Excellent Detailed Game Review and Update on Fields......

[soulman]

 

Justin Fields’ status for Green Bay unknown, Roquan Smith steps up again: Bears Monday Rewind

By Kevin Fishbain Dec 6, 2021 19

It’s uncertain whether Justin Fields will start at quarterback against the Packers on Sunday at Lambeau Field.

“That’s going to be an ongoing discussion for us all week long,” Bears coach Matt Nagy said Monday. “So starting today as we start to game plan and then as it goes the rest of this week and I’m sure as each day passes, we’ll have more and more of an idea of where he’s at. I’ve said it all along: This is more of a pain thing for him right now. Medically, we’re never going to put him at risk medically. Never. So you can mark that down.

“If he is able to go and he is able to play and be the starter, it’s going to be because medically he’s cleared, and then I think more than anything it’s pain. You know? It’s going to be a pain-tolerance deal. We’ve just got to work through all that. And as soon as we have clarity on all that, then we’ll know. In the meantime, we have to be able to do like we did last week, too, which is kind of prepare on both sides of it.”

Another Andy Dalton start — this one in prime time against Aaron Rodgers — would probably not be celebrated in Chicago-area households.

The fact Fields practiced last week, albeit in a limited fashion, should be a good sign for his potential to return. And after Dalton’s four-interception game against the Cardinals, there shouldn’t be any, “Well, maybe Dalton gives us a better chance to win so we can be more patient with Fields.”

It should be as simple as, when Fields is medically cleared to play, he will start. If there’s a shred of concern about his ribs injury, he should sit.

Quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo was asked about the hits Fields takes and how some of them can look rough.

“Whenever your quarterback takes awkward hits, we’ll be watching the tape and I’ll be like, ‘Man, that looked weird,'” he said. “You know what I mean? We’ll say that. ‘That looked weird.’ You talk about it, and at the end of the day, you have to let the guy’s athleticism take over. With time, he’ll learn when it’s quicker to get down, the baseball-type slides, those things. It’s something we constantly talk about because whenever you have a quarterback like Justin’s running style, I think you always have to have cause for concern for the amount of hits that that player’s taken.”

Notes, stats, snap count observations and more

• A high play count doesn’t always mean the offense is rolling or a team is going to win, but it can reflect lots of first downs and long drives. The Bears seem to struggle to parlay having the ball for a long time into winning games. NFL teams that run at least 71 plays in a non-overtime game are 41-25 this season, a winning percentage of .621. Under Nagy, the Bears are 3-7 when their offense gets at least 71 plays.

• The other times this season the Bears hit 70 plays were the Thanksgiving win in Detroit and the loss to the 49ers, which was their most efficient performance with Fields at quarterback.

• The Bears had 26 first downs against the Cardinals, their high-water mark for 2021. They are 3-5 under Nagy when compiling at least 26 first downs in a game. NFL teams are 39-14 this season when they have at least 26 first downs.

• David Montgomery was the best player on offense for the Bears in the loss. He tied a career high with nine targets, catching eight of those passes for 51 yards. He played 53 of the 76 snaps (official snap counts include penalties). He carried the ball 21 times, which can usually be a stat line seen in the box score of a Bears win, but they fell to 9-4 when he has at least 18 carries.

• There was more of an effort to get Khalil Herbert going, it seemed. He had four carries for 16 yards and an 11-yard reception on 22 snaps. If the Bears could ever hold a lead, it’s easy to envision them producing a long Montgomery-led drive followed by one with Herbert getting the call. It’s hard to do that when they’re constantly playing from behind.

• Darnell Mooney averaged 5.4 yards per catch. He nearly matched his Week 1 output (five catches, 26 yards). His best play came on a 12-yard slant. The Cardinals limited his yards after catch on a couple of quick passes, and the Bears didn’t push the ball downfield. Mooney led all skill players by playing 72 snaps.

• With Allen Robinson and Marquise Goodwin sidelined by injuries, the Bears relied upon Damiere Byrd and Jakeem Grant. Grant had 65 yards receiving, the third most in his career. His five receptions tied a career high. He played 48 snaps. Grant has shown playmaking abilities as a gadget in the offense and in the return game to warrant bringing him back for the 2022 team.

“I think the more and more he gets comfortable in our offense, and I think obviously playing 49 snaps (Sunday), the more and more he gets a chance to play and gets that ball in his hands, obviously, he’s an electrifying player that has the ability to take the ball the distance every time he touches it,” wide receivers coach Mike Furrey said. “So it’ll be neat to continue to watch him grow over the next five weeks or so.”

 

Bears wide receiver Jakeem Grant runs in for a touchdown. (Todd Rosenberg / Associated Press)

• Byrd, facing one of his former teams, had only three catches for 36 yards on seven targets on his 65 snaps.

• Preseason fan favorite Rodney Adams finally got the call to the active roster, and with the first target of his NFL career, he dropped a pass from Dalton. Adams played 10 snaps.

• Cole Kmet played only five of the team’s first 12 snaps. At first, I wondered if that was a reflection of the fact Kmet missed practice time with a groin injury, but then he went back to his usual cadence and finished with 55 snaps, though the 72.4 percent clip was his lowest since Week 2. It was a rough game for Kmet, who had two drops and failed to break a tackle on third down late in the first half. He did have a 24-yard grab on fourth down late in the game and another nice catch along the sideline.

“The thing for a young player is not letting that affect the rest of his game,” tight ends coach Clancy Barone said. “Those are going to happen. Probably the only guy that’s never happened to is the guy that’s never had a ball thrown to him. I think the big thing is looking to see, ‘Can he fight his way through that?’ And he did, he came back in the latter part of the game and had two pretty tough catches where he had a guy on the defense hanging all over him and he had to make two pretty good catches there toward the end of the game to help us try to come down and score again.”

• Jesse James played 25 snaps but had zero targets. Jimmy Graham had a touchdown catch and hauled in a two-point conversion but had no other targets on his 21 snaps. J.P. Holtz played seven snaps, and Alex Bars was an extra lineman for two snaps.

• In his NFL debut, Teven Jenkins was on the field for two of the extra points. He took a few reps in pregame warmups at left tackle with the starters but didn’t get any in-game snaps on offense.

“We’re trying to work him and get him ready,” offensive line coach Juan Castillo said. “In an emergency thing, if something happened to Jason, right now he would be the one that would come in. So we’re trying to catch him up. He hasn’t done a lot of football. We’re working hard trying to get him ready in case something like that happens.

“He could play in short yardage or situations like that, too. Again, we’re just working him in slowly. He’s still recovering and all of those kinds of things, so we’re just working him slowly in.”

• Thanks to the short field the Bears kept giving the Cardinals, the overall defensive stats looked OK — Arizona had 257 yards of offense, the fewest in an NFL game for a team that scored at least 33 points since the Bears scored 41 with 190 yards of offense in 2018 against the Bills.

• While the defense stood tall twice in the red zone and held the Cardinals to field goals, its impact plays were severely limited. The Bears had zero quarterback hits on Kyler Murray; it was the second time they’ve been shut out in the past five games (the 49ers being the other). The only sack was credited to the “team” when Murray fell on a fumbled snap.

• The only pass defensed came from Artie Burns. The defense had six tackles for loss but zero takeaways.

• Oftentimes when a player tests whether he can play through an injury two hours before kickoff, we see him on the inactive list. Roquan Smith worked out with a trainer and not only was active but also played all 53 snaps. He led the team with eight tackles, including one for a loss and another that stopped a Murray scramble on third down.

“He’s a tremendous player, Kyler Murray. But again, I think it’s Roquan showing his talent level also,” linebackers coach Bill McGovern said. “He’s as good as anybody in the league. For him to get us off the field on third down was a big play for us (Sunday).”

• Robert Quinn was second in playing time among front-seven players with his 40 snaps. He had two tackles for loss, giving him 13 for the season. That’s the most for a Bears edge rusher since Julius Peppers had 13 in 2012.

• As expected, Angelo Blackson (38 snaps) and Bilal Nichols (37 snaps) led the way for the D-line — and Nichols had a tackle for loss — but surprisingly, rookie Khyiris Tonga (17 snaps) and veteran Margus Hunt (18 snaps) had more playing time than Eddie Goldman, who was on the field for only 14 snaps. It’s one thing if the Bears are predominantly in nickel and need their defensive ends, but it’s strange to see Tonga and Hunt out there more than Goldman, especially since he’s played well of late.

“It’s back to a situation where they were throwing the ball,” defensive line coach Chris Rumph said about Goldman’s playing time. “You want the guys out there that can rush it. If the guys broke the pocket, you want some guys out there that will have a shot to chase them down.”

That doesn’t necessarily explain why Tonga out-snapped Goldman, but Rumph said he is pleased with what he’s seen from the seventh-round rookie.

“That guy has tremendous growth,” he said. “His confidence, his ability to diagnose plays and to take the game plan from the sideline to the field and also to make adjustments from the sideline to the field, his growth is unbelievable from where he was to where he is now. It’s a credit to him.”

• In his first game with the Bears, veteran Bruce Irvin played 17 snaps. He had one tackle and no QB hits.

• Irvin is the 32nd player the Bears have used on defense this season, tied for seventh most in the NFL. The injuries and lineup shuffling mean Sean Desai has used more players on defense than any Bears defensive coordinator since 2017, when Vic Fangio had to use 33.

• In his 31 snaps, Trevis Gipson had two stops for no gain and another for only one yard, but he did not get a hit on Murray.

• Believe it or not, Eddie Jackson had a tackle for loss, a stop for no gain that he shared with Gipson, and he stopped James Conner short of the goal line, which eventually led to the Cardinals settling for a field goal. Jackson and Tashaun Gipson played all 53 snaps.

• Jaylon Johnson was in coverage on DeAndre Hopkins’ touchdown, but the Cardinals’ star receiver had only one other target all game, with Johnson spending most of the afternoon shadowing him.

• Desai said last week he had wanted to rotate Kindle Vildor in with Burns, and Vildor played 14 snaps. Burns got 43.

• Xavier Crawford was the nickel corner again, playing 42 snaps, and he had a bad missed tackle on Conner’s touchdown. Crawford is the third Bears nickel corner this season, following Marqui Christian and Duke Shelley, and if we’ve learned anything, it’s that the Bears need to find a nickel corner in 2022.

• DeAndre Houston-Carson played 11 snaps as the dime defensive back. Christian Jones subbed in for 12 snaps at inside linebacker, rotating with Alec Ogletree, who played 23 snaps and had only one tackle.

• Against their former special-teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers, the Bears held their own in the third phase. Pat O’Donnell’s two punts had a net average of 45.5 yards, and they limited Rondale Moore to one return for zero yards. Herbert had a 27-yard kickoff return.

• It might not have been a great day to kick field goals anyway, but the Bears offense didn’t give Cairo Santos any chances to add to their score. It’s great that they went 3-for-3 in the red zone scoring touchdowns, but four interceptions and two punts meant no three-point opportunities for Santos.

(Top photo: Jamie Sabau / Getty Images)

[soulman]

Nice run down of snap counts and an excellent critique of just how badly this offense plays.  Even when we dominate TOP and yardage we lose more than we win.  Nagy's offense is a complete and total failure and every way it possibly can be.

Although it would be great to see as much of Fields and Jenkins as possible I would not risk either unnecessarily in a road game it would take a miracle to win and still leave us with no actual expectation of making the playoffs.

Yeah, it's GB but we'll have many more shots at them in the future when maybe we're the guys with an All Pro QB instead of them.