Week 2 - Bears at Bucs noon on Fox

[17 Seconds]

yesterday was such a bad sports day. i'm still kind of salty about it today, which is very unhealthy and kind of sad

[raw]

19 minutes ago, BigbadB said:

A pocket passer that has no creative offensive plays to create positivity. I was practically screaming for a first down bomb or a deep pass on 2nd and 1 early in the second half. I was like "do something you aren't already doing", and they kept doing the same things they are already doing. I'm pretty sure when we get the QB School feed this week, we are going to see a lot of open receivers being passed over for sacks. Moore has to be targeted more than 10 times a game. He needs to be the biggest part of their offense. You target him so often, others become open because the defense starts leaning his way. The offense is as predictable as it can be. I felt Fields had more time to throw this game and all he really did was hold it longer. I also feel like he's dropping back and not even ready to make a quick throw if he did see someone get open. Basically, anything beyond 10 yards doesn't appear to be a part of this offense.

Yeah, and it doesn't even matter if he's ever a good pocket passer. He just needs to be adequate there (and I think he was other than the 4 sacks he took for no apparent reason, which is obviously not acceptable), but that's only if he's adding his natural ability to do everything else. You're trying to make him Joe Burrow, without Joe Burrow ability. 

There were some Bucs that commented after the game they knew what was coming on all of those screen passes. So predictable offense is very fair.

And yeah, it's been mentioned by the QB guys (JT O'Sullivan, Tim Jenkins) his drops are too casual, too slow. If he takes quicker drops, he would be more ready to throw quick. He does appear to be thinking too much and focused on getting his feet right. You see this even on the quick screens, they are so mechanical. 

 

[UMFan83]

57 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

Weirdly, I thought yesterday was a tiny bit encouraging from a perspective of wanting them to win games this season.  I thought they looked more like an ordinary bad NFL team, whereas week 1 they looked like they might go 0-17.

The offensive line could have looked a worse.  I thought the interior defensive line won the point of attack a reasonable amount of the time, even if they couldn't finish sacks because Baker Mayfield is just too darn strong for them.  DJ Moore had a big day. The running backs did things.

The biggest issues were that the secondary was truly putrid and Justin Fields can't play ordinary quarterback outside of two (weirdly out of place because of how good they were) drives.  The td pass to cap the 92-yard TD drive was everything he doesn't do 95% of the time.

 

Eventually they are going to say screw this and go back to letting him have designed runs, and that might win a few games if the fumbles bounce our way and he doesn't get hurt too quickly.

I thought it was interesting that they had 17 pressures yesterday and 1 sack.  Should I be encouraged about the 17 pressures or discouraged by the 1 sack?  It did seem like the DL was moving through their line much better than in week 1 (obviously the Packers have a strong OLine, but pretty sure the Bucs do too).

Re Fields:  One thing I am seeing pointed out is that yet again the Bears barely moved the pocket or allowed Fields to bootleg to one side of the field.  But I've seen this complain consistently for 3 seasons so maybe there's a good reason why teams cant just move the pocket a large % of the time (guessing teams catch on quickly and blow it up).  But I think I saw only 2 times all game where the pocket moved...feel like that number should be higher.  Wonder if the coaching staff is basically forcing Fields to prove he can be a pocket passer.

Edited September 18, 2023 by UMFan83

[UMFan83]

I hate that I'm so angry that the Cardinals blew that game against the Giants last night.  Could have been a perfect opportunity for them to botch their tank job with an unexpected win.  At the very least we'll have a chance H2H to give them a win but knowing the Bears they will win in some stupid way like last year's Texans win (late game INT from a guy we'd trade a few weeks later) and won't get bailed out by the Colts again this year.

Obviously possible that the Bears just settle into Top 10 Bad instead of 1.1 bad and I'm not yet at the point of rooting for losses, but I'm definitely looking at how all the other terrible teams are doing just in case we continue down this path.

[Rex Buckingham]

2 hours ago, CubinNY said:

Bears remaining schedule

Denver (toss up)

Sean Payton is already having wet dreams about facing this Bears defense.  This one is a loss

[Tryptamine]

Fun stats through 2 weeks

Sacks- 1, on pace for 8.5 sacks this season as a team. Bears were last in 2022 with 20.

Sacks Allowed- 10, on pace for 85. They were sacked 58 times last year. 

Bears are averaging 273.5 ypg,  last year it was 307.8 which was 5th worst in football

Yards allowed 383 ypg, last year 375.9 which was 4th worst in football 

 

[CubinNY]

28 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

I hate that I'm so angry that the Cardinals blew that game against the Giants last night.  Could have been a perfect opportunity for them to botch their tank job with an unexpected win.  At the very least we'll have a chance H2H to give them a win but knowing the Bears they will win in some stupid way like last year's Texans win (late game INT from a guy we'd trade a few weeks later) and won't get bailed out by the Colts again this year.

Obviously possible that the Bears just settle into Top 10 Bad instead of 1.1 bad and I'm not yet at the point of rooting for losses, but I'm definitely looking at how all the other terrible teams are doing just in case we continue down this path.

As of this week, the Bears are a very secure top 3-5 bad team.

I talked to my dad last night. He tends to be on the conspiracy theory side of things when it comes to owners. He thinks the McCaskey's are simply hoarding money in anticipation of their move out of the city. Hiring incompetent people and then not spending money is a good way to do that. I'm not so sure he's entirely wrong. 

Edited September 18, 2023 by CubinNY

[UMFan83]

Hey look at that, Braxton Jones looked terrible on TV and PFF agrees:

 

[UMFan83]

Also saw this.  Daniel Greenberg has been criticized a lot lately for tweeting quotes out of context and I didn't hear the original interview but based on these quotes, he looks like he's deflecting all the blame to Fields here

 

Edited September 18, 2023 by UMFan83

[Tryptamine]

Maybe don't be so damn predictable that Justin should be forced into the audible. It was very clear the guy who intercepted the pass knew exactly what was coming.

[Tryptamine]

Justin is best passing down the field so let's not do that. Justin is extremely fast so also let's not let him use that either. Instead let's focus the entire offense on his weakest traits and then be surprised when things go bad.

[minnesotacubsfan]

2 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Maybe don't be so damn predictable that Justin should be forced into the audible. It was very clear the guy who intercepted the pass knew exactly what was coming.

I think hes suggesting that Fields COULD have audible but instead threw the pick 6

[jersey cubs fan]

16 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Also saw this.  Daniel Greenberg has been criticized a lot lately for tweeting quotes out of context and I didn't hear the original interview but based on these quotes, he looks like he's deflecting all the blame to Fields here

 

“Matt” sounds odd in this post. Do people generally talk about coaches using their first name only when that name is so common and dull? I get saying “Deion”, but “Matt”? Nah. 

[UMFan83]

23 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Maybe don't be so damn predictable that Justin should be forced into the audible. It was very clear the guy who intercepted the pass knew exactly what was coming.

Funny you say that:

 

Looking at the video, the formation changed a little but it looks like they tried a dump screen to Herbert 3 consecutive times so yes they clearly knew what was coming.  Stealing an oft repeated line from JT O'Sullivan in his breakdown videos "WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?"

Edited September 18, 2023 by UMFan83

[UMFan83]

 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

https://x.com/PaulHembo/status/1703777394740589051?s=20

 

9 of fields' 10 sacks have occurred after 4 seconds 

[PosterToBeNamedLater]

2 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

I hate that I'm so angry that the Cardinals blew that game against the Giants last night.  Could have been a perfect opportunity for them to botch their tank job with an unexpected win.  At the very least we'll have a chance H2H to give them a win but knowing the Bears they will win in some stupid way like last year's Texans win (late game INT from a guy we'd trade a few weeks later) and won't get bailed out by the Colts again this year.

Obviously possible that the Bears just settle into Top 10 Bad instead of 1.1 bad and I'm not yet at the point of rooting for losses, but I'm definitely looking at how all the other terrible teams are doing just in case we continue down this path.

I am, honestly.  Coming into the year I thought, "its going to be nice to be able to root for a high pick but not have to root for bears losses."  But by about the 2nd quarter of the packers game, I was already there.  I don't really have faith that Eberflus gets fired unless we have a really awful season in terms of wins/losses--like worst record bad again. 

And at this point, I just want to try to get the elite QB.  I have never wanted a Bears QB to succeed as much as I wanted Fields to succeed, but I just don't think its going to happen at this point.  I don't get him being so hesitant to throw to receivers when they are open.  Also, not that I think Bagent is the answer, but in that preseason game against the colts, it seemed like he did things that Fields never does.  Like, "oh, you can throw it in to a tight space when then receiver has the position/leverage."  "Oh thats what Getsy/Janocko meant when they talked about using the drop back steps to determine the timing of the route and how the ball should be coming out when you finish your drop back" (some of those throws were literally coming out on his last foot plant).  I want Williams and I want to draft offense high (left tackle or receiver if the other pick was high enough to get Marvin Harrison or the Penn State tackle) until we know the offense is legit.  

 

[UMFan83]

Oh great, 90 minutes of dooming this week

 

 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

well, here we go
 

lol, first play on the long completion to Moore he's already ripping the accuracy and technique.

 

Edited September 19, 2023 by Hairyducked Idiot