Patriots at Bears Official Game Thread (Sun, Oct 21 12:00 PM CDT/CBS/NE -3)

[50england50]

I agree Mitch didn’t have a good game but on the Bellamy and Miller ints the player who touched the ball first was the Bear and then the defender came down with the ball. I thought the receiver once they had the could have fought better and at the least caused the pass to be an incompletion. 

Can’t understand why White isn’t being given the opportunity.  I know Nagy stated Bellamy knows the play book better but he can’t catch a cold. 

[Stinger226]

As much as their was a lot to see that looked bad, I would have to say when you give up to ST TDs, two interceptions and are one yard away from tying the game against NE, there is probably some good things to look at when the dust settles.At the end of the game, MT had a guy in face or he would have been able to step up and get the ball into the end zone, whether their would have been a catch is another story. I'm Mr. Brightside so I still good things to come. I started out thinking 10-6 would be our record and still think that is achievable until otherwise proven wrong. Their will be plenty to complain about later.

[BearFan2000]

Plenty of blame to go around in this one.  I thought the second half play calling and end of game time management hurt us a lot.   I feel like we miss spent time outs on NE's last drive that could have given us more time with the ball to try to tie the game.  when we did get the ball with 30 seconds left and decent field position but no time outs.  We throw to the middle of the field and chew up 21 seconds of precious time.  Which by the way how is it not a delay of game when 2-3 patriots pile on and try to hold our player down to keep the clock running?  But that sequence left us with 9 seconds and a lot of real-estate.  So what do we do? We throw a short pass to the sidelines that eats up 7 seconds and nets us 7 yards...  With 2 seconds left it's hail marry time and we can't give Mitch time to throw and come up a yard short of tying.  With 30 seconds and no time outs we should have used the sidelines.  In that situation you only throw to the middle of the field when you have time outs left.  It came down to this but it shouldn't have.  We gave up two special Teams TDs, two Interceptions.  Mitchel was horribly inaccurate.  His ball placement was terrible. He looked sharper the previous two games.  We know there will be growing pains but then watching Mahomes and KC destroy the Bengals it's hard to watch Mitch have games like this.  Teams are going to continue to throw the kitchen sink at him till he proves he can handle it.  I will say this game didn't sting as much as the Dolphin's game, that game was there for the taking and we crapped it down our legs.  We could be looking at 4-2 vs 3-3.   We went from 1st in the division to last in one week.  There's plenty of football to play this year but if the Bears hope to make the playoffs they've put themselves in a must win situation.  But, we do face two winnable games ahead of 3 critical NFC north matchups.  We could be 5-3 heading into home games against Detroit and Minny, followed by a road game at Detroit.  

[DABEARSDABOMB]

20 hours ago, adam said:

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. 

Hopefully you can recognize this was an absurd hot take. He absolutely can read NFL defenses and has shown progress every week this season.  He missed a lot more throws than I'd like, but he's throwing to the right guy more often than not. Every wideout is going to not see a guy (cause it is their 3rd or 4th read). Shoot, if you watched the early Chargers game you would have seen Keenan Allen throw a hissy fit on the sideline where Rivers missed him. The reality was, Rivers missed him because at the time, given the pre-snap read, Allen wasn't the guy you were going to target.  It happens.

Now Trubisky's footwork is going to have to improve but I've loved the progress I've seen from him this year and the moxy he has. This whole year is about his development and while I'm bummed we lost, this team now has the talent to go toe-to-toe with the best, however, it doesn't quite have that experience yet and consistency necessary to take it to the next level. I'm extremely optmistic about the long-term and if Mitch can keep making strides, he'll have an off-season where he isn't learning a brand new offense, but instead can be working on mastering the offense and building more and more rapport with his weapons, while also putting heavy work into cleaning up some of his mechanics.  

He was never a turn-key QB, it was going to take time, but the dude works hard, studies the film, and seems pretty intelligent out there.  The arrow is absolutely pointing up.  He could still go bust and just not be accurate, but I don't buy jumping to all of those conclusions just yet, not with the progress that has been made.  

[DABEARSDABOMB]

19 hours ago, Bears4Ever_34 said:

Next two weeks are must wins. You usually only get 6 losses to make the playoffs most years. If the Bears lose 4 games before getting into the bulk of their divisional games in the coming weeks, you can pretty much say goodbye to your post-season hopes. They also have the Rams, which is almost certainly a loss as well. That's why that Miami game was so crucial, because you expected this Patriots loss. 4-2 looks so much better than 3-3.

I agree...I expect them to be 5-3 2 Monday's from now.  

[Alaskan Grizzly]

Again, you be the judge.

[DABEARSDABOMB]

16 hours ago, adam said:

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.
 

I want to make a correction, the pass that Trubisky threw to Bellamy was not a bad decision. Where the Bears were given the situation, that is a throw he should have made every time.  And you know what, more often than not, that is either a Bears completion or an incomplete vs. a pick. That was a 3rd down where the turnover didn't give the Pats any great field position...but the 1st down would have been huge.  The two picks he did throw, were great plays by the D...that said, he should have had 2 other picks from what were bad decisions.  The picks to Miller was a great play by the DB, but it was still an awful throw by Trubisky (not a bad decision). I differentiate the two...a good throw and its a TD, not a pick.  Heck a decent throw and it is probably a TD. 

One thing I don't know is how much the wind played into things. I know the Bears didn't kick the long field goal (at end of 1st half) because of the wind conditions. Not sure if the wind was impacting the deep throws.  

[jason]

What I said last week still holds very true about Trubisky:

1. He has a bad long ball that sails more often than not.
2. He has happy feet in the pocket and looks to run far too often.
3. He makes a handful of horrendous passes each game.

On the third item, it's just a matter of time before he has a 4-5 interception game. For whatever reason the other teams are dropping gimme interceptions.

[Mongo3451]

12 minutes ago, jason said:

1.  

On the third item, it's just a matter of time before he has a 4-5 interception game. For whatever reason the other teams are dropping gimme interceptions.

Nah

[jason]

1 minute ago, Mongo3451 said:

Nah

How do you figure? Trubisky had two in the game already. And he threw 2 or 3 other really bad passes into coverage. If I recall correctly, there were two in the EZ alone.

 

[Mongo3451]

1 hour ago, jason said:

How do you figure? Trubisky had two in the game already. And he threw 2 or 3 other really bad passes into coverage. If I recall correctly, there were two in the EZ alone.

 

That first one was completely on the receiver.  He didn't use his positioning first and second he got out fought for the ball.  One play you are referring to was in the right side of the end zone where Robinson didn't win a battle he was supposed to.  He was nowhere near ready to catch that ball.  We can argue the other there later, if you wish.