The Chicago Bears defense is already top five in the relevant categories and well on their way to being one of the league’s preeminent units in 2019.

The Chicago Bears offense isn’t.

And the quarterback is a big reason why.

Here are three points on the young quarterback’s struggles in the early going of this campaign.

He’s Not Using His Legs

Nobody wants to see Trubisky running the ball ten times a game and sustaining that punishment.

But he certainly has had plenty of opportunities to extend plays AND drives with his legs. Expanding his pocket buys time and allows the speed on the outside to find spaces in the defense. And on third and four, sometimes it’s fine to call your own number and move the chains.

Also, Trubisky always seemed to use his legs to get into the flow of a game. It pumped him up. It pumped his teammates up. It was street ball. I recommend he go back to that style and start having fun out there. It’s a game.

A Scout’s Take

Had a text conversation with a scout friend.

Me: What did you see with Trubisky?

Him: The game is not slowing down for him the way it should be. Bears better hope it does.

Me: Is it correctable quickly?

Him: If Nagy can’t correct it, no one can.

Read More …

What matters.

1-1.

What doesn’t.

Everything else.

— DaBearsBlog (@dabearsblog) September 16, 2019

One of the most bizarre and emotionally confusing finishes to a football game in recent memory. The defense was gassed. The offense was useless. Yet here the Chicago Bears stand, 1-1, with their season right in front of them. Rapid fire…

• Rookie referee Adrian Hill needs to be flown to New York City today. He needs a car waiting for him at LaGuardia. He needs to be driven to Park Avenue. And then Alberto Riveron – the head of NFL officiating – needs to explain to him that hitting the quarterback is not illegal. He needs to also explain that nobody watches a football game to see the referee. Every single potential holding penalty does not warrant the throwing of a flag. Hill and his crew had far too much influence on the outcome of Sunday’s game. That can’t happen.
• Nobody was more critical of the kicking situation than myself so I’ll gladly offer the mea culpa. Eddy Pineiro had a brilliant day and for now the Bears have a reliable kicker.
• Mitch Trubisky has a lot of flaws and they’ll be regurgitated endlessly over the next week. But something happens to this kid when the game is on the line. He lights up. He’s at his best. Matt Nagy has to learn to let this kid close things out with a lead.
• Don’t underestimate this victory. It is the first time Denver has lost their home opener in 8 years. It is very tough to win there early in the season.

Read More …

One of the best dogs in the country. Biker Jim’s. Denver.

Why Do I Like the Chicago Bears This Week?

I always like the Chicago Bears.

And I have never had this strong a belief in the Chicago Bears defense.

Trite, Boring Thoughts on the Broncos

• Attacking the Broncos defense is ALL about neutralizing their edge rushers – Von Miller and Bradley Chubb – because the rest of Vic Fangio’s group is mediocre. How did the Raiders do this? First, they gave Derek Carr a ton of quick, easy throws. (Commentator Steve Levy even compared Carr’s MNF performance to Phil Simms’ historic Super Bowl in terms of completion percentage.) Second, they committed to the run game even though it wasn’t particularly successful. This kept play-action believable and kept Miller and Chubb a half-step slower.
• Joe Flacco didn’t play poorly in the opener but he’s in this tiny collection of aging, modern quarterbacks who need everything working around them to be successful. Players like he and Eli Manning don’t have the legs to extend plays so they need a rush game and they need brilliant protection. If Bears keep Freeman and Lindsay quiet in the run game, it’s hard to see the pass rush not harassing Flacco endlessly. If that happens, the mistakes will flow.
• Courtland Sutton is going to be a star in this league and the Bears better be aware of his location at all times Sunday. He bought a timeshare in the middle of the field against the Raiders. It’ll be interesting to see if he plays with that level of boldness against a far more intimidating, physical defense.

Tweet of the Week

A cat has been installed as the “lord” of an ancient castle in western Japan, drawing tourists and helping the area’s recovery from a deadly rain disaster last year. The cat is named Sanjuro in tribute to Tani Sanjuro, a samurai warrior in the Edo period pic.twitter.com/ZhzGBD5W4L

— 41 Strange (@41Strange) September 9, 2019

Read More …

The moment is here for Matt Nagy and Mitch Trubisky.

This week.

Sunday.

In Denver.

1-1.

Don’t fuck around. Win.

Opening night was an offensive debacle. The coach was overwhelmed. The quarterback was over-matched. They were not ready to call or perform in a football game, respectively, period.

But this ain’t the 3 AM show in the lounge. This is ain’t the place to work on your material. This is the showroom and the gents are in top hats and tails. The Bears don’t have the luxury of time to figure things out.

They are in one of the best divisions in football.

They have the best defense in the league.

The moment is here.

Sunday.

In Denver.

This offense doesn’t have to be great to keep the 2019 vintage of the Chicago Bears on the league’s top shelf. It has to be serviceable, at least for now. It has to help this team stack wins until the season gets serious in November.

And doing that falls onto the shoulders of two men. Nagy. Trubisky.

Hey Matt, wake up. David Montgomery is a horse. Ride him. The quarterback is still inexperienced. Get him some quick, easy throws. You don’t get credit for the other side of the ball because it wasn’t built by you and it isn’t coached by you. Yours is the offense. Lead them.

Hey Mitch, enough. Enough with the silly throws into holiday weekend traffic. Enough with not calling your own number and getting easy first downs with your legs. Enough with making rookie mistakes because this is your third year in the league, second year in the system, and a few more rookie mistakes are going to lead to your rookie contract being your last contract in the league.

Read More …

There is no correlation between performance in early September and performance in January. Bears need to stay healthy on D, get better on O and – most importantly – leave London with a winning record.

This is going to be short because Thursday night’s opener was one of the worst football games I’ve ever watched and it doesn’t deserve an extended recap.

• The Bears allowed ten points to Aaron Rodgers at Soldier Field. And lost. The Bears sacked Rodgers five times. And lost. The Bears gave up about 250 total yards to the Packers offense. And lost. The Bears have a brilliant defense and that defense is going to win them a lot of games this year. And that’s all I’m going to say about that unit today.
• Matt Nagy called one of the worst games I’ve seen from a Bears head coach. Whatever that was on third-and-inches. Going for it on fourth-and-ten. Not giving the ball to David Montgomery AT ALL. Sometimes Nagy calls plays like he’s smarter than the guys on the other sideline. He needs to start calling plays that put the gentlemen on his sideline in the best position to be successful. There’s no way to argue he did that last night.
• Mitch Trubisky was awful. Don’t feed me silver lining shit about a throw here or a throw there. Last night, Trubisky looked like a backup quarterback, called into action mid-game, scrambling to find his helmet. He threw one interception. He should have thrown four. He had zero command of the offense and less awareness of the defense. That’s a lethal combination. (I guess we can postpone that contract extension talk for a bit.)
• 1st and 40.
• The Bears better not have too many games like this. The best defense in football won’t stay calm and quiet as their brilliant, heroic efforts are wasted by a limp, futile offensive effort. A mediocre offensive performance beat the Packers by a touchdown. This isn’t new to Chicago. But with this coach and this quarterback, it was supposed to be different. Not only did it not look different Thursday night. It looked worst than it ever has before.

Sunday in Denver becomes becomes pretty close to a must win for the 2019 Chicago Bears. And it is definitively a must perform for the offense.