adam

Wow, back to back 4th Down sacks. Now Mack gets one. This is the defense we need against this team. If we can have a little tighter coverage from Vildor, I think we will be ok. Now we need a sustained TD drive.

Just fake the toss and go the other way.

Holy crap, a huge sack by Quinn on 4th Down to end the Browns drive. He now has 3.5 sacks this season in 2.1 games. We need him to keep this up across from Mack.

So far, two long 3rd Down conversions for the Browns and a BS defensive holding call on Johnson. First bad call of the game.

The team is amped up for Fields this week. Cool story about Fields:

I understand the thought behind getting the line straight first, but the QB is a big component of protections and timing. Jason Peters had an interview talking about how he has to play differently with a mobile QB vs a standard pocket passer. So even if the line is solid for Dalton, that doesn't mean they will be in sync with Fields, especially with the lack of experience with him. Another example would be compared to my time in the Army, as a young soldier, you had to learn a ton of very basic tasks and do them over and over. Eventually, you did team/group tasks that had you doing one piece of the entire puzzle. Regardless of how good you were, the minute those teams were changed, you were basically at square one again because you had to adapt to the new team member, their strengths and weaknesses, and the timing. This feels very similar. The team and Nagy did Fields no favors last week. He was not expected to play, which was obvious outside the few plays they built for him. The mistakes are all correctable. Burrows had a very similar INT with the LB dropping into coverage. The difference was Fields hot read was to that side, so that is on the play design as much as it was on Fields to recognize it. He almost lost a fumble, but didn't. So now he gets a learning point to hold the ball with two hands at all times. He is not going to get touched in practice, so that is the only way to learn that. If ARob doesn't look like Wims and Kmet is not called for OPI, Fields magically has decent stats. The false starts will be corrected. That is the timing issue with the 1s and Mustipher. He was expected the ball immediately, but Mustipher was on different timing. Again, very correctable. For the Scout Team, yes Fields plays against the #1 Defense, but in a different language. That would be like learning German in Spain, then being expected to speak fluent Spanish. From what I researched, all teams use different QBs to run the Scout Team. Some teams use PS QB to do it. Some only have 2 QBs on the roster, so the backup runs it. There are too many variables to have a QB learn every nuance of every play and coverage before playing. On any given play a team can bring an extra man from the corner, off the edge, inside the tackles, etc, and from any position. They can fake blitz, drop back into coverage, send the house, etc. There is not enough time to practice every combination of those. The only way to get better is with experience and game reps. I would rather have swings on the actual golf course than on the driving range. Now Fields gets both. There is a huge fallacy about sitting QBs is best for long-term success. The stats just don't back it up. Good QBs are good QBs because they are good. Peyton Manning was going to be good if he started game 1 or sat on the bench for 2 years. David Carr was not going to be a good QB, regardless of how good or bad his O-Line was. Mahomes would've won the SB his rookie year if they played him over Smith.

If Fields struggles, Nagy should be fired. He did not give Fields enough reps with the 1s in the offseason, then made him the scout QB, which had him running the other team's offenses the last two weeks. Hopefully, a week of prep will be enough, but right now he is weeks behind Lawrence, Jones, and Wilson in terms of experience since they have been running with the 1s for 2+ months now.

Goldman out, ugh. Dude is a waste of a roster spot and salary cap at this point. 20 games missed now. Hasn't played since 2019.

Cleveland is 3-3 in their last 6 games dating back to last year. The Bears are 4-2 with no QB. The Browns were no better than a Tyrod Taylor led no-name offense for a half of football. It feels like they are due for a correction. This also lines up perfectly for Fields, playing in a somewhat non-hostile crowd. Many will be cheering for him and he is a hard player not to like.

Mayfield not even using his left hand for hand offs in practice.

BTW, Tyrod Taylor was 10-11, 125 yds, 1 TD and 1 rush for 15 yds and 1 TD before getting hurt in the first half. The game was tied 14-14 at half and Cleveland only pulled away late once after a half against Davis Mills.

QB1

After the lack of targets, I feel like the Bears are going to go TE happy against the Browns. Kelce was 6-76 and 2 TDs against the Browns in Week 1. Since they barely got targeted last week, there is pretty much zero tape on Kmet, Graham, and James. This would be a great time to target them and use a ton of play action to stop the pass rush.

As long as Nagy moves the pocket for Fields, I am not too worried. Garrett is more of a problem than Clowney. There is a reason he has been on 4 teams in 4 years. He had two good seasons across from JJ Watt but has only had 3 sacks in the last 3 years. In comparison, Mario Edwards Jr had 4 sacks in limited snaps last year alone.

They have played against Donald (arguably the best defensive player in the NFL) and a Cincy line that is very underrated. Also, they are finally getting consistent reps with the tackles. All things considered, I think they will be fine.

Also, the Browns will not have Landry for this game, but Beckham will be back. I assume he will be rusty coming off ACL from last year. I feared Landry more than Beckham.

We stopped the Rams running game better than Indy did and then held Mixon to 69 yds rushing after he had 127 against Minnesota. Chubb is averaging 6.8 which is unsustainable and Hunt averages 4.4. Those are both due for a correction. CLE is 3rd in rushing and the Bears Def is 5th against the run. I would rather have them try to run instead of targeting the Slot Corner all game.

This may have been missed, but our O-Line played every snap of the game last week. That is huge for Peters and Ifedi. The more this group gets reps together, the better they will be as a unit. This is a huge relief with Jenkins and Borom out. Another thing to consider, this team is down Jenkins, Borom, Cohen on offense, and Goldman, Trevathan, and Edwards on defense. Most of those guys were expected to be starters or big contributors this year. If the Bears can just hold serve and get to the bye no worse than 5-4, they should have everyone but Jenkins back by then and ready for the second half of the season somewhat healthy.

I am hoping they can move Foles before Cohen comes off IR after Week 6. That way you don't have to cut anyone else from the 53-man roster.

7.5 dogs seems a little high, but understandable. The Browns beat a terrible Texans team by 10 at home. However, it will be like a home game if Fields starts. Fields will finally get a week of practice with the 1s and hopefully build off his play from Sunday. This is an interesting matchup. Cleveland lost to KC and beat HOU. Just like the Bears lost to LAR and beat CIN. I feel like CLE is better than CIN but HOU, with Tyrod Taylor and Davis Mills at QB put up 21 pts and had the Texans within 3 pts with 8 mins to go. The Texans had two more drives, a punt and a missed FG. So there will be opportunities to score. I feel like Cleveland's strengths play right into the Bears strengths, running the ball and defending against the run. I almost like the matchup better than I did for Cincy. Cleveland uses their TEs a lot. Njoku has 5 receptions, Hooper has 8, and Bryant has 5. Landry is the only WR with more than 3 receptions. The Bears biggest weakness on Defense is slot corner, which the Bears can mask with the Big Nickel. One other important note on defense, Mario Edwards is back from his two game suspension. Fresh legs and he was very productive last year and will help that front 7 rotation. If Goldman is back, that will be even more defensive firepower. Mayfield also hurt his non-throwing shoulder but that may still be lingering come Sunday. I am going with a Bears upset 24-20 with the defense making a stop in the RZ to seal the win.

GB has allowed 55 pts in first 90 minutes of football, 36 pts per game. Wow their defense looks terrible.

GB has allowed 45 pts in the first 65 minutes of the season. Against Goff and Winston.

He needs to give it up. The offense scored 13 points yesterday and was gifted 6 by turnovers and great field position. They had one drive, the first one, which is usually scripted, in which it was all offense. Nothing has changed since last year nor since he arrived. The offense looks terrible when he is calling plays. Cole Kmet had 1 target and 1 reception for 0 yards. Graham had 0/0. Nothing has changed. Horsted and James have yet to hit the stat sheet this season. So in two games, TEs have accounted for 10 targets, 7 receptions and 53 yards. Why is Graham not being targeted in the RZ?

Watch what the Chargers do, and it gives Herbert a ton of time:

Dalton checked down on at least 75% of the plays, and almost immediately. Fields had more attempts 10+ yards in a quarter than Dalton had in 5+ quarters. Nagy needs to give Fields a week of prep with the 1's, and use plays that use Fields strengths. Sitting him in a pocket that is collapsing is the worst idea and Nagy left him back there. The Edge Rushers were playing meet at the QB. Nagy has to move the pocket, use some bootlegs and roll outs. This is mobile QB 101. I liked that Fields slid a few times and didn't attempt to break tackles outside of the spin move.