Saints @ Bears - Week 8 - Official Game Thread - 11/1, Bears +4, 3:25 PM CT, FOX

[adam]

5 hours ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Dwayne Harris has been activated for tomorrow.  I’m expecting good things from him.  Maybe the Patterson of the PRs?

 

Great news, no more Ginn. With the wind, there may be a chance for some returns. 

[adam]

This is a huge game for playoff implications. New Orleans is the 8th seed and with a win, would knock us from the 5th seed to no better than the 8th seed (outside looking in). With a Bears win, they would still be the top non-division leading team and would be keeping pace with GB with 2 games against them (which may ultimately decide the division).

With a loss, the Saints would fall to 4-3 and would be 2 games out of a playoff spot with 9 to play. 

[Alaskan Grizzly]

17 hours ago, Mongo3451 said:

He gets paid regardless.  Unless you are talking incentives.

I mean more about his next contract.  Either an extension here or a new one elsewhere.  Honestly not sure why Pace is waiting.  

[adam]

Some interesting early games. Rams down big in Miami (Goff with 4 turnovers in the 1st half), Vikings and Packers tied at halftime, and the Lions losing badly against Indy.  

[Alaskan Grizzly]

24 minutes ago, adam said:

Some interesting early games. Rams down big in Miami (Goff with 4 turnovers in the 1st half), Vikings and Packers tied at halftime, and the Lions losing badly against Indy.  

Depending on how things go today I really believe the Bears can give GB a run for their money.  GB is really 1.5 dimensional (I’ve added their running game at half value).  You disrupt AR in any way shape or form, you can beat them.  Goff is having it happen to him in Miami.  Wish the Bears could’ve figured that out.  

[adam]

22 minutes ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Depending on how things go today I really believe the Bears can give GB a run for their money.  GB is really 1.5 dimensional (I’ve added their running game at half value).  You disrupt AR in any way shape or form, you can beat them.  Goff is having it happen to him in Miami.  Wish the Bears could’ve figured that out.  

Dalvin Cook has more yards than the entire GB team. We need to use Monty the same way. This is the blue print to dominate them.

[adam]

Rams down by 18, Stafford threw a pick-6, now down by 21, Packers down by 14. These early games are going perfectly for us. Now a win would be huge for us as we would move ahead of the Packers in the Division and Conference.

[Stinger226]

The bears have faired well after looking bad in the previous game under Nagy. 5-0 on a short week.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

15 minutes ago, Stinger226 said:

The bears have faired well after looking bad in the previous game under Nagy. 5-0 on a short week.

Fingers crossed.  I like the weather and home field to help.  Nagy just needs to call a smart game and this should work out. 

[BearFan2000]

no way that is saints ball. Refs getting right on trying to screw the Bears

[Alaskan Grizzly]

I’m all for Troy Aikman becoming the Bears OC.  Think I’ll start a petition.  

[Mongo3451]

Coward can have a season ending injury anytime soon

 

[ASHKUM BEAR]

There is a back shoulder throw. Couple nice plays by Foles. 10-3

[BearFan2000]

What a sequence.   They doink a chip shot and we go 80 yards in 4 plays and get a TD.   We finally made the connection to Mooney down field.

What a throw and catch for the TD.

[Stinger226]

There playing physical today. Looking good. 

[Alaskan Grizzly]

Where the heck is Lamar Miller? 

[BearFan2000]

horribly soft D at the end of the half now only up by 3 at the half.  That was far too easy. 

[Alaskan Grizzly]

Sorry...but I have now lost my trust in Foles.  He’s gone bad...quick.  

[Alaskan Grizzly]

Danny T...is...BACK!

[adam]

What a horrible loss. The wheels are off the dumpster. Bears now 5-3 and out of the playoffs. Easy loss next week to the Titans to go to 5-4, then a possible loss against the Vikings who just beat the Packers and we might end up 5-5 at the bye after a 5-1 start. 4 straight losses is a firing offense for me. Garbage game plan, the same stupid calls. I still don't understand why they go away from what is working to run into the back of your offensive lineman on back to back plays to burn time off the clock to give you no chance to win the game.

Nagy is the worst play caller in the NFL. Bears up 13-3, the Saints have the ball at their 40 with a 3rd Down and Nagy calls a timeout. Guess what happens? The Saints get the first down, then go down without any resistance to score a TD to close the half. I get that you are trying to get the ball back, but you just scored and were getting the ball after halftime. At least make NO call the timeout there.

Then the defense, what kind of coverage is that? Cook wide open with Johnson 5 yards behind him in the end zone? A backup QB gets an easy TD catch? We paid all that money for Mack and Quinn and Quinn is a ghost out there. That looks like wasted money right now. I get that the defense has to deal with the bad offense, but they don't do themselves favors. Skrine's penalty basically sealed the game for the Bears in OT. It was a bad pass and would've been incomplete.

The penalties, the Wims crap, this is an undisciplined team, and that points to coaching too. I would not mind seeing a coaching change sooner than later. It is just not going to work with Nagy. He is too stubborn to make the changes that are needed to get over the hump. This is going to be a rough season. I am thinking 7-9 or 8-8 at best and nowhere near the playoffs. 

 

[adam]

We also lost to a team without their top 3 WRs. Think about that for a second......

[Alaskan Grizzly]

I know this was brought up a few times last year but I’d be totally fine with Pagano taking over the HC job at this point.  Usually the defensive minded coaches are more conservative (yes boring) but are consistent with their play calling.  Maybe look for a bruiser back like Howard to complement Montgomery and we could actually focus more on a balanced attack.  As much as it pains me to say this I’d also be ok with putting Trubiksy back in. Foles’ mistakes are not really any different than Mitch but he has less of an excuse to me making them.    Add that Pagano’s got experience in the drivers seat and I’d be ok with that to finish out the year.  

[Bears4Ever_34]

As previously stated, the season could very well be on the line in a couple of weeks against MIN. If they lose that game, along with the TEN game, they're done. Minnesota doesn't look like an easy win anymore as long as Dalvin Cook is healthy.

The two positives I take away from tonight's game is that Darnell Mooney is going to be no worse than a good #3 WR, and also Dwayne Harris is infinitely better than Ted Ginn as a punt returner. I liked what I saw from him in this game.

From this point forward, Mooney needs to be touching the ball at least 7-10 times a game. He's the one guy on this offense that can make plays with his feet, and so they need to start using him in more ways that can exploit a defense. Him blowing past defenders is becoming a weekly occurrence the last couple of weeks, and yet he's only managed to bring down 1 of those balls.

[adam]

There were two things that really stood out to me about the game, amongst a million things going on. First, why would Nagy call a timeout when the Saints have the ball at their 40 and a 3rd down up 13-3 when it looks like the Saints are content to let the clock run out and get into half? I understand the thought process of getting a stop and getting the ball back, but how realistic was that going to be with under a minute left and having the ball inside your 20? It would've been totally different if the Saints were inside their 30, but not at the 40. I thought that was too risky and sure enough, the Saints have enough time to score a TD before half and cut the lead to 3. Terrible.

Then when we are down 10 with 6:24 left, at the Saints 12. It took 3 minutes to score a TD, 3 minutes to get 12 yards. That is insane. Some of the worst clock management I have ever seen. We needed two scores, so why are wasting that much time? In those 3 minutes, the Bears ran only 6 plays, 3 runs, a pass behind the LOS to Miller (loss of 3), the Graham DPI, and the TD to Mooney. WTF was that? Then you get the ball back and now only have 1:51 left to get in FG range to tie the game. 

So now you are moving the ball and get to the Saints 49 with 1:12 left with 2 timeouts left, and you decide to RUN THE BALL for no gain, and just like that you have to burn a timeout and now only have 38 seconds left at the 47. 34 seconds, 2 yards, seriously. 

[DABEARSDABOMB]

11 hours ago, Bears4Ever_34 said:

As previously stated, the season could very well be on the line in a couple of weeks against MIN. If they lose that game, along with the TEN game, they're done. Minnesota doesn't look like an easy win anymore as long as Dalvin Cook is healthy.

The two positives I take away from tonight's game is that Darnell Mooney is going to be no worse than a good #3 WR, and also Dwayne Harris is infinitely better than Ted Ginn as a punt returner. I liked what I saw from him in this game.

From this point forward, Mooney needs to be touching the ball at least 7-10 times a game. He's the one guy on this offense that can make plays with his feet, and so they need to start using him in more ways that can exploit a defense. Him blowing past defenders is becoming a weekly occurrence the last couple of weeks, and yet he's only managed to bring down 1 of those balls.

My asks are simple after this game.  Oline needs to be evaluated more...I thought it was actually better than I expected against Saints. Outside of that - I'm tired of how cute Nagy is with his personnel usage.  

Patterson - Minimize use of entirely

Anthony Miller - This is opposite of what I said - but get him on the field more; he is one of your playmakers and can get open, so use him and use him more.  He was regularly open yesterday (including a number of times Foles didn't go to him)

Graham - If you aren't in the red zone, don't use him;

Kmet - Get him on the field a lot more and in lieu of Graham (with only possible exception being red zone area)

Remove all gadget plays from Nagy's playbook - I'm tired of all the failed gadget plays out of Nagy. Too many 2nd and 14's or 19's because of some stupid gadget play that worked terribly.