Bears week 4: At Giants Sunday at noon on Fox

[minnesotacubsfan]

I don't think the short passing game is there. The few we have tried have gone poorly. We don't have the personnel for it, and teams are going to be taking it away because they're up to stop the run anyway

 

Do they really need certain personnel to run a pick play?

 

competent personnel?

[gflore34]

I don't think the short passing game is there. The few we have tried have gone poorly. We don't have the personnel for it, and teams are going to be taking it away because they're up to stop the run anyway

 

Do they really need certain personnel to run a pick play?

 

competent personnel?

 

How much competency does one need in order to stand in someone's way in order to let another person run by?

[minnesotacubsfan]

 

Do they really need certain personnel to run a pick play?

 

competent personnel?

 

How much competency does one need in order to stand in someone's way in order to let another person run by?

 

more then the Bears have?

[jersey cubs fan]

I don't think the short passing game is there. The few we have tried have gone poorly. We don't have the personnel for it, and teams are going to be taking it away because they're up to stop the run anyway

 

Short passing is always there. Not always the way the Bears are doing it, but with a team that can run the ball like they can, the run action should open up quick hitters. Granted, Fields has struggled reading the defense on RPOs and so forth, but it can be done. Plus, in tight coverage, you can pick guys off to free up receivers. It could be combo of Getsy not doing it or Fields not seeing it fast enough, though.

Short passing is always there for teams with talent at receiver. The bears are bottom of the barrel at receiver. The 1 guy they have is not a short threat. They don’t have anybody they can rely on for 4-6 yard gains over and over.

[jersey cubs fan]

 

Do they really need certain personnel to run a pick play?

 

competent personnel?

 

How much competency does one need in order to stand in someone's way in order to let another person run by?

To do it wiIthout a penalty being called? Quite a bit.

[UMFan83]

More from Brad:

 

Yeah, this is why I don't understand fans who watched yesterday's game and decided "Yes, this game shows Fields is the problem"

 

The line was awful, up and down, both ways, and the reason the Bears lost this very winnable game.

 

Maybe this is what he meant when he said that the passing game improved yesterday and when questioned on the stats said 'stats don't matter'. It improved but didn't show up on paper because of other issues.

[raw]

I don't think the short passing game is there. The few we have tried have gone poorly. We don't have the personnel for it, and teams are going to be taking it away because they're up to stop the run anyway

 

Short passing is always there. Not always the way the Bears are doing it, but with a team that can run the ball like they can, the run action should open up quick hitters. Granted, Fields has struggled reading the defense on RPOs and so forth, but it can be done. Plus, in tight coverage, you can pick guys off to free up receivers. It could be combo of Getsy not doing it or Fields not seeing it fast enough, though.

Short passing is always there for teams with talent at receiver. The bears are bottom of the barrel at receiver. The 1 guy they have is not a short threat. They don’t have anybody they can rely on for 4-6 yard gains over and over.

 

Yeah, talent helps. But put Kmet's big ass out there or EQ St. Brown, they are good blockers and big enough bodies to muck things up a bit for Pettis or Mooney to get 4-5 yards. Then you just have to worry about Fields actually seeing it fast enough to throw it before a penalty for blocking and then them actually catching the ball. The Bears are just 4 easy steps away from being able to complete a competent NFL offensive pass!

[gflore34]

Given the manner in which things were proceeding the Bears probably would have gone 3 and out. Still, it certainly did look as if they might have ended up around midfield had that horsefeathering numbs nuts fielded the punt. I'm certain he'll back on IR this week, totally useless.

[Old Style]

 

Short passing is always there. Not always the way the Bears are doing it, but with a team that can run the ball like they can, the run action should open up quick hitters. Granted, Fields has struggled reading the defense on RPOs and so forth, but it can be done. Plus, in tight coverage, you can pick guys off to free up receivers. It could be combo of Getsy not doing it or Fields not seeing it fast enough, though.

Short passing is always there for teams with talent at receiver. The bears are bottom of the barrel at receiver. The 1 guy they have is not a short threat. They don’t have anybody they can rely on for 4-6 yard gains over and over.

 

Yeah, talent helps. But put Kmet's big ass out there or EQ St. Brown, they are good blockers and big enough bodies to muck things up a bit for Pettis or Mooney to get 4-5 yards. Then you just have to worry about Fields actually seeing it fast enough to throw it before a penalty for blocking and then them actually catching the ball. The Bears are just 4 easy steps away from being able to complete a competent NFL offensive pass!

Kmet is a good blocker?

[UMFan83]

Short passing is always there for teams with talent at receiver. The bears are bottom of the barrel at receiver. The 1 guy they have is not a short threat. They don’t have anybody they can rely on for 4-6 yard gains over and over.

 

Yeah, talent helps. But put Kmet's big ass out there or EQ St. Brown, they are good blockers and big enough bodies to muck things up a bit for Pettis or Mooney to get 4-5 yards. Then you just have to worry about Fields actually seeing it fast enough to throw it before a penalty for blocking and then them actually catching the ball. The Bears are just 4 easy steps away from being able to complete a competent NFL offensive pass!

Kmet is a good blocker?

 

Here are his PFF pass and run block grades in the first 3 games this year:

 

Week 1: 70.2 pass block, 64.3 run block. Pass block seems solid but everyone had a good grade week 1. Kmets was 4th worst on the team. Run block was actually 5th best on the team.

Week 2: 29.6 pass block, 65.5 run block. Pass block was 3rd worst on the team ahead of only Mustipher and Jenkins (Patrick was just ahead of Kmet). Run block was somewhere in the middle of the team

Week 3: 51.0 pass block, 55.1 run block. These were both the 2nd worst on the team, behind Patrick in both cases (who was significantly worse than any Bear)

 

I'm leaning towards 'no he's not a good blocker'

[Old Style]

I'm not a numbers guy but my eyes tell me he's trash at blocking much like he's trash at catching.

[WrigleyField 22]

More from Brad:

 

 

 

This offense is so horsefeathering full of holes that Poles ineffectiveness last off season only creates a situation where he's likely to be ineffective this next off season. HTF is he going to plug the holes in one off season? He has draft picks and salary cap space, but whats he proven so far? he can oversell a terrible NFL offense?

I mean, this past offseason is basically totally useless as to trying to tell us what Poles can do because he mostly punted on trying. You got a couple second rounders you can try and evaluate him on, but even then, grading draft success takes time.

 

So who knows, but they have cap space to do whatever they want this offseason. Enough to dramatically increase the quality of the O. Not top 5, but competent, middle of the road O. Getting beyond that you need a QB obviously.

 

If he punts on trying in FA again it will erase any idea that he is planning on building around Fields.

[BigSlick]

This is way down the list of concerns but I really don’t like the way Eberflus is making calls on important inflection point moments - punting while down 8 with 3 minutes remaining, and such. This kind of horsefeathers is outrageously conservative and doesn’t fit with the modern NFL. Will be the kinds of decisions that would hold back a team when/if we become competitive.

 

Also running on 3rd and 3 in the red zone, a move that only makes sense if you’re committed to going for it on 4th down. That game call probably comes down to the OC, however. But the overall philosophy…woof I hate it.

[minnesotacubsfan]

More from Brad:

 

 

 

This offense is so horsefeathering full of holes that Poles ineffectiveness last off season only creates a situation where he's likely to be ineffective this next off season. HTF is he going to plug the holes in one off season? He has draft picks and salary cap space, but whats he proven so far? he can oversell a terrible NFL offense?

I mean, this past offseason is basically totally useless as to trying to tell us what Poles can do because he mostly punted on trying. You got a couple second rounders you can try and evaluate him on, but even then, grading draft success takes time.

 

So who knows, but they have cap space to do whatever they want this offseason. Enough to dramatically increase the quality of the O. Not top 5, but competent, middle of the road O. Getting beyond that you need a QB obviously.

 

If he punts on trying in FA again it will erase any idea that he is planning on building around Fields.

 

not doing a damn thing to get some talent at WR or OL (and no, signing everyone's washed up 1st rd pick wr doesn't count) is what I can evaluate him on. he had cap space this past offseason, enough to do SOMETHING and he didnt

[Soul]

This is way down the list of concerns but I really don’t like the way Eberflus is making calls on important inflection point moments - punting while down 8 with 3 minutes remaining, and such. This kind of horsefeathers is outrageously conservative and doesn’t fit with the modern NFL. Will be the kinds of decisions that would hold back a team when/if we become competitive.

 

Also running on 3rd and 3 in the red zone, a move that only makes sense if you’re committed to going for it on 4th down. That game call probably comes down to the OC, however. But the overall philosophy…woof I hate it.

 

It's one of those things that might be down the list of concerns now.

But it will drive people insane in the context of a season where expectations are much higher.

[Soul]

 

 

This offense is so horsefeathering full of holes that Poles ineffectiveness last off season only creates a situation where he's likely to be ineffective this next off season. HTF is he going to plug the holes in one off season? He has draft picks and salary cap space, but whats he proven so far? he can oversell a terrible NFL offense?

I mean, this past offseason is basically totally useless as to trying to tell us what Poles can do because he mostly punted on trying. You got a couple second rounders you can try and evaluate him on, but even then, grading draft success takes time.

 

So who knows, but they have cap space to do whatever they want this offseason. Enough to dramatically increase the quality of the O. Not top 5, but competent, middle of the road O. Getting beyond that you need a QB obviously.

 

If he punts on trying in FA again it will erase any idea that he is planning on building around Fields.

 

not doing a damn thing to get some talent at WR or OL (and no, signing everyone's washed up 1st rd pick wr doesn't count) is what I can evaluate him on. he had cap space this past offseason, enough to do SOMETHING and he didnt

 

The "why" is important here. And I don't think we'll get that answer this year. Why did he sit on his hands rather than make those moves? We'll find out but not until we see what future moves he makes, or doesn't make, next offseason.

[minnesotacubsfan]

im not interested in that "why", but I am gravely concerned that his lack of moves is only putting this team farther behind

[WrigleyField 22]

 

Just for perspective. 49 dropbacks under pressure and he only has 67 passing attempts overall. Granted, that includes sacks (16) and scrambles. But the man under constant duress. Again, not trying to excuse Fields, but this is David Carr esque OL play in front of him.

 

Not so much yesterday, but the first three weeks he played himself into a lot of those pressures

 

I agree with that, especially last week. Vs. GB, wasn't really enough of a sample size to work with. Vs. SF again sample size, but he definitely did run into pressure a bit there as well.

 

This is the perfect storm of suck. Bad OL, bad playcalling, bad conservative strategy, bad WRs, bad QB. At this point, I'm holding out hope the QB is a symptom and not a cause, because he's literally the only guy here that has the proven talent and track record (based on college and draft status, and sometimes last year) to not suck.

Yep. Perfect storm indeed.

 

The only truely good thing they have is RBs. Everything else, even where they have promising young guys, is dragged down by the bottom of the roster. It's tough to be even a good starter and prop up a bottom 5 unit elsewhere.

 

The only hope over the next 13 games is Getsy having some relation about how to turn this O into a system O that can reliably do certain things well and then slowly build the rest of you can get Ds to respect other aspects. Basically the only things D respect now is backside contain and the run game a bit. There has to be a passing component they can exploit in there or theyre doomed.

[WrigleyField 22]

Actually the deep ball first read to Mooney is probably their best pass play right now.

 

The Fields who is an accurate deep ball thrower is tough to use on anything complex or slower developing right now. Partially because he still isn't quick in his progressions and because his line isn't good, and no receiver can really bail him out (which probably doubles down on the processing because he's stuck looking for open open instead of open enough).

 

Just chuck it deep. If it's a pick, it's probably just a early punt oh well.

[raw]

 

Yeah, talent helps. But put Kmet's big ass out there or EQ St. Brown, they are good blockers and big enough bodies to muck things up a bit for Pettis or Mooney to get 4-5 yards. Then you just have to worry about Fields actually seeing it fast enough to throw it before a penalty for blocking and then them actually catching the ball. The Bears are just 4 easy steps away from being able to complete a competent NFL offensive pass!

Kmet is a good blocker?

 

Here are his PFF pass and run block grades in the first 3 games this year:

 

Week 1: 70.2 pass block, 64.3 run block. Pass block seems solid but everyone had a good grade week 1. Kmets was 4th worst on the team. Run block was actually 5th best on the team.

Week 2: 29.6 pass block, 65.5 run block. Pass block was 3rd worst on the team ahead of only Mustipher and Jenkins (Patrick was just ahead of Kmet). Run block was somewhere in the middle of the team

Week 3: 51.0 pass block, 55.1 run block. These were both the 2nd worst on the team, behind Patrick in both cases (who was significantly worse than any Bear)

 

I'm leaning towards 'no he's not a good blocker'

 

He's probably Ok enough to block a safety or CB. Don't want him on a DE though, same can be said for probably every TE that's worth a damn receiving......not that Cole is worth a damn there right now

[minnesotacubsfan]

....

Just chuck it deep. If it's a pick, it's probably just a early punt oh well.

 

this worked great for the Giants on the Jackson pick..I say do it all game

[raw]

I wonder if Poles (with Getsy's recommendation) will go after big WRs this offseason. St. Brown is pretty big. They had interest in MVS and Chark who are also tall WRs. And in Green Bay, Getsy had 6'3" Adams, 6'5" Lazard, 6'4" MVS, 6'3" Juwann Winfree along with 6'4" St. Brown. They also had Randall Cobb and Amari Rodgers who they drafted, but Cobb was handpicked by Rodgers and Amari doesn't see the field.

 

So, I wonder if they try to give Fields a basketball team of WRs next year. Of course, that makes passing on George Pickens even more damning.

[WrigleyField 22]

 

So 2.8 is still on the high end for average TTT. Most of that is one Fields, but you could probably assign some blame to receivers not getting open.

 

I recall that ESPNs pass rush win rate was higher on Bears OLine than other grades. They define a win as 2.5 seconds until pressure.

 

So you could probably prove a narrative there where Fields is creating a lot of the pressures in the 2.3 to 2.8 second range. But some combo of him needing that time to see the opening or the WRs needing to get open creates a unwinnable combo.

 

But again this holding the ball isn't new info about Fields. What's new is his footwork though. I'm sure the footwork is designed around the idea that its tining maximizes the throwing windows that will be available, but it's not connecting right now and I have no idea on a realistic expectation is to pick that up for a young QB. Probably a long time.

 

Just one of two of going all in on fixing the line or getting Fields a bail out receiver would have been quite big. And you probably could have still half assed the other. Either would have provided some breathing room for Fields current skill level and let you run a run heavy offense that still had a non-dead-last pass component. But Poles most agressive FA move was a 3T tackle he backed out on due to a failed phyiscal (even though he knew he was recovering from an injury anyways). Then we got Patrick and Pringle.

 

Not great, Bob.

Edited October 3, 2022 by WrigleyField 22

[WrigleyField 22]

I wonder if Poles (with Getsy's recommendation) will go after big WRs this offseason. St. Brown is pretty big. They had interest in MVS and Chark who are also tall WRs. And in Green Bay, Getsy had 6'3" Adams, 6'5" Lazard, 6'4" MVS, 6'3" Juwann Winfree along with 6'4" St. Brown. They also had Randall Cobb and Amari Rodgers who they drafted, but Cobb was handpicked by Rodgers and Amari doesn't see the field.

 

So, I wonder if they try to give Fields a basketball team of WRs next year. Of course, that makes passing on George Pickens even more damning.

Isn't that the opposite of the WRs he has the most success with at Ohio State?

[UMFan83]

Beating a dead horse here but