Bears Week 3 at Colts: Sunday at noon on CBS

[jersey cubs fan]

Chicago is a 1.5 point underdog to the Colts in the dome. The wheels have fallen off the offense which looks like a lemon driven off the lot with no test drive before purchase. Let’s hope Waldron has something up his sleeve because this group is not beating anybody straight up on talent alone. The defense might have to score to pull this one off. 
 

This game starts a string of 3 straight nooners against mediocre teams before the early morning London game against Jax. They also have 2 months before their first divisional opponent so there is time to fix this mess, regardless of my complete lack of faith in the coaching staff to pull it off. 

[Brian707]

Bears win 20-13, running game gets going and Roschon Johnson actually gets involved.

 

The coaching staff is still is incompetent as horsefeathers

[Hairyducked Idiot]

This is a big temperature check for me.  I at most have one eyebrow very slightly raised in concern right now, but if they can't move the ball and score on this Colts defense, then I'll at the very least go all the way to one full eyebrow raised in concern.  This is the beginning of a very soft stretch of the schedule and they absolutely need to bank wins before getting into November.

I'm really surprised that the Bears are underdogs, even on the road, but I guess I'm drinking the kool-aid on this team a bit.  The offense isn't as good as I hoped to see, but the defense has been on the high side of my hopes.  Dexter's emergence as a legit DT has helped a ton.

Colts have been absolutely run over their first two games and are now losing their best defensive lineman, so if the Bears can't get a functional running game going then it's gonna be a loooong season.

No matter what happens, it's a looooong season and people need to let it breathe. 

In 2022, the Bears started 2-1 and the bears fandom on social media was convinced that it proved we had a playoff roster that had been sunk by Nagy and now Eberflus' culture was going to lead us there.   They went 1-12 the rest of the way.

In 2023, we started 0-3 with three ugly losses, none particularly close, and it felt like they might never win again.  They went 7-7 from there on out.
 

[Sosa21MVP]

I'll be at this game.

Colts are down Buckner plus a corner (Brents) and their defense has been suspect, especially against the running game. If the Bears cannot establish the run in this game, I will be extremely disappointed.

Bears defense should be able to turn over Richardson 2+ times. 

Overall, given the Bears issues on offense, I cannot be overly confident. But our defense is way better than the Colts defense. If the offense can get the running game cooking and give Caleb a chance to succeed instead of eating crap all game, I like the Bears by 3 points. 

 

[BigbadB]

Colts offense scored 23 against Houston, but two of those td's were deep passes where the receiver beat the DB's. Richardson only completed 9 passes in that game vs. Houston, and take away the 115 yards on those two deep pass plays, and they had less than 100 on the other 7 passes, which includes some garbage time yardage. Richardson ran for more yards than Taylor. Richardson is still technically a rookie QB since he missed so much time last year, so he's likely still going through his own growing pains still.

Houston ran the ball 40 times on Indy at a 5.3 clip, Mixon with 30 of those carries. 8 different receivers caught passes, and even though they ran 40 times, they still threw 42 passes, so Houston mixed plays pretty well. Taylor ran the ball well, but only had 12 carries for the game.

 

Green Bay ran the ball 53 times at a 4.9 clip. Indy had no answer for the run, and the holes were huge. Indy hasn't had more than 20 minutes in TOP yet this year. 

 

Indy should have Josh Downs back against the Bears. That makes their receiver room a bit stronger, but certainly not as strong as Collins, Diggs and Dell. 

As important as it will be to get the run game working in this one, the Bears should be able to move the chains on this Indy defense through the air, also. After losing Buckner to injury and watching Houston game tape, I'd expect Indy to stack the box and bring pressure to stop the run and force Williams to throw more. As much as I want to see the run game produce, I also feel like this will be a good game to let Williams expose blitz packages with better play calling.

[We Got The Whole 9]

12 hours ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

This is a big temperature check for me.  I at most have one eyebrow very slightly raised in concern right now, but if they can't move the ball and score on this Colts defense, then I'll at the very least go all the way to one full eyebrow raised in concern.  This is the beginning of a very soft stretch of the schedule and they absolutely need to bank wins before getting into November.

I'm really surprised that the Bears are underdogs, even on the road, but I guess I'm drinking the kool-aid on this team a bit.  The offense isn't as good as I hoped to see, but the defense has been on the high side of my hopes.  Dexter's emergence as a legit DT has helped a ton.

Colts have been absolutely run over their first two games and are now losing their best defensive lineman, so if the Bears can't get a functional running game going then it's gonna be a loooong season.

No matter what happens, it's a looooong season and people need to let it breathe. 

In 2022, the Bears started 2-1 and the bears fandom on social media was convinced that it proved we had a playoff roster that had been sunk by Nagy and now Eberflus' culture was going to lead us there.   They went 1-12 the rest of the way.

In 2023, we started 0-3 with three ugly losses, none particularly close, and it felt like they might never win again.  They went 7-7 from there on out.
 

I thought you said running the ball is pointless

[Hairyducked Idiot]

38 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

I thought you said running the ball is pointless

I'll admit that the last game shook my faith in that maxim.

I think that they could have won despite a horrific run game if Williams had been a better qb.  He didn't need to be perfect, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect a qb to hit a couple more of those intermediate-deep throws and a couple of the wide open hot routes on blitzes.  If he does that, he throws for 250+ and they win despite everything else falling apart, because that's how important qb is.

But since he's probably not going to turn into a veteran qb overnight, they can't afford to keep being*that* bad at running the football.  You can't repeatedly throw downs away going backwards like that.  They need to either upgrade the run game from "terrible" to "regular bad" in the near future or they need to abandon it entirely and throw 60 times a game.

I still don't care about being good at running the ball and have no interest in investing resources into it

[Derwood]

 

[jersey cubs fan]

Should probably get used to that shrinking coverage area until the bears manage to score a TD each half of play 

 

it’s really unwatchable from a national perspective, as it has been for years 

[We Got The Whole 9]

Other than having the 1st overall pick there is nothing compelling about this matchup for non-fans of those teams.

[jersey cubs fan]

1 hour ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Other than having the 1st overall pick there is nothing compelling about this matchup for non-fans of those teams.

Eberflus revenge game doesn’t do it for you?

[We Got The Whole 9]

7 minutes ago, jersey cubs fan said:

Eberflus revenge game doesn’t do it for you?

No matter the cut

[Brian707]

Nevermind on the map, it makes sense why Wisconsin is divided the way it is.

Edited September 18, 2024 by Brian707

[cwood218]

4 hours ago, Derwood said:

 

It looks like the green part of the Wisconsin map correlates to the highest percentage of brother sister marriage in the state.

 

[Brian707]

30 minutes ago, cwood218 said:

It looks like the green part of the Wisconsin map correlates to the highest percentage of brother sister marriage in the state.

 

[gflore34]

Given the current state and play of the Colts defense it's reasonable to expect a jump in offensive performance, wouldn't be a surprise if that jump is small.  It may take half a season or more before we see anything resembling a bona fide NFL offense out of the Bears.  Absolutely sucks, going to have to put up with the endless Caleb' a bust, Bears ruin QB's, yadda, yadda, horsefeathers.  What gives me hope is Caleb is not flawed such as Mitch and Justin were and are so,  eventually it's going to come around.

[raw]

I feel like Caleb's biggest issue right now is he doesn't know when to throw what velocity. I feel like he throws some too hard, and some he puts too much air under. There were a few times he was able to beat the blitz (miss to Carter on corner route, deep one to DJ that was slightly out of bounds but I think DJ should catch, I think the one Rome dropped in the endzone was also vs the blitz). I think if he hits a couple of those, Houston backs off a little bit. 

But the key here is staying out of obvious passing situations. The blueprint for any QB (not just a rookie), that isn't an absolute assassin (Mahomes, Rodgers) is to send pressure when you know a pass is coming. The sacks?

Sack 1- 3rd and 9, from edge of FG range

Sack 2- 3rd and 9

Sack 3- was a 0 yard scramble w/ nobody open

Sack 4- 3rd and 1, but at edge of FG range

Sack 5- 3rd and 7

Sack 6- 1st and 10, but with 4:00 left down 6, it was the last of 9 straight drop backs

Sack 7- 1:07 left in the game, 0 timeouts

 

Caleb also had 3 scrambles where he was rushed out of the pocket almost instantly those came on:

3rd and 14, 3rd and 9, 3rd and 18

[Hairyducked Idiot]

 

The narrative is forming that Williams has been running for his life every single play, but he's been middle of the pack in being given clean pockets

[Hairyducked Idiot]

30 minutes ago, raw said:

I feel like Caleb's biggest issue right now is he doesn't know when to throw what velocity. I feel like he throws some too hard, and some he puts too much air under. There were a few times he was able to beat the blitz (miss to Carter on corner route, deep one to DJ that was slightly out of bounds but I think DJ should catch, I think the one Rome dropped in the endzone was also vs the blitz). I think if he hits a couple of those, Houston backs off a little bit. 

But the key here is staying out of obvious passing situations. The blueprint for any QB (not just a rookie), that isn't an absolute assassin (Mahomes, Rodgers) is to send pressure when you know a pass is coming. The sacks?

Sack 1- 3rd and 9, from edge of FG range

Sack 2- 3rd and 9

Sack 3- was a 0 yard scramble w/ nobody open

Sack 4- 3rd and 1, but at edge of FG range

Sack 5- 3rd and 7

Sack 6- 1st and 10, but with 4:00 left down 6, it was the last of 9 straight drop backs

Sack 7- 1:07 left in the game, 0 timeouts

 

Caleb also had 3 scrambles where he was rushed out of the pocket almost instantly those came on:

3rd and 14, 3rd and 9, 3rd and 18

1000% agree

Although I'd love to see them clean up the mistakes in pass protection, I think overall it's been somewhere in the vicinity of adequate.

The quickest way to solve it is stop putting themselves in difficult situations.  Facing 3rd and Xteen while trailing in the fourth quarter against a good pass rush is playing the game on super extra hard mode.

If they could clean up the false starts, the -3 runs because people are running the wrong play, etc., that would solve a lot of the issues 

[gflore34]

And, what's with the over-usage of Everett and Carter?  I know Scott' mistake prone though, at least, he'll stretch the field and he's not Jones Jr. level of mistake prone.  Everett?  Don't get this at all.

[Wilson A2000]

1 hour ago, gflore34 said:

And, what's with the over-usage of Everett and Carter?  I know Scott' mistake prone though, at least, he'll stretch the field and he's not Jones Jr. level of mistake prone.  Everett?  Don't get this at all.

I’ve heard it a few times that Waldron likes him better for some inexplicable reason

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Everett only played 25 snaps on Sunday

[jersey cubs fan]

23 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

Everett only played 25 snaps on Sunday

And he still managed to negatively affect the team with a horrible penalty in crucial situation he was in over Kmet because the OC “trusts” him 

[Wilson A2000]

10 hours ago, jersey cubs fan said:

And he still managed to negatively affect the team with a horrible penalty in crucial situation he was in over Kmet because the OC “trusts” him 

He had a bad drop too

[raw]

10 hours ago, jersey cubs fan said:

And he still managed to negatively affect the team with a horrible penalty in crucial situation he was in over Kmet because the OC “trusts” him 

Gerald Everett looks like the worst player on this offense. And that's back to preseason when they tried to force feed him the ball. He used to be an after the catch demon. He's been tackled by the first guy every time he actually makes a play to catch the ball.