Bears Week 3 at Colts: Sunday at noon on CBS

[Wilson A2000]

5 minutes ago, raw said:

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.

It’s on Waldron at this point who might not be very good

[Soul]

Guess I’m not getting this one on TV.  If the Bears lay a big turd on offense against a defense that looked disinterested against the Packers, the contrast will be stark and panic mode will be activated.

I’ll take Bears in this one, 20-13.

[raw]

This game kind of scares me. Obviously, the Bears defense can probably keep them in a game with anyone at this point. They are just clicking on most cylinders, especially in the 2nd halves of games. The offense's lack of execution also keeps the Bears defense needing to keep them in every game.

The Colts look like a team you should be able to run against. They have been run against at will for 2 weeks, including against a team that had no QB last week. But are the Bears capable of taking advantage? If Waldron is still calling slow developing runs and Swift is still dancing in the backfield trying to wait for a sliver to get to the edge of the defense, then the run game still isn't going to be any good. And you'll run into the same issues you had vs Houston. If there was ever a game for Herbert and Roschon to get a bunch of carries, it's this one.

On the Colts' side, I would expect them to sell out vs the run, overcorrecting their struggles of the past 2 weeks. When the Bears do pass out of it, they haven't shown that A) they can block any extra pressure of games upfront and B) that Caleb is accurate enough to beat them down the field for a big play. 

A big factor to me is also the desperation factor. The Colts were a 9-8 team last year that was in playoff contention until a win-and-in game in Week 18. They fancy themselves a contender, I'm sure. If they go 0-3, all contention is out the window. They are home, they are desperate, and they are certainly capable. 

Tough for me to pick this team because IDK who either of these QBs are yet. Levis was Levis and won the Bears the game, as I expected. Stroud was Stroud and didn't allow the Bears defense to steal the game, as I expected. Richardson hasn't been erratic as Levis, with of course, the exception being last week vs. Green Bay and the 49th best QB in the league. But he hasn't shown he can sustain drives and make key, accurate throws like Stroud. 

If Waldron doesn't commit to the downhill running game, this may be the best test so far for Caleb to go out and win a game with his arm, against a team that is very beatable with his arm. I do expect better from the offense this week. I'd love to win because of the offense, but I won't believe it til I see it. The Bears very well may still win this game either way, but if there was ever a time..........

[We Got The Whole 9]

OCs coming in and pushing young productive TEs out the door. Hmm sounds familiar. 

[BigbadB]

I can't see the Colts overcompensating to stop the run since they aren't losing blow outs. I think they watch Houston game film and look for ways to keep Williams from having time to throw. No one in the Bears backfield is Mixon or Jacobs, so worrying about a running game that has been non existent thus far doesn't seem like Indy's best plan. Looking for ways to confuse Williams or pressure him to make mistakes seems like the deal of the day until the Bears make them pay. 

Williams has been pretty respectable with a clean pocket. It's the blitz packages that:

A) the coaching staff completely ignored planning for because the Texans don't typically employ blitz packages

B) Williams is failing to recognize and make the necessary adjustments to beat the blitz

C) players don't understand their assignments well enough to execute blitz beating plays

D) all of the above

I can't pretend to know more than the Offensive Coordinator. But, it sure would be nice to see the adjustments made to not only march down the field, putting opposing defenses on their heals, but scoring at will, also.

[mul21]

15 hours ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

 

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

How does this jive with the pressured on 36/37 drop backs or whatever the number was from Sunday night?  That math doesn't seem to math for me.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

34 minutes ago, mul21 said:

How does this jive with the pressured on 36/37 drop backs or whatever the number was from Sunday night?  That math doesn't seem to math for me.

That number got misinterpreted on social media and spread around.  The Texans got 36 pressures total, sometimes with more than one coming on the same play.  It wasn't pressure on 36 of 37 pass plays.

Williams was pressured a below-average amount of time against the Titans, but people focused on a few bad pressure plays because it's way more fun to blame the pass protection than your rookie QB, people will always tend toward excuse-making for popular qbs.

Williams wasn't pressured a lot early vs. the Texans. You could argue it's because he was getting the ball out so quickly and not because of protection actually winning.  

Then he was pressured a ton late, partially because the Bears proved they couldn't handle blitzing and partially because it was a "must-pass" situation and the Texans DL was able to sell out for pass rush

 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

1 hour ago, BigbadB said:

I can't see the Colts overcompensating to stop the run since they aren't losing blow outs. I think they watch Houston game film and look for ways to keep Williams from having time to throw. No one in the Bears backfield is Mixon or Jacobs, so worrying about a running game that has been non existent thus far doesn't seem like Indy's best plan. Looking for ways to confuse Williams or pressure him to make mistakes seems like the deal of the day until the Bears make them pay. 

Williams has been pretty respectable with a clean pocket. It's the blitz packages that:

A) the coaching staff completely ignored planning for because the Texans don't typically employ blitz packages

B) Williams is failing to recognize and make the necessary adjustments to beat the blitz

C) players don't understand their assignments well enough to execute blitz beating plays

D) all of the above

I can't pretend to know more than the Offensive Coordinator. But, it sure would be nice to see the adjustments made to not only march down the field, putting opposing defenses on their heals, but scoring at will, also.

Agreed.

And E) we aren't punishing blitzes with well-executed screen passes.  A lot of that is on Williams, who has tanked screen plays with double-clutches several times, a bad pass twice, and a dropped snap once.

You could look at this stuff as "fire everyone, if mistakes are being made that means the coaches didn't coach well enough" and I won't argue with that.  But I'm optimistically leaning toward "these are fixable execution errors not skill gaps, we could get better fast" for now.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

1 hour ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

OCs coming in and pushing young productive TEs out the door. Hmm sounds familiar. 

Kmet started, played more than 2/3rds of snaps, and was tied for second on the team in targets and catches 

[BigbadB]

1 minute ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

Agreed.

And E) we aren't punishing blitzes with well-executed screen passes.  A lot of that is on Williams, who has tanked screen plays with double-clutches several times, a bad pass twice, and a dropped snap once.

You could look at this stuff as "fire everyone, if mistakes are being made that means the coaches didn't coach well enough" and I won't argue with that.  But I'm optimistically leaning toward "these are fixable execution errors not skill gaps, we could get better fast" for now.

I agree that it all seems very fixable. I don't see why the Bears coaching staff can't catch and run plays when they have so many speedy receivers. I don't know if screens are the answer when opposing defenses are stacking the box and bringing pressure. The better answer is drops behind the line with guys in stride. I watched Jayden Reed and Rashee Rice burning guys after the catch on medium/short range passes and letting their feet do the rest. Those are blitz killers.

[jersey cubs fan]

16 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

Kmet started, played more than 2/3rds of snaps, and was tied for second on the team in targets and catches 

He didn’t get a pass until the second half. The second play of the game went to Waldron’s pet project. It is not make believe that Kmet has been an afterthought in the first two games 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

8 minutes ago, jersey cubs fan said:

He didn’t get a pass until the second half. The second play of the game went to Waldron’s pet project. It is not make believe that Kmet has been an afterthought in the first two games 

So he got most of his targets in crunch time when the game was on the line?   Damn they're really running him out of town 

It's pretty close to make believe. 

Edited September 19, 2024 by Hairyducked Idiot

[jersey cubs fan]

17 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

So he got most of his targets in crunch time when the game was on the line?   Damn they're really running him out of town 

It's pretty close to make believe. 

It looked very obvious to me that something in the locker room at halftime convinced Waldron he finally had to feature Kmet. Whether it came from Flus, Poles, Kmet, other vets or Williams, who knows. But Waldron intentionally ignored Kmet for the first 6 quarters of the season in favor of his pet project who has been a dud. 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

3 minutes ago, jersey cubs fan said:

It looked very obvious to me that something in the locker room at halftime convinced Waldron he finally had to feature Kmet. Whether it came from Flus, Poles, Kmet, other vets or Williams, who knows. But Waldron intentionally ignored Kmet for the first 6 quarters of the season in favor of his pet project who has been a dud. 

That's certainly a fascinating piece of fan fiction

[Soul]

Waldron so far:

🤔 🤨 😦 ☹️

[Wilson A2000]

I’m pretty much ready for the Bobby Slowik era

[BigSlick]

I'm also mildly surprised the Bears are dogs in this game but also they've looked absolutely dreadful on offense, and on the road, so it does make sense. This should be a get healthy game, so we'll find out a lot about where this team is going after this. Their defense shouldn't scare us too much and the team should be able to move the ball a little bit. If they can't you can start to get worried, but only start. 

Even if they lay a total egg it'll be the 3rd game of a season with your rookie QB. But it'll still sting, and may say a lot about how well prepared this team is. They need to clean up a lot of unforced errors. Pre-snap penalties, mixed up assignments, etc. There's no excuse for it to look that bad. 

[Soul]

12 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

I'm also mildly surprised the Bears are dogs in this game but also they've looked absolutely dreadful on offense, and on the road, so it does make sense. This should be a get healthy game, so we'll find out a lot about where this team is going after this. Their defense shouldn't scare us too much and the team should be able to move the ball a little bit. If they can't you can start to get worried, but only start. 

Even if they lay a total egg it'll be the 3rd game of a season with your rookie QB. But it'll still sting, and may say a lot about how well prepared this team is. They need to clean up a lot of unforced errors. Pre-snap penalties, mixed up assignments, etc. There's no excuse for it to look that bad. 

Also it’s harder to defend a loss to the Colts.  With Houston, they are better than the Bears.  We lost to a superior opponent.

[BigSlick]

5 minutes ago, Soul said:

Also it’s harder to defend a loss to the Colts.  With Houston, they are better than the Bears.  We lost to a superior opponent.

The response to the Texans game shouldn't have surprised me but it was funny: Everyone admitted the Texans were a better team and expected the Bears to lose. Then the Bears came out and lost a close game (and covered the spread!) and everyone lost their minds.

Now of course, the Bears looked worse on offense than everyone had hoped, but still, at the end of the day, it played out how everyone expected it to play out. 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Just now, BigSlick said:

The response to the Texans game shouldn't have surprised me but it was funny: Everyone admitted the Texans were a better team and expected the Bears to lose. Then the Bears came out and lost a close game (and covered the spread!) and everyone lost their minds.

Now of course, the Bears looked worse on offense than everyone had hoped, but still, at the end of the day, it played out how everyone expected it to play out. 

The new OC is the stupidest ever and if he just did these obvious things that fans can see, we'd be better.  Just like the last guy. And the guy before that. And the guy before that. And ... (however long it takes to get to Shoop, who actually probably was the worst OC ever).

[raw]

2 hours ago, BigbadB said:

I can't see the Colts overcompensating to stop the run since they aren't losing blow outs. I think they watch Houston game film and look for ways to keep Williams from having time to throw. No one in the Bears backfield is Mixon or Jacobs, so worrying about a running game that has been non existent thus far doesn't seem like Indy's best plan. Looking for ways to confuse Williams or pressure him to make mistakes seems like the deal of the day until the Bears make them pay. 

Williams has been pretty respectable with a clean pocket. It's the blitz packages that:

A) the coaching staff completely ignored planning for because the Texans don't typically employ blitz packages

B) Williams is failing to recognize and make the necessary adjustments to beat the blitz

C) players don't understand their assignments well enough to execute blitz beating plays

D) all of the above

I can't pretend to know more than the Offensive Coordinator. But, it sure would be nice to see the adjustments made to not only march down the field, putting opposing defenses on their heals, but scoring at will, also.

Good point regarding the run game. I was looking at it more like the Bears have historically been able to run the ball, and 4 of 5 OL are the same as last year. And that the Colts have struggled so much to stop the run, which their losses are direct results of. Didn't watch much, but I'm sure they sold out against the run with Malik Willis playing QB last week, which obviously didn't work. So, I get what you're saying and that probably makes more sense. 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

This guy is a slow, stumbling talker, you need to watch this at 1.5x speed to make it palatable.  But I thought it was a good look at some of our bad run plays.

 

[BigbadB]

4 hours ago, raw said:

Good point regarding the run game. I was looking at it more like the Bears have historically been able to run the ball, and 4 of 5 OL are the same as last year. And that the Colts have struggled so much to stop the run, which their losses are direct results of. Didn't watch much, but I'm sure they sold out against the run with Malik Willis playing QB last week, which obviously didn't work. So, I get what you're saying and that probably makes more sense. 

I'm not even going to pretend I know Bears football better than you, and I have no idea if it will play out that way. It's just how I would imagine it playing out in my own mind. It's possible that we try and run it down their throats and avoid having to make high percentage throws. I hope this is the game they can get on the same page and start moving the ball AND scoring points.

With that said, Sunday Ticket has had me watching all of the NFC North games pretty closely, and I also have some Texans on my fantasy team, so I'm always going to dial into their games as well.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Keenan Allen already ruled out for this game (as are Blasingame, Horner and Pickens).   You get what you get with 30+ year old WRs with lower body issues, at least we only paid a fourth and didn't extend him.
 

[gflore34]

11 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

Keenan Allen already ruled out for this game (as are Blasingame, Horner and Pickens).   You get what you get with 30+ year old WRs with lower body issues, at least we only paid a fourth and didn't extend him.
 

In his absence I'd like to see Scott be given a legitimate chance, or even, Collin Johnson, no more Carter at WR.