Day: September 29, 2024

Offense

1. One of the first things that I noticed was that Khari Blasingame was inactive. I can’t figure out why. I can only assume that they thought that they could get the same production out of other more versatile players like Gerald Everett, Doug Kramer and Cole Kmet. Having said though he wasn’t assigned a game status, he was on the injury report this week for hand/knee issues.
2. The Bears attacked the edges early, especially to the right where Darnell Write and Matt Pryor were lined up. It seemed to work. Tevin Jenkins eventually exited and Nate Davis took over at right guard. But it appears the the Bears continued to run that way.
3. In the end, the Bears ran the ball 28 times (54% of the total snaps) for 131 yards and 4.7 yards per carry. I can’t complain about that.
4. The Bears are continuing to struggle when blocking on screen passes. This is just poor fundamentals. Even when they had good blocks, the receiver seemed to be running the wrong way.
5. It hard to watch Caleb Williams hold the ball forever in the face of a heavy pass rush. People talk about the hits that he’s taking like its all the offensive line but he’s got to get rid of the ball. I’m wondering if the coaching staff isn’t largely to blame for this. After three turnovers last week, you kind of wonder if they didn’t pound away at the fact that Williams couldn’t afford to turn the ball over this week. It’s possible that it took the aggression out of him. IN fairness, Williams did better dumping the ball off to Deandre Swift later in the game.
6. I pointed out last week that Braxton Jones seem to be struggling. I think he struggled again this week, admittedly, against a good pass rusher in Jared Verse. You could argue that he could’ve used some help. But I really think he should’ve been able to handle it better than this. I’ll ask again. Is he healthy? Are any of the offensive linemen other than Coleman Shelton healthy?
7. I like the way that the Bears used Deandre Swift in the passing game today (7 catches for 72 yards). We need to see more of that. Roschon Johnson also ran well though it was mostly in short yardage situations.
8. It was funny watching Williams trying to get the ball to DJ Moore over and over again. They just couldn’t get on the same page. They finally broke through with a touchdown late in the third quarter after a very frustrating game to that point.
9. The Bears were only 3 for 9 on third down and you’d like to see that number come up.

Defense

1. The Rams came out running the ball well, averaging more than 5 yards/carry on the first series. They used that and faked a handoff for play action on each pass. I’m not really understanding why the Bears don’t do this when a running back is lined up in the backfield. The back just runs out with no fake.
2. I said last week that I thought the Bears defense were down against the run despite the fact that the Bears offense dominated time of possession. I have a feeling that Sean McVay agreed. The Rams ran the ball reasonably well today at 4.6 yards per carry.
3. I thought Jaquan Brisker’s almost interception in the second quarter was really interesting. It looked like the Bears switched up and went from their predominant zone defense look to man-to-man. I think Matthew Stafford didn’t pick up on it and had his target in mind before the ball was even snapped. He threw it right into Brisker’s gut.
4. I also thought that it was interesting that the Bears chose to blitz as much as they did this game. I didn’t see that coming. It hurt the run defense and but it was effective enough, I thought.
5. Though they did have one or two big plays, for the most part I didn’t think that the Rams screen game was any better than the Bears. Pretty pathetic.
6. Pick away at the Bears defense as much as I might, you have to give them credit for playing well enough to win today.

Miscellaneous

1. Mark Sanchez and Adam Amin made a big deal of the fact that the referee did a good job of explaining why Brisker’s interception didn’t stand. Unfortunately FOX did nothing to help. The failed to show the replay so that we could actually see it.
2. Velus Jones was inactive again. I’m having a bit of a difficult time understanding what the plan is for him. Perhaps they’re hoping that he’ll develop into a better running back as the season goes on. Otherwise I don’t see much reason for him to be on the roster.
3. I saw someone submitted a question to the Chicago Tribune this week moaning about the fact that Bears chose to draft a punter in the fourth round rather than an offensive lineman. I think this game did a pretty good job of demonstrating why that was a pretty good pick. Tory Taylor is a wonderful player.
4. Even as a Bears fan, I have to say that that was an awful non-call in the end zone on the Rams last offensive play. That was roughing the passer all the way.
5. Having harped away at the Bears coaching staff above for hampering Williams’ aggressive instincts, you have to admit that the Rams two turnovers were probably the difference in this game.
6. We need some sort of a way to filter political commercials out of my TV broadcasts. Something like the “muted words” that X has.
7. I’d like to thank the NFL for once again putting the Bears on at noon on Sunday next week against the Panthers so that we can watch football in the way that God intended.
8. You take your wins where you can get them but it was brutal watching these two teams take turns blowing opportunity after opportunity. Penalties, poor timing and poor execution and, in the Rams case, two very costly turnovers. The Bears had 10 penalties for 84 yards. The Bears are not a team that simply cannot afford to give up yardage like that. They’re not good enough offensively to make up for it.

Getting to the most important point, I thought Williams took another incremental step forward today. As the game wore on, he got more and more comfortable taking the easy throw and moving the chains. It was something Justin Fields could never quite get right and its not something that can be under appreciated.