Week 4 Official Game Thread - DET @ CHI , -3.0, O/U 42.5, SUN 10/3, 12:00PM CT - FOX

[Bears4Ever_34]

Bounce back game for Fields and the offense. I thought Fields played well for the most part. Would have been nice to get his first touchdown pass.

The defense did not play well. If Detroit didn't Detroit themselves at the goal line 3 consecutive times early in that game, they probably end up winning. I'm getting really tired of seeing miscommunication in the secondary every week where somebody is wide open for a touchdown down the field. Robert Quinn and the rest of the pass rush is about the only positive thing you could say about them today. Desai needs to get this stuff cleaned up.

Next week is a winnable game, but it'll be a tough test. The Raiders might have the best offense the Bears will have played all season, but their defense will allow some points. This team can't win a shootout yet, so the key to the game is going to probably come down to who wins the matchup between the Bears defense and the Raiders offense. 

[AZ54]

1 hour ago, Bears4Ever_34 said:

Bounce back game for Fields and the offense. I thought Fields played well for the most part. Would have been nice to get his first touchdown pass.

 

I like the fact he didn't seem to care about that, at least I didn't hear anything in the post game press conference about it.  Just win.  

[AZ54]

3 hours ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Uhm duh…. ?

 

More than anything Nagy said about the play calling it was Fields in the post game presser complimenting how he likes when Lazor calls the plays.  Fields said Nagy is too busy running the team and that (paraphrasing here) the chaos or energy of all that comes across the headset in the play calls.  Lazor is just calmly reciting the play call from the booth which helped Fields.  I was surprised Fields said that but he managed to do it in a way that didn't throw the head coach under the bus.     Really curious to see where this goes from here.  

[AZ54]

I'm watching some highlights of Fields' big throws.   One thing jumps out.... our WRs are loving his ability to throw the deep ball.  Watch Goodwin celebrate Arob's deep-out catch on the third highlight.  Forget where receivers go to die, long term this is the stuff FA WRs are willing to sign up to be part of.  Goodwin knows his turn is coming soon as long as Fields is out there.   You can't put the genie back in the bottle.  To ARob's credit that was a great catch too!   FWIW that first highlight pass to Mooney was about 50 yards in the air perfectly in stride.  For most QBs when you start getting around 50+ yards the accuracy drops because they are putting so much effort into the pass and typically you see the receiver making the adjustments to the ball.  Maybe Fields can throw 60+ yards I don't know but this is getting into elite passing ability.  Yes I know we all saw this on his highlights from OSU but I'm seeing it in a Bears uniform so let me enjoy the moment.  

https://bearswire.usatoday.com/2021/10/03/bears-justin-fields-deep-ball-darnell-mooney-lions-week-4/

[adam]

Justin Fields explosive play rate was 22%. That will only go up as he starts making quicker decisions, especially to tuck and run.

For a 2nd career start, the numbers don't do it justice because the Bears went into a kill-the-clock mode once they got up by 3 TDs early in the 3rd quarter. Even so, he finished 11-17, 209 yds and 1 INT off a tipped ball. I know people don't like to compare, but here are Trubisky's first 4 starts:

12-25, 128 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT
8-16, 113 yds, 1 TD
4-7, 107 yds
14-32, 164 yds, 1 INT

So Trubisky's stats looked like this thru his first 4 games as a rookie:

38-80, 47.5%, 502 yds, 2 TD, 2 INT which averages out to be:

9.5-20, 125 yds, 0.5 TD, 0.5 INT per game

My expectation for Fields is that he will continually improve as he gets more reps with the 1s. If you consider Cleveland as his first preseason game, Detroit was number 2. Number 3 is where you really should see the improvement, which is next Sunday in Vegas. The good thing is the Raiders play MNF on the road. So they will have 1.5 less days to prep for the Bears and they only have one game of tape with the new offense to review. 

I expect Fields to have 250+ yds next week, with 2 TDs and a few extra yards on the ground. I think you will see some more TE usage next week as well. 

Thoughts?

[BearFan2000]

10 hours ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Uhm duh…. ?

 

That is so Nagy to hand out the compliment but then refuse to answer any more questions about who's calling plays.  His ego is taking a hit.  He's been roasted in the past for his poor play calling, the flames went higher after last week's debacle.  I'm sure he was pressured to hand over play calling since his ego makes him think he's smarter than everyone else.  The proof is in the pudding as it was night and day different with Lazor calling the plays.  There was continuity, and a real sense of some kind of game plan.   I like that Fields addressed the play calling this week vs last week but did it in a diplomatic honest way.  When Nagy's calling plays it really looks like he's just making it up as he goes like a student guessing at multiple choice questions on a test they didn't study for. He has a handful of plays he likes and that seems to be the pool he picks from.  This is always a potential issue when a HC decides to handle either offensive or defensive play calls, their focus needs to be on the overall team, and often one or the other or even both suffer.  Here's hoping two things happen going forward Fields continues to start, and Lazor calls plays.  There will be bumps and he'll make mistakes from time to time but as long as Lazor is making the calls I feel like that creates a better situation for Fields to grow.  Nagy calling the plays is the best way to stunt his growth.  I still want Nagy and Pace gone after the season, but I wouldn't be opposed to the next coach retaining Lazor if the chemistry between him and Fields is solid. 

As far as GM, our biggest needs going into next offseason is OL and secondary.  We have got to shore up the talent on the back end of the defense, the front end is doing its part.  And we need to stop mortgaging future draft capitol on the present out of desperation.  For once it would be nice to walk into draft day with our full compliment of picks or even being on the plus side.  We keep borrowing from the future so the limited amount of picks we have each draft drastically lowers the margin of error and makes the misses that much more catastrophic.  We've had both extremes in GM's who always traded down, and Pace who always wants to trade up, the best place to be is somewhere in the middle.  That said outside of the Jenkins pick (which many including myself liked at the time), was probably Pace's best draft to date.  Getting Fields at 11 was a steal (thank you SF & NYG).  It did involve luck but he made the right move and got the deal done.  

[Alaskan Grizzly]

3 hours ago, adam said:

I expect Fields to have 250+ yds next week, with 2 TDs and a few extra yards on the ground. I think you will see some more TE usage next week as well.

I think this is realistic enough.  I suspect we won’t have Montgomery for a few weeks but from what I saw, Williams is a capable back and I gotta believe Herbert can get some tough yards too.

I think there was one or two times I saw them try to get the ball to a TE not named Jimmy.  He’s a definite red zone threat (proved it last year) and between he and Kmet should be able to help loosen things up in the short/mid range.  We don’t need Fields to throw 20+ yard bombs every game.  
 

Got to see the Patriots/Bucs last night and Jones essentially was running the same plays Brady was.  Lots of short yardage gains over the middle to the TEs and quick outs to the WRs with the occasional long throw.  The game stayed close throughout with field goals ending up being the deciding factor.  There’s no doubt Fields is more talented than Jones and can do all he’s doing.  And by the way, I think there’s a good possibility the Bears could beat the Bucs on the road in a few weeks.  As long as they play smart and control the ball.  

 

[Alaskan Grizzly]

2 hours ago, BearFan2000 said:

This is so Nagy to hand out the compliment but then refuse to answer any more questions about who's calling plays.  His ego is taking a hit.

The guys on the Bears “After Show” would agree with you.  These guys do a great job each week dissecting how the Bears do after the fact.  And they usually spend a fair amount of time roasting Nagy, well at least Kreutz does.  
 

 

[Uncle Buck]

I think the fact that Nagy has had to relinquish play calling duties twice now should qualify for his termination. His ego is damaging to the team. The team produces better under Lazor. What leader would sacrifice his team’s well being to satisfy his own ego? This behavior alone should be the reason he’s let go. As for Pace, he let Nagy have a second bite at the play calling apple. The decision failed so that too should be a black ledger mark against him (Pace) in his job evaluation 

[lemonej]

22 hours ago, adam said:

The ref suck. Crawford with a textbook ST tackle on a punt and penalized 15 yards. That gives the Lions the ball in the Bears territory and the Lions eventually score while holding the Bears on every play. Bears 21-7. Did I mention these refs suck?

How can you call "Catch Interference" when the player catches the ball? I know there should be a "Halo" when signaling for a fair catch but, that was a attempted return with the returner clearly making the catch cleanly! If you noticed during the broadcast the network didn't replay it more than once.

ling for a 

[BearFan2000]

27 minutes ago, lemonej said:

How can you call "Catch Interference" when the player catches the ball? I know there should be a "Halo" when signaling for a fair catch but, that was a attempted return with the returner clearly making the catch cleanly! If you noticed during the broadcast the network didn't replay it more than once.

ling for a 

And earlier in the game didn't we have our returner hit before he could make the catch and no call?

[lemonej]

6 minutes ago, BearFan2000 said:

And earlier in the game didn't we have our returner hit before he could make the catch and no call?

Yes and though the ball was not catchable he was clearly hit. That call is usually made on Fair Catch plays so I'm confused!

[adam]

5 hours ago, lemonej said:

How can you call "Catch Interference" when the player catches the ball? I know there should be a "Halo" when signaling for a fair catch but, that was a attempted return with the returner clearly making the catch cleanly! If you noticed during the broadcast the network didn't replay it more than once.

ling for a 

There were two calls that were inexcusable, that one because how can it be interference if he caught the ball cleanly? The other one was on the offsides after the play clock expired. It should've been a delay of game on the offense. Both of those were huge calls that accounted for -25 yards in total.