Week 11: Bears at Vikings, noon on FOX

[Geographyhater8888]

9 hours ago, gflore34 said:

Caleb' at a 59.7% (194-325) completion rate, conservatively, over the last two weeks alone, you can add probably upwards of 10 balls that should have been caught.  Adding those 10 puts him at 62.7 with, at least one more TD.  It'd be really nice if Caleb' receivers would stop dropping balls and help out with a tough catch or two.

He needs to connect on deep passes and throws that require touch more than anything. It’s leaving points off the board and good defenses will exploit that weakness. If he ever cleans that up he’ll be able to get away with less than pin point throwing accuracy between the numbers to play at a high level.

Edited November 18, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[BigbadB]

3 hours ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

He needs to connect on deep passes and throws that require touch more than anything. It’s leaving points off the board and good defenses will exploit that weakness. If he ever cleans that up he’ll be able to get away with less than pin point throwing accuracy between the numbers to play at a high level.

Yeah. The open receivers are there downfield. That play just hasn't clicked yet. Once it does, look out. The good news is they are attempting them, so they know that play is there. I think he just gets overly excited about making that play happen rather than just running it like any other play and stress touch on those passes. 

Ben's offense is definitely creating a lot of scoring opportunities. Caleb and the receivers need to do a better job of securing connections. Zaccheaus was a non factor on Sunday. Did he even see the field? Guess Ben got tired of the drops.

[gflore34]

3 hours ago, BigbadB said:

Yeah. The open receivers are there downfield. That play just hasn't clicked yet. Once it does, look out. The good news is they are attempting them, so they know that play is there. I think he just gets overly excited about making that play happen rather than just running it like any other play and stress touch on those passes. 

Ben's offense is definitely creating a lot of scoring opportunities. Caleb and the receivers need to do a better job of securing connections. Zaccheaus was a non factor on Sunday. Did he even see the field? Guess Ben got tired of the drops.

He was in on some snaps, in some of the film review he breaks wide open down the field.  Maybe, if Caleb steps up in the pocket, it could have been there however, I do not blame Caleb for not targeting him. 

Edited November 18, 2025 by gflore34

[bukie]

The Athletic did an in-depth on the game starting at about 12 minutes in to this podcast, describing why Caleb's 16 for 32 was much better than JJ's 16 for 32.

https://shows.acast.com/the-athletic-football-show-a-show-about-the-nfl/episodes/week-11-hangover-the-bears-move-into-first-the-steelers-stay

[BigSlick]

I do want to give a shoutout to Santos on the kick offs - there is a new strategy going around the league on trying to angle them and bounce them in the landing zone to force more touchbacks that go out at the 20 and make for more difficult returns, and he executed that very well on Sunday.

and I'm rarely going to be very mad at going 4/5 on field goals on a day. Wish he had that 5th one, but its asking a lot. 

[raw]

39 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

I do want to give a shoutout to Santos on the kick offs - there is a new strategy going around the league on trying to angle them and bounce them in the landing zone to force more touchbacks that go out at the 20 and make for more difficult returns, and he executed that very well on Sunday.

and I'm rarely going to be very mad at going 4/5 on field goals on a day. Wish he had that 5th one, but its asking a lot. 

He made the 54 and the game-winner. That's all I can ask. Ben was very conservative of NOT going for makeable 4th downs, after going for everything the week before due to the wind. 

[raw]

16 hours ago, gflore34 said:

Caleb' at a 59.7% (194-325) completion rate, conservatively, over the last two weeks alone, you can add probably upwards of 10 balls that should have been caught.  Adding those 10 puts him at 62.7 with, at least one more TD.  It'd be really nice if Caleb' receivers would stop dropping balls and help out with a tough catch or two.

9 drops the last 2 weeks. He also had 4 throwaways Sunday due to the insane number of blitzes against him. I don't believe those drops include a couple off of Rome's fingertips (he should have had a TD Sunday, and I think he needs to get to the deep pass early as well). 

His completion percentage is always going to be lower as a big play hunter. Ben is scheming big plays up as well. To me, the footwork is coming along much better than it was early this year. I don't see him ever getting to 70% of whatever Ben wanted, but Caleb at 64-65% completion probably will have an argument for best QB in the league. That's about where Mahomes is, and this scheme combined with Caleb's propensity to make big plays, plays into the ability to throw for 4500+ when it all clicks. 

[BigSlick]

One thing I really liked about Caleb's game was how ready and willing he was to go to his tight ends on the blitz - he wasn't perfect at it and I think there were a couple plays where he had a hot read and didn't make it - but he made it a lot more often than he has in the past and Kmet and Loveland really ate. 

[raw]

Not to come off as a Caleb apologist, but I honestly do not care about the deep ball issues. I don't think the ones to Rome the last couple weeks were bad balls. I thought Rome slowed a little on Sunday. The one to DJ there was a guy in his face and he had to throw it like a split second before he wanted to.

Deep passes have a TON of factors. You have to have protection, you have to anticipate a guy coming open deep when it's not a clear blown coverage, and you have to gauge the WR's speed...which sometimes include breaks out of double moves or a stop and go. Plus, it's obviously more difficult to complete a pass the further the ball is thrown down the field.

If Caleb doesn't hit many 40-50 yarders, does it really matter if he's as good as he is in the 20-30 yard range?