AZ54

I don't know even know where this came from since everyone on the planet uses a grind stone to sharpen iron (or steel) because the sharpening material must be harder. But this is football not engineering so whatever gets them out of stupid questions from journalists is fine by me.

That's a pretty good first effort by Carter. Like they always say it's best when nobody notices them and he was quiet.

With Breece Hall recovering from a knee injury I understand why the Jets signed Cook. He can carry the load early while Hall ramps up. Elliot...you don't need to pay that much for the second part of a two back system. At least Cook still played well last year. Elliot is a shell of what he used to be.

It doesn't appear we pay $2.7mil... "The Bears are now responsible for Walker’s contract year, though that checks in at just $895K." https://www.profootballrumors.com/chicago-bears-news-rumors

This headline was not on my bingo card. In fact I don't know if the Bears Oline has ever had such a good start in the first preseason game. https://bearswire.usatoday.com/2023/08/14/bears-offensive-line-impressive-preseason-performance-against-titans-pff-grade/

Listening to Flus today it appears Roschon has moved up to #2 on the depth chart. I don’t think that’s firm yet but it sounded as if he’s going to get a good shot at keeping it this week.

Unfortunately his competition has similar issues with fumbles and drops: Pettis and Scott.

Robinson is the third best DE. He’s not going anywhere especially when you consider he’s still ascending. Green seems like a guy nobody would miss because I can’t think of anyone mentioning his name all through camp nor in the last game. He may offer more versatility inside like Walker does. That could mean keeping 4 DTs and 5 DEs. Especially if they feel ok with Travis Bell on the practice squad.

Belichick is way off his game.

https://www.profootballrumors.com/2023/08/ravens-sign-db-deandre-houston-carson

I agree. It’s a very long off-season. Anyone who has played any sport knows things don’t feel right after a 6 month break.

The coaches have to be pleased with how well Carter played at RG. He played well enough that he will likely be the backup going forward and not Patrick. That relegates Patrick to backup OC but then how did Kramer perform? Leatherwood reportedly did well at LG. I'm not sure about Kramer's performance. I realize the value in having a backup OC who can also slide out to OG but since he's joined the Bears Patrick has mostly been injured. Nor has he played well. I think he might be on the bubble now. If we're keeping 8 OL then they'd have to see if Carter can handle LG.... something to watch for in upcoming practices.

If Fields' would have aligned his feet with his screen pass to DJ Moore I'd be more optimistic. Regardless the talent around him is much better and that alone will make a positive impact on his comp%. Slow snaps from Whitehair don't help. It's like a little lob pass back to the QB so Fields has to wait for it. OTOH that's a lot easier to handle and less likely to blow past the QB.

Swift did a short breakdown on Dexter but it's nice because you get to see Gipson, Pickens, and DRob on various plays. Aside from looking for the individual splash play the one thing that stood out was the consistent push up the middle to compress the pocket. We didn't have that last year. This has to hold up against starting level players but this is a good start for the two rookies in their first NFL game action.

A few folks showed up today with film breakdowns. The Football Scout had the All-22 view just for the first team offense and I think that's the best way to watch what happens. Not bad at all for first contact with another team. Carter looks good, definitely missed one assignment that led to no-gain play but otherwise he belongs on the field. Last year Braxton Jones had a bad habit of opening up his hips to far to pass rushers. You'll see him do that here but he does two quick kick steps and recovers. Ideally he should avoid getting into that position but last year when he got that far out of position he couldn't recover and gave up the pressure on Fields. Darnell Wright appeared to be in control of his blocks.

It's really hard to make much of anything preseason for QBs. How they respond under pressure does matter and is definitely something that carries into the season. Also being in sync with receivers on the routes. PJ Walker had no clue. Justin at least looked like he knows the offense but it's all such a small snapshot.

Both screen throws were intentionally off target a bit to get around the rush. Generally he has liked Justin so I have no clue what this is. I also know PJ Walker is his protege and trains with him in the offseason and he was completely horrible.

Agreed, PJ Walker is just bad. He was equally bad in the Carolina game I watched last season so it's not just a new scheme. Besides that his strength is reported to be his understanding of the game yet we see nothing of the sort on the field. Poles addresses this backup position more aggressively next season and if this team is good that will help attract FA QBs without overpaying. Or we draft one. Vildor is playing for his next job. Even if he were the 6th best CB (he's not) I can't see us paying a backup that far down the depth chart $2.7mil. Gipson vs. Lewis. I have only rewatched the start of the game but early on Gipson benefited from poor blocking and was able to get in on a few plays. On at least one play where he was blocked he got stood up and lifted off his feet, something that has happened to him quite a bit in camp (he may be the leader in getting pancaked). Lewis seemed to handle contact better and win his rushes straight up. He's not as bendy around the corner as you'd like but he got there. Again just early impressions I'll try to watch a bit more later on. Leatherwood only costs us $2mil this year so I don't think salary will be a big factor in who stays. Velus is still in the lead at WR6 but I could definitely see Pettis challenging him in the next 2 weeks. No to Ford or Webster. At safety a lot of press is made when guys just standing in a zone coverage and the QB throws them the ball. I personally don't care about those INTs. I'm looking for who reads the routes well and makes the right breaks to defend passes. All I took away is that Elijah Hicks was doing that better than last year. The others I'm not so sure about.

I watched the first quarter in slo mo to see more closely who did what in the trenches. On both TD plays our Oline was the key blocking 10,20, and even 30 yards downfield. You knew that from the game replay but none of them looked lost in space. Usually you’ll see linemen lunging at the little guys or just falling on their face. They covered ground quickly but broke down and stayed under control as their target approached while Herbert or Moore helped setup their angles from behind. On the first one Whitehair was able to get out in front and then do a 180 and block off Dline chasing it down from behind. I’d say the entire line bought into the conditioning expectations this off-season. Darnell Wright looked good in his first action. It looked like a Carter was the one struggling the most although Braxton Jones gave up one run stop (right before Hebert TD). Tev buried a LB on the same play. Would have been a huge hole if Jones didn’t give up his inside shoulder. Dom Rob is a different player this year. He’s able to shed blocks and made one of the big stops at the goal line. Billings needs larger numbers on his jersey. He is wide enough to properly have a 3 digit number On one of the goal line stops he didn’t make the tackle but he hit the RG so hard he quickly walked him two yards backward. That power showed up on several plays.

Cool. That's what happens when you're watching a football game and a zoom call for a grandkids birthday party at the same time.

I didn't see the entire game but did get the first half and some of the 4th quarter. Velus' muffed the punt after the ball bounced very high and he tried to catch it. Defensive player saw him lining up under it and timed the hit perfectly. Very poor decision but not dropped catch like we saw last year. My impressions: Offense - all the work on the screen game is paying off. DJ made a great read on the defenders but the blocking is what made me feel good about the play. It's one thing to have a good short game but if that's all you have (i.e. Crowton) defenses will eat it up. We have enough speed and the QB to have a good long game. Those two will compliment each other and make it easy for Getsy to adapt to what a defense chooses to take away. I still don't like PJ Walker. Defense - looked much stronger in run defense. There were still some gaps but we weren't always getting pushed back off the LOS. Big Dex is strong and I rewatched several plays and he is not the last man off the snap. We can all forget about that draft day concern. On his sack he got between the LT and LG. Both tried to push him and it didn't slow him down one bit. Pickens didn't have any splash plays but seemed at least solid in holding his ground on most plays. DBs looked good once they settled in. Drop Tremaine Edmunds in the middle of that group and we should be good in coverage. Kyler Gordon is going to have a good year. He's seeing it and he's feeling it. Late game - I didn't see Roschon much. Travis Bell is a short stout player. No length so can't see him doing much in the league against starters but as a practice squad guy you need to call up in a pinch he'll give you good effort. Maybe with a year in the strength program he'll be able to better use his underneath leverage to his advantage.

I have mirrored an iPhone, Macbook, and iMac screen to my TV via WiFi with no issues. Some TVs will need a WiFi adapter to do that but my Sony has the software built in. The picture quality isn't HD perfection but it's still pretty good and far better than watching a game on a computer screen. Using a VPN sourced from the Chicago area might get you the live local games but some streaming services disallow all VPN connections. The other way companies check is to match the zip code from the billing credit card and consider that your local area. Get a burner credit card with a Chicago area billing address and your set. Maybe someone knows what NFL+ does to determine your "local market". "Local games are the games that are available on TV in your market."

Some good insight on the team from the coach plus it was nice to see Kyle. It's obvious now why we went after Kyler Gordon first last year. Scheme fit at NB.

I got this wrong. Dexter is clearly moving into our 3-tech after expecting him to focus on NT. Judging by how often he's in Justin Fields' face he might be a starter before the end of the year. OTOH I expected Pickens would be the 3-tech but now he's doing nothing but NT. Travis Bell is also getting snaps at 3-tech. Pickens has been relatively quiet in camp so far. Given the performance trends right now I expect in week 1 it'll be the top 3 (Billings, Jones, and Dexter) getting the vast majority of the snaps. Dexter might split time at 3-tech/NT. He only slid over to focus on 3-tech a little more than a week ago, maybe 2 weeks at most. If he continues to become dominant at 3-tech and keeps blowing up plays like he did again today they won't waste his energy at NT. We all know the 3-tech is the little engine that makes this D work well. Week 1 is very important. By the end of preseason I expect they'll start hiding him (i.e. less preseason snaps or maybe some NT snaps) so the Packers have less of an idea what's headed their way. https://www.si.com/nfl/bears/news/zacch-pickens-steered-toward-nose-tackle

Might be worth starting a separate thread so people can list what they do to watch games and we can see all options. I still run Dish Network w/ NFL Network and Redzone (which I rarely use) but that's more for the TV from Spain we need to keep my wife happy. In recent years my son has always found Sunday Ticket cheap on the college student plan. This year Google got rid of that and is forcing everyone to full price plans. We're not yet sure what we'll be doing but I'll be doing something to find my Bears game even if I go back to watching them in a bar. FWIW in a pinch I've always been able to find a decent enough "broadcast" feed on Reddit although they often tend to drop out and have to rejoin.