OT Bears 2019/20 season

[Dresden]

I don't think their receiving corps is all that bad- Robinson, Mooney, Miller, Kmet, even Jimmy Graham. Their RB is not very good. I still think Foles is a decent QB. The line IMO is the biggest problem. If you can't run the ball, and you can't throw it downfield due to poor pass protection, then all you have left is short passing, and if the defense knows that's what you'll do, that isn't going to work very well either. And even when they did manage to move the ball a little bit last night, on a couple of drives, stupid penalties by the line killed the drive.

It's a lot to fix- needing 2,3,4 upgrades on the line, plus new backs, plus new QB. It won't be an easy fix, but they've done virtually nothing to fix the line for the last 5 years.

[IliketheBullsNBearstoo]

After they traded up for Montgomery you mean. Yeah. We weren’t in the market for Bell either. Not saying he’s all that. Just......gaaaaaaa!

Bell didn't do anything behind a bad offensive line on the Jets. Why would that be different here?

Is it that the good offenses are only able to use good players, or is it that good offensive players make good offenses? More pointed to your question, do the Chiefs know talent, and know how to use talent better or worse than the Bears? You'll say they know better, but he Bears line ought to be able to run block a little, at least, adequately. Bell's not Montgomery, I do know that much. Montgomery can't hit a hole like this.

Watch on YouTube

I know Montgomery is no Bell, he just doesn't have that burst from a stop and go among many other things but....did you say hit a hole? What holes?

[IliketheBullsNBearstoo]

They gotta get Harris off of the field and let Kmet do his thing.

Nagy needs to get out of his own way and let another person call the plays.

This team has potential on offense but is playing so rigid, let Kmet and Mooney do their thing and let Nagy just be the HC. He wasn't brilliant at KC as a playcaller and wasn't experienced at it in KC either. Lazer should get a chance to scheme things up.

Foles had two throws for wide open receivers that were behind the defense and missed them both, one of them was a sure touch down, the other was possibly a touch down (maybe tackled right on the catch, but 50 yard gain). Had another play on 3rd down that he threw a completion to the line of scrimmage (5 yards short) and had two guys wide open down field. Probably more plays like that on the table, but you can't always see them on TV.

Not sure what play calling people think will work with this team.

The QB isn't good, the RB isn't good. The line isn't good. As I said before the season, they have among the worst skill position players in the league. Maybe Foles would be okay with a great line, but he can't play behind this one.

Their defense looks solid, and they can sometimes put together drives in spurts or score on short fields, but I doubt swapping Nagy out for whomever you think the GOAT play caller is in the world is going to solve the problem of fundamentally a lack of talent on offense. It just screams about people complaining about rotations in basketball, because what you just saw didn't work, so you have to do something else.

So you watch this offense every week and tell me you have no problems with any of the play calling?

I mean the defense knows our game plan before the coin toss. Brady would be looking like a phony in this offense.

Everything is chicken or the egg at this point. Doesn't matter though, if you can't get the job done you have to go. Coach, players, whoever.

[dougthonus]

So you watch this offense every week and tell me you have no problems with any of the play calling?

I mean the defense knows our game plan before the coin toss. Brady would be looking like a phony in this offense.

Everything is chicken or the egg at this point. Doesn't matter though, if you can't get the job done you have to go. Coach, players, whoever.

You only typically have a few opportunities for huge play down field, Foles had at least 3 that I saw, just missed the throw twice and didn't see it and throw the ball the 3rd time. A great QB makes those throws, a good QB makes at least 1 of them. If you make even 1 the game is entirely different.

I don't know what play calling you're going to do running the ball, Montgomery isn't explosive and our line can't run block. Throwing the ball we had opportunities and didn't connect on them because our QB wasn't good enough or our WRs didn't run the route good enough or whatever, but the opportunities were there.

I don't watch every team and say all the play calling in the league is perfect, but just saying "the playcallling was bad" without saying what play calls you think were bad, why they were bad, what you would have called instead, etc, is just not a compelling argument to me. Not when I see tons of opportunities that good players make and score TDs on that we just didn't make.

If I were to complain about the play calling, the one play I think we run too much of is the WR pass behind the line of scrimmage where you hope that the CB fades back immediately to give a cushion or that your WR just jukes someone at teh line of scrimmage to break a tackle, because otherwise its a 2 yard loss. That play seems to me to be a consistent loser. I'd probably try to replace it by throwing more slants which feel to me like they're usually good percentage plays, but obviously it depends what the defense is doing.

On the running game, I have no idea what the hell you can do at this point.

[IliketheBullsNBearstoo]

So you watch this offense every week and tell me you have no problems with any of the play calling?

I mean the defense knows our game plan before the coin toss. Brady would be looking like a phony in this offense.

Everything is chicken or the egg at this point. Doesn't matter though, if you can't get the job done you have to go. Coach, players, whoever.

You only typically have a few opportunities for huge play down field, Foles had at least 3 that I saw, just missed the throw twice and didn't see it and throw the ball the 3rd time. A great QB makes those throws, a good QB makes at least 1 of them. If you make even 1 the game is entirely different.

I don't know what play calling you're going to do running the ball, Montgomery isn't explosive and our line can't run block. Throwing the ball we had opportunities and didn't connect on them because our QB wasn't good enough or our WRs didn't run the route good enough or whatever, but the opportunities were there.

I don't watch every team and say all the play calling in the league is perfect, but just saying "the playcallling was bad" without saying what play calls you think were bad, why they were bad, what you would have called instead, etc, is just not a compelling argument to me. Not when I see tons of opportunities that good players make and score TDs on that we just didn't make.

If I were to complain about the play calling, the one play I think we run too much of is the WR pass behind the line of scrimmage where you hope that the CB fades back immediately to give a cushion or that your WR just jukes someone at teh line of scrimmage to break a tackle, because otherwise its a 2 yard loss. That play seems to me to be a consistent loser. I'd probably try to replace it by throwing more slants which feel to me like they're usually good percentage plays, but obviously it depends what the defense is doing.

On the running game, I have no idea what the hell you can do at this point.

I've mentioned it before. Its not just the plays, its when he calls them and the formations. He'll go no back set and our QB, doesn't matter which one, doesn't have time for the play to develop because the defense knows whats coming. He'll tighten up the formation with two TE's and try to run. I mean spread it out and keep the defense on their heels. And when he does its sideways or out of the shotgun. Sorry but know your players. Montgomery doesn't have enough burst to be that back. He needs to run in the I. His situational play calling isn't good. And yes Foles missed on some deep throws, I'm not trying to defend him. But he is about to get hit and has to get rid of the ball as fast as he can. The defense knows whats coming, there is no defense that is off balance due to our play calling. Ok now I'm just ranting out of frustration.

I know we are lacking talent at all positions but this is a problem in every area including Nagy's offensive strategy.

[dougthonus]

I've mentioned it before. Its not just the plays, its when he calls them and the formations. He'll go no back set and our QB, doesn't matter which one, doesn't have time for the play to develop because the defense knows whats coming. He'll tighten up the formation with two TE's and try to run. I mean spread it out and keep the defense on their heels. And when he does its sideways or out of the shotgun. Sorry but know your players. Montgomery doesn't have enough burst to be that back. He needs to run in the I. His situational play calling isn't good. And yes Foles missed on some deep throws, I'm not trying to defend him. But he is about to get hit and has to get rid of the ball as fast as he can. The defense knows whats coming, there is no defense that is off balance due to our play calling. Ok now I'm just ranting out of frustration.

I know we are lacking talent at all positions but this is a problem in every area including Nagy's offensive strategy.

When you don't have offensive players that can beat you when the defense screws up (as Foles failed to do repeatedly), then I'm not sure how you can keep the defense off balance. I agree that this is what you need to do, its kind of a guessing game, but when we had plays that were open, we simply missed them and didn't punish them.

Imagine if Foles connects on those long passes and we get 2 TDs when our wide open receiver thats behind the last defender catches the ball. Besides the fact that the game would have been tied, the defense would then have had to have shifted to keep people off the line and not covering the runs / short passes so intensely. The fact that we missed all those plays means that the defense just sits on all the short stuff and kicks our ass.

[IliketheBullsNBearstoo]

I've mentioned it before. Its not just the plays, its when he calls them and the formations. He'll go no back set and our QB, doesn't matter which one, doesn't have time for the play to develop because the defense knows whats coming. He'll tighten up the formation with two TE's and try to run. I mean spread it out and keep the defense on their heels. And when he does its sideways or out of the shotgun. Sorry but know your players. Montgomery doesn't have enough burst to be that back. He needs to run in the I. His situational play calling isn't good. And yes Foles missed on some deep throws, I'm not trying to defend him. But he is about to get hit and has to get rid of the ball as fast as he can. The defense knows whats coming, there is no defense that is off balance due to our play calling. Ok now I'm just ranting out of frustration.

I know we are lacking talent at all positions but this is a problem in every area including Nagy's offensive strategy.

When you don't have offensive players that can beat you when the defense screws up (as Foles failed to do repeatedly), then I'm not sure how you can keep the defense off balance. I agree that this is what you need to do, its kind of a guessing game, but when we had plays that were open, we simply missed them and didn't punish them.

Imagine if Foles connects on those long passes and we get 2 TDs when our wide open receiver thats behind the last defender catches the ball. Besides the fact that the game would have been tied, the defense would then have had to have shifted to keep people off the line and not covering the runs / short passes so intensely. The fact that we missed all those plays means that the defense just sits on all the short stuff and kicks our ass.

I hate that you are making me defend Foles but one of the plays, they even showed the replay and the timing of it, Foles had to throw it before Mooney was even wide open so he didn't miss on one of those. He just had to get rid of it and let it fly without the risk of it being picked. I have no defense of the other one. But still, I don't want to defend him because he made some bad throws including the INT into double coverage in the endzone. Bottom line is the defense is ready for whatever Nagy throws at them. These guys are running downhill at us to stop the run. They are salivating at rushing the QB. They know our line sucks. Does Nagy not know our line sucks? He needs to. I know its not all on Nagy, players have to play too. But Nagy needs to put them in position to be successful. That is his job.

I'm not putting the full blame on him. Good players will play good and bad players will play bad and that is what is going on here. But he baffles me a lot with his game plan. We could easily say the players bailed him out in those 5 wins. His game plan doesn't work and then we have to scrap it in the 4th quarter and try to come back and win. We should scrap it in the 1st quarter.

[dougthonus]

I hate that you are making me defend Foles but one of the plays, they even showed the replay and the timing of it, Foles had to throw it before Mooney was even wide open so he didn't miss on one of those. He just had to get rid of it and let it fly without the risk of it being picked. I have no defense of the other one.

If he let it fly to the right place then he still would have hit his receiver. Yes, he had to let it go early, and he didn't know at the time he let it go whether his guy would make the play, but he let it go and should have thrown to where he thought his receiver was going to be (and tried to do that). If he let it go early and the receiver didn't get open, then the fact he wasn't certain that would happen would be a point in his defense, but the unknown part of this equation at the time of the pass is whether the defense would read it right and be there, but they didn't.

Defense for the other one? It was just a hard throw. He's just not a good QB.

These guys are running downhill at us to stop the run. They are salivating at rushing the QB. They know our line sucks. Does Nagy not know our line sucks? He needs to. I know its not all on Nagy, players have to play too. But Nagy needs to put them in position to be successful. That is his job.

You know how you stop people from bum rushing you at the line? You complete long passes. You know what we did, drew up plays with guys behind the defense and had opportunities to make those plays for TDs, and we didn't. We did put yourselves in position to stop this behavior, but we didn't execute.

I'm not putting the full blame on him. Good players will play good and bad players will play bad and that is what is going on here. But he baffles me a lot with his game plan. We could easily say the players bailed him out in those 5 wins. His game plan doesn't work and then we have to scrap it in the 4th quarter and try to come back and win. We should scrap it in the 1st quarter.

In the reverse, I'm not saying Nagy gets no blame, but in the end, this team on talent to me is a .500 team and they're 5-2, so it's hard for me to blame the coaching staff whom, along with pure dumb luck, I generally credit for playing above or below the talent level. Right now, they're really good in close games and have won more than their talent deserves.

[ATRAIN53]

That was rough.

I see why Bell was like 'hard pass on Chicago, they have no OL - I'll get killed there and I'm in a contract year!!!"

It's hard to watch Bears football without a RB.

I mean that defense is great. They look like a cohesive unit and seem to play together. Hicks and Mack are top shelf NFL players but they could go down at any momment and then we're done.

I'd trade Robinson now just to get him off the team, he looks so disintersted in being here. No other player comes within 10 feet of him on the sidelines. He seems toxic.

It reminds me of when we had Urlacher and Briggs and that a killer D - but they just HATED Cutler and had a divided locker room.


also - and I like Eddie Jackson -
but when your team is down by a coupe of td's and you've been getting beat all night-

no need to celebrate that TD. that was pathetic.

[IliketheBullsNBearstoo]

I hate that you are making me defend Foles but one of the plays, they even showed the replay and the timing of it, Foles had to throw it before Mooney was even wide open so he didn't miss on one of those. He just had to get rid of it and let it fly without the risk of it being picked. I have no defense of the other one.

If he let it fly to the right place then he still would have hit his receiver. Yes, he had to let it go early, and he didn't know at the time he let it go whether his guy would make the play, but he let it go and should have thrown to where he thought his receiver was going to be (and tried to do that). If he let it go early and the receiver didn't get open, then the fact he wasn't certain that would happen would be a point in his defense, but the unknown part of this equation at the time of the pass is whether the defense would read it right and be there, but they didn't.

Defense for the other one? It was just a hard throw. He's just not a good QB.

These guys are running downhill at us to stop the run. They are salivating at rushing the QB. They know our line sucks. Does Nagy not know our line sucks? He needs to. I know its not all on Nagy, players have to play too. But Nagy needs to put them in position to be successful. That is his job.

You know how you stop people from bum rushing you at the line? You complete long passes. You know what we did, drew up plays with guys behind the defense and had opportunities to make those plays for TDs, and we didn't. We did put yourselves in position to stop this behavior, but we didn't execute.

I'm not putting the full blame on him. Good players will play good and bad players will play bad and that is what is going on here. But he baffles me a lot with his game plan. We could easily say the players bailed him out in those 5 wins. His game plan doesn't work and then we have to scrap it in the 4th quarter and try to come back and win. We should scrap it in the 1st quarter.

In the reverse, I'm not saying Nagy gets no blame, but in the end, this team on talent to me is a .500 team and they're 5-2, so it's hard for me to blame the coaching staff whom, along with pure dumb luck, I generally credit for playing above or below the talent level. Right now, they're really good in close games and have won more than their talent deserves.

You can't put the blame on Foles for missing that throw to Mooney, you just can't. Go back and look at it.

It seems like we agree for the most part, everyone is sucking. But to say they're really good in close games is definitely a stretch. The defense looked good in the close games but I wouldn't say this team is really good in close games, they were sloppy for most of the game, I mean the first 3 quarters, the offense is usually terrible. It was only when we had to scrap coach's game plan that the players were able to get the win. Whatever it is, the chicken or the egg, it needs a lot of changes.

[the ultimates]

Even with a bad offensive line there are still plays you can call to try and mitigate it. How many short passes did you see the Bears throw? How many screens whether to the wideouts, running backs or tight-ends? How many draw plays? How many bootlegs or rollouts?

Those are things his counterpart Mcvay did to slow down a pass rush despite having a better offensive line and running game. If the line is bad call plays like you know it is. Keep a tight end or two in to help. Leave a damn running back in. If you see in the game the five up front can't block it you give them help you don't go empty backfield or try and get everybody into a route because you know the quarterback won't have enough time.

Now for the other guy people want to make excuses for Foles. He was supposed to be the guy to make the downfield throws. He was supposed to be the guy who could process information get you into the right play, see the blitz. He's made just as many bad throws and bad decisions as he has good and that's whether he's pressured or not. He's thrown to horrible interceptions the last two weeks. The only thing he really seems to better at than Trubisky is throwing the ball deep to clearly covered receivers. He beat Brady in the Superbowl which was great no doubt he also lost his starting job last season to a SIXTH ROUND PICK! The gall to think Foles without the Eagles offensive line or Pederson calling plays would be good just because of a past hot streak was always dumb.

[IliketheBullsNBearstoo]

I'd actually prefer to put Mitch back in at this point, I've seen enough of Foles. At least he has the ability to pick up some yardage with his legs. Put in Mitch, let Lazor run the offense, pick up an interior lineman in a trade, and lets see Pierce or Miller mixed into the running game. We have to salvage this 5-2 record lol.

[Dresden]

Foles did hit one long pass to Robinson, that seems to have been forgotten.

[IliketheBullsNBearstoo]

Foles did hit one long pass to Robinson, that seems to have been forgotten.

Yeah, the game was over at that point.

[patryk7754]

I think the days for the front office is very critical leading up to the trade deadline. Pace has to be real with himself and acknowledge the way the team is constructed isn't good enough to make an impact in the playoffs and there's even a chance they miss the playoffs.
We need help in the run game both offensively and defensively as well as oline help.

I've previously mentioned Todd Gurly and Geno Atkins. A couple more RBs that come to mind are Mark Ingrim, Latavius Murray, Philip Lindsy, and Jordan Howard. On a bad Chargers team Linval Joseph could be had for cheap. Joe Thuney has been mentioned in trade rumors for the Patriots but I doubt they trade an all-pro lineman.

[dougthonus]

I think the days for the front office is very critical leading up to the trade deadline. Pace has to be real with himself and acknowledge the way the team is constructed isn't good enough to make an impact in the playoffs and there's even a chance they miss the playoffs.
We need help in the run game both offensively and defensively as well as oline help.

I've previously mentioned Todd Gurly and Geno Atkins. A couple more RBs that come to mind are Mark Ingrim, Latavius Murray, Philip Lindsy, and Jordan Howard. On a bad Chargers team Linval Joseph could be had for cheap. Joe Thuney has been mentioned in trade rumors for the Patriots but I doubt they trade an all-pro lineman.

Also has to decide whether he can move the needle enough in this season to give up future assets to attempt to do so.

[2018C3]

I don't think their receiving corps is all that bad- Robinson, Mooney, Miller, Kmet, even Jimmy Graham. Their RB is not very good. I still think Foles is a decent QB. The line IMO is the biggest problem. If you can't run the ball, and you can't throw it downfield due to poor pass protection, then all you have left is short passing, and if the defense knows that's what you'll do, that isn't going to work very well either. And even when they did manage to move the ball a little bit last night, on a couple of drives, stupid penalties by the line killed the drive.

It's a lot to fix- needing 2,3,4 upgrades on the line, plus new backs, plus new QB. It won't be an easy fix, but they've done virtually nothing to fix the line for the last 5 years.

I like Montgomery, I don't believe the lack of a running game falls entirely on him. Granted, He is not the type of guy who could do it all by himself. I think the real problem is with the offensive line. If Montgomery had a better line with more holes, I think he could put up numbers similar to lets say a Matt Forte.

[patryk7754]

I think the days for the front office is very critical leading up to the trade deadline. Pace has to be real with himself and acknowledge the way the team is constructed isn't good enough to make an impact in the playoffs and there's even a chance they miss the playoffs.
We need help in the run game both offensively and defensively as well as oline help.

I've previously mentioned Todd Gurly and Geno Atkins. A couple more RBs that come to mind are Mark Ingrim, Latavius Murray, Philip Lindsy, and Jordan Howard. On a bad Chargers team Linval Joseph could be had for cheap. Joe Thuney has been mentioned in trade rumors for the Patriots but I doubt they trade an all-pro lineman.

Also has to decide whether he can move the needle enough in this season to give up future assets to attempt to do so.

If we get a legit run game then I think it does with this defense. If we some how pull of a RB and OL then I would be very confident that we are a legit top team that can pull off some upsets in the playoffs. Right now we’re most likely going to get blown out by the packers in the playoffs or miss the playoffs.

[chitownsalesmen]

I'd actually prefer to put Mitch back in at this point, I've seen enough of Foles. At least he has the ability to pick up some yardage with his legs. Put in Mitch, let Lazor run the offense, pick up an interior lineman in a trade, and lets see Pierce or Miller mixed into the running game. We have to salvage this 5-2 record lol.

Thats really a textbook example of rearranging seats on the titatnic.

[fleet]

I'd actually prefer to put Mitch back in at this point, I've seen enough of Foles. At least he has the ability to pick up some yardage with his legs. Put in Mitch, let Lazor run the offense, pick up an interior lineman in a trade, and lets see Pierce or Miller mixed into the running game. We have to salvage this 5-2 record lol.

Thats really a textbook example of rearranging seats on the titatnic.

If the specific circumstance where the line is all patched up with scrubs and it is a jailbreak in pass protection, maybe you do use a more mobile Qb to roll out etc. But, it’s still the Titanic. Guessing that this team is gonna run the ball and more play action going forward.