adam

Goldman questionable with an oblique strain (suffered during practice on Wednesday) and Burton still up in the air (seems like a game day decision again).

Interesting move. I thought this was tied more to Dax Raymond being waived with injury settlement than anything else. So to make room for that transaction (bring to active roster), then next transaction, you have to have a subsequent move. So the Bears moved their 53rd guy (Abdullah), he cleared waivers, and then once Raymond was waived, they signed Holtz. I could be wrong, but I thought Raymond's transaction was involved.

Joe Flacco is the Broncos QB, they played on MNF, and lost to the Raiders. Derek Carr was not sacked, and Flacco was sacked 3 times by the Raiders defense. Carr also completed 84.6% of his passes. The defense should shred the Broncos O-Line. The guy I am most worried about is Sanders, as he is like Albert Wilson and Randall Cobb, very slippery working out of the slot. I am less worried about Vic Fangio knowing the offense and don't think this will be a very big factor. The Bears need a win here because the odds of making the playoffs after a 1-1 start vs an 0-2 start is huge. I don't even need to see a huge game from Trubisky, just play better, make better decisions, and connect on some of those plays that were left on the field last week. Let's get the running game going and feature Montgomery and get Miller more involved. Kicking range should not be a problem, so Pineiro should get more chances. I think the Bears right the wrongs from last week and look much better than they did against GB on offense, and the defense doesn't allow a TD. Bears 27-9

Only Miami gave up more pressures: Then add 107 yards of penalties (2nd most) and we should be shocked that we weren't blown out.

Oh he missed some open throws, but I was looking more for RB's in the flat or slipping out of the backfield after blocking. I didn't see that very often but I would have to go back and rewatch that abortion.

Yeah wow, I never really looked at Brady's stats. I know for the first few years, he was definitely more of a game manager, but I forgot how much. Check this out: I looked back at Brady's numbers from 2001-2006 (Year 2 - Year 7) and his numbers are very pedestrian: 2001-2006 (93 games - started w/ more than 10 attempts): Games with less than 200 yards passing: 29 (31.2% of games) Games with less than 228 yards or less: 46 (49.5% of games) Games without a TD: 20 (21.5%) Games with rating under 70: 20 (21.5%) Games with more INTs than TDs: 16 (17.2%) 300-yard passing games: 15 (16.1%) Games with more TD's than INTs: 48 (51.6%) Games with rating over 100: 34 (36.6%) So in Brady's first 7 seasons in the NFL, he had more games without a TD than he had 300-yard games. Basically half his games, he passed for 228 or less. That is pretty crazy. Now we are in a different era, Brady was a 6th round pick (not the #2 pick) on a ridiculously talented team with arguably the best HC in all of pro sports. So Brady's numbers do give you some hope for Mitch. I am starting to think that he really needs some preseason reps. I am hoping for a rebound game. Vic is going to know how to pressure Mitch, so Nagy is going to have to do his best to get the ball out of his hands fast, or have an outlet. I didn't see that last week.

Bill, Our defense wasn't very good until we got good players. So yes he was slightly overrated but he now is the HC and that is very different than just being a Coordinator.

I'm not yet, but getting close. How many more games/seasons can we go with another excuse or reason why he is underperforming? And the player Mahomes replaced was a mobile game manager who was good at short to intermediate passes.

First read every time? This can't be true.

If we lose to Denver and Mitch plays bad, we are in for a long year and probably a 7-9 record. As bad as that would be to take, it would give us two high 2nd rounders, potentially two in the top 10 picks (32-42). Those two picks could get us to pick 15 or 16 if they decided to package them together. If the Bears were in that position, I could see them trading their 2021 first and one of the 2020 seconds to move back into the first for a QB. Hopefully we won't have to worry about it and Trubisky will recover.

You have the only 3 receivers running routes between the hashes and the sidelines. What that tells me is the play call was designed to make it easier on Mitch. He only has to worry about half the field. My problem is GB showed blitz, and even though different guys dropped back, there should be a hot. Someone that Trubisky has cut off their route. In this case, probably Robinson. The ball should already be out of Mitch's hand in the 2nd screenshot.

Are we still in QB Purgatory? This is Year #3. Trubisky is 25 yrs old, a year older than Watson and Mahomes. At this point, the lack of college reps is a moot point. He has the most NFL game experience of the 3. So that should make up for any lack of reps he had in college compared to the other two. Are we back at a place where we have a "he is what he is" QB? Grossman/Cutler, etc. From watching the game again from the All-22, there are just too many plays left on the field by Trubisky. I don't know the play call or the progression (either does PFF), but Trubisky is not passing the eyeball test. I don't know how he can't see wide-open receivers, or guys running to huge open spaces. It's like his brain is buffering for a split second right when he should pass, then when it catches up, it's too late. I will try to take some screenshots and post examples this week. I am sure some of this is bad play calling, but how many times does Trubisky need to be defended with another excuse? First, it was the terrible coaching staff (Fox and Co), so they were changed to a more QB friendly group. He had no weapons, so the team got stacked to the gills with WR's and RB's that can catch. The O-Line was inconsistent, so they locked up the starting 5. What else is left? Now it's the play calling, and I agree to an extent, but at some point the team needs to make Mitch accountable. It's nice to point at yourself as the HC, but if you are not the problem, pointing at yourself won't fix the true problem. My concern is I think Nagy and Co realize what they have in Mitch and after that meeting, had to dumb down the offense for Mitch. Nagy even alluded to something similar but said they were narrowing the playbook down to the bread and butter plays. Where were those on Thursday? Going back to his Draft Profile feels like I am reading a GB game review. These are taken right from NFL.com: 1. "Inconsistent deep ball touch" - How many times has this been an issue? How can this not be fixed after 3 years? Run the same play over and over hundreds of times until he makes the throw consistently. He needs the muscle memory. 2. "Has touchdown opportunities he babies and invites defenders time to recover". - Amos interception anyone? RZ INT against MIA last year? He still does this 3+ years after this was written. Scary. 3. "Not always pocket aware. Hyper-focuses on shifting parts down the field and can be late to feel pressure collapsing the edges". - 5 sacks. I kept asking myself, why didn't he step up earlier, slide to his left or right. It seems like he rarely feels the pressure. In other cases, he leaves too early. 4. "There are times he looks like another Carson Wentz and then there are times he looks like Blaine Gabbert". - I laughed at this one. This sounds like Blake Bortles and Trubisky really does play like these guys. 5. "He better get better at seeing blitzes and throwing hot or he'll get eaten alive by the exotic packages they are throwing at quarterbacks these days" - Another wow one. Look back at all his bad games. All teams need to do is have random defenders show blitz and have different players drop into coverage. He will be lost. He doesn't know where to go with the ball when things don't go as planned. This is not good. I will give him the benefit of the doubt until the bye week, but at that point, if there isn't improvement by him to the point where he is playing better than he did last year, then the team really needs to consider going in a different direction at QB. This defense is too special to waste years of mediocre offense on. I have tried to give Trubisky as much time as possible to improve, and I have yet to see it on the field. There were some media reports out of the Tribune that said they believed he regressed and looked worse this offseason than he did a year ago. If that is true, again, that is crazy. How can he regress in the same offense with basically the same WR and TE Corps? How are him and guys like Arob, Gabriel, and Miller not locked in on every route by now? Arob seems the closest, but he still missed him a few times. I had a wild theory that the Bears were purposely masking their playbook with plays they don't normally use, against GB, so Vic would have no tape on the plays they will run against him. For some reason that almost feels possible considering how bad they looked. That is why things seemed so out of sync, because they were running new plays. Now they go into DEN and Vic will be preparing for the plays and formations they saw against GB (and the ones Vic saw last year), except we have an entire new set of plays and formations (our bread and butter plays) to unleash. One could only hope, right? I really hope to see a massive improvement, even against a tough defense like DEN. We should be able to exceed what OAK does by a large margin, so that will be a good measuring stick. I am still optimistically hopeful, but that is fading fast to pessimistically hopeful. /RANT

Our only saving grace against Denver is that we will have 4 extra days of rest where they will be coming in off a short week playing MNF on the road. So they have to travel, and lose a day compared to a normal week. I will give Trubisky to the bye. If he doesn't improve considerably, then he is not the answer at QB and we need to draft one next year. We could package our 2x 2nd's next year and move back to around Pick #20. There should be a decent QB available in the first, and at this point, I don't know if they can be worse than Trubisky. I don't think Mahomes was ever an option. I wanted Watson, and I wouldn't mind him either. We will see how he looks tomorrow night. It is funny looking back at the Mahomes pick because his comp was Jay Cutler and he was coming from Texas Tech (Air Raid Offense), but he should've been the #1 pick. Cleveland and SF should be just pissed. Cleveland picked Garrett and SF traded with us, then picked Thomas. They should be getting the same flak for not drafting Mahomes. JAX, TEN, NYJ, LAC, CAR, and CIN all passed on Mahomes. He is better than all their QBs.

Both Miami and the Bucs at least scored a TD. Something we couldn't do. That's pretty insane. At least it looks like Pittsburgh will only score 3 pts, so we won't be alone this week.

Nagy has had issues dating back to KC's playoff loss where Nagy was the playcaller. This game just hit a new low that we have not seen since the likes of Loggains and Shoop. Of all the QBs with at least 20 attempts, Trubisky has the 2nd lowest QB Rating this week, only better than Winston (who threw 3 picks with 2 Pick-6's). Here is how Trubisky looked against other young QBs (sorted by rating): 1. Jackson 17-20, 85.0%, 324 yds, 5 TD, 0 INT, 1 sack, 158.3 Rating 1. Prescott 25-32, 78.1%, 405 yds, 4 TD, 0 INT, 0 sack, 158.3 Rating 3. Mahomes 25-33, 75.8%, 378 yds, 3 TD, 0 INT, 0 sacks, 143.2 Rating 4. Minshew 22-25, 88.0%, 275 yds, 2 TD, 1 INT, 1 sack, 122.5 Rating 5. Wentz 28-39, 71.8%, 313 yds, 3 TD, 0 INT, 1 sack, 121.0 Rating 6. Brissett 21-27, 77.8 yds, 190 yds, 2 TD, 0 INT, 2 sacks, 120.7 Rating 7. Darnold 28-41, 68.3%, 175 yds, 1 TD, 4 sacks, 84.9 Rating 8. Garoppolo 18-27, 66.7%, 166 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT, 1 sack, 80.2 Rating 9. Murray 29-54, 53.7%, 308 yds, 2 TD, 1 INT, 5 sacks, 75.2 Rating 10. Allen 24-37, 64.9%, 254 yds, 1 TD, 2 INT, 1 sack, 71.2 Rating 11. Goff 23-39, 59.0%, 186 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT, 2 sack, 69.0 Rating 12. Mayfield 25-38, 65.8%, 285 yds, 1 TD, 3 INT, 5 sacks, 64.0 Rating 13. Trubisky 26-45, 57.8%, 228 yds, 0 TD, 1 INT, 5 sacks, 62.1 Rating Trubisky was the only QB to not throw a TD, had the 2nd lowest Comp% (Murray) and was tied with the most sacks (5). Jackson and Prescott had perfect Passer Rating games, which is pretty amazing considering they were not seen as elite QB's. Minshew, a rookie, came in and looked completely comfortable. Everyone after Brissett looked shaky. Goff looked exactly like Trubisky, but the Rams ran the damn ball. That was the difference in their game. Mayfield, with all those weapons, did not look good. He missed a ton of opportunities, and throws up a lot of balls (like Trubisky's INT). I would say that trio looked incredibly similar.

Oh man, that still chaps my ass (Walter not getting the Fridge carry).

These games do not have me optimistic about our season going forward. Our offense looks even worse compared to some of these other teams. Jacksonville brought in a rookie (Minshew) after Foles went out and is slinging it all over the place. If you didn't know who the players were, you would say without a doubt that Minshew was a veteran compared to Trubisky (if you only watched the GB game). Lamar Jackson? 200+ yards and 4 TDs in first half (Baltimore w/ 42 pts in a half). Mahomes has a 300 yard game (in the first half) with Hill out with injury. Also, in regards to Nagy and the playcalling, it is clear that he is a huge part of the problem. All the successful plays I am seeing are bread and butter play actions, post routes, slant routes, and screens. None of his BS "laboratory" stuff is working. It's not all bad however, our defense still looks legit though, some really bad defenses out there. Also, Vedvik the kicker everyone wanted has already missed a couple of kicks and the rookie in CLE missed an extra point. So our kicker situation is not as bad as we may believe.

It's crazy that Brown gets off scott free. Isn't there a league conduct policy? The Raiders should've put something in the language with the trade with the Steelers. Make it conditional, they didn't, so they lose out big time. I figure Gronk will magically appear after the Pats Bye Week (Week 10).

Yeah, it is getting pretty ridiculous. I don't know how he can get away with what he has done and not be punished by the league. Brown literally retweeted a Tweet that said Mike Mayock should be raped. How is that not punishable under the league's conduct policy? There is a small group of individuals that are ruining the standards and integrity of the game. It started to get out of hand when the money blew up. Now you have some borderline illiterate people who can barely speak, read, or, write, but because they can catch a football can make 50x more than a Neurosurgeon and we complain about healthcare costs but are quick to throw $150 on a jersey. It's just the world we live in and it only seems to be getting worse every year.

We may not be a 12 win team, but I can't imagine us losing more than 5-6 games. That was probably the worst collective performance we can possibly see out of our offense and play calling. That is what rock bottom looks like, when Murphy's Law hits you in the face. Take zero preseason snaps, subtract Burton from game plan, abandon run game, take stupid penalties, and have a revolving door on the line, and that is what you get. Most of those can be addressed by next week.

Wow, this has been a crazy couple of days. The best part about this for the Bears? Potentially better draft compensation for the Mack trade. If the Raiders are even worse than we expected them to be this year, then we should get a better 2nd round pick for our 1st next year. Something like our high 20's (or #32) for their #33-35 would be insanely awesome. Teams like those early 2nd day picks too, which makes them extremely valuable if we wanted to move down a few spots.

This play pretty much sums up the offense in Game 1. In the 1st Quarter, 3rd and 9 from the GB 39, the Bears come out trips left and keep 7 in to protect and still allow a sack with 2 extra blockers. Long and Daniels both literally touched Martinez and let him through with zero resistance to block no one? The play call was also terrible. The only receivers are between the left hash and the sidelines (making it easy to defend). The only possible completion at this point is an out to Robinson or a post to Cohen (which takes longer to develop) inside the safety and past the LBs, which is a tough throw with pressure up the middle. The only chance is if Mitch sees the pressure a split second earlier, can step up and then scramble thru the left side. This type of pass pro is what Mitch dealt with all game. The routes (play calls) were also very odd. Nothing played off each other. No clearing routes, no roll-outs to the right, and too few screens to slow the pressure. Only one game, and technically, besides the score, GB's offense played worse than ours.

I don't know if I have seen our Offensive Line play worse than tonight. Between the penalties, missed blocks, etc. Even with the few runs we had, there was one decent running lane. Otherwise, our RB's were getting hit within a yard of the LOS. Pass Pro was terrible, and these are our highly paid starters. Mitch had very little time to throw. The playcalling was beyond Loggains. 3rd and 1 and you give a draw to Patterson up the middle who is hit behind the LOS for a loss? Also, the routes/play calls never gave Mitch a chance. He missed some throws, but for the most part, it was not like there were many open receivers. Mitch played terrible, but Nagy did him no favors. Establish the run, go to Play Action and RPO. Someone on Twitter said we went something like 30 straight plays without an RB run. If true, that is insane for a game that is within 7 pts or less for the entire game.

Positives: 1. The defense was borderline unstoppable. Rodgers beat Deon Bush twice on the TD drive. Outside of that, one other pass to the TE and the DPI on Roquan, GB didn't do anything. They were 2-12 on 3rd Downs, which was worse than the Bears offense, which seems impossible. Outside of Roquan's DPI, he was everywhere. Mack was held on every play, RRH, Floyd, Goldman, and Hicks were very good. 103 of Rodgers 202 passing yards came from 3 plays. His other 15 completions totaled 99 yards. The GB RB's were 18-39 rushing, barely over 2 YPC. The defense is legit. 2. Pineiro did not miss a kick and scored the only points for the team. 3. As far as I know, no one was seriously injured. 4. We lost Week 1 last year in heartbreaking fashion. That seemed to motivate the team for the year. Their heads may have gotten too big with all the SB talk. Let's reel them back in and get a win in Week 2 and start a nice winning streak. 5. We get to play GB again and exact revenge for this loss in Week 15 when games seem to matter more. 6. We can't get any worse, can we? This has to be the worst our offense will look.

Inexcusable performance by the offense and playcalling by Nagy. What the hell did we just witness?