Bears Week 2 at Texans: SNF on NBC

[UK]

23 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Everyone keeps heaping praise on the Packers forgetting Love didn't instantly look great last season, believe it was around mid-season when things started flowing for him and the Packers.  Bears' defense is already good enough, it's going to take some time for the offense to come around - if it does.  And of course, it's going to take time, did we really believe they were going to come out firing on all cylinders?

The foundation in GB is a lot different than Chicago, whether it be coaching and offensive line. 

We're need to Waldron to Max protect because every team is going to blitz the hell out of the Bears.

If Poles tries to improve the line on week 3 , it's already too late.

[Wilson A2000]

“Best situation a #1 overall QB has ever come into”

[BigbadB]

Texans recognized early that the blitz was sabotaging the Bears offense and they relied on it early and often. Ryans probably runs less blitzes than Eberflus, but when you find a magic potion that the other team can't figure out, you keep using it. I'm guessing Waldron knew that the Texans didn't blitz much, so didn't practice plays to beat the blitz. And that might be a flaw in daily practices. Bears don't blitz all that much, but every team in the league is now going to be implementing blitz packages against this Bears team until they find a way to beat it. 

There are plays to burn a blitz, but it didn't seem like any of the play calls were designed to do that at all. I realize Caleb isn't likely ready to recognize the blitz or stunts that defenses are throwing at him, but if this OC doesn't figure out ways to bail out the QB, it's going to be a long season. A lot of Caldron's plays look a bit too similar to Getsy's screen plays that blow up before they ever get a chance to even start. Rather than sweep right or sweep left, maybe try right over the line 5-10 yards with crossing routes. That's probably where it hurt most not having Allen, but someone on this WR crew needs to be able to beat their defender off the line and be open in the middle of the defense when they are blitzing. Hit that guy in stride and you are looking at big gainers. 

The offense was pretty vanilla for good reason, but where the defense made adjustments for the better at the half, the offense went into a complete shell, forcing long 2nd and 3rd downs on every series. There was even a running play on first down from deep in their own side of the field when they needed two scores and only about 6 minutes left in the game and only one time out. 

 

[gflore34]

18 minutes ago, UK said:

The foundation in GB is a lot different than Chicago, whether it be coaching and offensive line. 

We're need to Waldron to Max protect because every team is going to blitz the hell out of the Bears.

If Poles tries to improve the line on week 3 , it's already too late.

Wright and Jenkins have been awful, we know they are both capable and far better than they've shown. Their improved play should make a good difference.  I agree, until they start making teams pay for blitzing that's all they're going to see.

Edited September 16, 2024 by gflore34

[WrigleyField 22]

People are trying to put too much blame in OL

 

They must have a league worst deep game right now.  Anytime a whole area of the field is basically off its an issue.  No different than when it was MOF/short game.

 

That said the OL and play calling aren't helping. But even when they've had opportunities for big plays Caleb hasnt connected once.  If he was merely below average and not bottom of league they might have another score or two and be 2-0.

 

This horizontal run game which also includes the short RB pass game is worthless right now. I'd like to see more downhill running (Velus+Herbert) and mix in PA, boots and extra blockers.  Put them in less 2 and 3 and longs.  Oh yea, the false starts too.

 

Caleb does have a decent rhythm to the short and quick pass game. If they can find a way to get more long plays in there hopefully his processing and footwork or whatever is wrong slows down and he makes the intermediate and deep field an actual threat. 

[WrigleyField 22]

Also I don't know if it's a coach issue or recognition issue, but they went almost the whole game against a blitz heavy attack and couldn't scheme up some blitz beaters.  C'mon.

 

It's a copy cat league.  Every d from now is gonna come blitz heavy unless they show they have an answer.

Edited September 16, 2024 by WrigleyField 22

[gflore34]

10 minutes ago, WrigleyField 22 said:

Also I don't know if it's a coach issue or recognition issue, but they went almost the whole game against a blitz heavy attack and couldn't scheme up some blitz beaters.  C'mon.

 

It's a copy cat league.  Every d from now is gonna come blitz heavy unless they show they have an answer.

I didn't understand the lack of adjustments either, Texans were so clearly going after Jones with Anderson yet, no help, nothing.  If we could see it, I would assume the coaching staff saw it, right?

All it'll take is for the Bears to burn the blitzes for some big plays then teams will back off.  I know, it sounds easy.

Edited September 16, 2024 by gflore34

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Just rewatching the highlights where the pressure breaks down the offense, my first impression is that it's a mix of blame.

I'll place 1/3rd of the blame on the interior line not because of their pass pro, but the run game was so awful it put them in long must-pass downs way too often.

1/3rd on the tackles.  Most of the pressure was coming from the outside this week. Darnell Wright looked particularly bad and got beat cleanly a bunch.

1/3rd on williams.  He's just got to get rid of the football on some of those. There were quite a few plays where he knew the blitz was coming and he needed to hit his back foot and throw and he hitched or hopped.

 

 

[WrigleyField 22]

9 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

I didn't understand the lack of adjustments either, Texans were so clearly going after Jones with Anderson yet, no help, nothing.  If we could see it, I would assume the coaching staff saw it, right?

All it'll take is for the Bears to burn the blitzes for some big plays then teams will back off.  I know, it sounds easy.

Yep unless Caleb is just totally missing LOS adjustments, there's something deeply lacking in the scheme.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

20 minutes ago, WrigleyField 22 said:

Also I don't know if it's a coach issue or recognition issue, but they went almost the whole game against a blitz heavy attack and couldn't scheme up some blitz beaters.  C'mon.

 

It's a copy cat league.  Every d from now is gonna come blitz heavy unless they show they have an answer.

We did scheme up some blitz beaters.

Some of them worked. Some of them we tried to bait them and they did a remarkable job of sniffing them out. Some of them Williams executed poorly.

 

[Old Style]

 

[Soul]

Caleb is good - very good - at the quick throws, short to medium range.  People always want the deep ball.  So do I.  But guys like Brady and even Rodgers made a living loosening up defenses with entire scoring drives utilizing short passing.  And Caleb can do those throws.  He has what I almost never saw from Fields:  quick release and quick reads.  I'm trying to find little nuggets of hope here.  That's one of them.

Also, with no run game at all it's going to hurt the passing game badly.  The Bears were so bad at running the ball yesterday I swear I could smell it coming through the TV.

[gflore34]

5 minutes ago, Old Style said:

 

Honestly, horsefeathers therm all, let them kick him when he's down, it'll be all that much sweeter when it clicks for Caleb.

[WrigleyField 22]

8 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Honestly, horsefeathers therm all, let them kick him when he's down, it'll be all that much sweeter when it clicks for Caleb.

Yea the whole "this is where QBs go to die" and "Fields all over again" thing pisses me off. Lol

 

Like Caleb sucks right now, but the fatalistic approach is very annoying.

[minnesotacubsfan]

9 hours ago, Cubfanintheknow said:

After 9 beers... and just short of a metric crap-ton of air-fried snacks, here goes.

This team is actually not that bad.

Ok... so... the offensive line is bad. Make that very bad.

The rest of the offense is bad, too. Is there a new coordinator? Asking for a friend.

But the defense is good.  Very good. Bordering on great if they didn't have to be on the field so much.

Can the offense improve? Yes... as long as the O-line will allow.  The defense will hold their own. 

If there was ever a case study on how important it is to have a solid offensive line... it might be this team. 

oh good I wasnt the only one

 

I'm disappointed with the rookie QB struggles, but I do have hope he can figure it out. The D is awesome

[WrigleyField 22]

11 minutes ago, Soul said:

Caleb is good - very good - at the quick throws, short to medium range.  People always want the deep ball.  So do I.  But guys like Brady and even Rodgers made a living loosening up defenses with entire scoring drives utilizing short passing.  And Caleb can do those throws.  He has what I almost never saw from Fields:  quick release and quick reads.  I'm trying to find little nuggets of hope here.  That's one of them.

Also, with no run game at all it's going to hurt the passing game badly.  The Bears were so bad at running the ball yesterday I swear I could smell it coming through the TV.

I'm not sure I'd say very good yet.  But there's been definitely a lot of positives to take from that part of the game.   But, it's too one dimensional.  Obviously deep balls are 50-50 at beat, but 0-11 deep and none even particularly close is bad. Like it's a struggle to even make a "low sample" argument because the error rate has felt that far off. 

[The_Achiever]

I also got pretty drunk for this game so my observations are likely spotty but I actually though CW played better this week.  

Unfortunately the OL was worse and I wasn't sure that would be possible.  However, the Texans are a good team and the Bears could have won that game.  

Next stretch of games is pretty reasonable.  Hopefully it can help get the O on track.  

[minnesotacubsfan]

I know Dexter looks like a decent DL, but I feel like missing Schmitz that draft was a big mistake

[Soul]

12 minutes ago, WrigleyField 22 said:

I'm not sure I'd say very good yet.  But there's been definitely a lot of positives to take from that part of the game.   But, it's too one dimensional.  Obviously deep balls are 50-50 at beat, but 0-11 deep and none even particularly close is bad. Like it's a struggle to even make a "low sample" argument because the error rate has felt that far off. 

Missing on every single damn deep ball is driving me crazy too.

[Bearded_Beef]

5 minutes ago, WrigleyField 22 said:

Yea the whole "this is where QBs go to die" and "Fields all over again" thing pisses me off. Lol

 

Like Caleb sucks right now, but the fatalistic approach is very annoying.

I definitely don't consider myself to be in the group that's given up on him, but the whole thing feels pretty familiar to me and its really frustrating.  I can understand fans going straight to meltdown after these 2 games.  I think Caleb can settle in and figure things out, but it's a lot harder with a bad Oline and bad coaching, and it certainly looks like he has some growing into the position to do.  I can say that I was hoping he'd look a lot more polished and that the team would at least look like a cohesive unit, and it just doesn't at all.

I am already finding myself making excuses, like "Well the Titans interior D-Line is brutaL..." and "Well the Texans are just better..."

Truth is, it shouldn't matter that much if we were actually good and ready.  As it stands right this second, the Bears are a crap offensive team, and we spent the majority of our resources there this year.  It's definitely a discouraging start to the year

[Brian707]

If the Bears don't get the run game going against Indy they are in deep horsefeathers.  GB ran all over them, so did Houston.

 

I know that's captain obvious 

Edited September 16, 2024 by Brian707

[Soul]

Another little nugget of hope.

The Bears are 1-1, the defense is very good.  And the schedule coming up isn't incredibly challenging.  They need to re-group and come out next week against a Colts team that was so bad at stopping the run Sunday it was truly comical.

[Soul]

4 minutes ago, Brian707 said:

If the Bears don't get the run game going against Indy they are in deep horsefeathers.  GB ran all over them, so did Houston.

 

I know that's captain obvious 

You beat me by 3 minutes 😀

What I saw on Sunday from the Colts was so bad I struggle to think of a worse effort against the run.

[CubinNY]

18 minutes ago, Bearded_Beef said:

I definitely don't consider myself to be in the group that's given up on him, but the whole thing feels pretty familiar to me and its really frustrating.  I can understand fans going straight to meltdown after these 2 games.  I think Caleb can settle in and figure things out, but it's a lot harder with a bad Oline and bad coaching, and it certainly looks like he has some growing into the position to do.  I can say that I was hoping he'd look a lot more polished and that the team would at least look like a cohesive unit, and it just doesn't at all.

I am already finding myself making excuses, like "Well the Titans interior D-Line is brutaL..." and "Well the Texans are just better..."

Truth is, it shouldn't matter that much if we were actually good and ready.  As it stands right this second, the Bears are a crap offensive team, and we spent the majority of our resources there this year.  It's definitely a discouraging start to the year

I think the offensive side of the ball is down league wide. It's kind of like the pitchers being ahead of the hitters at the start of the baseball season. Teams are not playing the preseason with starters (for good reason, I guess) and are not in sync. 

But I also think there is a Bears-specific issue as well. A confluence of things 1) defensive head coach who has shown nothing up to this point 2) A new OC 3) a GM who refuses to build an OL and 4) nagging injuries. 

Caleb has shown he has the tools. It's too soon in the season to make any judgments about long-term prognosis, but they must keep improving as a group. They have a defense that is good enough to win games. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

I never felt that good about the Wright selection so him sucking is just annoying me a ton. Our offense is in big trouble if that OL continues like this. If the OL does belly-up and teams dominate TOP, our defense will get worn out.