Bears Week 3 at Colts: Sunday at noon on CBS

[Tryptamine]

8 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

Besides the goal line sequence, I thought the play calling was great.

 

We even got everything fans always say they want: tons of slants, some moving pockets and bootlegs

The run designs are awful though.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

2 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

The run designs are awful though.

They're completely bog standard NFL runs. There's like six run plays that every NFL team runs.  

[Old Style]

The numbers look pretty good but did this game make anyone feel better about Caleb? Still way too many issues with slow decision making and horrible inaccuracy IMO. I realize it’s only game 3 so I’m certainly not ready to give up on him but there wasn’t much to get me super excited about him either. 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Just now, Old Style said:

The numbers look pretty good but did this game make anyone feel better about Caleb? Still way too many issues with slow decision making and horrible inaccuracy IMO. I realize it’s only game 3 so I’m certainly not ready to give up on him but there wasn’t much to get me super excited about him either. 

Yes. It absolutely made me feel significantly better.

He did have some slow decisions, and some inaccurate throws.  But as the game went on he got better and better.  He hit some bombs, and by the fourth quarter he was consistently lasering throws into tight coverage in the middle of the field.

It was exactly what I wanted to see from him 

[gflore34]

1 minute ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

Yes. It absolutely made me feel significantly better.

He did have some slow decisions, and some inaccurate throws.  But as the game went on he got better and better.  He hit some bombs, and by the fourth quarter he was consistently lasering throws into tight coverage in the middle of the field.

It was exactly what I wanted to see from him 

I'll take that and the loss versus the Colts winning with completely putrid QB play, Williams improving is going to translate to more wins down the road.  In time, the Bears' opponents' MO of letting Trubisky or Fields play QB to beat you will not work with Caleb.

 

[SpongeWorthy]

18 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

They're completely bog standard NFL runs. There's like six run plays that every NFL team runs.  

if this is true then he should call some non standard runs because his horsefeathers isn’t working

[Hairyducked Idiot]

2 minutes ago, SpongeWorthy said:

if this is true then he should call some non standard runs because his horsefeathers isn’t working

Or the game is just played by players. It's not a chess board

[SpongeWorthy]

3 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

Or the game is just played by players. It's not a chess board

how convenient for Shane and every coach in the nfl that has no culpability for the success or failure of the players they coach 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

1 minute ago, SpongeWorthy said:

how convenient for Shane and every coach in the nfl that has no culpability for the success or failure of the players they coach 

How do you differentiate between coach culpability and player failure?

Edited September 22, 2024 by Hairyducked Idiot

[SpongeWorthy]

6 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

How do you differential between coach culpability and player failure?

Results—what other measure could I possibly use?

It’s a bad NFL offense right now and the run game in particular would be historically awful if this performance were stretched over an entire season

 If you want to make the argument that most coaches are pretty interchangeable and it’s all about the jimmys and joes then I won’t necessarily disagree but then Shane should’ve advocated for different players

 

 

 

 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

1 minute ago, SpongeWorthy said:

Results—what other measure could I possibly use?

It’s a bad NFL offense right now and the run game in particular would be historically awful if this performance were stretched over an entire season

 If you want to make the argument that most coaches are pretty interchangeable and it’s all about the jimmys and joes then I won’t necessarily disagree but then Shane should’ve advocated for different players

 

 

 

 

This is roughly the same quality of answer that had Cubs fans believing the manager was gonna fix the bullpen.

You can't use results to differentiate between bad play calls and bad players 

.

Edited September 22, 2024 by Hairyducked Idiot

[BigSlick]

51 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

The bottom line I got out of this week is Caleb is still going through growing pains, the coaching staff goes through periods of doing brainless crap, and they're still trying to figure out the OL and RBs.

Losses suck, but this one seems to be a lot better than last week's loss.

I think people (myself included) are going to have to deal with the pain of recalibrating what this season is gonna be like. We had hoped for a CJ Stroud-esque performance and a team that improved its roster and could be not just a playoff contender but a team that could make noise in the playoffs.

 

This season is sadly not that, at least not yet. The coaching has been sloppy. The performance on offense for all involved has been sloppy. Williams has taken longer to emerge than hoped. (Though I would say, has improved in every single week so far). We may yet contend for a playoff spot, but it’ll take much more improvement. Eberflus has not gotten any better in what he has control over (challenges, time management, etc etc), The running game doesn’t exist. The OLine is, while better today, a mess.  
 

So the season isn’t over, but we may have to readjust expectations and see this more as a development and preparation year where we’re hopefully still In The Hunt late as opposed to being a division contender all year long.

[SpongeWorthy]

1 minute ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

You can't use results to differentiate between bad play calls and bad players 

 

then we should call plays using monkeys throwing darts at the playbook and reinvest the money saved on coaches into scouting 

[BigSlick]

38 minutes ago, Old Style said:

The numbers look pretty good but did this game make anyone feel better about Caleb? Still way too many issues with slow decision making and horrible inaccuracy IMO. I realize it’s only game 3 so I’m certainly not ready to give up on him but there wasn’t much to get me super excited about him either. 

With zero hesitation: yes

[Hairyducked Idiot]

5 minutes ago, SpongeWorthy said:

then we should call plays using monkeys throwing darts at the playbook and reinvest the money saved on coaches into scouting 

No.  The fact that pro coaches are mostly fungible doesn't mean that literally anything would be ok.

There's a few coaches who come up with novel ways to attack the NFL meta and give their team an edge.  There's a few who are probably truly holding their team back.

And there's dozens in between who are all running pretty close to the same pro schemes the same way, and whether they get praised or booed is entirely on the performance of their players.

And that's already reflected in their salaries.  Even the highest paid offensive and defensive coordinators make less than a mid-tier backup QB 

 

95% of the people yelling about coaches are just being WSCR post game callers.  They're mad that the team lost and want to blame people.  They can't identify what plays were called, let alone why they did or didn't work.  

Edited September 22, 2024 by Hairyducked Idiot

[UMFan83]

40 minutes ago, Old Style said:

The numbers look pretty good but did this game make anyone feel better about Caleb? Still way too many issues with slow decision making and horrible inaccuracy IMO. I realize it’s only game 3 so I’m certainly not ready to give up on him but there wasn’t much to get me super excited about him either. 

It got better as the game went on. I’m not as satisfied as Kyle seems to be but he looked more in command of the offense later in the game and was gaining confidence. 

That said, I still saw too many inaccurate downfield throws, many that sailed nowhere close to a WR. Saw some staring down his first read. He took advantage of a pass friendly situation with the Bears playing catch up for most of the second half and 44 of his passing yards were on a Hail Mary but he still made the throws so certainly not going to dock him and even if I did he still threw for a significant total. More good than bad for sure but still a lot of room to grow IMO, and I look forward to seeing that growth

[SpongeWorthy]

2 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

No.  The fact that pro coaches are mostly fungible doesn't mean that literally anything would be ok.

There's a few coaches who come up with novel ways to attack the NFL meta and give their team an edge.  There's a few who are probably truly holding their team back.

And there's dozens in between who are all running pretty close to the same pro schemes the same way, and whether they get praised or booed is entirely on the performance of their players.

And that's already reflected in their salaries.  Even the highest paid offensive and defensive coordinators make less than a mid-tier backup QB 

if this is true then the fan base pissing and moaning about it is a feature not a bug because it puts some pressure on management to find a bucket A guy 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

6 minutes ago, SpongeWorthy said:

if this is true then the fan base pissing and moaning about it is a feature not a bug because it puts some pressure on management to find a bucket A guy 

Cool. Keep doing the Lord's work I guess 

[UMFan83]

16 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

No.  The fact that pro coaches are mostly fungible doesn't mean that literally anything would be ok.

There's a few coaches who come up with novel ways to attack the NFL meta and give their team an edge.  There's a few who are probably truly holding their team back.

And there's dozens in between who are all running pretty close to the same pro schemes the same way, and whether they get praised or booed is entirely on the performance of their players.

And that's already reflected in their salaries.  Even the highest paid offensive and defensive coordinators make less than a mid-tier backup QB 

 

95% of the people yelling about coaches are just being WSCR post game callers.  They're mad that the team lost and want to blame people.  They can't identify what plays were called, let alone why they did or didn't work.  

Ugh, I really don’t feel like getting in a battle of wits with Kyle about this tonight but I just want it documented that I do not at all agree with this and I’m not even really talking about the whole Willis/Darnold thing, though it does play into it. Of course the players matter more but out of any of the major sports, football coaches seem to matter much more than the others

 

[UMFan83]

Lions win, so the Bears are in their familiar place of alone in last place of the NFC North

[Irrelevant Dude]

34 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

I think people (myself included) are going to have to deal with the pain of recalibrating what this season is gonna be like.

Yep.  I came into the season with the Bears penciled in as a borderline playoff contender with the potential upside of a team that could win a game or two in the playoffs.  The playoffs aren't completely out of the picture after only 3 weeks of football, but it is clear that there is more work to be done on and off the field before this team is a serious contender.  This season is all about growth and seeing continuous improvement in Caleb and other key contributors.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

27 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Ugh, I really don’t feel like getting in a battle of wits with Kyle about this tonight but I just want it documented that I do not at all agree with this and I’m not even really talking about the whole Willis/Darnold thing, though it does play into it. Of course the players matter more but out of any of the major sports, football coaches seem to matter much more than the others

 

See, I have no problem with your stance.  I disagree, because I think I've seen more counterexamples (busts continuing to be busts, great QBs thriving year in and year out while the coaching staffs around them rotate), but it's a coherent argument with reasoning behind it and makes predictions about the future that we can observe.  If we see more of it, I'll eventually change my mind and agree with you.

That's different from the WSCR-call-ins spamming "PLAYCALLING BAD"  I see from football fans all over the internet every week.  You could practically copy-paste the posts across 25 football team forums/twitterverses with the names changed.  They can't identify what plays were called, what the opposing offense/defense was doing, why the play succeeded or failed.  Half the time the plays they want called are already being called (stop benching Kmet for Everett!  We never run slants!) and half the time they don't know why what they want is stupid (rollouts rollouts rollouts!). 

Identifying what plays are working or not working and why is hard because NFL plays are complicated and there's a lot of them with a lot of moving parts, it's impossible to keep track of real-time.  Did you know the Bears ran screen-passes at a below league-average rate last year?  They did, but every single Bears fan I know is convinced Getsy ran nothing but screens because of a couple of highly memorable moments involving them.

If someone wants to criticize Waldron for the offense being sloppy in the first few games, sure, I won't argue.  Or say that he should have pushed for better offensive linemen, fine.  I can even live with wanting Roschon to be the primary back over Swift, I'm starting to lean there myself (as is Waldron, judging from the trend in snap counts).    

But the overall playcalling and offensive scheme? It's completely fine.  It's the same modern offense descended from the west coast that almost every NFL team runs, including a lot of very succesful ones.  The same zone block runs, the same motioning into 1-4 overloads that everybody else is trying to attack the new cover-6/9/0 split field coverages that have become rampant in the last two years.  

[Hairyducked Idiot]

The running game did look a *little* better today.  We were getting a couple yards each play instead of moving backwards on half of them.

But if that's the best it can look against the softest defensive front we're gonna see for awhile, it's gonna be a disaster going forward. Which is fine with me, dial me up 65 dropbacks a week.

[CubinNY]

Coaching matters as does personnel management. Kyle is wrong. 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Look at all that green on the interior of the field.