adam

A lot to cleanup in one week. Better effort, better play design, better play selection, better personnel decisions, and better performance from almost every player on offense outside of Moore, Mooney, and Johnson is needed. Yes, JT could not understand what Getsy was trying to do on at least half of the plays. Pulling the LT to pass block the right edge; route concepts that run the same exact route or to the same area; confusing blocking schemes with half the players run blocking while others pass blocking. Out of all the plays reviewed, he liked 3-4 total plays, and hated 10+. He literally said "wtf" at least 10 times. So Getsy, play design, and play calling (Kmet dive on 3rd and 1 followed by QB sneak on 4th and 1) had him baffled. He said a few times "no one at any level of football would run this". On the O-Line, on almost every play there was a breakdown. One where Jones is doing jumping jacks down the line while letting a defender run right by him for the sack. A lot of odd techniques. Davis looked terrible. On one play he made like he was passing off a defender to his right but Wright was already blocking someone, Davis turns to dry hump Patrick's butt while Fields gets sacked. So odd. Wright looked pretty good actually, but the scheme and failure to adjust made everyone look worse. Patrick was also bad. I didn't hear Whitehair's name much. Receivers: Claypool should be released. Zero effort, didn't even make an attempt to block anyone. To me, it literally looked like a woman out there scared shitless but with a helmet on. He didn't catch either target, and ran maybe 2 good routes all game. Mooney looked good and made some nice blocks. Scott actually showed a lot of effort in his routes and blocking. Moore was open a lot. Fields needs to just throw it to him. Kmet had a terrible game. He looked clunky and slow, like he didn't know what he should be doing, really odd for him. Blocking wasn't great, he whiffed on a few. His routes were really slow, like he is having a hard time getting up to speed compared to last year. Injured? Fields: Oh boy. If you strip away everything else going on around him, which is hard to do, I would say that he has not developed like we thought he would and looks like when Nagy said Trubisky is at the 201 level. He is not trusting his eyes. He is looking down quicker than ever before. Some of this may just be Week 1 stuff, but somewhat alarming considering what other QBs have looked like. He is going through his progressions, but not throwing the ball. JT does not like his slow, nonchalant drop back. He said that it is too slow, he needs to get back to the back of his drop faster. I have seen and mentioned that before. To me it is like he is trying to show that the NFL game is not too fast for him by looking super relaxed in the pocket. However, that slower drop may be causing him to miss those early progression throws. Fields missed at least 4-5 NFL open throws. He just didn't throw the ball. He either scrambled, took the checkdown, or got sacked. Fields athleticism saved a few negative plays. The pick-6 was bad. He liked Rochson's effort and blocking. He didn't like the personnel on some of the plays. 2 RBs and a TE out wide, and you throw to a FB? Why not have your WRs out on the field for that play. So personnel decisions were also a huge question mark. Bear Jacks:

Some hope for next week. Based on net success rates, which normally correlate to wins over time show that the game was closer than it seemed. If you look at TB, they were negative.

All I can say is wow. This is exactly how the game looked in real time, but every play had so much more badness than I thought. A must watch, but it is an hour long. Much better than rewatching the game. JT has some funny zingers. Arguably his best video yet.

Fields against TB in 2021, 22-32, 184 yds, 59.3%, 6.4 Y/A, 0 TD, 3 INT, 4 sacks, 8-38 rushing. Relatively the same defense and scheme. Mostly zone with blitzes. Let's see if he has improved any from 2021. This will be a good test for him.

I am sure he doesn't want to go out like that, but mother nature is undefeated. He may have no choice. GB gets a 2nd rounder from NY now.

There are a lot more. He is becoming David Carr. On this one he has two places to put the ball, one early and one late, and doesn't take either. https://x.com/AdamHoge/status/1701582714153943518?s=20

I remember that live, man I am getting old. It was crazy that you watched whatever sports they had on tv. Track and Field, Tennis, Strongest Man Competition.

Dalton Risner posted a picture of himself at an airport heading "somewhere", hopefully it is to Chicago. Poles needs to fix the O-Line any way possible. Knowing the injury history of Jenkins and Patrick, he never should've counted on them. I don't care about how much they owe Davis. Just like Claypool, make them a healthy scratch, try to trade for a bag of balls or cut them while there are other players still available.

The teams that really struggled this weekend all had one thing in common, terrible O-Lines. Bears, Giants, Bengals, Steelers. However, of all those teams, the Bears scored 20 pts some how.

So many layers to this. All the drama before the trade. Hard Knocks. All the hype leading up to the game. Him running out with the US Flag on 9/11. Gets sacked by former Bear Leonard Floyd. Bad turf gets him. Josh Allen was apparently on mushrooms allowing Zach Wilson to come back and win the game. Rodgers gets the credit for the win too. At his age, a return would be questionable at best at this point.

Oh I know, I am just saying Week 1 is actually a good indicator of playoff teams as 71% of the playoff teams start 1-0. This team will probably fall on the low end of the range based on how they looked on Sunday, 6-7 wins is probably the mark.

Both schemes are terrible. Getsy is making Fields play in his system, which isn't built for him. On defense, the Cover 2 is outdated and can't be the base defensive set on 90% of the snaps. It is way to passive for today's NFL. Fields is not being coached well. I get that they don't want him to take risks, but going immediately to the checkdown when there are open receivers will eventually make the offense stop moving. Then when it is an obvious passing down, he gets locked onto on receiver and throws a bad pick. All the bad habits from last year are back. It is only one week, and other QBs have looked just as bad, if not worse, so he gets a pass for now. With other OL on the market, the Davis signing was a head scratcher. This guy was the epitome of a non-HITS guy. Then problems start from involuntary camp (not showing up), all the way into Week 1. Not a good look.

Very good point. However, 10 of 15 teams that won on opening day last year made the playoffs. Only 4/15 teams that started 0-1 made the playoffs. So last year, the Bears were the anomaly. Only 1 team started 0-2 last year and made the playoffs, CIN. However, 7 teams that started 1-1 did. Every 2-0 team made the playoffs. Assuming the Bears lose to KC, if they beat TB and are 1-2 after 3, they have a chance, but it will be small. Only 4 teams that started 1-2 made the playoffs. Zero 0-3 teams made the playoffs. Very interesting: every team that made the playoffs last year was at least 2-2 after 4 weeks. It looks like things are pretty much set for the season at Week 6 outside of one or two teams (Jets fell out after 4-2, Jags jumped in at 2-4). The Jags started 2-6, 3-7, 4-8, then finished 9-8 to win the division. The Jets started 7-4, then lost 6 straight. They may lose their 7th straight tonight against Buffalo. Speaking of losing streaks: Active NFL losing streaks: Bears - 11 Colts - 8 Cards - 8 Titans - 8 Jets - 6

Claypool needs to be a healthy scratch for TB. He literally whiffed or gave up on every block. Seriously, if you watch this video, and you were a coach, how is this guy not benched? He literally caused 10x plays to fail due to his lack of effort, wow.

If anything is broken, it is definitely 4-6 weeks.

That was a preseason game. This team did not get enough reps in the preseason and it showed. Pre-snap penalties, skill players looking confused on what to do. Fields doing nothing at the line, no presnap adjustments or audibles that I could see. They really need to cut down on the playbook and go to more basic concepts with motion and play action. Teams know the Bears can't handle pressure, so they have to expect to be blitzed on half of the plays, and pretty much all passing downs. So many plays were telegraphed. Blasingame out wide? Come on. Nothing stressed the defenders and put them in a place where they had to make a decision. Fields running first does that. Start the game with all RPOs and bootlegs (but with an edger blocker). Get them on their heels. Get Johnson in there early. Take some deep shots right off the bat too. The entire team was passive and complacent. Very odd with all the hype. How do you not start that game with juice? After Fields got hit by Alexander, the entire team should've been playing angry. Instead they fell over.

They need to make Claypool a healthy scratch. Man there are so many videos of him on Twitter just whiffing on every block he was supposed to make. Looks like ARob 2.0. That was Davis' first action, he needs to practice and get into game shape. I think Whitehair's hand affected him (can't grab). The good thing is it can't get any worse.

I wasn't cherry-picking as much as going BPA at the time of the pick. If Poles really wanted to address the OL, he could've taken Abraham Lucas in the 3rd in 2022 as their new RT. Since they don't need a RT in 2023 draft, they can go BPA and take Carter. Since he is a DT, they don't need Dexter, so they draft a WR. The Claypool - LaPorta thing can be removed, but if they didn't trade for him, a TE in the 2nd made a lot of sense with how deep of a group it was. So I was trying to think needs and BPA and how the drafts played out. As much as the free agency WR group was meh, Jakobi Meyers looked pretty good in Vegas in Week 1 after being very solid for NE the past few years. Again, if it was a lost year, adding Claypool wasn't going to get them any wins last year. If he played well he was going to get a new contract, so whether you went that route or FA in 2023, the outcome is almost the same, except you needed draft capital to get Claypool, while Meyers would've just been an extra cap hit in 2023 (there is space for it).

If you stop the video clip right when Herbert cross the right hash (going left to right), Fields should be throwing the ball the Mooney who is coming in from right to left behind the LB who has to follow Herbert. Fields holds the ball for 1.2 seconds AFTER that occurs. He looks lost really.

This is a prime example of Fields holding onto the ball:

Would you rather have Velus Jones (WR), Claypool (WR), Wright (RT), and Dexter (DT) or Jalen Carter (DT), Rashee Rice (WR), Sam LaPorta (TE), and Abraham Lucas (RT)

Best on Offense: Lewis, Wright, and Johnson (Wright seems a little high, Johnson was the best player for sure) Best on Defense: Billings, Jackson, and Pickens (I don't buy the Jackson part, he got burned on a TD and looked like he was just running around in the secondary). Worst on Offense: Tonyan, Patrick, Claypool, Whitehair, and Davis (bad for Poles, 4 acquisitions underperforming) Worst on Defense: Green, Jones, and Edwards (that seems about right, Jones was terrible, they need to put Pickens or Dexter in there) So 7 of Poles free agent acquisitions in the last 2 years were in the bottom 8 in Week 1. Not good.

TB allowed the fewest rushing yards in Week 1. The Bears had the 6th most. TB's offense was not good, but they still won due to MIN turnovers. The turnover battle is going to be the key to victory. Both teams scored 20 pts, so that seems like a fair number for the winning team. With TB winning in Week 1, and Mayfield not throwing an INT, I think the Bears have a chance to win this one. They almost couldn't have played any worse than they did in Week 1. With KC looming in Week 3 as an auto loss, this really is an early season must win, now more than ever considering what happened on Sunday. If they don't wash that stink off now, I don't know if it will ever come off and this thing will get off the rails quick. Also, remember that this is now 11 straight losses dating back to October 2022. A loss here and KC puts it at 13 straight. How many games can they go without some changes? I think they rebound, get Johnson in the game earlier, get the ball to Moore more often and win a tighter game. Bears 23-20.

Welp, it looks like fools gold. Unless Fields magically turns this around in TB next weekend, he is not it. No QB has went this deep into his career this bad, and turned it around. Most QBs had already been replaced by someone else. Fields is setting records in futility every week now. In his first game of his 3rd season, Josh Allen threw for 312 yards, 2 TDs, and had 57 yards rushing and another TD. In his 2nd game, he threw for 415 and 4 TDs. 7 TDs in 2 games and over 700 passing yards. Allen then followed up those 2 games with 311 yards passing, 4 TDs, 1 INT, and another rushing TD. 1000+ yards passing, 10 passing TDs, 1 INT, and 2 rushing TDs in 3 games. In his first game of his 3rd season, Jalen Hurts threw for 243 yards, and had 90 yards rushing and a TD. In his 2nd game, he threw for 333 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT, ran for 57 and had 2 rushing TDs. 4 TDs and almost 600 yards passing in two games. He then threw for 340 with 3 TDs and 0 INTs in game 3. 900+ yards passing, 4 passing TDs, 1 INT, and 3 rushing TDs in 3 games. Pretty crazy to think that this is where we are at. These are the QBs that Fields comps to thru 26 starts: 1. Blaine Gabbert - 27 starts 2. JaMarcus Russell - 25 starts 3. Vince Young - 33 games The Gabbert one is scary. As a passer, Fields is Gabbert to this point in his career. Gabbert 4357 yds, 22 TD, 24 INT. 5-22 Record in 27 starts. 155.6 yds/g. Fields 4328 yds, 25 TD, 22 INT. 5-21 Record in 26 starts. 154.6 yds/g.

So preseason wasn't a fluke. All they threw were screen passes. Greg Braggs said that he didn't see many long throws in training camp, and was concerned. Well that played out yesterday to a T.