Chisoxfn

There were quite a few plays yesterday, where literally it looks like Mitch had only one option to go with the other wideouts literally being decoys. When the other team defended the screen he was basically left with pure squat. It goes back to how weak I think the scheme is right now (to go with mediocre to bad QB play and a non-existent running game).

I haven't seen a ton of spying on him. Right now, I think with his injury, it is pretty clear that he doesn't want to get it and is trying to get rid of the football. In fact, there were a few times where it looked like he wanted to make a play but that harness prevented him from making an awkward throw. You could clearly see though he was favoring it on rushes and/or when he was going to get hit. I don't think it really impacted his accuracy though. An optimist would say the momentum they gained during the prevent defense (final 2 TD drives) could be one of those things that the offense carries forward against the Chargers. The flipside of that is, they still looked like an offense that just struggled to make plays. The offensive design just looks meh. You have a QB who isn't a great pure pocket passer, being asked to be a pure pocket passer, being fed a 201/301 view of the offense (vs. a more simplified view..since what McVay did for Goff 1st couple years), and zero rushing attack to help with play action, etc. Like I said, a lot of issues and a chunk falls on the oline, RB, TE, as well as the whole coaching staff and QB.

I think the first year...it was the reason...probably became less so the longer he spent out of football. I also think he had demonstrated he probably wasn't an upper echelon starter and was more likely a middle of the pack QB to a top notch back-up QB. How willing you are to deal with the PR headaches from that sort of player change your perceived view of that player.

This. I have heard a few NFL analysts who have absolutely blasted the Bears X's and O's this season. These are people who have also said the QB has been an issue but the bigger issue is the scheme and guys not getting open, etc. There are a lot of fingers to go around and I was not happy with how this team came out of a bye week. This was on par with some of Trestman's worse games and was probably one of my most disappointing Bears games as a fan (expectation vs. reality). We were 3 point favorites and got clocked. This is right up there with those couple blowout games against Trestman as well as that Eagles/Bears game last in the season where we got crushed (with a chance to clinch a post-season birth). All that said...this is a tipping point and Nagy certainly could be capable of fixing it. I wonder if he needs to step away from the play calling a bit and/or make a move to give Childress a bit more control. Pagano needs to look closely and figure out what he needs to do different as well. One thing for certain, if I were going to make a trade (and as everyone on this board knows...I'm not big on trading away future picks), I would be targeting a TE who could be counted on.

He also hasn't played football in years. I think it would be pretty hard to sign him mid-season and expect anything from him.

Miller has major issues. It isn't a QB thing. He is all over the place on routes and is always throwing his hands up the air like a diva (its one thing if you are a regular 1000 yard receiver to be a diva, another, when you haven't done that). Miller is a major issue and Mitch being QB isn't why this offense is as futile as it is running the football. Miller was seriously impacted by his off-season injuries and an inability to get as many practice reps as he clearly needed a lot of work on refining his routes and building chemistry with his QB's.

Dumping Mitch now would be a huge mistake. He has played like ass, but he still has talent and the Bears coaching staff needs to do everything to get him right. There best and quickest path forward is with Mitch. They can reevaluate that decision in the off-season and bring in a veteran who can contend for the job (whether that is Matt Ryan or Andy Dalton or Marcus Marriotta).

All I had to do was watch Latavius Murray run to realize our RB's are part of the problem too. Murray hit the whole aggressive each time and than found cut back lanes. It was night and day vs. our RB's (Cohen & Montgomery). The same was evident with Jones on the Raiders. The speed and authority to which they hit the hole was huge and they were moving the D forward all day. The line has to improve...but the RB's are also part of the problem, imo (or at least there style doesn't fit what the Bears are trying to do). Cohen looks like a shell of his former self. Even when he gets in space I don't see him making guys miss or anything. He just doesn't look as electric and he's a guy who needs to be super electric given how freaking small he is.

The offense looks like Trestman in year 2. It looks like utter vanilla crap and that the whole league knows exactly what the Bears are going to do. Yes, blame is on Trubisky too and I won't ignore that. He missed some open guys in the 1st half and just looks like a broken QB right now. He's also the quickest way to turn things around as well (as I still believe he has talent...albeit, dude looks broke and I don't know if they will be able to fix him or not). Hard when you hand the ball off 7 times for like no rushing yards and have 2 lost fumbles on those 7 carries.

This is clearly a key point in Nagy's tenure. This is about as tough as it can get from a coach. You have a defense that is going to point blame at the offense (partially deservingly) and you have major issues against a team I truly believe and expected the Bears to beat handily. I also say a lot of blame has to lie squarely on the coaching staff (offensive & defensive) and clearly blame is on the QB's shoulders, because you are the QB...period. Right now the QB looks like he isn't playing football...he looks like he's so freaking tight on the field. No fun...no improvisation...just very slow decision making. Looks like they completely turned him into a robot (and I think that is on the QB and coaching staff too).

This is probably the truest statement. His offense just isn’t good right now. I will hope somehow everyone benefits from those last two empty tds and it somehow gives them some confidence and swagger heading into Charger game.

At least Bulls didn't play as many preseason games as some teams.

Exciting!

I really think the Rams are too aggressive in how much they give up draft capital. I appreciate their aggressiveness, but we all know my views on draft capital. I think you want to stockpile enough, so you can operate from a position of strength and capitalize where appropriate (when it comes to selling & buying) picks. I applaud the Jags for being able to get 2 1st round picks.

His stuff is absolutely phenomenal. I'll take either one and roll the dice. Both could have their arms fall off, but I like Stephen's build just a bit better. If I had to pick of the two, I'd probably take whomever was willing to take less years, but I'm agnostic in general. If I were in charge of the Sox, I'd go heavy for one of Cole/Stras as I think they need a true TOR arm and I'd also look hard at JDM/Rendon on offense.

So my outlandish Bulls prediction for the season is that Zach Lavine will be an all star and viewed as a top 3 SG in the NBA by seasons end. My negative prediction is that Lauri goes the opposite path and doesn't show development and ends up being a middling player. Hope I am right on Lavine and wrong on Lauri (who as a player / dude I like a lot...I want to see big steps forward cause he has a ton of skills...need to see every part of his game get a little better). I'm becoming more excited about White.

I think they just need to go with the league having a review suite with specialized people covering all the games and they can swoop down and correct a play where appropriate (kind of on the fly). Basically, take the fans view of what is being reviewed & discussed out of the game and leave it to a black box. I think it allows the game to be played faster and a coach, if they feel strongly, essentially calls a timeout to ensure more time for the league to review it. Basically than you give far more flexibility to the league to get things right, where something is clear & obvious. For example, most of the time, I don't think you'd review a hands to the face...in this case, you'd take a quick look live and boom...correction. No need to throw a review flag or for the refs to come off the field, etc. Stick with booth review on all scoring plays & turnovers as well (so you know those get looked at no matter what...given the level of importance) and everything else is done to the camera in the sky.

Packers get every call. It’s a fact of life.

I liked Booger McFarland. He spoke the truth about those crap calls. Doesn’t happen very often, imo.

They had the same line last year and couldn't run block for Howard either. Run blocking has been poor last year and this year. The major "if" is that last years oline (sans Daniels) was essentially the same oline that was pretty darn good at run blocking under John Fox and Adam Gase's scheme. Some of me thinks, some of the line issues are really related to scheme and prioritization on the run. I say that because Long is the only guy who "physically" has degraded and Daniels has all of the talent in the world at center. I absolutely don't believe the Bears blocking issues are "talent" issues, however, they might be crap scheme and lack of commitment to the run issues (combined with poor fundamental play by certain players this year (see Leno). Again, I'm excluding Long from this since he clearly had significant issues.

If I am the Bears, regardless of how Trubisky does, I probably bring in a guy on a one year deal that is serviceable. With this D, you need a better contingent plan than Chase Daniel and you need to be prepared for the risk that Trubisky doesn't pan out. Mariotta & Carr are two guys that clearly could be out there, along with Matt Ryan. Mariotta was someone the Bears brass liked previously (not sure whether Nagy did). HE clearly has struggled in the pro's. That said, he's never been surrounded with strong offensive coaches/schemes. The Titans (and injuries) have turned him into more of a pocket passer than he should be. Than again, the Bears (or other teams defensive schemes) have done the same to Mitch this year as well. I do think Nagy probably has had his own challenges from having a guy like Smith as his QB for so long. Very very savy vet who could handle any defensive scheme is a huge difference from a young QB (in this era). I honestly think people drastically underestimate how long it takes for a QB to be "savy" at reads and how much you need to use scheme and simplicity early in a QB's career. I think Matt wants to go heavy heavy and the reality is, it takes YEAR(S) to get there. Even Mahomes, you've seen him more limited when teams hold him to the pocket (not that there are many cases of that) and make him truly dissect a d.

If I were the Bears, I would look at drafting a QB early again, mainly because I believe you could strategize an approach where you focus on defense and leverage young, cheap QB's for the next few years (unless you have a truly transcendent QB). I really think the new model is...win with a solid young QB on the cheap or win with a truly great QB who is paid at that level. IF you get caught in between (which is what a ton of teams do...see Stafford, Goff (potentially), Ryan, etc), you end up not ever being able to field a good enough team around that above average, but not elite QB. Heck, even the elite QB's can have a hard time overcoming the cap implications.

I don't think you can upgrade QB during the season. Too much complications with system changes, etc. I also am not ready to jump to any conclusions based upon 3 games (one of which was pretty good - the Vikings game). Plus, Trubisky played against all good defenses this year (with exception of the Redskins game and in that game, he did exactly what he needed to). The Bears offense has issues though and the fastest way to correct it is for Trubisky to take a step or two forward vs. the step back he took to start the year. The big question mark is how limited will he be coming back from his injury. I'm curious how he will be able to run and whether his mechanics will be impacted by the left shoulder injury.

I think those are conversations you have in the off-season. I don't think you have that conversation now.

Zaidi and Kapler worked together pretty closely with the Dodgers.