This Ends in Antioch wrote:
My only takeaway is that the Bears are no worse than average.
I think they're semantically "pretty good" -- despite obvious glaring weaknesses on their o-lime and in the 2ndary they've managed to adapt their schemes/playcalls around them to, say, pull off 5 5 4 3 sacks in the games after the week 1 beatdown (and thus try to hide their 2ndary from getting exposed for too frequent broken/busted coverages where, say, Carr finds a wife open WR streaking to the endzone with nobody within 10yds of him 5-7secs too late (for a surefire 6) and still gets it to him for a 30-40/+ gain.... And he drops it. #ThankYouJesus
Then on the other side of the ball despite another o-lime injury they did a good enough job to get a competent professional RB performance from d-will + Herbert, they kept fields from getting sacked any more than maybe 1-2 times and generally gave him enough time to find his WRs when he needed them (that big 3rd and 12 conversion to Darnell Mooney where he threaded the needle between 2 closing DBs to keep the drive alive and going to get that first all important FG to out them up 8? Yeah good job there.
I wish fields would be a little more proactive in building on 14-3 type leads to get them to 21-3 or 28-6 or 28-10 instead of falling victim to the conservative time killing run run pass / "prevent" offense and kicking the ball back to them to keep your defense out there almost perpetually for 10-20mins of "plz hold on" ---- but then to his credit once Cincy makes it 14-9 with 9 mins left Justin steps up and LEADS them down the field something like 50-60yds over ~6mins to get them.to that all important 17-9 lead (where you get the Brucie bonus of having them need to convert 1 do or die play to tie it up after the TD) with only appx 2:55 left... You even got them to burn a timeout before the FG to save 30 seconds for their drive after the FG.
And then after that big 4th down stop / turnover on downs Justin gets it back and deftly moves the ball down enough to cement the game with a FG to make it 20-9 with appx 2:45-3:00 left.... So I think.justiin is a great closer in the final drive or 2 of the game, but I'd love to see him respond sooner to, say, that huge raiders drop on the busted coverage .... Turn around and take that ball downfield for 3/7 and go up either 17-3 or 17/9 if not 21/3 or 21-9 and you won't have to embark in squeaky bum time drives where it feels like if you give them the ball back @ 14-9 with any decent amount of time you just KNOW they're going to punch it in (and go for 2) to try and go up 17-14... So when the pressure is in Fields tends to do what needs to be done.
So yeah props to Desai for adjusting his blitzing/pass-rush schemes throughout the game too they got back on track around mid-late 2Q and into the 2H (they woulda had their usual 5 sacks if they got any pressure in Carr into the 1st/2nd Q) and this effectively hides the secondary, who is still prone to do things like, say, roll out "bump and release" coverage at the LOS ***ON THEIR #1 WR*** or have the weekly deep coverage/zone mixup where someone is running free in a 7-10yd bubble around them, but fortunately Carr took too long to notice it and when he DID throw it he got too much hands right there in the midsection where you can't expect anyone but a top-5 NFL wideout to reel that catch in.
So yeah the bears deserved to give up most likely 6-8 more pts on that drop, but despite that the offense bailed them out by having that game winning 4th quarter drive that basically sealed their fate.
So yeah, my irrational hope is that we've secretly been sitting in rollouts / bootlegs / proper RPOs to save these new wrinkles/ideas for later in the year when we go thru the gauntlet against better team. No reason to out them on tape right now when you can beat Detroit and the raidaaaas by having Justin train as a pocket passer.... But then during Packers/bucs/cardinals game all.of a sudden Allen Robinson and fields are doing the Packers bread and butter play where davante starts on the left, runs up 10-15yds then hangs a right going L-R across the field while Rodgers is rolling right to set up a nice straight ahead pass to davante in full stride (and space) for an easy 20-25 pitch and catch which can go for 40+ we say if davante turns the corner and/or defense misses a tackle or especially too.
At least I hope to God they're saving this stuff cuz when you see davante do 11/206/2 today it's like, man do that with a-rob a few times thru the game and he goes like 8/113/1-2.
Hell maybe they're playing possum with a-rob, or trying to teach Justin to not go to his security blanket 70% of the time cuz it's downright weird how Robinson has been utterly pedestrian at best despite doing 100+ receptions 1200+ yds and like 6/+ TDs last year when he was our first bonafide legit #1 WR since Brandon Marshall.
Man imagine if fields had a prime Brandon Marshall... I tell you establishing a proper #1 WR would get Justin 9n the path to 250+ yards and 2/+ TD a game.
Also it would help if Cole kmet didn't trip and fall a few yards away from every ball thrown to him ,#imjustsayin #Rosemont
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Curious Hair wrote:
Les Grobstein's huge hog is proof that God has a sense of humor, isn't it?