Category: Chicago Bears

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune supplies us with his always insightful ten thoughts after the Bears victory Sunday. I had a couple of thoughts on his “The Questions We Didn’t Get to” section:

“What was the real reason or reasons for the delay-of-game penalty coming out of the timeout on third-and-goal from the 4-yard line? [Head coach] Matt Nagy was clearly being tongue-in-cheek when he said, ‘You know, it’s, I guess it was a little loud. I don’t know. I guess it was a little loud.’ Crowd noise was a total nonissue. Yes, the Panthers had fans in the stands, but the announced attendance was 5,240 in a stadium that seats more than 75,000. This was Nagy’s way of not answering the question. Clearly, there was some kind of disconnect after whatever play they came up with during the timeout was given out in the huddle. I wouldn’t dwell on this too much because it distracts from the bigger picture, which is the offense’s struggle to move the ball and score”

Well, I would say that the offense’s struggles to move the ball might be partly related to the fact that they can’t get their act together on the field coming out of a time out.

As I chronicled in my game comments and as Biggs mentioned earlier in his comments, the Bears had 10 penalties for 92 yards on Sunday. It’s become a common gripe for me as each week the penalties have piled up. This is not a disciplined team. They don’t always concentrate well and, as Nagy pointed out last week himself, they aren’t getting the details right offensively.

Penalties are always an indication of how well dialed in a team is. Even the defense, who did play well at other times on Sunday, had to do so in some tight situations of their own making.

This team is setting itself up for a fall against a good team. It will happen soon, maybe Monday against the Rams.

“Did you forgo the run on third down late in the game because you couldn’t push the ball in from the 1-yard line on a David Montgomery handoff with five offensive linemen and four tight ends on the field? Montgomery was stopped for no gain after a replay review showed his elbow was down before the ball crossed the goal line. The Bears can’t put more beef on the field than this, and the Panthers stalemated them before Nick Foles scored on a quarterback sneak on the following play. The running game is an ongoing issue.”

A comment by color man Jonathan Vilma on Sunday struck me. Vilma pointed out that Carolina was dong the same thing against the Bears defense that the Buccaneers had done a week earlier, namely spread them out and run the ball. When you compared the Bears formations to the Panthers, the difference was obvious. the Bears were playing it like a power team by running out of compact formations. Even the wide receivers are line up close to the formation. And its not working.

It occurs to me that, like the Panthers, the Bears may be better off spreading out their formations and clearing out some of the traffic inside. This will make it more difficult for teams, who are now expecting the Bears to run on first down, to beat players off the snap to converge on the ball carrier.

“Did you have issues with the officiating by referee Adrian Hall’s crew? Nagy is highly unlikely to take the bait with this one because coaches tread lightly when they believe they’re on the wrong end of calls. They don’t want to risk being fined by the league when they can complain directly to the NFL about discrepancies without fear of retribution. The unnecessary roughness call on Kyle Fuller for a hit to the head of Panthers wide receiver Keith Kirkwood was close. Fox analyst Mike Pereira thought it was the proper call. Nagy might disagree, and it looked very iffy. It looked like shoulder-to-shoulder contact, and you don’t want Fuller to become gun-shy. A 33-yard pass interference call against cornerback Jaylon Johnson was also close, but he did pin D.J. Moore’s right arm against his body and really never let go. The play happened directly in front of side judge Dominique Pender.”

Agreed on the call on Fuller. But I have an issue with Biggs interpretation of the Johnson penalty. The position of Moore’s arm between Johnson and himself made it look like it was pinned. But if you look closely, Johnson wasn’t holding on to it. It was a phantom call by a referee who went by what he thought must have happened rather than what actually did.

Jason Lieser at the Chicago Sun-Times reports some comments by Bears defensive players about the officiating in yesterday’s victory over the Carolina Panthers:

“The highlight of [safety Eddie Jackson‘s] day would’ve been a pass break-up by cornerback Kyle Fuller that deflected to Jackson at the Panthers’ 17-yard line early in the third quarter. He darted through the Panthers to the end zone, but Fuller was flagged for pass interference for hitting wide receiver Robby Anderson before the ball arrived.

“Jackson chimed in later on Twitter that having his touchdown called back ‘makes no sense.'”

“He took it a step further by adding, ‘If you think these refs dot have something against us you Crazy.’ He deleted that one.”>/p>

“Jackson was not alone venting his frustration with the officials on Twitter. Linebacker Danny Trevathan
added, ‘We need to start fining refs. This is ludicrous.'”

I don’t like seeing players criticize officials publicly under any circumstances but I have a particular objection in this case.

As I chronicled in my game comments, the bad calls went both ways. For instance, the first Bears interception by Tashaun Gibson
came on a hit to the receiver that was pretty obviously early. And though Jaylon Johnson got hit with a terrible pass interference penalty where the refs called what they expected to see instead of what happened near the end of the third quarter, it was almost immediately followed by a pretty awful roughing the passer call on Carolina on the Bears next possession.

Bad officiating? Yes. But I’d be careful throwing around accusations of bias. I don’t see it.

Defense

• The Bears played a lot of man-to-man coverage. The Panthers receivers were tough to handle. They’re quick and they play fast.
• The Bears were very physical on defense today. They were fast to the ball.
• The pass rush was pretty undisciplined and they left a lot of of room for Carolina quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to run.
• Having said that, the Bears front seven looked pretty good today and handled the Panthers up front reasonably well.
• Jaylon Johnson had a bad, bad day today. Bridgewater picked on him all game, especially with D.J. Moore.
• The Bears once again struggled in coverage with their linebackers on shallow crossing routes. Admittedly those are tough but its their job and they have to do it.

Offense

• Cole Kmet finally got a touchdown on a good throw to him in double coverage. Here’s hoping its the first of many.
• Anthony Miller also finally got a ball in the first quarter but wasted it by backing up and giving up the first down that he initially had. It wasn’t a good look.
• I don’t have the stats but Matt Nagy calls a lot of runs on first down. As color man Jonathan Vilma pointed out, when he didn’t do that, he called for short passes to the outside which were the equivalent. I know the offensive line is largely responsible for the struggles with the run game that the Bears have. But I’m starting to wonder how much Nagy’s play calling is factoring into it.
• Having said that the Bears got dominated up front by one of the worst run defenses in the league. They ended the game with 3 yards per carry but it seemed like less.
• The Panthers got a lot of pressure on Nick Foles in the second half. Much of it came on the blitz. This was a terrible game for the offensive line, who were without coach Juan Castillo. Castillo is quarantining after being exposed to someone with COVID.
• Nick Foles let go of a bunch of wobbly passes under that pressure. He finally got picked off by the Panthers inside the Panther 10 yard line. I understand trying to make a play but you can’t be stupid about it.
• Foles did do a good job of spreading the ball around today. Most of the receivers and tight ends had a catch. The Panthers were obviously hyper-aware of Allen Robinson, who I think almost everyone in the league believes is the only Bears offensive player likely to consistently burn anyone.
• Darnell Mooney really does do a good job of getting open by using his speed. Cornerbacks have to respect it and he gets a lot of room.
• The Bears continue to struggle to throw the ball down field. They had only 5.1 yards per pass, which is a statistic that is a pretty good indication of the overall health of your passing game.
• David Montgomery still has a habit of running without the necessary patience. But he’s getting better.

Miscellaneous

• Kenny Albert, Vilma and Shannon Spake were your announcers. Once again, I liked Vilma, who has warmed to the job after a tough start without Albert at the beginning of the season. Again, I frequently found myself thinking along with him. He made a number of good points, including pointing out that Carolina was spreading the Bears out to run in the same way the Buccaneers did. I’m also a Shannon Spake fan.
• Special teams: Cairo Santos kicked a career long 55 yard field goal. Joey Slye missed a 54 yard field goal in the third quarter that the Panthers really could have used with the score only 13-6. The Bears took over and eventually scored a touchdown. Slye gave Cordarella Patterson absolutely no chance to return kicks, consistently kicking it through the endzone.
• The Bears dominated field position for much of the game getting good starting position while pinning the Panthers inside their twenty.
• Penalties: The referees were letting a lot of early hits on receivers go on both sides today. The penalties should have been pretty obvious. The Bears got rolling with a delay of game on their first possession coming out of a time out on the Carolina 4 yard line. I’ll never understand how that happens. The sequence leading to the Panther’s second field goal was interesting. It looked to me like the Panthers were just trying to draw the Bears offsides but Nagy ran down the sideline in panic and called a time out to set up the defense. The Panthers then came out and did the same thing and, sure enough, Akiem Hicks jumped offside to defend a play that almost certainly wasn’t going to come. That’s bad all the way around. The Bears had not one but Two 12 men in the huddle penalties to sustain a Carolina drive at the end of the third quarter. Jaylon Johnson got called for a terrible pass interference call later in the drive to set up the touchdown. Though the arm was in a suspicious position, on replay you could clearly see that Johnson didn’t have D.J. Moore’s arm pinned. Just so no one thinks I’m saying that the bad calls all went one way, the Panthers drew a terrible roughing the passer penalty on the next Bears possession. The Bears eventually kicked a field goal. It was a bad day for the refs. The Bears finished the game with 10 penalties for 92 yards. That’s too many to consistently play winning football against good teams.
• Drops: D.J. Moore dropped a touchdown on what was otherwise a pretty good day for him. It was the worst of a few today for him including one on fourth down with less than 2 minutes left in the game.
• Turnovers: Tashaun Gibson got a nice interception on the Panthers first possession to set up a Bears touchdown. It looked like the hit on the receiver was early but see my comments about the referees above. Akiem Hicks recovered a Mike Davis fumble that Eddie Jackson knocked out in the third quarter. The Bears got the ball on the Carolina 22 yard line. Nick Foles immediately handed the ball back to the Panthers with an awful throw under pressure. Deandre Houston-Carson got the game winning interception off of Bridgewater with less than 2 minutes left.
• I hate to keep bashing a team that keeps winning but they just aren’t playing well. They ran into a Carolina team that had a bad game today and once again pulled one out. But they have to start playing better, more disciplined football or this simply won’t fly against good teams like the Packers.

Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times says that the problem that the Bears have on the offensive line has no easy solutions. He’s got a good point:

“When the Bears had a quarterback issue, they turned to Nick Foles.

“When wide receiver Anthony Miller’s production dipped, they turned to rookie Darnell Mooney.

“With rookie tight end Cole Kmet still getting acclimated to the offense, they turned to Demetrious Harris.

“But an underperforming offensive line is much more problematic. A team-within-a-team, the issues are often hard to define. They take turns contributing to the problem — Bobby Massie gets beat on one play, Cody Whitehair the next and Charles Leno the one after that.

“And you usually can’t just plug one new guy in and fix it. In fact, that can create as many problems as it solves, given the chemistry and unspoken communication it takes to develop an outstanding offensive line.”

According to offensive line coach Juan Castillo, the Bears think that the solution is simply getting a better performance out of the men they have:

“It’s about fundamentals. It’s about doing something over and over so that you are able to make that block. This is what, five weeks? We still have a few left. The important thing for us, it’s a progression. We’ll get better every week.”

I have my doubts.

Fans clamored for better players along the offensive line all season. But the Bears put themselves in a bit of a bind. They’ve handed out big contracts to Whitehair, Massie and Leno that they can’t walk away from without taking a serious hit to their tight salary cap situation.

According to overthecap.com the Bears had roughly $44 million invested in Massie before 2020 and the cap hit would have been $12.1 million if they had cut him. Similarly, they had $46 million sunk into Leno and cutting him would have resulted in a $7.5 million cap hit.  And that’s not including the price of replacing either or both with starter quality players. The cap hit after 2020 for both is more reasonable.

I wouldn’t have been impossible to move on from these players. But it would have been tough, especially in Massie’s case. They chose instead to invest in Robert Quinn, someone they badly needed, and to put their faith in Castillo.

There is also the problem that general manager Ryan Pace has a bad habit of stubbornly overestimating his talent at obvious positions of need. He did the same thing last year, sticking with the tight ends he had when fans called for more help at the position. The result was a disaster.

Standing pat on the offensive line isn’t looking like it was a much better decision this year.

In any case, no matter how good Castillo is, there’s only so much he can do with mediocre talent. And it’s evident that’s what the Bears have.

I’ve heard it said repeatedly by, among others, Potash himself that the Bears haven’t invested enough first round picks in the offensive line. I’m not sure that’s the issue. Though they haven’t been taking linemen with first round picks, both Whitehair and James Daniels were second rounders.

No, the problem isn’t a lack of investment in high picks. It’s where those picks have been invested.

The Bears and Pace have inherited their offensive line philosophy from the organization that he spent 14 years with before he was hired by the Bears, the Saints. They believe, rightfully I think, that the most important part of protecting the quarterback is keeping the pocket clean in front of him so he can step up. They have, therefore, invested in the interior part of the line with Whitehair and Daniels to go with, until recently, Kyle Long.

But the problem with that is that you are left with mediocre tackles. In pass protection, that apparently works for them. They currently rank 12th in the league with 8 sacks allowed.

But when it comes to the run game, offensive tackles who can win one-on-one blocks are important. And, no matter who the coach is, the Bears don’t have the talent there to play with the top half of the league.

That’s very unfortunate because the Bears have chosen to make the play action pass a major part of their game plan. In order to do that effectively, it helps to run the ball successfully.

True, it’s far more important to keep the opposition honest by continuing to try to run whether it’s successful or not, something Nagy has been continually criticized for not doing.

But if you don’t turn those run plays into yards, you continually end up in third and long. And that is exactly what has happened to the Bears. They currently rank 30th, converting third downs at a 33% clip.

Unfortunately, as Potash points out, there are no easy solutions for the Bears right now. And it is becoming increasingly evident that offensive tackle is going to have to bubble up to the top of Pace’s offseason list of positions to address.

• Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune speculates about the future of running back Le’Veon Bell, who is being released by the New York Jets after an unproductive year and a half with the team:

“With Bell now a free agent, some have linked him as an option for the Bears, but they already have a veteran in the building to kick the tires on. They signed Lamar Miller to the practice squad last week and got a look at him for the first time Wednesday at practice.

“Miller missed last season with a torn ACL in his left knee and was briefly with the New England Patriots in August, starting on the physically unable to perform list before being released shortly after he was activated. The Bears had yet to see how Miller looks because they only held walk-throughs last week in preparation for the Thursday victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.”

Bears running backs coach Charles London said he was looking forward to seeing Miller get out there in practice this week.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing him run around out there tomorrow, test the knee, get some confidence in it. If Lamar’s healthy, he’s an explosive player. … He’s got a really diverse skill set in the run game, protection, the pass (game). So I look forward to seeing him go out there and competing.”

I have my doubts about Lamar Miller and I doubt that he’s going to be a reason why the Bears wouldn’t pursue Bell. Miller might have plenty left in the tank but torn ACLs take a lot of time to heal. I’m sure he’s ready to get back onto the field but it is doubtful that he’ll have his old explosiveness back until another year has passed.

As far a Bell is concerned, he obviously didn’t think he was being used properly by the Jets. Head coach Adam Gase reportedly never wanted Bell but former general manager Mike Maccagnan signed him anyway. The player and coach never meshed and Bell privately frequently criticized Gase’s game plans in general and his use of Bell in particular. His dissatisfaction finally became public last weekend and he was released as a result.

Though Biggs expressed doubt, the Bears could try to sign Bell. They could use him and they wouldn’t inherit huge Bell’s contract, as they would have had they traded for him. But why would Bell come to Chicago? He’d be sharing snaps with current primary back David Montgomery and the indications are that the Bears offensive line is only a little better than the Jets when it comes to run blocking against good defensive fronts. The Bears certainly couldn’t offer him much money while simultaneously trying to get receiver Allen Robinson signed to a long-term deal.

I don’t see it. But general manager Ryan Pace has surprised me before.

• Biggs answers your questions:

“Do you think it will take a win against the Rams in a couple weeks before national media start believing the Bears are legit? — @boodz22

“I would imagine a road win over the Rams, who also are 4-1, would give the Bears more cachet. That’s assuming they get their third road victory of the season Sunday at Carolina. The Panthers have won three consecutive games but aren’t getting a lot of attention with running back Christian McCaffrey on injured reserve with a high ankle sprain and coach Matt Rhule in his first season taking over a rebuilding project. I don’t think folks can clamor too much about how the Bears are perceived when you consider narrow wins over the Lions, Falcons and Giants in the first three games. Those are struggling teams that took the Bears to the wire. A win over Tom Brady and the Buccaneers helps, but the ongoing struggles of the offense make it tough for the Bears to get a ton of consideration nationally when you see scoring surging all over the place. The Rams are a good team and will provide a good test for the Bears that ought to give us an idea of where they stack up with the midpoint of the season approaching.”

I think the Bears are getting the respect they deserve nationally as a team that is probably near the middle of the pack or just below that.

The problem, if there is one, is that people pay more attention to offense and when they see a really bad one, it can give them the impression that a team is worse than it actually is. Throw in the fact that defensive teams which compete in low scoring games are more likely to see close, one score victories that come down to the last possession and you get the impression that they are just barely scraping by. Which, to an extent, they are. Such teams are always more reliant upon random breaks going both ways over the course of a game because they can’t score enough points to create separation and overcome them.

• Biggs answers another one:

“Was last Thursday’s performance by Khalil Mack against the Buccaneers a sign that he’s over whatever was physically ailing him with his knee early in the offseason? Seems to me like he was back to his dominant self. — Billy P., Oakbrook Terrace”

“What we do know is Mack was dominant with two sacks against the Buccaneers and a third that was wiped out by a penalty. What we also know is he at least has some type of knee issue the team is working to manage throughout the course of the season.”

I was glad to see Mack have a good game against the Buccaneers last week. But I would caution against any great increase in optimism about his season based upon it.

Mack’s health is certainly a factor but I think there’s far more to his performance than that. To my eye, Mack saw a fair number of snaps against Bucs right tackle Tristan Wirfs singled up on an island. No Bears divisional rival would ever let that happen in anything close to a passing situation.

Mack’s success is directly related to what Akiem Hicks does inside and what Robert Quinn does on the other side of the line. If either or both is a dominant pass rusher who is disrupting the game, it could force teams to occasionally shift their attention away from Mack and allow him to get more opportunities. Otherwise Mack will continue to see double and triple teams against teams who know the Bears better and who are likely to give Mack the respect he deserves.

Offense

• Nick Foles certainly does have his fair share of weaknesses. His release isn’t especially quick and he wasn’t especially accurate. Passes outside the numbers hung in the air like balloons due to his limited arm strength.
• Having said that, Foles looked to me like a rusty quarterback who really needed a preseason to get his legs under him. He’s the kind of quarterback that has to live by his wits and throw with anticipation. His timing was frequently off and it looked to me like he is still getting to know his receivers.
• The Colts obviously identified Allen Robinson as the only player that they thought would be able to burn them and they concentrated on stopping him. It was an opportunity for Darnell Mooney to step up. He had a decent game (5 receptions for 52 yards) but nothing that will cause future opponents to shift their attention.
• Why was Tyler Bray promoted to the roster before the game?
• Unlike the first three games, David Montgomery got most of the carries with Tarik Cohen on IR. Cordarrelle Patterson didn’t get many carries.
• The offensive frequently looked discombobulated to me. Members of the Colts front seven got very good pressure on Foles. He needs better protection that that to succeed. They really struggled with the Colts front seven.
• The Bears really struggled to run the ball. The had 1.8 yards per carry. To their credit, they kept trying and it did occasionally get them some good looks on play action.
• The Colts defense is very, very well coached. They are athletic and were rarely out of place.
• The Bears were 3 of 13 on third down. They were a pitiful 4.4 yards per pass until late in the game when the Colts were protecting a lead.

Defense

• The Bears defensive back field didn’t look ready to play. A game after giving up a long pass to Calvin Ridley on the first play of the game last week, most of the players had a rough day right from the get go. Kyle Fuller was flagged for multiple damaging pass interference penalties and gave up the touchdown in the first half to Mo Allie-Cox. Jaylon Johnson got burned for 36 yards to get the Colts inside the red zone on their first possession. Eddie Jackson had a pass interference penalty and struggled in coverage. It was a bad day.
• On a related note, TY Hilton had a very good game and burned the Bears badly on occasion.
• Similar to the defensive backs, the Bears were a step behind elsewhere all over the field. It reminded me a little bit of the Raiders game in London last season when they were obviously jet lagged. There were a lot of missed tackles.
• Roquon Smith, in particular, struggled in coverage. He needs to perform better in this aspect of the game. He did have a better second half as he showed his instincts and speed playing the run.
• On a good note, the Bears got good pressure on Philip Rivers.
• They also did a reasonably good job of stiffening in the red zone through out most of the game. They forced a lot of field goals.
• Brent Urban’s name got called a lot.

Miscellaneous

• Greg Gumbel, Rich Gannon and Amanda Balionis were your announcers. This was a good crew. Gannon notices a lot of little details and certainly did a good job of pointing out the many Bears offensive problems. Gumbel is a pro.
• Like a lot of the team, special teams looked a little behind the eight ball, especially at the beginning of the game. The Bears gave up a blocked punt early in the first half that gave the Colts great field position for their first possession. Ted Ginn was you punt returner with Cohen on IR. The Colts did a good job of blanketing Patterson on kick returns as he took two out of the end zone for less than 20 yards.
• Khalil Mack dropped an easy interception. Patterson dropped what would have been a good catch deep in Colts territory in the second quarter.
• There were a lot of damaging penalties, in particular on the Bears defensive backs as documented above. Robert Quinn had a horse collar tackle on a drive that eventually resulted in a field goal. Patterson had a dumb unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for taking his helmet off while arguing with the referee over a non-call. Special teams were responsible for their fair share of penalties as well. When it was all said and done the Bears had 8 penalties for over 100 yards.
• Foles threw an interception in the fourth quarter as the Bears desperately tried to get back into the game. Smith had a timely interception in the end zone near the end of the first half which was, unfortunately, rightly overturned on review. The Colts eventually settled for a field goal.
• This game was moved to late Sunday due to the postponement of the New England-Kansas City game and I’d like to apologize to the rest of the country for subjecting them to the Bears offense.  I anticipate having to do so again Thursday.
• The Bears were ready to lose going into this game. LAst week they played a sloppy game and got away with it. This game, that just wasn’t going to happen. They were a step slow all game, they committed too many penaties (again) and made too many mistakes, this time against a good team that could take advantage. Here’s hoping the loss finally wakes them up and they pull it together on a short week.

Offense

• The Bears came out with 3 TEs and you thought that they might try to establish the run in the first half. Indeed, they were running the ball well. But they failed to take advantage as they repeatedly missed shots down field.
• On the same note, it was obvious that, despite missing a starter at both cornerback and safety, the Falcons had no fear that the Bears would burn them deep. On one series in the second quarter the bears had 3rd and 5 and Atlanta had 10 defenders on the line of scrimmage with only a single high safety. The Bears have to be able to take advantage of single coverage on the outside in those situations and stretch the field.
• Allen Robinson had a better game today after a subpar game last week. But he appears to be Mitch Trubisky’s only really reliable target right now with the possible exception of Darnell Mooney.
• Matt Nagy came out feeding the tight ends and, indeed, Jimmy Graham had a better game today with some good catches including two touch down catches.
• The Falcons got good pressure on Trubisky today with the blitz. The run blitz was also effective at stopping the Bears run.
• Having said that I don’t have a lot of problem with how the Bears offensive line performed again. I thought they were fine under the circumstances and at least some of the problem was that the Bears receivers weren’t getting open.
• Robinson had an end zone catch in the third quarter one-on-one with Darqueze Dennard also holding on to the ball. Honestly the call could have gone either way. Eventually the ball was awarded to Dennard. It was that kind of day.
• Nick Foles didn’t look particularly accurate to me and his timing was definitely off today. He was, of course, coming in cold. I thought it got better as the half wore on.
• I really like the way David Montgomery runs. We’re really starting to see some of that contact balance and pass catching ability that we heard about when the Bears drafted him.

Defense

• The Falcons ripped off a lot of big plays for huge chunks of yardage against the Bears defense. It was like they never heard of this Calvin Ridley guy. The very first play of the game was a pass to Ridley with Eddie Jackson apparently one-on-one with him for 62 yards to the 2 yard line.
• Matt Ryan really picked the Bears apart whenever they were in zone.
• The Falcons opened up the run with those deep chunk plays and it may defending them very difficult.
• Todd Gurley really looks like he’s lumbering out there. The Falcons are trying to use him as a power back. He had some decent runs but I really think he’s about at the end of his career.
• I thought the pass rush was pretty good today. The blitz was especially effective. Though I didn’t hear Robert Quinn’s name much, Akiem Hicks and Khalil Mack both had good games. That was one of the few really good signs.

Miscellaneous

• Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilma and Shannon Spake were your announcers. Albert is a pro. I liked Vilma better today that I did when he did the Lions game, perhaps because he was more comfortable with Albert, his usual partner. I thought he made a lot of good points and I found myself thinking right along with him for much of the game. Though she didn’t get a chance to say much, I’m a Shannon Spake fan.
• Cairo Santos missed a 46 yard field goal at the end of the Bears first drive and it seems he’s going to be unreliable on thee medium to long range kicks. He made a 35 yarder later in the half. Patterson had a nice kick return in the third quarter to about the Bears 43 yard line.
• The Bears had a litany of damaging penalties in this game. Charles Leno had a holding call in the first quarter which admittedly looked like a bad call. But Mario Edwards’ roughing the passer call as Matt Ryan went down eliminated a Khalil Mack sack-fumble. An offside on Mack kept a drive going where the Falcons scored on a 35 yard Brian Hill run on the next play. Akiem Hicks had a roughing the passer call at the start of the half to keep the Falcons first drive going. They eventually scored a touchdown.
• On the other hand, the Falcons had 6 penalties in the fourth quarter which helped the Bears come back. It was ugly.
• Graham dropped a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Anthony Miller dropped one immediately afterwards. I never actually saw a view where I was convinced that the ball hit the ground but evidently it did. The Bears didn’t argue much. Later in the quarter, Robinson dropped one a big play.
• Trubisky was picked off in Bears Bears territory in the third quarter. Vilma pointed out that the coverage was zone disguised as man and that resulted in Trubisky throwing the ball to the wrong spot. It resulted in an Atlanta field goal after a good stand by the Bears defense. Nick Foles took over immediately afterward. Foles also threw an interception but it was the result of a tough call in the end zone as documented above. And then, of course, Tashaun Gipson came up with a huge interception with less than two minute left.
• Tarik Cohen sustained a injury right after signing an contract extension. It looked serious.
• The time management at the end of the first half was again an issue. The Bears scored with less than 2 minutes to play. The defense held the Falcons, who punted it back to the Bears. The Bears offense then ran off a grand total of 16 seconds to lay the defense out to dry again with 54 seconds left. This has to get better.
• I would say that for four quarters the Bears played like a team that knew they were 2-0 against a desperate team that was 0-2. Up until the fourth quarter, the Falcons played well because they had to. The offense was clicking and the defensive backfield, down two starters, played well in single coverage on the outside and simply beat the Bears receivers. The Bears were a sloppy mess. They committed far too many penalties, dropped touchdowns, missed on big plays and made way too many mistakes. That’s the NFL sometimes. The Bears are extremely lucky.
• There was a time in the fourth quarter when FOX cut to Falcons head coach Dan Quinn on the sideline. The Falcons were still up 10 points and he was yelling through his mask, apparently at no one. And right then I thought of former Bears head coach Dave Wanstedt. He used to have that same look and his players would, much later, talk about how they could feel their collars constrict when they looked at him. And it really make you wonder.

Offense

• The Bears came out with one TE. The Giants snuck an extra guy sup in the box at the last minute. The Giants were obviously focused on stopping the run and making Mitch Trubisky beat them. That’s the way I would have played it, too. They looked like they were particularly ready for Cordarrelle Patterson. They keyed on him whenever he appeared in the back field.
• Color man Charles Davis rightly pointed out in the fourth quarter that Patterson still doesn’t have the kind of vision that you’d like as a running back. But I think he’s getting better.
• To Matt Nagy’s credit he stopped with the run despite the Giants’ determination to stop it. They did a decent job of running it to my eye as well.
• Loved the pass to David Montgomery for a touchdown in the first quarter. We’ve heard for more than a year now about how he can catch a pass. He got it and ran with good vision to dodge defenders and get across the goal line. I’d love to see more of that and see what happens. Hicks looked healthy.
• Khalil Mack also looked healthy today. Perhaps he was energized by the presence of a competent pass rusher on the other side in Robert Quinn.
• There’s a good part of me that thinks the Bears are more likely to call designed runs for Trubisky because they have Nick Foles backing him up in case of injury.
• Trubisky looked more accurate to me today in the first half. I’m no expert but to my eye his footwork looked better as well. That’s probably not a coincidence and I think its a bit encouraging. His second half was rougher as the Giants cleaned up the coverage underneath.
• Speaking of that, I thought the Bears should have gone down field more with the ball. They were set up to take advantage of the play action and it seemed to me like there should have been more there.
• I know Trubisky spread it around today but he still looked to me like he was occasionally forcing it to Allen Robinson. He needs to prove that the other receivers can really burn the opponent first. Until then, Robinson will get all of the attention.
• Three sacks for the Giants in the first half. The offensive line looked to me like they did a good job in the run game but the protection looked like it left something to be desired.
• Trubisky almost gave me a start on the second touchdown. He held the ball and kept the play alive but if he’d taken a sack to take them out of field goal range, I’d have been apoplectic. As it was, OK. It worked.
• Anthony Miller had a rough day with a couple big drops. Both passes hit him in the hands. That’s disappointing.
• I expected more production from the tight ends. Without it the offense is going to struggle.

Defense

• The Giants really looked determined to run today. Daniel Jones didn’t look great and perhaps that had something to do with it. The loss of Saquon Barkley to injury in the second quarter didn’t help that but they still kept at it and had some success.
• What a move by Akiem Hicks to get around the offensive tackle to penetrate and stop the run.
• Perhaps is a huge compliment to Jaylon Johnson, the Giants started the game off passing to Kyle Fuller’s side. Fuller was on top of it and they eventually got smart and went more at Johnson.
• Danny Trevathan was caught trailing in coverage again in the second quarter on a pass for a big gain midway through the second quarter. I’m surprised it took them that long to test him and they really should have done it more.
• The Bears were playing off coverage late in the third quarter and allowed the Giants to drive from their own 5 yard line to a touchdown. That’s mighty early to be concentrating on protecting a lead.
• Jones showed some mobility to avoid what looked like a much improved Bears pass rush. I also thought he was smart with the ball, throwing it away when he had to.
• There was some sloppy tackling late in the game on the last drive. That should be cleaned up. They looked tired.

Miscellaneous

• Ian Eagle, Charles Davis, and Evan Washburn were your announcers. I’m not Davis’s biggest fan but I think he was fine today. Nothing special but certainly more than solid. Ian Eagle is a pro. These guys were better than most of what we’ll see this year at noon.
• The more CBS tries to mimic realistic crowd noise, the more irritating it gets. I don’t’ know why.
• The Bears looked like they were very aware of returner Jabrill Pepper’s ability in the return game. The Giants were equally aware of Patterson as they popped up a kick in the fourth quarter rather than kick it to him. Cairo Santos missed a 50 yard field goal wide left that the bear really needed with 2 minutes left in the game. The Bears were leading by four points.
• Eddie Jackson got called for a critical pass interference call in the fourth quarter that called back a pick six. Personally I thought he was just going for the ball. Tough break. It was a ten point turn as the drive eventually resulted in a field goal. Germain Ifedi got called for a chop block in the fourth quarter that called back a big Montgomery run making it first and 25.
• Anthony Miller dropped a pass that landed in his hands in the first quarter that would have resulted in a big gain. He dropped another first down in the third quarter in Giants territory that killed a drive. Darius Slay dropped a badly needed first down for the Giants in the third quarter to kill a drive in Bears territory. The Giants settled for a field goal.
• Robert Quinn signing paid immediate dividends in his first start as he caused a Daniel Jones fumble on the very first Giants possession. The Bears recovered and got a field goal out of it. It was a tough day for Jones. He didn’t see Deon Bush and threw him an interception in Bears territory in the second quarter. The offense did nothing with it. Trubisky threw a damaging interception early in the second half after trying to force it to a bracketed Robinson one too many times. He threw another critical interception in the fourth quarter with the Bears up by only 7 points while trying to get it again in to Robinson. The following Giants drive resulted in a field goal.
• This was a tale of two halves as the offense had a good first half but not a good second half. I think the Giants made some good adjustments and played some good defense but the Bears also failed to make plays when they had to and made some boneheaded mistakes with untimely penalties, drops and turnovers. This is what bad teams do. The defense held up and played well but that Giants offense isn’t exactly the Chiefs, especially without Saquon Barkley, who left with what turned out to be a torn ACL. The Bears won and they’ll take it. But they aren’t a good team right now.

Offense

• The Bears came out running with 3 straight runs for a three and out. They got zero push on a quarterback sneak on the third play. It wasn’t a great start and it was pretty representative of how the day was going to go.

• The Bears seemed to be rotating their running backs with David Montgomery, Tarik Cohen and Cordarrelle Patterson all getting playing time. All looked reasonably good.

• Mitch Trubisky was obviously looking for Allen Robinson first on most plays and is still relying on him too much, I think. He’s got to find consistent success with another receiver. His first attempt to Anthony Miller went wide on a obvious miscommunication though he did have some catches late and a touchdown. He found some success throwing to Darnell Mooney. He has to do more of that earlier in games.

• Despite all the talk about improving footwork in the off season, Trubisky was still throwing off balance with what was poor footwork even to my own inexperienced eye. His accuracy was off early on largely as a result. This is a bad sign.

• I thought we might see more outside zone runs from the Bears this year but it wasn’t evident to me today that was happening. The Lions did a good job defending whenever the Bears tried to run outside. That may have had something to do with it. They had more luck up the middle.>

• There was a lot of talk about no changes to the personnel offensive line after they under performed last year. To my eye, they were a lot better today under new coach Juan Castillo. The Bears running game was productive and Trubisky got good p protection most of the time.

• As advertised, David Montgomery looks quicker this year. Some of that contact balance showed up today as he did a good job of breaking some tackles as well. He still didn’t get a pass thrown in his direction.

• Despite a lot of offseason talk the Bears struggled to integrate the tight ends into the offense until late in the game. Jimmy Graham did catch a touchdown as he towered over Lions cornerback Tracy Walker in an obvious mismatch.

Defense

• The Bears badly missed Robert Quinn. It allowed the Lions to concentrate more on stopping Kahlil Mack on the other side. Unlike last year, Mack will had Akiem Hicks next to him on the line to help. Nevertheless, one team sack. The Bears need to get more pressure with Quinn out.

• If the Lions were picking on Jaylon Johnson, it wasn’t evident to me. When the Lions did throw outside, they did go to Johnson’s side, though. Johnson made some rookie mistakes. There was some poor tacking and a holding call. But so far so good.

• Adrian Peterson still runs hard and age certainly hasn’t reduced his vision.

• I thought Matthew Stafford looked good today. He’s moving well in the picket and creating time and his passes were reasonably accurate. Still got a cannon for an arm.

• I thought the Lions did a good job of pushing the ball downfield and moving against a very good Bears defense. But they stalled in the red zone as the Bears stiffened and did a great job.

• The Lions came out running with some success in the second half. It was a good move as the Bears were probably expecting more of the passes that burned them at the end of the half. They executed well.

• The Bears, on the other hand, looked flat after the half. Despite some words from Mack on the sideline, there just didn’t seem to be much there. The Lions had the ball for most of the third quarter.

Miscellaneous

• Dick Stockton, Jonathan Vilma, and Shannon Spake were you announcers. Stockton isn’t the best play-by-play man in the business but I’ve never had the problems with him that many others seem to have. He was definitely rusty today as he stepped in at the last minute for Kenny Albert. Vilma didn’t teach me very much. He was as kind as he could be when talking about Trubisky, who is under siege nationally. For the typical male Bears fan, Spake was the best thing about this game.

• Special teams – It was notable that Matt Nagy passed on what would have been about a 52 yard field goal earlier in the quarter to go for it on fourth and seven. The Lions seemed to me to have too many good kick off returns.

• Jamie Collins ducked his head and hit an official with his helmet in one of the dumbest penalties I’ve ever seen a player commit. Every play surely knows that you can’t touch a referee, let alone with his helmet.

• A interception by Kyle Fuller in Lions territory in the fourth quarter gave the Bears life with just over two minutes left in the game. Huge play in the game.

• Deandre Swift dropped the go ahead touchdown for the Lions with 10 seconds left. Those are the kinds of plays that kill games.

• The first half ended in a miserable, demoralizing way for the Bears defense. They held the Lions offense with just over 2 minutes left and the Bears for the ball back with a minute and twelve remaining. The Bears did nothing and handed the ball back to the Lions with about 50 seconds left almost at mid field. The Lions marched down and scored a touchdown.

• Final statistic: Bears third down conversion rate = 2/11. This must get better.

• Final statistic: 5.3 yards per rush, a good indication that maybe the Bears will be able to run the ball better this year.

• Final statistic: A miserable 5.8 yards per pass. Despite talking all offseason about pushing the ball down field, the passing game was still a mess for much of the day. This is bad news.

• Trubisky really disappointed me today. It was evident, especially early, that he has not taken the step forward in the offseason that the Bears hoped that competition from Nick Foles would bring. His footwork still stinks and he’s missing passes that this offense simply can’t afford to miss. We heard all offseason that they needed a running game to help him out. They had one today and it didn’t make any difference. They struggled to throw the ball down field most of the game and even Trubisky’s completions were off target.

• Having said that, kudos to Trubisky for his fourth quarter. He’s always had that kind of last minute magic in him. The problem is that the team usually fails to put it away. This time they did.

• In the mean time I heard all offseason from Lions fans that their team was better than their record last year. They lost a bunch of games in the fourth quarter, they caught bad breaks, etc… They should know as well as Bears fans that that’s what bad teams do.

Kevin Fishbain at The Athletic provides us with a viewer’s guide to Sunday’s matchup.

“In Nagy’s season openers with the Bears, the first drive has turned out to be prescient.

“Let’s go back to September 2018 at Lambeau Field. Curiosity was the sentiment at the time, as we wondered what Nagy’s offense would look like. It began in the T-formation and ended with a Trubisky touchdown run. It resembled nothing seen in Chicago in the John Fox era. The rest of the season, the offense wasn’t great, and often not even good, but it was adept enough for a 12-4 mark.

“If 2018 was about curiosity, 2019 was about confidence. We heard about taking the offense from 101 to 202. All the starters but one returned. This would be Trubisky’s finest hour.

“With the country watching as the Bears kicked off the league’s 100th season, the opening play was a fumble. The drive resulted in a punt. The offense sputtered all night, and then all season.”

Fishbain goes on to identify a number of other differnt things to watch and they’re all good points. The article is worth reading.

Having said that, I thought I’d provide some other things that I will be watching that aren’t specifically called out or emphasized.

1. Watch the yards per carry and the yards per attempt.

In particular, the yards per attempt is perhaps the best indication of how well an offense is operating. Not coincidentally, quarterback Mitch Trubisky was last in the league in this department in 2019 at 6.1 yards.

The heart of any good scoring offense is completions in the 10-20 yard range, close enough to make a connection realistic most of the time yet far enough to represent a good chunk of yardage. These are the bread and butter plays that you see executed over and over in sustained drives by good offenses like that of the Kansas City Chiefs. Its not a great signs that reports indicate that Bears quarterbacks struggled with these throws in a pandemic shortened camp. What the yards per attempt is at half time will be a huge indicator of where they are at.

Similarly, the Bears struggles in the running game were well documented last year. They are going nowhere unless this imporoves.

1. Watch Tarik Cohen.

Cohen was the heart of much of what the Bears did in 2018. He was a match up nightmare for defenses and what he did with the ball after the catch was a big part of the offense, such as it was. Last year with no good tight ends like the 2018 version of Trey Burton to worry the opposing linbackers and safeties, teams focused entirely on stopping Cohen. It had a major effect on the offense.

The Bears evidently have high hopes that their current tight ends, Jimmy Graham, Cole Kmet and Demetrius Harris, will produce more in the offense this year. If they are even just decent, as Burton was in 2018, perhaps the biggest observable effect will be that things will loosen up again for Cohen.

1. Watch Jaylon Johnson and Buster Skrine.

Although the Fishbain did highlight Johnson’s role and the importance that he perform as a rookie, I’ll be interested in seeing if the Bears only play him in nickel situations. It’s entirely possible that nickel back Buster Skrine will be moved outside in the base defense.

If that happens, how the relatively undersized Skrine performs will be important. Similarly, how quickly the Bears gain or lose confidence in Johnson will be very evident in how much he plays as the game wears on and how he holds up when the Lions test him (which they undoubtedly will).

1. Watch Khalil Mack.

This isn’t a revelation but how much the Lions can afford to concentrate on stopping Mack will go a long way towards telling you how this game went. Last year teams literally triple teamed him with an offenseive tackle and a tight end to his side and a running back kept in specifically to concentrate on making sure he never got loose. They could do this because Akiem Hicks was injured and the Bears literally got nothing from the one-on-one matchups that Leonard Floyd consistently got on the other side.

Whether new pass rusher Robert Quinn plays or not will be a big factor here. He did not practice Wednesday or Thursday with an ankle injury. But even with Quinn out, the presence of Hicks should make a big difference. If it doesn’t, I would say that fans shouldn’t get too carried away with their optimism for the season.