Day: November 24, 2024

Offense

1. The Bears started the game with all of their preferred linemen in their preferred places. So there was going to be little excuse for not protecting Caleb Williams today. Overall, I really thought they did about as well as you could expect. Nice job up front today.
2. I thought that offensive coordinator Thomas Brown showed a lot of confidence in Williams, allowing him to pass twice in a row from his own end zone on the second set of downs in the game. Williams held the ball both times and scrambled without getting sacked and, in fact, ran the ball for a first down on the second 1.
3. Williams was having to use his mobility to escape a pass rush where the Vikings out-schemed the Bears far too much for my comfort. He did as good of a job of it as anyone could expect. But you would hope that it wouldn’t be necessary as often as it was.
4. The Bears needed to run the ball well today. They didn’t, averaging three and a half yards per carry and running the ball half the number of times that they passed it.
5. Man, that sack that Williams took in over time was a big mistake. That ball had to find its way out somewhere.
6. The Bears have been doing OK matriculating the ball downfield, and you can live with that kind of ball control offense. But you have to execute if you are going to make that work. There isn’t much room for error.

Defense

1. A nice job by Jonathan Owens on the first set of downs, stripping the ball from Aaron Jones and then recovering the fumble. That’s pretty good defense. Once the guy is held up by the first tackler, the second swoops in for the ball.
2. Minnesota started the game attacking the Bears to the outside. It looked to me like defenders behind the line of scrimmage may have been playing too passively instead of attacking the line of scrimmage on those plays. They had a tough time stopping the run all game.
3. The Vikings attacked Terell Smith wherever they could. With Jaylon Johnson on Justin Jefferson, that left him on Jordan Addison. That’s a mismatch.
4. Johnson did fine against Jefferson but, though much will be made of Jefferson’s lack of production, the penalties he draws need to count.
5. There was much talk during the week about the poor pass rush from the front four. I felt that the Bears did a better job of doing that this week. A good effort from the defensive line.
6. Tyrique Stevenson missed a tackle early on, and it looked like the Bears pulled him from the game. Then Smith had one at a critical time in the fourth quarter. So who else are you putting in?
7. Far, far too many explosive plays by the Vikings today. I’m sure the Bears will look closely at what happened today and attempt to do something different next time.

Miscellaneous

1. The Fox crew of Kevin Kugler, Daryl “Moose” Johnston, and Laura Okmin did a nice job today. It’s always a pleasure to draw Johnson for a Bears game.
2. The Bears with another blocked field goal this week. It looks to me like the ball is simply coming out low from Cairo Santos’s foot. They really need to fix this.
3. I’ve noticed a tendency for punter Tory Taylor to out-kick his coverage the last few games. It’s leading to some reasonably big run backs. I’m sort of wondering if Taylor is going to take that kind of attack if maybe he should aim to punt the ball out of bounds.
4. Boy, what a huge error by DeAndre Carter in the third quarter. The ball hitting him in the leg inside the Bears’ 20-yard line just deflated the whole Bears sideline. At the time, it felt like the last straw.
5. The onside kick, which the Bears recovered with 22 seconds left, was an interesting play. Santos’ ball really never had a chance to get to 10 yards and a smart team would have left it to die. But that’s easy to say when you arne’ down there at midfield. It was a big break for a team that really needed one.
6. Some critical penalties as always today. But none more critical than the pass interference call on Johnson deep in Bears territory as he tried to cover Justin Jefferson that eventually led to a touchdown. Jefferson is a tough assignment, but the Bears have to be more disciplined than that. They were lucky to get away without pass interference being called before that.
7. Couple big, catchable balls that weren’t caught in the third quarter really affected the momentum of this game in the second half. The Bears aren’t the kind of explosive offense that can afford those.
8. It’s very evident that the Bears coaching staff simply cannot get the players to execute in the way that they have to in critical situations. There’s always some little thing that goes wrong. Little mistakes here and there. The Bears are among the league leaders in pre-snap penalties. The “Venus De Milo” no-arms tackle by Kevin Byard that resulted in an explosive gain on the first play of the second half. The pass interference penalty by Johnson. The blocked field goal from Santos. The failure to catch well-thrown balls. The ball hitting Carter in the leg inside the Bears 20 yard line. All these little things add up to losses. And although it’s all on the players, it really does come down to whether they’re prepared mentally to play the game.

This was a nice, significant step in the development of Caleb Williams. Though I thought the Bears could have handled it better, and Williams had some inaccurate throws late in the game, Williams did far better than most expected today against a team that specializes in the blitz. And, of course, he continues to perform in big moments at the end of games.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune has highlighted a recent flaw in the Bears defense.

There was plenty of blame to pass around for the missed kick and many fair questions after the 20-19 loss to the Green Bay Packers. But focusing on poor protection, a low kick, choosing not not to run another play and whether the left hashmark was ideal obscured an issue that has plagued the Bears recently and could be their undoing if it happens again Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field.

The pass rush, spearheaded by defensive end Montez Sweat, has been lackluster of late, short of the level the Bears need to execute the plan of complementary football they talk about when charting a path to victory.

It’s been really interesting that the defense was under a little bit more scrutiny this week after new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown took over to improve the offensive performance against the Packers. But it important to note two things:

1. The defense held the Packers to 20 points. An average team that holds an opponent to 20 points has every right to expect to win.
2. The Bears offense was held to 19 points. On an average team, that’s considered to be very poor.

The defense is fine. I’m posting this early before the beginning of the Vikings game but I’ll be very surprised if they don’t hold the Vikings to under 20 points, as well, despite the apparent problems with the pass rush.

I guess what I’m saying is, this isn’t what I’m most focused on.

Having said that, it is a problem and the defense would certainly be much better, especially against very good teams like the Lions on Thursday, if they could get pressure without blitzing. In that respect, I thought the Bears plan to correct the problem was interesting.

Defensive line coach Travis Smith said resetting along the line doesn’t mean overhauling what they have been doing.
“Whenever you get some adversity or frustrations, a lot of people look outward to blame or say, ‘We need to do something different, we need to get fancier, we need to look at the trends,’ ” Smith said. “I think reset means let’s reteach us.”

I think “reset” is an interesting word but in my world it means the same thing that good coaches always talk about in situations like this. When there’s a problem, go back to your fundamentals. I’m sure that’s what the Bears defensive linemen spent their week doing.

The Lions on a short week are next on the docket after the Vikings. Here’s hoping what the Bears are doing bears fruit soon.