Month: September 2018

Quick Game Comments: Buccaneers at Bears 9/30/18

Offense

  1. Good job by Mitch Trubisky finding a wide open Trey Burton on the opening drive. Once again, we see the Bears trying to keep Trubisky comfortable by putting him in shot gun and letting him run, which he did effectively.
  2. Having said that, Trubisky was erratic again, throwing even easy passes that were just way off. He missed a pass to an open Taylor Gabriel in the second quarter that Gabriel couldn’t have caught if he was 9 feet tall.
  3. And he was leaving the pocket early under pressure, again. He ran right into a sack by Jason Pierre-Paul early in the first quarter.
  4. The play calling was very run heavy early against what looked like some light fronts. Evidently the Bucs didn’t’ think the Bears could run on them but it looked like they were doing just fine.
  5. Having said that, Trubisky got good protection today. Nice work at the line of scrimmage. I was really surprised that the Bucs didn’t blitz more given what Arizona did last week but I guess that’s just not what they do.
  6. Trubisky’s fade route to Allen Robinson was just fine in the first quarter. Contrast with last week…
  7. Kudos to Tarik Cohen, who had pretty good game. I’m always skeptical about how effective these little quick guys are going to be. The numbers often don’t seem to match the hype. But the Bears put him to good use today and he looked like a mismatch all over the field.
  8. It was curious how the Bears kept putting James Daniels in and out at left guard. I’m not entirely sure if it was systematic or if Eric Kush was hurt and just trying to get back in.
  9. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen receivers this open around here. The Bucs didn’t help with some broken coverages but that wasn’t all of it. This is a real, big boy offense.
  10. Credit Kevin White. He was all over the field with some good blocks today. It doesn’t sound like much but that’s what good teams do.

Defense

  1. The Bears looked like they were playing a lot of two deep safety looks in order to limit big plays.
  2. Nice play by the Bucs dragging a receiver across the field in front of the linebackers and holding them in coverage while DeSean Jackson suck across behind them.
  3. Ryan Fitzpatrick wasn’t particularly accurate early in the game as he was consistently high on his passes.
  4. I really don’t think anyone should leave an offensive tackle alone on Khalil Mack. It’s just not fair.

Miscellaneous

  1. Thom Brennaman, Chris Spielman and Shannon Spake were your announcers. I thought these guys did a pretty good job. Spielman was pretty quick with insightful comments on replay immediately after big plays, giving you a good idea of what happened. He seems to be pretty knowledgeable and he can communicate it. I like him.
  2. Nice work by Tarik Cohen alertly jumping on a ball that hit DeAndre Houston-Carson in the back on a punt in the first quarter.
  3. Mike Evans had a bad drop early in the game.
  4. The Buccaneers were hit with a few bad penalties early including a number of offsides penalties. Maybe Trubisky is getting better at the hard count.
  5. Akiem Hicks getting tossed from the game, even in a blow out, that’s not good. I’m surprised. A suspension would be extremely bad. As their best defensive lineman, they need him.
  6. Eddie Jackson with a nice interception near the end of the first half saved at least three points. In fairness to Fitzgerald, it was 3rd and 19 and at 35-3, you don’t settle for a field goal. Danny Trevathan had an interception on a ball tipped by Mack with the Bucs driving at the beginning of the second half.
  7. So prepare for a week of national commentators telling you about how great the Bears are. Don’t fall for it. They had a good day and the Bucs had a very bad day. They aren’t there, yet.

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

Defense

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

Offense

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

Miscellaneous

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

Quick Game Comments: Bears at Packers 9/8/18

Defense

  1. Khalil Mack looked like the real deal as he applied good pressure on Aaron Rogers. It looked like the Bears tried to use him primarily in passing situations in the nickle defense. This made good sense as it allowed him to rush the passer as a defensive end without worrying too much about linebacker responsibilities.
  2. Rogers seemed a little jittery to start the game. The timing with his receivers appeared to be off.
  3. Aaron Lynch looked rusty as he got a lot of playing time at outside linebacker in the 3-4. He doesn’t look real fast and he looked like he was having trouble getting off of blocks.
  4. The Bears were pretty good on third down in the first half (the Packers were only 2 of 8). They were managing to get off the Packers off the field with some consistency. Some Packer penalties helped.
  5. It looked like the Bears were playing a lot more press man coverage out there. It could be that having more confidence in the pass rush affected that.
  6. The Packers got a linebacker matched up on a wide receiver time after time in the first half. They made a lot of yardage on it.
  7. Roy Robertson-Harris had a great game. The improvement for him from last season is dramatic. They should give him Mack’s interception.
  8. The Packers came out from half time and decided that the best way to handle the Bears pass rush was to start getting the ball out fast. Good move. The offensive line did a better job of protecting Rogers, too.
  9. Rogers came out sharp in the second half. You almost think that having a bad knee keeping him in the pocket and forcing him to throw on time instead of getting out and improvising may have helped him and the Green Bay offense.
  10. The Packers were running pick plays over and over again. They were pretty effective.
  11. Leonard Floyd did not make much of an impact with the club on his hand.

Offense

  1. The Bears came right out with Michael Burton at fullback the first play. There has been speculation that they might use the fullback a lot this year. Looks like that might be true.
  2. Also notable was the fact that the Bears started out giving the ball allot to Tarik Cohen. An obvious effort to make sure he got involved.
  3. Taylor Gabriel also got a lot of play on the first drive after we barely saw him in the preseason. Interestingly, both he and Cohen almost disappeared after the first quarter.
  4. Two time outs in the first quarter. Even though the Bears executed pretty well, its obvious that they didn’t quite have it all together. You can’t complain too much given how they moved the ball but they’ll want to start better in that particular aspect next week.
  5. Jordan Howard never looks like he is running all that well. His specialty was the outside zone run and Green Bay did a good job of stopping that. He did OK but he didn’t look comfortable.
  6. Cody Whitehair had a rough game with Kenny Clark lined up over the top of him.
  7. The Packers started to get pressure on Mitch Trubisky in the second quarter. The Bears tried to run the ball more but otherwise they didn’t do much to slow it down. They responded after half time with some timely screen plays. They also ran a lot more misdirection against that kind of aggressive defense.
  8. The Packers started to blitz in the third quarter.
  9. It was obvious that Trubisky was having a hard time finding open receivers from the second quarter on. Either he has to get more aggressive with his throws or they’ve got to get more open.
  10. Trubisky is still too inconsistent with his accuracy.  He’s better.  But he’s still throwing the occasional ball that is just too far off.

Miscellaneous

  1. Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth and Michelle Tafoya did their usual great job. For my money, Collinsworth is the best in the business.
  2. Special teams were not notable. We saw none of Cody Parkey’s preseason struggles.
  3. The Packers got off to a rough start as far as penalties go. Some poorly timed calls killed a couple drives in the first half. Possibly just some first game slop. Kyle Long had a damaging holding penalty in the second quarter.
  4. There weren’t many drops which is unusual for both of these teams.
  5. Khalil Mack flat out took the ball away from Deshone Kizer on a third and goal. Mack also had a pick six after Robertson-Harris generated some pressure.
  6. This was a good start to the season for the Bears. Other than being a bit too aggressive in coverage, I think the defense will be fine. The offense looks to me like its a work in progress. After a fast start they stalled against an aggressive Green Bay defense. The one thing that Green Bay does offensively that the Bears didn’t was they owned the middle of the field. The Bears offensive will have arrived when they can do that. It will be interesting to see how they develop over the course of the first half of the season.

Buyer Beware

Buyer Beware

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions:

“I’m a bit worried about the way that the Bears are building their team. Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel, Trey Burton, Akiem Hicks, Danny Trevathan as free agents. Now Khalil Mack at a free-agent price plus two first-round picks (minus a couple of one-round upgrades). Didn’t the Redskins show a long time ago that this isn’t the way to build a team? It seems to me like sustained success requires sustained excellence in all areas over a long period of time, not a lot of free-agent signings to cover up previous failures. Am I wrong? — Tom S., Chicago

“Those are legitimate points you make, but the counter is that the Bears were in desperate need to improve at wide receiver and the skill positions and they view Burton as an essential piece to Matt Nagy’s offense. In Mack, the Bears have acquired one of the truly elite edge rushers in the NFL and, considering they would have been unlikely to land a player of a similar impact with the draft picks they unloaded in the deal, it certainly makes sense. I fully understand what you’re saying about the Redskins, and after them the “Dream Team” Eagles were a disaster. But the Jaguars returned to prominence last year with some heavy spending in free agency. There’s no question the Bears have used free agency to cover for some mistakes in the draft, but no one is perfect in the draft and this will be a really competitive team if the quarterback they drafted turns into the player the Bears believe Mitch Trubisky will be.”

I hated to write in with this question because I feel like such a kill joy. Everyone sees good things for this team and I’ll say up front that I, too, am excited to see what happens. But I can’t help feeling uneasy.  This blog is tends to be a long posts that address issues that bother me because when something bothers me, I have to get it out and write about it.  This entry will be no different.

A lot of people will claim that the players that the Bears signed are “different” from those players that the Redskins and Eagles signed. But these players aren’t as different as you might think. The core of the Bears team is made up of free agent signings (and I count Mack as one) that they were willing to sink significant resources into that other teams that knew them better weren’t. They then out bid 30 other teams for his services. Another way of saying “they won” is by saying “they were willing to overpay more”.

Yes, each individual player was his own situation and maybe it will work. I know nothing bad about Robinson or Burton or Gabriel or Mack as people. But the major reason why these things generally don’t work is still there. Even if you cut Mack out of the equation, every free agent the Bears signed this year fits the “buyer beware” label for one reason or another.

I know no one agrees with this now and I totally understand why. It all looks so good on paper. But I still say that history isn’t on the Bears side and I can’t shake the feeling that if they win something by building their team this way, they will have beaten the odds.