Week 1 Official Game Thread - GB @ CHI, 09/10, 3:25PM CDT, CHI -1 O/U 43.5, FOX

[adam]

5 hours ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Found this Xweet from yesterday too.  Narrowed it down to an ‘offensive player’.  Probably Claypool.  
 

 

Claypool needs to be a healthy scratch for TB. He literally whiffed or gave up on every block. 

Seriously, if you watch this video, and you were a coach, how is this guy not benched? He literally caused 10x plays to fail due to his lack of effort, wow.

 

[DABEARSDABOMB]

8 hours ago, Mongo3451 said:

Kyle Brandt just called out one of the Bears players, saying he looked like he didn't want to be there.  He said it was obvious and it was a player we all know.  He wouldn't name a name, but said the player may not be on the team tomorrow.  Brandt doesn't go that far, unless he really sees something.  

My signal was really really poor yesterday due to steaming, because of Direct TV dispute with the mayor networks.  Who is the player?  I'm only guessing Claypool or Jackson...

Claypool or Davis would be my 2 guesses.  

[DABEARSDABOMB]

6 hours ago, Stinger226 said:

I find it hard to throw blame to Claypool ( no targets) and Moore ( 2 targets) . Claypool looked bad in one block that had the DB right in his face but I blame that on scheming. He should have been  farther out and had a crackback block. 

 

Claypool was blown up every time I saw him.  With that said - I think it was Davis. Guy got a contract, hasn't showed up the whole off-season to much anything, gave up 8 pressures. Was a straight up disaster.  This is as bad of a move as it gets - especially given they gave him big money (I think of 12M/yr as big money for a guard - unless I'm remembering wrong and he got a lot less).  

[DABEARSDABOMB]

4 hours ago, 50england50 said:

I turned it off after Fields fumbled. Here are my thoughts. 
 

1) The middle of the oline is terrible so we need to move away from being run heavy. 
2) Jackson is useless and should be cut but can’t because of his ridiculous salary. 
3) We cannot rush 4 because we will be killed. 
4) It’s ridiculous trading for Moore and Claypole and not using them. Same with giving Kmet a new contract. 
5) Need to have Fields throwing deeper throws and establish if he can be a top 10 QB. If not use him as a RB and go in a different direction. 
 

Finally please I cannot stand another season like last year. Yesterday was really hard and if we weren’t stupid we could have changed the narrative with Green Bay. I still cannot comprehend why we don’t play starters in the preseason. Our players need the reps and what difference does it make if we get injuries. It cannot be worse than last year or yesterday. 

 

On the bolded - my problem is, I think part of the problem is Fields isn't comfortable and doesn't trust his eyes to throw downfield.  And at this point - if I were to bet, I don't think he ever will.  I hope this is an overreaction I look back on and if there was ever a week you could really overreact it would be week 1.

I will also admit - during part of the 1H I was thinking, Fields looks pretty good - so a lot of my view compounded in 2H when everything got terrible.  I didn't think Fields played terrible in 1H - I would have to turn those field goals into touchdowns, but I could look the other way, in the 2H, his pocket presence and compsosure was awful. Total check down. 

I did notice on some of the plays - it was as if he never even did a 3 or 5 step drop - it looked like he literally was right behind the center which meant any push at all allowed the Packers to blow it all up.  

[Alaskan Grizzly]

2 hours ago, adam said:

Claypool needs to be a healthy scratch for TB. He literally whiffed or gave up on every block. 

Seriously, if you watch this video, and you were a coach, how is this guy not benched? He literally caused 10x plays to fail due to his lack of effort, wow.

 

This was a good find.  Wonder if they had something like this for Moore?  I'd imagine his would be more of seeing him throw up his hands in frustration because he wasn't getting thrown to.  And i know this offense relies on the WRs to be able to block, I'm curious how invested he is in doing that.  I know Mooney is as was evidenced in these clips and the fact he got injured one time while blocking a guy twice his size.  

[DABEARSDABOMB]

So my overreaction Monday is - I didn’t think Fields looked awful in first half. I thought he missed some plays and things were too conservative but I thought they moved it ok and he was pretty accurate. I actually even liked that he had some good check downs. 
 

2nd half the defense was getting destroyed and oline was bad and Fields looked like a deer in the head light but maybe that happened cause he was getting mauled every play and it’s just human nature to do that. 
 

That is the only real excuse I can make for the offense. We know Lucas Patrick sucks and I am convinced Davis is pure garbage (what an awful moved by Poles - dude clearly wants nothing to do with the Bears). Whitehair is not what he once was and even than he was overvalued by Pace (pace gave him that extension). 
 

Defensively - I am far less worried, other than I think Williams is not good dc. I do expect they will have trouble generating a pass rush - but I also expected communication issues from this d. Lots of new players, lots of young players, and a ton of various injuries during training camp was like a trifecta of things that would lead to the type of miscues and breakdowns they saw. 

[DABEARSDABOMB]

Oh and Josh Allen and the Bills (regardless of what happens at the end of this game) are another example of a good offense that looks super bad/rusty. 

[BearFan PHX]

We were all so focused on Jenkins' and Whitehair's injuries, it didnt occur to anyone (or at least to me) that maybe we got Feeney as insurance against Davis who's been playing retiring games all offseason? Maybe that's what all the absences were?

Anyway this is a disaster, and if Davis is really doing that to us, then F*ck him.

[killakrzydav]

Man, the Kool aid dried up fast. 

[AZ54]

14 minutes ago, killakrzydav said:

Man, the Kool aid dried up fast. 

Roschon will be filling it up this weekend.  

[BearFan PHX]

I think the whole thing went to sh*t when Eberflus went for it on 4th and 1 - what a totally idiotic move.

Its SO bad, that I'm calling it strike one. Not every error will be a strike, but that one absolutely was. I could argue hes made others too, but lets call that one.

learn from it, get better stop hiding the offense and trying to be so cute, establish an identity on offense, and things will be OK. But that's strike one.

[adam]

10 hours ago, DABEARSDABOMB said:

So my overreaction Monday is - I didn’t think Fields looked awful in first half. I thought he missed some plays and things were too conservative but I thought they moved it ok and he was pretty accurate. I actually even liked that he had some good check downs. 
 

2nd half the defense was getting destroyed and oline was bad and Fields looked like a deer in the head light but maybe that happened cause he was getting mauled every play and it’s just human nature to do that. 
 

That is the only real excuse I can make for the offense. We know Lucas Patrick sucks and I am convinced Davis is pure garbage (what an awful moved by Poles - dude clearly wants nothing to do with the Bears). Whitehair is not what he once was and even than he was overvalued by Pace (pace gave him that extension). 
 

Defensively - I am far less worried, other than I think Williams is not good dc. I do expect they will have trouble generating a pass rush - but I also expected communication issues from this d. Lots of new players, lots of young players, and a ton of various injuries during training camp was like a trifecta of things that would lead to the type of miscues and breakdowns they saw. 

Both schemes are terrible. Getsy is making Fields play in his system, which isn't built for him. On defense, the Cover 2 is outdated and can't be the base defensive set on 90% of the snaps. It is way to passive for today's NFL. 

Fields is not being coached well. I get that they don't want him to take risks, but going immediately to the checkdown when there are open receivers will eventually make the offense stop moving. Then when it is an obvious passing down, he gets locked onto on receiver and throws a bad pick. All the bad habits from last year are back. 

It is only one week, and other QBs have looked just as bad, if not worse, so he gets a pass for now. 

With other OL on the market, the Davis signing was a head scratcher. This guy was the epitome of a non-HITS guy. Then problems start from involuntary camp (not showing up), all the way into Week 1. Not a good look. 

[Mongo3451]

On 9/7/2023 at 5:55 PM, Mongo3451 said:

Davis is a concern.  Talk out of Tennessee is that Vrabel "hates" Nate Davis the football player and was glad to see him go.  Money was not the reason, because they signed his replacement to a similar contract.  It had also been said, that he will not suit up unless he is 100%.  

As a whole, I'm extremely concerned about our OL.  At the end of the draft weekend, I thought we were mostly covered with the drafting of Darnell Wright the prior signing of Nate Davis.  So, now we have Wright dealing with an ongoing ankle issue as a rookie.  Davis had one padded practice the entire of season.  Patrick is oft injured and not our first choice at center.  Cody has a brace on his right hand and replaced Jenkins, who I am on record with not trusting to be a professional. Lastly, Jones is the only Iron man for the second year in a row.  80% of our OL is starting the season below optimal health and continuity.

Fu@k!

Trust me, this is not a pat on my own back.  But, OL and DL is all I can truly evaluate.  We gave up the most pressures recorded in the last three years.  This OL needs Jenkins back badly. (It's been well documented, that I don't trust Jenkins to prepare his body) 

Poles failed to fix it, when he could of, which is his first true black mark.  No more Mr nice guy.  Never trust dealing with the Steelers and Titans again, because they knew they were sending us shit.  Poles will remember those dirty deeds.  Fool me once...

[Alaskan Grizzly]

1 hour ago, Mongo3451 said:

But, OL and DL is all I can truly evaluate

What are your thoughts on Feeney?  I’m a fan personally and would like to see him in game action sooner than later.  

[AZ54]

Davis is a huge miss.  You pay a guy that kind of money and expect him to help lead your young rebuilding Oline.  At least I expect that.   If he played as he did last year that would have been light years better than what we saw.  

[adam]

Dalton Risner posted a picture of himself at an airport heading "somewhere", hopefully it is to Chicago. Poles needs to fix the O-Line any way possible. Knowing the injury history of Jenkins and Patrick, he never should've counted on them. I don't care about how much they owe Davis. Just like Claypool, make them a healthy scratch, try to trade for a bag of balls or cut them while there are other players still available. 

[AZ54]

1 hour ago, adam said:

Dalton Risner posted a picture of himself at an airport heading "somewhere", hopefully it is to Chicago. Poles needs to fix the O-Line any way possible. Knowing the injury history of Jenkins and Patrick, he never should've counted on them. I don't care about how much they owe Davis. Just like Claypool, make them a healthy scratch, try to trade for a bag of balls or cut them while there are other players still available. 

Given that Jenkins will be back and we have Carter and Feeney waiting on the bench I'd be surprised if they signed another IOL.   

[BearFan PHX]

37 minutes ago, AZ54 said:

Given that Jenkins will be back and we have Carter and Feeney waiting on the bench I'd be surprised if they signed another IOL.   

unless Davis is a true turd and they know it.

[Mongo3451]

3 hours ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

What are your thoughts on Feeney?  I’m a fan personally and would like to see him in game action sooner than later.  

Never watched him play.

[BearFan PHX]

3 hours ago, Mongo3451 said:

Never watched him play.

I saw some limited tape - could be misleading, but he sure looked like he understands zone blocking - giving a bump to help a neighbor and then hunting out a linebacker etc. cant be much worse than Patrick.

[adam]

All I can say is wow. This is exactly how the game looked in real time, but every play had so much more badness than I thought. A must watch, but it is an hour long. Much better than rewatching the game. JT has some funny zingers. Arguably his best video yet.

 

 

[ASHKUM BEAR]

1 hour ago, adam said:

All I can say is wow. This is exactly how the game looked in real time, but every play had so much more badness than I thought. A must watch, but it is an hour long. Much better than rewatching the game. JT has some funny zingers. Arguably his best video yet.

 

 

Seen his tweet on Braxton Jones being completely lost on a play and Fields getting sacked.  If Jones doesn't elevate soon, I would use one of the 1st rd picks on LT.  We have read about Poles and Cunningham being oline experts but so far with 18 games I have yet to see it. 

[AZ54]

2 hours ago, adam said:

All I can say is wow. This is exactly how the game looked in real time, but every play had so much more badness than I thought. A must watch, but it is an hour long. Much better than rewatching the game. JT has some funny zingers. Arguably his best video yet.

 

 

I just finished watching it and we are horrible.  Hard to believe we spent an entire offseason to put that together.  The bright spot again:  Roschon Johnson.   I can only hope his leadership in the locker room is not a rumor because this offense badly needs someone to speak up and demand better of his teammates.  Johnson put enough tape out there to prove he won't quit.  I know now it won't be Justin Fields leading this offense.  

[DABEARSDABOMB]

2 hours ago, adam said:

All I can say is wow. This is exactly how the game looked in real time, but every play had so much more badness than I thought. A must watch, but it is an hour long. Much better than rewatching the game. JT has some funny zingers. Arguably his best video yet.

 

 

Can you share the cliff notes version? 

[BearFan PHX]

I just want to add that i was assuming that Davis played a bad game at RG because id read that, but ive been watching some of the film, and he hasnt looked bad at all so far. Maybe I havent seen the bad plays yet - Ill keep watching, but for now, Im keeping an open mind on him.