Day: September 24, 2018

Quick Game Comments: Bears at Cardinals 9/23/18

Defense

  1. First play. Cardinals match up Larry Fitzgerald on a linebacker for a complete pass to start their work down the field. The Cardinals were to do it again and again just as the Packers did in the Bears first game. The Bears linebackers consistently did not picked up receivers dragging over the middle late and even when they did, it was a mismatch. Apparently defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has decided that these sorts of passes are the kind he’s willing to give up. It would burn him badly on the Cardinals first touchdown as they started Ricky Seals-Jones on the drag route, only to jerk him out of it the other way. No one picked him up.
  2. Khalil Mack had a huge sack to take Arizona out of field goal range near the end of the first half.

Offense

  1. The Bears initial game plan was apparently to run to keep the Cardinals from blitzing. In a way it worked as they did run for 5 yards per carry in the first half. But it didn’t stop the blitz and on 3rd down and 7 or 8, the Cardinals confused Mitch Trubisky and did serious damage with some big blitzes. They also did a good job of disguising them, lining up at the line of scrimmage, then bailing out.
  2. Cody Parkey missed a field goal that was longer than it should have been after Trubisky took a sack on an all out blitz and lost 15 yards.
  3. On a related note, message to Mitch Trubisky: THROW. THE. BALL. AWAY.
  4. The Bears are rolling Trubisky out more and he’s in the shot gun more as well. Good job by the Bears there. He’s obviously more comfortable on the run and in the shot gun.
  5. The Bears took some shots with Taylor Gabriel, apparently believing that he is going to simply out run the defense. It didn’t work as the Cardinals covered him like a glove. They’d be better off taking their shots with Allen Robinson, a bigger receiver who can bring down a 50-50 ball.
  6. Trubisky was erratic as usual with a lot of throws that were way off target. He missed a touchdown to Robinson as he threw behind him on the play. Later he threw a fade to Robinson in the end zone and the ball was nowhere near him. Trubisky had a tough time hooking up with Robinson and they looked out of sync.

Miscellaneous

  1. Dick Stockton, Mark Schlereth and Jennifer Hale were average at best. For instance, no one could initially say what happened or who blew the coverage on the Cardinals first touchdown. Not only that but I’m not so sure Schlereth was right when he said that Danny Trevathan blew the coverage. I doubt that Trevathan is supposed to pick Ricky Seals-Jones up on that play unless he continues across the field.
  2. Cody Parkey missed a 46 yard field goal. He was kicking the ball off through the end zone.
  3. Drops weren’t a major issue.
  4. Eric Kush had a couple of damaging penalties: a chop block and a false start.The Cardinals did everything they could to hand the Bears a touchdown near the end of the first half with two roughing the passer penalties: one on Marcus Golden and one on Robert Nkemdiche. But the Bears just couldn’t accept the gift as Dion Sims took them out of a set of downs starting with first and four with an illegal shift. The settled for a field goal.Haason Reddick had a bad offside penalty that kept a Bear drive alive. It resulted in a field goal and put the Bears within 1 point of the Cardinals.
  5. Trubisky gave up the ball on a strip sack.I gotta be honest. Tre Boston picks off a deflected pass on the Bears 30 with a minute and a half left and at that point you know its not your day.Eddie Jackson had a nice pick on a less than stellar throw from Sam Bradford. Sherrick McManis had a nice interception in the third quarter that gave the Bears the ball in Arizona territory. Mack caused a huge fumble early in the fourth quarter with the Cardinals looking like they were set up to get a big field goal at that point.  And, of course, the two game sealing interceptions were huge.
  6. I thought the Bears were thoroughly out coached in the first half, just as they were in Green Bay in week 1. The men on the Arizona defense were beating the Bears to their spots. The offense was beating the Bears linebackers in mismatches in coverage like a drum. I also thought calling time out with 4:30 left to line up for the field goal was poor clock management.
  7. Good time to bring Josh Rosen in. With the Bears in a prevent defense, the passese were likely to be reasonably short and open.
  8. Kudos to Bears fans for making a lot of noise in enemy territory.
  9. This was a good win for the Bears. After a miserable start the defense came on and pulled this game out while the offense continued to plug away. At some point, the Bears are going to hae to figure out how to handle teams that know how to blitz. Trubisky seems to be too easily confused and unable to read the defense and this won’t be the last they see of this by far. But for now, I guess they should just enjoy the come from behind victory.