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Week 1 Thoughts and Observations


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Thoughts and Observations

This is a first glance at the game, I rewatched some of the first half this morning while my son ate breakfast, but have not gotten to watch the 2nd half again. I will hopefully be able to update this a little later in the week.

Mike Glennon-I thought he was pretty bad in the 1st 3 quarter of the game. Very hesitant and conservative with the check down offense. 41 yards in 3 quarters is unacceptable even with suspect weapons. His protection was good, the DB blitz is on him and one he needs to see and the Beasley sack was him holding the ball too long and then running into it. In the 4th quarter he seem to get more confident with his back to the wall and played much better. Do I think the Bears would have won with Trubisky? Probably, his mobility would have been a huge asset. But I am willing to give Glennon the TB game to see if the 4th quarter from Sunday can be the norm.

Jordan Howard-I do not care what Tarik Cohen is doing, 13 touches for Howard is unacceptable. He needs 20 carries minimum to get rolling and to wear down defenses. The Bears through on 70% of their snaps which meant Howard was pushed out of the game plan. I think Howard looked good. There were a couple of plays where I think he missed a couple of holes, but then he had a couple of great cuts off of some nice Massie blocks.

Tarik Cohen-clearly the dude is very talented and he can flat out run. His cutback gain of 16 was really impressive. He also clearly is one of the top 2-3 WRs on the team and should be given way more work in the slot. I would argue that he was over targeted, but I also applaud Loggains for creativity and getting him the ball in some great spots. The deep ball in the endzone that Glennon just under threw was a play calling master piece. Cohen should have the 2nd most touches on offense behind Howard. The most encouraging part of the game was the 3-4 huge shots he took and he got right back up.

Michael Burton-I normally hate FBs, but he had a great run and a couple of nice lead blocks, so maybe he can stay.

Dion Sims-I liked what I saw in the run game and more importantly for a WRless team I liked what I saw in the pass game. He runs pretty nice routes for an almost 280lbs. TE. He needs more than 2 catches a game, which I think were his only targets. Once he is moving he is a punishing runner and can create YAC with his size. The Bears need to use their TEs to attack downfield with the lack of WR talent. Sims, Shaheen and Miller threatening the seam has to become a huge part of what they are doing.

Adam Shaheen-It is time to get him some targets. I do not care if he falls down, drops the pass, or generally wanders around looking confused. He is going to need to contribute to the passing game at some point sooner rather than later. Get his feet wet now.

Kevin White-I feel bad for him, he literally has no luck. He is one of the bigger busts in Bears history. He will finish his career with 5 games played and 0 TDs, that is an abysmal return on investment. The Bears may have gotten better when he got hurt as crazy as that sounds. He was slow, ran a couple really bad routes and had an easy drop. His only positive play was a screen on a 3rd and 19 give up play.

Kendall Wright-I continue to like what we see from Wright on 3rd down. He needs to be even more of an option in the pass game and I think he is showing that he is reliable enough to get thrown at early in the game.

Bobbie Massie-This was one of the surprises of the game for me. He was really pretty good most of the game. He looked solid in pass pro and did not have nearly as many issues with giving up the short corner that he had last season. He had some really nice run blocks where Howard was behind him. On one he did an exceptional job of getting to the 2nd level and letting Cohen slip behind him for 5-6 more yards.

OL-I thought the OL was very solid all game. You are really asking a lot of them to protect a statue who does not get rid of the ball quickly. Glennon was the cause of a lot of the sacks and pass protection breakdowns. I thought the run game was solid, especially considering the DT talent on Atlanta. 125 yards on 19 carries is something I will take any day of the week. I think that the penalties on Whitehair were a joke so I am not really holding that against him.

Massie and Leno are going to take crap for the last play of the game, but Glennon did exactly what the Falcons wanted on that play. Leno's DE goes hard inside, which Leno does give up to start, but Leno recovers and washes him inside. Massie rides Brooks Reed wide, but at that point Glennon has waddled out of the back of the pocket right into the sack. At the time of the sack Glennon was almost 10 yards behind the line and Massie has no shot. Glennon is a horrendous athlete he needs to stand in and let Leno go by and make a throw, there is no way he is escaping anyone out of the back of the endzone.

Dowell Loggains-I thought he did some creative things that helped mask a lack of talent at the WR position. But come on man, run the damn ball. You are not going to win many games with the game plan from Sunday. Hanging around till the end of the game and then hoping to make a play is literally a coin flip. What is the best case scenario of losing to the elite teams and then coin flipping with the rest 5-6 wins?

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Akiem Hicks-It is nice when you plunk down huge money and get immediate return on the investment that you have made. Hicks was dominant. His spinning 3rd and short stuff was incredible to watch from a 340lbs man. He needs more breaks as you saw reps where he was clearly gassed, which leads me to my next observation.

Roy Robertson-Harris-I am starting to get really excited about this guy. The batted pass saved a 12 yard completion and a 1st down, but he also had a couple other reps that led to big plays. He had a great bull rush on Hicks 2nd sack, and probably would have had a sack himself if Hicks hadn't gotten there. He collapsed the pocket and allowed Hicks to get to Ryan. This is a guy that I am going to watch very closely.

Jonathan Bullard- I was hoping to see a little more, but based on the limited reps I do not think he is 100% healthy from the glute injury.

Eddie Goldman-He and Hicks are a nightmare. I saw a number of nice rushes from Goldman and again when you allow 2.5 ypc your NT is a big part of that.

Jerrell Freeman-Having him for 4 million a season is literally stealing for the Bears. He is such an exceptional run defender and tackler. On one play there was a hole for D. Freeman and Jerell was blocked and he spins off and trips up Devonta and saves a big run.

Danny Trevathan-The fact that he is on the field is super impressive. I didn't note any exceptional plays, but I think we need to let him ease back into things before we expect too much. It also seemed that Kwaitowski was playing a lot of obvious passing downs, including falling over on the long Matt Ryan run.

Leonard Floyd-It was a quiet game for Floyd rushing the passer, although he had some nice coverage plays and was physical on the edge against the run again. He is drawing more attention in the passing game, it will be interesting to see how he counters off of the chips and double teams.

Pernell McPhee-I think he looked "violent" and "dominate people" in his 4 reps [sarcasm]. Clearly still a long way off. 

Sam Acho- Starting Acho surprised me a little, but I do agree with not wearing out Willie Young with a ton of reps and run heavy reps. I thought Acho was active against the run.

Willie Young-Based on what we saw against the Falcons I think it is safe to say that father time may be catching up with Young. I did not see a lot of dynamic rushes or Young getting close to the play. Limited reps may be key for him.

Eddie Jackson-I am pretty sure he blew his assignment on the 88 yard TD. He had a missed tackle on Hooper's other big play. Not the greatest debut for a rookie that I am high on. I think we saw a couple times where he was in very good position in the passing game, but the bust will define game 1 for him.

Quentin Demps-He missed 2 key tackles which I am disappointed from someone who is suppose to be a "steady veteran". Early in the game he knifed in on a 3rd down run deep in Atlanta territory and missed the tackle allowing a 1st down. Then obviously he was abused by Hooper. The Bears need Demps to make some plays like those.

Kyle Fuller, continued to impress me on his comeback tour. I think he was very competitive in coverage and again was physical coming up in run support and on shorter passes. He seems to have way more confidence and buy in.

Marcus Cooper- Looked to have a solid game. I thought he was going to go pick 6 on the pass in the 4th quarter, which would have been huge, but he matched up with Julio a fair bit and the Bears kept Jones in check. Need to see him continue to break on the ball like he did.

Bryce Callahan-I thought he struggled a lot. Taylor Gabriel seemed to turn him around a couple of times and he got caught in the wash and knocked Freeman off his coverage on a long seam completion.

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Love the right up. I did not see Glennon 10 yards behind the LOS during the last play so that was a nice reminder. Glennon's lack of athletic ability is alarming. I'm surprised you didn't mention the roll out Glennon did and could not move fluidly enough to execute. I thought he had a great end of game and I think part of that is Loggins opening up the offense.

 

I'm surprised you think Howard had a good game, I thought he looked a bit rusty and wasn't breaking tackles as he usually does. 

 

I think having Long back will really solidify this line which looks to be a strength of the team. We have to be able to run the ball consistently and let Glennon throw 15-20 times a game. I think Mitch's time is coming he seems to be a better fit for the offense.

 

I also agree with you regarding Kevin White and the offense getting better when he was injured. The guy doesn't bring much in terms of route running or athletic ability. Josh Bellamy really did a great job with his route running. I think White is on the field because of his draft status more than anything else. 

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18 minutes ago, Nads786 said:

Love the right up. I did not see Glennon 10 yards behind the LOS during the last play so that was a nice reminder. Glennon's lack of athletic ability is alarming. I'm surprised you didn't mention the roll out Glennon did and could not move fluidly enough to execute. I thought he had a great end of game and I think part of that is Loggins opening up the offense.

 

I'm surprised you think Howard had a good game, I thought he looked a bit rusty and wasn't breaking tackles as he usually does. 

 

I think having Long back will really solidify this line which looks to be a strength of the team. We have to be able to run the ball consistently and let Glennon throw 15-20 times a game. I think Mitch's time is coming he seems to be a better fit for the offense.

 

I also agree with you regarding Kevin White and the offense getting better when he was injured. The guy doesn't bring much in terms of route running or athletic ability. Josh Bellamy really did a great job with his route running. I think White is on the field because of his draft status more than anything else. 

If Josh Bellamy could make consistent catches we would have a star, he is always open.

It is hard to judge Howard on 13 carries. Broken tackles come with more carries and a tired defense. I only noted one play where he missed a wide open bounce to the left and instead just burried himself in the pile.

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