Bears week 3 @ KC, Sunday 3:25 on FOX

[UMFan83]

Fields finished with 99 passing yards, I believe his 5th career game of under 100 yards when he played the majority of the game

Edited September 24, 2023 by UMFan83

[Hairyducked Idiot]

They tried all the things they wanted people to try.  And we saw exactly why they won't work.

"Just tell Fields to let loose."  He did today.  Chucked it deep a bunch.  Was almost never open (although one time it was and Moore stone dropped an amazing throw).  You can't just decide what you want to do in advance against NFL defenses, you have to read what they're giving you and take it.  There's no successful scheme that won't require him to make reads.

More runs? He took a forewarm shiver to the face on a run and should have been in concsusion protocol.

Slants?  We did get a TD on the slant, but it was brutal execution from Fields. He hezzied and hitched and almost got his WR killed, turning a free TD into a tough contested catch.

Play-action and rollouts? We tried them, Fields still just hopped hopped hopped in place.

[Old Style]

This cannot be fixed. Fire everyone and start over yet again. 

[gflore34]

Eberflus, et. al. should be fired this instance, being bad is one thing but, no semblance of competence or even the remotest hint.  That's coaching, true this roster is bad but, there is some talent, an average NFL coaching staff would do better.

[UMFan83]

is that bad? It sounds bad

[Wilson A2000]

12 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

They tried all the things they wanted people to try.  And we saw exactly why they won't work.

"Just tell Fields to let loose."  He did today.  Chucked it deep a bunch.  Was almost never open (although one time it was and Moore stone dropped an amazing throw).  You can't just decide what you want to do in advance against NFL defenses, you have to read what they're giving you and take it.  There's no successful scheme that won't require him to make reads.

More runs? He took a forewarm shiver to the face on a run and should have been in concsusion protocol.

Slants?  We did get a TD on the slant, but it was brutal execution from Fields. He hezzied and hitched and almost got his WR killed, turning a free TD into a tough contested catch.

Play-action and rollouts? We tried them, Fields still just hopped hopped hopped in place.

The only hope that Eberflus has of saving his job is going to Bagent and he is good. There is no hope outside of that. 

[Wilson A2000]

3 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

is that bad? It sounds bad

Eberflus is not a good head coach, but his defenses were pretty good before the Bears. His players just stink in Chicago and when you don't have players that can rush the passer you will never be good at defense. 

[Tryptamine]

2 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

is that bad? It sounds bad

 1 sack in 3 games. Like, that's pretty much indescribably terrible. Meanwhile the Bears have been sacked 13 times.

[gflore34]

7 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

 1 sack in 3 games. Like, that's pretty much indescribably terrible. Meanwhile the Bears have been sacked 13 times.

That's going to happen when your QB just hops around and won't throw the ball, how many of those 13 sacks are because of poor protection?  3-4?  Fields might be the easiest QB to sack in the history of the NFL.

[gflore34]

Eberflus is a completely dickless pussy but, one thing he can do is call out the NFL officiating for continuing to let his QB take cheap shots.  horsefeathers the fines, show some balls and stick up for your QB.

[Brian707]

I blame Poles more than Eberflus. Both should be canned. Neither will happen 

[CubinNY]

I Hope Sulleymon’s wife locked up the knife drawer. 

[UMFan83]

 

[Irrelevant Dude]

What happened to D'Onta Foreman?  The Bears signed him for $3 Million and he isn't even good enough to be on the active roster?

[gflore34]

Poles had a plethora of resources at his disposal and he managed to slightly improve the roster.  I know they've looked and played terrible but, the roster is improved.  Which leaves me two conclusions either Poles is a really bad GM or he decided to basically punt on 2023 with an eye towards really being aggressive in 2024.

[Irrelevant Dude]

Just now, gflore34 said:

Poles is a really bad GM or he decided to basically punt on 2023 with an eye towards really being aggressive in 2024.

All of the above, and add bad coaching as well.

[champaignchris]

48 minutes ago, Brian707 said:

I blame Poles more than Eberflus. Both should be canned. Neither will happen 

There’s no way Eberflus is back unless there’s some sort of massive turnaround. He’s 3-17. 

[raw]

Am I crazy for thinking there's a scenario where Eberflus and Poles are gone and Fields is given another year?  The top of the organization was said to love Fields from his first year through at least before Week 1 started. Conceivably, they hired Poles based on him agreeing to keep and build around Fields. It's possible he could have been pressured to keep Fields instead of taking a QB 1st as well this year. There's also the history with Kevin Warren. 

Obviously, that would probably take something like Getsy being fired in the near future and the team being bad, with Fields improving a bit and the Bears and Carolina not being top 4 pick bad. So, obviously a long shot on all parameters. 

But I could see Warren and McCaskey being like, "hey we wronged you Justin, we'll give you one more shot". And this is not a support post for Fields, moreso a belief that the organization won't get this right and get GM, offensive HC and QB all coming in together. 

[UMFan83]

1 minute ago, raw said:

Am I crazy for thinking there's a scenario where Eberflus and Poles are gone and Fields is given another year?  The top of the organization was said to love Fields from his first year through at least before Week 1 started. Conceivably, they hired Poles based on him agreeing to keep and build around Fields. It's possible he could have been pressured to keep Fields instead of taking a QB 1st as well this year. There's also the history with Kevin Warren. 

Obviously, that would probably take something like Getsy being fired in the near future and the team being bad, with Fields improving a bit and the Bears and Carolina not being top 4 pick bad. So, obviously a long shot on all parameters. 

But I could see Warren and McCaskey being like, "hey we wronged you Justin, we'll give you one more shot". And this is not a support post for Fields, moreso a belief that the organization won't get this right and get GM, offensive HC and QB all coming in together. 

They might have loved him after year 1, but will they with 2 more years of data assuming there isn't a dramatic rise in play?  Plus he then enters year 4 and things like contracts and extensions come up and he becomes expensive.  If he sputters through this season, even if he was completely screwed over with his development, ownership is looking at a situation where we're in year 4 and we have no idea what we have with Fields but what we've seen is not worth gambling on.

Now they might be "stuck" with Fields for another year if they drop out of the top 5 or so (though everyone is saying its a deep QB class) and no good options appear,  but I think the days of committing to build around him are just about over fairly or not.

[minnesotacubsfan]

11 minutes ago, raw said:

Am I crazy for thinking there's a scenario where Eberflus and Poles are gone and Fields is given another year?  The top of the organization was said to love Fields from his first year through at least before Week 1 started. Conceivably, they hired Poles based on him agreeing to keep and build around Fields. It's possible he could have been pressured to keep Fields instead of taking a QB 1st as well this year. There's also the history with Kevin Warren. 

Obviously, that would probably take something like Getsy being fired in the near future and the team being bad, with Fields improving a bit and the Bears and Carolina not being top 4 pick bad. So, obviously a long shot on all parameters. 

But I could see Warren and McCaskey being like, "hey we wronged you Justin, we'll give you one more shot". And this is not a support post for Fields, moreso a belief that the organization won't get this right and get GM, offensive HC and QB all coming in together. 

I don’t see that barring a major turn around by Justin himself. He’s had opportunities despite the coaching

[jersey cubs fan]

12 minutes ago, raw said:

Am I crazy for thinking there's a scenario where Eberflus and Poles are gone and Fields is given another year?  

. 

 

Not crazy but maybe a little goofy? I could see him return as a placeholder QB in a year where a new GM and HC choose to pick a developmental guy who they don’t want to start in week 1 with a horrible roster. But he won’t be “given” another year. Instead of going out and spending on a free agent they just pay fields his final year contract to start a handful of games. 

[raw]

1 minute ago, UMFan83 said:

They might have loved him after year 1, but will they with 2 more years of data assuming there isn't a dramatic rise in play?  Plus he then enters year 4 and things like contracts and extensions come up and he becomes expensive.  If he sputters through this season, even if he was completely screwed over with his development, ownership is looking at a situation where we're in year 4 and we have no idea what we have with Fields but what we've seen is not worth gambling on.

Now they might be "stuck" with Fields for another year if they drop out of the top 5 or so (though everyone is saying its a deep QB class) and no good options appear,  but I think the days of committing to build around him are just about over fairly or not.

I mean, they gushed over him all offseason and even the things in camp about he looks so much more comfortable and in control year 2 of the offense. That stuff was coming all the way down from the top. And obviously, you don't pick up the 5th year or anything. But I wonder if Fields shows something for a similar stretch he did last year, do they try to see if another GM can support him better or if another coach can get him to take another step. Again, it's probably pretty stupid to give him a 3rd offense in 4 years, but this org. has been pretty stupid for decades.

[raw]

4 minutes ago, jersey cubs fan said:

Not crazy but maybe a little goofy? I could see him return as a placeholder QB in a year where a new GM and HC choose to pick a developmental guy who they don’t want to start in week 1 with a horrible roster. But he won’t be “given” another year. Instead of going out and spending on a free agent they just pay fields his final year contract to start a handful of games. 

That makes more sense. But honestly, if they pick a QB at all, he should be playing. It's not like Fields is proven to win you games or get you to offensive respectability (like an Andy Dalton). And there's really no reason to have a horrible roster again. Even if they take a QB top 10, they're likely going to have another top 10 pick, and 2 other picks in the top 70 along with 90Mil in cap space, not to mention players like DJ, solid TE, a couple solid RBs, a potential franchise OT, a promising DB group and some well paid LBs. Obviously, they won't be a great, and maybe not even a "good" roster, but if they are "we can't throw this kid in there" bad, then it's probably more bad GM'ing. 

[UMFan83]

19 minutes ago, raw said:

I mean, they gushed over him all offseason and even the things in camp about he looks so much more comfortable and in control year 2 of the offense. That stuff was coming all the way down from the top. And obviously, you don't pick up the 5th year or anything. But I wonder if Fields shows something for a similar stretch he did last year, do they try to see if another GM can support him better or if another coach can get him to take another step. Again, it's probably pretty stupid to give him a 3rd offense in 4 years, but this org. has been pretty stupid for decades.

I would consider reverting back to what he did during the middle of last season to be dramatic increase in play.  horsefeathers he was having legit solid passing games towards the end of the season (the GB game was really solid until the very end).  The more I think about it the more I wonder what happened for Fields to regress so much over the offseason.  He was never a good passer, but he wasn't this terrible.  Maybe part of it is that teams seem to have a much better feel for stopping his run game (only 109 total rushing yards and 4.5 YPC this year) and forcing him to be a passer, but even that to me wouldn't explain this steep of a drop-off.  He had 9 games last year with a higher passer rating than his best so far this year (78), not that passer rating is a perfect stat, but it removes rushing from the equation.

It's possible that the staff was so focused on him being a pocket passer that it screwed him up, and the Chiefs were a terrible matchup for him to "get right" by being himself.

Edited September 25, 2023 by UMFan83

[WrigleyField 22]

26 minutes ago, raw said:

I mean, they gushed over him all offseason and even the things in camp about he looks so much more comfortable and in control year 2 of the offense. That stuff was coming all the way down from the top. And obviously, you don't pick up the 5th year or anything. But I wonder if Fields shows something for a similar stretch he did last year, do they try to see if another GM can support him better or if another coach can get him to take another step. Again, it's probably pretty stupid to give him a 3rd offense in 4 years, but this org. has been pretty stupid for decades.

I have definitely had thoughts that he could essentially be your "bridge QB" next year even if you are drafting a QB top 3.  But say you bring in a Shannahan type OC figure.  He'll probably prefer to get his own bridge QB to implement the O right off the bat. And at this point Fields isn't going to be the QB that "fits" basically any serious OCs system (Greg Roman is like the only guy who might, and he isn't a serious candidate).

So Fields only becomes the bridge if it's a D coach who doesn't really have a O system ideal.  Which obviously wouldn't go over well (yes we're definitely going to course correct where it has to be a great O minf - before we go back to CEO D coach next time)