Category: Minnesota Vikings

Quick Comments: Bears at Vikings 12/30/18

Defense

  1. The Vikings came out in the no huddle, evidently thinking that they could take the Bears by surprise. It didn’t work as they went three and out.
  2. The Bears defensive line is pretty good. The Vikings offensive line is not very good. That’s a bad combination if you are a Minnesota fan. It was basically the story of the first half.
  3. The Bears defense played pretty well in a game where the Vikings had everything to play for and the Bears had less and less to play for as the game went on. They were pretty fundamentally sound, where, frankly, the Vikings offense wasn’t.

Offense

  1. Unlike the Vikings, who came out with three straight passes, the Bears ran the ball on the first two plays right behind guard Kyle Long, back from his injury. The Bears only threw once on the first drive, which went for a touchdown. The Vikings eventually shut the run down and it became a field position game.
  2. Jordan Howard definitely looks hurt to me. He was lumbering on a long run in the first series in the open field. Tarik Cohen would have made it a touchdown.
  3. The Bears took three time outs, two in the first half, before the play clock ran out. One of them came after a delay of game. That’s not a good look. This is week 17 and you are headed to the playoffs, folks. You are supposed to have your act together.
  4. Kudos to Mitch Trubisky for throwing some very accurate deep balls, a couple of which should have been caught. He had a good game.

Miscellaneous

  1. Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Erin Andrews did a reasonably good job, I thought. They were surprisingly critical of Kirk Cousins, implying that he was too tightly wound. It turned out to be prophetic as there was a lot of arguing going on on the Vikings sideline at one point near the end of the first half.
  2. Special Teams
    1. The Vikings punter, Matt Wile, should get a nomination for most valuable player for this game. He had some beauties including one for 65 yards and one for 56 that put the Bears back at their own 12 yard line.
    2. Meanwhile Cody Parkey missed another extra point. Shaky field goal kicking is a serious issue entering the playoffs. Its very frustrating.
  3. The Vikings had a couple of huge drops in this game on third down. It had a significant impact on the game. The Bears had a couple deep balls that should have been caught but the coverage was good and they would have been good catches.
  4. Penalties
    1. Deon Bush had a bad face mask penalty that gave the Vikings the ball in field goal range near the end of the first half. They converted it.
    2. Prince Amukamura had a couple of bad pass interference penalties. He’s got to stop all of the grabiness.
    3. Not a great decision by Mike Zimmer to throw the challenge flag late in the third quarter. The Vikings were going for it on fourth and one and appeared to get the first down on a Cousins quarterback sneak. Zimmer threw the flag right before the snap. He lost the challenge, the time out and the first down. They did eventually get the first down and the touchdown.
  5. No turnovers this game. So it was clean in that respect.
  6. They should really outlaw yellow gloves like those worn by Vikings running back Dalvin Cook. They look too much like penalty flags.
  7. The most striking things about this game was the huge disparity in time of possession. The Bears had the ball almost twice as long as the Vikings. The offense played reasonably well and the defense played very well under circumstances when they really didn’t have much to play for. A very surprising win for the Bears as they have some momentum going into the playoffs.

Quick Game Comments: Vikings at Bears 11/18/18

Defense

  1. The Vikings came out and went right at Stefon Diggs matched up on Prince Amukamara. It was obvious that was a match up they were going to like. The Lions picked on Amukamara a bit last week.
  2. The Vikings were also attacking Kyle Fuller, trying to take advantage of his aggressiveness with double moves.
  3. The Vikings were also trying a lot of trap plays in the running game, again taking advantage of the Bears aggressiveness.
  4. Khalil Mack is a monster. The Bears got a lot of pressure on Kirk Cousins and did a nice job of disrupting his play.
  5. The run defense was stout as well. The Vikings had less than 2 yards per rush and very few attempts. Akiem HIcks was a big part of that.

Offense

  1. It seems that the Bears thought they could attack the Vikings offense on the ground to the outside on the right side. They stacked their tight ends to that side and ran quite a bit there. It didn’t work but the Bears kept trying it.
  2. The Vikings had a good game plan very similar to the Green Bay game plan the first game of the year. They blitzed the Bears offense from a lot of angles as often as possible and mixed their defensive looks. To my eye, the Bears handled it much better than they did against the Packers – as they should have, given 9 games in head coach Matt Nagy’s offense.
  3. Mitch Trubisky needed to be patient tonight. The Vikings were giving up the underneath throws and covering the deep routes to Gabriel, challenging them to play mistake-free football and work their way down the field.
  4. The Vikings spent a lot of time in what looked like a two deep zone. The Bears were having a hard time early solving it and, as you might expect from the Vikings, they got a fair bit of pressure on Trubisky.
  5. Not entirely sure why the bears went for two on their first touchdown. The situation didn’t ordinarily call for it. I can only assume that they had a play that they liked. And it worked. A nice throw to Anthony Miller in the back of the end zone.
  6. I was impressed by the concerted effort the Bears put into running the ball this game. They haven’t done it well the last few weeks but they’re working at it and they were better tonight.

Miscellaneous

  1. Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, and Michele Tafoya were your announcers. I’ve said many times that this is the best announcing team in football.
  2. Special teams
    1. Cody Parkey hit his first field goal right down central which was good to see after last week’s adventure when he missed four kicks.
    2. Of course, he followed that up by kicking the ball off out of bounds giving the Vikings great field position.
    3. Parkey’s 48 yard field goal mad ethe Vikings climb an up hill one with less than 3 minutes left in the game. It gave teh Bears a two score lead. Quite a redemption for him.
  3. Penalties
    1. Kyle Fuller had a pass interference call in the first quarter. It gave the Vikings a first down on third and three. Eventually the Vikings Dalvin Cook fumbled deep in Bears territory, limiting the damage.
    2. A holding call on Ben Braunecker in the first quarter pushed the Bears back from the Viking 8 to the 18. The Bears scored the touchdown anyway.
    3. Akiem Hicks got a very damaging roughing the passer penalty that gave the Vikings another shot at a two point conversion. They made it to make it a one score game with about 4 minutes left in the game.
  4. Drops weren’t a major factor in this game.
  5. Turnovers
    1. Khalil Mack forced a huge Dalvin Cook fumble in the first quarter. The Vikings were driving deep into Chicago territory and the turnover saved at least 3 points and very likely 7.
    2. Mitch Trubisky threw an interception and gave the ball back shortly after the fumble recovery. He threw into what looked like triple coverage.
    3. Trubisky had another amaging interception on one of his classic overthrows late in the third quarter that gave teh Viings the ball at the Chicago 31 yard line. It resulted in a Vikings field goal.
    4. That was followed by a fumble by Tarik Cohen that gave teh Vikings the ball on the Bears 30 yard line. That also resulted in a field goal.
    5. Eddie Jackson’s pick six was, of course, a huge play in this game with the Bears offense struggling in the second half.
  6. Well, we figured this game would tell us if the Bears are contenders or pretenders. I won’t say either team played to thier potential offensively but they definitely competed with a pretty good team tonight right to the end. I’m calling them contenders. For now. 🙂

Bears Forced to Pay with Ultra-Short Turn Around Time. Where was the Player’s Union?

Prince Amukamara shares his thoughts on the Bears game against the Vikings this week being flexed from noon to Sunday night. Via Dan Weiderer at the Chicago Tribune:

“’Honestly, I was so excited, Amukamara said. ’Just like: ‘Oh, man! They’re starting to respect us a little bit. We get to play on Sunday night. This is going to be a big game.’

“But then the eighth-year cornerback started doing the math.

“OK, a 7:30 p.m. kickoff on Nov. 18? Then a Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit on Nov. 22 that will begin before noon Chicago time? Just like that, Amukamara’s initial enthusiasm twisted itself into a three-word wake-up call.

“’They screwed us,’ he said.”

They sure did.

Note that this is not just the normal turns around that yo used from Sunday to Thursday.  The Bears were already losing 7.5 hours of recovery time by playing at noon on Thursday instead of the normal 7:30 pm.  Now they’re losing 7.5 hours on the other end.  15 hours of recovery time lost for these these guys is more than half a day.  It’s not trivial.

We hear constantly about how player safety is the first priority for the league. But it all falls by the way side when some cigar smoking TV executive sits in a back room and says, “Let’s put on the Bears. It’ll play good in the sticks.”

Message to the TV execs. The only people watching at the end of that game will be you and whatever bimbo you’re with. The rest of the world works for a living.

But that’s not my major point. I expect greed from people like this. It’s the player’s union’s job to protect the workers from it.

They rumble about strikes and negotiations and they loudly defend criminals when the league tries to suspend them. But where are they when it comes to protesting moves like this where player’s are actually being put at more than the acceptable level of risk? Even if it didn’t change anything, you would think they’d at least say something. Instead all we hear are crickets.

And that’s where Amukamara and his team mates are really being screwed.

Kendall Wright Wasn’t A Fit For the New Bears

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions:

“Kendall Wright was the Bears’ leading receiver in 2017. He was often double-teamed due to the lack of other credible Wide Receiver threats. Given that he had a relatively inexpensive contract and had synergy with Mitch Trubisky, why has he not been re-signed as a depth or insurance for Kevin White? Is there a detail or back story that I’m missing as his salary was a rounding error compared to the new contracts? — David D., Parts Unknown

“Wright was productive for the Bears in the final month of the season but let’s not overstate the value he brought to what was a really challenged offensive unit. I’d disagree with your assessment that he was often double-teamed. Wright is an average slot receiver at this point and the Bears have candidates that they believe will be more productive in the new scheme — Taylor Gabriel and Trey Burton. The Chiefs brought Wright in for a visit last week and it will be interesting to see if he generates a little more interest from the market. The Bears should be credited with some nice moves to overhaul and upgrade the position.”

Wright signed with the Vikings after this was written.

Like Biggs, I was curious to see what the interest was going to be for Wright around the league. Wright had success under former Bears offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains with the Titans in

  1. After that, he had more trouble. His last offensive

coordinator there, Terry Robiskie, was particularly blunt about Wright’s tendency to “freelance”.

“We’ve got 11 guys that are going to be on the field,” Robiskie said. “We’ve got 11 guys that we say, ‘This is your job and here is your responsibility,’ and I think Kendall is like everybody else — realizing those other 10 guys are counting on Kendall to be where he’s supposed to be and do what he’s supposed to do.”

Perhaps Wright found a home in Minnesota where they will let him do what Loggains apparently allowed him to do. But evidently, like Robiskie, new Bears head coach Matt Nagy is of a different sort.

I’m Baaack – Thoughts on the Matt Nagy Hire

So first of all, I’m back.

My course at the school where I work is wrapping up and I’ve got a bit more time to write than I have had for most of this season. I will probably have to go through the same thing in August and September next year when I am course director of another new course but then after that I hope more time will be available to have some fun during the year.

Since my last post, the Bears have fired John Fox and hired new head coach Matt Nagy. Here are some thoughts.

Why Not Someone with a Little Experience?

I wasn’t overly happy about this hire. I don’t have anything against it but at the same time I’m not too thrilled with it or the process by which it came about, either.

What I see here is manifestation of something that I see a lot around the league. When you have a change in leadership in a front office and/or in a coaching staff you go out and hire the exact opposite of what you had before. I don’t know if that was exactly called for here.

I don’t mind that they hired an offensive head coach (as opposed to the defensive Fox) and I think it is generally a really good idea to hire a head coach with a background in coaching quarterbacks. It’s quarterback-centric league. But I wouldn’t have hired yet another first time head coach who is super young just because the last guy was experienced and older. It has all the markings of an over-reaction to the problems of the previous situation.

John Fox was on his third head coaching job and he’d already gotten the simple mistakes out of the system before the Bears hired him. That’s not to say that all of the decisions that he made were good ones. It probably didn’t help that he was a conservative head coach and that was, debatably, hurting the development of rookie quarterback Mitch Trubisky.  But the decision that really hurt him the most was his choice of offense coordinator. Dowell Loggains, as Mike Mulligan at the Chicago Tribune put it, ran an offense with plays but little in the way of scheme. That, along with the lack of talent at wide receiver on that side of the ball, resulted in a fairly low offensive output.

So I’m not saying that experience is everything. But it certainly can help avoid a lot of the problems that Matt Nagy is likely to run into in his first head-coaching job.

So if it were me, I’d have preferred to go with someone with more experience like Josh McDaniels or Pat Shurmur. Whether McDaniels wanted to come Chicago and leave a plum job with the Patriots is debatable. But my gut is telling me that they could’ve persuaded Shurmur to come here if they tried and had been willing to wait a little bit (see below).

Are All the Wrong Things All the Right Things? We’ll Find Out.

As it is the Bears have got a 39 year old head coach to go with an inexperienced, 40 year old general manager who is frankly doing many of the things that over the years I have been told are all of the wrong things for general managers to do.

The first prime example of that is falling in love with Trubisky to the point where in the 2017 draft he arguably traded away picks to move from #3 overall to #2 overall when he actually didn’t have to. Pace fell for Trubisky so hard that he felt that he had to do that if there was even the smallest chance that he might not be able to get him.

Conventional wisdom says that you don’t fall in love with draft prospects. First rounders are a 50:50 proposition whether you have fallen in love with them or not. To some extent, you have to let the chips fall where they may and do the common sense thing.

So it was somewhat disconcerting to see Pace do the exact same thing again when hiring his head coach. Pace obviously felt that he had to rush to hire Matt Nagy in part because the Indianapolis Colts might have been interested. Colts general manager Chris Ballard has a history with Nagy through his Kansas City connections so this does make some sense but at the same time, conventional wisdom says that you take your time when you’re hunting for a head coach. You make your move only after you’re absolutely sure that you got the right guy. You don’t rush it.

My guess is that the Bears also hurried this hire in part they wanted to get first crack at the assistant coaches that they wanted. Again, conventional wisdom says not to do that. Whatever else you say about John Fox, he assembled a pretty good staff in Chicago. He was able to do it, not because he rushed the process, but because he’s been around the league a lot and knows a lot of people. He has a lot of connections.

Assembling a staff is probably the most important thing you’ll do as a head coach. If you hire the right guy, he’ll do it right. On the other hand, does a young guy like Nagy who has only been a coach since 2008 (and even then it was it as an intern) and who has only worked for one organization going to have the connections to hire the right people to to get onto the staff? We’ll find out when the boys hit the field.

The Good: Copying the Rams Model

On the generally positive side, there are a lot of similarities in this hiring to what the Rams did when they hired Sean McVay last year.

Part of the plan in Los Angeles was to get a really good, experienced defensive coordinator to pair with him. In the case of the Rams, that was Wade Phillips, arguably the best there is right now.

In the Bears case, that guy is Vic Fangio and that’s probably another reason for rushing this hire, perhaps the only legitimate one. Fangio was under contract with the Bears until Tuesday and getting Nagy hired quickly gave them a chance to get an offer to Fangio on the record before he started titling to other teams. The end result was that he was hired, presumably as head coach of the defense.

Could they have found a good offensive coordinator if Fangio had turned them down? Probably. And probably they shouldn’t have rushed this hire just to get him. But having said that, it will be nice for the players to have the continuity and presumably it keeps much of the defensive staff intact. If nothing else, its a proven group.

Finally, and most importantly, they got a good young quarterback-centric head coach. A guy who, presumably, will be Chicago’s McVay. Pace almost certainly had a picture in his mind of what he was looking for and that picture presumably looked allot like Sean Payton. Certainly their backgrounds are similar as each was a borderline professional quarterback, Payton as a replacement during the NFL strike in 1982, Nagy as an arena league quarterback. But the similarities end there as Payton was far more accomplished as an offensive coordinator when the Saints hired him as their head coach than Nagy is now. We shall see if Nagy has Payton’s “fire in the belly.”

Hiring Nagy could be as good for Trubisky as hiring McVay was for Jared Goff. Assuming that Nagy runs an offense similar to what Andy Reid does in Kansas City, we’re looking at a highly structured West Coast offense where a lot of the quarterback’s decisions will be mapped out. Its a quarterback friendly offense where Trubisky will always know what to do and will have options to get the team into the right play.

Trubisky came to the Bears with a reputation for being very accurate and we have seen flashes of that on occasion. The football cognoscente believe that if he develops consistent mechanics, he’ll be a good, accurate, precision passer that will hit many of the easy, short passes that the West Coast offense can provide consistently.

Nagy’s also got a reputation for being able to adapt to the characteristics of his quarterback. He should be able to do better job than Loggains did of taking advantage of Trubisky’s mobility. We’ll probably see a lot more will roll outs and boot legs that will allow slower developing pass plays to take place and Trubisky to take off and run if he needs to.

Nagy did a nice job with Alex Smith and, probably more to the point, Pat Mahommes in Kansas City. We can hope that he brings that same expertise here and that Trubisky becomes all that the current regime thinks he can be.

If he does, then the process of hiring Nagy will be characterized as “decisive” by future critics. But for now, it feels like the Bears are going to have to be a lot luckier than usual to have found the right guy in such a rushed manner.

Vic Fangio May Not Be With the Bears Much Longer and Other Points of View

  • Pete Dougherty at packersnews.com thinks Jason Spriggs might be near the end of his tenure in Wisconsin.

    At this point, Spriggs might have to move to guard to try to salvage his career. Regardless of where he plays, you have to think the Packers will bring him back for his third training camp just to be sure. But unless he improves a lot this off-season, he could get cut after only two years with the team.

    If that’s how it turns out, Spriggs will have been one of the biggest swings and misses of the Thompson era. It’s not just the fanning on a second-rounder. That happens to the best of them. But Thompson traded two extra picks – a fourth and a seventh – to move up nine spots to get him.

    The statement is significant because the Packers may well have traded up to get ahead of the Bears, who “settled” by trading back and drafting budding potential pro bowler Cody Whitehair.

    For once the Bears may have come out ahead on that one.

  • Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer was none to happy with the officiating in Minnesota’s Thanksgiving match up with the Lions:

    “We almost lost our composure a couple times,” Zimmer said. “We study each crew going into the game. I told them it could be like this today. They’ve got to play clean, smart football and (long, awkward pause] . . . I shouldn’t say anything else.”

    I was pretty bad. There was a non-call on what was obviously pass interference committed on wide receiver Stephon Diggs and there was a taunting call on quarterback Case Keenum where he was getting up after a sack and he flipped the ball in the direction of Lions defensive end Ziggy Ansah that wasn’t much better.

    Mike Florio at profootballtalk.com danced on the line of accusing the NFL of intentional bias:

    [W]hile I’m a firm believer that the fix is never in, moments like this make me wonder whether the ratings dip has resulted in an unspoken message to give calls to a team that is on the verge of getting blown out, in order to help avoid it. And if I’m wondering, other people are, too.

    I don’t believe that. But I’m honest enough with myself to understand that is largely because I don’t want to believe it.

    The NBA is known for giving the leagues stars the benefit of the doubt when making calls and, as a result, I haven’t watched a full professional basketball game in many years. If the NFL ever did even hint that biased officiating would be acceptable to keep a game close to boost ratings, it would be the end of the league, at least as far as I’m concerned. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.

  • Adam Jahns wonders if defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is getting a free pass for the poor performance of his defense over the last two games:

    Fangio’s defense didn’t deliver the win it should have against Packers backup quarterback Brett Hundley at Soldier Field. Instead, Hundley completed 18 of 25 passes for 212 yards, a touchdown and a 110.7 passer rating — his best mark this season — in Green Bay’s 23-16 victory.

    As quarterback Matthew Stafford was passing for 299 yards and two touchdowns against the Bears in the Lions’ 27-24 victory, the Ravens’ defense played like a top-10 defense should against Hundley in Green Bay. He was intercepted three times and sacked six times. The Ravens held him to a 43.6 passer rating.

    The disparity in Hundley’s performance made the Bears’ most disappointing loss of the season look even worse.

    In fairness, the defense only gave up 27 points in the loss to the Lions. I consider 24 points to be average.

    Fangio’s game plan was to switch up in the coverages in order to confuse Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford. It didn’t work as Stafford either did a better job than anticipated or offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter did a very good job of anticipating the coverages. Either way, the Lions got themselves into the right play and took advantage of the Bears zone coverages way too often.

    No one is perfect and Fangio is still one the best defensive coordinators around. It will be tragic if the Bears lose him in the off-season as he becomes a free agent when his contract is up. Fangio wanted to take the defensive coordinator job in San Francisco last season but the Bear blocked the move. They won’t be able to block it this year if the 49ers decide to make a switch. The Raiders also recently fired defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. and they may not stick with replacement John Pagano.

    Bottom line, the odds of Fangio staying look pretty slim at this point.

  • Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune reports that defensive end Leonard Floyd will go on IR:

    Floyd played 90 percent of the Bears’ defensive snaps in the first nine games, to that point achieving his goal of improved availability. But Thursday’s transaction will bring his two-year career total of missed games to 10.

    While its disappointing that Floyd didn’t make it through the whole season there was a major piece of good news in all of this. Floyd didn’t suffer a single concussion.

    Floyd suffered two concussions in the space of six weeks last year and the frequency of those things doesn’t go down. The Bears claimed that better tackling technique would solve the issue but I was frankly skeptical. Personally, I thought his career was in real jeopardy. But the Bears were evidently right and Floyd seems to have beaten the problem.

No Quick Game Comments Tonight or Monday Night

Sorry, guys.  Reality is intruding and telling me that I can’t watch tonight or on Monday Night against the Vikings.  I’ll watch on GamePass eventually but not until well after the game ends.

See you in Week 6.  Heck, the Bears might even have a new quarterback by then.

Adrian Peterson Remains Unsigned But It’s Not All About the Money

Jeremy Fowler at ESPN  makes claims that former Vikings running back Adrian Peterson is demanding too much money.

“Adrian Peterson might have priced himself out of signing with a team early in free agency.”

“One source from a team in the market for a running back believes Peterson wanted more than $8 million in the first year of a contract. Despite his reputation as one of the best playmakers of the modern era, that is a steep request for the current veteran tailback climate.”

It seems that few people in Minnesota are surprised.  Rana Cash at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune seems to be typical:

“The consensus all along has been that it would come down to money for Peterson. Of course he says it is more to it than that, but from a general manager’s perspective, that’s what it is all about.”

Indeed, Peterson does dispute this.  And, I for one, believe him.

I’ve little doubt that Fowler’s sources told him the truth about Peterson’s demands.  In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that isn’t what he told the Vikings at the beginning of free agency   But to suggest that’s the whole story is monolithic, as Bears fans should know more than anyone.  After all, Alshon Jeffery took less money on a one year deal just so he could get out of Chicago.  I’ve little doubt that the Peterson situation is similar.

Numerous reports indicated that Peterson wasn’t particularly happy in Minnesota, especially during the time when he was accused of  reckless or negligent injury to a child when he didn’t feel like he got enough support from the Vikings.  His price to go to another team that he felt was a good fit is undoubtedly another thing altogether.  For instance, the guess here is that Peterson could be had for a song in his hometown of Dallas, where he has reportedly always wanted to  play.

Don’t be surprised if Peterson finds a good, competitive team that wants him after the draft, when such teams often find that the selection process didn’t fall their way and that they didn’t get one on the players they were looking for.  And don’t be surprised if its for a lot less than he demanded to stay with the Vikings.

 

Quick Game Comments: Bears at Vikings 1/1/17

Defense

      1. Minnesota came out mixing it up and did a lot of damage with big plays on the Bears young defensive backs.  Cre’Von LeBlanc gave up a big catch to Cordarrelle Patterson as he let him get too far behind him while training him – which seems to be a habit with him.  Adrian Amos missed a tackle on Jerick McKinnon which allowed him to score the touchdown.

        The sequence highlights one problem with the Bears.  Yes, they’re playing lots of young players.  But are they really any good?  You wouldn’t know it by this series.

        In any case, despite some better play from both of these guys in the second half, I have very serious doubts about the future of both with the Bears.

      2. I’m really tired of seeing missed tackles play after play from these guys.  Something needs to be done about this.
      3. The Bears struggled to get pressure on Sam Bradford through a totally miserable Vikings offensive line.  That exposed a young and evidently less talented than people think Bears defensive backfield.  Very disappointing.
      4. The Vikings evidently decided that they could attack the Bears linebackers and safeties.  Bradford fed the ball effectively to the running backs and the tight ends, especially Kyle Rudolph who it seems the Bears simply couldn’t cover.

Offense

      1. Dowell Loggains apparently decided to quiet critics by running the ball more.  The first 3 plays and 10 of the first 12 plays were runs.  They ran the ball 22 of 31 total plays in the first half and were very successful at over 6 yards per rush.It was really nice to watch Howard run today as he broke the Bears rookie rushing record.  He broke tackles everywhere and ran with great vision.
      2. The Vikings evidently decided to let Xavier Rhoades cover Jeffery man-to-man.  The Bears tried to take advantage but Barkley and Jeffery had trouble getting on the same page.
      3. Had a great time watching the pass from former college quarterback turned receiver Cam Meredith to current quarterback Matt Barkley.  Some how I don’t see them risking that with Jay Cutler.  In any case, it’s the kind of fun play you run to keep everyone interested in the end of a crappy season.
      4. The Bears frequently looked to me like they weren’t concentrating and offensively they just weren’t always on the same page.  But there  were a couple of plays where Vikings ran right past Bears blockers to disrupt plays in the backfield that were especially bothersome.One was a miss of Eric Kendricks, where he ran right past tight end Daniel Brown in the red zone to disrupt a play.  Everson Giffen disrupted a Howard fourth down run that ultimately didn’t make it after running right by Charles Leno.  This supposedly was a missed block by Cameron Meredith but in any case Griffen was barely touched.

        These plays were either poorly designed, poorly executed or both.  They were very costly and very annoying.

Miscellaneous

      1. Dick Stockton, David Diehl, and Kristina Pink were your announcers.  I didn’t think they added anything special to the broadcast.  But I won’t say that they injured it, either.  Sometimes I guess you have to just be happy with that.
      2. Not a good day for Bears special teams.  Marcus Sherels had a 36 yard punt return to the Chicago 42.  Braylon Addison fumbled a punt late in the first half in Bears territory.  That set up a Viking touchdown.Deonte Thompson did have a very nice 60 yard kick return with 9 seconds left in the first half.  That set up a field goal.
      3. Drops weren’t a major issue.
      4. Six penalties for 49 yards isn’t a terrible game but it wasn’t good, given that the Vikings only had 2.Willie Young was off sides near the goal line early in the second quarter.  The Bears held but it could have been pretty damaging.

        The Bears sustained a long drive at the end of the first half for a touchdown despite a couple of holding calls on Bobby Massie and Josh Sitton.  Part of me was disgusted and part of me was glad to see them over come the problems to score.

      5. Very disappointing to see Matt Barkley throw an interception at the goal line on only his second pass of the game.   The pass was under thrown and behind Alshon Jeffery.  He followed that with another one in the red zone on the first drive of the second half. Both were his fault and both took points off the board.  Finally, he had a fumble in the fourth quarter that was returned for a touchdown.It was critical for Barkley to adjust after miserable showings the two previous games to demonstrate that he could protect the football.  If there’s one thing John Fox won’t put up with, its turnovers from his quarterback.  Barkley may not be back in any capacity next year.  Frankly, I don’t think he should.

        Jeremy Langford did his future no good by fumbling early in the second quarter in Bears territory.  The Vikings turned it into a touchdown.

        The Bears did (finally) get one back as Cre’Von LeBlanc did pick one off in the end zone.

      6. It isn’t very hard to figure this one out, boys and girls.  You can’t turn the ball over like this and win football games.The Bears keep saying that effort isn’t a problem.  Great.  But does it matter if you can’t play smart?

        Sorry.  It’s not brilliant analysis.  It’s just the truth.

 

Quick Comments: Vikings at Bears 10/20/16

Defense

  1. The Vikings came out running on first down, probably in an effort to slow the pass rush and keep the Bears from blitzing.  The Bears were doing a pretty good job of stopping it with seven in the box.  They held the line of scrimmage pretty well.
  2. That also didn’t keep the Bears from blitzing on occasion and getting pressure with it.  The Vikings have one of the worst offensive lines in football and Sam Bradford has a poor reputation for performing in the face of the blitz.  It was what the Eagles beat them with last week and it was obviously part of the game plan for the Bears.
  3. Minnesota also tried to run the no huddle to wear the Bears defense down but they couldn’t sustain a drive to do it.
  4. Some decent pass coverage by the young defensive backs had Bradford occasionally taking a long time to look for targets.  This gave the four man pass rush a lot of time to get to him on these occasions.
  5. The pass rush itself also was pretty good.  I note that Leonard Floyd had another good game with a sack.
  6. The Minnesota offense just looks terrible.  They’re bad up front, Bradford and the receivers aren’t on the same page, Bradford Is missing big throws.  It’s pretty bad right now.
  7. Big night for Akiem Hicks with 2 sacks.
  8. Stephon Diggs is a flat out star.  He had a good game on what was otherwise a miserable night for the Minnesota offense.

Offense

  1. After a really good start with a good 69 yard run by Jordan Howard the Bears started yet another gaff in the red zone with a poorly executed play where a defensive tackle went completely unblocks and there was a mix up between Jay Cutler and Howard in the backfield.  Cutler followed with a poor throw to Jeffery in the end zone.  Alshon Jeffery dropped touchdown on the next trip to the red zone.  This kind of incompetence has to stop.
  2. One good thing that the Bears did in the red zone was run the ball on occasion.  If you can do that, you’ll score.  And when they did it successfully, they did score.
  3. Cutler was getting the ball out quickly and on time in the short passing game and he was spreading the ball around better.
  4. Having said that, he was erratic tonight with his accuracy, especially early in the game.  There were some bad throws to Alshon Jeffery in particular.  At one point Cutler hit Jeffery in the back of the head when Jeffery didn’t turn for the ball and I could hear big top music in my head and it felt like I was watching clowns at the circus.  They did a better job of connecting in the third quarter when Jeffery scored his first touchdown of the year.
  5. Cutler got decent protection from the offensive line against a very good Minnesota defensive front.  The offense generally did a good job of picking up the blitz despite missing both starting guards.  Also kudos to Cutler for getting the ball out when the blitz came.  He did a nice job of that.
  6. Howard had a good night on the ground and with some of his catches on screens and a shuffle pass.  He’s a good one and he was just good enough to make the play action work pretty well tonight.
  7. Some good play calls tonight.  Some well-timed screens.  Nice job by Dowell Loggains there.
  8. Zach Miller had a good night as Cutler frequently looked to him short.  That’s good.
  9. Nice job of running the game out at the end.

Miscellaneous

  1. I really like Jon Gruden.  He’s pretty insightful and I enjow his commentary.  Sean McDonough is a pro.
  2. Special teams, especially the kick coverage, were fine on both sides. I was underwhelmed by Cre’Von LeBlanc as a returner.
  3. The Bears really cut down on the penalties with only 2 for 20 yards.  One of them, an unsportsmanlike conduct on Cornelius Washington, was pretty damaging in that it gave the Vikings a first down on their way to a field goal in the first half.  Nevertheless, this has been a problem and it was better this game.  The Vikings only had 1 penalty.  So a clean game.
  4. Jeffery dropped a touchdown in addition to the ball that hit him in the back of the head that he didn’t look for.
  5. No turnovers on either side.  Again, relatively clean.
  6. This was a nice win for the Bears against what might be the best team in  the division.  They played a clean game with no turnovers and few penalties, something that they have to do if they expect to win.  Some unknown players in the defensive backfield came up with good performances.  Some young players including Cody Whitehair and Leonard Floyd are looking good.  A nice effort going into the bye.

    The Minnesota Vikings, on the other hand, are a huge disappointment.  That offense is a huge problem.  The line stinks, just as it did last year, especially when they play anyone any good.  I had hoped that veteran offensive coordinator Norv Turner could eventually make ice cream out of garbage on this team.  But they simply don’t measure up and the defense can’t make up for it.  They’re the Achilles heel for this team which, once again, looks like it will go nowhere in the playoffs, at least at this point.