good enough to get snaps last year. Borom has made a big improvement. He's still limited in his agility but he's clearly better. Jenkins was moved inside and developed into a really good OG. In his half game against Wash he was pretty good against some Pro Bowl DTs. Using his injury history against his development history is comparing apples to oranges. At LT Jones developed quickly from a 5th Rd pick to starter level player. He's better this year than last year too and is one of the better run blocking LTs in the league. Darnell Wright continues to get better each week. WR... still waiting but if there were one guy who has gotten better here I'd say it's ESB. TE... Kmet has clearly improved the last 2 seasons. QB... Hard to say Justin isn't getting better. I don't like the long drawn out approach to the breakdowns but they did a good job highlighting Wright's performance. I was willing to spend big $ for Daron Payne, Wright controlled him and even made him look like Justin Jones on some plays. He's still learning but experience against different styles of pass rushers over the course of the season will help him.

The more I watch of him ...Davis is pretty good. Wright is also pretty good although he still has mental mistakes from time to time. That's to be expected for a rookie in just his first 5 games. Jenkins had a couple timing glitches on his blocks, to be expected after missing weeks, but he is a beast. Whitehair is a definite improvement over Patrick, minus the snap issues which should get better with more reps. He's under contract through 2024 which gives Poles time to find a good replacement. If they like really him there they might restructure him and add a year in 2025. I doubt that happens for cap space reasons, but regardless that gives Poles 2 offseason's to find his starting center.

Watch the highlights on that play and you'll see a referee literally right there on the sideline watching DJ's feet as he toe taps...no whistle. Then from 20-30 yards behind the play comes another referee blowing his whistle that he was out of bounds. There's just no way that ref could know for sure he was out. Even if you think he might have been out, let it play out and review it. The Amazon broadcast was horrible because they never showed a replay of the sideline view.

Why I think Fields has not improved in one play: We got a TD here at 1:35s in the video to close the game. The TD was nice but this pass was late and as you will see documented in other QB analysis videos it's not the only example. Fields must continue to improve his decision making and release timing on these 5yd routes. 20s into this video is a quick screen pass to DJ which might be the quickest I've seen Fields flip his feet and throw. Maybe there is change starting to happen but he cannot continue being late on these short routes. I'm left thinking we have a good QB for intermediate and deep routes. Give him pass protection where those plays can develop and voila we get TDs. Give him pressure where he has to work the short routes quickly and we get drives that stall. It's not the end of his development as all QBs even the great ones have had aspects of their game they needed to improve upon for years after they entered the league (see Drew Brees). Plus Fields can offset the lack of an effective short passing game with his running ability. He may never be a QB in the Manning/Brady style who can quickly slice and dice a defense. He could be more in the Drew Brees/Roethlisberger style where they need protection good enough to work the deeper routes. Remember Sean Payton saying how critical interior pass protection was for Brees, and how good the Saints were at that for many years. Roethlisberger often bought his own time when he was young, as can Fields but still thrived best with more time to throw. (link won't embed so you'll have to follow to the site) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVGs_V8aVoQ

Why I think Fields is better using just one more play: Cole Kmet's TD against Denver. He's starting to buy time with his feet. He seemed to do this well early on in his career but then last year just took off running more. This play is very much what you see from Mahomes. So much so that you have to wonder if after the KC game he didn't tell himself I'm going to go do that. In this play with this much green space in front of him I fully expected him to just sprint for the goal line. He did that against Detroit last year. Even Kmet seems to pause briefly at the goal line as if he's thinking he might need to block someone. Then sees Fields flatten his path toward the sideline at which point he starts to drift backwards as the defense moves forward toward Fields. Beyond this play I've now seen in two games multiple drop backs where Fields has been much better sliding around the pocket. Or sliding around pass rushers outside the pocket while keeping his focus down field. After he sort of called out the coaching and said he was thinking too much I expected him to doing the opposite and just taking off on the run.

Why I think Fields is better using one play: Kmet's TD at 43s. He takes his drop and there is pressure from both sides, even Young is almost touching him as he throws the ball. Yet Fields never moved off his spot and waited for Kmet to cross the field. For those who might say he throws late...I'll disagree because he's waiting for Kmet to enter the window between the pass rushers so the ball can't get knocked down. He clearly knows the pressure is there too because as soon as the ball is gone he flinches and steps fwd away from Young. I've seen multiple examples of this in both the Broncos game and Wash. I think this play captures the improvement best because a) it's in the redzone where it's more difficult to read a defense, and b) more tempting to just bolt the pocket when it's not there right away. I didn't see this confidence in the play call (meaning he knows what will happen and when) earlier in the season.

I don't think this statement is valid and being good at the QB position is much more complex than that. I'll just use Fields as the example. There have been plenty of plays in the first 3-4 weeks where he had lots of time in the pocket, with no pressure, and he still held onto the ball even with open receivers. Sports media making that statement (anyone can be good with this much time) were among the people criticizing him for holding onto the ball too long just two weeks earlier. Certainly it is fair to say most QBs look better with more time and less pressure but that doesn't elevate them to top 10 status. If it did you wouldn't see such a big rush on drafting a QB every year. Focus would simply be on taking the QB who fell to you and using the higher 1st Rd picks on Oline. With good Oline play why can't we just throw Bagent out there anytime Fields is struggling. That's because there is another variable beyond pass rush pressure to contend with: Coverage.

As the saying goes: It might be that the purpose of your life is to serve as a warning for others. There is no denying this team has played better on both sides of the ball since Claypool was benched. It's not the typical value we want out of a 2nd Rd pick but Poles and Flus have made their statement that it's team first and anyone not on board is expendable. Especially Poles! So be it.

I give a game ball to the Oline. They held their own against one of the best Dlines in the NFL. DJ Moore was the biggest beneficiary of that time in the pocket.

Yeah it takes away the outside zone run game which is our go to play.

I hate kickoffs. They ruined one of the best plays.

Ha. I have Sonny Jurgensen’s autograph.

Great start. Announcers need to cut out the BS about about any QB can do this when the protection is good. The QB frenzy every draft says otherwise.

I stopped reading after he had Poles chasing Lions OC for HC. This time last year there wasn't a person on the planet that wanted anything to do with anyone in Detroit.

Yes but it should be an early read and decision on the coverage and route. Not late like we saw from Kmet. I should add it's entirely possible Kmet was wrong and Fields just covered for him.

Or maybe the greatest coaches are figuring it out ahead of time.

If you combine the analysis of Fields' reading zone coverages with the comments about his INT throwing to Kmet late in the game -- it makes me wonder if we have too many options embedded in our WR routes. I'm also considering how I saw Kmet react in backing away when the DB turned with him on the front side of that route. If I know my receiver has 2 or 3 options on how he runs his route based off what the DB does (not just the type of coverage zone vs. man). Then I have to hold the ball long enough to see what that DB does at the top of the route stem, and then how quickly the WR reacts to it. On that INT the ball is already in the air while Kmet still has his back to Fields. The DB sees the ball and reacts to it breaking over the top of the route. Kmet then reacts to the DB and backs out of the spot. Fields says Kmet did the right thing based on the coverage. By default the timing of all that means Fields can't throw the ball until the DB declares what he's going to do. Conversely if I'm a DB in zone coverage I'll be mixing up the way I do that all game long. I can change pre-snap leverage, post-snap leverage, run under the break, over the top of the break. All just designed to make FIelds wait another 0.5s to 1s to throw. There is no way for me to know this, nor if it even makes sense. But if that were true, and if I were the coach I'd be simplifying things and removing a lot of those options. Or maybe trim it down on read 1 and 2 and let the 3rd or 4th options react to coverage and possibly capture a big play on a breakdown if Fields has time to come back to them. Fields has to be able to throw the ball to a receiver as he is making his cut, just like he did on the INT, not afterward.

We’re not even 12mo out from the final roster tear down piece when Quinn left last year. I don’t see a good team but I definitely see good players on our team this year. I’ll be patient.

Agreed on the 3 tech. However I suspect the run defense is suffering from some run-fit issues. We saw this a long time even with Urlacher and Briggs on the field. Once they got it corrected things changed quickly. We have new LBs from different systems and we have a bevy backup DBs. The nickel DB is very key to the defense. We also had two rookie DBs on the corners last week. Things seem a lot like what we saw in Kyler Gordon’s first 8 games last year. Even Brisker is being slow to react. I suspect that is in part because he’s keeping an eye on more than just his assignment. For this defense to work players must know their assignment and get to it quickly.

We found them!

Does anyone know where the real Bears offense is? I see players using our uniforms that just executed a 15 play 9 min +drive for a TD.

I'm only discouraged by Fields' lack of progress. Everything else is moving forward in the right direction. We haven't seen our entire starting secondary on the field much but I think it's improved. The depth at CB has improved as well and I look forward to seeing Smith/Stevenson on the field today. It might decide what we do with Jaylon Johnson. Dline has improved too except for the pass rush. Last year's version of the dline was so bad it's not a high bar to get better but the rookies are starting to make some plays. We've got a couple pieces where we need 6 but it's better. It was lost in the noise of the losing streak but late in the Tampa game we had back to back 3 and outs and gave the offense the chance to win the game. I don't know if we ever saw that last season. It's just a data point but you have to start somewhere. Oline even with all the injuries is still much better than last year. It's not consistent but there are a lot of good downs in the mix. RB/WR and TE are all good position groups.

Did you consider we don't see those because they might be trying to call the routes or plays that Justin likes to throw to? We have the right combination of weapons to work between the hashes: Moore, Tonyan, Kmet, Mooney, Claypool, even the RBs could do a bit of it if we wanted to. Yet if all Justin is gong to do is watch them be wide open and keep holding the ball then it doesn't matter.

Even if there is a remote chance Bagent can succeed we won't be doing him any favors throwing him on the field too early. It's odd because if we were watching Andy Dalton as our bridge QB for a 1st Rd pick we'd be hearing la lot of people say let the rookie get ready behind the scenes before throwing him to the wolves.

Bingo. Then he goes to the post game press conference and acts like his dog just died. Fields is not the guy you want to follow into battle when you are outnumbered. Dealing with the poor performance on the field is one thing but the lack of leadership can drag down the performance of everyone on the team. He has all the talent but I'd rather have someone with the heart to fight to win. It's difficult to say what changed with him from last year but as the saying goes: Hard times don't build character, they reveal it. ....this quote from his press conference via ESPN’s Courtney Cronin when asked what he’s learned from the last few weeks.