AZ54

https://www.chicagobears.com/news/roster-moves-bears-put-byron-pringle-on-ir-sign-joe-thomas

We are starting Pettis who they discarded. I imagine they are saying the same.

After watching MNF I'm not sure what to think of the Giants matchup. Their losing a WR in Sterling Shepard will help but that was a freak no-contact injury on the last play of the game.

I agree with this assessment. Eddie Jackson just led a secondary comprised of 3 rookies, 1 a UDFA, and Vildor in just his 16th start. It wasn't always pretty but they also kept their heads up and made some big plays that helped win the game. https://www.si.com/nfl/bears/news/eddie-jacksons-guiding-hand-leads-bears-secondary

Post-game Eberflus said it wasn't serious and he expected him to be day to day. I'd say week to week might be more accurate.

100% agreed. He can't force passes to Mooney just because he hasn't had many catches and it felt like that was on his mind today. It also seemed as if when Montgomery went down he felt he had to make bigger plays and it just spiraled down from there. That was not the case at all and the rest of the team carried him to victory. Hopefully he'll learn from that. I remember the biography video about him and when he transferred to Ohio St. he wasn't comfortable and felt he'd made a mistake. He said he called his father who told him he had to stay there and work through the issues. I said earlier this is really the first time I've seen him lose his confidence. I'm not saying he's not comfortable with the Bears but I would bet money he had a similar heart to heart conversation tonight. In this case it's about learning and adapting to the NFL. There is nothing easy here and it couldn't be more obvious on a weekend where Rodgers and Brady (backup WRs like Fields) put up 14pts and 12pts. Mahomes 17pts, Allen 19pts, Herbert 10pts (I know he played injured but if you're on the field...). As a QB you have to get a perspective like a CB where you can't let the last bad pass or bad game ruin things going forward. People will focus on yards thrown but the job is to score points and they didn't score enough. Nobody cared about Roethlisberger handing off early in his career because they won games. In year 4 it turned around. Fields needs to do what needs to be done to win games and right now if it's handing off so be it. I still believe the passing game will show up down the road.

I should add that I'm always looking for the moment where a young team finds ways to overcome adversity and win close games. This team did that today and we shouldn't overlook that on a day where Miami beat Buffalo and Indy beat KC. I'm not comparing our victory to those, just the fact of how close the NFL is on any given Sunday. We had a lot of key players out, especially after the 1st quarter, and still found a way to get it done.

Fields didn't look like an NFL QB at all. This was the first game I've really seen him get so mentally out of it. Poor throws poor decisions. If the heat from the poor game against GB, or all the crap he got after the post-game press conference got to him then we have a problem because I don't want another shrinking violet trying to run the offense. In the past if he made a mistake he had a fighters mentality and came back throwing another punch. The Oline was really poor today too and I'm not happy they keep benching Jenkins for Patrick. I was ok early on to help Patrick get back into game shape but Jenkins has done enough to earn his spot and Patrick hasn't done enough to take it away IMO. If Patrick can't beat out Mustipher to start at C then sit on the bench. These snapping issues need to stop. I can't say it's always Mustipher but for sure on the 2nd one that snap hit his right leg. That said the bigger issue today was both OTs. However, we ran the ball well so at least that part of the equation is something we can hang our hats on. This might be the first game ever where I felt like missing our 2nd TE caused so many problems. Or maybe it just exposed the other gaps because we couldn't rely on the 2 TE sets and had to rely more on the WRs. I'm not totally down on Fields yet because I'd like to see him in a few games at least with Pringle and especially Velus' speed on the field. The D lacks talent in a few spaces but they kept plugging away. Roquan woke up from his slumber and started playing downhill again, as did Morrow. That was great to see. I'm not sure Roquan makes that INT if the ball isn't tipped. He might defend the pass.

We haven't won a division game and GB/Minn have both won a division game so we're in 3rd place. Still a better spot to be in that I was expecting especially with quite a few starters still out.

https://www.si.com/nfl/bears/news/what-promoting-only-one-linebacker-can-mean-for-bears

Given the importance of the position to the D, probably more impactful for them is that their starting 3-tech might be out. But they have other concerns too: https://www.houstontexans.com/podcasts/bears-preview-is-deep-dish-actually-pizza-vandermeer-s-view

Looks like Sanborn is your starter for this week to replace Adams. If Roquan can't go it'll be Weatherford. I don't think they could be worse against the run than what we saw from the starters but pass coverage is a bigger problem. Weatherford has the talent to play well in coverage, will he know which way to go? What if they both play better than the starters did last week? https://www.chicagobears.com/news/roquan-smith-jaylon-johnson-questionable-for-texans-game-injury-update

He doesn't have it and in large part it's because he's never invested time into fixing his mechanics. With the money he's made it's not hard to hire a QB coach in the offseason. From the time we are kids playing sports we are taught (should be taught) fundamentals. I realize elite athletes can still succeed in lesser levels without them but NFL players will take your lunch money if you don't get it right. That is simply a lack of work ethic, not workout ethic because Trubisky had no problem staying in shape for photos with his girlfriend. That work ethic had to play into his slow learning curve on reading defenses. https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bears/bears-justin-fields-tremendously-improved-mechanics-luke-getsy

In the world of statistics there is a thing called sample size. With this small of a sample, 2 games, one of which had some really bad weather, combined with the NFL learning curve for a young QB we just have to be patient. Listening to the coaches they aren't worried at all about Fields. Getting the passing game going yes. That doesn't mean there aren't things Fields needs to improve upon. Called pass plays was closer to 50% but on several Fields just ran with the ball including the first TD run. On the deep ball to Mooney it was interesting to hear Getsy describe how Mooney ran the route wrong. Then Fields threw the ball where it was supposed to go but should have thrown to fit the route Mooney ran. Both players were at fault and Getsy took ownership for making sure they know the details better. The part I liked most from Getsy was him describing how he wants to take what a defense is giving us. It wasn't just a platitude. He has a clear what and why for those coverages, personnel, fronts, etc. That's why he kept running in the 4th quarter because that was what GB was giving us. I think that's worth noting because 1) I've had years of watching Nagy call plays without consideration for what the defense was doing or where their strength was (i.e. don't run C. Patterson up the middle on 4th and 1 just because you think they don't expect it to happen). 2) they were specific types of runs planned to attack the weakness of that D and 3) it worked for 90yds. It worked well enough that it got Aaron Rodgers and Aaron Jones up off the bench to watch what their former coach was doing to their defense. The passing game has more variables and takes a lot more work to get timing down. Of course we have the inexperience at QB but Fields isn't giving up on figuring it out. Getsy made me optimistic to see this come together over the course of the season.

As the NB Gordon lined up in same spot as the LBs on many plays so yes he had his fair share of misses. At least he was doing that closer to the LOS not 5 yards behind it. For the 2nd quarter it seemed GB literally ran right at Gordon but it's probably more correct to say they just ran the ball if we were in Nickel.

Very good news as Patrick returns to Center. Hopefully this holds through the week. https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2022/9/21/23365794/chicago-bears-lucas-patrick-center-snapping-sam-mustipher-teven-jenkins-nfl-2022 Forgot to add Roquan missed practice with an injury.

Right now he's still working through all the changes to his mechanics, both throwing and his footwork on drops. Trubisky didn't put in anywhere close to the same work to improve his mechanics. Plus Trubisky had a fatal flaw: The brighter the lights (big game) the worse he played. Fields is wired differently for the big game. It has to all come together but he's definitely working to make that happen.

That's not at all what I saw when I re-watched the game. Our LBs were to busy dancing with blockers way back off the LOS. Often Roquan was pushed back 8yds off the LOS. That was because he just stood there in the same place he was at the snap letting the OT/OG run right up to him. Most of their big runs were off-tackle and on almost every play I saw a DB set contain on the far edge. Sometimes DEs got upfield early and forced the play inside of them but they couldn't get off the blocks to make a tackle. Other times the DEs got caught up in blocks (it's what happens with double teams OT/TE just like we did to them). Nobody got in those gaps.

That's pretty much what Eberflus said... the LBs must be playing downhill more quickly to squeeze the gaps. We don't have any DTs good enough to get through the line and make a play in the backfield but they usually do a good job scraping down the line. The DTs need someone to plug the hole and force the RB back toward them before they pass the LOS and then we can hold the runs to short gains. Our LBs are usually making first contact with a blocker 3-5yd behind the LOS.

Looking at the 2nd half, at least up to the point they disallowed Fields TD and things were a bit different. First off the LBs were moving toward the LOS much quicker, including Roquan. That affected some plays and kept the Packers runs down to smaller gains. A clear win for the coaching IMO but they can do better. On the 2nd GB run of the half Morrow and Roquan were in their gaps and Morrow was tackled from behind by one of their Oline. That allowed the 5yd gain for a 1st down. Gordon played a bit better but missed what could have been an easy TFL. When they get experience you will start seeing negative plays from both Gordon and Brisker. Fields had a nice pass on our 2nd possession where he hit the back of his drop and immediately rifled off a nice 20yd gain to a TE for a 1st down. I didn't like his pass deep to Mooney as it should have led him toward center field or left hash marks away from the defender. Having watched him again I actually feel better about what he's doing in the pocket than I did right after the game. Montgomery was a total stud running out of tackles but the blocking was good too. Not only that, the linemen are following Montgomery all the way down the field even on his 25yd run ... I think there were 4 Oline there at the end to help push the pile. At some point people are going to realize Braxton Jones is actually good. He didn't have a perfect game (who does?) but I think total I've only seen a few bad plays and none were glaring assignment misses or where he flat out got beat early in the rep. On his "bad" plays he's just not quite able to anchor but much more often than not he's moving people around, or holding his ground in pass pro. On one bad play he got pushed backward off his run block and into Monty leading to a gain of just 3yd but to be fair he's already got his man back off the LOS. If he holds that block Monty gains 8-10yds. Borom is more of a concern IMO but there were still more good than bad plays with him. He struggled with Gary on a few plays in the first and second half. Jenkins struggled at times with Kenny Walker (as did others - looking at you Mustipher and Patrick) but typically held his block. I still love his potential at RG. Our FB is really good. These are the players nobody really gives credit to but his blocks are always on point and effective. You can see the difference in the two games to where Monty is now feeling where the FB is going. He trails him and then bursts left/right as Blasingame moves toward his target. Against SF Monty seemed to wander off on his own, is this another win for the coaching? Montgomery has never run behind a FB, it could be interesting to see where this running game goes.

I watched Troy Aikman in his first two seasons and there was nothing there that said Hall of Fame. Brees' first 5 seasons were good enough that, with an injury, San Diego walked away from him rather than see if he might become a HofF QB. Ben Roethlisberger took years to become a great passer. Nobody knows what the future holds after just 12 games. Like everyone else I want to see improvement but I'm not going to say Fields must improve immediately.. or else he'll never be a good starter... as he gets ready for just his 13th NFL game and just 3rd game with a new offense. We all want big numbers but for me he has led the offense while missing 3 of his top 5 receivers (Pringle, Velus, and Harry) to put up 19pts and then 17pts against two of the top defenses in the NFC. GB and SF were both top 10 in the league in 2021 against both the run and pass in terms of yards given up. There is nothing crazy good there but IMO this is the floor. I'm willing to see where it goes from here.

He's been throwing his body into a lot of blocks maybe he's dinged up bit.

Maybe. One thing that I noticed too was that on almost every play Roquan and Morrow seemed to be communicating about where to line up. Typically Morrow got aligned right away and Roquan would be moving around talking with him. I'm not talking about adjustments to motion either, of course that happened too right before the snap. I can't say who is at fault or what is going on but I don't see anywhere near as much of that among any other positions. Roquan doesn't have space eaters like Hicks, Tonga, or Goldman in front of him anymore. He can't just sit back and wait to see a play develop and still have the same amount of freedom to get where he wants to be. His skill set certainly fits the WLB role but he needs to adapt more quickly to this new scheme.

I've only had time to re-watch the first half. Things weren't as bad as they seemed. Offense: Fields had some good throws and reads in the first half. Kmet dropped one easy pass. On quick out to Mooney Kmet completely misses the block on Rasul Douglas mostly because he got too close to him, keep some space and force him to show his hand first. Fields made the right read because he had Mooney out there with just 2 defenders and 2 blockers. If Kmet blocks Douglas at all Mooney gains at least 5 and maybe closer to 10yds. In the same series Borum and Patrick got crossed on blocking the DE and he blew up the running play. Otherwise we get a good gain everything else was blocked. Patrick got completely blown up on one pass pro block leading to a negative play. One the first sack where the DE came all the way around and hit him as he escaped the pocket, Fields was correct not to pull the trigger. He felt the other DE's hand coming over the top and that might have been a fumble so he pulled the ball down and then tried to escape. RBs were good in first half. ESB played well too, although I wasn't focused on any WRs for separation as most of the action was around the LOS. I'm curious if we swap Kmet for Harry in the slot on some of these plays in a couple weeks. He should block better in space. Jenkins should not be taken out of the game for Patrick. At this point if Patrick isn't ready to play C he needs to sit next week. Jenkins hasn't been perfect but he's earned it IMO. I didn't really notice Braxton Jones even in slo-mo he just seems to do his job quietly on every play. The DTs overall were better than I expected. Not great by any means and there were some bad plays to be had. I've no use for Pennell, he's just a space eater but he keeps the others fresh. Blackson had quite a few good plays this week after looking like he was gassed last week, even drew a few holds some of which weren't called. Watts didn't do much. DEs didn't have a good game at all in run defense except Gipson. He seemed asleep last week and it was as if he and Robinson switched personalities this week. LBs were horrible. They offered no support to the Dline. Roquan in particular just sat back on every play and let the olineman run up to him and then got pushed around the field. He usually jumped on the pile late. If he had a tackle in the first half I never saw it. He's nowhere close to the guy who was all over the LOS last year. Morrow is what we expected him to be...better in coverage than around the LOS but he at least put more effort into getting around the LOS and trying to fill a gap than Roquan did. He wasn't very effective. Adams showed why he's been a career backup. I'd like to see what Sanborn can do in those limited snaps because I know he'll fight to get to the ball. DBs: Gordon had a tough game but he had some good plays and he always hustled to get in on the play. He just has to breakdown a bit when closing on the tackle and of course get in sync quicker with the WRs. One of these days Brisker is going to turn into a stud. I can't tell you how many times he ran right past Roquan to get in on the play. He over-ran some plays too but like Gordon he's at least making errors with effort. ---- Once they saw what we were doing, or could not do, for the most part GB just worked the edges in the run game. If it was Gordon (nickle) they ran outside but even when we had 3 LBs in the game they were too easy to block and seal off. My overall sense is that the D needs to clean up the gap control. We saw this in the early days of Lovie's D where it all looked horrible until one day they got their gaps right. Those LBs (Urlacher and Briggs) had a better mentality to get ahead of the play. If Roquan keeps sitting on his heels it'll never happen. Neither will that $20mil/yr he wants. Offense is similar where one guy would have the breakdown, sometimes 2. They need to fine-tune the details. I'll try to scan the 2nd half tomorrow night but for now I don't think the sky is falling, just Roquan is.

Yeah Vikings go from saints to sinners in one week. To think we put up 17pts against GB (of course I'm counting that last TD) and the Vikings just mustered 7pts against the Eagles.