dll2000 Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 It is hard not to focus on negative. I said people could not handle a Denver loss, I did not know I would be included in that. I nearly gave up on team when they fell behind at end of game I was so frustrated. I made this a thread and didn't throw it in GDT because there is hope and positive things happening and I don't want too much negativity while there is still hope. Remember no one had won early in Denver on a hot day in forever. I think the stat is 17-18. That 1 win may have been on a cool day. Bears did what no one else could for many moons. That is not nothing though many are treating it as such. Unfortunately Denver is now completely demoralized and will likely look worse making us look worse for the close victory. Their DC knew our offense inside and out to boot. Was anyone surprised that we would struggle offensively against Fangio? Also, how much negative press did our kicking situation get this year? How much did we talk about kicking? Has to be some kind of record. Our kicker is our offensive MVP to date (I know that is bad, but yay Pineiro). Take that Fox. I think the offense will gradually get better. They are just too talented not to. I said all off season we would be better this year offensively. So far I have been dead wrong and believe me people are letting me know. Everyone around me IRL told me MT was garbage and the O is garbage and they are looking correct and me incorrect. Nobody likes to be wrong. We are still in early part of race though. I have never said MT is going be great, but I still think he can be good. Here are my excuses or I prefer reasoning. This will kind of be bad news/good news: 1) Nagy practiced this offseason mainly by scrimmaging. Almost exclusively so. I think this was a huge mistake. Our defense kicked our O's butt daily. Everyone just said well that's our D They are really good. I think doing that has messed with our ability to execute plays crisply and with timing and we look sloppy now as a result. You have to experience success and timing with your plays many times, on air for a lot of reps or with a shell defense. That's just how you learn to run plays properly and make your reads. Then when you have timing and smoothness you let people try to stop it. Then when they do you stop and correct, not just move on without fixing problems. A lot of reps done poorly just makes you worse. I think that is what happened to Bears this year to date. After watching a lot of Bears training camp I was very concerned about this, but who was I to criticize Nagy? I should have said more before, but what does it matter what I say really? I have seen this many times at high school level, but it is true at higher levels too. Good news is it is correctable with time in season, but it puts you behind 8 ball to start the year which is what has happened. 2) I think DCs know our route combos and are sitting on them in obvious passing downs. Guys aren't getting open. Really bad news is few times they are we are missing them too often. Good news is they are able to do this because to date we have been largely predictable. I think a lot of that stems from lack of Burton and Cohen running routes from backfield taking pressure off Allen Robinson. Right now teams have really just had to take Robinson away and we can do nothing. Miller getting back and in rhythm with QB could really change things as well. If you watch a lot of games across the league you see when a QB is frustrated even really otherwise accurate QBs they are missing wide open guys. Difference with them is they later find a rhythm and then hit some throws that make people forget their wide open misses. We need MT to be able to get into a rhythm and experience some success and gain confidence. 3) Our oline was beyond awful in game 1 and improved in game 2. I suspect Daniels had a bad offseason football wise cramming to get his degree in Iowa. That coupled with position change has led to a slow start for O line overall. Good news is I think they continue to improve as season progresses. 4) They are learning Montgormery and Patterson. I think we are scratching surface of what we can do with them and how to use them properly. No pre season does hurt here, but they wanted them a secret. I think Patterson needs a runway, but can be dynamic when he has one. Good news is if we figure this out as we go we can improve greatly. 5) Our biggest problem really right now offensively is we are not credibly stretching the defense vertically, especially middle of the field. I think we need to move ARob to slot where he was killing it in camp. I don't know why we haven't done that more to date. That is something that can be done easily enough and is correctable. They have to see that too. 6) We have a 2nd year QB. Not a third year QB. First year was garbage time with no quality reps practice or game. 2nd years are still crappy years for most, even some really good ones. Like @WindyCity says most crappy QBs stay crappy QBs, so odds are against us, but I think we should not abandon ship or hope at this point. It can improve suddenly and unexpectedly. Mariota is looking good for first time this year. This is year 4 for him. He has had a lot of garbage games. I am not waiting 4 years, but it is unfair to wait less than 2. We are collectively starving and impatient when it comes to qb development. We say look at his guy or that guy they are doing it now! But many people simply take more time. 7) Look around the league. Disaster is hitting so many teams. We just need to weather early storms, we can be the last shrimp boat after the hurricane like Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Like the French girl said to loser Lane Meyer in Better Off Dead, "I think you need to taste success and you will find it suits you." Also garbage man from same movie, "[Don't] throw away a perfectly good white boy." 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WindyCity Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 The OL was better. Still far from the level they were at last season, but altitude kills the big guys the most. Run game and misdirection finally clicked. Defense was solid and just died late in the game because of fatigue. I thought, not assessing the offensive play calling, that Nagy managed the game much better. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dll2000 Posted September 17, 2019 Author Share Posted September 17, 2019 Another thing I am seeing is a lot of completions across league aren't coming on time. They are coming late in play after QB movement in pocket buys more time. In other words improvisation is what is leading to success, not designed plays. DCs are correctly guessing plays and taking away early reads. We'll see if it swings back other way as season goes on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulman Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 I'll just stop with pulling a win from the jaws of defeat in Denver against a HC whose quite familiar with our strengths and weaknesses. Even in a bad year not many teams win close games here when it's 90 degrees out and they play at home in the flatlands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulman Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 (edited) 15 minutes ago, dll2000 said: Another thing I am seeing is a lot of completions across league aren't coming on time. They are coming late in play after QB movement in pocket buys more time. In other words improvisation is what is leading to success, not designed plays. DCs are correctly guessing plays and taking away early reads. We'll see if it swings back other way as season goes on. Yeah but Mitch is missing a lot of reads as well making some horribly poor passes. Like I said before we still have a Good QB/Bad QB deal going on without any real game to game consistency and that dates back to last year. If they're taking away his first read he has to know very quickly where he should be able to go with the ball and execute that throw and he's not doing that often enough yet. IMHO the offense and Mitch should be farther along now that anything they've shown. You can only excuse so much. Edited September 17, 2019 by soulman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dll2000 Posted September 17, 2019 Author Share Posted September 17, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, soulman said: Yeah but Mitch is missing a lot of reads as well making some horribly poor passes. Like I said before we still have a Good QB/Bad QB deal going on without any real game to game consistency and that dates back to last year. If they're taking away his first read he has to know very quickly where he should be able to go with the ball and execute that throw and he's not doing that often enough yet. IMHO the offense and Mitch should be farther along now that anything they've shown. You can only excuse so much. Well, in first game he missed a lot of reads. BUT he was under constant fire from free runners. That always F's up QB play. It just does. Second game, they simply took ball out of his hand for most of game. I don't believe he missed that many reads in 2nd game. You can read that as having no confidence in QB or concentrating on establishing the run regardless of what defense was giving. Or a little of both. It hasn't been good, the opposite. But there are excuses. It is not inconceivable that this thing gets turned around gradually this season and we have a competent offense is 2nd half of the year. I think people are throwing up their hands prematurely. There have been exceptional throws. Something to hang your hat on even though overall productivity has been very poor. I think a lot of the productivity problems isn't just the QB, it is overall offensive execution. It only takes one guy in 11 to screw up an offensive play. We have at least 2 guys on every down doing something horrible. Usually it's some combo of an O linemen, TE or the QB, but two of them are screwing the pooch on near every down. Driving me nuts. Lou Holtz was found of saying something like team that makes the fewest mistakes is often the one that wins. Right now that isn't close to us. Edited September 17, 2019 by dll2000 typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nads786 Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 I actually agree with a lot of your positives. We’ve seen a ton of open WRs last year. We do so but see that at all this year. i believe Nagy will improve his playcalling and this offense will get better. The NFL is very hard to predict. I love the bubba gump analogy! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topwop1 Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 Good thread to help pull those back from the ledge a little bit. While the offense and Mitch for that matter have been pretty underwhelming so far I am not one to jump to any conclusions too early and am willing to give this guy the benefit of the doubt that most Bears fans have with him right now. My fear is that the majority of the fan base is starting to turn and sour on Mitch too quick, which will definitely put more pressure on him and the organization to perform up to their expectations, which may be a little too high considering some people are unfairly expecting Mitch to be what Mahomes is. For me, as long as the team continues to be competitive and win the games they should then I will be able to tolerate some ups and downs and inconsistencies. Mitch may not end up being the franchise QB we all thought and hoped he would be, but it's far too early to give up on the experiment and I'm certainly not looking ahead to 2020 NFL draft eligible QBs at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dll2000 Posted September 17, 2019 Author Share Posted September 17, 2019 30 minutes ago, topwop1 said: For me, as long as the team continues to be competitive and win the games they should then I will be able to tolerate some ups and downs and inconsistencies. It's kind of crazy that every loss is basically one score for more than a season now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dll2000 Posted September 17, 2019 Author Share Posted September 17, 2019 Okay remember how I said guys weren't getting open in Denver? Yeah they were now that I see evidence. MT just isn't seeing them. I still have hope he can turn this around. Game needs to slow down for him somehow. I think he may be shell shocked from his own defense and then the GB game. I feel like he is smart. He just needs to get there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulman Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 5 hours ago, dll2000 said: think a lot of the productivity problems isn't just the QB, it is overall offensive execution. It only takes one guy in 11 to screw up an offensive play. We have at least 2 guys on every down doing something horrible. And I'm not putting all of the blame on him. As I said the entire offense isn't as far along as it needs to be right now. But Nagy and Trubisky are it's engine and they aren't even close to hitting on all cylinders yet. That's disappointing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmike90 Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 The Broncos were 17-1 in home openers heading into our game since 2001...goes to show how difficult it is for guys who are not 100% in football shape to play in that stadium...lots of negatives but the win itself is impressive. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WindyCity Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 Leonard Floyd is losing his mind he was whipping the OTs around. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abstract_thought Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 Special teams has been a strength of the team through 2 weeks. That's very encouraging considering last year's struggles and important for a team lacking a great offense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dll2000 Posted September 17, 2019 Author Share Posted September 17, 2019 Think how in shape our defense got during that game. Don't think they will be gassing much in Washington. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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