Week 4 Official Game Thread - LAR @CHI, 9/29, 12pm, CHI -3, FOX

[BearFan PHX]

It's great to see how the punter and the defense compliment each other.

If we can get the offense working, this will be a tough team.

[Pixote]

Stafford is good in the clutch. Too much time left. I hope you are right.

[BearFan PHX]

2-2 and we've learned something - not too bad.

[Pixote]

OMG! BEARS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[adam]

So close to a roughing the passer penalty, but he did tip the ball I believe.

ball game

[ASHKUM BEAR]

Brisker gets a game ball today.  Love when he is feeling it and performing like today

[50england50]

What a result. Good performance from all areas of the team. 2-2, Idid not see this because I was struggling to see how the offense could score. Made my day today. Maybe I should try to stay positive. Must admit the last 2,games were soul destroying. Go Bears. 

[BearFan PHX]

2 minutes ago, 50england50 said:

What a result. Good performance from all areas of the team. 2-2, Idid not see this because I was struggling to see how the offense could score. Made my day today. Maybe I should try to stay positive. Must admit the last 2,games were soul destroying. Go Bears. 

its both - theyve been SO bad, but hopefully they are learning lessons from how bad its been.

If you can get your butt whipped, learn something about how your fancy crap doesnt work and what it takes to win, and still end up 2-2, thats not so bad.

[adam]

Low yardage, but 73.9%, 106.6 Passer Rating, and most importantly no turnovers for Caleb. 

[AZ54]

1 hour ago, adam said:

Complain about Swift, he finally gets his head out of his ass. Complain about Moore, scores a TD. I like the trend. 

Jokes aside, that may have been the Bears best drive of the season, 6 rushes, 6 pass plays, no penalties, very efficient, defense was gassed. Great pass and catch to finish it off. 

You complained about our punter too.  I like how that worked out.  

[adam]

The Steelers are hilarious, Fields has a 300-yard passing game, 3 total TDs, 55 yards rushing, and the lost lol. They had the ball down 3 and couldn't even get to midfield. Sound familiar?

Love threw 3 INTs and GB lost. 

[ASHKUM BEAR]

13 minutes ago, adam said:

The Steelers are hilarious, Fields has a 300-yard passing game, 3 total TDs, 55 yards rushing, and the lost lol. They had the ball down 3 and couldn't even get to midfield. Sound familiar?

Love threw 3 INTs and GB lost. 

GB hasn't lost yet.   31-29 and onside kick in the way...

[BearFan PHX]

8 minutes ago, ASHKUM BEAR said:

GB hasn't lost yet.   31-29 and onside kick in the way...

damn they came back hard, but thankfully they fell just short. 31-29

[AZ54]

We have a QB.  There are still gaps in his game but some of those throws and reads and first level, and in just his 4th game.  There are no more excuses, players can't hide behind the rookie anymore.  He is going to drag the rest of the offense along with him.  One player I didn't see is Gerald Everett.  I hope that was intentional.  

[BearFan PHX]

5 minutes ago, AZ54 said:

We have a QB.  There are still gaps in his game but some of those throws and reads and first level, and in just his 4th game.  There are no more excuses, players can't hide behind the rookie anymore.  He is going to drag the rest of the offense along with him.  One player I didn't see is Gerald Everett.  I hope that was intentional.  

100% to ALL of that. Especially the idea that Caleb is going to do more than what's on the field, he is going to drag the rest of these clown coaches across the goal line no matter how dumb they are.

[AZ54]

4 minutes ago, BearFan PHX said:

100% to ALL of that. Especially the idea that Caleb is going to do more than what's on the field, he is going to drag the rest of these clown coaches across the goal line no matter how dumb they are.

It's ok to give coaches some credit.  They just defeated what is supposed to be an elite coach in McVay and an elite QB who only managed to score 1 TD.   I don't think anyone on TV picked us at least not that I saw, but I also don't watch much of that stuff these days.  

I get that they are missing 2 starting WRs but we've had injuries affecting us too and lost Jenkins mid-game.  Swift was clearly running differently up the middle this game.  Waldron listened to the players and they went heavy this game with Kramer out of the backfield on short yardage plays and it paid off twice.   There were a lot of mental errors on the players' part that I don't think are coaching issues.  I do think it's fair to say they are all still learning a new offense and new QB cadence who is already free to change plays.  How all that gets done pre-snap is definitely a work in progress and needs to get resolved soon but I think it will level out.  

The D gave up 18pts which is always a good result but when the game was on the line they were at their best.  

[BearFan PHX]

6 minutes ago, AZ54 said:

It's ok to give coaches some credit.  They just defeated what is supposed to be an elite coach in McVay and an elite QB who only managed to score 1 TD.   I don't think anyone on TV picked us at least not that I saw, but I also don't watch much of that stuff these days.  

I get that they are missing 2 starting WRs but we've had injuries affecting us too and lost Jenkins mid-game.  Swift was clearly running differently up the middle this game.  Waldron listened to the players and they went heavy this game with Kramer out of the backfield on short yardage plays and it paid off twice.   There were a lot of mental errors on the players' part that I don't think are coaching issues.  I do think it's fair to say they are all still learning a new offense and new QB cadence who is already free to change plays.  How all that gets done pre-snap is definitely a work in progress and needs to get resolved soon but I think it will level out.  

The D gave up 18pts which is always a good result but when the game was on the line they were at their best.  

first off, good catch -  I didnt mean to include the defensive coaches of course, theyve been doing well.

and yes, I absolutely think today was better than the past three weeks - it is my hope they will learn from this, but even if they do, I dont see them giving us an active edge in winning, and I see Caleb having to mitigate their foolishness (which hopefully diminishes)

But all in all this was a very important step today. great to see, and the cost of learning this lesson has only been 2 losses. Pretty good.

[Stinger226]

Its hard to win in the NFL,  good stats doesnt mean you win the game, its to complex for that. 

We see in real time us getting better , its tied to CW and his growth. The one constant is  we have  a D that averages 19 points against. We expected them to be better out of the blocks but every game shows more what it can be. The OL was better, 131 rushing and held the pocket better. Come to find out this is what Poles seen in Swift. He can be a good asset.

[Mongo3451]

1 hour ago, AZ54 said:

You complained about our punter too.  I like how that worked out.  

He was a weapon today.

[adam]

4 hours ago, AZ54 said:

You complained about our punter too.  I like how that worked out.  

I am 3 for 3 I think. I complained about how bad Taylor was (and he was), and he comes out kicking like we expected him to for 3 weeks. Injured maybe? He looked totally different, those kicks were booming.

I complained about Swift and he was the all-purpose back I expected to see. 

I complained about Moore who does seem off. Pouty face on sidelines, flailing on the ground when the ball was not accurate, not running the correct choice routes, giving up on routes when the ball is coming to him, etc. Then he finally scores on a great pass and catch.

The O-Line still needs work. I also don't like how many penalties Kmet had today. The entire team needs to cut the penalties, especially pre-snap, at home by 75%, just too many drive killers.

Overall, a much better game. Some things to shore up on both sides of the ball. 

Stafford was 11-13 in the MoF beyond the LOS, and was 4-4 in the MoF beyond 15 yards. That is crazy. The Bears in zone have to clean up the coverage on the in breaking routes. They had no answer. I am surprised the Rams didn't keep going back to those. Look at Stafford's chart:

 

[adam]

Is DJ hurt? What the hell are these routes? These were his targets, not a single cross, slant, in, etc, etc. What is Waldron doing here?

[adam]

Caleb had 6 incompletions, and I think 3 were throw aways, all the incompletions were low risk I do not think he had a single high danger throw. I would have liked to have seen some more throws over the middle and some more hot routes to avoid the pressure. Still don't understand that, but overall, zero INTs and no WTF throws is progress. 

[Bears4Ever_34]

If Caleb could just hit those deep balls, his numbers would have looked a lot better today. That's the thing that's really been killing him this season. He's just not even close with anything beyond 15 yards. I've given him a 4 week grace period before getting too critical, but he HAS to start hitting those shots to DJ down the sideline when he's open. If you're going to dink and dunk for most of the game, you can't blow the few opportunities you do have to attack a team down the field.

To his credit, he didn't turn the ball over, and the run game and penalties didn't allow him to be as prolific as you'd like to see, yardage-wise, but he did have some nice moments in the pocket. The TD to DJ and the dot over the middle to Kmet on the final TD drive were special throws.

CAR
JAX
WAS
NE
AZ

Going back to the IND game, the Bears have about 7 consecutive games against teams with shoddy defenses. This is the part of the schedule I anticipated Caleb having the most success with. You can't drop more than 2 of these next 5. Realistically, I think they probably need to go 4-1 to get to 6-3 before facing the Packers to put themselves in contention for a playoff spot down the stretch. Even with a win today, I haven't seen enough from the offense yet to make me feel confident in their ability moving forward. Still only 260 yards of offense against a bad defense today, despite the W.

[Stinger226]

I think he needs to see players open to throw the ball, you seen several times him hesitate to throw. Being a rookie he has growing pains. The key is no TOs. Coaches and players didnt just become smart or a good player in one week. Swift is a good back , yet lots of people were writing him off over the beginning of the season. Their never as bad as their worst game or great as their best game, you have to look at the big picture to judge players and coaches.

[adam]

1 hour ago, Stinger226 said:

I think he needs to see players open to throw the ball, you seen several times him hesitate to throw. Being a rookie he has growing pains. The key is no TOs. Coaches and players didnt just become smart or a good player in one week. Swift is a good back , yet lots of people were writing him off over the beginning of the season. Their never as bad as their worst game or great as their best game, you have to look at the big picture to judge players and coaches.

Here is the throw to DJ for the TD. He was looking left the entire time, looks back to the right and throws it to the back line at the hashes, exactly where DJ needed to be. That was pretty good anticipation. The one to Kmet up the seam was amazing, he dropped it in the bucket between several defenders.