AZ54

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.

Given the nature of the rebuild I still see a lot of positives after the first 2 games. Most notably the running game, which most agree is the key to getting our passing game moving, is starting to take off. I'm not as down on the rookies Brisker and Gordon since this was their first NFL road game and against an elite QB. At any point in the offseason if someone asked me if I'd be happy to be 1-1 after playing SF and GB I'd have said yes. I'm still going to keep to that. There are still glaring gaps on this roster (DT) but I haven't seen anything so far to make me think this team can't win the 6-7 games most forecasted. The schedule evens out going forward and we have Lovie Smith returning to town. Let's see how the youngsters respond their first loss of the season.

Gordon always has his eyes in the backfield and I get it when they've been gashing you on runs. It's that hesitation that gives the WR a half step. He's a rookie and still has a lot to learn because he's no longer the most athletic person on the field. He's also playing the more difficult slot role so we need to be a patient while he learns the NFL game and his reads. This team need some DTs and some LBs to step up and make some plays around the LOS. In the 2nd half they showed up at times but it seems almost every play our DBs were forced to tackle the RB. I was a bit concerned at what point this season we'd lose our discipline and it turned out to be this game. The 49ers game gave me hope the lack of penalties would continue but maybe it shouldn't be a surprise since it's the first big road game, national tv, division rival, etc. This coaching staff will get them back to the good side quickly. The way they fought back in the 2nd half gives me hope because I really thought they were going to fold. We have to get back to the process of building on that. After that first drive I wasn't happy they subbed in Patrick for Jenkins. It's ok to let a good thing continue. On the flip side I'm still optimistic for this Oline once Patrick is at center. Last week everyone wanted to bench Montgomery for Herbert. I suspect that changes this week. Forgot to add: What I didn't hear all night was Braxton Jones name.

Inactives and no surprises except perhaps that Elgton Jenkins might play. I believe he's had one practice on Fri which is typically in shells. If he starts it could be interesting. Bears WR Velus Jones Jr. TE Jake Tonges OL Michael Schofield OL Ja'Tyre Carter DB Elijah Hicks DB Lamar Jackson Packers WR Samori Toure OT David Bakhtiari OT Caleb Jones OL Sean Rhyan DL Jonathan Ford S Tariq Carpenter

It’s just not going to happen. They would jump on the bandwagon without hesitation.

It appears Eiselen is the backup C again which means Patrick and Jenkins will likely split reps at RG. As far as the release of Moore and Tavon Young I'm not sure what that portends other than we have no reason in terms of potential benefit to keep them around this year. Were their injuries so severe they couldn't return or do we simply have better options now? At WR I can guess the better option is ISM and Pettis plus we have Harry expected to return soon. At CB our depth is Lamar Jackson, Jaylon Jones, and Josh Blackwell and I don't think there's anyone promising on the practice squad. https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2022/9/17/23358548/chicago-bears-elevate-dieter-eiselen-release-2-from-the-injured-list-tavon-young-david-moore

If Poles ends up with 2 legit starters at key positions LT/DE out of the 5th Rd that's a huge boost to any rebuild. After day 2 of the draft those were both spots we expected to have to address next offseason and now it might be a moot point. Assuming Fields ascends to what we want him to become then WR and DT will remain on the top of the list. Then you add where ever you want CB, LB, TE, LG, swing OT. That isn't hard to do with $100mil in cap space although that will go down quite a bit with Roquan's new deal. Toss in a full draft.

Yes but if he keeps giving away these secrets the rest of the DE club will give him the boot.

I actually didn't say Fields was better than Herbert, just that I like his potential better than Herbert. I only saw the first ~20min of the game thinking I could see a couple young gold-standard QBs to compare against what I've seen from Fields. I try to apply the same standard I would for a Bears QB when he misses what should have been an easy first down completion. I guess another way to look at this could be if Herbert can throw for over 4000 yards with his inconsistencies then Fields should be able to get there as well when talent and scheme come together.

Fields still has many things to improve upon but most importantly I'd like to see his decision making speed up by about 0.5s. In that aspect I think Herbert was more decisive. Fields is in a brand new offense so that won't happen overnight but I want to see glimpses of it across the first 4 games.

One thing worth noting from the 49ers game when Fields almost threw a pick on the right sideline to ESB. In his press conference yesterday Getsy said that was entirely his fault. He said he has never once had ESB practice that route and shouldn't have called that play.

Easy, it was all the inaccurate passes Herbert threw last night. He had some dimes mixed in for sure including a crazy good deep pass after he was injured (only saw highlight on that one). What I saw before he was injured was an inconsistent mixed bag. Even on one play the TV crew highlighted where he was so far behind his inside slant WR on an incompletion, "throw it in front of him and that's a first down". These weren't passes where he was under pressure but regardless Fields has shown better from a compressed pocket.

I watched most of the first half of the KC/Chargers game. We're in good hands with Fields. I'd take him over Herbert any day of the week. Mahomes OTOH is a unique arm talent. Of the 3 QBs you listed I'm not a big fan of Kyler Murray. I don't feel he's a QB who brings the talent level upward. You can win with him but what he did last year once Hopkins was injured is more indicative of who he is. I put Hurts in that same category as Murray, a QB you can win with but not because of. Lamar Jackson is the opposite of Mahomes because he's a unique talent running with the ball. I'm impressed though with how much he has improved his passing ability but there is still room for growth. IMO Baltimore needs to start cultivating that more because Considering what his skillset has been early in his career they've done well to maximize it on the field. I don't want to see him keep getting injured and end up with a shorter career. IMO Fields fits in nicely between them. He's very good on the run but not elite in lateral agility like Jackson. OTOH he's a much better passer than Jackson especially as compared to when Jackson was starting his 2nd season. Fields isn't too far behind Mahomes in arm talent, certainly good enough to make some elite throws which we've already seen at times. In just his 2nd season week 1 he's already using his eyes to move defenders around on the field. Just tonight the announcers were complimenting Mahomes, who is in his 5th season in the same offense for doing that. But Mahomes wasn't doing any of that in the first week of his 2nd season, he also didn't have to. We just need to have some patience.

I know and whenever I predict a loss I'm grateful for how wrong I was. Just remember the internet lives forever and what goes around comes around.

Here's a quote from the Bears website, doesn't sound at all like the above statement. https://www.chicagobears.com/news/bears-hoping-to-flip-script-on-longtime-nemesis-aaron-rodgers-packers "It's going to start with the D-line," Gipson said. "He knows how to hard-count, catch some guys in substitutions. We're going to have to be clean on that, and just disciplined. No offsides, no roughing the passer, no dumb penalties. It's a rivalry game, so we're going to have to keep our poise. He's a vet; he knows how to play this game. We're just going to have to keep our poise and disrupt him as much as possible."

That sounds like Keyshawn.

From Jul 27th, well before anything out of training camp much less the preseason games. Even then I'd still have the 49ers favored. However, I don't gamble much but I'd have easily taken the Bears and the points. We had 5 rookies show up big in their first game and not just with a few good plays. I don't know what the odds of that happening are but it's something close to zero. Especially with 2 being at high value positions: LT/DE which put their strength positions OT/DE against them.

How does Russell Wilson negotiating whatever he can get be a problem for Lamar Jackson negotiating for whatever he can? 5yr $242mil. I understand all the benchmarking of contracts but Keyshawn and others have always been about players getting all the money they can get. I personally take a different view more like Brady where he kept his deal low (top 10) so his team could sign more good players with the thought that would help him win more Superbowls. Brady is playing for $15mil this year which seems ridiculously low. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/contracts/sort-value/quarterback/limit-100/

It's Facebook so who knows what is real.

Are they ripping on the Oline for giving him too much time to throw? In all seriousness if that's our problem now we've come a long way. However, I suspect they are looking at time to throw which included all the extended plays where he broke the pocket.

I agree it's too early especially with stats. Right now I'm trusting the process and going with what I see. That includes the film breakdowns I can find. The early start to the 49ers game looked similar to what we saw against Cleveland last year. The 2nd half did not.

Good stuff. https://www.chicagobears.com/video/roquan-smith-mic-d-up-vs-49ers-this-is-my-type-of-party

That would do it.