Month: November 2017

Quick Comments: Bears at Eagles 11/26/17

Defense

  1. The Eagles come out mixing it up. They executed pretty well all game, to say the least.
  2. The Bears pass rush was anemic all game unless they were blitzing.
  3. Speaking of the blitz, Wentz is pretty elusive in the pocket. Sort of Tom Brady-esque there.
  4. The Eagles did a good job against that blitz in general, frequently taking advantage for some big gains. The bears weren’t getting there quick enough.
  5. What’s really bad is that the Bears were playing a light box and they still struggled to cover the Eagles receivers. The Eagles took advantage with some good long runs. By the end of the first quarter and the Eagles were rolling both on the ground and through the air.
  6. It certainly doesn’t help that the Bears were manhandled at the line of scrimmage.
  7. Christian Jones looked pretty good in coverage this game.
  8. It was interesting watching the rookie Eddie Jackson giving Prince Amukamara hell for not trying to knock Alshon Jeffery off of his route after a catch where Jackson didn’t have time to get over to help. In truth, it was a common problem for the cornerbacks.
  9. Kyle Fuller was having a hard time keeping his footing out there in the first half. I’m wondering if he had the wrong cleats on.
  10. Zach Ertz obvioulsy had a good game as the Bears safeties had a hard time matchng his physicality.

Offense

  1. Here’s all you need to know. The Bears didn’t have a first down until 2 minutes into the third quarter. The first half time of possession was 20:03 to 9:50 Eagles.This was the most disgusting offensive performance I’ve seen all year. The offense totally hung the defense out to dry. The whole unit should apologize.
  2. The Bears tried to continue to open up the offense and came out throwing on first down. Unfortunately Trubisky was struggling with his accuracy, as has been his wont of late.
  3. The Bears had a very hard time running the ball against the Eagles number one rush defense. No great surprise.
  4. The Bears really struggled to block the Eagles.
  5. It didn’t help that the Eagles looked so well coached, correctly reading the plays as they developed and reacting quickly.
  6. I like the idea of putting Trubisky in the pistol formation. It gets him out from under center to a place where he’s more comfortable and yet its easier to run out of.
  7. One thing about Trubisky. I’ve been tough on him for his accuracy and rightfully so. But some of it is because he’s trying to throw with anticipation to his receviers. Perhaps it willpay off in the end as he gets better at it.

Miscellaneous

  1. Kevin Burkhardt, Charles Davis and Pam Oliver were your announcers.This was the team that Jay Cutler was supposed to be a part of and it would have been really interesting to have heard what he had to say.

    “Hey, at least Trubisky doesn’t have Martellus Bennett laying down on him and he doesn’t have Brandon Marshall in his ear.

    “Whatever.”

  2. Pat O’Donnell had a pretty awful punt to set the Eagles up in Bears territory in the first quarter. The possession resulted in a touchdown. Another blocked punt gave the Eagles field position in Bears territory in the second quarter.Cairo Santos missed a 54 yard field goal by a mile wide right.

    Kicking wasn’t the only problem. Return teams were generally pretty miserable as the Bear were constantly in poor field position, often with a poor return in conjunction with a penalty.

  3. There were plenty of penalties on both sides today. Only one team was good enough to be able to afford them.Having said that, its not a big surprise that a defense coached by Jim Schwartz is undisciplined. The Bears are familiar with the way his defenses play, both good and bad, from his days as the Lions head coach.
  4. Drops didn’t play a huge role today.
  5. One of the few really good things that the Bears did today was strip the ball. It’s a shame it didn’t result in more points.Two turnovers took place on a bazaar play where Malcolm Jenkins intercepted another poor throw from Mitch Trubisky. Interestingly Dion Simms got the ball back by stripping Jenkins, actually giving the bears better field position. They were unable to take advantage of it as Adam Shaheen missed a block on 3rd and 2.

    Adrian Amos stripped the ball from LaGarrette Blount after a long run, giving the Bears the ball in Eagles territory. That ended with a missed field goal.

    Cre’Von LeBlanc caused another fumble with a hit on Jay Ajayi on another weird play. The ball went into the end zone where Nelson Agholor recovered it.

    Isaiah Irving recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter.

    Trubisky threw an interception late in the fourth quarter that was overturned to become an incomplete pass but not before the Eagles got to do a line dance on the field. That was followed by a real pick and another dance.

  6. This was total domination in pretty much every way. The Eagles not only have far more skill position talent, they dominated the Bears on both sides at the line of scrimmage.The Bears defense couldn’t get off the field as they couldn’t stop the Eagles on fourth down. The special teams were a disaster. The offense couldn’t execute and the rookie quarterback stunk.

    It’s hard to argue that this team is improving after such a total disaster. This was a tough one to watch – for fans and ownership. It’s one that may factor heavily in John Fox’s and maybe Ryan Pace’s future unless this team starts showing a lot better soon.

    Right now they feel a long, long way off.

Vic Fangio May Not Be With the Bears Much Longer and Other Points of View

  • Pete Dougherty at packersnews.com thinks Jason Spriggs might be near the end of his tenure in Wisconsin.

    At this point, Spriggs might have to move to guard to try to salvage his career. Regardless of where he plays, you have to think the Packers will bring him back for his third training camp just to be sure. But unless he improves a lot this off-season, he could get cut after only two years with the team.

    If that’s how it turns out, Spriggs will have been one of the biggest swings and misses of the Thompson era. It’s not just the fanning on a second-rounder. That happens to the best of them. But Thompson traded two extra picks – a fourth and a seventh – to move up nine spots to get him.

    The statement is significant because the Packers may well have traded up to get ahead of the Bears, who “settled” by trading back and drafting budding potential pro bowler Cody Whitehair.

    For once the Bears may have come out ahead on that one.

  • Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer was none to happy with the officiating in Minnesota’s Thanksgiving match up with the Lions:

    “We almost lost our composure a couple times,” Zimmer said. “We study each crew going into the game. I told them it could be like this today. They’ve got to play clean, smart football and (long, awkward pause] . . . I shouldn’t say anything else.”

    I was pretty bad. There was a non-call on what was obviously pass interference committed on wide receiver Stephon Diggs and there was a taunting call on quarterback Case Keenum where he was getting up after a sack and he flipped the ball in the direction of Lions defensive end Ziggy Ansah that wasn’t much better.

    Mike Florio at profootballtalk.com danced on the line of accusing the NFL of intentional bias:

    [W]hile I’m a firm believer that the fix is never in, moments like this make me wonder whether the ratings dip has resulted in an unspoken message to give calls to a team that is on the verge of getting blown out, in order to help avoid it. And if I’m wondering, other people are, too.

    I don’t believe that. But I’m honest enough with myself to understand that is largely because I don’t want to believe it.

    The NBA is known for giving the leagues stars the benefit of the doubt when making calls and, as a result, I haven’t watched a full professional basketball game in many years. If the NFL ever did even hint that biased officiating would be acceptable to keep a game close to boost ratings, it would be the end of the league, at least as far as I’m concerned. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.

  • Adam Jahns wonders if defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is getting a free pass for the poor performance of his defense over the last two games:

    Fangio’s defense didn’t deliver the win it should have against Packers backup quarterback Brett Hundley at Soldier Field. Instead, Hundley completed 18 of 25 passes for 212 yards, a touchdown and a 110.7 passer rating — his best mark this season — in Green Bay’s 23-16 victory.

    As quarterback Matthew Stafford was passing for 299 yards and two touchdowns against the Bears in the Lions’ 27-24 victory, the Ravens’ defense played like a top-10 defense should against Hundley in Green Bay. He was intercepted three times and sacked six times. The Ravens held him to a 43.6 passer rating.

    The disparity in Hundley’s performance made the Bears’ most disappointing loss of the season look even worse.

    In fairness, the defense only gave up 27 points in the loss to the Lions. I consider 24 points to be average.

    Fangio’s game plan was to switch up in the coverages in order to confuse Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford. It didn’t work as Stafford either did a better job than anticipated or offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter did a very good job of anticipating the coverages. Either way, the Lions got themselves into the right play and took advantage of the Bears zone coverages way too often.

    No one is perfect and Fangio is still one the best defensive coordinators around. It will be tragic if the Bears lose him in the off-season as he becomes a free agent when his contract is up. Fangio wanted to take the defensive coordinator job in San Francisco last season but the Bear blocked the move. They won’t be able to block it this year if the 49ers decide to make a switch. The Raiders also recently fired defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. and they may not stick with replacement John Pagano.

    Bottom line, the odds of Fangio staying look pretty slim at this point.

  • Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune reports that defensive end Leonard Floyd will go on IR:

    Floyd played 90 percent of the Bears’ defensive snaps in the first nine games, to that point achieving his goal of improved availability. But Thursday’s transaction will bring his two-year career total of missed games to 10.

    While its disappointing that Floyd didn’t make it through the whole season there was a major piece of good news in all of this. Floyd didn’t suffer a single concussion.

    Floyd suffered two concussions in the space of six weeks last year and the frequency of those things doesn’t go down. The Bears claimed that better tackling technique would solve the issue but I was frankly skeptical. Personally, I thought his career was in real jeopardy. But the Bears were evidently right and Floyd seems to have beaten the problem.

John Fox and Ryan Pace Should Share Responsibility for the Bears State and Other Points of View

It must have been a pretty good question and answer column from Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune because I’ve got a lot of comments to make in my free time this Thanksgiving day:

  • Here’s question number one:

    Can you explain why Tarik Cohen wasn’t on the field for the final drive on Sunday against the Lions? Why do the coaches insist on using Benny Cunningham? — Mark A., Milwaukee

    I don’t have a problem with this decision the way some people do. If folks want to criticize the coaching staff for some of the decisions that have been made, including how personnel has been deployed, I think there are more nuanced criticisms that can be made. The Bears ran 10 offensive plays in the final possession and Cunningham was on the field for all of them. He stayed in as a pass blocker on six snaps. He chipped and then released into the pattern as a check-down target on one snap and he released from the backfield on three snaps. I certainly don’t think it would make sense to have Cohen on the field as a pass blocker in that situation.

    I tend to agree.

    Biggs has made the point that Cohen is a gadget player at this point in his career and that’s what I see as well. I’ve had a hard time understanding the ciriticsm of the Bears from both fans and media aimed at how they are playing him.

    To some extent the league has caught up to Cohen. He really hasn’t shown that much once the league took away his cut back lanes. Last game he had 9 carries for 44 yards (4.9 ypc), his best game in many weeks. But Jordan Howard had 15 carries for 125 yards (8.3 ypc). Its hard to take Howard off the field as a runner at this point and, as Biggs points out, the 5’6” Cohen is unlikely to ever be the kind of pass blocker that you can leave in when you are expecting the blitz. He certainly isn’t right now.

    There are plenty of things to worry about as Bears fans right now. How they are using Cohen is so far down the list it should barely register.

  • Here’s another good question:

    Why is John Fox on the hot seat while Ryan Pace’s job appears safe? The Bears have finished last for his entire tenure and look likely to finish last this year as well. The roster has few playmakers, an abysmal receiving corps, a secondary in need of a rebuild and a limited pass rush. Does anyone believe a different coach would get much better results with this roster? While Pace was not handed much in terms of a roster, the NFL operates on a much shorter cycle than other sports, and after 2 1/2 years a turnaround has not happened and does not appear imminent. In my opinion much of the goodwill centers around optimism you can still project onto Mitch Trubisky. But Pace gave up enormous value to get him and that already appears to be a mistake (Deshaun Watson). — Tim M., Parts Unknown

    I don’t believe Pace has been unscathed when it comes to criticism and commentary this season. Fox is front and center every week and that certainly makes him an easier target for most people.

    I actually asked a variation of this question back in May and I note that Mike Mulligan, also at the Tribune did just this morning as well.

    I continue to have a tough time with the idea that Fox cold be fired while Pace remains. How can you hold a coach responsible for losing without holding the person who supplied him with the players equally so? Especially in this case where only mediocre free agents and little immediate help in the draft was added to a 3-13 team?

    I really don’t want to see either of these guys go. At least not before we see if there’s any progress before the end of the season. But my sense of justice tells me that Fox will getting a bit of a raw deal if he’s fired while Pace stays.

  • Here’s another one:

    What are your thoughts on the Bears drafting another quarter back next year? — @bearsdfense

    I’m guessing a guy with the Twitter handle @bearsdfense would be happier if they used their draft picks on wide receivers, defensive backs, outside linebackers and maybe some linemen. I’d be stunned if they drafted a quarterback in 2018 and you should be too.

    I don’t think I’d go that far. The odds of Mike Glennon and Mark Sanchez returning aren’t great. They’ll sign a veteran backup of some type, for sure but it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Bear use a mid-to-late round pick on a guy that they like to develop as a third quarterback.

  • And again:

    What do you think the defensive backfield looks like next year? — @jpzimm

    That’s a good question… The burning question is what happens at cornerback? Prince Amukamara and Kyle Fuller are in contract seasons and the Bears can move on from Marcus Cooper before a roster bonus is due to him in March. So as I wrote this past Sunday, all three are really in a contract year. My hunch is Fuller will want to explore the open market and see what is out there. He’s played OK this season with some ups and downs. Amukamara has been steady and has gotten a lot less action than Fuller. Two pass interference calls against him the last two weeks aren’t good but that happens. Cooper looks like he’s lacking confidence. What’s the solution? I think the Bears need to use a high draft pick (think first two rounds) on a cornerback, they need to sign one in free agency and come up with a third option. This will be an offseason project for sure.

    If Amukamara is amenable, the Bears should be moving to try to sign him for a reasonable price right now before he hits the open market. Despite his continued drought in terms of generating turnovers, he’s been their best cover corner. My guess is that they let Cooper go.

    Fuller has been better than expected but hasn’t looked good the last couple weeks and his tacking is suspect. His future with the Bears probably depends a lot on how he finishes the season. As it is, they might try to sign him on the cheap but why would he accept that kind of contract with them when he could get a fresh start for the same money somewhere else?

  • Here’s the last one I want to address:

    With the injury to Leonard Floyd and injury history of Pernell McPhee, the Bears appear to be lacking impact pash rushers yet again. Do you believe the Bears cut McPhee to save the $7 million against the cap in the offseason? Who are impact pass rushers the Bears may consider in draft and free agency? — @beardown7878

    I don’t think the right knee injury Floyd suffered in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Lions has anything to do with what the club will decide to do with McPhee, who turns 29 next month. McPhee’s balky knees will make it difficult, in my opinion, for the Bears to consider him part of the future plan. He has a base salary of $7.2 million in 2018 with a $200,000 roster bonus due June 1 and a $175,000 workout bonus. The delayed roster bonus would give the Bears a little time to make a decision but I don’t know that the Bears will need that much time to filter through this one. McPhee is a part-time player at this point and has struggled with the knees since midway through the 2015 season.

    Yeah, I can’t see the Bears paying this kind of money for McPhee. One thing that could do is ask him to take a pay cut. McPhee has occasionally provided a boost in spurts at critical times in the game. That certainly doesn’t make him worth $7 million. But he might still get as much or more from the Bears as a part time player than he would on the open market.

  • The Denver Broncos fired offensive coordinator Mike McCoy this week. Apparenty general manager John Elway felt that the offense was too complex.The firing makes me wonder if head coach John Fox would consider hiring McCoy in some capacity. McCoy was the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach for the Broncos from 2009-2012. In 2009 Broncos QB Kyle Orton enjoyed a career year under McCoy and in 2010 the Broncos ranked seventh in passing and Orton ranked fourth in the league in passing yards per game. McCoy adapted to accommodate Tim Tebow’s skill-set in 2011.

    It wouldn’t be the first time the Bears showed interest in McCoy. They asked the Broncos for permission to interview McCoy for the head coach position in 2012 after they fired Lovie Smith.

    Dowell Loggains hasn’t really done anything to deserve to be fired but you wonder if the future of Mitch Trubisky might be in better hands with McCoy as the quarterback coach over the relatively inexperienced Dave Ragone.

Quick Game Comments: Lions at Bears 11/19/17

Offense

  1. The Lions came out stacking the line of scrimmage just like everyone else. The Bears responded by throwing the ball more, apparently deciding that they could actually beat the Lions defensive backs. They also threw some Mitchell Trubisky runs in. All of this combined to loosen the defense up and the Bear sustained a drive down to the 5 yard line before settling for a field goal.
  2. It didn’t help the Lions that they struggled to get a pass rush on Trubisky early.
  3. I thought it was interesting that the Bears chose to pass on that first possession in the red zone. I noticed the first thing they did when they got down there again was run Jordan Howard before throwing for the touchdown to Adam Shaheen.
  4. Shaheen had a breakout game as Trubisky hit him on some pin point passes in tight coverage.
  5. Shaheen had such a good game in part because the Bears apparently decided to target the tight ends this game. He and Brown certainly started hot with 3 catches for 36 yards and a touchdown.
  6. It looked like the Bears made a concerted effort to get Tarik Cohen on the field more this game after taking heavy criticism in the media last week for not playing him more.
  7. Second week in a row that we’ve seen the Bears run a good screen play. That’s encouraging.
  8. Kudos to the Bears offensive line as they dominated the line of scrimmage early in this game. Trubisky showed what he could do when he gets protection. Unfortunately things weren’t so rosy in the second and third quarters.
  9. Jordan Howard had a pretty good game as he went over 100 yards. The Bears seemed to find the running game a bit in the fourth quarter after stalling for most of two quarters before that.

Defense

  1. Not a fast start for the Lions as they just didn’t execute well early on. Stafford was a little inconsistent and fumbled the ball away on their first possession. You have to wonder if they didn’t take the Bears a little lightly. They got their feet under them in the second quarter.
  2. The Bears did a reasonable job of getting pressure on Stafford as that Lions offensive line initially didn’t look a lot better than it did last year to my eye. Like everything about the offense, they did a better job starting late in the first half.
  3. The Bears mixed coverages quite a bit and they weren’t always in that cover two that they like so much. The Lions did a pretty good job of finding holes in the coverage for big gains when they finally started moving the ball. Looks like the Lions definitely know how to beat zone defenses. It served them well today.
  4. Marcus Cooper didn’t do his chances of continuing to play a lot of good when he let Marvin Jones run around him like he was an orange traffic cone on the Lions second touchdown late in the first half.

Miscellaneous

  1. Thom Brennaman and Chris Spielman were your announcers. Spielman threw in some good points this week after a down performance last week.For example, he had an interesting tidbit about Trubisky calling out the blocking assignments at the line of scrimmage on a successful run that I thought was pretty good. Later he caught Stafford yelling “opposite” as he told the offense which direction to run the ball. Spielman also made a good point when he showed that the Bears were double teaming Theo Riddick. It’s rare to double a running back out of the backfield.
  2. Both special teams until played well, I thought, until Connor Barth missed a game tying field goal by a mile.
  3. Kyle Log got an unnecessary roughness on a rather stupid late hit. Prince Amukamara had a bad pass interference [penalty that cost the Bears about 30 yards. Both teams had damaging penalties.
  4. Drops weren’t excessive but Kenny Galloway had a huge one with less than 2 minutes left tin the game that took 10 valuable yards away from the Lions as they were trying to get within easy field goal range. It also stopped the clock. It essentially force a 52 yard attempt by Matt Prater to win the game.
  5. Akiem Hicks recovered a Stafford fumble on the Lions first possession. Nick Kwiatkoski knocked it loose. The Bears converted it into a touchdown. D.J. Hayden picked up a bad snap for the Lions and scored a touchdown as the Bears gave the points from the Kwiatkoski recovery right back [eye roll].
  6. The Bears lost Leonard Floyd to injury and almost lost Kyle Fuller but neither would have been bigger than the loss of Eddie Goldman. The Bears weren’t the same last year after Goldman went down. I was glad to see him go back in.
  7. Tweet of the day:

    @BradBiggs: Since #Bears went ahead 17-7, they have run 13 offensive plays.

     

    That was near the end of the third quarter.

    The Bears went dead in this game in the middle and couldn’t sustain what they started. They found their legs again for a bit in the fourth quarter and Trubisky made it a game as he led the bears down field to try for a game winning field goal.  But it was too little too late after the defense gave up a very long, time consuming drive that ended in a Lions field goal.

    The Bears showed some potential this game as they opened up the offense. They might have beaten a team like the Lions on an off day. But the Lions were the better team and generally played like it.

    Bears fans will just have to be patient.

Quick Game Comments: Packers at Bears 11/12/17

Offense

  1. The Packers did the smart thing and stacked the line of scrimmage as everyone has before them. The Bears tried to loosen up the Packers by passing a bit more on first and second downs, something new for them, rather than just running into the teeth of the defense every time. They had limited success but I think this is what they have to eventually do if they want to be consistently successful.
  2. One thing became evident early. Either offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains or, more likely, Mitch Trubisky likes passing over the middle. That might be just where Trubisky is seeing the receivers the best. I think the Packers figured that out and concentrated on taking it away as the game progressed.
  3. Adam Shaheen came alive and had some nice catches.
  4. Trubisky is still struggling with his accuracy. Easy passes are being overthrown. This has been far and away the most disappointing part of his game.
  5. Nice to see the screen play make a successful appearance for the Bears in the second quarter on a long run by Benny Cunningham. They need to do more of that. Of course, some success in other areas of the passing game would help with that.
  6. Dontrelle Inman brought a little life today. He’s not a great receiver but he’s as good as anyone the Bears have.

Defense

  1. The Packers didn’t do anything special here. It was mostly dink and dunk down the field all day. The Bears were just a step slow all over the field.
  2. There were a lot of missed tackles out there today in a sloppy game.
  3. I think the Packers went at Kyle Fuller so often because he takes so many chances recently. He goes for the big play but its risky. If he misses there is often an awful lot of green behind him.
  4. The Packers went with a hard count on 4th and 1 from their own 29 at the end of the first quarter and no one in the stadium, fell for it. Hundley wasted a time out on the play to prevent delay of game. That was a poor decision.
  5. The Bears had a lot of success blitzing Hundley, particularly where he was responsible for recognizing it himself and adjusting. It’s quite evident that although its hs third year in the NFL, he’s basically a rookie. He made some poor decisions.

Miscellaneous

  1. Thom Brennaman and Chris Spielman were your announcers and man, Spielman did not impress me. He added very little to the broadcast and sometimes seemed to reverse his opinions mid-explanation.  Brennaman is usually solid but there were situations where he seemed a bit lost as well.  Not a great day for the announcers, either.
  2. Both teams had a lot of success kicking field goals on a rainy day.  Of course, Mason Crosby missed a big one on a bad snap/hold at the end of the 4th quarter.
  3. Cody Whitehair had a holding penalty on the Bears first set of downs. There were two false starts in a row on the second set of downs. The Bears had four penalties before Green Bay had their first one. The Bears took an offside at the end of the first half that moved them back a crucial 5 yards as they tried to play for a field goal.It was typical of the day. Time after time the Bears shot themselves in the foot with penalties all day in a sloppy effort. It didn’t help that the game was poorly officiated.
  4. Tarik Cohen showed some shaky hands early juggling the first pass to him and flat out dropped a perfect ball on the second. Josh Bellamy had a bad drop near the end of the third quarter.  Inman dropped a huge ball on the last drive of the game.  These blown opportunities can’t continue.
  5. It’s a shame that Cunningham’s nice run on the screen play near the end of the first half was called a touchback upon review due to one of the worst rules the NFL has.
  6. This was a miserable game for most of the afternoon. Neither team really played well and the Bears in particular were flat and sloppy coming off of the break. Too many penalties and they lost the turnover battle, albeit on a crummy NFL rule.With Brett Hundley at quarterback, the Bears blew an opportunity here. They were just a step slow all day and they aren’t good enough to beat anyone unless they’re on top of their game.

Was Releasing Gould a Mistake? Depends on Your Point of View.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers more of your questions:

I was baffled when the Bears cut Robbie Gould and felt it would come to haunt them. Now it seems obvious it was a mistake. Your thoughts? — @stewart_errol

Gould has been excellent for the 49ers this season making 17 of his 19 field-goal attempts. Gould missed two extra points in the preseason finale of 2016 for the Bears, one of which was blocked, and you should recall there were some key late-season misses for him in 2015. Connor Barth hasn’t been as good as the Bears would like and we’ll have to see if he can straighten things out in the second half of the season. I’d imagine it’s more or less a week-to-week proposition for him at this point. I’d also say that the Bears have made bigger personnel mistakes than at kicker. They’ve got bigger need-to-fix projects right now than kicker and it’s not like there are necessarily great options on the street. As I pointed out in 10 Thoughts following the Saints game, the kicker to keep an eye on right now is Cairo Santos. Unfortunately, he’s not healthy as he recovers from a groin injury that led the Chiefs to release him.

I’m sure a lot of fans still have this question. From what we could see, Gould was an excellent kicker and no one could possibly look at the situation and say the Bears did the right thing.

But here’s the deal. Fans don’t see everything. In particular, they don’t see what goes on in the locker room. And that might have had a lot to do with Gould not being in Chicago.

Gould was the Bears longest tenured player which probably made him set in his ways, as people who are in the same job for a long period of time are apt to be. To add to that, Gould was definitely opinionated and was not shy about sharing it.

The guess here – and it pure speculation – is that Gould had an attitude and one that special teams coordinator Jeff Rogers didn’t particularly like. The Bears had (and have) a young team and they undoubtedly wanted their players exposed to the right influences.

It’s possible that, for whatever reason, they didn’t deem Gould to be the right guy to have around. In any case fans, who are on the outside looking in, are unlikely to ever find out exactly what that reason was.

The Bears and Drops. The Ultimate Circular Argument.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions:

I’ve expected more out of the short screen game to get Tarik Cohen in space. Seems every other team runs it more effectively. Is that true? — @fols54 from Twitter

That’s a keen observation on your part. I don’t know if I would say every team has a better screen game than the Bears, but it is fair to say the screen game has considerable room for improvement. In my estimation, it’s not a play Mitch Trubisky has executed really well to this point. Keep in mind it takes time to develop the feel, touch and most importantly the timing to be really good in the screen game. There are a lot of moving parts there with the linemen attempting to deke the defensive linemen and then getting out in space to clear a path. Cohen, obviously, has the skills to be really good in this area, but keep in mind opponents are being very careful with how they defend him. Jordan Howard continues to struggle catching the ball and really that has been a team-wide issue. The Bears have dropped 8.9 percent of catchable passes, the second-worst rate in the NFL behind only the 49ers (9.2 percent), according to STATS. Hopefully the Bears can iron out some of the timing issues with the screen game in the two months ahead.

I actually have a couple points to make about this answer.

Cohen could be very good in the screen game but we’ve seen the league rapidly adjust to him and I think there’s some reason to doubt his long-term viability in the league. Cohen practically made a living in cut back lanes in his runs but once defenses understood what he was doing, they started quickly taking those cuts away. The result hasn’t been good.

The Bears desperation to find a receiver has led them to split Cohen out and he’s done a decent job. But he’s awfully small and Trubisky has been struggling a bit with his accuracy. That’s not a good combination.

How Cohen adjusts to the defenses is going to be one of the more interesting stories in the second half of the season.

Here’s hoping executing in the screen game is part of the answer for Cohen. If there’s one lesson that I learned watching the Saints, it’s how important that can be to an offense. The Saints played off of their success in the screen game about as well as anyone I’ve ever seen and the Bears could use it just as effectively if they get their act together on it.

The second point has to do with the drops. I was surprised by this statistic but I shouldn’t have been.

I’ve noted a number of times during my quick game comments that drops haven’t been a big factor in the games. However, as Biggs statistic emphasizes, this is because they’ve thrown so few passes.  As a percentage of what they’ve thrown, they’ve been pretty bad.

The passing game is a lot like the running game in that it goes better when you build momentum. Pass catchers that never see passes all game have a bad habit of dropping the ones that come to them simply because it’s such a long time since they’ve seen one.

This argument is admittedly somewhat circular. You don’t throw because you don’t have success doing it. You don’t have success doing it because you don’t throw.

I don’t know what the answer is but I do know that the Bears need to break out of this. Teams have zero respect for their receivers, sometimes crashing 9 men into the line of scrimmage.

They aren’t going to compete with many good teams without a passing game.