Bear(ing) the News – A Chicago Bears Blog

• Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune has 10 thoughts after the Bears loss to the Vikings on Monday night. He quotes Vikings pass rusher Jonathan Greenard on the performance of Bears back up tackle Kiran Amegadjie. Amegadjie started in place of the concussed Braxton Jones.

“I caught him a couple times,” Greenard said. “He definitely has potential. Once he gets comfortable within himself and understands how to play this game, it will slow down for him. In this environment, for his first start, it’s kind of tough to judge and gauge it. He had some good run block technique. He ran me by the quarterback a few times when I was too high with long arms, he continued to ride me by the quarterback. He has some stuff in there. You can work with that. Just a rookie.”

Pass blocking is the most visible part of playing the offensive line and unfortunately Amegadjie had a tough night of it. But it’s funny that Greenard mentioned Amegadjie’s run blocking because as I watched him during the game on what was evidently a rough night for the rookie, that run blocking is his strength. He was pushing men around at the line of scrimmage with ease and I loved every minute of that part of his game. I mean he looked capable of pushing guys off of your TV screen.

He’s got some things to work on but you can see why the Bears liked him.

• In an earlier article, Biggs quoted 49ers safety Talanoa Hufanga after the 49ers loss.

“For us, it was making him uncomfortable. I hate to say that because he is a friend of mine, but it was making him uncomfortable back there and our defense — our defensive line especially — stepped up. It was coming up with different disguises to try to get him off the spot. You never want to give a rookie quarterback something easy where what he sees is what he gets.

“And so for us, it was late rotations, it was coming out from depth and getting deep and sometimes just holding a look when he maybe thought we were going to move into something else. You’ve got to change it around and you have to stay on your toes and making him just think made him hold the ball a little bit more. That helped our pass rush get home.”

Not to harp on this but this is why you don’t predict 10 or 11 wins for teams with rookie quarterbacks.

• Adam Jahns at The Athletic while (correctly) predicting a Bears loss against the Vikings.

The Bears have three games in 11 days. That’s a tough task for the most proven head coaches in the NFL. But we’ll all get to see how Brown handles it as he tries to secure the permanent job.

I am so tired of this obsequious garbage from some members of the Chicago media as they make excuses for Thomas Brown. Jahns asked Brown a “question” after the 49ers game that was basically a statement that his shot at proving himself to be a head coach was unfair because of the circumstances. To his credit, Brown was having none of it and gave a generic answer that essentially didn’t acknowledge Jahns’ statement.

I’m positive that Brown would tell you that there are a thousand reasons for failure but not a single excuse. If he didn’t think he could do the job he would have told them to promote special teams coach Richard Hightower instead. He didn’t. He took it and now he’s got to succeed at it.

Brown’s up there making no excuses and I’m sure he expects his players to do the same. So why should we be making them?

• From Kevin FIshbain’s Q&A column last week:

Caleb Williams has the 30th ranked QBR per ESPN, and 29th in completion percentage. … Caleb’s accuracy has been terrible, and so was Mitch Trubisky’s. The eye test tells me to not take much stock in the QBR stat, but I had the same thoughts with Justin [Fields] and Mitch, and was wrong in the end. There are a bevy of valid excuses for Caleb’s struggles, but I’m done making excuses, so I’m going to go off the stats I see, which isn’t good. Please talk me off the ledge if you can. – Eddie K.

Eddie, buddy, there’s no use telling me about the ”eye test” if you can’t see the difference between Williams and Trubisky or Fields. It’s night and day.

Williams has a future as a starter in this league. It might now be with the Bears if they don’t get their act together. But it will eventually be with somebody.

• Biggs answers your questions

For those of us who are mired in despair watching this merry-go-round hit yet another new QB, new coach and possibly a new GM rotation, is there anything legitimately good to hang our optimism on? Or are we just going to be sad forever? — @mabdacuma

When the schedule is released every year, one of the first exercises I perform is looking at the quarterbacks the Bears will face. That’s a pretty good way of judging how things might shake out months ahead.

I reference this because if you’re looking for a reason for hope, that has to be rooted in Caleb Williams. If he’s the guy the Bears believe he can become, things could turn around much faster than anyone probably realizes with the team mired in a seven-game losing streak, tied for the fourth-longest in a single season in franchise history. (The Bears lost 10 consecutive games to close the 2022 season, had eight-game losing streaks in 2002 and 1978 and seven-game skids in 1997 and 1969. That’s it for single-season losing streaks of that length in the team’s deep history.)

If you can remove the emotion from it, the current slide is definitely different than the one to close out Matt Eberflus’ first season in 2022 and even the six-game losing streak in the middle of the 2020 season. Williams offers more hope than the quarterback situations in those seasons did. It’s fair to say there is more talent on the roster now, and of course there have been the frustrating late-game losses that piled up and led to Eberflus’ firing.

Biggs highlights the presence of Caleb Williams and I think that’s legitimate. But everyone (including Biggs) would agree that nothing will change unless the people at the top start making good decisions. And I very much question whether they are capable of that.

Let’s start with Ryan Poles before we get to the big guns here. I’d say that Poles has been a pretty fair GM when it comes to judging and acquiring talent. You can point to the failures here and there (I’m looking at you, Chase Claypool) and you can point out that he’s had one massive trade work out that gave him a bunch of picks. But you still have to take the right guys with those picks. He’s picked up some nice skill position players and he’s picked up a premiere pass rusher in an ordinary year in Montez Sweat.

The question is, of course, can he hire the right coach? History is not being kind to him on that front and I don’t feel the need to review it. But I will point out that he was reportedly with Eberflus every step of the way in those offensive coordinator interviews and he’s almost as culpable as he was when those hirings were made. Every reporter in town likes to point out that there was very little experience developing young quarterbacks on that staff now. But it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to see that back when the hirings were made, either.

Let’s review.

• *Shane Waldron, the then offensive coordinator, is a former tight end who coached under Sean McVay, who undoubtedly did much of the quarterback coaching. He was a quarterback coach in name only one year in Los Angeles (2019).  He worked with veteran Geno Smith in Seattle as offensive coordinator. Dave Canales was the quarterback coach. He’s now a head coach. Who do you think the rest of the NFL thought was responsible for Smith’s revival with the Seahawks? 
• Thomas Brown, the then passing game coordinator, is a former running back who has never been a quarterback coach.
• Kerry Joseph, the quarterbacks coach, was the assistant quarterbacks coach in Seattle.  Waldron stated that he will be doing the majority of the coaching in terms of the actual detailed performance and technique required on the field. He had never been an actual NFL position coach until this year.
• Ryan Griffin is an offensive assistant who retired as a player only in 2022 and has little to no NFL coaching experience.

How did Poles not look at this staff before taking perhaps the most valuable prospect the franchise has ever drafted and not say “What the hell?”. How does he actually participate in the process from start to finish and consent to hire them?

And that brings me to Keven Warren who many Bears optimists believe will make the difference in this search.

Warren’s record as an NFL executive isn’t obviously bad. At least teams keep hiring him, including the Rams, Lions, Vikings and now the Bears. But he’s never had a role in hiring personnel of any type.

And then there’s his stint as Big 10 commissioner.

Warren was named Commissioner of the Big Ten Conference in 2019 and, therefore, the Big 10 maneuvered through the COVID-19 pandemic. Badly.

The Big 10 initially canceled the entire 2020 season. At which point the SEC said, “What? You’ve got to be kidding!” and the ACC followed suit. Pretty soon everyone was playing except the Big 10. After a backlash from players, coaches and fans, the football season was eventually reinstated, and the Big Ten put together a nine-game, conference-only schedule for its programs.

Warren later said, “I don’t have any regrets. Quite naturally, we all look back on our lives and other things that we wish we would have maybe done a little bit differently. But if I had the chance to do it all over last year, I would make the same decisions that we made.”

Warren made the wrong decision by virtually every metric. And then doubled down on it. Sound familiar?

OK, that’s one decision. But it was a bad one in probably the biggest spot Warren had ever been in.

And his record with the Bears?

I’m setting aside the stadium issue because it’s not done yet and we don’t know where all of that is going to lead. But Warren was hired to provide oversight over the football program, too.

I get it. He’s not a “football guy”. But I collected that information above about the offensive coaching staff and so could he. It isn’t like you have to be a football coach. 30 minutes looking at Wikipedia pages would have done it. Where was he? The answer is either not doing his job or doing it badly. Either way, Bears fans have a big problem. But that’s nothing new, is it?

The Bears need people from top to bottom who have a history of making good decisions. Ideally that would start with ownership that makes good decisions and, therefore, hires people to oversee the business who also make good decisions. But we all know that is going to come down to hoping a blind squirrel finds a nut.

Have they found even one between Poles and Warren who Bears fans can count to make good decisions for this team and hire a good head coach? You will hardly blame me for having my doubts.

Defense

1. The 49ers got the ball first and easily drove right down and scored a touchdown. It wasn’t a good start. And it didn’t get better.
2. The Bears looked to me like they came out expecting the 49ers to try to run on them. They didn’t. The first drive was 1 run and six passes, and they drove through the Bears like a hot knife through butter.
3. Big plays were the name of the game early as the 49ers hit on mid- to long-range throws over and over. It was an ugly first half.
4. The 49ers did what other teams have been doing, which is throw at everyone except Jaylon Johnson. They seemed to pick particularly on the Bears safeties.
5. I was definitely underwhelmed by the performance of the Bears defensive line. They lost the line of scrimmage most of the time, and any plays that were made were on the second level. This was not good.
6. I’m reminded of Brad Biggs column on Sunday morning which profiled Brock Purdy. A scout stated that Purdy had been struggling all season because he couldn’t get the ball out on time. Well, it wasn’t a problem today. The ball came out fast and on time, and his receivers made mincemeat of the Bears secondary. So either Purdy was a lot better than he has been all year or the Bears weren’t doing something to him that the rest of the league has been.
7. T.J. Edwards was all over the place. Very good game for him.

Offense

1. The 49ers went with the “drop 8 and try to confuse the rookie” approach to defense today. And it certainly looked like it worked as the Bears tried to use the short passing game that they had been using to duck the blitz in the previous few games. Though they did better in the second half, it didn’t work well.
2. The Bears offensive line just couldn’t get any movement in the run game in the first half. Caleb Williams was sacked three times. It was total dominance up front.
3. The Bears came out in the second half with a nice drive, but it took up 2/3 of the third quarter. The Bears ran the ball well, and protection for Williams was better. A similar drive to end the quarter might have put the Bears back in it, but Caleb Williams fumbled the ball as he tried to stop himself from passing a ball forward, and the ball game was over with the ensuing touchdown. The Bears were never going to get enough points to catch up after that.
4. Williams showed more of a tendency to run in the second half as well, and that seemed to help.
5. Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze also had better play in the second half.

Miscellaneous

1. There were some bad drops in this game. For instance, D.J. Moore dropped a ball that was right on the money in the first half that would have helped stop the early bleeding. Cole Kmet dropped a ball in the end zone on a 2-point attempt. The balls were right on the money. You wonder if Chris Beaty moving to offensive coordinator had an effect on the wide receivers’ preparedness to play.
2. The Bears were on the road again, and they played poorly again. Words like “soft” and “mentally weak” start to come up when this happens. Always with a question mark. But the Bears need to do something to erase this tendency to lose away from home.
3. One of the questions coming into the week was whether the Bears highly rated defense would regress without Matt Eberflus running the show in the same way that the Jets defense regressed in the absence of Robert Saleh, who was also fired midseason. I’d say that the Bears are in danger of having the same thing happen to them. It’s a bit disturbing to think how badly the Bears were outcoached this game. It makes you wonder how bad the last four games of this season could be.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune has thoughts on the botched end of the game yesterday:

[head coach Matt] Eberflus mentioned re-racking the second-down play a couple of times and that is where it gets super confusing. The only thing I can think of is the Bears had two calls. Maybe there was a pass and the QB draw and based on the look the Lions presented, they checked to the draw. Perhaps they liked the pass call that was an option on third down if they re-racked it. I’m only guessing here because it was impossible to walk away from Eberflus’ news conference feeling like you understood what happened.

I’m sorry I didn’t post game comments yesterday but Thanksgiving out of town with my family is a bit chaotic to say the least. Concentrating fully on the action just wasn’t going to be an option.

Nevertheless, everyone came to a focus at the end, and everyone had an opinion. As the only Bears fan in the house, the only comment that I had to make was, “Welcome to Chicago”.

Well, that’s not entirely true. It was clear to me that, at its core, when it’s all said and done, this was the result of bad coaching. Which isn’t a great revelation, either.

All that aside, Eberflus’s apparent attempt at obfuscation isn’t terribly surprising. The guess here is that he was trying to protect Caleb Williams, a rookie quarterback who took too much time to get what was probably a simple play off and blew it at the end. There might be more to it than that, but that’s probably the major factor.

When this season began, I tried very hard to temper expectations for this team for precisely this reason. Admittedly, this has been a bit worse than even I thought. But predicting 10 or more wins, which I heard very often from members of the media, was just not a realistic expectation on a team when you are starting a rookie quarterback.

Last-minute comebacks are great, and it’s nice to know that Williams can execute under those circumstances. But let’s not forget that the Bears also put themselves in those holes, and Williams was at the center of it all simply by the nature of the position. Let’s remember what that offense looked like halfway through the second quarter yesterday.

Yes, there are quarterbacks out there who transcend all of that, and that would have been wonderful. Perhaps with better coaching (or possibly any coaching), Williams could have done it. But it was always more likely that Williams was going to have an up-and-down season for an organization that is most often up and down all on its own. The only thing that you can do is ride it out.

Offense

1. The Bears started the game with all of their preferred linemen in their preferred places. So there was going to be little excuse for not protecting Caleb Williams today. Overall, I really thought they did about as well as you could expect. Nice job up front today.
2. I thought that offensive coordinator Thomas Brown showed a lot of confidence in Williams, allowing him to pass twice in a row from his own end zone on the second set of downs in the game. Williams held the ball both times and scrambled without getting sacked and, in fact, ran the ball for a first down on the second 1.
3. Williams was having to use his mobility to escape a pass rush where the Vikings out-schemed the Bears far too much for my comfort. He did as good of a job of it as anyone could expect. But you would hope that it wouldn’t be necessary as often as it was.
4. The Bears needed to run the ball well today. They didn’t, averaging three and a half yards per carry and running the ball half the number of times that they passed it.
5. Man, that sack that Williams took in over time was a big mistake. That ball had to find its way out somewhere.
6. The Bears have been doing OK matriculating the ball downfield, and you can live with that kind of ball control offense. But you have to execute if you are going to make that work. There isn’t much room for error.

Defense

1. A nice job by Jonathan Owens on the first set of downs, stripping the ball from Aaron Jones and then recovering the fumble. That’s pretty good defense. Once the guy is held up by the first tackler, the second swoops in for the ball.
2. Minnesota started the game attacking the Bears to the outside. It looked to me like defenders behind the line of scrimmage may have been playing too passively instead of attacking the line of scrimmage on those plays. They had a tough time stopping the run all game.
3. The Vikings attacked Terell Smith wherever they could. With Jaylon Johnson on Justin Jefferson, that left him on Jordan Addison. That’s a mismatch.
4. Johnson did fine against Jefferson but, though much will be made of Jefferson’s lack of production, the penalties he draws need to count.
5. There was much talk during the week about the poor pass rush from the front four. I felt that the Bears did a better job of doing that this week. A good effort from the defensive line.
6. Tyrique Stevenson missed a tackle early on, and it looked like the Bears pulled him from the game. Then Smith had one at a critical time in the fourth quarter. So who else are you putting in?
7. Far, far too many explosive plays by the Vikings today. I’m sure the Bears will look closely at what happened today and attempt to do something different next time.

Miscellaneous

1. The Fox crew of Kevin Kugler, Daryl “Moose” Johnston, and Laura Okmin did a nice job today. It’s always a pleasure to draw Johnson for a Bears game.
2. The Bears with another blocked field goal this week. It looks to me like the ball is simply coming out low from Cairo Santos’s foot. They really need to fix this.
3. I’ve noticed a tendency for punter Tory Taylor to out-kick his coverage the last few games. It’s leading to some reasonably big run backs. I’m sort of wondering if Taylor is going to take that kind of attack if maybe he should aim to punt the ball out of bounds.
4. Boy, what a huge error by DeAndre Carter in the third quarter. The ball hitting him in the leg inside the Bears’ 20-yard line just deflated the whole Bears sideline. At the time, it felt like the last straw.
5. The onside kick, which the Bears recovered with 22 seconds left, was an interesting play. Santos’ ball really never had a chance to get to 10 yards and a smart team would have left it to die. But that’s easy to say when you arne’ down there at midfield. It was a big break for a team that really needed one.
6. Some critical penalties as always today. But none more critical than the pass interference call on Johnson deep in Bears territory as he tried to cover Justin Jefferson that eventually led to a touchdown. Jefferson is a tough assignment, but the Bears have to be more disciplined than that. They were lucky to get away without pass interference being called before that.
7. Couple big, catchable balls that weren’t caught in the third quarter really affected the momentum of this game in the second half. The Bears aren’t the kind of explosive offense that can afford those.
8. It’s very evident that the Bears coaching staff simply cannot get the players to execute in the way that they have to in critical situations. There’s always some little thing that goes wrong. Little mistakes here and there. The Bears are among the league leaders in pre-snap penalties. The “Venus De Milo” no-arms tackle by Kevin Byard that resulted in an explosive gain on the first play of the second half. The pass interference penalty by Johnson. The blocked field goal from Santos. The failure to catch well-thrown balls. The ball hitting Carter in the leg inside the Bears 20 yard line. All these little things add up to losses. And although it’s all on the players, it really does come down to whether they’re prepared mentally to play the game.

This was a nice, significant step in the development of Caleb Williams. Though I thought the Bears could have handled it better, and Williams had some inaccurate throws late in the game, Williams did far better than most expected today against a team that specializes in the blitz. And, of course, he continues to perform in big moments at the end of games.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune has highlighted a recent flaw in the Bears defense.

There was plenty of blame to pass around for the missed kick and many fair questions after the 20-19 loss to the Green Bay Packers. But focusing on poor protection, a low kick, choosing not not to run another play and whether the left hashmark was ideal obscured an issue that has plagued the Bears recently and could be their undoing if it happens again Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field.

The pass rush, spearheaded by defensive end Montez Sweat, has been lackluster of late, short of the level the Bears need to execute the plan of complementary football they talk about when charting a path to victory.

It’s been really interesting that the defense was under a little bit more scrutiny this week after new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown took over to improve the offensive performance against the Packers. But it important to note two things:

1. The defense held the Packers to 20 points. An average team that holds an opponent to 20 points has every right to expect to win.
2. The Bears offense was held to 19 points. On an average team, that’s considered to be very poor.

The defense is fine. I’m posting this early before the beginning of the Vikings game but I’ll be very surprised if they don’t hold the Vikings to under 20 points, as well, despite the apparent problems with the pass rush.

I guess what I’m saying is, this isn’t what I’m most focused on.

Having said that, it is a problem and the defense would certainly be much better, especially against very good teams like the Lions on Thursday, if they could get pressure without blitzing. In that respect, I thought the Bears plan to correct the problem was interesting.

Defensive line coach Travis Smith said resetting along the line doesn’t mean overhauling what they have been doing.
“Whenever you get some adversity or frustrations, a lot of people look outward to blame or say, ‘We need to do something different, we need to get fancier, we need to look at the trends,’ ” Smith said. “I think reset means let’s reteach us.”

I think “reset” is an interesting word but in my world it means the same thing that good coaches always talk about in situations like this. When there’s a problem, go back to your fundamentals. I’m sure that’s what the Bears defensive linemen spent their week doing.

The Lions on a short week are next on the docket after the Vikings. Here’s hoping what the Bears are doing bears fruit soon.

Defense

1. No surprise. Green Bay came out running the ball and generally feeding Josh Jacobs. And they did it with great success. He’s been the heart of their offense all year, and he had a wonderful game.
2. On Green Bay’s first touchdown, the defense was so bad it’s almost indescribable. Twelve men on the field and men in coverage who had no idea what they were doing. There were so many open receivers on that play that Jordan Love could’ve picked his target. A terrible start for the Bears team that already appeared to be in disarray.
3. The Bears defensive line really got its rear end kicked at times today. Green Bay’s offensive line generally kept Jordan Love very clean and protected. The Bears really need to get more pressure on the quarterback in critical situations.
4. If you’re a Packer fan right now, you’re reasonably upset at the team for some poor red zone efficiency today. There were a couple of times where they had the ball easily within scoring position and didn’t turn it into points. Don’t get me wrong, the Bears defense was good there, and that helped. But Green Bay hurt themselves, too, and had they taken advantage of their opportunities, this game wouldn’t have been this close.
5. Christian Watson burned the Bears on a couple of very good plays in the second half. Good game by him.

Offense

1. The offense came out, and it looked at me like Thomas Brown’s influence was apparent right away. The Bears formations were tighter to the center of play, and it looked to me like there was a concerted effort to make as many of the players look the same out of a given formation as possible. As far as the course of the season is concerned, it may be too little too late. But it’s a good change.
2. It is very evident that the Bears worked with Caleb Williams on getting the ball out quicker this week. It looked to me like Williams was given some answers this week that Shane Waldron just never gave him.
3. It’s not a great surprise with all of the injuries, but the Bears offensive line wasn’t good today. Williams getting the ball out quick certainly helped them, and they did appear to handle pass rush stunts a little bit better than they have the last few weeks. But overall, this unit appears to be subpar, particularly up the middle.
4. It seems evident that Green Bay was concentrating a great deal on stopping DJ more. They were swarming to him and were certainly determined to limit his yards after the catch.
5. Williams getting the ball out quicker also had the effect of keeping the Bears from getting behind the chains as often as they had been the last few games. It was very important to keeping the offense on the field.
6. I love the fact that the Bears score one touchdown right before halftime and it’s like they won the Super Bowl. Packer fans must be dying laughing.
7. I like the fact that the Bears used Gerald Everett as a fullback in a situation other than the goal line where they were using Doug Kramer. They need to go to the power running game every once in a while and I really like that Thomas Brown wasn’t afraid to do that.
8. I expected the Packers to adjust to what the Bears were doing at halftime. But they really didn’t do very much different other than Rush the passer with more discipline. In particular, as Tom Brady pointed out repeatedly, they stuck in a zone defense despite the fact that the Bears often struggled against man defense in the past three games. I guess they decided that holding a team to 10 points in the first half is pretty much what you want. And they have a point.
9. I understand why they did it, but I’m not sure I like the idea of Caleb Williams running as often as he did. He didn’t get hit very much running the ball because he was smart about it, and he slid fairly often and stepped out of bounds. And it did give the Packers one more thing to worry about. But I’d rather see Williams not having to rely on running the ball so often. They had a particular tendency to do it on third and fourth down. Teams are going to pick up on that pretty quickly and start keying on and hitting Williams.
10. There were still quite a large number of miscommunications out there where Williams was throwing to one spot, and the receiver was running to another. The Bears have quite a bit to tighten up.

Miscellaneous

1. Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady, Erin Andrews, and Tom Rinaldi were your announcers. With the Packers winning 25 out of the last 28 games, I have to tell you that I get a little bit tired about hearing about how this is still a “rivalry”. Maybe they should wake the Packer fans up when the Bears don’t suck anymore, and everyone should just stop pretending in the meantime. XXXX
2. I heard lots of complaints about the unnecessary roughness call on Xavier McKinney at the end of the first quarter. But when they show the replay from the referees’ view behind the play, it sure looked like he had his hand on his back, and he gave him a shove. It may not have been a strong shove, but it was way out of bounds, and he had no business doing it. Soft? Maybe. But definitely a penalty. There’s no excuse for that.
3. We haven’t heard as much about punter Tory Taylor the last few games. I’ve noticed that teams have started to take his punts inside the 10 and run them back. Taylor sometimes outputs his coverage, and I think teams have picked up on that.
4. The Bears were 12 for 19 on third down today. The Packers were 1 for 6.
5. On the other hand, the Bears still had more than double the nu

Defense

1. Everyone wants to run. But you had to figure that the Patriots really, really wanted to run given what the Bears put on tape last week. They certainly did do that, running for 4.5 yards per carry before they had to run the clock out. They ran the ball 35 times with only 25 passes.
2. The Patriots were throwing the ball right at Tyrique Stevenson whenever they could. Up until this game, he stood up to that kind of pressure pretty well. But today he had a poor game.
3. The Bears defensive line had a very difficult time penetrating against the Patriot line all game. That makes it very difficult to stop the run.

Offense

1. The Patriots were playing man coverage just like the Cardinals did last week. It looked to me like the receivers were having a tough time getting open. The Bears occasionally resorted to little tricks to bump guys open off the line, but other than that, it looked like a struggle.
2. The Bears attack was reasonably balanced until late in the game, and they didn’t do a terrible job statistically rushing for 3.7 yards per carry. But there are lapses. For instance, halfway through the third quarter, the Bears came out and called seven passes in a row. You cannot win ball games doing that.
3. I think teams have that little swing pass to DJ Moore in motion to the right figured out. The Patriots were on it so fast that they almost intercepted one near the beginning of the first quarter on a third down. I know that they’re desperate to get the ball to Moore in situations like that, but it’s time to put that one away.
4. Yes, there were 9 sacks, and yes, the offensive line is a shambles. But there’s more to the dysfunction in this offense than that. I cannot figure out how the Bears could average 1.8 yards per pass and still struggle so badly to get the ball out. I look at what the Patriots do on second or third and long, and Maye gets the ball out on a short slant and lets his wide receiver run. But Caleb Williams in the same situation drops back and has to take a sack. I don’t see that quick slant anywhere in the Bears game plan on 3rd and long when you know that the blitz may well be coming. I can’t figure that out. Williams just isn’t being given answers.

Miscellaneous

1. Daryl Johnston does a pretty good job on these broadcasts, giving us analysis on aspects of the game that fans are otherwise forced to wonder about. For instance, he made it clear that receivers weren’t getting open for Williams, something I think we all suspected but which you can’t see on TV.
2. Drake Maye came into the game having statistically thrown a high number of interceptable balls in previous games. The thought was that the Bears would be able to take advantage of that in a way that other teams apparently hadn’t. Maye threw only 1 interception, an awful throw right to TJ Edwards near the end of the first quarter.
3. By far the most important aspect of this season is the development of Caleb Williams, and right now he looks very uncomfortable out there in a way that he wasn’t the first 5 games of this season. Even when the Bears weren’t winning, he was throwing well and with confidence. But now his confidence is very evidently down, and his accuracy is way off, even when he’s not under any pressure. The Bears have got to find a way to get him mentally right. Do they have coaches who can do that? I have my doubts and have had my doubts from the day Shane Waldron, a former tight end with limited quarterback coaching experience, was hired. We could be looking at a very long second half of the season, and it’s teetering on the edge of disaster for the franchise.

Defense

1. To my eye the Bears started out bringing more pressure than usual in an effort to get to Kyler Murray. I’d say it’s likely that they identified something on tape that made them think that this would work.
2. Of course, once the Cardinals started running the ball well, the blitz became irrelevant. And they did a great job of it. They ran the ball 31 times for 208 yards and 6.7 yards per carry and it was actually worse than that because Arizona eased up in the second half.
3. It does appear that Murray often picks out his target before the snap. If the target doesn’t come open then it looks like it’s pretty much a scramble drill or a dump off.
4. Jaylon Johnson, I know you think you should be an All-Pro coverage man. But we need you to tackle, too, buddy. You’re missing too many.
5. It’s not just that the Bears were being dominated up front. They looked faster, too. I saw a number of runs where backs just plain beat everyone to the corner.

Offense

1. I was surprised at how often the Bears went empty backfield. Most analysts thought the Cardinals would be blitzing heavily. It showed a lot of faith in Caleb Williams being able to hit a hot receiver.
2. Not that the Cardinals blitzed a lot. They mostly picked their spots. It looked like they saw what I did last week. Williams had the most trouble when he expected blitz and they dropped eight into coverage.
3. Once again, Williams looked unsettled by the entire situation this week. His accuracy and timing was just a tick off.
4. Once again, Williams kind of threw up a rainbow pass into Rome Odunze early in the second quarter on a broken coverage. It’s like he’s almost afraid to throw the ball. Again, he’s not comfortable. He’s got to get back to hitting his back foot and letting go of the ball.
5. I thought TV analyst Charles Davis did a good job of pointing out something that I’ve been thinking about Williams for a long time. The Bears had the ball right within field goal range and Williams dropped back and instead of taking the dump off pass to the running back, he held the ball in an effort to get a big play. And he was sacked and taken out of field goal range. Williams has got to learn to take the easy pass in that situation. He has to stop big play hunting and make sure that he keeps the ball and field goal range.
6. D’Andre Swift has been a wonderful find for Ryan Poles and his staff. He’s quick in space, he’s sure handed and he breaks tackles. He’s been worth every penny.

Miscellaneous

1. I don’t know why Even Washburn was so surprised that it was raining during the game. The NFL website said that there was a 30% chance it would happen in their weekly Sunday game weather report.
2. Once again, congratulations to Bears fans in Arizona. We could hear you.
3. The Bears were far, far too undisciplined. They are not, nor have they ever been, the type of team that can overcome penalties and they committed a load of them today. The stats said 6 penalties for 33 yards but it seemed a lot worse.
4. Well, I think a lot of Bears fans knew that the run defense might eventually be exposed once they started playing better teams. Despite the fact that they really aren’t that good, its looked like the Cardinals on the road were the breaking point. They were dominated up front and never challenged Kyler Murray in any kind of a serious way to have to throw the ball. It will be interesting to see where the team goes from here.

I continue to believe that Caleb Williams’ problem is not the blitz. It’s when teams drop eight into coverage and rush four. It seems to leave him completely discombobulated. He’s going to have to get some coaching that’s going to give him answers and then he’s going to have to adjust or we’re going to see this the rest of the year.

Offense

1. The Bears definitely didn’t come out ready to play on offense. Pretty much everyone of the field was a step behind the Commanders players. It reminded me of the start of almost every Packers game under the current coaching regime.
2. Caleb Williams really just looked off from the beginning of this game. He was as inaccurate as we have ever seen, missing some relatively easy throws.
3. Interesting that the Bears started to put a full back into the backfield and simply tried to get the run game with some power football. They were supplementing it with plenty of off tackle runs. D’Andre Swift seems to be pretty good at breaking tackles when he’s coming at them from that sort of an angle.
4. There are two ways to try to get to a young quarterback. You can blitz him or you can rush four and drop the world into coverage. The Commanders chose the latter a lot of the time and it totally discombobulated Williams.
5. In addition, the offensive line wasn’t good enough to provide him the protection that he needed to find an open man for more than an instant. The Commanders dominated them in pass protection.
6. Well, those who were clamoring Kiran Amegadjie got their wish. That’s what it looks like when you are a rookie who misses all of training camp and you are thrown into the fire.

Defense

1. The Commanders came out running the ball well. It was essentially a mirror image of the Bears own game plan. They ran the ball 6 times for 7.3 yards per carry on the first drive. It was fairly obvious that the Bears were going to be challenged to stop it.
2. To their credit, the Bears did clamp down on the run. But it definitely opened up the pass. And though you definitely don’t want either to be open, I can understand their choice. The Commanders in the air, though dangerous, are less dangerous than the Commanders on the ground.
3. The Bears were trying to cover Terry McLaurin with Tyreek Stevenson in tight man with single high safety help. Whenever Jayden Daniels saw that, the ball was going to McLaurin. The safety some times struggled to get over in time.
4. The Bears really struggled to contain Daniels within the pocket. The pass rush was disciplined enough but Daniels was to elusive to keep up with.
5. I don’t think that I have to say it anymore because its so obvious. But the Commanders were picking on Stevenson.

Miscellaneous

1. Jim Nance and Tony Romo dud a great job as usual. The quality of the analysis just out strips everyone when these guys are on. I thought Romo was maybe a little subdued but that may have come from the realization that the Bears simply weren’t performing to a credible standard on offense. Like pretty much every other Bears game he’s ever done. As he said about 5 minutes into the fourth quarter, “Well, this game should be over before midnight.” Honestly, I wanted to turn it off long before that.
2. The statistics on this game are so grim, I’m not even going to bother. The Commanders dominated this game in every way. The difference in time of possession was a crime. Frankly, I’m surprised that the defense didn’t wear down more than it did.
3. This was an absolutely miserable game to watch. The Commanders are a good team but the 2024 Bears offense made them look like the 1985 Bears on defense. The team was coming off of a bye and it was evident that their mind was still on vacation. This was simply about not being ready to play.

Caleb Williams now has a book on him. We’ll see the divisional rivals pick up on the fact that if you drop eight into coverage that Williams won’t be able to let the ball go. He was nervous and inaccurate in a way that we haven’t seen all year. He didn’t just look like a rookie. He looked like a bad rookie.

Such are the potential ups and downs of being a rookie quarterback in the NFL. Now we’ll see if Williams and the Bears adjust.

Offense

1. The Jaguars came in with the No. 8 run defense this week but are 32nd versus the pass. So I was surprised that the Bears ran the ball as much as they did. They ran the ball 15 times for 6.4 yards per carry in the first half. They threw the ball 15 times. The final run/pass ratio was 25/29. This was all fortunate for the Bears. They always need to run whether it works or not. But their offense definitely looks best when the run is working. The Jaguars eventually had to stop playing games up front and it slowed their pass rush. Caleb Williams occasionally had a lot of time in the pocket, especially in the first half.
2. One thing that really stuck out was the number of times that Williams ran today. I wonder if that’s going to be something that they’re going to try to incorporate into their office more and more. It does add an extra dimension and it slows the pass rush because the defensive linemen have to stay disciplined. As long as Williams is careful with it and doesn’t get hurt.
3. Its still early and the protection generally wasn’t bad. But the Bears have to be very concerned about Braxton Jones, now. He’s occasionally getting pushed around by the bull rush and its not getting a lot better.
4. Big game for D’Andre Swift (17 carries for 91 yards, 4 receptions for 28 yards and a touchdown). The Bears got him into space and he took advantage of it. stats
5. Nice to see Keenan Allen have a good game today. He caught 5 balls for 41 yards and two touchdowns. Only Cole Kmet had a better game with 5 for 70 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Defense

1. No great surprise. The Jaguars came out and attacked Jaylon Jones and did so with some success. But generally speaking the Bears did a good job of limiting the big play with the help of some big drops by the Jaguars receivers. I’m pretty sure they were willing to give up short completions today and make the Jaguars work their way down field.
2. Not to make too much of it but I’m really surprised that Trevor Lawrence, who is basically a veteran, still relies on an arm band to call the plays.
3. Kyler Gordon had a wonderful game. Surprisingly, he often showed up best against the run. Of course, you need that as a nickel but you don’t often see it as a strength. When he left the game with an injury, the difference was obvious.
4. Lawrence does a very good job against the blitz. He has a knack for hitting receivers right in the area a blitzer just vacated.

Miscellaneous

1. LOL Rich Eisen – “There is no ‘I’ in Kmet!” I love you, Rich, but that one might have been just a tad bit forced.
2. Guys were slipping all over the turf in the first half on both sides. They seemed to adjust in the second half.
3. I get very frustrated at some of the incomplete calls from replay. Travis Etienne tucked that ball away in the second quarter. It might not be the rule but in my book, that’s possession.
4. I thought the best news I got all week was when I heard that the Jaguars were coming in late in the week. Despite the fact that they do this every year I distinctly remembered the Bears doing the same think the last time that the Bears came into London. They played jet lagged all game. But the Jags really do know what they’re doing. They were definitely ready to play in the first quarter of this game and, if anything, the Bears looked a step slow. the guess here is that they come in late but don’t let it disrupt their sleep schedule.
5. Kudos once again to Bears fans for showing up in London and making enough noise to make it tough for the Jaguars players to hear on occasion. My understanding is that Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is basically built to be loud. They took advantage of it.
6. Kudos to punter Tory Taylor, who did a wonderful job getting some wild snaps from Cole Kmet down for kicks today. Regular long snapper Scott Daly went down in the first quarter with an injury.
7. The Jaguars played pretty well at times today and their stats weren’t that much worse than the Bears. But they flat out dropped at least three touchdowns this game. That, along with the two turnovers, was just a killer. They had some critical penalties that also hurt them badly.
8. While I certainly give credit to the Bears for playing reasonably well on both sides of the ball today, once again you have to consider the opponent. Like the Panthers, who the Bears played last week, the Jaguars aren’t very good right now. And, like the Panthers, the Jaguars played poorly even by their standards. But those days look like they are coming to an end. The Commanders are next up after the bye and they won’t be push overs. And the divisional games are coming… We’re going to find out what this team is really made of soon.

The most important thing – and let’s never forget it – is the progress of rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. Williams looked pretty good today. He had a couple throw I know he’d like back. He held the ball too long on occasion, again. But in fairness the Jaguars were often flagged in the secondary on those plays, explaining why he couldn’t find a receiver. the touchdown pass to Keenan Allen in the second half was a very good professional throw. Williams is making nice progress. If the Bears keep slowing the pass rush by running the ball well, he’ll continue to have rookie success.