Week 6 Thur Night Football Bears vs. Commanders

[adam]

How many consecutive losses will it take for someone to get fired? 5? 10? 14? Currently at 3, not favored in another game all year. Team getting worse week after week. Fields won't make it two more weeks taking the hits he is taking. 7 more games to the bye. That would be 10 straight. At that point you have to start firing people, right? WR Coach, OL Coach? Those units are horrible and worse than last year. Getsy is not it. Always a risk when you hire a coach from an offense with a HoFer at QB. Look at Denver, Hackett won't last a year. 

Do we really want Poles drafting next year? Gordon over Pierce, Velus over Raimann. Brisker is literally the only acquisition that is still playing above average. His free agent class may be the worst in the league. All his guys are literally losing the games, Gordon/Velus/Smith-Marsette.

I am ok with Flus, but some of his assistants need to go. 

My thoughts are if this team only wins 3-4 games, you have to fire Poles and half of the assistants. At this point they need to win at least 5-6 games, and even then you have to consider firing some assistants who underperformed. However, for how bad they have looked for all by 3 halves of football out of 12, I can't see them beating anyone else on their schedule. 

Cut Mustipher and ISM today.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

2 hours ago, AZ54 said:

With all the uproar over the lack of offense our D quietly had a very good game.  Gordon is starting to get quick stops on plays.  The blitzes got home often or forced some errant throws.  Eddie Jackson is flying around.  I'd prefer to see him wrapping people up but an incoming missile that hits it target has a positive effect.  There will be no hiding the DT issues on this roster all season.  

I’m still suspect of Johnson but perhaps his retuned helped others work on some of the basics they need to work on, like Gordon with his tackling (rather than getting burned on coverage) and Jackson being able to roam more (instead of having to cover the top end for Gordon).  I’m assuming Vildor played CB or was he at NB?  Saw he had some stats from last nights game.  I didn’t get to see much of the game but based on what you’re saying, id think that might be part of it. (???) 

[Alaskan Grizzly]

1 hour ago, Stinger226 said:

 

Fields had his hiccups but two players over the last 3 games have cost us wins. V. Jones and IS-M. Take those plays away and we had a good chance at wins. 

 

 

Yup.  And Pettis (although he scored last  night) isn’t much better.  Dropped WAY too many catches for being in the league as long as he as. I’m more likely to forgive Jones but he should probably not be fielding punts anymore. 

[Alaskan Grizzly]

16 minutes ago, adam said:

My thoughts are if this team only wins 3-4 games, you have to fire Poles and half of the assistants.

Flus was probably the one who chose most of the coaching staff.  
 

At any rate, I’ve started watching this dudes videos (after someone here I think recommended it). He’s got some good points about Justin’s progress (and in some cases degradation).  He talks early on about Justin’s progression reads then mentions a little about whether Getsy is the problem with play-calling.  Haven't watched all of this video but plan on doing so to get a better perspective on things. 

 

[adam]

5 minutes ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Flus was probably the one who chose most of the coaching staff.  
 

At any rate, I’ve started watching this dudes videos (after someone here I think recommended it). He’s got some good points about Justin’s progress (and in some cases degradation).  He talks early on about Justin’s progression reads then mentions a little about whether Getsy is the problem with play-calling.  Haven't watched all of this video but plan on doing so to get a better perspective on things. 

 

thanks, i will take a look.

[Stinger226]

Jenkins is a good watch. He is on the Score every week and has some good comments. I also like Swift Sports network too.

[BearFan PHX]

Poles is doing fine. He wasnt identifying talent that he could afford that fit a long term plan. He's cleaning house and the cap, and NOT spending on the wrong guys this year. These arent examples of guys Poles thinks are good players. They are examples of cheap players that have like a 20% chance of becoming something. They are lottery tickets, not investments. This is not year one of Poles, it is the end of Pace and Nagy.

If you want to cut some players though, I'm all for it.

This grace does not extend far into next year though. This is a one time deal because of our draft and cap poverty this year.

[AZ54]

3 hours ago, Stinger226 said:

Fields had his hiccups but two players over the last 3 games have cost us wins. V. Jones and IS-M. Take those plays away and we had a good chance at wins. 

My takes:

Fields is a tough kid , he keeps getting up after being beat up every game.

I think I only saw one roll out. I dont get it, you have a strong D line your playing and you keep putting him in a pocket.

V. Jones and IS-M need to be sitting on the bench. We need to find some WRs that can hold on to the ball.

Defensively we played well, we had timely blitzes that Williams doesnt normally do.

Is Fields missteps because he keeps getting beat up and is getting gun shy plus not trusting WRs to catch the ball? There were other WRs open but keeps feeding Mooney. 

I dont think there is fixing the OL or WR room during the season. Whitehair comes back and moving Patrick to OC is about the best we can expect. Whitehair cant come back until Nov 6 against Miami.  2 more games of this crap against good defenses. 

I listened to Jim Miller on the Score around 1230 today, and was very insightful. He made a lot of good points about the development of Fields. Instead of throwing it to the WRs he is trying to guess what the WR will be. Example when he led Griffin to much. Everyone was saying Griffin slowed down but he was wide open and just throw and hit him in the numbers. He thinks to much. Example he had Pettis wide open across the middle but tried to hit Mooney because he trusts him more. You can replay the Score on Audicy if you didnt hear it. 

Short week, short practices that's all very challenging for a young QB in a new system.  You can't minimize the game plan stuff either because the defense has different talent and schemes.  Players have to digest that quickly when they are already struggling with the plays on a full work week.   

I watched the replay and have some additional thoughts on a few players.  

Braxton Jones was really struggling with Montez Sweat's speed.  Sweat routinely got into his chest before Jones could get his arms on Sweat.  Just pure timing and once Jones was late Sweat moved him backwards quickly and it ended ugly for Fields on several plays.   On the other hand there was quite a few plays where Jones gave up some pressure around the outside but if Fields could have stepped up it wouldn't have been an issue.  That's where Patrick showed his worth.  

On run blocks Patrick is either hit or miss.  He'll have some good blocks and then he'll just completely miss a guy or get pushed around.   On pass protection he's mostly miss (still had some good plays) and nobody is having issues getting him off balance.  

Jenkins isn't perfect but he's obviously the best Olineman we had on the field.  Gotta love his future at RG.  

Herbert is frustrating to watch at times because he overruns the plays and misses the good cutback creases.  OTOH he makes some good plays but he's not a starter IMO.  We're best off with Montgomery getting more snaps but they seemed to be alternating series. 

The 4th and goal play was just poor design.  We had Jones and Patrick crash down on the DTs and it worked to create a crease for Herbert.  However that left Kmet to slide down and block Sweat and that ain't happening.  The LB filled the gap but if Sweat isn't there Herbert likely pushes through to the goal line.  Sweat simply took Herbert sideways off his feet.   Nonetheless, if we're going to run that play I'd prefer to put in Montgomery who is better at getting low and finding tough yards.  

Justin will be alright long term.  This game wasn't as good as the Vikings game but I still see progress from where he was early in the season.  However, we have to get rid of that early pressure in his face.  Sadly I don't expect any changes on the Oline especially on the road and MNF. 

I do expect N'Keal Harry on the field for some plays and that should help both the run game and red zone plays.  It's not like he doesn't know how to play against the NE defense.  It will also put ISM on the bench where he belongs.  He's got speed but he's just not a very agile athlete, has issues separating, and he's not big enough nor strong enough to win in other ways. 

Mooney was putting his hat on some big DEs including Sweat and doing alright blocking on several plays.  He's not a #1 WR but neither is he a guy you cut.  You keep players like him and then add more help.  

Armon Watts has improved since the beginning of the season and was big factor in keeping their running game stifled early.  I still don't see much pass rush from him.  Maybe we'll see that improve over the season but he's already a starter ahead of Blackson.   That's not a high bar but it is progress for the roster.  

LBs...both Morrow and Smith were good but could have been better filling their gaps to create negative plays. 

The DBs are the heart of this defense.  If we can find Dline players this offseason who can get consistent early pressure, and maybe stop the run so the DBs don't have to make so many tackles, these guys could really shine next year.    

Tough loss but it's so easy to see us winning that 20-10.   I get it, that's the way it is in the NFL for most teams.  I don't like the loss but I'm also not opposed to taking the higher draft pick for a team with so many holes.   

[Stinger226]

I listened to some NFL pundits , Trent Dilfer and Jim Miller and they had good prospective on the game. Jones had a bad game but after watching it, he rarely had help on the outside. We run better when the FB is in. Fields problems according to them were not enough time, thinking to much, tried to fit the passes into windows instead of just throwing it to the WRs Trust issues. All of that is fixable. Also stated that Getsy has his hands tied because of the weaknesses at WR and the OL. The only thing I see he needs to do is roll out Fields more .  The coaches are all in a learning curve just like new players. I am not sure Leatherwood helps us this year. He started all of last year and was the worst rated RT at pass blocking, our weakness. Harry may be able to help in both the running and passing game. Leatherwood may be the long range RT with Borom being the swing OT.

This game was so winnable with being in the red zone 3 times. And the last play of the game was 6 inches away from a win. The defense played well. Watts and Jones are good rotational players but we still need a stud 3T that I suspect we draft. I think we resign Monty but to a team friendly contract. He is overall a better player than Hebert. We have a nice mix with both.

The DBs will be the strength of the D going forward. Johnson, Brisker, Gordon, Jackson and Vildor is a good mix  .