2025-26 NFL Season Thread

[southsider2k5]

56 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

Santos is so annoying.  I don’t blame him completely but the missed field goal and not kicking out of the back of the end zone was the difference at the end.  The guy isn’t a new age kicker, he is a 40 to almost 50 yard FG kicker and the game has evolved to some of the mega leg kickers we see now.  
 

my last thought is the running back game yesterday was inexcusable.  Swift isn’t an all purpose back, and Monangai was apparently there but invisible.  Not a fan of letting DJ Moore get his ass kicked running through this offensive line 

Especially bad when the Vikings return game kicked our asses all night.  Their big returns shortened fields, and allowed their offense great starting field position, especially in the 2nd half.

[almagest]

9 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Especially bad when the Vikings return game kicked our asses all night.  Their big returns shortened fields, and allowed their offense great starting field position, especially in the 2nd half.

Tory Taylor out kicks his coverage and it drives me nuts. You almost never see defenders near the kick returner when he punts. They're always at least 10 yards away and set up an easy return. He was a terrible 4th round pick.

[whitesoxfan99]

39 minutes ago, Chisoxfn said:

So did they rule the first contact was to the jersey vs the ball? 

Like so often is the case, I think Chat GPT is wrong.  https://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/nfl-rulebook/#article-1-dead-ball-declared Among the ways a play is dead is:

1. when an opponent takes a ball that is in the possession of a runner who is on the ground;

That reads as if you cannot force a fumble when a player is on the ground.

[Chisoxfn]

7 minutes ago, whitesoxfan99 said:

Like so often is the case, I think Chat GPT is wrong.  https://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/nfl-rulebook/#article-1-dead-ball-declared Among the ways a play is dead is:

1. when an opponent takes a ball that is in the possession of a runner who is on the ground;

That reads as if you cannot force a fumble when a player is on the ground.

That was what I assumed but I read somewhere where a former ref said that wasn’t actually the rule. I’m curious cause my initial thought was what a horrible challenge…now I’m curious is this one of those obscure things that never happens and there was a confusion? 

[almagest]

37 minutes ago, whitesoxfan99 said:

Like so often is the case, I think Chat GPT is wrong.  https://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/nfl-rulebook/#article-1-dead-ball-declared Among the ways a play is dead is:

1. when an opponent takes a ball that is in the possession of a runner who is on the ground;

That reads as if you cannot force a fumble when a player is on the ground.

Not denying that ChatGPT is wrong a lot, but that reads like you can't rip the ball out of their hands. It was a clean punch and the runner wasn't contacted. I think he was also trying to get up and run when the ball was punched out.

[chw42]

52 minutes ago, almagest said:

Not denying that ChatGPT is wrong a lot, but that reads like you can't rip the ball out of their hands. It was a clean punch and the runner wasn't contacted. I think he was also trying to get up and run when the ball was punched out.

I thought he was contacted prior to the punch. Any part of their body even grazes him while his knee is down and he's considered down by contact. 

[chw42]

PFF Was surprisingly generous to Caleb. 2nd highest graded player on the team and a 67 passing grade. Just watching some of the all 22 so far (I'm on the 2nd drive) and he's already missed 2 wide open guys. Those are probably no grades in PFF's grading system since he checked it down, but it's a huge missed opportunity. 

Edited September 9 by chw42

[almagest]

2 minutes ago, chw42 said:

I thought he was contacted prior to the punch. Any part of their body even grazes him while his knee is down and he's considered down by contact. 

I don't think so, but it was hard to tell. Probably a bad challenge from that perspective, but not because of the ball punch.

[chw42]

1 minute ago, almagest said:

I don't think so, but it was hard to tell. Probably a bad challenge from that perspective, but not because of the ball punch.

Yeah you're probably not getting that overturned when there's no hard evidence he wasn't down by contact. 

[Chisoxfn]

31 minutes ago, chw42 said:

PFF Was surprisingly generous to Caleb. 2nd highest graded player on the team and a 67 passing grade. Just watching some of the all 22 so far (I'm on the 2nd drive) and he's already missed 2 wide open guys. Those are probably no grades in PFF's grading system since he checked it down, but it's a huge missed opportunity. 

I thought Caleb played a solid to good first half and then had a lousy second half. 

[Chisoxfn]

4 minutes ago, Chisoxfn said:

I thought Caleb played a solid to good first half and then had a lousy second half. 

All that said - there were plenty of good moments and lots of teaching moments. Had they won I think everyone would be singing a slightly different tune and the reality is somewhere in the middle. 
 

The oline looks like a unit with a lot of new players and offense made mistakes reflecting of a unit learning a new system. Defensively they wore down given the lack of depth - especially in secondary due to injuries and also I think just wearing down due to being first full game. 
 

Biggest thing is I think you could see the quiet and stoic pissed off look in Johnson’s eyes and I trust he will use this and be the type of coach who can build guys up and this team will grow from here, but as Kyle said - we expected a rough start while they adjust and that is what it looks like is happening - the real test is post bye week do we see a team that is starting to ascend - I sure as heck hope we do. It may be too little too late but if they come out of bye and start playing consistently good football that to me is kind of the baseline expectation.

[Harry Chappas]

Special teams were awful

I am not sold on Poles as a GM.

The #4 receiver seemed to be targeted as much as any player and the fact Moore needs to play running back is asinine.  

Hope is all we got as Williams seemed to not progress over summer.

[Flash Tizzle]

We’re witnessing an entire fan base question whether CW is their future QB. The errant throws, the over throws, the non-throws, it was a horrendous display for a national audience. Additionally, there was no coaching dysfunction to blame. We can’t blame Flus or Waldron. We’re definitely not blaming Johnson. 

Now, how do you fundamentally correct the down field accuracy and visual, spatial recognition of your QB? You can’t. This is the black pill. If there’s a couple more games like these, the quarterback controversy will be in full swing.

[chw42]

The positive is that Ben Johnson schemed a ton of guys open. The drive where nobody was open was actually the first drive of the game weirdly enough. But Johnson constantly got guys wide ass open. Caleb either missed them or didn't see them half the time. 

[Tony]

22 minutes ago, chw42 said:

The positive is that Ben Johnson schemed a ton of guys open. The drive where nobody was open was actually the first drive of the game weirdly enough. But Johnson constantly got guys wide ass open. Caleb either missed them or didn't see them half the time. 

While I haven't watched it myself, have seen a lot of people I trust on X talking about how bad the All-22 is for Caleb. The scheme seemed to be there, even in Week 1. The QB didn't execute. 

[chw42]

12 minutes ago, Tony said:

While I haven't watched it myself, have seen a lot of people I trust on X talking about how bad the All-22 is for Caleb. The scheme seemed to be there, even in Week 1. The QB didn't execute. 

Yeah it was bad. I watched the Tim Jenkins breakdown and he's probably one of the more positive guys who does QB breakdowns. He was pissed at how bad some of the turn downs were from Caleb. There were at least 5 instances where Caleb had a guy wide open and either turned it down or decided to check down too quickly. So on top of the missed throws to the reads he did make last night, he also left a ton of yards out on the field. That being said, the interior offensive line has to play better. The Vikings consistently pushed Dalman and Jackson back into the pocket. And they let stunts up the middle get immediate pressure on him multiple times. It just magnifies Caleb's problems with playing in the pocket. He had his arm hit so many times on follow throughs because he couldn't really step into throws with how little room there was. Ultimately he's gotta hit the layup throws he missed, but I can see why he feels jittery in the pocket. 

[almagest]

2 minutes ago, chw42 said:

Yeah it was bad. I watched the Tim Jenkins breakdown and he's probably one of the more positive guys who does QB breakdowns. He was pissed at how bad some of the turn downs were from Caleb. There were at least 5 instances where Caleb had a guy wide open and either turned it down or decided to check down too quickly. So on top of the missed throws to the reads he did make last night, he also left a ton of yards out on the field. That being said, the interior offensive line has to play better. The Vikings consistently pushed Dalman and Jackson back into the pocket. And they let stunts up the middle get immediate pressure on him multiple times. It just magnifies Caleb's problems with playing in the pocket. He had his arm hit so many times on follow throughs because he couldn't really step into throws with how little room there was. Ultimately he's gotta hit the layup throws he missed, but I can see why he feels jittery in the pocket. 

There was a Reddit post about how the crazy bad misses happened after Caleb took a big hit on the arm in the 4th. Guy was wondering if he had a big bruise on the arm and that led to some of the bigger accuracy issues. It's not like CW was pinpoint accurate all game until then, so I dunno, but if you've ever tried to throw a ball with a hurt arm you know how tough it is to not have it stiffen up and hurt bad enough to change your mechanics.

[Chisoxfn]

1 hour ago, Tony said:

While I haven't watched it myself, have seen a lot of people I trust on X talking about how bad the All-22 is for Caleb. The scheme seemed to be there, even in Week 1. The QB didn't execute. 

The key is - how does he build from this. And if he doesn’t - then they will be looking for a new qb. I expect BJ will use the film study to teach and Caleb better be putting in the work. 

[Chisoxfn]

38 minutes ago, almagest said:

There was a Reddit post about how the crazy bad misses happened after Caleb took a big hit on the arm in the 4th. Guy was wondering if he had a big bruise on the arm and that led to some of the bigger accuracy issues. It's not like CW was pinpoint accurate all game until then, so I dunno, but if you've ever tried to throw a ball with a hurt arm you know how tough it is to not have it stiffen up and hurt bad enough to change your mechanics.

He also threw some real good balls - including a couple tight windows ones where they couldn’t pull it down. Had some ugly ones too…some might have been not having the right timing or aligned with say Kmet on where to settle - but also just some places where he should have used an 8-iron but instead went with the driver. 

[chw42]

17 minutes ago, Chisoxfn said:

He also threw some real good balls - including a couple tight windows ones where they couldn’t pull it down. Had some ugly ones too…some might have been not having the right timing or aligned with say Kmet on where to settle - but also just some places where he should have used an 8-iron but instead went with the driver. 

This has always been the thing with Caleb. He'll wow you a few times a game and make throws 95% of QBs can't, but then he'll throw it to grass a few times and confuse the hell out of you. The inconsistency is too much. 

[Tony]

23 minutes ago, chw42 said:

This has always been the thing with Caleb. He'll wow you a few times a game and make throws 95% of QBs can't, but then he'll throw it to grass a few times and confuse the hell out of you. The inconsistency is too much. 

Correct. I mean he's an NFL QB. He's going to be able to complete some really good throws. But doing it on a consistent basis is a whole different animal. Thus far, he has shown us time and time again his touch on the deep ball is incredibly inconsistent. Case in point:

 

[Kyyle23]

Kurt Warner with the curveball, he has been fairly critical of Caleb over the last year 

[Kyyle23]

An entire lot of cars towed during the bears game, who had valid paid spots

I guess these guys know they only have a few years left to pull off this bullshit 

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

2 hours ago, Kyyle23 said:

Kurt Warner with the curveball, he has been fairly critical of Caleb over the last year 

Lol

[greg775]

I just read on WGN website the Bears have chosen Arlington Heights. Smart move. Everything about the decision is correct IMO. In the article it said 50 percent of Bears ticket holders live within 25 miles of Arlington Hts.