Month: October 2017

Quick Game Comments: Bears at Saints 10/29/17

Defense

  1. The Saints are a really nice offensive ball club that came out executing. They did a nice of mixing it up on the Bears defense.
  2. It all started with the running game and the screen game with the Saints. Once they established those two plays, they did a nice job of playing on the defense’s reactions to take maximum advantage of their success. The Bears appeared to be very conscious of both.
  3. The Bears defense did itself no favors today as there was poor tacking all over the field. You can’t get away with that with an offense that is hitting on all cylinders.
  4. All of that poor tacking resulted in some atypical big plays. Those were what really hurt today as much as anything else.
  5. One thing you notice about the Saints is how well they block downfield. Its now those screen plays run.
  6. Akiem Hicks had another good game. He was drawing a lot of double teams and still had a big effect on the game. He’s certainly not slowing down after getting that big contract.
  7. Hicks and Leonard Floyd did a good job of getting some pressure on Brees. Nice to see Floyd blossoming.

Offense

  1. The Saints came out and did exactly like you’d expect. They stacked the line of scrimmage and made the Bears beat them with the pass.
  2. The Saints did a good job of pressing the Bears wide receivers off the line of scrimmage. They had a tough time getting open.
  3. I thought Kenny Vaccaro stuck out as having a particularly good game with the Saints. They were crashing the line of scrimmage and blitzing to stop Jordan Howard and Mitch Trubisky and that seems to be something he excels at.
  4. The Bears are having a tough time with that outside zone run play. Teams are crashing the line of scrimmage and getting penetration on it and stopping it cold. They had better luck running up the middle.
  5. The receivers did come alive a little more today (5 catches for 115 yards between Tre McBride and Kendall Wright). McBride had a big 40 yard reception to set up the Bears field goal in the first half. The Bears got them with the play action, something I think we’d all like to see happen more.
  6. I thought the Bears did a decent job of running up the middle. It wasthat outside zone stretch play mentioned above that wasn’t working well.
  7. I thought the Bears did a better job of passing starting late in the second quarter. The wide receivers had their best game all year.

    Interestingly, Trubisky appears to be picking his targets before the
    snap rather than reading the field afterwards. He’s getting away with
    it for now.

  8. Trubisky who took yet another sack near the end of the first half to make a Connor Barth field goal about 10 yards longer. Barth missed it. That’s two weeks in a row. He has to stop doing that.
  9. Trubisky is also still having trouble picking up the backside blitz. Not a great surprise I guess but he needs to learn quickly.
  10. Would have liked to have seen Trubisky be a little more accurate today. Admittedly he wa probably trying hard to put the ball only where the receiver could catch it. But he missed some big passes that we were told based upon what he did in college that he wouldn’t miss.
  11. On the positive side, Trubisky threw a tremendous pass to Zack Miller for the Bears touchdown in the third quarter. And it was a touchdown.
  12. Darned shame to see Miller get injured on that play. Story of his career.

Miscellaneous

  1. Justin Kutcher and Chris Spielman were your announcing team. give it up for Spielman who did a nice job. He brought a perspective to the game that was a bit different in a land of former quarterbacks as color men. Case in point: he taught us that when the offensive linemen aren’t square to the line of scrimmage it’s not an outside zone running play but a bootleg to the opposite side. He did a nice job peppering the game with such points.
  2. Connor Barth missed a field goal from 45 yards at the end of the second half. He wasn’t helped by Trubisky who took yet another sack to make that field goal about 10 or so more yards. He has to stop doing that.

    Tarik Cohen took the ball on a punt and he hesitated rather than just running up field. The Saints player on the coverage was going full steam and buried him. He has to stop that jittering and just go.

  3. An offside on Kyle Fuller on a field goal attempt gave Saints a first down. That resulted in a touchdown. That was a bad one. But overall I don’t think the Bears committed too may penalties today.
  4. Drops weren’t a factor today but Jordan Howard had a terrible one near the goal line late in the fourth quarter.
  5. The Bears won the turnover battle by getting two fumbles in the fourth quarter that kept them in the game.
  6. They say that every game comes down to just a few plays. Boy, was that true today. Take the four points the Bears lost on Kyle Fuller’s offside call that allowed the Saints to get a touchdown instead of a field goal in the first quarter, the three points Trubisky arguably cost the Bears by taking a sack and moving the Bears back on a first half missed field goal and the four points the referees cost them by taking away Miller’s touchdown and you’d have the Bears right in the middle of this game.

    The Bears actually didn’t playbadly. Their tackling was poor and that cost them a great deal but they weren’t committing penalties, they weren’t dropping the ball and they once again won the turnover battle.

    Having said all of that, I still think the better team won today. But the Bears hung tough with a team that was really playing well. Every game I think we see a little more hope for the future. Just another good draft or two and maybe they’ll be competitive with anyone.

 

Quick Comments: Panthers at Bears 10/22/17

Defense

  1. The Bears started this game stacking the run on first down but
    eventually the Panther’s started spreading them out, then attacking
    them up the middle. Presumably they were going after Christian Jones.
    To a certain extent, it worked.
  2. Other than that, I thought the Bears did a good job of stopping the
    run generally.
  3. Kyle Fuller had another excellent game. Eventually the Panthers
    started going to the other side at Prince Amukamara with a bit more
    success. They also attacked Bryce Callahan over the middle with some
    success.
  4. They’d have had more success but Cam Newton wasn’t having one of
    his better days. He wasn’t very accurate and that certainly helped the
    Bears cause.
  5. Kudos to the Bears front seven as they got sack after sack on Newton.
    Akiem Hicks, Leonard Floyd and Danny Trevathan all had sacks. That
    certainly helped as well. They took advantage of some bad Carolina
    blocking through the first quarter and a half. It got a little better after
    that to my eye.
  6. Trevathan really showed up again and had a very good game. He was
    particularly effective on the blitz.
  7. The Bears defense looked tired at the end of the first half. It was their
    own fault. Carolina dominated the time of possession (22:21 Vs 7:39)
    largely because the Bears kept scoring on defense.
  8. Floyd had a good game getting pressure but I got a little tired of
    watching him take an inside path to the quarterback, thus letting
    Newton extend plays outside the pocket.

Offense

  1. The Bears didn’t get the ball on offense until 7:46 was left in the first
    quarter because the defense was coring and giving the ball back to the
    Panthers.
  2. The Panthers stacked the line of scrimmage when they saw triple tight
    end but mostly they played light in the box. you’d think the Pittsburgh
    tape would have told them not to do that but… whatever.
  3. The Bears are so bad at wide receiver that they basically made Tarik
    Cohen into one today. Whenever he and Jordan Howard were on the
    field at the same time, the Panthers were smart enough to treat him
    like one as well and put the nickel defense on the field. Cohen still had
    a huge 70 yard reception setting up a field goal.
  4. Mitch Trubisky is still holding the ball too long. He had a sack at the
    end of the first quarter that put them back to the limit of Connor
    Barth field goal range at the 34 yard line. Barth missed it. He can’t
    take a sack there.
  5. Not a great day for Trubisky today. He was under pressure on third
    and long with a blitz coming where he really needed to get rid of the
    ball. He looks like he just doesn’t know where to go with the ball, yet.
  6. I like the way that the Bears will occasionally go into the hurry up to
    prevent Carolina from substituting. It works.
  7. Cody Whitehair is really having problems this year. In addition to the
    bad snaps before this game, he’s been getting pushed around quite a
    bit more than you’d like up front.
  8. Did OK but they allowed too much penetration in some important
    spots today.

Miscellaneous

  1. Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts were fine.  Can say that I learned a lot but we’ve certainly had worse.
  2. Connor Barth had a 42 yard field goal blocked. It looked like it came
    out low.
  3. The Bears did a reasonable job limiting penalties until, of course
    the offense had to actually come through and try to help put the game
    away. Then it was a flag fest.
  4. Cohen had a drop in the first quarter..
  5. Eddie Jackson had a banner day in the run over department scoringon a long fumble recovery and then on a pick six, both over 70 yards.
    Credit Amukamara on the assist on the lick six as he tipped the ball into
    the air with some good coverage. Trevathan had a huge interception
    midway through the fourth quarter. The Bears once again did a good
    job here and it was key to keeping them in the game.
  6. This was a terrible offensive game for the Bears today. They ran just
    37 offensive plays and converted exactly two third downs. They had
    the ball six times in the second half and all but the last one were three
    and outs. They held the ball for only 21:25 and hung the defense out
    to dry, leaving them on the field for 38:35 to wear down to a nub. This
    just has to get better.

    On the bright side the defense played great today and really carried
    the day. They not only accounted for stopping the Panthers but they
    did almost all of the scoring, as well. Those guys were heroes today.

    If you want the bottom line, its in the usual stats. The Bears won the
    turnover battle (2-0), They had few penalties (only 2 until late in the fourth quarter) and they didn’t drop the ball much if for no other reason than there were so few passes. The Bears don’t have a big margin for error but they played reasonably well on a day that Cam Newton really didn’t. That was enough.

 

Quick Comments: Bears at Ravens 10/14/17

Defense

  1. The Bears played a light box against the run. Presumably that’s
    because the Ravens had lost both their starting guards (Alex Lewis and
    perennial Pro Bowler Marshal Yanda) to season-ending injuries and
    center Ryan Jensen is in his first year as a full-time starter.
  2. Having said that, the Ravens had some success running up the middle
    against the Bears. Middle linebacker is still a weakness with
    Christian Jones starting for the injured Jerrell Freeman.
  3. In addition, the Ravens were able to take advantage of Danny Trevanthan’s aggressiveness. Trevanthan otherwise had a great game, though.
  4. I loved the aggressiveness that the defensive backs played with this game. The Ravens evidently thought they had a mismatch with Kyle Fuller because they tried to pick on him but he generally did a good job in coverage. Fuller, Eddie Jackson and Adrian Amos all played fast and hit hard.
  5. Kudos to Joe Flacco and the Ravens offense for handling the Bears blitz so well. They picked it up well, Flacco stayed calm and dealt the ball effectively.

Offense

  1. The Ravens did what you’d expect and crashed the line of scrimmage and challenged the Bears to throw the ball. As in all of the previous games it generally worked. The Ravens have a good, tough secondary and the Bears passing game with no wide receivers is limited.
  2. Like the Vikings before them, the Ravens did a good job of eliminating cut back lanes for Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen and the outside zone runs weren’t working well. Terrell Suggs ate Dion Simms alive on the outside.
  3. However, the Bears did have success running up the middle. There are probably two reasons for that. Ravens defensive tackle Brandon Williams is still out and he’s their best run defender. On the other side, the Bears interior line of Josh Sitton, Cody Whitehair and Kyle Long are healthy and they were doing a good job of blowing Ravens off of the line of scrimmage.
  4. I thought Howard could have been more patient on some of those runs in the first half. It looked to me like he came out after half and did better in that area.
  5. The Ravens obviously wanted to show Mitch Trubisky a lot of different
    looks and the Bears did a good job of limiting that by going to the hurry up in any obvious passing situation, mainly third and long.
  6. The Bears really need to open up the deep passing game and, at least for now, Trubisky is showing some limitations in that area. He had some opportunities to complete some long passes and some of them were way off today. We heard that he was throwing a good deep ball all through camp. I haven’t seen it yet.
  7. Trubisky did do a good job of taking care of the ball, though. He
    apparently got the message that the one cardinal sin he could
    commit at this point is giving the ball away. Yes, he did have a
    critical fumble and he’s going to have to eventually do a better
    jhob of picking up blitzes and he’s going to have to develop a
    better feel in the pocket. But more importantly, Trubisky threw
    the ball away a lot to live to fight another day rather than
    forcing it. When you’ve got a good defense, that’s what you have
    to do.
  8. Someone has to do something about Whitehair’s bad snaps. This is ridiculous.
  9. Is there anything Tarik Cohen can’t do? 25 yard touchdown pass to Zach Miller. You can’t win consistently with gadget plays, though. Eventually these guys have to execute. But, hey, it worked.

Miscellaneous

  1. Sam Rosen and Ronde Barber did this game and I think Barber really had a good day. He wasn’t always on point but he made a lot more sharp comments than duds and was pretty much on top of the action all game.
  2. Bears special teams allowed a boneheaded touchdown when everyone stopped but the runner, Bobby Rainey, who was tripped up by his own man and wasn’t down. They then allowed the game tying touchdown with less than 2 minutes left in the game. Pat O’Donnell shanked a unt in over time. Needless to say they’ve had better days.
  3. The Bears had no notable drops. The Ravens had only one or two.
  4. The Bears reportedly stressed the fact that they had to cut down penalties if they were going to win and they did with only 4 penalties for 34 yards in regulation. Unfortunately they were still at critical times but they did still cut them down.
  5. Trevathan recovered a fumble in the second quarter with the Ravens driving. Unfortunately the Bears failed to take advantage as they followed it with a three and out. Bryce Callahan had an athletic interception in the second quarter after a crushing hit to Breshad Perriman by Eddie Jackson. The Bears took advantage of that ohne and followed it with that Cohen touchdown pass. On the Bears side Tarik Cohen had a critical fumble in Bears territory near the end of the third quarter with the Bears up by only a touchdown after that idiotic kickoff return for a touchdown. The Ravens eventually kicked a field goal to cut into the lead. That was followed by a back breaking Trubisky fumble on a delayed blitz but Lardarius Webb, also in Bears territory. That one was floowed by a pick six by Adrian Amos.
  6. The Bears did a pretty good job of cleaning up a lot of things today. There were no notable dropped balls, they had on;y two penalties and, probably most important, they won the turnover battle. Indeed, no game that I remember so drastically showed how important it is to do the last. The Bears fortunes literally varied as the ball got passed back and forth and while you’d like to see the offense clean up their requisite two turnovers (fumbles by Trubisky and Cohen), the defense carried the day with not only good, fast, aggressive play but by getting three turnovers, themselves. I and many others with me have said it time after time. The defense has to get turnovers if the team wants to win consistently.

And yet they still tried so hard to find ways to lose this game. While cutting the penalties down they committed them at critical times late in the game and then again in over time. Special teams were a disaster and it cost them dearly at the end. As Barber said near the end of the game, this is what 1-4 (now 2-4) teams look like.

Kudos to the Bears for winning it in the end. But, man… give us a break, will you?