Offense
- Nice to see Byron Pringle start off the game by running a shallow route across the middle on the second play. It’s a route that I see teams run against the Bears all the time where the linebacker has to pick up the wide receiver in zone coverage and can’t do it. Nice play.
- Justin Fields was under pressure but it was mostly because he was holding the ball too long. He has to get rid of the ball faster.
- I like the way that Khalil Herbert runs. He’s one of those short, compact guys that are just hard to bring down. He’s like a bowling ball.
- Related note it’s interesting to contrast Herbert and Trestan Ebner as running backs. Herbert had a much better game, seem to be shiftier and broke more tackles. Ebner seem to struggle in both departments despite being seen as being more gifted in this respect. Herbert also ran with better vision. Herbert had 157 yards on 20 carries (7.9 yards) while Ebner had 23 yards on 7 carries (3.3 yards).
- It’s really interesting watching what the Bears do to make the running game effective. Khari Blasingame is often in the field for some of their biggest runs because he brings an extra blocker to the point of attack. On Herbert’s touchdown in the third quarter they actually brought over an extra offensive lineman and line them up right where the hole was going to be so they saw that they had an two extra blockers with Blassingame.
- On a further related note, the Texans were missing tackles all over the field. That does not sound like a typical Lovie Smith defense.
- Glad to see that offensive coordinator Luke Getsy didn’t abandon the run after all the pressure he was under to pass the ball last week. The Bears had 281 yards rushing on 40 carries. The run pass ration was 70:30. The Texans have not shown the ability to stop the run in their previous two games and the second drive of the game where the Bears scored a touchdown was a great example of what you can do if you can run over a team.
- It was interesting that they chose to continue to rotate Teven Jenkins with Lucas Patrick. My guess is that Patrick isn’t ready to snap the ball yet with that right hand surgery.
- Justin Fields flat out struggled with his accuracy early today and some relatively simple passes were not completed. Fields completed 47% of his passes with only 3.7 yards per attempt.
- Fields just cannot take a sack in field goal range like he did toward the end of the half. Cairo Santos made the field goal anyway but it went from an easy short one to a very difficult long one. He has to read the blitz on that play and go to his heart read immediately. If it’s not there he has to get rid of the ball. There was a sack at with just a little more than 2 minutes left in the game where the defensive back was on the line of scrimmage and was obviously looking to blitz. Fields never saw him.
- Fields burned the Texans so badly by breaking the pocket that they finally assigned a spy to track him around the field. If the runner with a ball went to the left and Fields went to the right there was always one linebacker following him.
- I think that Luke Getsy is finally figuring out how to use Darnell Mooney. Defensive backs were playing him deep and giving him a lot of room because they are wary of his speed. Up until now gets Getsy wasn’t really taking advantage of that but he had Mooney stopping his routes short and it was leaving him pretty open. You don’t get the long deep shot this way but at least you get some completions with some helpful yardage.
Defense
- Theirs came out in this game playing a fair bit of their bass defense with a strong side linebacker and I don’t know what the percentage was but it looked like a higher percentage than usual. This was probably a good plan since up until this game the Texans really hadn’t shown the ability to complete in the passing game.
- The Texans came out attacking Kindle Vildor which I thought was an interesting decision since undrafted rookie Jaylon Jones was starting on the other side in place of the injured Jaylon Johnson. My guess is that the Texans planned to go after Vildor all week because they expected Johnson to play. When he didn’t, I guess they saw no reason to change. Vildor had a rough start to the game but it’s worth noting that he did tip the ball that Eddie Jackson ultimately intercepted toward the end of the first quarter. He made some nice plays after that.
- 58 yard completion to Chris Moore in the Texans second Drive was a broken coverage. Kyler Gordon had him in coverage and then slow down obviously thinking that somebody else was going to pick them up. The Bears have to clean these things up.
- Once again, the Bears defensive line struggled to get penetration against the run. Blockers were easily getting to the second level to take linebackers out in spring runners free. Admittedly the linebackers didn’t help and weren’t playing downhill until late i the game when things improved. a bit
Miscellaneous
- Andrew Catalon, James Lofton and Michael Grady were your announcers. Lofton was interesting in that he concentrates more about game situations and really plays more head coach during the game than anything else. There wasn’t a lot of revelatory X’s & O’s or the anatomy of a play in this broadcast. Unfortunately, that’s the stuff that I like.
- Dante Pettis is either needs to catch the ball or let it go on the first Texans punt. Instead he appeared to let it bounce right in front of him and then he was darned lucky that it bounced right to him. Dangerous play. Pettis seemed me to take a fair catch when he had room to run but then didn’t take a fair catch when he had a guy or two bearing right down on him. I question his decision making and perhaps he needs to be replaced.
- But that the Bears were prepared for the fake pipe toward the end of the third-quarter. They were certainly lined up in a way that should have stopped it. The problem is that they simply got blown off the ball.
- A little bit disappointed that the Bears didn’t win the turnover battle (2-2) and committed more penalties (6 Vs. 3) than the Texans did in this game. I think the path to winning for this team is going to be strong disciplined play and they’re going to have to win games by doing both of these things. In fairness, 6 penalties is by no means an outrageous amount. And, of course, it was the final interception by Roquan Smith that basically won the game. But I think that they can do better.
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This was a good win for the Bears. I thought these two teams were pretty closely matched in that they’re both young and both rosters don’t have a lot of talent. And, as I mentioned above, I think the path to winning from both of these teams is going to be not beating themselves. So in that respect they really do match each other pretty well and it was good that they came out o top.
Having said that both the offense and the defense need to keep getting better.
The running game has been a revelation and I couldn’t be more pleased with the way that there making yardage that way. But passing is the way that you win against good teams and the Bears simply have not shown that they can do it on a consistent basis. Fields has to get his feet underneath him and throw with better accuracy on time to the proper receiver with the proper read. Until he learns to do that they’re not going to be able to compete with the big boys. We need to be patient but it still mildly concerns me that he hasn’t made more progress, now well into his second year.
The defense also has its problems Against both run in the pass. Their inability to stop the run as well documented above. The depth is being tested in the defensive backfield as well. I was not at all surprised to see the Texans target Kindle Vildor just as Green Bay did last week. And to a certain extent it worked. But what did surprise me was they did not test Jaylon Jones on the other side who is an undrafted free agent and certainly is untested. The Bears future in terms of coverage may depend upon the performance of these two men. It’s not a great thought.
So bottom line the Bears have a lot to work on after this win.