Bears VS Lions - Post Game Observations

[Just Want A Title]

The Lions played a good game today.  They did what is generally expected:  they beat a not-very-good Bears Team.  It was good to the offense get the running game back on-track.  The run-defense was a little shaky in the first quarter but settled down without causing too much damage.  Any win is a good win.  Hopefully, this will be something that can build on and create some late season momentum.  That said:

Coaching:

- It was a little concerning to see the run-defense get off to a shaky start against the Bears.  The managed to make the right adjustments to contain Justin Fields and David Montgomery after the first quarter though.  AG had the players in a better position to keep Justin Fields contained as as the game progressed.  They still have some things to tighten-up on defense if they are going to make any noise at all in the post-season

- This was the first game of the year where our special teams play was a little flat.  It didn't change the outcome of the game but that kind of lapse against a better team could be problematic

- The Lions have gotten much more consistent production from their TEs as the season has progressed.   The Lions are creating a tough-to-defend 3-headed monster in Brock Wright, Shane Zylstra and James Mitchell.  I think the offense is much better when things are clicking the the TEs in the passing game.  

- I think the coaching staff is taking the right approach with Jameson Williams.  He may not be getting a huge number of snaps but that is OK.  He needs to make plays and earn more playing time rather than it being simply given to him.

Offense:

- Jared Goff continues to play really good football.  He had completions to 10 different receivers.  He has made big strides in how he responds to being pressured which has helped limit our turnovers on offense.  He has also gotten better with his accuracy and ball-placement  He deserves a lot of credit for his improvement and his overall play this season.  His ability to go through his progressions and find the open receiver really stands out right now.

- D'Andre Swift had the kind of game we have been waiting for since Week 1.  Granted, he feasted on a Bears defense that isn't very good.  Hopefully, he will have a similar impact next week against the Packers

- Jamal Williams had a really good game as well.  I am hoping he and D'Andre Swift can carry that into the game next week

- Jameson Williams on that Jet sweep was executed really well.  He showed off his speed as well as his under-rated elusiveness.  He did a nice job of following his blockers.  The threat of that play could create a lot of problems for opposing defenses.  

- Penei Sewell deserves a shout-out on the Jameson Williams jet sweep.  He made a really good block downfield to spring him for a good chuck of extra yardage.  

- The O-Line as a group played pretty well today.  They needed a game like this to get their swagger back.  

- Brock Wright, Shane Zylstra and James Mitchell are giving the offense a very hard-to-defend option.  Brock Wight has been making steady improvements.  Shane Zylstra seems to create a fair amount of match-up problems.  James Mitchell seems to know how to find the open spots in a defense.  Kudos to Brad Holmes for finding solid contributors from two UDFAs and fifth-round draft pick.  The coaching staff deserves a ton of credit for developing them and getting this level of production.

Defense:

- Our defense has to get better in the first quarter.  We know their offense would be keyed by the running of Justin Fields.  He ran for over 100 yards in the first quarter.  It wasn't a deal-breaker against the Bears but good teams will not let you get away with that

- James Houston is turning into a very well-rounded player.  He had a key block on special teams against Jacksonville.  Running down Justin Fields and creating fumble was a really good play.  Notching a few more sacks doesn't hurt either

- Josh Pascal finally had something close to a break-out game.  He notched a couple of sacks and did a better job setting the edge as the game progressed.  

- John Cominsky continues to be a really good complimentary player.  He notched a sack and was pretty disruptive today

- Kerby Joseph may not be the best tackler yet but he is starting to make plays at the line of scrimmage and at the first down markers rather than just playing "deep centerfield".  As with the rest of the defense, he should be dinged for letting Justin Fields run wild early but he settle down after the first quarter

- Adain Hutchinson was all over the field today.  Some of his best football showed up when he backed off enough to keep Justin Fields contained.  He showed a really high football IQ

- Alim McNeil and Isaiah Buggs have been pretty good but they need a third DT can help keep them fresh.  Right now, we are scheming around it.  That might explain why our run-defense is falling off late in the season.

Front Office:

- One thing that deserves mentioning is just how good of a job Brad Holmes has done with adding talent to the roster that was bereft of talent-especially on defense. In two off-seasons he has added: Penei Sewell, Alim McNeil, Amon Ra St Brown, Jamal Williams, Jerry Jacobs, Brock Wright, Aidan Hutchinson, Kerby Joseph, James Houston, Malcom Rodriguez, Derrick Barnes, Isaiah Buggs, John Cominsky, DeShon Elliot, and Shane Zylstra.  All of these player either foundational players of significant contributors to our rebuild.

- I never thought I would write something like this but the Lions ownership also deserves a lot of credit.  Sheila Ford Hamp has helped create more excitement around the Lions in the last two years than we have seen in a long time

 

The Lions did a lot of good things today but it is important to remember that Chicago isn't a very good team.  The most important thing they did was not play down to their opponents level.   The Lions have made more progress than most people expected this year.  Hopefully they can end the season on a positive note in Green Bay.

Edited January 1, 2023 by Just Want A Title
Forgot something

[Just Want A Title]

I didn't notice that Jeff Okudah got benched again.  His play has really dropped off the last three weeks.  He was getting reps as a gunner on special teams.  I don't see him keeping a roster spot next year if this trend continues.  Reference below.

https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2023/1/1/23534505/detroit-lions-chicago-bears-takeaways-week-17-win

[Superduperman]

Justin Fields stinks. Excellent runner but as a passer he's awful. The offensive team around him obv doesn't help either. Then once Fields got nicked up, and credit to the Lions for putting hits on him, the game was over.

Especially in the second half, the whole bears team was just so openly finished with this season and ready to go fishing. On the Lions we call it "I-75 eyes," so whatever the Chicago version of that is.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Superduperman

[Sllim Pickens]

On 1/1/2023 at 10:30 PM, Superduperman said:

Justin Fields stinks. Excellent runner but as a passer he's awful. The offensive team around him obv doesn't help either. Then once Fields got nicked up, and credit to the Lions for putting hits on him, the game was over.

Especially in the second half, the whole bears team was just so openly finished with this season and ready to go fishing. On the Lions we call it "I-75 eyes," so whatever the Chicago version of that is.

Part of Fields bad passing is he has nobody to throw to.  His top 2 WRs are hurt and they had probably the worst tope 2 WR in the league to start the season.  He definitely hasn't been good but I dont think he should be written off yet, but he definitely has some huge question marks going into next season.   

 

On 1/1/2023 at 6:25 PM, Just Want A Title said:

- I never thought I would write something like this but the Lions ownership also deserves a lot of credit.  Sheila Ford Hamp has helped create more excitement around the Lions in the last two years than we have seen in a long time

I have been saying this for a couple years now, but SFH's decisions to come in and reorganize the whole organization instead of plugging in a new GM and coach to a broken system was why I was finally somewhat optimistic about this staff.  Adding key pieces between the President and GM helps communication and getting things done correctly.  Adding assistant GMs to handle non-football related items (food, turf management etc) is huge to allow the talent evaluator be that.  I was skeptical of the DC hire but saw how players progressed and payed hard for him last year and that is continuing this year even after being down on him after the rough start.  For the first time in my life though, we have an owner who is present enough to show she cares, not overly involved with things she doesn't know about, and has made good decisions in putting football people around non football people to help everyone succeed.  

[Karnage84]

1 hour ago, Sllim Pickens said:

I have been saying this for a couple years now, but SFH's decisions to come in and reorganize the whole organization instead of plugging in a new GM and coach to a broken system was why I was finally somewhat optimistic about this staff.  Adding key pieces between the President and GM helps communication and getting things done correctly.  Adding assistant GMs to handle non-football related items (food, turf management etc) is huge to allow the talent evaluator be that.  I was skeptical of the DC hire but saw how players progressed and payed hard for him last year and that is continuing this year even after being down on him after the rough start.  For the first time in my life though, we have an owner who is present enough to show she cares, not overly involved with things she doesn't know about, and has made good decisions in putting football people around non football people to help everyone succeed.  

Well said 

 

On 1/1/2023 at 6:25 PM, Just Want A Title said:

- I never thought I would write something like this but the Lions ownership also deserves a lot of credit.  Sheila Ford Hamp has helped create more excitement around the Lions in the last two years than we have seen in a long time

Agreed - 100%

[Louis Friend]

I agree about Sheila, but I disagree about Fields. He's just a poor QB. Yes, he doesn't have Goffs weapons, but he has some and he can't get the ball to him. His receivers aren't the reason he has trouble reading defenses. His OL isn't the reason he has poor decision making or tries to sidearm passes into the flat. At some point, he has to take responsibility for the aspects of the game he can control. And I don't see him improving there. Yes, he can run and that is a damn good weapon. But when we got our DL to not rush as much and contain, he did nothing offensively. I don't think he's done as a QB but I think someone has to sit him down and address the real issues and not just make excuses. He needs a QB guru that coach him up. He needs work. Whether he puts in that work will determine the rest of his career, not his talent. 

But yeah, Sheila is amazing. This change is due to her. She deserves so much more credit than she's given but SOL fans are relentless.

[Sllim Pickens]

4 hours ago, Louis Friend said:

I agree about Sheila, but I disagree about Fields. He's just a poor QB. Yes, he doesn't have Goffs weapons, but he has some and he can't get the ball to him. His receivers aren't the reason he has trouble reading defenses. His OL isn't the reason he has poor decision making or tries to sidearm passes into the flat. At some point, he has to take responsibility for the aspects of the game he can control. And I don't see him improving there. Yes, he can run and that is a damn good weapon. But when we got our DL to not rush as much and contain, he did nothing offensively. I don't think he's done as a QB but I think someone has to sit him down and address the real issues and not just make excuses. He needs a QB guru that coach him up. He needs work. Whether he puts in that work will determine the rest of his career, not his talent. 

But yeah, Sheila is amazing. This change is due to her. She deserves so much more credit than she's given but SOL fans are relentless.

He got sacked 7 times, hit 9, and pressured a few more.  His top WR are Equanimious St Brown and N'Keal Harry.  Those are not weapons at all.  He does have Kmet who also has never been a consistent threat.  To think his weapons are not part of the problem and his O line is not part of the problem is crazy.  Last year before ARSB broke out, people had written Goff off completely.  We were ready to draft Malik Willis in the first.  Then he got a couple options to throw to, got better protection when Decker came back and Sewell improved, and got better play calling and now he has had one of the best seasons as a QB in Lions history.  Fields has absolutely everything working against him right now between talent around him, coaching, coaching changes, etc.  Sure he needs to work on things and improve but he isn't pure trash, he is trying to do too much with nothing to help him. 

[Louis Friend]

4 minutes ago, Sllim Pickens said:

He got sacked 7 times, hit 9, and pressured a few more.  His top WR are Equanimious St Brown and N'Keal Harry.  Those are not weapons at all.  He does have Kmet who also has never been a consistent threat.  To think his weapons are not part of the problem and his O line is not part of the problem is crazy.  Last year before ARSB broke out, people had written Goff off completely.  We were ready to draft Malik Willis in the first.  Then he got a couple options to throw to, got better protection when Decker came back and Sewell improved, and got better play calling and now he has had one of the best seasons as a QB in Lions history.  Fields has absolutely everything working against him right now between talent around him, coaching, coaching changes, etc.  Sure he needs to work on things and improve but he isn't pure trash, he is trying to do too much with nothing to help him. 

I know OSU is your team and I can respect the ride or die for your Buckeye players, but I stand by what I said. Alot of Fields' issues are things he could work on but people rather make excuses. We saw it with Stafford early in his career as well. Until he put the work in and started addressing his deficiencies, it was excuse central around these parts. 

[Karnage84]

9 minutes ago, Louis Friend said:

I know OSU is your team

[Superduperman]

Time will tell who's really the biggest problem with Fields. I know that PFF credits his line with a pretty good pass block win rate. A lot of his sacks are on him, too.

I'm just saying, people who say he looks bad only because everyone around him is bad, are seeing what they want to see. He's a garbage passer right now. He could get better, who knows.

[Sllim Pickens]

3 hours ago, Louis Friend said:

I know OSU is your team and I can respect the ride or die for your Buckeye players, but I stand by what I said. Alot of Fields' issues are things he could work on but people rather make excuses. We saw it with Stafford early in his career as well. Until he put the work in and started addressing his deficiencies, it was excuse central around these parts. 

OSU isn’t really my team, and isn’t why I’m not writing him off.  He had a poor game. He also had some great games this year throwing the ball.  That was his second lowest rating of the year and the other 14 games he was above a 75 rating.  He has a lack of talent around him prior to his top 2 WRs got hurt. I just know that Stafford got heat when he had crap around him too and when he was young and bouncing through coaches every year. Yes Fields looked like trash last weekend but if you only count that game and ignore the rest of the year, sure you will think he is trash. His rating on the year is similar to Goffs last year, when Goff had no help. 

 

 

[Superduperman]

4 minutes ago, Sllim Pickens said:

OSU isn’t really my team, and isn’t why I’m not writing him off.  He had a poor game. He also had some great games this year throwing the ball.  That was his second lowest rating of the year and the other 14 games he was above a 75 rating.  He has a lack of talent around him prior to his top 2 WRs got hurt. I just know that Stafford got heat when he had crap around him too and when he was young and bouncing through coaches every year. Yes Fields looked like trash last weekend but if you only count that game and ignore the rest of the year, sure you will think he is trash. His rating on the year is similar to Goffs last year, when Goff had no help. 

I admit I haven't watched him religiously but Chicago ends up on TV in the Detroit market sometimes and I've seen him a handful of times. Very very few times have I been impressed with anything other than his running ability

[Louis Friend]

4 minutes ago, Sllim Pickens said:

OSU isn’t really my team, and isn’t why I’m not writing him off.  He had a poor game. He also had some great games this year throwing the ball.  That was his second lowest rating of the year and the other 14 games he was above a 75 rating.  He has a lack of talent around him prior to his top 2 WRs got hurt. I just know that Stafford got heat when he had crap around him too and when he was young and bouncing through coaches every year. Yes Fields looked like trash last weekend but if you only count that game and ignore the rest of the year, sure you will think he is trash. His rating on the year is similar to Goffs last year, when Goff had no help. 

 

 

But my opinion is not just regarding this one game, nor am I writing him off. He has weaknesses, legitimate problems, that need to be addressed. Reading a defense, poor throws, poor decision making, etc don't all fall on poor receivers. 

He was my second favorite QB in that draft. I think he can be a real weapon. But he needs to develop and he's not going to when you just hide behind excuses.

[Sllim Pickens]

10 minutes ago, Louis Friend said:

But my opinion is not just regarding this one game, nor am I writing him off. He has weaknesses, legitimate problems, that need to be addressed. Reading a defense, poor throws, poor decision making, etc don't all fall on poor receivers. 

He was my second favorite QB in that draft. I think he can be a real weapon. But he needs to develop and he's not going to when you just hide behind excuses.

Obviously all QBs could work on things.  He and Goff have the same PFF grade this year.  He is better in open air stadiums than Goff has been this year. And since his top WR went down he has been pretty good still other than the game against us.  Sure he could make better throws and not side arm stuff. Mahomes side arms a lot too.  But he also has an elite coach and weapons.  Not to say Fields is Mahomes but he is a better passer than Lamar Jackson, almost as good of a runner, but has a significantly worse supporting cast. 

[Louis Friend]

43 minutes ago, Sllim Pickens said:

Obviously all QBs could work on things.  He and Goff have the same PFF grade this year.  He is better in open air stadiums than Goff has been this year. And since his top WR went down he has been pretty good still other than the game against us.  Sure he could make better throws and not side arm stuff. Mahomes side arms a lot too.  But he also has an elite coach and weapons.  Not to say Fields is Mahomes but he is a better passer than Lamar Jackson, almost as good of a runner, but has a significantly worse supporting cast. 

I'm sorry, but if you actually believe these three statements, let's just agree to disagree because I just don't even understand how anyone can legitimately believe this. I'm out.