adam

Great first drive for the Bears, nothing too crazy from Nagy, just line up and beat you. Trubisky with a nice play on the TD pass to Monty. Bears up 7-0. Great start. Now we need the defense to shut down Barkley and get pressure on Jones.

I would like to see Monty used a little more in the passing game. If he starts catching some balls, it will be near impossible to determine run or pass based on the formation or personnel. They can already do that with Patterson and Cohen, but it seems like Monty is in on predominantly run plays.

Current starters who are UFA after this season: Starters: ARob - 15M Trubisky - 9.2M Patterson - 5.75M RRH - 3.25M O'Donnell - 1.85M Gipson - 1M Ifedi - 887K Scales - 887K Subs making over 1M: Harris - 1.65M Bush - 1M Trubisky currently makes $9.2M, so his contract status is going to be a huge determining factor. Fuller (8.5M), Jackson (7.4M), Quinn (8.6M), Goldman (4.6M) and Whitehair (5.4M) all get big raises next season in the tune of 32.5M. Prime cuts are Hicks (10.5M savings, Graham 7M, Leno 6.2M, Massie 5.4M), which accounts for most of the raises. Then you have Trubisky who currently has a $9.2M cap hit. So to me, it comes down to keeping Trubisky or ARob, you cannot keep both. Trubisky as a starter is going to cost +20M, that is Arob + Trubisky now. Arob wants 20M. So that is likely the decision. Another huge factor is revenue, with empty stadiums, the cap may hit the floor of 175M next year. That's +20M less than this year. That money has to come from someone's current cap hit. There is a chance both Trubisky AND ARob are gone, freeing up $25M from this year's cap.

My only assumption is they wanted to get some of these smaller deals out of the way to figure out what they can actually pay ARob. Now with Cohen locked up, I think ARob is next.

On offense, it was clear that Castillo has influenced the O-Line. That is a good sign for some more consistency in the offense. If we can get the ground game going, play-action will be there with easy one read throws for Mitch. Daniels really stood out to me watching the game again. Nagy did a better job in play calling, but still needs better judgment in certain scenarios. Like before the half, we had yet to move the ball and you call a timeout when DET has the ball with a minute left, only to give the ball back to them with 45 seconds left and great field position. That was a rookie coach mistake. If you don't use a timeout and take 3 knees to go into halftime, you are tied at 6. Instead, they score and go into half with a 7 pt lead and get the kickoff in the 2nd half, where they scored again, and magically you are down 14 before you see the ball again. That was rough. On defense, outside of Fuller, Johnson, and Jackson, everyone else underwhelmed. A few guys like Hicks and Trevathan looked old and slow. Trevathan was always trailing his receivers by 3-5 yards and was slow to react. Signing him instead of Kwit or KPL looks like a mistake after Week 1. Hopefully, he can improve but guys over 30 rarely do. Hicks had one or two good plays, but for the most part was not getting the penetration we have seen from him in the past. Is this due to Goldman? Mack gets pressure but had yet to finish a play. Roquan needs to step up for a top 10 pick. He is looking more and more like a bust. Gipson looked ok next to Jackson, but was not very good in coverage. Skrine also played solid but the team needs the DLine to step up (Nichols and RRH) to go with Hicks.

Santos kicked for Nagy before, and if he is capable of making 45 yarders at Soldier Field, then I think we will be ok. I don't understand why the team is so faithful to Pineiro. He had an entire offseason to get healthy. He has spent more games on IR than he has played in for his career. That is a huge red flag for kickers. If you have recurring injuries to any part of your lower body, that is the kiss of death for kickers. Rarely do they ever fully recover and reinjury is so high, they can't be counted on.

The O-Line actually played pretty good in Week 1 considering no preseason. Daniels stood out and looked borderline dominant. Ifedi looked good too. Leno and Massie both were serviceable and Leno actually played solid and made a great play on that fumble recovery.

We really need Snacks, it was evident that the team was missing Goldman in the middle. AP had a bunch of holes and rarely was getting touched until after the LOS. The defense needs to make a concerted effort to plug the running lanes especially this week with Barkley coming to town. Smith just needs to stay on him all game. Trevathan looked a little slow in Week 1.

The QB situation has really made other deals a challenge. The Bears are currently starting a QB who does not have a contract for next year. So if Mitch is it, that is going to be a big hit to the cap compared to his rookie deal. So I have to think that is now delaying some other extensions, with Robinson being #1 on that list. Also, they may be taking a little longer because they want to see what they have him Wims, Ridley and Mooney. I would still extend him as he is a real class act and good for the organization, but you can't keep everyone. So if he signs, then Miller and Wims are both gone more than likely.

We went from being 3 point dogs to 5.5 favorites after Week 1. This is a game we have to win. The Steelers completely shut down Barkley (15 carries for 6 yards). They literally had 2x spies on him the entire game (and it worked). They made Jones beat them and he threw 2 INTs and was sacked 3 times. Slayton was their secret weapon with 2 TDs but the game was out of hand at 26-10, so one of those was in garbage time. Pittsburgh was able to run using their backup RB (Snell), so that is promising for the Bears who averaged over 5 YPC against Detroit. The Giants are playing on short rest after playing MNF at home. So they had one less day of rest and prep, plus they had to travel to Chicago. If the Bears can shutdown Barkley, this is an easy win. I am thinking 27-19 with the Giants getting a late score to make it look closer than it was. After this week, we have ATL, IND, TB, CAR, and LAR, all winnable games before getting NO, TEN, and MIN before the bye. I am really thinking this team could have 7 wins at the bye (7-3), but they have to win this week to have a chance. Going 5-3 in the next 8 seems very reasonable, even 4-4 puts them at 6-4 at the bye with 6 to play.

Another weird note, the Lions top rusher was AP and WR was Amendola.

What an absolutely crazy game. The Lions dominated for 3 quarters, then with a 23-6 lead, they went to a prevent. I believe the Lions were without their top two CBs and Edge Rusher and the Bears could only muster 6 pts in 3 quarters. Swift has the game-winning TD in his hands and he drops it. We won on that play. I don't even know what to think. To me, the plays of the game were Fuller's INT which completely turned the game around and Trubisky's TD pass to Miller. Miller needs to get more targets. The Bears running game averaged over 5 yards a carry but the team was 2 for 10 on 3rd Downs. Brutal. To me, the team won in spite of Trubisky. He had a 28-yard sack, and he seriously made zero plays going beyond his first read. This is not a sustainable offense. I don't like that our defense gave up 23 to the Lions, but the offense didn't help them very much. A win is a win, but Trubisky really needs to figure out some accuracy and timing really quick because of those 16 incompletions, over half were downright terrible throws and a few were easy picks.

So far, Trubisky is 5-13 for 66 yards. That is 38.5% and he is missing badly, should already have 2-3 INTs. He can't hit anyone in stride. He is still limited to first read, and he doesn't look anyone off. Patterson and Cohen look good, ARob doing everything he can do to make plays. The defense looks good so far, but Stafford will figure out zone if they keep using it. I would honestly bring Foles in after half if Trubisky can't produce a TD drive.

Look at the roster difference from the start of 2018 until now, we are essentially the same roster but swapped Howard for Montgomery, Burton and Sims for Graham and Kmet, added Patterson and Ifedi on offense, and then went from Floyd to Quinn, added Skrine and Johnson to replace Prince and Callahan, and Gipson to replace Amos/Haha. So at worst the defense is a push and the offense is upgraded at TE. You could also say Foles is a huge upgrade over Daniel as well. The biggest losses from the 2018 roster are Goldman and Amos.

If you go back and look at the games from last year, all teams had a game plan, and it was to not let Mack ruin the game. They double and triple-teamed him and made sure to get the ball out quick. Floyd was never a threat. They had O-Linemen single-arm blocking him or would send an RB to chip him and he was done. I feel like Floyd was one of the worst players on defense when you consider Mack was on the other end. Floyd should've had twice as many sacks, especially since he was healthy. He had 3. Nick Williams had 6, Kwit also had 3. Lynch who was offsides more than anything else even had 2. If you compare snap counts, Floyd should've had at least 6, if not 7 or 8. Quinn is closer to Mack than he is to Floyd. Don't be surprised if he ends up with the most sacks on the team. I agree with the holding, especially GB. They teach a tactic that the league doesn't call consistently yet. Hopefully they change that this year.

I mean how many games does he have to miss before we say enough is enough. He was hurt with the Raiders and spent an entire year on IR, then was hurt on and off all of last year. Even though he didn't miss a game, he only made one FG longer than 36 yards from Week 5-17, and had 4 weeks where he either didn't attempt or didn't make a FG. After the Parkey thing, you would think Pace would have made this a priority to fix. To me, Pineiro is not the answer.

Football starts tonight, I will be watching to see how the game looks with no fans. I am also curious on how they will do the crowd noise. Without fans, even with noise pumped in (NFL put limits on volume), it might make it easier for Mitch to get audibles out. The first drive is going to be huge. A three and out would be devastating. A TD drive would be huge for confidence. I think we blow them out if we score a TD on first drive. My wild card players are Miller and Quinn. We have never had an Edge2 who would be an Edge1 on half the teams in the league. With Mack's presence and Quinn on the backside, Stafford is not going to have much time.

Patterson is going to be all over and probably in the backfield more than anywhere else. I don't think the position designation means much for hybrid players. Graham is still a Red Zone machine, and that's where we have had problems, scoring TDs. Him, Kmet, ARob, and Wims make some big targets in the RZ. Also, Graham and Kmet can stretch the seam, which is going to force ILBs to play off the line more, which should open up some running lanes for Monty and Co. Last year there were 8-9 in the box constantly, with zero threat of an inside seam passing game. I am worried about RB too, especially if Monty is injured or playing hurt. I guess we will see what Nall can do, and if he can't handle the extra touches, they will have to bring someone in off the street.

Well maybe any math in general, at some point it just doesn't make sense and no amount of practice makes you better at it. You still "don't get it" but might be able to get some answers correct.

Yeah, they took the convenient route. Now they can save face and say "we gave Mitch every opportunity to succeed". It allows them to move on easier.

That would be huge, no pun intended. He is a great run stopper and we have enough other pieces to rotate in to keep him fresh. Mack and Snacks!

QBing is like Calculus, either you get it or you don't. If you don't, you can still work thru the problems and sometimes get the right answer, but it is really tough. That to me is Mitch Trubisky. He has all the physical and leadership traits to be a QB, but he just doesn't understand the advanced math. He can get by for a while, but then is eventually exposed. With the schedule, I think he gets two games, DET and NYG. If he can't figure it out against those teams, Foles comes in for the ATL game. They will give him the first game to knock off the rust, but after the second game, there cannot be any more excuses. Last year it was Chase Daniel. This year, it is Nick Foles. I could see giving him every possible chance to grow last year, but not this year. That also gives Foles a couple of additional weeks to work in the offense.

Me too. I like Wims and just think he needs more targets. When he gets the ball, he makes plays. I think Miller is going to have a breakout year with Gabriel gone.

I think Nagy is going to turn into Matt Exotic this year. Especially with Patterson. 12 personnel is going to be a huge strength for us, we can go 2-TE and mix them up with Harris and Holtz. Yeah, Saubert on ST and as primarily a blocking TE.

Skrine and McManis are there to cover down on the outside if needed. ILB is still interesting to me, we lost Kwit and KPL and replaced them with air.