HOF Game Thoughts and Feelings

[WindyCity]

Hall Of Fame Game Thoughts

Offense
-Chase Daniel is bad, it doesn’t really matter, he is not here to make plays or win games. If Mitch goes down the season is over and you move on to developing guys for 2019.

-Tyler Bray may make the team, he is not as incompetent as I thought and there is value to him working everyday with the scout team and PR guys.

-Benny Cunningham is a good player to have around. Not only does he have high special teams value, but if Howard goes down he would be the primary runner of the football. Cunnningham made some nice cuts and ran with the power you expect from a 225lbs back.

-I would have liked to have seen more of Tiquan Mizzel on offense.

-Nall did not look good running the ball, but our 3rd unit OL was pretty awful. I did see him a couple times on special teams, which is going to be how he makes the team.

-I continue to not be impressed at all with Dion Sims. He is suppose to be the blocking TE, but he continues to blow blocks and take penalties. He should be the #3 TE.

-It seemed like Daniel Brown and Colin Thompson were having a competition to see who could get cut first. Multiple drops and few tough catches. That surprised me from Daniel Brown who had nice moment over the last couple of seasons. With Ben Braunaker having special teams value I doubt either make the team.

-Bradley Sowell is not very good. The Bears should be keeping their eyes open on the waiver wire and in cut downs for an OT that can be the swing tackle and start a couple games without getting destroyed.

-Jordan Morgan had a rough start at LG, he got better later on when he was moved to RG, but overall it was not a super impressive performance that I was hoping for.

-Earl Watford looked like a competent backup OG and should give the Bears better depth than they have had in the past. With Daniel, Kush, and Watford filling the interior spots they should be covered in case Long struggles.

-Rashard Coward is so intriguing. He is big and violent and when his technique was on he looked like an NFL OT. Other times his technique broke down and he looked like a big athlete trying to stay in front of a guy. Overall, I think he had a very inspiring first ever game at OL and if Hiestand can continue to develop the technique he could be a factor in 2019 at RT.

Defense

-Roy Robertson-Harris stood out on the DL. He continues to be too big and powerful for backup OGs to block. He is using his length better and better and at a minimum gives the Bears there best backup DLmen since Israel Idonije was backing up Ogun and Alex Brown.

-Jonathan Bullard looked solid. You just wish that the plays where he blows off the ball and is in the backfield for the hand off were more consistent. If he ever got more consistent with those explosive plays he would be a really good starter. He looks more stout against the run than previous years.

-John Jenkins looked good as well. He made a couple of really nice hustle plays in the run game and I expect 0 pass rush from him so he did not disappoint me there.

-I thought 2 young DLmen really looked like they belonged in the 2nd half. Cavon Walker and ---------------- both looked like they had the movement skills and power to play at the NFL level. Both were able to disengage from blocks and get involved in tackles.

-The best development of the night was that both Isiah Irving and Kyle Fitts looked like they had NFL first steps and both made plays. Fitts looked lost on a couple plays, but he had a number of explosive rushes and held contain on RG3 well. Irving had a number of nice rushes and showed nice hand use to go with the speed to attack the edge. The Bears need both of these guys to be contributors.

-John Timu continues to struggle in coverage.

-I thought Jonathan Anderson out played John Timu.

-I am not sure what happened to Deon Bush, but he looks like a completely different player. He had a couple of really nice run supports. He looked far more comfortable in coverage and was a secure tackler. I was worried about safety depth for the Bears, but if he continues to play well I am less concerned.

-Deandre Houston-Carson continues to stick on the roster and continues to grow on me. He is a secure tackler, doesn’t look lost in coverage, and seems to be able to blitz and come down in run support. He probably has backup safety physical tools, but he looks like a guy who should make the roster again.

-The Doran Grant pick was an awesome read and break, but I am not sure I see a way on to the team for him. I cannot remember a time when the Bears had this much depth at CB.

[ChiCity]

Always appreciate your game recap posts Windy!

 

I too was disappointed all around with our Daniel run O. He was poor in every way and the tipped passes were a big concern because that will only get worse against the 1s. However, I felt he was put in a rough situation due to poor protection and Fowler's dropped TD would have changed the narrative considerably.  

Where on earth was Shaheen? He really made no impact at all. Hope we are hiding him. He needs to make some progress this year if he is going to break out before the end of his rookie deal. Just one game so do not want to over react. However, just have not heard much about him from the reporters at camp either. Forgotten is bad.

Wims was fun in the second half. Good start for him and hopefully he can keep it up. All he really needs is to be able to own the slant game as well as be the "go up and get it" he has shown himself to be in camp and college. 

 

On D, the DBs looked great. I thought our performance was solid all around. Against bad competition guys found ways to make plays and that is all you can ask. Hopefully they make it a habit. Our corners looked great all game and pressuring and sacking these mobile QBs is never easy. I think we got everything we could have wanted from the defense in game 1. Thumbs up for Fangio. 

[Heinz D.]

20 hours ago, WindyCity said:

-Chase Daniel is bad, it doesn’t really matter, he is not here to make plays or win games. If Mitch goes down the season is over and you move on to developing guys for 2019.

Why would you categorize Daniel as "bad"? He did fine, all things considered. 

[bkokot]

Iowa bar incident aside, Deiondre' Hall showed me some significant improvement in terms of being able to make tackles in this game that he didn't show me last pre-season.

If he can put it together, I think his height/length could be a real asset for the team.  I am excited to see him continue to develop.

[G08]

Deon Bush was laying some LUMBER too man, I hope he keeps that up!

[Heinz D.]

38 minutes ago, G08 said:

Deon Bush was laying some LUMBER too man, I hope he keeps that up!

He was a bigger surprise to me than Irving...

[Sugashane]

On 8/9/2018 at 4:09 PM, G08 said:

Deon Bush was laying some LUMBER too man, I hope he keeps that up!

That was what we were expecting when he was drafted. Maybe the game was just moving too fast for him. You would think that he would have been able to make the adjustment after playing at the U of Miami but maybe it was a Jon Bostic type thing. He was in a very simplified role and told to find ball and hit the ballcarrier as hard as possible. Granted we aren't doing exotic blitzes but even in a basic Tampa 2 safeties have a lot of information to take in with all the advanced routerunning and schemes that are implemented.