Week 4 Grades

[adam]

With a division win against Detroit, the Bears are now 2-2, which is where most people expected them to be after 4 games. Now comes the teeth of the schedule. They need to survive this stretch and come out of it .500 to have a chance at the playoffs. They have LV, GB, TB, SF, PIT, and BAL as their next 6 games. They need to split these and win at least 3 to have a chance at the playoffs. LV, SF, and PIT seem like the best opportunities for a win. GB, TB, and BAL are going to be tough games. 

With that said, here is how I would rate the units for the game against the Lions:

QB - A solid "B", still a few plays left on the field and a couple of chances missed. Those mistakes will get cleaned up with more reps. The future is bright for Fields. His improvement from Cleveland was visual and he still has a long way to go. However, the potential is there and is night and day compared to Mitch. 

RB - Definitely an "A", they rode the RBs to victory, 3 TDs from this group and a nice return by Herbert. Hopefully Monty's injury is not season-ending as he was nearing All-Pro discussions. 

TE - A big fat "D-" - for the money (Graham) and draft capital (Kmet) this group is not doing much. Holtz had a nice ST tackle, and the unit blocked decent, but man where are the targets for the TEs (3 for Kmet, 0 for all other TEs). James had some great chemistry with Fields in the preseason, lets see what he can do or Horsted. Those guys should be able to create some mismatches against LBs in coverage.

OL - B+, Only one sack allowed, and Fields took the blame for it. RBs had some space to run, a good overall game from the O-Line. No glaring problems and no drive-killing penalties. If they played like that for the rest of the year, I would be overjoyed. 

DL - C, the unit seemed to drop off a little bit after Hicks went out. Hopefully Goldman will get better with more reps as he was not really a factor. It felt like this unit wasn't getting much push inside or were able to clog lanes as they should. I don't recall hearing Nichols name called once, and Tonga was only mentioned for an unnecessary roughness penalty that shouldn't have been called. 

Edge - A, these guys are rolling, Quinn is playing like he has a full head of hair, Mack looks much better, and even Gipson has chipped in. All 3 had sacks and Quinn had some TFLs, a strip-sack, and some QB hurries. Mack has another chance at a revenge game next week in Vegas. I hope he is up to the challenge. 

ILB - B, this group was ok, Smith had a nice sack and 10 tackles, Ogletree had 12 tackles but it seemed like coverage was an issue for both of these guys. It is hard to argue with the tackle totals, but it felt like they were a step slow getting to gaps and in coverage. 

CB - C-, still too many big plays given up by this unit. If players like Cephus, St. Brown, and Raymond are all getting 20+ yard receptions (and TDs) on you, life is going to get really hard against actual NFL WRs. Johnson was fine and Shelley had a nice PBU on Hockenson, but the unit still feels like they are playing soft coverages and allowing easy receptions on every drive.

S - F, I thought this unit was going to be a strength after hearing a Gipson interview in the offseason, but they have become the worst unit on the team, and that is saying something with the O-Line and CBs. I just don't understand what is going on here. Bush has been with this team longer than any other defensive player, so he should know every coverage and call by now. They are still having too many breakdowns that lead to an easy TD. Eddie Jackson is the most overrated player on the team and now has the worst contract based on his play with how well Quinn is now playing. Eddie gets the golden toilet seat. His play is baffling. It reminds me of playing organized sports in the Army where you had the reluctant player who really didn't want to be out there. So they are on the field, but sort of floating around and are never really in the play. That is Jackson to a T. If you have Game Pass, go back and watch every defensive play and see what Jackson does. He ended the game with 2 tackles, that's it. He has zero PBUs in 4 games.  His lone highlight is his single forced fumble. To me it's related to his injury. He has never been the same player since that injury. He shies away from contact and whiffs more than he hits. It is quite embarrassing. The team will need to address this position sooner than later. I would look to trade Jackson just for cap relief as any player can come in and do what he does for league minimum. He should still have some value but the more bad games he puts on tape, the less they will get for him. 

ST - Santos continues his brilliance with 4 more kicks. Crawford got penalized on a bogus call, which ultimately led to a Lions TD. There were several missed calls and the Bears got the brunt of them. They were called for offsides when there should've been a delay of game called on the Lions, Kmet was held in the end zone (handful of jersey) with no call, and the refs swallowed their flags when the Lions offense was holding/tackling. 

Coaching - B, It was nice to see Lazor calling plays and you could tell the difference. Just like last year. Nagy should just hang up the play calling visor and card, and just be a HC. On defense, they did enough to win, and I liked the pressure packages, but the backend stuff has to be fixed. Desai is an old secondary coach, so this is extra puzzling. The Special Teams did what they were supposed to do and there were no breakdowns from the coverage units.

Overall, the team gets a B, they beat the Lions, at home. Not a huge accomplishment, but something to build on. The Raiders game feels like it will define the rest of the year. With a win, you are looking at a 9-10 win team. With a loss, expect 5-6 wins with a 6 game losing streak starting next week. 

 

[Mongo3451]

Nice write up.  My hope is that Pace permanently put an end to Nagy calling plays.

[adam]

1 minute ago, Mongo3451 said:

Nice write up.  My hope is that Pace permanently put an end to Nagy calling plays.

Me too. Just put a lock on it and throw away the key. There is no need to go back. 

[madlithuanian]

35 minutes ago, Mongo3451 said:

Nice write up.  My hope is that Pace permanently put an end to Nagy calling plays.

It won't his ego is too big to just let it be and admit guilt.  At some point, when we start seeing some potentially continued success, he'll take it back just like he did last year.  And do you really want a HC, where daddy GM has to continually tell him to give up play calling?  This isn't the guy to lead us to the promised land.

[madlithuanian]

2 hours ago, adam said:

With a division win against Detroit, the Bears are now 2-2, which is where most people expected them to be after 4 games. Now comes the teeth of the schedule. They need to survive this stretch and come out of it .500 to have a chance at the playoffs. They have LV, GB, TB, SF, PIT, and BAL as their next 6 games. They need to split these and win at least 3 to have a chance at the playoffs. LV, SF, and PIT seem like the best opportunities for a win. GB, TB, and BAL are going to be tough games. 

With that said, here is how I would rate the units for the game against the Lions:

QB - A solid "B", still a few plays left on the field and a couple of chances missed. Those mistakes will get cleaned up with more reps. The future is bright for Fields. His improvement from Cleveland was visual and he still has a long way to go. However, the potential is there and is night and day compared to Mitch. 

RB - Definitely an "A", they rode the RBs to victory, 3 TDs from this group and a nice return by Herbert. Hopefully Monty's injury is not season-ending as he was nearing All-Pro discussions. 

TE - A big fat "D-" - for the money (Graham) and draft capital (Kmet) this group is not doing much. Holtz had a nice ST tackle, and the unit blocked decent, but man where are the targets for the TEs (3 for Kmet, 0 for all other TEs). James had some great chemistry with Fields in the preseason, lets see what he can do or Horsted. Those guys should be able to create some mismatches against LBs in coverage.

OL - B+, Only one sack allowed, and Fields took the blame for it. RBs had some space to run, a good overall game from the O-Line. No glaring problems and no drive-killing penalties. If they played like that for the rest of the year, I would be overjoyed. 

DL - C, the unit seemed to drop off a little bit after Hicks went out. Hopefully Goldman will get better with more reps as he was not really a factor. It felt like this unit wasn't getting much push inside or were able to clog lanes as they should. I don't recall hearing Nichols name called once, and Tonga was only mentioned for an unnecessary roughness penalty that shouldn't have been called. 

Edge - A, these guys are rolling, Quinn is playing like he has a full head of hair, Mack looks much better, and even Gipson has chipped in. All 3 had sacks and Quinn had some TFLs, a strip-sack, and some QB hurries. Mack has another chance at a revenge game next week in Vegas. I hope he is up to the challenge. 

ILB - B, this group was ok, Smith had a nice sack and 10 tackles, Ogletree had 12 tackles but it seemed like coverage was an issue for both of these guys. It is hard to argue with the tackle totals, but it felt like they were a step slow getting to gaps and in coverage. 

CB - C-, still too many big plays given up by this unit. If players like Cephus, St. Brown, and Raymond are all getting 20+ yard receptions (and TDs) on you, life is going to get really hard against actual NFL WRs. Johnson was fine and Shelley had a nice PBU on Hockenson, but the unit still feels like they are playing soft coverages and allowing easy receptions on every drive.

S - F, I thought this unit was going to be a strength after hearing a Gipson interview in the offseason, but they have become the worst unit on the team, and that is saying something with the O-Line and CBs. I just don't understand what is going on here. Bush has been with this team longer than any other defensive player, so he should know every coverage and call by now. They are still having too many breakdowns that lead to an easy TD. Eddie Jackson is the most overrated player on the team and now has the worst contract based on his play with how well Quinn is now playing. Eddie gets the golden toilet seat. His play is baffling. It reminds me of playing organized sports in the Army where you had the reluctant player who really didn't want to be out there. So they are on the field, but sort of floating around and are never really in the play. That is Jackson to a T. If you have Game Pass, go back and watch every defensive play and see what Jackson does. He ended the game with 2 tackles, that's it. He has zero PBUs in 4 games.  His lone highlight is his single forced fumble. To me it's related to his injury. He has never been the same player since that injury. He shies away from contact and whiffs more than he hits. It is quite embarrassing. The team will need to address this position sooner than later. I would look to trade Jackson just for cap relief as any player can come in and do what he does for league minimum. He should still have some value but the more bad games he puts on tape, the less they will get for him. 

ST - Santos continues his brilliance with 4 more kicks. Crawford got penalized on a bogus call, which ultimately led to a Lions TD. There were several missed calls and the Bears got the brunt of them. They were called for offsides when there should've been a delay of game called on the Lions, Kmet was held in the end zone (handful of jersey) with no call, and the refs swallowed their flags when the Lions offense was holding/tackling. 

Coaching - B, It was nice to see Lazor calling plays and you could tell the difference. Just like last year. Nagy should just hang up the play calling visor and card, and just be a HC. On defense, they did enough to win, and I liked the pressure packages, but the backend stuff has to be fixed. Desai is an old secondary coach, so this is extra puzzling. The Special Teams did what they were supposed to do and there were no breakdowns from the coverage units.

Overall, the team gets a B, they beat the Lions, at home. Not a huge accomplishment, but something to build on. The Raiders game feels like it will define the rest of the year. With a win, you are looking at a 9-10 win team. With a loss, expect 5-6 wins with a 6 game losing streak starting next week. 

 

Well put.  The big plus is we saw what we were hoping we'd see from Fields. 

[Mongo3451]

19 minutes ago, madlithuanian said:

It won't his ego is too big to just let it be and admit guilt.  At some point, when we start seeing some potentially continued success, he'll take it back just like he did last year.  And do you really want a HC, where daddy GM has to continually tell him to give up play calling?  This isn't the guy to lead us to the promised land.

Nagy has an overwhelming desire and drive to call plays.  You are right about his ego/blindness.  Maybe, as he matures as a human being, he will have the humility for the greater good.  He doesn't have it now, so yes he still needs to go. 

[AZ54]

5 hours ago, Mongo3451 said:

Nagy has an overwhelming desire and drive to call plays.  You are right about his ego/blindness.  Maybe, as he matures as a human being, he will have the humility for the greater good.  He doesn't have it now, so yes he still needs to go. 

Andy Reid had to let go of play calling too in order to save his career.  Nagy would do well to learn from his mentor.  

[Connorbear]

I thought Duke Shelley had an outstanding game. He had at least 3 good solo tackles and a huge pass break up. 

Peace

[Bill]

Good write up Adam.  Hope you get paid well for all the work you do on this site.  I on the other hand is a harder grader or maybe just an old grump.. While grading on the curve is the only reason I made it thru High School I'm not a fan of it when grading this football team.  

I would knock almost all the grades down a grade except for maybe the running backs.  They won the game for them.  

OL is no higher than a C.  Any team in the pros should expect their OL at the worst do what the Bears did this week.  Not a good Def faced Sunday.

TE fail.

Def on a whole C-  The Lions went up and down the field at will and if they did not do Lions things they could of won.  They had almost 100 yards in the first half running the ball.  The Lions!  Leaving nine points on just not converting in the read zone.  

They should be expected to win this game against one of the three teams at their level considering the talent this team has.

Now in the over all picture they played a great game vs last week.  But that seems to be accepting mediocrity as your starting point.

As a fan for over 60 years I am just grumpy enough now that I'm tired of accepting a team in the bottom half of the league for most of the past five decades when I see so many teams around the league contending every year for decades or able to get to the top and change a lot and get back up there.

[adam]

1 hour ago, Bill said:

Good write up Adam.  Hope you get paid well for all the work you do on this site.  I on the other hand is a harder grader or maybe just an old grump.. While grading on the curve is the only reason I made it thru High School I'm not a fan of it when grading this football team.  

I would knock almost all the grades down a grade except for maybe the running backs.  They won the game for them.  

OL is no higher than a C.  Any team in the pros should expect their OL at the worst do what the Bears did this week.  Not a good Def faced Sunday.

TE fail.

Def on a whole C-  The Lions went up and down the field at will and if they did not do Lions things they could of won.  They had almost 100 yards in the first half running the ball.  The Lions!  Leaving nine points on just not converting in the read zone.  

They should be expected to win this game against one of the three teams at their level considering the talent this team has.

Now in the over all picture they played a great game vs last week.  But that seems to be accepting mediocrity as your starting point.

As a fan for over 60 years I am just grumpy enough now that I'm tired of accepting a team in the bottom half of the league for most of the past five decades when I see so many teams around the league contending every year for decades or able to get to the top and change a lot and get back up there.

That is understandable, I am probably a little bias from how bad the Cleveland game was. 

For the O-Line, 1 sack and over 170 yards rushing is a good O-Line day regardless of opponent. Michael Brockers and Nick Williams are pretty decent on the D-Line. 

The only reason the TEs didn't get an F is because they at least blocked well, and are they at fault for not getting targets (not getting open) or is it the play calls?

On the defense, it is hard to lump them all together, and the game is not won by yardage. They stopped the Lions when they needed to and got some takeaways that helped the offense. 4 sacks, 2 takeaways and only 14 pts allowed is a decent day at the office. There is room for improvement on the DLine and in the secondary for sure.

Considering that the Ravens essentially lost to the Lions the week before except for a missed call and record FG, were beating GB in the 2nd half before the wheels fell off, and lost to the 49ers by one score; the Lions may be devoid of talent, but they have been competitive in every game. 

[Bill]

I appreciate your insite.  but I can't agree with your assessment of the def.  The lions were beating the bears Def, IMIO, almost all game.  The snap that hit Goff was a Lion play not the Def.  Incompetent teams doing incompetent things.   The stops on fourth down twice was Cambell being a Lions coach.  Take the six points and live to fight another day.  I put more of the blame on the Lions for only scoring 14 points than anything the Bears did.  We'll see in the next three weeks how well this D is.

And yea the Lions are not a good team yet but if they put together two halves like they have played one in almost every game and they will be a tough out. 

[adam]

Just now, Bill said:

I appreciate your insite.  but I can't agree with your assessment of the def.  The lions were beating the bears Def, IMIO, almost all game.  The snap that hit Goff was a Lion play not the Def.  Incompetent teams doing incompetent things.   The stops on fourth down twice was Cambell being a Lions coach.  Take the six points and live to fight another day.  I put more of the blame on the Lions for only scoring 14 points than anything the Bears did.  We'll see in the next three weeks how well this D is.

And yea the Lions are not a good team yet but if they put together two halves like they have played one in almost every game and they will be a tough out. 

I don't disagree that the defense overall was a C or C- collectively. The Safeties were an F, the D-Line was a C and the CBs were no better than a C-, probably a D, though Johnson and Shelley were pretty good, so I think we are splitting hairs. If you give the Lions two FGs or even a FG and a TD, they still lose. 

A turnover is a turnover, it was a freak play but it's like a batted or tipped ball that gets intercepted. 

 

One factor that needs to be mentioned again is how terrible the officiating was. Even the commentators were confused on a few calls. Literally, both scoring drives were impacted by bad calls:

- Bears are called offsides on a play where the play clock expired. You can't be offsides on a delay of game. It ends up a free play for Goff who gets a long completion that keeps the drive alive (penalty is declined) and the Lions eventually score a TD. The drive should've ended in a punt.

- Crawford makes a textbook tackle on special teams and they call returner interference, 15 extra yards and the Lions start on Bears 44 before scoring TD. Do they score if they start from their 41?

There were also these 3 gems:

- Tonga playing to the whistle, on a play where the ball was intercepted, gets penalized for unnecessary roughness. They didn't even review the play. 

- Mack gets penalized for roughing the passer after he tips a pass and his follow-through grazes Goff's helmet. That keeps the drive alive. Quinn later gets strip-sack to stop this drive.

- Swift gets smashed lands on the back of a Bear as he fumbles. The play is ruled dead so it can't be reviewed or challenged. On replay it showed the ball coming out before he was down. It should've been a fumble.

[Bill]

47 minutes ago, adam said:

- Mack gets penalized for roughing the passer after he tips a pass and his follow-through grazes Goff's helmet. That keeps the drive alive. Quinn later gets strip-sack to stop this drive.

- Swift gets smashed lands on the back of a Bear as he fumbles. The play is ruled dead so it can't be reviewed or challenged. On replay it showed the ball coming out before he was down. It should've been a fumble.

I agree with both.  If a tip changes pass interference rules how does it not change touching a players helmet.  And yea he did fumble but the rule does say once the play is blown down by contact it is what it is.  Did not another play on the Bears where he rolled off the tackler and not allowed to continue the play?

 

 

[adam]

38 minutes ago, Bill said:

I agree with both.  If a tip changes pass interference rules how does it not change touching a players helmet.  And yea he did fumble but the rule does say once the play is blown down by contact it is what it is.  Did not another play on the Bears where he rolled off the tackler and not allowed to continue the play?

 

 

Exactly, very inconsistent. That's the thing, they didn't blow the whistle before the fumble. 

[Stinger226]

Gibson hasnt been playing and when we get him back, hopefully the S position improves. Bush made several coverage mistakes. With Hicks going out and Goldman a non issue, I think this can improve as backups play more. In todays NFL, rolling out low scoring games are going to be tough. The key is we have to keep getting TOs and we can keep it close. The pass rush is balling and that is huge.