Preseason Week 1 Game Thread - Bears at Bills, NFLN, Sat, 8-12, 12pm Central

[Pixote]

8 minutes ago, BearFan PHX said:

thank you, Ill look again

I made a mistake, it was 2:24 left in the 1st quarter, not the 2nd.

[BearFan PHX]

yeah it was a tough throw across his body (like the one he made to Kmet) it would have been the icing on the cake. But like you said, its his first game, he looked pretty good.

when you said he missed Rome, I thought you meant on the play DJ dropped, and I had missed an open WR on that play, I see now the one youre talking about, and of course i saw it too at the time. Just a little bit outside.

We didnt hear Allens name at all. Did he play?

[Stinger226]

2 hours ago, BearFan PHX said:

yeah it was a tough throw across his body (like the one he made to Kmet) it would have been the icing on the cake. But like you said, its his first game, he looked pretty good.

when you said he missed Rome, I thought you meant on the play DJ dropped, and I had missed an open WR on that play, I see now the one youre talking about, and of course i saw it too at the time. Just a little bit outside.

We didnt hear Allens name at all. Did he play?

K Allen didnt play. He's an old man, they want him healthy. One of these games they will leave the first team on for a half, we will see him then.

[BearFan PHX]

rewatching tape and getting a better look, I saw a few more things.

On the first pass play, the one where Caleb rolled right and threw it away that was called back for holding, he had Odunze open in the middle of the field for 7 yards, but the defender was closing, so Williams came off of him. Would have been a nice first completion if he had gotten the ball right out. I dont know hwat his progression was for that play, but i would have pointed it out for Fields too, so, fair is fair.

What a bullet on the DJ deep curl. wow. so much velocity and the ball comes out so fast - Calebs throwing motion can be SO compact.

Shelton played well at center, and is the reason Swift got such a big gain on the middle screen where Caleb flipped it to Swift. I think Swfit is gonna be amazing for us.

Wright continues to not only move people but turn them in the running game.

All in all, it's good to see Caleb do the same things I loved in his college film at the pro level right away. Thats a good sign.

[BearFan PHX]

Watching more...

To answer my own question, Allen played both series, threw himself into some blocks, but didnt see any targets.

The OL played better than I thought. Two of the times the RB got stuffed at the line, it came from 8 and 9 in the box and safeties coming off the edge unblocked. Obviously thats a problem too, but teams wont be able to do that regularly against our three WRs.

Herberts first stop down near the goalline was kind of on Herbert, because there was a crack to slip through if he'd made himself skinny. Shelton didnt win the rep, but he kept his guy outside of Herbert, and Braxton moved his guy a bit too.

I wonder what the Bears are thinking about Herbert and Roschon.

[BearFan PHX]

Also, Caleb threw to Odunze from his own end zone on 3rd down, and the defender undercut him - could have been an interception, but the Bills were flagged for illegal contact.

Id say Caleb showed some promising moments, but has more than a couple plays to clean up too.

[AZ54]

I feel Caleb and the offense struggled to stay on time.   Caleb’s natural talent won the day which is a good thing to have when needed.  None of that is surprising for a rookie in his first game action.   Overall he looks like belongs on the field.   

[AZ54]

My standouts from this game are Austin Booker and Brendan Bates.   Bates had some very good blocks and again showed up well in the passing game.   Add in his special teams tackle on a kickoff.   Carlson is still ahead of him but he’s not nearly as fluid as a receiver.  At this point I prefer to keep Bates as a 4th TE and cut Blasingame.   

[BearFan PHX]

1 hour ago, AZ54 said:

I feel Caleb and the offense struggled to stay on time.   Caleb’s natural talent won the day which is a good thing to have when needed.  None of that is surprising for a rookie in his first game action.   Overall he looks like belongs on the field.   

I agree. And often in the NFL, you end up playing off schedule, and Caleb appears to be as advertised, but youre so right that playing on schedule is necessary too, and hopefully we will see more consistency with that too.

[Bears4Ever_34]

Couldn't have scripted the game much better for Caleb. He showed tremendous poise in the pocket, went through his progressions, and delivered the ball on time, both inside and outside the pocket. I don't know what more anybody could have asked from him in his first live game action. Both drops came in the redzone, which stalled one of the drives, and the other got stalled out with 3 straight runs. I loved his ability to recognize the defense shifting from single high safety to 2 man, understanding the hole in the defense was to scramble, which allowed him to pick up that last 1st down inside the red zone.

Hell of a start to his career. I can't wait for next week.

[Stinger226]

I watched replay several times and ther OL did better than i expected. We will run the ball well and Waldron is good with mixing it up. There doesnt seem to have a lot of missteps, seemed organized. The DL seems set barring injures. I doubt Poles brings in any more bodies, i think he trusts his depth.

[Pixote]

Williams had an excellent first game.

But so did:

Nix, who, in 5 drives, led Denver to two TDs and two FGs.

JJM had an INT on his first possession but then made some awesome throws and two TDs

Penix, Nix and Daniels had limited success, but made some amazing throws showing arm talent.

It appears, at first glance, that it was a great year to draft a QB

That said, it is only preseason. Many rookies look like GOATS in preseason, then practice squad arms when the regular season begins.

Let's hope that one day Williams will be a GOAT.

 

 

[adam]

3 hours ago, Pixote said:

Williams had an excellent first game.

But so did:

Nix, who, in 5 drives, led Denver to two TDs and two FGs.

JJM had an INT on his first possession but then made some awesome throws and two TDs

Penix, Nix and Daniels had limited success, but made some amazing throws showing arm talent.

It appears, at first glance, that it was a great year to draft a QB

That said, it is only preseason. Many rookies look like GOATS in preseason, then practice squad arms when the regular season begins.

Let's hope that one day Williams will be a GOAT.

 

Nix and McCarthy did not start, so it's really hard to compare them with the others when they were facing backups. 

Each QB has their own path and growth pace. For Williams, it was just about getting out there, not making any rookie mistakes and improving on the things that he lacks experience in from college. From training camp until this game, that is now visible on tape, which is about all you can ask for at this point.

I thought the O-Line played pretty solid and at least played better than I expected. Bears QBs were sacked once for 3 yards (Bagent) while Buffalo was sacked 8 times for 34. 

For RBs, it is hard to see what Herbert does that someone like Wheeler doesn't. I have a feeling that Herbert may be a sneaky trade or cut candidate. They tried Velus at RB, he fumbled once and fell down against air. He also muffed a kick on ST. I don't know how many chances a player needs just because of draft status, but it feels like we are nearing the end of the Velus experience.

For WRs, I was hoping to see some more Collin Johnson, but I don't even know if he played. Maybe they are hiding him? Tyler Scott is becoming Velus 2.0. He had one play as far as I could tell and it was a fumble on a Jet Sweep that he luckily recovered, but I can't tell you the last time Scott did anything positive. Between him and Velus, they almost always have more negative plays than positive, so why even give them a carry or a target at this point?

For TEs, I really like the battle for TE4, Bates, Sweeney, and Carlson all have been playing pretty solid and would've been the Bears TE2 a few years ago. It's nice that depth is now at TE4/5. 

The defense had 8 sacks! I don't care what string was out there, they were playing the equivalent across the lines. Booker continues to stand out on almost every defensive snap. Besides the sacks and pressures, it was crazy to see him in on a tackle 20 yards downfield across the field from his side. I am very impressed with him so far. Hardy got a few sacks, and even Pickens got in on the fun. I am still a little worried about Dexter. I don't know if he is the answer at 3T. 

Baskerville with the Pick-6 was nice. The Bears have a crazy LB Room. Byard is a huge upgrade over Jackson, at least the post-injury Jackson. 

Taylor is going to be an amazing punter. Almost like Williams, you can tell he is special. 

For the entire team, the HITS principle seems to be working as I saw a lot of hustle across the board. 

[BearFan PHX]

I agree about Herbert being trade bait. Not saying it's definitely going to happen, but I believe we are looking for a deal.

And that goes double for Velus.

Collin Johnson also had a nice tackle on special teams in the hall of fame game. He might well make the team as the 6th WR / ST specialist even as the #5 WR spot is still being contested?

[AZ54]

Lots of film reviews are in so there are plenty of options.  I'll post this one since we have a good baseline on Jenkins' work.  One thing that surprised me about Williams at his post game press conference was that he was stating the names of the Bills defensive players and what they were doing on plays.  This is just preseason and his first game action but it seems like he sees the field differently from all the other rookie QBs we've had before.  

 

[AZ54]

9 minutes ago, adam said:

Nix and McCarthy did not start, so it's really hard to compare them with the others when they were facing backups. 

Each QB has their own path and growth pace. For Williams, it was just about getting out there, not making any rookie mistakes and improving on the things that he lacks experience in from college. From training camp until this game, that is now visible on tape, which is about all you can ask for at this point.

I thought the O-Line played pretty solid and at least played better than I expected. Bears QBs were sacked once for 3 yards (Bagent) while Buffalo was sacked 8 times for 34. 

For RBs, it is hard to see what Herbert does that someone like Wheeler doesn't. I have a feeling that Herbert may be a sneaky trade or cut candidate. They tried Velus at RB, he fumbled once and fell down against air. He also muffed a kick on ST. I don't know how many chances a player needs just because of draft status, but it feels like we are nearing the end of the Velus experience.

For WRs, I was hoping to see some more Collin Johnson, but I don't even know if he played. Maybe they are hiding him? Tyler Scott is becoming Velus 2.0. He had one play as far as I could tell and it was a fumble on a Jet Sweep that he luckily recovered, but I can't tell you the last time Scott did anything positive. Between him and Velus, they almost always have more negative plays than positive, so why even give them a carry or a target at this point?

For TEs, I really like the battle for TE4, Bates, Sweeney, and Carlson all have been playing pretty solid and would've been the Bears TE2 a few years ago. It's nice that depth is now at TE4/5. 

The defense had 8 sacks! I don't care what string was out there, they were playing the equivalent across the lines. Booker continues to stand out on almost every defensive snap. Besides the sacks and pressures, it was crazy to see him in on a tackle 20 yards downfield across the field from his side. I am very impressed with him so far. Hardy got a few sacks, and even Pickens got in on the fun. I am still a little worried about Dexter. I don't know if he is the answer at 3T. 

Baskerville with the Pick-6 was nice. The Bears have a crazy LB Room. Byard is a huge upgrade over Jackson, at least the post-injury Jackson. 

Taylor is going to be an amazing punter. Almost like Williams, you can tell he is special. 

For the entire team, the HITS principle seems to be working as I saw a lot of hustle across the board. 

I watched a bit of other games and saw a lot of players trip on the turf.  It wasn't just limited to Jones and Swift and it's kinda normal in the middle of camp.  Legs are tired.  The muffed KO is a bigger concern but the coaches were in the stadium and saw the kick.  If the wind was swirling as talked about on TV they know if that ball was moving around, much like it did on Tory Taylors crappy punt.  They can make the right assessment there.  

Other than that, with 1 week of practice at a new position everyone is skipping the fact Jones had 6 carries for 34 yards, and 1 TD, including his tripped run.  It's hard to say what is going on with the RB competition.  We can go in a lot of different directions but cutting Travis Homer saves $1.9mil and he hasn't offered much as a RB.  Roschon is bigger and stronger but I'm also not impressed with his lack of quickness and burst.  I was hoping he'd improved that over the offseason.  The big question is who can pass protect if we're going to go that route, or with Caleb's quick mind and release do we always leak out the RB?  If Roschon can improve at pass pro that might be his way onto the roster.   I tend to prefer keeping Herbert because there is a consistency to the running game with him as RB2.  Caleb needs that help in a rookie season, not a 4th Rd pick next year.   I prefer the options be explored around RB3/4.    

[DABEARSDABOMB]

I was happy with the preseason game - bears looked good.  It’s preseason though and I’m trying to temper my expectations. I still remember Mitch’s first preseason game - that was the single greatest I ever saw a Bear qb throw the ball….what good did that do hahaha 

[DABEARSDABOMB]

I’m excited to get to the regular season though!!! 

[adam]

 

[adam]

14 hours ago, DABEARSDABOMB said:

I was happy with the preseason game - bears looked good.  It’s preseason though and I’m trying to temper my expectations. I still remember Mitch’s first preseason game - that was the single greatest I ever saw a Bear qb throw the ball….what good did that do hahaha 

You know what's crazy, Trubisky turns 30 next week. 

[adam]

Top PFF Grades for Buffalo game:

Offense:
1. Kramer - 91.5
2. Wheeler - 90.7
3. Jenkins - 90.3
4. Moore - 81.3
5. Murray - 77.1

Defense:
1. Baskerville - 97.0
2. Ogbongbemiga - 89.1
3. Q. Johnson - 86.6
4. Kareem - 84.6
5. J. Johnson - 83.2