Post Game Thoughts

[adam]

1. The defense was borderline dominant, led by Hicks, Fuller, and Amos. Jackson, Trevathan, and Callahan also had great games. Literally, the only knock on the defense was Jones, who seemed lost for a bunch of plays (which is somewhat understandable considering his play time). Defense looked much better with Trevathan back. Amos' play is going to make us forget we have Demps. If he can keep it up, we all of a sudden have a great Safety duo in Amos and Jackson. There is not much more you can say about Hicks other than the dude comes to play and earns his check every game. Love it. Floyd was not as visible this game, but does seem to get held on every play. Fuller is playing at a Pro Bowl level and this game might have been his best in quite awhile.

 

2. On offense, we truly have a unique pair at RB in Howard and Cohen. Howard is now 5th in the NFL in rushing and there is over 100 yards between him and 6th place. Cohen had a decent game but did lose a fumble and only averaged 2.3 a carry. I would like to see him in some more space. Kendall Wright had the huge 3rd down catch in OT, but no receiver caught more than 2 passes. Trubisky threw a bunch of balls away (6 I believe), so he really was 8 for 10 on passes he actually attempted to complete. Even with his mobility, he was still sacked 4 times, once causing a fumble on a backside Safety blitz that was not picked up. The O-Line was ok in run blocking, but horrible in pass blocking. The Tight Ends who were left in to block, Sims and Miller were shredded on the outside. Sims did catch that nice TD pass on the blown coverage, but he was horrible at pass blocking (for a blocking TE). It seemed like the OT's were outmatched again and Long was too worried about headbutting a guy instead of getting back to the line during a no-huddle situation. The dude needs to channel his anger into his performance (that almost cost us the game).

 

3. The Special Teams, boy were they in rare form today. They really missed McManis. Hard to believe we won a game where we allowed a Kickoff and Punt Return for TD's. On the Kickoff, why would all 11 guys fail to touch the ball carrier with no whistle being blown? If you were not in the immediate area, you wouldn't even know the play was over, so why stop playing? Then on the punt return, they go to max protect due to the block attempt, so why is O'Donnell even kicking to the returner? Kick a 40 yarder straight out of bounds. Then to add to the misery, O'Donnell shanks a 28 yard punt in OT which gave the Ravens starting field position at their own 40. All they needed was about 25 yards and they would've won the game. Between Barth and O'Donnell we really need to look at upgrading our kickers this offseason.

 

4. Coaching - This is such a hard thing to measure, but there are a few parts of the game where you can see coaching in action, when there is a need for clock management, after halftime (adjustments), and with some bone headed mistakes. Every game it seems like we have at least one or two bone headed plays (Cohen's muffed punt, Cooper's dance before TD, etc). This game was no different, we had the failure of the entire special teams to touch the player that was on the ground, and Howard running out of bounds which gave Baltimore the ball back with time to win it. The defense really stepped up, so it looks like Fangio is finally getting buy in from the guys and they are getting more comfortable in his scheme. On offense, it seems like Loggains is either neutering the game plan because of Trubisky, because of the lack of weapons on the outside, or he is just bad at game plans (which is entirely possible), which leads into the last one:

 

5. Game plan - Outside of Howard's long run and a few heroic throws by Trubisky, I have no idea what Loggains is trying to do other than be completely predictable. We ran the ball 50 times with RB's and most of those runs were against 8 guys in the box, and I counted a few plays with 10. When the Bears go big with 2x TEs, then motion the receiver who stops at the end of the line, you literally have 22 players within the hashes and 5 yards of the LOS. Just simple math is going to tell you there will be very little room to run. Outside of Howard's big run the Bears averaged 2.9 YPC. When I look at the all-22, I don't understand what Loggains is trying to do with the routes. There are routes where one defender can cover two guys, the routes are the same length, or run players into coverage. It is baffling. I know hindsight is 20/20 and it is easy to be an armchair GM/Coach, but there was a reason Loggains was only an OC for one year in TEN. The only thing I can think of is the Bears are purposely playing this way, so they are not giving teams tape for later in the year or next year. Sounds crazy, but teams are known to do things to "mess with the analytics". Who knows, we may come out guns a blazing next week and we will all look back at how amazing Loggains is at mixing up the game plans.

 

Either way, I don't want to be Debbie Downer, because a win is a win. The defense played great, Howard is a beast, and Trubisky seems to be gaining confidence. Imagine what he could've done if he started from Week 1! If we can clean up the special teams and get some better play calling on offense, I think this team will be very competitive going forward.

 

Last note, I still find it odd to see Glennon out there as a Captain, sending him out for the OT coin toss, then to have the Ref ask Hicks for the call after he asked Glennon (either he couldn't hear him or didn't want him to fumble the call). I know it is a nice gesture on the Bears part, but send Miller or some other vet out there from offense if you are not going to send Trubisky out there.

 

Go Bears!

[CrackerDog]

I’d add that keeping Trubisky in the pocket all day doesn’t really play to his strengths.

[lemonej]

Today 4 members of the secondary had a coming out party Fuller, Amos, Jackson and Callahan. The fact that 3 of the four were drafted by the Bears and the for came as an undrafted FA makes me think Donatell is doing some coaching also Amos looks physically different.

[AZ54]

Start with the fact we won on the road in Baltimore with a rookie QB which has never happened under Harbaugh. I scanned a few of the Ravens boards and it reads just like ours. Fire the HC, crappy WRs, cut Flacco, horrible play calling, defense got run over and couldn't cover anyone, etc.

 

http://forum.russellstreetreport.com/showt...-0TD-2INT/page2

 

Anyway, I thought our defense played great. Gave up 9pts total including the short fields given up from a couple fumbles. Two INTs, one a pick 6, and our own forced fumble and recovery. I felt (hoped) Amos would fit in better at SS with someone like Jackson behind him and it appears that may be the case. Either that or getting benched woke him up. Kyle Fuller has come from out of nowhere to be the player I thought he would be 4 years ago. I don't see Cooper getting his starting job back.

 

Oline struggled on pass protection and Dion Sims was worthless as a blocker. Despite the heavy run first game plan and all the stacked boxes they faced the run game was very effective. We have to get our passing game, including the pass protection, to be more consistent. I think this will come in time as Trubisky and these WRs get more comfortable with the plays and reading the defenses. I have no clue why Whitehair keeps making bad snaps but credit Trubisky for his composure recovering from those situations.

 

After the game Trubisky said he had largely run/run options at the LOS and so he did check out of some running plays into others depending on what he saw before the snap. He indicated that last week he had more run/pass options. It's hard to know why we set that up but on the road with rookie QB and two new WRs on the outside some of it is understandable. Run the wrong route/throw and you have an INT going the other way. I hope things change soon as these WRs and Tru get more comfortable working together.

 

Trubisky overall played within the game plan and he didn't throw an INT. There were several times he just threw it away instead of forcing it which is good to see from a rookie. I think he looked more comfortable in the pocket reading the field than his first game but he's still several games away understanding all the defensive coverages and blitzes he's seeing. The plus side is that against Minn, Baltimore, and now Carolina he's getting a crash course on it. We'll see how those lessons show up in the 2nd half of the season.

 

I didn't watch closely enough to know how well they did in run blocking but about having McBride and Gentry on the outside (vs. Wheaton/Thompson) should be helping on those outside zone runs.

 

Tarik Cohen listened to his coaches and is starting to stay with the flow of the play better and stay behind his blockers. After some early season big plays he was bailing out too soon and defenses were waiting for him. As he learns from Jordan Howard how to get some patience behind the blockers he'll be more effective. Bad fumble but I wonder if it was a bad exchange from Trubisky because the two players were pretty far apart at the handoff.

 

Overall this was a great win for a rebuilding team. At some point in the rebuilding process young players have to learn how to overcome mistakes on the road and win. We did that. I always believed that learning how to win is a real thing in sports. There are so many execution details to clean up but these players now know they are capable of matching up and winning even when it's not perfect.

 

 

http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bears/mit...can-improve-win

“Every win is a good win,” Cohen said. “We might’ve got it ugly, but it’s a good win. So you gotta take that and run with it and try to run with it and string games together. And it’s really encouraging because we know that we made our mistakes so if we correct those, we know what kind of game it’s going to be.”

[Lucky Luciano]

Start with the fact we won on the road in Baltimore with a rookie QB which has never happened under Harbaugh. I scanned a few of the Ravens boards and it reads just like ours. Fire the HC, crappy WRs, cut Flacco, horrible play calling, defense got run over and couldn't cover anyone, etc.

 

http://forum.russellstreetreport.com/showt...-0TD-2INT/page2

 

Oline struggled on pass protection and Dion Sims was worthless as a blocker. Despite the heavy run first game plan and all the stacked boxes they faced the run game was very effective. We have to get our passing game, including the pass protection, to be more consistent. I think this will come in time as Trubisky and these WRs get more comfortable with the plays and reading the defenses. I have no clue why Whitehair keeps making bad snaps but credit Trubisky for his composure recovering from those situations.

 

I didn't watch closely enough to know how well they did in run blocking but about having McBride and Gentry on the outside (vs. Wheaton/Thompson) should be helping on those outside zone runs.

 

Overall this was a great win for a rebuilding team. At some point in the rebuilding process young players have to learn how to overcome mistakes on the road and win. We did that. I always believed that learning how to win is a real thing in sports. There are so many execution details to clean up but these players now know they are capable of matching up and winning even when it's not perfect.

 

i have to step in on this... although i missed the last half of the 4th quarter, sims in my opinion is not a worthless blocker. the two plays i took notice of his failure to contain he was lining up on the left side next to leno and trying to block a premier DE in suggs one on one. THAT is a complete mismatch. there is no way a normal TE can be expected to do this on his own. our OC should have known that and if trub had more experience he probably could have compensated on how to react to this mismatch with either an audible or rolling out to his right. i also saw some nice blocking from sims in our running attack to seal off lanes for our rb to hit.

 

one problem is with so many bodies on defense in the box they can mix up stunts and any blitz packages they may choose to run also. this was a decent defensive game plan on the ravens part capitalizing on our limited play calling and a rookie at the helm.

 

on your next point i completely agree.

 

EDIT: on whitehair... i have no clue what is going on with his snaps. he has become a serious liability with these miscues. the one cost us yardage and a down in our own red zone. the one that was snapped on the ground and rolling into the endzone could have cost us a TD or safety if we had not called a time out. something has to be done about this problem.

[BearFan2000]

Good assessments of the game. It was an ugly win but a win nonetheless.

 

Till we can pass block, or get WR's open we'll probably see more of the same. This is "run heavy" to the extreme. Of the first 25 plays 20 were runs, the trend has continued since the season started and if anything is getting more run heavy. I think we had something like 9 pass attempts in the first half.... 9???. We are neutering the offense and holding Trubisky back. Who despite the almost non existent pass blocking, WR's not getting open, and playacting that takes what he does best out of the equation. I know they are partly trying to protect him but just handing off over and over isn't really teaching him anything. But given there's almost never anyone open to throw to outside of blown coverage, and line that can't pass block, is a recipe for disaster. I think part of the approach is knowing we were facing an aggressive defensive front as we did last week, and will face another one with the Panthers. I do like that Trubisky is learning to throw it away rather than force it and risk putting the team in a bad spot. He has thus far demonstrated good composure when things go wrong. We again saw multiple bad snaps, Whitehair must have started taking suck pills this offseason he went from promising young lineman to whatever the hell that is playing center now. Is it possible to move him to guard, his poor snapping is a liability to an already crippled offense. There's virtually no margin of error on this offense so miscues like bad snaps and dumb penalties will continue to kill us.

 

Run game, it actually amazes me how effective we've been at running the ball given teams know that's pretty much all we're going to do on any given down. This to me speaks volumes for how good a back Howard is. That run in OT on 3rd and forever to get us into field goal range was huge! The kid plays his heart out every time he suits up. Cohen did better this week of sticking to the play design. He had one freelance play that resulted in a block in the back. Big plays will come but he has to learn that not every play has to be a home run. It's like hitter in baseball swinging for the fences every time when sometimes all you need is a base hit. He'll learn that. Howard is a good one to learn from to be patient. Pick your spots, when he gets that down he's going to be a dangerous change of pace. The future random of Howard and Cohen looks bright.

 

When watching our WR's rarely get open what keeps coming to mind is that their lack of ability to get separation is even worse when one considers we are seeing 8, 9, and 10 man fronts. our WR's scare no one and rightly so. With these stacked boxes they are facing man to man or zone coverage and still can't get open. There isn't a lot of variety in our routes in either length or pattern. I think this could also play into why we aren't getting guys open. Similar to having a QB who never moves like Glennon defenders know the launch point and don't have to think or guess they can play on auto pilot. Perhaps the same thing is partly at play here, if secondaries pretty much know where the receivers will be on any given play, it's much easier to defend the pass. Also makes the passing lanes more predictable. It's also maddening that on long down and distance we have far too many routes short of the sticks. On 3rd and long there should not be a single route ran short of the sticks aside from a RB dump off or a screen. Which come to think of it with these stacked boxes we should be running more screen plays to take advantage of teams overcommitting to stop the run. Loggains doesn't have much to work with but he also doesn't do well working with what he has. No one expects us to have a high powered offense but a little balance will go a long way.

 

The defense was the reason we won. All those almost plays where we nearly came up with a pick, we finally got some turnovers at critical times. Especially the pick six which was a thing of beauty and such a critical play when the Ravens were closing the gap and had just cut the lead to 4 I believe and were driving it was a 10 point swing as I believe they in or close to FG range. It was a huge momentum swing.

 

Special teams were anything but special. Forced to punt deep in our side of the field we shank the punt and spot them near midfield only needing to get about 25 yards for a shot at a game wining FG. Thankfully the D stood tall and forced a punt. Which we get the ball back deep and the offense goes nowhere till Howard saves the day. We give up two scores on special teams both inexcusable. No excuse for no one on the coverage team to touch him down instead we let him score while we look confused.

 

I too thought it was really odd that Glennon was out there for the coin toss prior to OT. I also joked to my wife that Fox's "beard" was probably a no win no shave thing. I'm ready for Fox to be gone.

[madlithuanian]

Whitehair is baffling...

 

Can Grasu play? Should Whitehair be benched or move to at minimum, try to light a fire under him to say that these mistakes are unacceptable?

 

i have to step in on this... although i missed the last half of the 4th quarter, sims in my opinion is not a worthless blocker. the two plays i took notice of his failure to contain he was lining up on the left side next to leno and trying to block a premier DE in suggs one on one. THAT is a complete mismatch. there is no way a normal TE can be expected to do this on his own. our OC should have known that and if trub had more experience he probably could have compensated on how to react to this mismatch with either an audible or rolling out to his right. i also saw some nice blocking from sims in our running attack to seal off lanes for our rb to hit.

 

one problem is with so many bodies on defense in the box they can mix up stunts and any blitz packages they may choose to run also. this was a decent defensive game plan on the ravens part capitalizing on our limited play calling and a rookie at the helm.

 

on your next point i completely agree.

 

EDIT: on whitehair... i have no clue what is going on with his snaps. he has become a serious liability with these miscues. the one cost us yardage and a down in our own red zone. the one that was snapped on the ground and rolling into the endzone could have cost us a TD or safety if we had not called a time out. something has to be done about this problem.

 

[madlithuanian]

He's ready to retire...look at David Letterman...he's getting a start at the Santa beard.

 

. I also joked to my wife that Fox's "beard" was probably a no win no shave thing. I'm ready for Fox to be gone.

 

[BearFan2000]

He's ready to retire...look at David Letterman...he's getting a start at the Santa beard.

 

OMG Letterman at the Payton Manning thing he's nearly unrecognizable. I couldn't believe that was him at first lol

[Lucky Luciano]

Whitehair is baffling...

 

Can Grasu play? Should Whitehair be benched or move to at minimum, try to light a fire under him to say that these mistakes are unacceptable?

 

here is the problem... i THINK whitehair is the better blocker (can someone verify this who has access to game film rewinds?). although with that said he has also come up with some critical holding calls to go with the bad snaps.

 

whatever the case these bad snaps HAVE to stop. whether benching him for a while or spend the entire practices having him long snap, someone needs to do something about this. the qb needs to have the confidence in his center to get the ball cleanly to him.

 

maybe have our special teams long snapper work with him on this problem may offer some help.

[jason]

here is the problem... i THINK whitehair is the better blocker (can someone verify this who has access to game film rewinds?). although with that said he has also come up with some critical holding calls to go with the bad snaps.

 

whatever the case these bad snaps HAVE to stop. whether benching him for a while or spend the entire practices having him long snap, someone needs to do something about this. the qb needs to have the confidence in his center to get the ball cleanly to him.

 

maybe have our special teams long snapper work with him on this problem may offer some help.

 

I didn't get to watch the game, but I've been saying for a while, since before the season, they should have moved Whitehair out to LT where he played in college. He only ended up at center by default after Grasu's injury. It's arguably his third best position. If the OL is struggling in pass protection, and the Center is struggling with snaps/holds, there is no reason to protect integrity and cohesion of a unit that isn't doing superbly. Granted, the running game sure did seem to work. Again, however, I didn't watch the game.

 

I can't imagine Whitehair would be worst at tackle than either Leno or Massie. That would be bigger upgrade than the downgrade at center between him and Grasu. In fact, Grasu might be an improvement given the issues Whitehair has had this year.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

I didn't get to watch the game, but I've been saying for a while, since before the season, they should have moved Whitehair out to LT where he played in college. He only ended up at center by default after Grasu's injury. It's arguably his third best position. If the OL is struggling in pass protection, and the Center is struggling with snaps/holds, there is no reason to protect integrity and cohesion of a unit that isn't doing superbly. Granted, the running game sure did seem to work. Again, however, I didn't watch the game.

 

I can't imagine Whitehair would be worst at tackle than either Leno or Massie. That would be bigger upgrade than the downgrade at center between him and Grasu. In fact, Grasu might be an improvement given the issues Whitehair has had this year.

 

Whitehair’s shotgun snaps definitely leave something to be desired. Happened a few times to Glennon and at least twice more in yesterday’s game. One went way over Trubiskys head and rolled into the end zone. Trub was able to grab it and throw it away but was awfully close to being downed in the EZ. If he’s better at Tackle, it’s time to move him.

 

Sowell filled in briefly for Whitehair before and didn’t seem to do all that bad. And I though part of the lure for Compton was his ability to cover all three interior spots? Maybe try him?

[Pixote]

Whitehair’s shotgun snaps definitely leave something to be desired. Happened a few times to Glennon and at least twice more in yesterday’s game. One went way over Trubiskys head and rolled into the end zone. Trub was able to grab it and throw it away but was awfully close to being downed in the EZ. If he’s better at Tackle, it’s time to move him.

 

Sowell filled in briefly for Whitehair before and didn’t seem to do all that bad. And I though part of the lure for Compton was his ability to cover all three interior spots? Maybe try him?

 

The sad part is that it wasn't just the two bad snaps that were near the end zone that everyone is talking about. I saw several other snaps that Trubisky had to struggle to control that were errant as well. That in itself can throw off a QB's timing and in the case of a rookie QB with little experience could cause some confidence issues.

 

It is bad enough to ask a rookie QB to play with an OC's questionable play calling, an OL struggling to protect him, WRs who drop way too many passes & run wrong routes but then throw in the bad snaps ... this is ugly!

 

Tubisky has done extremely well, IMO, considering how his supporting cast on the Offense has let him down. Thankfully we have a good running game and a solid defense or it would be far worse.

 

 

[adam]

I know this would be conspiracy theory talk, but do you think Whitehair would purposely play like that so they move him to Guard or Tackle?

 

How does someone play so good one year and then seems like a player that has never snapped the ball before the next year? Seems odd. Just a thought.

[ASHKUM BEAR]

I know this would be conspiracy theory talk, but do you think Whitehair would purposely play like that so they move him to Guard or Tackle?

 

How does someone play so good one year and then seems like a player that has never snapped the ball before the next year? Seems odd. Just a thought.

I think this will be an issue with him until he grows out of it. Center is one of the tougher positions to get right and he is still a little raw. Sitton can play C if needed, which they should have played him there with Whitehair at G and the they have Grasu possibly there to take the reins.

[Mongo3451]

I know this would be conspiracy theory talk, but do you think Whitehair would purposely play like that so they move him to Guard or Tackle?

 

How does someone play so good one year and then seems like a player that has never snapped the ball before the next year? Seems odd. Just a thought.

That's not in any players mindset. And whoever keeps saying put him at tackle, just stop it.

[bowlingtwig]

Unfortunately right now all of this is on whitehair. Grasu is currently injured again so whitehair just needs to overcome his issues one way or another.

[lemonej]

There was times during training camp Whitehair was at guard while Long was recovering from injury and that in itself may have something to do with his inconsistency.

[bowlingtwig]

There was times during training camp Whitehair was at guard while Long was recovering from injury and that in itself may have something to do with his inconsistency.

I'd be willing to bet that your right. All throughout camp he was rarely ever at center