Month: October 2024

Offense

1. The Jaguars came in with the No. 8 run defense this week but are 32nd versus the pass. So I was surprised that the Bears ran the ball as much as they did. They ran the ball 15 times for 6.4 yards per carry in the first half. They threw the ball 15 times. The final run/pass ratio was 25/29. This was all fortunate for the Bears. They always need to run whether it works or not. But their offense definitely looks best when the run is working. The Jaguars eventually had to stop playing games up front and it slowed their pass rush. Caleb Williams occasionally had a lot of time in the pocket, especially in the first half.
2. One thing that really stuck out was the number of times that Williams ran today. I wonder if that’s going to be something that they’re going to try to incorporate into their office more and more. It does add an extra dimension and it slows the pass rush because the defensive linemen have to stay disciplined. As long as Williams is careful with it and doesn’t get hurt.
3. Its still early and the protection generally wasn’t bad. But the Bears have to be very concerned about Braxton Jones, now. He’s occasionally getting pushed around by the bull rush and its not getting a lot better.
4. Big game for D’Andre Swift (17 carries for 91 yards, 4 receptions for 28 yards and a touchdown). The Bears got him into space and he took advantage of it. stats
5. Nice to see Keenan Allen have a good game today. He caught 5 balls for 41 yards and two touchdowns. Only Cole Kmet had a better game with 5 for 70 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Defense

1. No great surprise. The Jaguars came out and attacked Jaylon Jones and did so with some success. But generally speaking the Bears did a good job of limiting the big play with the help of some big drops by the Jaguars receivers. I’m pretty sure they were willing to give up short completions today and make the Jaguars work their way down field.
2. Not to make too much of it but I’m really surprised that Trevor Lawrence, who is basically a veteran, still relies on an arm band to call the plays.
3. Kyler Gordon had a wonderful game. Surprisingly, he often showed up best against the run. Of course, you need that as a nickel but you don’t often see it as a strength. When he left the game with an injury, the difference was obvious.
4. Lawrence does a very good job against the blitz. He has a knack for hitting receivers right in the area a blitzer just vacated.

Miscellaneous

1. LOL Rich Eisen – “There is no ‘I’ in Kmet!” I love you, Rich, but that one might have been just a tad bit forced.
2. Guys were slipping all over the turf in the first half on both sides. They seemed to adjust in the second half.
3. I get very frustrated at some of the incomplete calls from replay. Travis Etienne tucked that ball away in the second quarter. It might not be the rule but in my book, that’s possession.
4. I thought the best news I got all week was when I heard that the Jaguars were coming in late in the week. Despite the fact that they do this every year I distinctly remembered the Bears doing the same think the last time that the Bears came into London. They played jet lagged all game. But the Jags really do know what they’re doing. They were definitely ready to play in the first quarter of this game and, if anything, the Bears looked a step slow. the guess here is that they come in late but don’t let it disrupt their sleep schedule.
5. Kudos once again to Bears fans for showing up in London and making enough noise to make it tough for the Jaguars players to hear on occasion. My understanding is that Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is basically built to be loud. They took advantage of it.
6. Kudos to punter Tory Taylor, who did a wonderful job getting some wild snaps from Cole Kmet down for kicks today. Regular long snapper Scott Daly went down in the first quarter with an injury.
7. The Jaguars played pretty well at times today and their stats weren’t that much worse than the Bears. But they flat out dropped at least three touchdowns this game. That, along with the two turnovers, was just a killer. They had some critical penalties that also hurt them badly.
8. While I certainly give credit to the Bears for playing reasonably well on both sides of the ball today, once again you have to consider the opponent. Like the Panthers, who the Bears played last week, the Jaguars aren’t very good right now. And, like the Panthers, the Jaguars played poorly even by their standards. But those days look like they are coming to an end. The Commanders are next up after the bye and they won’t be push overs. And the divisional games are coming… We’re going to find out what this team is really made of soon.

The most important thing – and let’s never forget it – is the progress of rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. Williams looked pretty good today. He had a couple throw I know he’d like back. He held the ball too long on occasion, again. But in fairness the Jaguars were often flagged in the secondary on those plays, explaining why he couldn’t find a receiver. the touchdown pass to Keenan Allen in the second half was a very good professional throw. Williams is making nice progress. If the Bears keep slowing the pass rush by running the ball well, he’ll continue to have rookie success.

Defense

1. If the Bears defense has shown a weakness this, year its been against the run. So I was quite surprised that the Panther came out and didn’t try to do it more. Basically, it was run on first down to say that you did it, then throw for the first couple sets of downs. Then Chuba Hubbard broke for a 38 yard touchdown run (on first down) and I thought Carolina would get the hint. But evidently not. Sometimes young offensive coaches like Dave Canales like to throw the ball around the yard a little too much. That might be what happened here.
2. The lack of a running game allowed the Bears pass rushers to T-off on Andy Dalton and his offensive line. It was like watching the Bears offense the first couple weeks of the season.
3. On a related note, Andy Dalton is a master of getting rid of the ball at the last minute. He took a lot of shots but it was almost always just after getting the ball right to or very near to a receiver. The Bears had four sacks and Dalton was the reason that they didn’t have more.
4. I hope that Carolina’s Tommy Tremble is OK after a big hit from Jaquan Brisker caused a fumble. Tremble dipped his head and hit Brisker with the crown. When he went down it looked to me like he was showing signs of a concussion. This is why you don’t do that. Honestly, it should be every bit the penalty that it would have been if a defensive player had done it. Its for the player’s own protection.
5. Bryce Young showed some pocket movement. I think Canales might be working with him in the hope that after some time on the bench that they can bring him back later in the season.
6. Pretty hard to be too critical of the defense after such a nice game. The Bears held the Panthers to just three third down conversions and they got three turnovers. I’m not one to hyperbole but the word dominant fits today.

Offense

1. The Bears went no huddle early today. I know Caleb Williams is more comfortable in it but that will only get you so far…
2. So glad to see D’Andre Swift get going early. I’ve seen a lot of moaning about Khalil Herbert’s playing time. The Bears have been desperate to get Swift going. The bet here is that the Bears have been giving Swift more carries in order to allow him to get going. Many running backs will tell you that they need more carries to get into the flow of the game. Unfortunately those extra carries are probably coming at the expense of anything that Herbert would’ve gotten. The screen play that the Bears ran with Swift late in the second quarter to the 2 yard line was a good example of why the Bears prefer to go with Swift. He’s a much better pass catcher and he’s a little quicker in the open field. How many carries did Herbert get?Herbert got no carries today.
3. Speaking of getting Swift going, the Bears second possession was a wonderful example of what can happen when you have a quarterback out with a run game. I criticized Williams for not executing his run fakes last week so he made me proud by executing one this week to hold the safety in on a 34 yard touchdown pass to D.J. Moore. Admittedly it also looked like a broken coverage. But I loved it anyway.
4. Kudos to the Bears for starting the game running the ball from the get go, seeing that it was working, and leaning on it. They did a great job controlling the Panthers around up front. We saw what this offense is supposed to look like today. Run the ball (128 yards on 38 attempts), slow the rush and protect your quarterback with it and pass off of it (20/29 for 296 yards). The Bears ran on 57% of their plays. The trick will be doing it against better teams late in the year. But that’s trouble enough for another day.
5. I’ve no idea why the Carolina Panthers kept leaving D.J. Moore in single coverage this game. And the miscommunication on the back end of the defense was shocking. We/I love to talk about poor coaching on the Bears end. But this was a new level of terrible. I know that the Panthers roster is decimated by injury but that’s not an excuse. These guys are all professionals and they should be ready to play.
6. I thought Williams did a particularly good job of spreading the football around today. Moore got the most targets, and as well he should on a day like today, but nobody was really ignored.
7. I know that everybody loves watching Williams dance around in the backfield and avoid tacklers and scramble. But he’s got to get rid of the ball quicker. You can’t live like that.
8. Try as they might they just couldn’t avoid playing Nate Davis. He came on when Matt Pryor was ejected late in the fourth quarter.

Miscellaneous

1. It wasn’t as bad today (5 penalties for 46 yards) but I cringe every time the Bears get a pre-snap penalty. Going into the game, the Bears had nine false-start penalties, second in the league behind the Houston Texans (12). The Bears also had three illegal-formation penalties and two delay-of-game calls. So nearly half of their penalties are pre-snap infractions. And its not just one guys. Its everywhere on the unit.
   I know that the Bears won convincingly today and I’m not going to harp on this. I’m just going to say one thing here that everybody knows. Good teams simply do not do this. The Packers don’t do it. Nobody who’s any good year to year allows this to happen. This is fat flat out a coaching failure. The Bears once again weren’t ready to play at the beginning of this season. In the end the common denominator is head coach Matt Eberflus. Ultimately he has to bear responsibility for this problem and the fact that it took at least four games to clean it up.
2. Eddie Pineiro missed a relatively easy field goal going into half time and all I could think was “when it rains, it pours”.
3. Once again, winning the turnover margin was a big deal today. I’m not sure that they made the difference in a game like this but the three turnovers that the Panthers gave up certainly hurt.
4. I love that the guy on the commercial advertising next week’s match up with the Jaguars in London had an Australian accent. ?
5. Would that the Bears could play the Panthers every week.