Alaskan Grizzly

I heard somewhere recently that he was ‘playing with one arm’ but he hasn’t shown up on any injury reports. I saw that he took a ‘rest day’ a few days ago at practice (for what that’s worth). Zadarius Smith is currently listed as playing opposite him and can get streaky. DC Jim Schwartz is known for an aggressive defense and likes to maintain pressure. We know Justin will have to be on his toes.

In the 9 games he's played in this season he's gone over 200 in six of them. The three he did not were against the Chiefs (99), Vikings - game #1 (58 yds) and Lions - game #1 (169 yds). *As an aside, it appears adjustments were made in the second game with the same opponents and both times Justin (and the team) did better... Anyhow, of the remaining six games where he threw for more than 200 yds he threw for 335 against Denver (and lost) and 282 against Washington the following week and won. To me that mark of '201 yards per game' isn't impossible to attain and so far this season he's been able to do that more than he hasn't.

The “eye test” told me Ngakoue wasn’t as productive all year as I’d hoped. I had hoped with the addition of Sweat we’d see a significant uptick in his play. We did, but very minimal. Your stats solidify that. I wonder now whether we should have kept Terrel Lewis or Trevis Gipson in reserve. I haven’t seen much from Robinson to think he’d be a better option than either of those two. With Lewis you have a former first rounder (assuming he has some talent who has at least played his whole career in the position) and Gipson is somewhat familiar with the scheme and also has played DE his whole career. Robinson is a converted WR?

Well…dang.

Couple more Fields nuggets:

I think you’re right. I was gonna say if the Bears beat the Browns this next week while in Cleveland…they’re in. But yours is less a “hot take” and more likely.

Funny you say this. Was listening to LeBetard and Stugotz this morning and they were going off about the Miami-Tennessee game from last night. I should preface that since their show is based in Miami, they are self-professed "Miami Homers". But they were talking about after this loss they've lost some faith in their team because THEY GAVE UP A 13 POINT LEAD in less than 3-4 minutes. And because of that their offense was exposed for not being as good as they all thought. They even were banging on Tua because, they said, once he's out of the pocket (aka broken plays) he's nothing like some of the other "GREAT" QBs and they listed Mahomes, Allen, Hurts etc. (but not . Only a week (or more) before they were excited about the Dolphins being able to seal up the 1 seed and quite possibly the AFC East. (Of course these two things are still in play). But man if they only knew how many times things like this have happened to us Bears fans...just this year alone. We've given up two significant leads (Denver and Detriot - game 1) but have seen how good our QB can be if rushed outside the pocket. It seemed hilarious to me to have fans like those for the Dolphins who were so confident until a loss like last night that helped bring them back to earth.

Flacco is having a Dobbs-like resurgence. He apparently did something no Browns QB had done since 1981 and that was throw three TDs in one game that was at least 30 yards. Considering it was against the Jags and their 30th ranked pass defense it makes sense. Two of those were to Ngokue so he’ll need someone to stick with him. Flacco is statue like so if we can get pressure on him all day that will make a huge difference. Browns D is no slouch. Ranked #1 overall, #1 against the pass and #14 against the run. This will be a huge test for Justin and the O. I suspect a fair amount of running (by Justin too) and a few pass plays here and there. Hopefully not 15 screens in a row though.

This is a cool little ‘Next Gen Stats’ video. Check out the ball placement Justin put on these, especially on the short routes. ?? https://youtu.be/m0ecU2ZNV4M?si=JaR6mNSpPGSXg4Qm

Sorry, couldn’t resist. I’ll see myself out.

If I recall there was a report after the last Detroit game that Poles allegedly had a discussion with Flus to use his star players more on defense (aka Sweatt) as he had some on a rotation that wasn’t working. Got to think he also encouraged him to be more aggressive because of the players he got him to use in his defense. After the Minny game we saw Getsy do WAY too many screens and other ridiculous calls. And I remember seeing Poles reacting in a way that made me think he wants the offense to run a little more free and speculated he may have a talk with the staff about that. I think the offense worked a little more towards Justin’s strengths yesterday than before.

During last nights Dallas - Philly game I don’t how many times I heard the announcers refer to their WCO type scheme that McCarthy has installed there and how it’s helped Prescott. I believe it’s called “Texas Coast”(?). Time and again they’d say Dak really liked the speed it helps him process. He takes two steps and by the third he’s determining whether he’ll take off and run or try the long bomb. I’d have to think this type of play calling could really benefit Justin. He takes a lot of steps and during yesterday’s game had all of 2-3 seconds more times than not to make a play. I’m not sure what scheme Getsy calls but it’s not really helping Justin learn the game all that well. Whenever they get something going (run game or short passes) they switch to something else.

I think we've seen enough to how well Justin deals with adversity. Patrick hasn't really had that too much in his career. He's been 'lucky' to have a coach like Andy to help him look and play good. It seems whenever he doesn't have all the right pieces in place (remember that super bowl where he got sacked 100 times?) he's human like the rest of us. Justin has come out once or twice and aired what sounded like dirty laundry (challenging the coaching early on this season) but quickly retracted the comments and said that he would never throw anyone else under the bus. I saw in yesterday's game where he missed a receiver late in the game (and would have been a big gain) but he was visually frustrated. The camera cut to him three separate times and it was obvious he was pretty upset. It looked like he was really angry with himself for the miss. Without being able to actually hear what he's saying or I myself not being able to read lips I can only assume he's taking the blame in situations like that.

Was just talking to a co-worker about how all the teams and players that started off the season have started to falter as of late. Detroit, CJ Stroud, the Bengals, the Eagles (two losses in a row now), Minnesota (has only scored 13 points in last two games they've played) and even KC and Mahomes with their literal meltdown yesterday.

Some more good vibes:

It seemed to me the offense and Justin made adjustments after the half. Was it because of his shoulder bothering him? I noticed there were an uptick of short route plays and he was hitting those reads more than he wasn’t. Was it Getsy or Justin? Hard to say exactly . As the game wore on he was able to pitch it a bit deeper but for a good piece of the third quarter he was playing really solid.

I also read that this was the first time the Bears won coming out of the bye in 10 years. Great work today guys.

Yup! ??

Watch out or we’ll find ourselves with Eberflus back again next year. And maybe Justin too. ? This team absolutely has not given up.

I’d honestly like to see Feeney back in there. I’d think by now he’d have worked out those snap issues.

D needs to stop the run. Oddly it’s their strong suit and are losing that battle today…so far.

Or he could have said nothing. ??‍♂️

Not necessarily a fan of Williams’ but Drew Brees is/was 6’0”. Allegedly. I remember someone saying years ago he often had to stand on his toes to get a clearer shot of his target.