Thrilho

I call BS. Because the organization that had everyone believing they were trading up for Solomon Thomas and routinely censors reporters for dumb stuff at practice isn't going to let it leak when Trubisky is going to start. I'm going to hold out hope it's week 5. Hell im going to hope Mitch throws for 4 TDs Thursday night. Totally. Nobody knows horsefeathers. There were a lot of beat writers who told you they had the scoop on the draft pick and none of them did. To say with confidence that Pace is willing to watch the season swirl down the toilet bowl for another 4 weeks no matter how bad Glennon is just doesn't jive. If the angle is that he's trying to lure Payton with an up close viewing you might want to get Mitch a couple starts first. And there are some very winnable games on the schedule in weeks 4-7.

Some nice clips of the O-line dominating on some run blocking. The Sims block on the Cohen run was pretty nice. That's one part that doesn't get talked about much in the receiver situation. If you split the TEs wide and run they're gonna have the chance to dominate a corner.

Yea there's no way he should have been out there. Honestly, just want him to get healed up. Yeah I'd sit him too but still play Mitch. As has been said already, you're never going to get a perfect sitation. Any team playing the Bears is going to have to respect the short pass/screen game to the RBs so it's not like they'll become totally one dimensional even if they don't have a true between the tackles runner.

Yeah...people are dumb.

Eek. This is not good for that bet. If Howard went down for an extended period I wonder if they'd just roll with rotating a bunch of tiny backs or if they'd try and pick up a bruiser type. Nice thing is with this o-line they should be able to get decent production out of some guy who's working a cash register right now, if just to lighten the load on Cohen.

Yeah check out this route by Cohen (bottom of the screen). Makes the DB look lost and Glennon doesn't see him. Imagine if there was a QB who could hit him in stride near the left hash and you don't have to strain too hard to see a TD. Him plus (to a lesser extent) Mizzell and Cunningham are a fair bit of why I think the passing game will be ok once Mitch gets in there. I think Simms, Miller, and Shaheen should be a pretty good TE group and then you've got a bunch of backs who can catch the ball. You shouldn't need THAT much from the receivers to have a decent passing attack.

Also the o-line. There was tons of running room, and again this is with no passing game. Really good to see Long hit the ground running.

Yeah in some ways I feel bad but man that kind of thing just cannot happen. Oh well, we won despite it and I'm sure he learned his lesson. lost in that is the fact that he played a really really really good game. Yeah I thought that other than that play he looked great. Even the dropped pick in the end zone was a great play outside of the drop. He boxed the receiver out really well and got himself in good position for the pick. I thought Fuller played really well too, Amukamara was PFF's top rated Bears player and apparently even Callahan played great. Again, they didn't get the picks, but there were tons of passes knocked away.

I'll take this! I'm assuming you mean rushing ypg and ypc. They'll have to win some games to make the ypg part happen but I've got some confidence.

I think Mitch starts this week. Glennon was awful and I can't believe that they want to punt a game against the Packers.

I'm taking full credit for that. Nice call on the win but this game isn't fooling anyone on Glennon and the team is closer than you think it is. I still say it's an 8-8 team once you put Mitch in there. They held a real good offense to 17 points even with the offense turning it over twice, got some sacks and could've had a number of picks today that hopefully they'll start holding onto. Then anyone who wants to argue that the running game isn't awesome...welp...go right ahead. Charging the field for a win without the threat of a pass was real impressive. And I'll say it again, you can't evaluate this receiving corps yet. Unless you've got the all-22 I don't know how anyone can make any definitive statement about whether the TEs and WRs are getting open. This chickenhorsefeathers at QB can see past his RBs in the passing game. So of course it's everyone's own perogstive to go on hammering the team and offense, but I think you're all wrong and Mitch is going to elevate this team and this offense to respectability. Hopefully this week. 8-8

I will say that if I was Fox I'd say all week that Glennon is starting even if I know right now that it's Mitch. Let the Steelers figure out who to prepare for. Also, unless he and Pace are on the same page and in agreement he can't really answer that question any other way than "no." Any other answer throws all kinds of chum in the water for the media. It would be baffling if they really gave Glennon another start. I thought a good intro would have been 1 series to start, scripted plays, vs Tampa, unannounced. Then glennon takes over. Wouldn't do that at home though. Even if he somehow doesn't start next week, this was a good game because we know it's not going to be any of that 8 weeks of Glennon. Or where David was saying the Vegas line on Trubisky games was 1.5 or something. That was always dumb but now we've gotten the Glennon curb stomping game where he actually threw a pick 6 and his lack of pocket presence caused another fumble deep in their own territory. Whatever happens in the next couple, that taste isn't going to wash out. As soon as Trubisky is ready to go in without getting killed he's going to be in there. I'd put money that he at least finishes the game next week.

Madness If you skipped watching the game and squint at the box score, Glennon completed 68% of his passes for 300 yards Not sure what Fox's excuse is, though I will say that if I was Fox I'd say all week that Glennon is starting even if I know right now that it's Mitch. Let the Steelers figure out who to prepare for. Also, unless he and Pace are on the same page and in agreement he can't really answer that question any other way than "no." Any other answer throws all kinds of chum in the water for the media. It would be baffling if they really gave Glennon another start.

Madness

Aside from the additional injuries, this was the ideal thing to happen this week for the year end win total. Glennon is out and Trubisky is in. They gave Glennon the whole game to show something rather than pull him at half time, so Glennon has zero cards to play in the "this is unfair" department. As he walked down the sideline after the TD throw he got zero pats on the back in the shot they showed, contrasted against the shot of Thompson getting a bunch. That doesn't mean much, but after that bad a game I'd guess he's completely lost the locker room. What more could a Bears fan hope for at this point in the season? Glennon got his shot in two tough games and lost them, while showing nothing. They have got to go to Trubisky and they will for Pittsburgh. From there, I think we can start evaluating how good the running game is and how ok these receivers can be. Glennon was awful. He's been locked on to one receiver at all times, and it's usually the last receiver he threw to or Tarik Cohen. He hasn't gotten the TEs into the passing game. Hasn't hit virtually anything over the intermediate middle. Virtually every pass runs the receiver into a defender or is to a receiver who is completely covered already. That might be the receivers not getting open, from a couple posts I saw on another board that had some screen shots and gifs he has been missing wide open guys all over the place. I think just getting a guy who can go through some progressions and have the confidence to attempt a pass in the 10-15 range opens up a lot things. I think these tight ends are going to be pretty good. Thompson and Wright looked decent at the end and Bellamy was getting some decent separation in the 10-15 range early in the game. Gentry I still think will be good. Throw in Cohen and the passing game could look so much better than it does right now. Defense didn't look good. They were defending short fields all day, but the pressure wasn't there. The secondary was playing a defense that kept nearly everything in front of them which I liked, but then you've got to get to the QB. Eddie Jackson had a good game, making a lot of tackles and didn't seem to blow many coverages. It just seemed like the Bucs were beating the Bears with 1 on 1s, but where they kept Julio in check last week, Evans just ate them up this week. The defense needs another OLB to start getting some pressure, because so far Willie Young has been awful. Had at least big penalty this week to go with his big one last week, and has been invisible. McPhee hasn't shown up anywhere, Goldman and Bullard have been ghosts, Floyd did nothing in the first half. They were backed up a lot off the turnovers, but they didn't put up much of a fight. It wasn't time of possession either. For the first half I think the Bears held it 17 minutes to the Bucs 14. It was all just quick strikes. I still think they could be pretty good, and with the lift the Bears get from Trubisky I'll stick with the 8-8 prediction. The rest of the schedule after week 4 is just not that scary, and I think Mitch will be that good.

That was single high against what a four receiver set? They've played great the whole day, but I'd figure Fangio would be playing more guys deep against the Falcons on 3rd and 8 at their own 10 or whatever. So to me, that was on the secondary but when the FS is in the box against a jailbreak like that it's tough. I think this group will gets better with more time together.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/mitch-trubisky-is-on-hold-but-bears-rookie-class-is-ready-to-rise/

Yeah, it doesn't seem like he's come off the field though. Seems like we should be seeing RRH and Bullard more to keep everyone fresh.

It's tough to know when you only see what they show you on the broadcast. On that last play it seemed like Glennon locked on to Cohen completely. I'm looking forward to seeing what these guys can do with Trubisky.

Glennon's pocket presence isn't good. For a guy that immobile you'd think he'd have learned "don't drift back into the path of your left tackle and the guy he's fighting."

That was cool. You don't see the "keep pushing a guy who's out of bounds until the ref calls it" personal fouls. Maybe the special teams is going to be competent again too?

Glennon ran into that sack. The right side of the line was holding pretty well but he ran up to the line of scrimmage with a plan of just kind of hanging out.

I also wanted to post about some young guys that seem pretty promising. I haven't posted since Gentry got passed on by all 32 teams, but the part I didn't really acknowledge in all my fawning is that I have no idea how good he is at running routes. I'm hoping it's a thing where he can't run a route tree because all he did was play street ball with Allen, running go routes and then milling around until Allen was ready to throw it. So he was too big a project for any other team to want to put on their 53 man, sort of like trying to keep a Rule 5 relief pitcher with a good fastball but no secondaries. Anyway, I'm sure I'm just being a homer, but I still see him winning a starting spot by year end and having that 600 yd 4 TD year. So some other guys who are exciting: Taquan Mizzell He caught 127 passes his last two years in college, which is way more than Cohen (62) or Cunningham (42 in NFL). He ran routes downfield both in college and in preseason for the Titans. I think he's got a solid chance of being active tomorrow for some gadgets and third down work. Don't know if he's got the playbook down yet, but once he does I think he'll get a lot of snaps either out of the slot or after motioning there. For a look at his downfield catch ability check out 1:35-2:10 and 4:34-4:43. http://www.nfl.com/m/share?p=%2Fvideos%2Fnfl-game-highlights%2F0ap3000000835142%2FJosh-Woodrum-finds-Taquan-Mizzell-for-a-15-yard-touchdown Regardless of whether he can work out of the slot he should be able to do stuff like this with some reliability. especially if the Bears run a lot of 2 back sets. Let him leak out of the backfield, find a hole in the defense and get him the ball. With all those college catches he must be pretty good at find soft spots in the zone. So if the offense is already set up for it, let him do some of that work and get Cohen more swings and actual runs to start. Hopefully with a year on the bench behind him, Mizzell is ready to hit the ground running. Tre McBride Seems like he could be an Earl Bennett type. Only 6'0 and not that fast, but plays big and good at winning jump balls. If Gentry isn't that guy, then the Bears don't really have a "go up and win it" guy on the outside except for hopefully White. I could see him carving out a decent role. NFL.com estimated him at a 3-4 round pick last year. http://www.nfl.com/draft/2015/profiles/tre-mcbride?id=2552428 Rashaad Coward 6'5 320 lb UDFA nose tackle they stashed on the practice squad. http://www.profootballweekly.com/2017/04/19/pfws-nfl-draft-late-risers-old-dominion-dt-rashaad-coward/a29iamx/ He made 47 and 49 tackles the last two years and in his tape he seems like he plays pretty fast. He didn't have much TFL production, and he didn't get drafted or picked up after the cuts, so there's got to be some things he's doing wrong. The biggest knock on him seems to be that he's top heavy, but he seems pretty well built. Not at all in the Keith Traylor mold. If all he needs is to put on some leg muscle that shouldn't be too hard, I wouldn't think. And I'd guess he'd make decent DE before he's ready to become a NT, just looking at the body type and athleticism. http://prod.static.bears.clubs.nfl.com/assets/images/imported/CHI/photos/centerpieces/2017_760x473/coward-main-062017.jpg http://www.chicagobears.com/multimedia/videos/Highlights-Rashaad-Coward/19392479-4553-4db7-920a-b28c7df4d461 It was great that they got John Jenkins through cuts so this guy didn't have to be the #3 at NT after Hicks. Coward does look a little light to be the anchor of a defense right now, but I could see him being pretty good next year and I could see him being a Jaye Howard type at DE this year if there are injuries. Dude seems like he can run, and at 6'5 320 that could be pretty valuable in this defense. I'd guess that only injury gets him in any time soon, but I'd expect him to flash pretty quickly and hopefully grab a consistent spot in 2017.

Yeah, this seems like a great move/contract. Here's an article talking about how Fangio uses Hicks/Floyd the same way he used Smith/Smith, lining them up on the same side so Hicks can draw double teams and Floyd can tee off. It's got some good videos of that working. https://sportsmockery.com/2017/09/how-leonard-floyd-is-the-biggest-reason-to-extend-akiem-hicks/ I used to love those SF defenses. Off the top of my head, that was my favorite defense of the last 20 years or so. Tons of strong, athletic guys on the 3 man front stunting and causing havoc, and Aldon Smith and the other LBs coming from everywhere. I think you're right that this is the Sunday everyone finds out how good this defense is. If Bullard is anywhere near as good as he looked in the preseason that is a really tough front with him, Goldman, Hicks. Then you've got Freeman/Trevathan back in the middle, and Floyd on the outside. And Vic Fangio calling the defense against an offensive coordinator who hasn't had an NFL job since 2004. I'm looking forward to these blitzes. The Bears secondary has been junk the whole time Fangio has been here, so having two safeties who can cover in Demps/Jackson I think is going to do a lot more blitzing than we've seen in the past. And it seems like you'd want to get to Ryan as quick as possible to minimize the big play even if he beats you all day in the middle of the field. So I'll say Bears blitz a lot, get burned a couple times but hit with like 5 sacks and 2 picks. On offense, I'm really looking forward to seeing these two back looks. They've now got Cohen, Mizzell, and Cunningham that can come out of that backfield. Mizzell, who ran seemingly pretty legit downfield routes in college and dropped only 2 of 152 passes in the his last two college years. They kept the FB, so clearly they plan to do a lot of 2 back sets, and every back they kept is very good at pass catching. So they'll probably do a fair amount of motioning Cohen and Mizzell into the slot. Or starting with 2 TEs and dropping one off the line. Regardless, there should be a lot of movement. I think Loggains will be able to get these guys the ball in the open field and there will be big plays. Then I think Glennon will be good enough. Check down a lot to the RBs and TEs. Let the running game do its work and keep the Falcons offense on the sidelines. Even if they get behind they've got the offense to be able to hold onto the ball and not let it get away from them. Unless Glennon decides to start striking downfield and throws 2+ picks, in which case the Bears probably lose. But I think he'll play fairly conservatively, both because the running game is so good and because the only way he loses his job is by throwing a bunch of picks. So yeah, I'll get on the Sulley/Brian train here and say the Bears win this one 24-20 with ok play from Glennon, good RBs, good offensive play calling, and great defense.

I like angry Heyward