Week 2 Official Game Thread - CHI @ TB, 9/17, 12pm CDT, CHI +3, O/U 41.5

[adam]

TB allowed the fewest rushing yards in Week 1. The Bears had the 6th most. 

TB's offense was not good, but they still won due to MIN turnovers. The turnover battle is going to be the key to victory.

Both teams scored 20 pts, so that seems like a fair number for the winning team.

With TB winning in Week 1, and Mayfield not throwing an INT, I think the Bears have a chance to win this one.  They almost couldn't have played any worse than they did in Week 1. 

With KC looming in Week 3 as an auto loss, this really is an early season must win, now more than ever considering what happened on Sunday. If they don't wash that stink off now, I don't know if it will ever come off and this thing will get off the rails quick.

Also, remember that this is now 11 straight losses dating back to October 2022. A loss here and KC puts it at 13 straight. How many games can they go without some changes?

I think they rebound, get Johnson in the game earlier, get the ball to Moore more often and win a tighter game.

Bears 23-20.

 

[Mongo3451]

The weather is going to be 93° and oppressively humid.  Nate Davis may not make it out of the first series.  Flus honestly needs to play Carter Sunday.  Davis was so bad Sunday, I would consider benching him if Carter holds his own.

[AZ54]

9 minutes ago, Mongo3451 said:

The weather is going to be 93° and oppressively humid.  Nate Davis may not make it out of the first series.  Flus honestly needs to play Carter Sunday.  Davis was so bad Sunday, I would consider benching him if Carter holds his own.

Agreed.   Can we just call him baby Nate?   

[Stinger226]

9 minutes ago, Mongo3451 said:

The weather is going to be 93° and oppressively humid.  Nate Davis may not make it out of the first series.  Flus honestly needs to play Carter Sunday.  Davis was so bad Sunday, I would consider benching him if Carter holds his own.

I agree with Davis was bad but Whitehair was worse. both had 5 pressures but Davis didnt give up a sack

[Mongo3451]

Davis gave up 8 pressures...

[adam]

They need to make Claypool a healthy scratch. Man there are so many videos of him on Twitter just whiffing on every block he was supposed to make. Looks like ARob 2.0.

That was Davis' first action, he needs to practice and get into game shape. I think Whitehair's hand affected him (can't grab).

 

The good thing is it can't get any worse.

[Pixote]

39 minutes ago, adam said:

The good thing is it can't get any worse.

Please Don't Say That! 

[Alaskan Grizzly]

Initial reports are that it could be a serious injury (mostly conjecture because Eberflus hasn’t said much about it).  But either way, we’ll know more Wednesday. 

 

[adam]

That was a preseason game. This team did not get enough reps in the preseason and it showed. Pre-snap penalties, skill players looking confused on what to do. Fields doing nothing at the line, no presnap adjustments or audibles that I could see. 

They really need to cut down on the playbook and go to more basic concepts with motion and play action. Teams know the Bears can't handle pressure, so they have to expect to be blitzed on half of the plays, and pretty much all passing downs. So many plays were telegraphed. Blasingame out wide? Come on. 

Nothing stressed the defenders and put them in a place where they had to make a decision. Fields running first does that. Start the game with all RPOs and bootlegs (but with an edger blocker).  Get them on their heels. Get Johnson in there early. Take some deep shots right off the bat too. 

The entire team was passive and complacent. Very odd with all the hype. How do you not start that game with juice? After Fields got hit by Alexander, the entire team should've been playing angry. Instead they fell over. 

[adam]

6 minutes ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Initial reports are that it could be a serious injury (mostly conjecture because Eberflus hasn’t said much about it).  But either way, we’ll know more Wednesday. 

 

If anything is broken, it is definitely 4-6 weeks. 

[Alaskan Grizzly]

Anybody remember how we all felt after the season opener last year?  I do.  The Beloved had put up a pretty sweet come-from-behind win to ice the ‘9ers who had the year prior made it deep into the playoffs (almost to the Super Bowl). Little did we know at the time the Bears would only win 2 more games that season.  But for one week we were feeling pretty confident and in a bit of nirvana.  Fast forward to 2023 and we’re in a totally different place.  Personally I don’t see this continuing.  Much like last year how the winning didn’t come to us I think this year will play out a little better.  We need our team to feel like this (below) each week and just have fun.

[adam]

36 minutes ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Anybody remember how we all felt after the season opener last year?  I do.  The Beloved had put up a pretty sweet come-from-behind win to ice the ‘9ers who had the year prior made it deep into the playoffs (almost to the Super Bowl). Little did we know at the time the Bears would only win 2 more games that season.  But for one week we were feeling pretty confident and in a bit of nirvana.  Fast forward to 2023 and we’re in a totally different place.  Personally I don’t see this continuing.  Much like last year how the winning didn’t come to us I think this year will play out a little better.  We need our team to feel like this (below) each week and just have fun.

Very good point. However, 10 of 15 teams that won on opening day last year made the playoffs.  Only 4/15 teams that started 0-1 made the playoffs. So last year, the Bears were the anomaly. 

Only 1 team started 0-2 last year and made the playoffs, CIN. However, 7 teams that started 1-1 did. Every 2-0 team made the playoffs.

Assuming the Bears lose to KC, if they beat TB and are 1-2 after 3, they have a chance, but it will be small. Only 4 teams that started 1-2 made the playoffs. Zero 0-3 teams made the playoffs.

 

Very interesting: every team that made the playoffs last year was at least 2-2 after 4 weeks. 

 

It looks like things are pretty much set for the season at Week 6 outside of one or two teams (Jets fell out after 4-2, Jags jumped in at 2-4).

The Jags started 2-6, 3-7, 4-8, then finished 9-8 to win the division.  The Jets started 7-4, then lost 6 straight. They may lose their 7th straight tonight against Buffalo. Speaking of losing streaks:

Active NFL losing streaks:

Bears - 11
Colts - 8
Cards - 8
Titans - 8
Jets - 6

[AZ54]

7 hours ago, adam said:

If anything is broken, it is definitely 4-6 weeks. 

I'm pretty sure he's out this week for sure after listening to Jaylon Johnson's press conference.  Jaylon said he was confident in Blackwell starting although reporters had to back him into saying that.   

[AZ54]

7 hours ago, adam said:

Very good point. However, 10 of 15 teams that won on opening day last year made the playoffs.  Only 4/15 teams that started 0-1 made the playoffs. So last year, the Bears were the anomaly. 

Only 1 team started 0-2 last year and made the playoffs, CIN. However, 7 teams that started 1-1 did. Every 2-0 team made the playoffs.

Assuming the Bears lose to KC, if they beat TB and are 1-2 after 3, they have a chance, but it will be small. Only 4 teams that started 1-2 made the playoffs. Zero 0-3 teams made the playoffs.

 

Very interesting: every team that made the playoffs last year was at least 2-2 after 4 weeks. 

 

It looks like things are pretty much set for the season at Week 6 outside of one or two teams (Jets fell out after 4-2, Jags jumped in at 2-4).

The Jags started 2-6, 3-7, 4-8, then finished 9-8 to win the division.  The Jets started 7-4, then lost 6 straight. They may lose their 7th straight tonight against Buffalo. Speaking of losing streaks:

Active NFL losing streaks:

Bears - 11
Colts - 8
Cards - 8
Titans - 8
Jets - 6

Most of us had the Bears pegged at 7 to 9 wins and almost nobody has us making the playoffs.   We have 7 of 11 new starters on D, maybe 6 if you want to count Sanborn as a vet at SLB but he saw few snaps there last season.   Behind them are more rookies and new players.   Even good players like Edwards may have fallen into old habits (possibly) when he lined up with heavy outside leverage against Jones and gave up the TD.   These guys didn't play together at all in the preseason and it showed big time.  Other than pass rush issues I think the talent is there to correct the other stuff.  

 

[adam]

7 hours ago, AZ54 said:

Most of us had the Bears pegged at 7 to 9 wins and almost nobody has us making the playoffs.   We have 7 of 11 new starters on D, maybe 6 if you want to count Sanborn as a vet at SLB but he saw few snaps there last season.   Behind them are more rookies and new players.   Even good players like Edwards may have fallen into old habits (possibly) when he lined up with heavy outside leverage against Jones and gave up the TD.   These guys didn't play together at all in the preseason and it showed big time.  Other than pass rush issues I think the talent is there to correct the other stuff.  

 

Oh I know, I am just saying Week 1 is actually a good indicator of playoff teams as 71% of the playoff teams start 1-0. 

This team will probably fall on the low end of the range based on how they looked on Sunday, 6-7 wins is probably the mark. 

[adam]

The teams that really struggled this weekend all had one thing in common, terrible O-Lines. Bears, Giants, Bengals, Steelers. However, of all those teams, the Bears scored 20 pts some how. 

 

[adam]

Fields against TB in 2021, 22-32, 184 yds, 59.3%, 6.4 Y/A, 0 TD, 3 INT, 4 sacks, 8-38 rushing. 

Relatively the same defense and scheme. Mostly zone with blitzes. Let's see if he has improved any from 2021. This will be a good test for him.

[ASHKUM BEAR]

56 minutes ago, adam said:

Fields against TB in 2021, 22-32, 184 yds, 59.3%, 6.4 Y/A, 0 TD, 3 INT, 4 sacks, 8-38 rushing. 

Relatively the same defense and scheme. Mostly zone with blitzes. Let's see if he has improved any from 2021. This will be a good test for him.

Put Patrick on the Bench, and send a message to Nate Davis and Chase Claypool that they are on notice. The Bears had so many broken plays from them not able to handle their assignments. There are more players to add but those 3 stood out the most. 

[adam]

Some hope for next week. Based on net success rates, which normally correlate to wins over time show that the game was closer than it seemed. If you look at TB, they were negative.

 

 

[Alaskan Grizzly]

21 hours ago, AZ54 said:

I'm pretty sure he's out this week for sure after listening to Jaylon Johnson's press conference.  Jaylon said he was confident in Blackwell starting although reporters had to back him into saying that.   

Biggs also said the same thing on his own X-witter but this one confirms Blackwell will be getting some more playing time.  Official injury report tomorrow will confirm or deny this report.  
 

 

[adam]

8 hours ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Biggs also said the same thing on his own X-witter but this one confirms Blackwell will be getting some more playing time.  Official injury report tomorrow will confirm or deny this report.  
 

 

Injuries suck and we were hoping for a huge jump this year from him. However, he was terrible last year. So even Blackwell is probably an upgrade from last year's Gordon, but probably a downgrade from what we were hoping for this season.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

2 hours ago, adam said:

Injuries suck and we were hoping for a huge jump this year from him. However, he was terrible last year. So even Blackwell is probably an upgrade from last year's Gordon, but probably a downgrade from what we were hoping for this season.

From what we saw in camp, it looked like Gordon was ready to make that jump (to be fair, our offense also looked like it was clicking and rarin to go).  But of the CBs I still think Gordon would have at least been as good or even better than Johnson.  Stevenson I think has potential but he’s still too raw and needs more playing time.  Blackwell lacks a lot of height but he has tenacity and that may help him.  How that all translates to game day performance remains to be seen. 

[Mongo3451]

On 9/11/2023 at 5:39 PM, Pixote said:

Please Don't Say That! 

???. You sir, are a true Bears fan...??????

[Alaskan Grizzly]

Some issues in the CB room with regards to depth.  There is some speculation (elsewhere) that Stevenson could play NB.  A position he was familiar with while playing at Georgia.  (Who knew?  I didn’t). 
 

 

[Alaskan Grizzly]

Official word on Gordon’s status.  Off to IR.  Stroman elevated to active roster.  Question is who plays opposing CB and NB?  I suspect Stephenson will stay outside and Blackwell (depending on his own hamstring issues) will be in for NB or some combination there in.