Category: Game Comments

Quick Comments: Bears at Chiefs 10/11/15

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Offense

  1. As had been their habit, the Bears came out in a double tight end set. They continued to run the ball on first down but limited success forced the to pass predominantly on the other downs.
  2. The Bears relied heavily on wide receiver screens and quick throws to the outside. Otherwise they stuck to short throws and the running game. It’s possible that they didn’t trust the offensive line to protect Jay Cutler.
  3. The offensive line was under siege in pass protection. They did a little better in blocking the run but overall it wasn’t a good day for the unit.
  4. Having said that, I thought Kyle Long generally held his own. Long’s getting better every game. Neither Long nor Charles Leno got much chip help from the tight ends.
  5. Rookie center Hroniss Grasu got blown up on a sack that turned into a touchdown as Jay Cutler fumbled in the end zone. The knock on Grasu is that he’s undersized and needs a year in the weight room. He was just plain overpowered on the play. He also was frequently pushed into the backfield when run blocking, as well. The Chiefs tried to confuse the Grasu and offense by crowding the line with a fair bit of blitzing. I’d say it was success. Grasu had a rough day.
  6. Speaking of the blitz, the Chiefs were apparently doing a good job of taking away Cutler’s hot receiver when the they brought the house. Cutler apparently had nowhere to go with the ball.
  7. To Adam Gase’s credit, it didn’t take long for him to counter the Chief’s blitzes, especially on third down. He went to the screen pass as soon as it became apparent that was the plan.
  8. The Bears did a good job juggling snaps between the three running backs. It seemed like everyone got their carries.
  9. Cutler was up and down. Sometimes he makes some wonderful throws, as he did on a 33 yard pass to Marquess Wilson near the end of the third quarter and on another 22 yarder to Wilson for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Otherwise, though, he had a rough game accuracy-wise with a fair number of passes that left me shaking my head. Once again, I certainly can’t complain with the two minute drive to win the game.
  10. Martellus Bennett had a tough game. The Chiefs did a good job of playing tight coverage on him and limiting his effectiveness as Cutler’s only really good receiving option outside of Matt Forte.
  11. I thought the pass interference penalty that set up the game winning TD pass was a good call as Kansas City cornerback Marcus Peters turned late and didn’t make a play on the ball.  But I admit it was questionable.

Defense

  1. The Bears played a great deal of nickel today, especially in the first half. You have to wonder if the injury to safety Antrel Rolle had something to do with that. Things changed in the second half as they started pounding the Bears with the run and the Bears went more with their base 3-4.
  2. Kansas City relied heavily on the short passing game as is their habit. The Bears countered by running more zone defense than usual, presumably to limit the run after the catch.
  3. I spent a good part of the first half wondering why the Chiefs weren’t handing the ball off to Jamaal Charles more, especially given the fact that is a standard way to beat the kind of nickel zone defense the Bears were running. They finally tried to get him going in the second quarter and he did well until leaving with an injury in the third.
  4. Very interesting to watch Charles run. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a runner who is better at pressing the hole and using his blockers.
  5. Smith got rid of the ball fast but the few times he held the ball the Bears got some pressure on him over a much maligned Kansas City offensive line. They didn’t resort much to the blitz.
  6. Tracy Porter pretty much gave up the second Kansas City touchdown himself by aggressively attacking De’Anthony Thomas to the inside. Thomas ran to the outside and there was no one out there to stop him. It was one of a number of missed tackles and bad angles taken by the Bears defense over the course of the day.
  7. Kansas City has made a living attacking the middle of the field against other teams and they did a fair job of taking advantage of Shea McClellin today. But they seemed to like passing the ball out to the edge better today. It’s possible that they were targeting the Bears lack of speed on defense.
  8. Kansas City also tried to target nickel back Sherrick McManis by putting Jeremy Maclin in the slot. It was successful as Maclin had a pretty good day (8 catches, 85 yards) up until he bobbled the ball with 2 seconds left in the game to turn a 57 yard field goal into a 66 yard attempt.
  9. I thought Willie Young came on to show some people what he could do today. The Bears have gotten very little in pass rush from the linebacker position on the other side of Pernell McPhee and I’m wondering if we might not see more of him in the future.

Miscellaneous

  1. Sam Rosen isn’t the best play-by-play man to have for an NFL game. John Lynch did a surprisingly good job with what I thought were some insightful comments. Pam Oliver was her usual self – which is fine.
  2. One again, the punt return team had a holding penalty in the first quarter. That’s become a problematic habit. The Kansas City punt return team took their turn with a block in the back in the second quarter.
  3. Far too many penalties again for the Bears as they had 6 for 49 yards with much of that coming in the first half. Zack Miller had a false start. So did Charles Leno. Leno also had a hands to the face call. Martellus Bennett had a hold. Sherrick McManis got caught holding Jeremy Maclin in the second quarter. There was a critical face mask penalty on the kick coverage team with 11 seconds left in the game.
  4. Too many drops for a team that can’t afford to have any. Martellus Bennett was responsible for a lot of them including a critical one on the last drive in the fourth quarter. Kansas City also had their share of problems with drops. Jeremy Maclin had one. Jamaal Charles had another.
  5. As far as turnovers go, they don’t get much worse than the Cutler fumble in the endzone to give up the touchdown. I’d say that got the Chiefs going and set the tone as much as anything. To their credit, neither team had any more.
  6. This was a nice win for the Bears and their improving defense.  Its said that this is a coaches league.  The Bears are showing themselves to be well coached as they overcame a big talent deficit to pull this one out.

Quick Comments: Raiders at Bears 10/4/15

Raiders-vs-Bears-2015-score-football-todayOffense

  1. The Bears once again came out in a double tight end set, not hiding at all what they wanted to do. The difference this time? On second and seven they threw the ball with Jay Cutler back at quarterback against an Oakland defensive backfield that’s been a tire fire this year. And they kept doing it.
  2. Oakland was playing man under defense and for the most part the Bears attacked it with underneath passes to Martellus Bennett and Eddie Royal.
  3. Jay Cutler had forever to throw the ball as he got very good protection in the first half. This was partly a function of some nice effort along the offensive line, some nice movement in the pocket by Cutler, and the fact that the Raiders came out very flat. The last thing on that list didn’t last long as the Raiders got themselves in gear on the second Bears possession. Cutler’s mobility continued to be the difference for much of the game.
  4. Cutler was up and down. Sometimes he was reasonably accurate but he threw some duds that really had me shaking my head, especially in the second half. I certainly can’t complain about the two minute drill that won the game.
  5. The run blocking was adequate but its worth noting that the Bears had two shots near the goal line in the second quarter and couldn’t get the ball in. They’re obviously stil not a power team.
  6. The passing game was helped a great deal by the Bears putting Royal into the slot where he belongs. His quickness is his strength and he looked excellent this game.
  7. Marquess Wilson finally had a good game, as well. After a season and a quarter, its about time he showed up.
  8. Jacquizz Rogers was first off the bench in place of Matt Forte despite the fact that rookie Jeremy Langford was the one who didn’t get a snap last week. To my eye Langford is running better.
  9. Charles Leno held his own for the most part, as the Bears didn’t seem to go out of their way to give him tight end help. Patrick Omameh, who replaced Matt Slauson at left guard after Slauson took over at center for an injured Will Montgomery, is a different story as he struggled. Slauson tried to help him as much as he could.
  10. How Martellus Bennett ends up all alone in the end zone in the second quarter I have no idea. But that’s and inexcusable breakdown in coverage. Good job by Cutler finding him in coverage.
  11. Kudos to Bennett. the game for the Bears was mostly Forte left, Forte right, Bennett for the first down. He was a very dependable target on third down.

Defense

  1. The Bears really didn’t do anything fancy on defense in the first half. It was the standard 3-4 and standard nickel with very little blitzing. I thought the pressure was adequate but the coverage was occasionally poor as Amari Cooper had a big game.
  2. The Bears used Tracy Porter on Cooper rather than last year’s preference for such assignments, Kyle Fuller. Porter struggled.
  3. Latavius Murray is one impressive back. With his upright running style, I haven’t seen anyone who reminds me so much of Matt Forte – with more power. He was a total mismatch for the Bears linebackers.
  4. Pernell McPhee once again had a good game today as was Sam Acho taking over for the now departed Jared Allen on the other side.
  5. The defensive line was stout as well. Jarvis Jenkins got his third sack of the year. That’s a career high, folks. Mich Unrein spent some quality time out on the field.
  6. J’Marcus Webb had no pre-snap penalties, as was his habit when he was with the Bears. He had his share of problems but the move to guard was a good idea from the Jets.
  7. The Bears were tackling well today.
  8. I would say that Derek Carr had an average day at best. He was more inaccurate than he has been most of the season and, like Cutler, there were some passes in the second half that left me shaking my head. He did hit some big throws, though, and he’s got a quick release with some zip on the ball.

Miscellaneous

  1. I would say that Greg Gumbel andJamie Erdahl were competent. I wasn’t overly thrilled with Trent Green. No real great insight into the game but I felt like most of the obvious points were covered. I can’t say that I learned much.
  2. Major disadvantage of watching a game on CBS? The lame commercials for some very lame TV crime “dramas” that only my 70-something year old father and mother could bear to watch.
  3. The Bears special teams woes continued. Robbie Gould was off today with a new holder in Spencer Lanning, a blocked extra point that didn’t look like it was on course anyway, and a short kickoff that bounced out of bounds. And that was just the first quarter. Gould kept kicking short pop ups, a strategy I don’t agree with. Gould had a great 54 yard field goal in the fourth quarter.
  4. The Bears just commit too many penalties for their style of play. And seven is too many. The return team found a new way to screw things up with a holding call in the first quarter. And in the second quarter. Leno had a holding call. Zack Miller had on near the goal line as well. Vlad Ducasse had his usual pre-snap false start as well. He also had a holding call that was declined.Having said that, there were some very questionable calls on the Bears this game. A hands to the face call in the third quarter didn’t even look like there was anything even close to the Raiders receiver’s head and there was a delay of game for “spiking the ball” in the fourth quarter looked very questionable.
  5. A lot of drops in this game. Josh Bellamy dropped a touchdown pass in the first quarter. Eddie Royal had a drop. Wilson had a critical drop in the fourth quarter on the final drive.
  6. Like the penalties, needless to say this Bears team can afford no turnovers. Cutler fumbled a snap with a new center in Slauson giving the ball ot Oakland at the Bears 25. That resulted in a touchdown. Pernell McPhee got a gift interception near the end of the first half. That resulted in a field goal. Matt Forte fumbled the ball near the beginning of the second half, killing what looked to me like some building Bears momentum. Acho had a huge recovery of a Murray fumble in the fourth quarter as the Raiders were driving for a go ahead field goal. Cutler, of course, threw his usual pick to old friend Charles Woodson in the fourth quarter. The ball was behind Bennett.
  7. This was an awful game for banged up Raiders. There were bodies with white jerseys littering the ground for all four quarters. Some of them like Michael Crabtree and Latavius Murray came back but even they were nicked up pretty good. The Bears lost Montgomery and Antrel Rolle.
  8. Lots and lots of very loud Raiders fans filling in the empty seats at this game. This is what happens when you price out the faithful and sell the seats to faint-heart upper-middle class yuppies.
  9. There was a lot to like about this game and I tried to list as many as I could above. Honestly, I’m really happy with the win.But I can’t help it I have to point out that the Bears have to play with more discipline if they are going to continue with this type of game plan. Ball control offense with plenty of runs and a short passing game is fine, especially against a team like the Raiders that has allowed tight ends to run rough shod over them for four games now. But the Bears can’t have these penalties and they can’t turn the ball over. They won’t beat good teams this way.

 

Quick Game Comments: Chicago at Seattle 9/27/15

bears_vs_seahawks_preseason_highlights_640_360_33Offense

  1. The Bears came out ready to run with triple tight ends on the first possession. They packed into tight formations and made no secret of what they were doing. Of course, the Seahawks were expecting that and were ready for it. This game was always going to be about keeping the Seattle offense off the field and resting the Bears defense as much as possible.
  2. Matt Forte ran well with very good vision. He was slipping well through small cracks in the offensive line.
  3. The Seahawks rushed the passer well this game. Something that, once again, wasn’t unexpected with the crowd noise and given that the Bears were only passing in obvious situations. The Seahawks were pinning their ears back and going after Jimmy Clausen. The Bears offensive line had a lot of trouble with the blitz.
  4. Clausen didn’t respond well to the pressure today. He took a lot of hits and didn’t make the throws that he had to when he did. They needed him at his best and he wasn’t accurate enough. Of course, once they fell behind too far in the fourth quarter and had to throw, it was a disaster.
  5. I was darned impressed with the blocking of Martellus Bennett at tight end. Truth be told there were some good demonstrations of some good fundamentals up front all game.
  6. The Bears ask their linemen to make some tough blocks on the back side in the run game. Seattle was really taking advantage of that with their quickness as guys occasionally came through the line unblocked.
  7. Jaquizz Rogers got the carries instead of Jeremy Langford in the first half this game. trying to keep everyone happy, I guess.

Defense

  1. The Seahawks wasted no time throwing the ball to Jimmy Graham on the first play. Things haven’t been going well for Graham and by that standard he had a decent game.
  2. The Bears got plenty of pressure on Russell Wilson. The Seahawks have struggled all season on the offensive line and the Bears took advantage. Jarvis Jenkins really came alive. Pernell McPhee was worth every penny. The team got their first sacks of the season.
  3. The run defense wasn’t bad until the offense started leaving them out on the field in the second half. then they simply wore down.
  4. The inside linebackers once again had a poor game. They weren’t making plays, were fooled by play action far too often and did a poor job in coverage. Frankly, I was surprised that they weren’t burned more than they were. Probably teams are so busy taking advantage of the lack of speed in the defensive backfield that they haven’t had to pick on them. Something has to be done there.
  5. I was impressed by the way that the Bears tackled today. They showed some good fundamentals.
  6. The Bears did a good job of keeping Wilson from burning them too badly with his mobility. It was a good pass rush and though there were holes, there was some discipline to it.
  7. Marshawn Lynch ran like his usual physical self once he got himself on to the field after having some hamstring trouble. However, he didn’t come back for the second half so it must have been pretty problematic.
  8. I don’t really understand the Seattle game plan. Arizona killed the Bears with deep passing last week as the burned the Bears defensive backs continually. Yet the Seahawks went to a ball control game that never called for a deep pass on first down. Did the Seahawks not watch any film last week? Eventually they started to take advantage of the mismatches but it took them almost a half to adjust.
  9. I was totally baffled by the defense at the end of the first half that put eight men in the end zone. It was obvious that there was time for at least three plays. I think that someone forgot that Seattle still had two timeouts.

Miscellaneous

  1. Jim Nantz, Phil Simms, and Tracy Wolfson did a nice job. You could almost feel Simms willing the Bears to make this a good game and he was pretty kind to them. I think he, like the rest of us, recognized that the Bears were out classed and he wanted to see a good effort by the underdogs rewarded.
  2. Clever fake on a punt return in the first quarter by the Seattle return team. Richard Sherman took the ball all by himself on the left as returner Tyler Lockett ran to the right. Shouldn’t the punt coverage team know what direction the kick is supposed to go? There was also more trouble on kick coverage as Lockett opened the second half with a 108 yard touchdown return.
  3. The Bears had to be virtually penalty free to have a chance in this game. They were far from it. Every penalty took away an opportunity to concentrate on the run game and put the game into the hands of Jimmy Clausen and a helpless offensive line protecting him. Vlad Ducasse had yet another pre-snap penalty. Right guard is a serious issue. If the Bears were going to put up with this kind of play, more and more I’m wondering whether they wouldn’t have been better off developing Charles Leno – who saw time at left tackle with Jermon Bushrod out with a concussion.
  4. Horrible call by the referee on a Bears punt in the second quarter. The ball was absolutely touched by a Seattle player and recovered in bounds.
  5. Drops weren’t really a factor. Josh Bellamy dropped one in the second quarter on a third down that probably would have been short of the marker anyway.
  6. Turnovers weren’t an issue today.
  7. I was a little surprised by the decision not to go for it on 4th and less than a yard near mid-field late in the third quarter and down by 20 point. John Fox is a defensive head coach and I guess he’d always rather put the game in the hands of his defense.
  8. To all of you who have been calling for the Bears to trade Matt Forte for the last three years, you can kiss my [donkey].
  9. Every fan, Chicago or not, knew that the Bears had zero chance in this game. It was just a question of whether they could keep it respectable. To their credit, the Bears looked like a professional defense most of the time and I was encouraged by the play of several defenders, especially Pernell McPhee, and by the run blocking along the offensive line when the whole stadium knew that was what the Bears had to do. It was a good, if somewhat obvious, ball control game plan offensively. The team simply had to be more disciplined to execute it.

 

Quick Comments: Late Sunday Afternoon Games

Baltimore – Oakland

  • Oakland surprised me this game by taking Baltimore head on at the line of scrimmage and they competed very well.
  • Quarterback Derek Carr once again had a good game this week (30/46 for 351 yes). Significantly, he got good protection.
  • In contrast, Joe Flacco (32/45, 384 yds) did not have a good game. He saw a lot of pressure and missed a lot of throws he ordinarily makes.

Dallas – Philadelphia

  • The story of this game was how ugly it was for the Eagle offense. Demarco Murray had a terrible game as the Cowboys keyed on him every time he entered the game. The Eagle offensive line was awful, allowing the Cowboys defensive line to penetrate at will. Eventually the Eagles had some success attacking the edges and getting away from the interior defensive penetration.
  • I saw some pretty poor tackling from the Eagles in this game. Tough to stop the run that way.
  • Surprisingly, I also was less than impressed with some of the blocking from the vaunted Cowboys offensive line. The Eagles were getting plenty of penetration against them at times. The Cowboys did better after wearing the Eagles down late in the game, a bi-product of an Eagle offense that gets the defense back on the field quickly when things aren’t clicking.
  • Tony Romo went down hard on a sack and a fumble. Before any report was made you could tell that it had broken collar bone written all over it. Its Brandon Weeden time. For a while.
  • Tweet of the day:

Miami – Jacksonville

  • Jacksonville took advantage of some poor defensive backfield play from Miami. Brice McCain looked particularly bad. This is something that the Dolphins are going to want to take a close look at in the coming week.
  • Blake Bortles’ (18/33 273 yds) accuracy and ball placement leaves a lot to be desired. For a highly touted up and coming quarterback, I was unimpressed this game. Sometimes he flashes some of that potential but its time for him to fish or cut bait this year with some consistency.
  • Right now Ndamukong Suh looks very over paid. He’s not making the plays we saw him make in the NFC North despite often being double teamed.
  • On the other hand, Jacksonville got all kinds of pressure on Ryan Tannehill (30/44 359 yds). This was the first sign of problems for the season on a much – maligned Miami offensive line. Brandon Albert left the game in the first half and ws replaced by Jason Fox, which obviously didn’t help.
  • Olivier Vernon should be ashamed of himself for a late personal foul call that badly damaged Miami’s chances of getting the ball back with time to score.

Game Comments: Cardinals at Bears 9/20/15

18a41f773646a08830001dbf8db59e39Defense

  1. The Bears once again, had trouble getting pressure on the quarterback. Palmer took a few hits but generally speaking he looked comfortable in the pocket. This has become a major issue. Palmer was very accurate and looked good.
  2. Other than that, I thought the Bears defensive line held their own at the line of scrimmage today. Rushing yards were hard to come by as Arizona only had 30 at half. They ran the ball better after that with the Bears down by a ton of points. The outside linebackers and defensive ends began having a very hard time setting the edge in the second half.
  3. The Cardinals finally took advantage of Adrian Amos at safety as he struggled in coverage. This is something that many were surprised that the Packers didn’t do last week.
  4. In truth the entire Bears defensive backfield was exposed this game. The Cardinals have a lot of speed at wide receiver and the Bears struggled to keep up. Notably, Kyle Fuller struggled again. This was the major difference in the game.
  5. Boy, Jared Allen looks uncomfortable in coverage. I keep waiting for someone to take advantage of him by sending the running back out into patterns more.
  6. Bryce Callahan, not Terrance Mitchell, replaced Demontre Hurst as the sixth defensive back in the dime package. Mitchell should be a better cover corner in single coverage on the outside and playing the dime corner may not be his strength. Mitchell saw time at corner late in the game as the Bears are apparently searching for answers there.
  7. Brandon Dunn held his own today after being promoted from the practice squad. He wasn’t getting a lot of penetration but he occupied his blockers and wasn’t getting blown off the line of scrimmage.
  8. It was interesting to see Jared Allen getting his hands up for a tip and an interception just before half. You have to wonder if he wasn’t watching the Cardinals do it from the sideline before making the adjustment himself. The Bears got a field goal off of it.
  9. How deos Shea McClellin end up trying to cover Larry Fitzgerald on a Cardinals touchdown early in the third quarter? That may have been a broken coverage on the flea flicker but it was just one example of some of the puzzling coverage mismatches in this game.

Offense

  1. Bears came out playing a lot of double tight end, something which made a lot of sense given that injured wide receiver Alshon Jeffery was inactive with an injury. They used both Zack Miller and Martellus Bennett split out wide (along with Matt Forte) instead and did so reasonably effectively.
  2. The Bears did a good job of mixing it up and executing both on the run and the pass this game against a very good Arizona defense.
  3. More than usual, this game was going to be about the line of scrimmage offensively with the Bears trying to run the ball against a tough Arizona defensive front. The Bears held their own but the Cardinals are so fast to the ball that the Bears had a tough time of it. There was too much penetration against the run but Cutler got some nice protection. The protection for Clausen was less impressive as the Cardinals knew that the Bears had to throw from behind. Kyle Long held his own this week but he still gave up a sack in the fourth quarter.
  4. Speaking of the Cardinals being fast to the ball, I was surprised that the Bears didn’t do a better job of taking advantage of their aggression. They were clearly ready to defend the screen pass but some counter runs and reverses might have worked well.
  5. Having said that, the Bears game plan was not without misdirection. Interesting use of the read option by the Bears as Cutler faked the handoff to Jeremy Langford in the first quarter and took the ball himself to the outside for a first down. One of the many very clever and new ways that the Bears took advantage of Cutler’s mobility. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of that.
  6. Nice job by Cutler finding Josh Bellamy on the broken coverage for the first Bears touchdown.
  7. Cutler looked much, much better now that the Packers left town. He was much more accurate with some very strong throws. Unfortunately, the interception before half time on a poor throw behind Martellus Bennett marred the effort. Cutler was injured as he landed on his shoulder trying to make the tackle on what turned out to be a pick six. The Bears said that it was a hamstring injury.
  8. The Bears did a good job of giving Langford more carries this game. Not that I like seeing Forte on the sideline but the rest is good for him.
  9. It was interesting to watch the Arizona Cardinals adjust as the game goes on. They were having trouble getting to the quarterback so they simply started counting in their heads and then jumping and putting their hands up to bat passes down. It was very effective.
  10. Jimmy Clausen looked hesitant and had trouble getting rid of the ball. HIs accuracy was poor. The situation wasn’t helped by the fact that the Bears went down by so many points that the whole stadium knew that they had to pass. Clausen looked like a back up who was unprepared after being throw into the game and asked to do his job.

Miscellaneous

  1. Thom Brennaman was the consumate professional play-by-play man, as usual. I like Charles Davis when he’s doing the draft but I like him a lot less as a color man. He’s not as good as many of the best when it comes to pointing out the technical details of the game to the viewer. I’d call him adequate. Tony Siragusa was practically useless on the sideline.
  2. Things got off to a rough start on special teams once again for the return game as David Johnson returned the opening kickoff 108 yards for a touchdown. There was a horrible line drie kickoff after the Bears first touchdown. Robbie Gould has been struggling with those. Other than that, I’d say it was a nondescript performance.
  3. Both sides once again had too many penalties, especially of the pre-snap kind. Teh Cardinals committed 8 penalties for 58 yards while the Bears committed 14 for 170 which tied a franchise record. The Bears’ numbers were inflated by a couple of very long pass interference penalties as the game was tightly called in the defensive backfield. There was an inexcusable 12 men on the field penalty against the Bears in the second half. Vlad Ducasse was once again a particular problem with a false start and a holding penalty. I feel compelled to remind everyone that there’s a reason why the Bears were so hesitant to move Long to right tackle.
  4. Drops were not a problem on either side.
  5. Turnovers killed both teams today. Jay Cutler threw a pick six right before half Then the Cardinals followed up with a fumble and an interception, each resulting in only 6 Bears points. The Bears had to take better advantage of those opportunities. Jimmy Clausen picked up where Cutler left off, throwing a bad interception to Patrick Peterson, who had Marquess Wilson well covered.
  6. I’d like to thank Bruce Arians for using all of those timeouts before half to save time for a final drive, only to fumble the punt and give the Bears a field goal. I admire aggressiveness but your team better be of the type to take advantage of it or it can kill you.
  7. Once again, the Bears settled far too often for field goals in this game. They aren’t going to be able to continue to do that, especially with their defense being as bad as it is.
  8. How bad have things gotten when you find yourself desperately rooting for your team to keep the points given up under 50? And consider it to be a minor victory when they don’t.
  9. I can’t emphasize enough how bad the Bears defensive backfield is right now. The lack of pressure on the quarterback is exacerbating the problem. These sorts of games where the Bears give up huge numbers of points are going to be fairly common unless something is done. In the mean time, the team has to play nearly perfect football in every other way to make up for it. That means particularly that they can’t afford the turnovers or the penalties that we saw in this game.

 

Quick Comments on the Monday Night Games

Eagles  – Falcons:

  • Sam Bradford didn’t look sharp early. Too many missed passes and miscommunications. This was exacerbated by the job the Falcons did stopping the run. Eagles head coach Chip Kelley gave up on it and decided to lean on Bradford’s arm. It wasn’t a good decision. The Eagles had 8 yards rushing, 117 yards passing and an INT while only scoring three points at half time. Despite running the ball better, the Eagles stuck with the pass in the second half. They had more success in the second half but still lost this game in large part because they the refused to run the ball more.
  • The Eagles had a lot of trouble getting pressure on Matt Ryan and that exposed their biggest apparent weakness. That secondary’s not good.
  • Speaking of Ryan, he was very lucky that he didn’t give this game away.  Two interceptions that really should have been five.  He’ll want to clean that up.  He won’t get away with it often.
  • The Falcons were running the ball surprisingly well and they did a good job of setting up the play action pass.
  • I heard all off season about how the Falcons were quietly building that defense up.  I didn’t get it, myself, until tonight.  They’re far better than I thought.  They’re much faster and much better at the line of scrimmage.  I was damned impressed.

Vikings – 49ers

I was doing a podcast and could only occasionally glance at this game.  I went to bed not long after that.  But I do have some thoughts on what I saw.

The biggest knock on the Vikings going into the season was their offensive line. They did nothing that I saw during this game to ease anyone’s mind. The 49ers harassed QB Teddy Bridgewater and limited running back Adrian Peterson to 14 yards on 4 carries in the first half. The Vikings have been touted as a playoff team. They’re going to have to do better if that’s going to be the case.

Quick Comments: Green Bay at Chicago 9/13/15

Offense

  1. The Bears made no secret of their desire to run, starting the game with double tight ends for the first two plays. The Packers, of course, put eight (and sometimes nine) in the box. It was fairly obvious early on that the Packers were going try to force Jay Cutler to beat them. To the Bears credit, they kept running the ball and, for the most part, did it effectively. The game became a contest of wills at that point.
  2. Jacquizz Rogers got a carry in the first series, indicating that the Bears are going to be determined to get another running back into the game to relieve Matt Forte. Jeremy Langford got a carry in the second series. Forte was still in the vast majority of the time, though. As the last coaching staff found out, its hard to take him off the field.
  3. It fairly obvious that the Bears were determined to utilize Forte to the fullest. The Bears lined up him as a receiver as well as in the backfield. I guess that’s not a shock as when you have a defense that is playing the run, you can get him on a linebacker fairly easily. He made his share of mistakes, dropping one touchdown and stepping out of bounds on the other. But I think few people are complaining. He had a nice game.
  4. The Bears offensive line was fascinating to watch this game. They mixed blocking schemes, sometimes going with a zone scheme, sometimes firing off. Generally speaking they did a wonderful job of blocking this Packers defense – much better than any of us thought they would.
  5. Kyle Long started at tackle, with Vlad Ducasse at guard. Long had some growing pains as expected with a holding call in the first quarter. But generally he played well
  6. The Packer defense often did a poor job of tackling this game and it really hurt them trying to stop the Bears on the run.
  7. It was hilarious to watch Jay Cutler at the line of scrimmage. Offensive coordinator Adam Gase must have Cutler convinced that he’s Peyton Manning.
  8. Nevertheless, I can’t say that Cutler had a good day. He was inaccurate too often and he held the ball, too long. To his credit, he often chose to pull it down and run it rather than forcing an interception.
  9. Marquess Wilson showed up with a big 50 yard completion in the fourth quarter. As color man Troy Aikman pointed out early in the broadcast in relation to the Packers, your wide receiving corp is only as good as your third receiver. Its time for Wilson to defecate or get off the pot.
  10. I kept wondering why the Bears ran the ball so well, then went to the pass so often in the red zone. Why not try to keep it going?

Defense

  1. The Packers came out with the no huddle offense and forced a three and out. It was a good start.
  2. Randall Cobb didn’t look affected by a bad shoulder. He had a reasonably good game. Of course, James Jones was the star, making some wonderful catches against some good coverage.
  3. The Packers went with two fullbacks and two tight ends active. It was a sign of things to come as the Packers game plan was clearly to take control of the line of scrimmage and run right at the Bears, complemented by a nice ball control passing game with a liberal amount of play action sprinkled in. Generally speaking they ran the ball well. But the lack of discipline on offense killed them. You can’t commit that many penalties and depend upon the running game.
  4. It was interesting to watch Eddie Lacy run the ball. The Bears did a good job of clogging up the middle and Lacy frequently just ran into the pile. But then, after pausing, he just bounced outside. It was surprisingly effective given how slow the play was to develop.
  5. Will Sutton occasionally got penetration, just like he did in the preseason. He might be a factor this year.
  6. The Bears played mostly man coverage and to my great surprise they sometimes didn’t do too badly. They lack recovery speed and they still looked rough in their technique. But generally speaking, they made the Packers work for their completions until well into the second half. Unfortunately for the Bears, the Packers generally did a good job against some good coverage.
  7. Nice job by Packers offensive coordinator Tom Clements calling this game. There was a lot of emotional upheaval in Green Bay when Mike McCarthy gave up play calling duties. Looks like much ado about nothing to me.
  8. Aaron Rogers escaped the pocket to do damage too often. As I said above, the Bears were in man coverage instead of the zones that they’ve specialize in the past. That means the defensive backs have their backs to the quarterback. This may be something we see a lot this year.

Miscellaneous

  1. Apparently play-by-play man Joe Buck was so excited about this game that he forgot to shave. (Yes. I’m old.)
  2. Unshaven look aside, Buck did a marvelous job of calling this game and was clearly ready for the season to start. Troy Aikman reminded us of why he’s FOX’s number one color man with some astute observations. He pointed out early that the Bears were getting to the line of scrimmage early to allow Cutler more time to audible into the right play and, of course, he saw as well as I did that this was going to be a contest between the Packers run defense and the Bears run offense. This was a well-called game.
  3. There were too many penalties in this game on both sides, but especially by the Packers, who continually shot themselves in the foot and wasted opportunities. The Bears did the same thing but waited until the second half to really get going with it. We now know why the Bears have been hesitant to move Vlad Ducasse into the starting lineup. He had at least two false starts, one on the first series in the red zone. The Packers committing three penalties alone on the Bears second scoring drive. You can add holding on David Bakhtiari on apparent TD in second quarter and holding on another play on the same drive on Brian Bulaga.
  4. Bears special teams were a disappointment today. Robbie Gould made all of his field goals and Pat O’Donnell had a wonderful 55 yard punt just out of bounds in the first half. But after a pretty good preseason, the kickoff coverage was putrid. The Bears have some work to do.
  5. The good news: the Bears didn’t turn the ball over until the fourth quarter (a badly interception from Cutler – what else is new). The really bad news: the Bears didn’t get any turnovers. It’s great to limit mistakes but they’re going to have to make som plays if things are going to happen for them.
  6. I kind of felt sorry for the referee in the first half. He gives the Bears a timeout when they didn’t have time to get set and he has Rogers yelling at him in one ear for not letting them snap it and John Fox yelling in the other for letting them snap it too soon. What’s a guy to do?
  7. Poor challenge by John Fox on the third quarter pass to Devante Adams on Kyle Fuller. All of the replays showed that he was in bounds.
  8. Well, it was nice while it lasted but you kind of knew the way that the first half went and the way the Packers kept shooting themselves in the foot that the better team was eventually going to win this game.To the Bears credit, they did exactly what they had to do today. They hung in despite a lack of talent by playing a good, generally disciplined football game. There were some breakdowns and some penalties in the second half but generally they looked well-coached, something that we haven’t been able to say around here for quite some time. The future looks like it might be bright. The distant future, to be sure. But there’s a future, nevertheless.

 

Game Comments: Bears at Vikings 12-28-14

Offense

  1. They mixed it up but you knew that Minnesota wasn’t going to make the mistake of playing extensive man-to-man against Jay Cutler and the Bears offense. They came out in the kind of soft zone that has defeated them all year and the Bears were doomed before they ever got stated.
  2. Having said that, the Bears tried to do what you should do against such a zone defense – run against it. And they did that reasonably well for most of the game. But, as usual, penalties put them in some bad spots and it wasn’t enough.
  3. Minnesota was well prepared. They knew those screen passes that burned them last time were coming and they did a good job of shutting them down all game.  The Beas never adjusted and never stopped calling them.
  4. And Josh Morgan makes an appearance, everybody. Welcome to the team. It only took you 16 games to show up.
  5. I thought Martellus Bennett had another nice game. I thought his play this year was Pro Bowl worthy but the voters apparently didn’t agree.
  6. The Bears failures in the red zone were awful today and they’re probably the biggest reason they lost. You can’t win many football games settling constantly for field goals.
  7. I’m not going to waste my time pounding Jay Cutler too badly but needless to say he was once again going with the one read and panic when its not there method of quarterback play. Similar to the Saints game, he looked more like a rookie out there than Bridgewater did. He wasn’t particularly accurate again, either.

Defense

  1. The Bears did pretty much what they’ve been doing. Mixing it up on defense and occasionally bringing an extra guy.
  2. They had some success on defense. I’m not as down o the Bears defense as everyone else is right now. They’ve improved over the course of the season and at least they show some spirit every once in a while. I thought that they had a great stop when they held the Vikings on fourth down in the fourth quarter to give the Bears offense a chance to win it.
  3. The pressure on Teddy Bridgewater was there but it was inconsistent. I’ll say the same thing now as I did last game – if you are going to rush five you’d better get there.
  4. Nice pick by Kyle Fuller on one of the few really bad passes I can remember coming from Bridgewater.
  5. The difference in the game was really the touchdown on the busted coverage by Tim Jennings, who looked to me like he was playing cover-2 while everyone else was playing cover-1. It wasn’t as damaging as Chris Conte’s goof in the last game last year but its these types of plays that are undoubtedly going to see the coaching staff fired tomorrow.

Miscellaneous

  1. I was, once again, in a bar and couldn’t listen to Dick Stockton and Brady Quinn. I’m going to guess that I was fortunate.
  2. Special teams were competent. Marc Mariani had a nice kick return. The missed field goal in the second half really hurt. Can someone explain to me the theory behind the short pooch-type kickoffs the Bears have resorted to occasionally the last few games?
  3. Unlike the last game, there weren’t too many bad drops. Josh Morgan had a notable one that forced the Bears to make a 4th and 3 in the 4th quarter.
  4. Both teams had too many penalties. The offside by Corey Wootton took a Minnesota interception off the board.
  5. Only one turnover so not complaints on either side there.
  6. The Bears season could be described in the last series of the year and, probably, of the Marc Trestman era. Three stupid penalties kept the Bears from making a desperately needed first down on their own 20 yard line with less than 3 minutes left to play. At least they got the seventh pick in the draft. Here’s hoping they’ll be looking for a quarterback.

Game Comments: Lions at Bears 12/21/14

Offense

  1. I wasn’t very happy with the body language I saw from Martellus Bennett early. I got the impression that he wasn’t too happy with the new offensive situation with Jimmy Clausen at quarterback. I don’t know if he figured Clausen wasn’t going to be any good or if he figured he wasn’t going to get the ball enough from him but his attitude left something to be desired.
  2. The Bears stuck mostly to quick little passes and screens. Part of that was to protect Clausen, I’m sure. In that respect the pass protection wasn’t good but considering the opponent and the loss of Kyle Long, it could have been worse. Clausen was notably better under pressure than we were led to believe by the press during the week.
  3. There was decent balance with the play calling as the Bears did try to run the ball. Not surprisingly they didn’t have much success, especially up the middle. But they didn’t abandon it until late in the game.
  4. I really thought Jimmy Clausen looked OK. He was hurt by all of the dropped passes but most of them were reasonably accurate. I thought maybe he was a bit out of sync with his receivers, especially early, but that’s natural. I think Clausen earned another start.
  5. I note one particular drop by Marquess Wilson on 3rd and long in the second quarter that would have gotten the Bears into field goal range. The Lions let them off the hook by roughing the punter on the next play, giving the Bears another set of downs. But what was interesting was that Wilson dropped the pass in part because it was in the air before he turned around. That’s the kind of thing modern NFL quarterbacks have to do and its the kind of thing Jay Cutler couldn’t do. Next game hopefully Wilson will be more ready.
  6. Clausen seems to spread the ball around a bit more than Cutler, including Wilson more often. At some point you’d like to see Josh Morgan get a pass.
  7. That was about the worst game I hope we ever see Alshon Jeffery have. He didn’t time it very well as a good day from him could have been the difference.

Defense

  1. The Bears got decent pressure on Matthew Stafford but, like last game, it was inconsistent. You can’t rush five guys and not get to the quarterback.
  2. The Bears played a lot of man-under and that allowed them to be much more physical with the Lions receivers, especially Calvin Johnson. I thought they had limited success. it was a lot better than that soft zone they tried to run last game.
  3. Give Kyle Fuller credit. He defended Calvin Johnson with limited success today but he competes like heck.
  4. Matthew Stafford had a really bad day. His accuracy was even more poor than some of his decisions were.
  5. To my eye the defense was better against the run this week. I think the young linebackers showed up and had a good game.
  6. The most notable failure of the defense was getting off the field on third down and fourth down. The Lions kept them out there way too long and eventually wore them down late in the fourth quarter.

Miscellaneous

  1. I watched the game from a bar and I couldn’t hear Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. But if they spent the whole game asking themselves, “What the hell are we doing here?” I wouldn’t blame them. Meanwhile the Packers were stuck with Ronde Barber and Chris Myers. At least it wasn’t David Diehl.
  2. Special teams weren’t too bad. The very first play was a penalty but take away that and it was OK. The blocked field goal kept them in the game. What was the deal with the pooch kick to start the second half?
  3. There were an awful lot of dropped passes by both teams. Golden Tate had a bad drop in the third quarter that forced the Lions to kick a field goal. Wilson had his share. Bennett also had one early. But the king of the drops for the Bears was Alshon Jeffery. He should be totally ashamed of himself.
  4. Way too many penalties on both sides. The most notable was a very damaging pass interference call on Tim Jennings in the fourth quarter that led to the game winning touchdown.
  5. The Bears did well with turnovers but the Lions gave away the first half with three including two Matthew Stafford interceptions and one muffed punt. They did their best to give the game away.
  6. I wish the Bears had taken the field goal at the beginning of the second quarter rather than going for it on fourth down. They were only down by a touchdown and those points would have been a valuable lift.
  7. As you might expect, the most obnoxious fans in the bar were the Packer fans. Meanwhile I sat in my little corner watching the continued development of Teddy Bridgewater against the Dolphins on the screen right next to the Bears game. Some will remember this as being the Packer’s year. But long term the emergence of Bridgewater will be the far more important development and it may have repercussions in the division for many years to come. We’ll get another close look at him next week.’
  8. I’ll give the Bears credit for giving a credible performance this game but you have to note that the Lions gave them a lot of help. A better team would have beaten them at home after getting the gift of 3 turnovers. If I had to peg one memorable, negative factor in the loss it was the killer dropped passes. If I had to point to one positive it was the performance of some of the younger players on defense who showed a little moxey today. Clausen’s performance would be a close second. Let’s hope the players around him do better after a full week of practice with him.

Game Comments: Saints at Bears 12/15/14

Offense

  1. The Bears came out seemingly determined to run the ball. This time both in word and in deed. Three of the first five plays were runs. The sixth play was a nice play action.

  2. Cutler was really inaccurate to start the game. He also had a really hard time letting go of the ball. He had a horrible game. He’s timid, he’s confused, he’s a complete mess right now.

  3. Given Cutler’s state of inaccuracy, it was fortunate that the Saints had trouble filling gaps on the run defense. It was a contest to see who could be more inept – the Bears blocking or the Saints run defense. Eventually the Saints started crashing the line and penetrating to stop the run and Forte struggled. They had little to worry about in terms of the passing game from Cutler.

  4. The Bears offensive line didn’t help Cutler out much as they had a pretty bad game in protection against the Saints blitzes.

Defense

  1. The Bears mixed it up but played a lot of man-to-man on the Saints offense. The coverage generally wasn’t very good. The Bears are bad in the defensive backfield right now.

  2. The Bears struggled to stop the screen play and, really, that single play was responsible for their scoring opportunities early as the were pretty incompetent running everything else.

  3. The Bears also struggled to get pressure on Drew Brees. Brees generally looked comfortable and he generally performed like it.

  4. And, again, the Bears struggled with misdirection plays as the Saints took advantage of the young defense trying to be aggressive.

  5. Kyle Fuller had a flat out bad game here. He’s either hurt or regressing badly. In fairness he was matched up a lot on Jimmy Graham.

  6. Some really poor tackling out there.

  7. The Saints don’t seem to run the ball much and I was surprised they didn’t challenge the Bears more on the ground. I thought they had reasonable success when they did.

  8. I don’t know who had Josh Hill on the Saints first touchdown of the second half but it was yet another broken coverage, something that’s been all too frequent this year. Ryan Mundy had him but looked like he thought he was passing him off to someone else on the play that he thought was behind him.

Miscellaneous

  1. Mike Tirico was his usual professional self. Jon Gruden was a disappointment. He sounded like he hadn’t done his homework and had mailed in this performance to some extent. There was a lot of off the cuff BS’ing going on. Tirico made most of the good points. Gruden’s contract extension with ESPN wasn’t good news if that’s the way he’s going to perform every week.

  2. The Saints botched a field goal but, being gentlemen, the Bears gave them another shot at it with a holding call by Jared Allen. The Saints missed the second attempt and I swear circus music started playing in my head.

    The Bears also ran a really poor fake punt in the second quarter. not only did it fail but they only had 10 men on the field.

    Patrick O’Donnell had a good game. There were some good kick off returns as well as the Saints kicker had a tough time kicking it deep.

  3. There weren’t many out right drops as Cutler made virtually every pass a difficult one to catch. The Saints did well here, too.

  4. There were an unbelievable number of penalties on both sides. Special teams had a penalty on the very first kick off of the game starting the offense inside the 10 yard line.

    Kyle Fuller had a damaging pass interference call at the end of the first quarter. That led to a touchdown.

  5. Jay Cutler was intercepted on the very first series on a pretty bad pass. The Saints gave it back two plays later on a fumble by Nick Toon. Great start. Cutler’s interception was the first of many and a better team than the Saints would have put up even more points than they did.

  6. On behalf of Chicago Bears fans everywhere we’d like to apologize to the rest of the league for subjecting you to this. Let’s all hope the networks will let the Bears and their fans suffer alone in quiet dignity on Sunday afternoons next season.