adam

Bad special teams. We are easily a top 15 Offense (13th in DVOA), and even after two bad games, still the #1 Defense for DVOA. The problem is our ST is #25.

If we play like we did today, we will be hard-pressed to beat 3 more NFL teams. Will we? Absolutely, but not if we continue to play like this. It was just a bad game all-around. Zero pass rush makes everything else tougher on defense. When you add playing a soft zone to no pass rush, that is a recipe for disaster. I am surprised NE didn't score more and probably would have if not for the turnovers. The offense is still a work in progress but you would like to see some improvement every game. If not for the great scrambles and the Hail Mary to White, Trubisky would've had a completely awful game. He had 3-4 good throws all game, but we will need more from him in order to be a contender.

It's hard not to be disappointed after a 2nd straight loss which drops us to last place in the Division. As bad as we have been, we could easily be 6-0. 23-17 Lead with 2:39 left in 4th Quarter, lose to GB 24-23. 28-21 Lead with 3:17 left in 4th Quarter, lose to Miami 31-28 in OT. 24-21 Lead with 12:04 left in 3rd Quarter, lose to NE 38-31 with ball on 1-yard line as time expires.

Mahomes is clearly the one in the 2017 draft class. He looks very comfortable in the pocket and seems to be able to find the open man on almost every play. Right now that's what separates him from Trubisky, he hits the open man. Trubisky overthrows him.

Trubisky's worst game passing-wise. 2 bad INTs, 52% completion percentage, a bunch of overthrows to wide open receivers. He had a few nice runs but is missing too many easy passes.

They need to find White some more reps.

It's not that black and white. Two of the TD's were off NE turnovers with a short field. They needed to score those and they did. Which is encouraging. However, our longest TD drive was 63 yards. Also, when the game was on the line, the offense disappeared. We had a 24-21 lead with 12:04 in the 3rd and had the ball and a tie ball game at 7:40 in the 3rd. We essentially had a 3 and out and then the blocked punt (-7 points). Then with 3 drives to redeem themselves, Trubisky scrambles and instead of just throwing the ball away, throws a pass to Josh Bellamy, which is intercepted. Ok, bad decision, but you can redeem yourself the next drive. The defense holds and forces a punt, you drive down the field and throw ANOTHER interception, but this time at the 4-yard line. OOF. So NE goes 96 yards and scores a TD (-14). How are you going to respond? A 3 and out, and punt. Game Over! 4 Drives after 3rd Quarter TD: 4 play drive, Blocked punt 6 play drive, INT 8 play drive, INT 4 play drive, punt Obviously, the Defense and Special Teams need to shoulder most of the blame. The defense is absolutely perplexing. How can such a dominant pass rush basically disappear over the last 2 games, especially coming off the bye? The Special Teams? What the hell was that? Cunningham should not take a single kickoff out of the end zone, at most he gets to the 27 or 28, but most of the time is stopped before the 20. Just like our defense we can't tackle, you can't allow a kickoff return like that with no one contesting him for 50 yards even though there was a blatant block in the back that wasn't called. On the blocked punt, you need max protect there, or take a timeout when you see 10 on the line.

That is what was on display today, just the facts. The team is not playing to potential. Burton looked great on offense and Nichols did on defense. Outside of that? Trubisky missed more open receivers than he had completions, some with zero pressure. He could've easily had 2-3 more INTs. How about some more passes to Howard, he made a great catch and they don't honor the pass when he is in. What is crazy is the commentators were calling the plays "oh, Cohen is in, run or screen to the outside, Howard is in RPO/run up the gut. Bellamy was targeted 4 times (1 was intercepted), Sowell was targeted once (almost intercepted), and Sims was targeted once. So essentially 6 wasted passing plays, 5 incompletions and an INT. Gabriel and Bellamy both had 4 targets. Gabriel caught 3, Bellamy none. Not rocket science. I don't know if this is Trubisky or the play calls, but it needs to change.

LMAO, this is not a 5-win team. What an embarrassing loss.

This team is hot garbage right now. Trubisky cannot read defenses, has happy feet and throws bad INTs. He doesn't need more time, this is who he is. He misses NFL throws and doesn't throw to wide open receivers. He flashes every now and then, and can make some plays with his feet, but that won't win you many games. Pace gambled and lost. This defense is an absolute joke, no one can tackle, zero pass rush, no can cover. Fool's gold. Floyd is a bust, he can't pass rush, can't cover, so I really don't know what he is good at. The Special Teams Coach should be fired after this type of game. Two Special Teams TD's allowed, and Cunningham allowed to run it out to the 15 on every kickoff. Then O'Donnell kicks a 37 yard punt and can't get it past the 50. What the hell is going on. I will be surprised if we win 5 games playing like this.

No Gronk is huge. No excuses today.

After the Miami loss, this game is way more important. After starting 3-1, it will suck to drop to 3-3 after 6 games. 4-2 would keep us in 1st place in the Division regardless of what GB or MIN do. Detroit and Jacksonville both beat NE when NE was on the road. The Bears have a chance to do the same. The Bears +43 points differential is tied for 3rd in the league only behind LAR and BAL. The Bears are 4th best in points allowed, lead the league in INTs per game (2), are 3rd in sacks per game (3.6) even after not getting one against Miami. Based on Wilson's performance, you have to think Edelman will be a main target for Brady. We need to get pressure and get him off his spot. Otherwise it will be a long day with him tearing our secondary apart. I would like to see Nagy stay aggressive the entire game and only mix in the gimmick plays and not make them the entire offense. Don't be too cute. Weather will be in the high 40's with some wind. Good time to unleash Howard and the ground and pound. Hopefully the team is pissed from the Miami game and will come out angry. This is a winnable game, but only if we keep NE's offense in check. NE is only favored by 3, so with the 3 point home field advantage bump, this is expected to be a one-score game. Bears 23-20

A NE loss helps everyone it seems, and I am sure a little bit of this goes on around the league. NE is on fire lately, 38, 38, and 43 points scored in their last 3. They are 4-0 when they score 27 or more, and 0-2 when they score 20 or less. We are 3-0 when we allow 17 or less and 0-2 when we allow 24 or more. So we have a chance if we can limit them to 24 or less.

On #1, he has hit a few, but has also missed badly on others. We are probably 5-0 if he hits on the ones he missed. For #2, it seems like he gets happy feet without any pressure. Hopefully this will calm down with more reps. On #3, almost every game he has a couple of bad passes, which he probably got away with in college. With the tougher competition, he has to be better. The INT against Miami was to Braunecker with multiple defenders there, it almost looked like he threw it there blindly because the DB was standing there the entire time.

I really like this site's take on stats: https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/qb Check out the QB stats, Trubisky is 13th best QB based on DVOA (11th in QBR). The Bears as a team are 3rd only behind LAR and KC, even after the loss to Miami. Miami is 6th and NE is 9th. We have the 4th best odds to make the playoffs (74.7%) only behind LAR, KC, and NO.

Oh crap, I saw the Floyd play for another angle. It was bad, borderline suspension worthy, what the hell was he thinking? However, on the one against Osweiler, again he flashed in front of him and tried to block the pass, Osweiler sort of spun out of the way and it looked like Floyd got him up high, but he barely touched him. That was a bad call. On the screens, on the first one, Wilson took two steps forward then came back to the ball. Amendola was already engaged with his DB with the ball in the air. Close call, ball caught right on the LOS as he came back to the QB. Too close to call on second look. It looked bad live. Also, I relooked at the 75 yard play to Wilson. It looks like Mack backpedaled and chipped the TE, then peeled off and went after Osweiler, leaving his space wide open with Wilson right behind him. Callahan, Smith, and Trevathan were all in the area, but Trevathan took a bad angle, and then got blocked. With so many guys there, it seemed like they all gave up assuming someone else was making the tackle. Talking about how one play like the INT, fumbles, etc would've changed the outcome of the game. How about stopping the 2-pt conversion?

4-5 seconds to pass to Hill, 6 blockers, 4 rushers, no one even close to Mahomes at the throw. Hill literally wide open, a few frames before this Hill was only one on screen. He has the single high safety to beat who takes a bad angle, easy TD. Pass to Hunt, who broke off route, DB lost him staring into backfield, no over the top protection, the 2 deepest players are on KC. Easy TD. So Mahomes gets credit for these and the 3 yard drive TD, when all he had to do is make an east toss with no pressure.

Trubisky is top 10 in a bunch of categories. Very solid TD percentage, TD:INT ratio, etc. A very promising start. The only issue that stands out is his Situational Stats for the last two minutes of the half. He has a 19.5 Rating, 5/16, 31.2%, 0 TD and 1 INT. That has to improve. The real test will be next week at home against NE. With Mahomes just playing NE and Watson playing them last month, we will have a good comparison for the young QB's. I am still sick of the media bias. Mahomes had two bad games before the NE game, and was having a bad game before this happened in the 2nd half: 1. 67-yard TD pass to Kareem Hunt, a 3 man rush, 5 seconds to pass, no defender within 5 yards of Hunt and no over-the-top coverage. 2. Starting from NE 29 yard line - short field, easy TD pass 3. Starting from NE 3 yard line - very short field, easy TD pass 4. 75-yard TD pass to Tyreek Hill, zero pass rush, 5 seconds to pass with no rusher within 4 yards of Mahomes and no defender within 5 yards of Hill in a single high safety look 4 TD passes, and two long passes on what essentially was zero pass rush and blown coverage on both plays. The difference right now is that Mahomes is hitting all the deep balls, and Trubisky misses at least one easy long ball per game. Once he hits those, it will be hard to argue that Mahomes is better.

Oh yeah, no one player or coach is to blame. A lot of mistakes to go around. Albert Wilson should not look like the 2nd coming of Randy Moss. The defense did hold serve for most of the game. After the first TD, they didn't allow a TD for basically 3 quarters. Then the wheels fell off. There was zero pass rush and Floyd looks like a total bust. There are zero excuses for him now, he is healthy and Mack is on the opposite side drawing the double teams. It almost seemed like they were expecting Tannehill and didn't know what to do with Osweiler in there. The offense did nothing in the first half, then rattled off 28 points to put the team up. The turnovers (1 by Trubisky in the end zone, 1 by Howard in the end zone, and 1 by Cohen) were the difference. We can't give up that many points in the red zone. Coaching was horrible, Nagy looks like a genius then turns into John Fox with the game on the line. Why play for a 50+ yard FG when 10 yards seals the game for at least a tie? One thing to note, the officials blew a bunch of calls. Go look back at the Wilson screen passes that went for huge gains. The other WR's were blocking before he caught the ball. Both times they should've been flagged, especially after the Burton call in the end zone. He has every right to run his route and doesn't need to yield to the defender. Complete BS. Floyd also got a few bogus calls, so Amendola can keep fighting for a first down and we have to gently pull him to the ground, either stop trying to advance, or get throw down. Then there was the phantom Roughing the Passer, where he tried to block the throw and flashed right in front of Osweiler, barely touching him. Horrible officiating. You can't beat the refs.

Yeah, but those don't even matter if Trubisky doesn't throw a pick in the end zone and if Howard doesn't fumble going in for a TD. That's 14 points off the board.

Here we go, fresh off the bye week, looking to extend to a 4-game winning streak, something we haven't seen with this team since Lovie's last season. In Miami, hot weather, tropical storm coming through before the game (hopefully it doesn't linger). Miami has lost their last two games 65-24 (NE and CIN), so we should have some chances on both sides of the ball. Ironically, our last two games, we have outscored opponents 64-24. Their leading rusher is Frank Gore, in sort of a 2-headed monster setup with Drake. Neither are very effective. Leading receivers are Stills and Wilson. Tannehill has 5 INTs, has been sacked 11 times and has lost 3 fumbles. Mack should have a field day. There will be opportunities for turnovers. I expect an uptick in performance from Smith, now 4 games and a bye under his belt. There should no longer be any holdout rust. So I will base the outcome solely on recency bias and giving a few points back for Miami playing at home: Bears 31-13 Also to note, KC (Nagy as OC) beat Miami last year 29-13 (Cutler played QB for Miami, Wilson played for KC).

Ok, I was a little excited, but something like 11-12 wins (going 8-4 or 9-3 the rest of the way) does not seem unrealistic now. If we take care of business against the AFC East, go 3-1, and are 6-2 at the halfway mark, then 5-3 doesn't seem too tough to achieve with this team.

They can all end up being great, which would be good for the league. It won't be a binary outcome, too many variables. In terms of raw stats, Mahomes and Watson seem like they are going to consistently produce big numbers which will always get the attention. As long as we keep winning and playing competitive football, I am good with it.

This next quarter of the season is against the AFC East. We really need to come out of it 3-1 (6-2 overall). We will end with 8 straight conference games. Shaheen is eligible to return against Buffalo Week 9.

Yeah, based on current stats, it is hard not to pick Mahomes, though Watson seems more clutch. Mahomes has it really easy right now and is not really doing anything too difficult. He played bad and they had a 23 point lead late in the 4th quarter. The last and only time Trubisky threw 2 picks without a TD, we lost 31-3. We will get a pretty good idea on where both teams and QB's stand in two weeks, after KC plays NE this week and we play them next week. By then, you will have a good recent comparison on how both teams fared against the same opponent. Houston lost to NE in Week 1, 27-20 (Watson - 17/34, 50%, 1 TD, 1 INT, 62.9 Rating).