Bears4Ever_34

Outside of beating the Packers this year, there's nothing I want more from this regular season than for Caleb to silence the media love-fest with Daniels by beating the Commanders in a few weeks while clearly outplaying him.

Herbert with 8 300 yard games as a rookie is insane. I know people tend to gloss over 300 yards as a meaningless stat, but for Bears quarterbacks, it's important because of how rare they are. If I'm not mistaken, Caleb and Justin Fields now have the same amount of 300 yard passing games for their careers, lol.

100%. It's frustrating to watch him pad his stats on so many of these catch and runs or insane catches. He's clearly regressed from where he was at the end of last year. Much more turnover prone, less accurate. Their defense is pretty much all too reliant on turnovers. Maybe it'll continue, maybe it won't. All I know is that I see a very vulnerable team if the quarterback can't protect the football.

Bears did what they were supposed to do to the Colts a few weeks ago. Beat a bad team. Easily Caleb's best game of the season. Could have had an even better stat line had it not been for drops and penalties. A little frustrating he couldn't get that 3rd TD pass, but nonetheless, he played really well. Waldron has clearly unlocked something with the no-huddle offense. The run game has been thriving in it; less so when they aren't in no-huddle. Caleb looks very comfortable in the pocket. The OL actually blocked well for him in this game. Swift had a couple of really nice blitz pickups, one that lead to the 1st DJ Moore TD, the other on a bogus hold that wasn't a hold. All in all, outside of the penalties, you have to like what you saw from the offense in the last 6 quarters of football.\ Defensively, the run defense really needs to get cleaned up quickly. They aren't going to get away with this against the better teams. Bears should be expected to win again next week against another bad team, though London games are always weird. 4-2 going into the bye, with an extra week to prepare against Daniels and the Commanders. How bout' it?

To be clear, Kurt was saying Caleb has been a one read QB this season (which has been true, to a degree), but made no mention of how Daniels is just as much, if not more of a one read QB through 4 games. My complaint about Kurt is not that his criticisms aren't valid. On a macro-level they are. He's been inconsistent getting through is progressions and trusting his eyes, which have lead to horrendous overthrows and poor decisions. My problem is that he's been overly uncharitable about his progress in some of those areas the last couple weeks. Caleb objectively improved his decision making against the Rams and Kurt still lead with the idea that he's made no progress. It feels bad faith to me, I don't know. Oh, and the whole "Jayden has been asked to do just as much if not more for WAS offense than Caleb has for CHI" is certifiable absurd. No shot is that remotely true when you look at the passing charts and when you watch how both are operating at the LOS.

Don't know if anybody has been paying attention to Kurt Warner's weekly interview segments he does with 670 to talk about Caleb, but he seems pretty committed to the idea that he hasn't progressed from where he was 2 weeks ago against the Texans. He's been pretty negative about his performances each of the past 2 weeks when conventional wisdom seems to suggest he has improved. If you haven't listened, be sure to check out 670 YouTube page, but the bulk of his criticism seems to boil down to him not trusting his eyes, particularly on downfield throws, and looking uncomfortable anytime he has to come off his 1st read. The big area I disagreed with him most on was when they talked about Daniels and he scoffed at the idea that the Bears were asking more of Caleb (in terms of pre/post-snap operation) than Daniels. He made no mention of the fact that Daniels almost never comes off his 1st option and most of his passes are thrown within 10-15 yards of the LOS. There's a reason why he's completing 80+% of his passes. It's not that he's sooooo much more accurate than the likes of prime Aaron Rodgers or Drew Brees, it's that he's been ultra conservative in attacking down field. His criticisms of Caleb seem valid, but I just flat out don't agree that he hasn't progressed at all from 2 weeks ago. Again, I'd encourage everyone to check out his interviews to get the full picture, but the tone I've been getting from him is that he isn't a fan of Caleb's game.

If Caleb could just hit those deep balls, his numbers would have looked a lot better today. That's the thing that's really been killing him this season. He's just not even close with anything beyond 15 yards. I've given him a 4 week grace period before getting too critical, but he HAS to start hitting those shots to DJ down the sideline when he's open. If you're going to dink and dunk for most of the game, you can't blow the few opportunities you do have to attack a team down the field. To his credit, he didn't turn the ball over, and the run game and penalties didn't allow him to be as prolific as you'd like to see, yardage-wise, but he did have some nice moments in the pocket. The TD to DJ and the dot over the middle to Kmet on the final TD drive were special throws. CAR JAX WAS NE AZ Going back to the IND game, the Bears have about 7 consecutive games against teams with shoddy defenses. This is the part of the schedule I anticipated Caleb having the most success with. You can't drop more than 2 of these next 5. Realistically, I think they probably need to go 4-1 to get to 6-3 before facing the Packers to put themselves in contention for a playoff spot down the stretch. Even with a win today, I haven't seen enough from the offense yet to make me feel confident in their ability moving forward. Still only 260 yards of offense against a bad defense today, despite the W.

I really don't get QBR at all. It's so strange to me how Stafford can have 2 turnovers and no touchdowns and still somehow come out of that game with a significantly better QBR (54) than Caleb today (39). They don't really explain the methodology clearly enough for me to trust the stat as meaningful. I mean, Bo Nix has a QBR in the 50's, somehow, despite a 1/4 TD/INT ratio and a game with 60 passing yards. It's crazy.

It really blows that the NFC North just happens to be the best division in football the year the Bears get the #1 pick. I was banking on MIN being one of the worst teams in football (yikes) because I didn't believe in Darnold. There's still a long way to go in the year, but I don't see MIN slowing down anytime soon. They easily have the best combo of OC/DC in the NFL right now. If they are a real contender this season, I think the Bears playoff hopes are all but diminished, barring Caleb Williams playing close to out of his mind down the stretch, which seems unlikely and unfair.

Lots of short stuff with half field reads. Commanders are going with a conservative approach to Daniels, hoping to expand the playbook as he gains confidence with all the easy stuff. Bears are throwing Caleb into the fire immediately, hoping he'll learn the more advanced stuff faster through his mistakes. The Bears are even giving Caleb what looks to be complete autonomy at the LOS to change plays. Personally, I'm fine with the Bears approach as long as he's improving with knowing his protections schemes and recognizing the hot reads. If he's still struggling to pick up blitzes, this method could get him killed. However, the hope is that eventually he'll learn enough from those mistakes and reach an advanced level of pocket passing quicker than Daniels, who at some point, will need to show he can be more than a 1 read, take off and run style of quarterback.

Speaking from what I think the Bears perspective will be and not necessarily mine: I think Poles is safe no matter what happens this year. I think the Eberflus decision will come down to how Caleb plays. If he's still struggling by the end of the season and the Bears miss the playoffs, It would be criminal to not look at an offensive-minded head coach in the off-season. That said, I could also see a scenario where he's brought back if the Bears win 7 games, but Caleb is looking vastly improved by the end of the season. Ryan Poles has to be aware of the Bears history of how changing coaches in the middle of a young quarterback's career has had a negative impact on the future. He's going to want to give Eberflus the longest leash possible to avoid repeating the same tired formula that continues to haunt this franchise. A mistake that, again, could have easily been avoided if he'd have just gotten rid of the coach before you drafted the quarterback...

Kingsbury has him playing smart, efficient football. I disagree that he looks like Stroud. If you watch Daniels play, he's still very much a 1 read/take off and run QB. The good news is that his 1st read is almost always open because most of his throws are not going beyond 15 yards of the LOS. They sprinkle in a few deep shots here and there, but WAS has done a good job of giving him a heavy dose of screens, quick hitches, and slants to get him into a rhythm. If the 1st option isn't there, he either dumps it off to a RB or he just takes off and runs for positive yardage nearly everytime. I'll be very curious to see how he adjusts when defenses begin to sit on the short stuff and do a better job of containing him in the pocket. Right now, it's working tremendously, but he's going to have to improve as a full field reader, like Stroud did, if he wants to sustain a long career in the NFL. I see a lot of RGIII in his game with a little weaker arm. He looks too skinny to withstand the punishment he's taking on some of those hits. I don't think his body holds up long term, but for right now, things appear to be clicking.

I said at the time that I thought he should have been fired the moment he decided to keep Matt Eberflus. Every sane person knew the most logical decision in the moment to make was to reset this coaching staff under a new rookie QB and keep everybody on the same timeline, and yet, here we are repeating history. If that wasn't bad enough, they also missed out on Jim Harbaugh, who was the homerun, can't miss coaching candidate of the last decade, and other bright offensive minds in Bobby Slowik or Ben Johnson. It was the absolute worst possible decision the Bears could have made in that situation, and one they may end up regretting forever depending on what ends up happening with Caleb.

Any semblance of a run game would add so much to this offense. It takes pressure off the OL and the QB, which means less sacks and more efficient passing. Play action is effectively useless right now. I don't know what it's going to take to rectify this issue, but I do know that more DeAndre Swift is not the answer.

Rams might be a tougher game than I originally expected coming into the week. They somehow beat a good 49'ers team, albeit a team missing about as many critical starters as the Rams, and completed a nice comeback. I still think the Bears should have an advantage playing at home against a severely undermanned team. Bears defense is really going to have to do a better job stopping the run against Williams, because he's their only real threat on offense with Kupp and Nakua out. You hope that Caleb's progress continues to be as linear as it has, so far. He's gotten more comfortable in every game, going from awful in week 1, to bad in week 2, to maybe just below average this week. An average game with more TD's than turnovers is what I'm hoping for next week. That should be enough to win.

Yep, he looks like a disaster of a signing. No vision or contact balance, whatsoever. At the very least, I thought he'd be useful catching passes out of the backfield, but so far, he's been terrible at that, too. It's hard to fathom how this team could go from a top 5 rushing team to the worst in a year. I know Fields makes up for a huge chunk of that, but they still got positive production out of both Herbert and Foreman for several games, some of those came with Tyson Bagent. I don't know if they're running a new blocking scheme or what, but they have got to figure something in a hurry because Williams cannot survive throwing the ball 52 times playing behind this OL all season. Personally, I'd like to see more Herbert, and if the struggles continue for another week or two, you might be forced into Velus out of desperation. It's crazy that we're already at this point.

This was a horrible loss, but Caleb and Rome Odunze made clear signs of progress despite the ineptitude of this coaching staff. If it wasn't obvious already, this run game is completely broken. Colts were the worst run defense in the league, by a mile, and they looked like the Steel Curtain out there today going against Bears RB's. It's actually even more impressive that Caleb was able to have as much success throwing the ball today while being forced into one dimensional football. Next week's game becomes a must-win. The Rams are reeling, the Bears cannot afford to start the year off 1-3 with a back-loaded schedule of good teams waiting for them starting in week 11.

Their schedule really until the Packers game looks incredibly favorable. Assuming relative health, they won't be a heavy underdog again until at least the Packers. Certainly, with IND and LA missing a lot of their key players the next couple weeks, the Bears have a realistic shot to run the table up to the London game. 4-1 would be a terrific start to the season. This week will be the key game, IMO. It's the most likely of the 3 (IND, LA, CAR) they could lose because it's on the road.

The schedule and injuries sets itself up well for the Bears to make a run over this next month and a half. The Rams won't have Nakua 2 weeks from now, and now Kupp is hurt, too. Critical time for Caleb to show something as the schedule really starts to lighten up.

This loss goes directly on Ryan Poles. His decision to keep Matt Eberflus and ignore the OL this off-season is setting this franchise up for another draft bust at quarterback. This coordinator has no idea what he's doing. The personnel groupings make no sense. Too much Travis Homer and Gerald Everett and not enough Kmet and Khalil Herbert. I just watched Malik freaking Willis look like a competent quarterback today with Matt Lafleur calling plays. The way they were able to scheme up some creative run calls early in that game for Josh Jacobs really took the pressure off Willis, and it paid off. Caleb has no chance if Waldron is just going to continue allowing DeAndre Swift to get the ball 14 times for 18 yards (!). The Bears have CAR in week 5. If Caleb and this offense doesn't start to turn the corner by then, I'm going to start pushing the panic button, because it cannot looks this bad. I figured they'd have their bumps and bruises, but I did not expect the OL to give up 7 sacks in a game and for the quarterback to not be able to throw the ball accurately more than 10 yards down field when his receivers are open. This is way worse of a start than even my most conservative predictions thought it would be. Awful sign.

I'm reaching for optimism, but it's possible A.) The Titans defense is going to be really good and B.) They had the element of surprise advantage coming into this game, given the fact they had a new coordinator with no play calling experience. You'd figure it might be easier to scout a Texans team who's defense you actually have film on.

Needless to say, that was one of the most ugly wins you'll ever see. I don't really feel all that great after that one, to be honest. A win is a win, but also, not really. This formula is not sustainable. You can't score zero touchdowns on offense, throw for less than 100, and expect to win very many games. Caleb played about as bad as one could for their first start. His accuracy was atrocious. Deep balls weren't close and neither were most of his short throws. He looked rattled after they fell behind early. 1st game jitters or something else? All I know is that it HAS to get better next week. That wasn't acceptable today, even for a rookie. Too much talent on this offense for it to look like that. Play calling, run game, OL, Caleb, everything has to be better. As for the good: -Darrell Taylor was the most important player out there today. He was flying around out there. Poles might have gotten a steal if he can continue to show out like this. -Andre Carter had some nice kick and punt returns. -Hardy had the play of the game to jump start the comeback with that punt block. Other concerns: - Waldron's play calling lacked creativity. Very little misdirection, no up-tempo to change things up, only 1 WR run late in the game (which happened to be their 2nd biggest run play of the day). His fingerprints were all over this, too. -Keenan Allen looks washed. Terrible drop in the endzone, and it looks like his foot is already bothering him again. Early returns on that trade aren't looking so hot right now. He had a bad pre-season, too. -OL couldn't block anybody. What else is new? Poles decision to ignore the center position two years in a row is going to haunt this team. Shelton and Bates are both ending up on their ass too much. RB's were getting touched far too often in the backfield.

Hard for me to see a scenario where Will Levis dominates against this Bears defense. My only real concern going into this game is on offense. If they can avoid the self-inflicted mistakes (Caleb turning it over/OL committing dumb penalties), they shouldn't have a problem beating this team at home. They have the better roster.

OL, DL, and punt returner remain the team's biggest weaknesses. Can't expect to be a playoff team if both sides of the line are bad. Will be interesting to see which players (if any) step up at those positions. My confidence meter is a little higher with the DL than OL right now. I think Booker is going to be a player. Saw a stat that said the Bears are the first team since 2013 SEA to post a point differential that high in the pre-season. SEA won the SB that year. I saw another stat from week 1 where the Bears posted their highest single game margin of victory since 2006, which is the year they went to the SB. I'm not saying, I'm just saying

I totally disagree with you about Velus. He looks good at RB. Runs with some pop. Reports are that he's had a great last couple days in training camp at his new position. I'm not big on Roschon Johnson at all anymore. He looks very ordinary as a runner, doesn't make people miss and doesn't break as many tackles as you thought he would coming out of college. Velus, if he can hold on to the ball (which is a big IF), gives this offense a real speed threat they don't have with anyone else. He didn't have many opportunities out there today, but I'm totally on board with this experiment. I've been calling this positional change for 2 years now. He can't catch, but every time he's gotten an end around in an actual game, he almost always does something positive with it.