Upcoming Schedule - Silver Lining

[adam]

If there was ever a time to get on a hot streak, it's now. With the news of Brees' injury, I would be shocked if he was back in 5 weeks for our game. They have a Week 9 Bye, so it would make sense to target his return no earlier than Week 10.  That makes our next 7 games extremely favorable. 

Week 3 - at Washington (Win, Guice out, bad defense)
Week 4 - vs Minnesota (Win, Cousins looks worse than Trubisky, outside of Cook, offense not doing too much)
Week 5 - at Oakland (in London, Win, Mack will singlehandedly win this game for us)
Week 6 - Bye
Week 7 - vs New Orleans (w/o Brees, at home, Win)
Week 8 - vs Los Angeles Chargers (LAC not a good road team, Win)
Week 9 - at Philadelphia (Loss, a winnable game, but unless we see a huge improvement on the offense, this is a loss)
Week 10 - vs Detroit (Win, Lions at Soldier Field)

The Bears have a chance to go into Week 11 against the Rams at 7-2 and that's not a stretch by any means. These are all winnable games and the Brees news gives us an extra favorable game.

[Bill]

I would love to be so positive.  But I've lost all confidence with the offense this year.  It looks more like year two of Trestman than anything else.  Not in the sense of losing the team but just a fluke last year.  I bought all the hype on Mitch over that last year.  But all the signs that I tried to blot out are ringing in my head.  Nagy always being optimistic about Mitch and how he's progressing.  Saying that all the mistakes in camp were planned.  Not letting him play in preseason.  Going from 101 to 202.  What coach has ever used terms like that.  And now they say they are going back to 101.  I just have no confidence with all the explanations I have heard since training camp started.  I just don't think He has IT.  No matter what it is.  I hope I'm wrong but a few good plays here and there can't keep me from seeing all the things I think I see. 

[adam]

10 hours ago, Bill said:

I would love to be so positive.  But I've lost all confidence with the offense this year.  It looks more like year two of Trestman than anything else.  Not in the sense of losing the team but just a fluke last year.  I bought all the hype on Mitch over that last year.  But all the signs that I tried to blot out are ringing in my head.  Nagy always being optimistic about Mitch and how he's progressing.  Saying that all the mistakes in camp were planned.  Not letting him play in preseason.  Going from 101 to 202.  What coach has ever used terms like that.  And now they say they are going back to 101.  I just have no confidence with all the explanations I have heard since training camp started.  I just don't think He has IT.  No matter what it is.  I hope I'm wrong but a few good plays here and there can't keep me from seeing all the things I think I see. 

Bill, how do you feel about Dak Prescott? In Year 2, he had 8 games with less than 200 passing yards, and only one game with over 270 yards (out of 16 games). In his Year #3, he started out with 170 yds, 160 yds, 168 yds for a 1-2 start. People were calling for his head in Dallas. Even after that slow start, he didn't get much better, he threw for over 290 twice, a 455 yard game against PHI (like Trubisky's TB game) and ending the season with 387 against the hapless Giants. In 50 career games, he has 6x 300 yard passing games. Trubisky has 5 in 28. Some guys just need more time than others. I am growing impatient as hell with the offense and Trubisky but we can win without Trubisky throwing for 300 yards every game (though that would be fun to watch).

To me, something else is going on with Trubisky and the offense, because we are now at the 2004 level of offensive ineptitude. That year we rolled out Hutchinson, Krenzel, Quinn, and Grossman who combined for 9 TDs and 16 INTs and 2641 passing yards (165 yards /game). We didn't even have a 1,000 yard rusher as Jones only ran for 948 and was the lone bright spot on offense. It seems like we are in the perfect storm of problems all hitting at the same time.

There are a bunch of issues with the offense and though Trubisky is a big part of the problem, I don't think he is the biggest part. The offensive line is the biggest issue; the James Daniels experience should be over. Move Whitehair back to Center. Why fix something that ain't broke? We have too much money invested in the O-Line for it to be that bad. It is a bottom-5 unit right now on run and pass. Unacceptable. Guys are running right past our O-Line like turnstiles, it is baffling to me. We can't get a running lane to save our lives. Leno already has 4x penalties in two games. Go back and watch the Patterson run, Leno gets leveled by a guy half his size. 

Next, you have Nagy's playcalling and packages. There is a point where it's too much and I think we have reached that point. In Game 1, the Bears used 32 different lineups on offense on 60 plays. That is insane. No one can get into a rhythm like that. He is tricking nobody. His plays are predictable. Just go back to good ole' play action, which actually works. Nagy even mentioned players running the wrong routes. So just think if you are Trubisky and you drop back and guys are not where they are supposed to be. What do you do? Where do you throw the ball? Nagy got better in game 2 with his run/pass ratio, but we still have a long way to go. He has always been a better coach than player caller, and maybe the Bears look to have someone else take over these duties at some point. 

Receivers - I will first say that no one knows who is running what route, so we can't say for sure that it's the receiver or the QB's fault (or both). However, from Nagy's statement, he alluded to the fact that receivers are not running the exact route called. Also, why are guys not getting open? This has been an alarming trend for the start of the season. Look at the other NFL games, guys are wide open, QB's getting good protection to make the throws. Is Trubisky missing some, absolutely, but it's not like he is missing an open guy on every bad play. There just doesn't seem to be anyone open or where they are supposed to be. 

Trubisky, he is going to get all the blame and he deserves a lot of it. I don't know why he has regressed, but he has if you just look at his play in a vacuum. It almost seems like Nagy put in a whole new offense this offseason and everyone is back to square one. Nagy has to be telling Trubisky not to take chances, so he is overthinking on every play instead of just playing the game fluidly. Lastly, I wonder if he is having any lingering effects from his injury last year. That would be the only other factor that you would have to consider. Is he playing through some minor issue every game that is limiting his strength, accuracy, timing, etc? 

Now back to the topic.....we have a top 3 defense and we just need to be average on offense to be a playoff team. Right now we are terrible, but there is nothing special about any of the teams we are facing, so we have a shot to right the ship before the schedule gets tough.