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0 thoughts after the Bears had a cozy 20-0 lead until the latter stages of the third quarter and wound up losing the season opener and debut for head coach Matt Nagy 24-23 to the rival Packers on Sunday night at Lambeau Field.
1. There are some positives to take out of this game and surely some stuff that Matt Nagy and his staff are going to lean on this week as the Bears take advantage of an extra day to prepare for the Seahawks at Soldier Field on Monday, Sept. 17.
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But there is a reason the team, in explaining the acquisition of outside linebacker Khalil Mack a little more than a week ago, referred to the edge rusher position as the second most important in the game. That’s because the quarterback remains the most important and we don’t need a reminder after watching this game, do we? The Bears’ heavy lifting this offseason helped close the gap between the teams but the Packers still have Aaron Rodgers, one of the best to play the game, certainly in the Super Bowl era, and a hobbled Rodgers was good enough to be the difference maker in what was the largest fourth-quarter rally in the history of the Packers.
Where does it stand in statistical perspective for the Bears? They blew a 20-point lead for the first time since Nov. 10, 2002 when they led by 21 against the Patriots down in Champaign at Memorial Stadium and lost 33-30. That was one of actually two games that season the Bears lost in Champaign after building a 20-point lead. The Bears led by 17 entering the fourth quarter here and this is the first time they’ve blown a lead that large in the final quarter since a 20-0 lead at the Metrodome on Oct. 4, 1992, which turned into a 21-20 loss. That was the infamous game when quarterback Jim Harbaugh ignored coach Mike Ditka’s instruction to not audible. Harbaugh called an audible and threw a pick six to Todd Scott. The Bears lost the game the Ditka was furious. Some point at it as one of the factors in his dismissal after the 5-11 season came to a conclusion.
We know Nagy isn’t getting canned anytime soon and Mitch Trubisky didn’t toss a pick six in this game. Trubisky had a solid first half when he completed 11 of 14 passes for 109 yards but the second half was rough. He was able to make some plays with his legs and finished with 32 yards rushing but he completed only 12 of 21 passes for 62 yards after halftime and looked frazzled on the final possession. Give him credit, the Bears had a nice drive after Green Bay had pulled within 20-17. The offense went 61 yards on 14 plays and took 6 minutes, 22 seconds off the clock in the process, converting three first downs. But they couldn’t move the chains on third-and-2 from the Packers’ 14-yard line and had to settle for a Cody Parkey field goal. That left Rodgers with a chance, trailing by six with 2:39 to play, and that’s all he needed.
What’s crazy is it looked like the worst possible scenario for the Packers when Rodgers was carted to the locker room during the second quarter. Imagine how the organization would be reeling Monday morning if it was an injury with serious implications?
He was injured when defensive end Roy Robertson-Harris sacked him, sort of collapsing.
“Yeah, it was painful,” Rodgers said. “I got it checked out, was in some pain so he (Dr. Pat McKenzie) wanted to do some further tests back in the locker room area. So we came back in, did some tests, felt like I couldn’t further injure it at the time, so doc and I agreed I could back and play.”
Limping and not able to get his base set to make every throw, Rodgers was electric in leading touchdown drives on the final three Packers’ possessions. A Bears’ defense that was pretty good last season when it came to limiting big plays by the opponents got torched. Randall Cobb’s game-winning touchdown went for 75 yards. Davante Adams had a 51-yard gain and Geronimo Allison scored on a 39-yard touchdown as Rodgers threaded a perfect pass over cornerback Kyle Fuller, who had pretty good coverage. One of the things that stood out to me on that play was Bears outside linebacker Leonard Floyd was a good 5 yards behind Rodgers when he released the ball. Floyd didn’t get a lot done, at least watching it live, playing with that large club on his right arm and Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari just rode him past the quarterback on this snap. Wonder how many times this happened throughout the game.
2. While Leonard Floyd was hard to locate, you didn’t have any trouble whatsoever finding Khalil Mack make an impact. For some reason Aaron Lynch got the start at outside linebacker. I suppose that is because he has a better understanding of the scheme but let’s be real here – it’s not like Lynch has been on the field with a team a heck of a lot more than Mack, right? Mack came in on the fourth snap and he shined. He finished with 42 snaps on 60 plays for the Packers. He was a stat-sheet stuffer with a sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery all on one play when he seemed to shock Packers backup quarterback DeShone Kizer. Mack had the ball out and in his own lap in a flash. It was Mack who had the initial pressure on the play quarterback Aaron Rodgers was injured on and Roquan Smith was only cleaning things up on his sack as Mack made that happen with a pressure as well. Then, there was the touchdown for Mack on a 27-yard return after Roy Robertson-Harris blew up a called screen and Mack made the easy catch and rumble to the end zone.
“You wanna win,” Mack said. “It was a cool game but you gotta finish. It’s something we can definitely learn from. I don’t feel like much changed. I feel like we let them make too many big plays down the stretch. That’s what you can’t have, especially when you talk about throwing it deep. You can’t have that. So we’ve got to put more pressure on the quarterback.
“Absolutely, (Rodgers was less mobile). You could tell. He looked like he was hurting a little bit. He was trying to get it out quick. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get it done. He came back and definitely put them in position to win.”
Mack had a bag of ice on his right wrist and hand after the game but said he was good and indicated there’s nothing serious to be concerned with. That’s good news.
3. In the other locker room, I thought veteran right tackle Bryan Bulaga, who went to high school at Marian Central Catholic in Woodstock, had an interesting explanation for how he processed having to block Mack as the game went along. Clearly, Mack was giving Bulaga some problems in the first half but things calmed down somewhat after halftime.
“We knew (Aaron Rodgers) was a little bit banged up so we knew probably his mobility was going to be limited a little bit,” Bulaga said. “Just have to give him as much time as he needs. He’s not going to be able to move around. You have to try to give him a clean launching points and things he can step up into. He can’t do what he normally does – step up, drop back, move out – he’s not going to be able to do those types of things when he’s a little nicked up. Just give him clean launching points, clean pockets where he can just move up and make good throws.
“I think just from technique standpoint, from what I was trying to do in the first half, it just … there were a few plays that he just got the better of me and that’s what it is. I’m not going to beat around the bush on it. There are a few plays he just got the better of me. I need to be better. I know that. It’s unacceptable. Coming in at halftime, kind of going through my brain what he did get me on and just making those adjustments and going out in the second half and maybe changing some things up, sets, set points, hands, things like that. Just trying to work technique a little bit better than I did in the first half. Not better technique but different technique that he was able to counter a few times in the first half. Just go out there, you know, and try to execute.
“I said it earlier in the week and I stand by it: He’s a total package defensive end. He does everything really well. So, you have to be able to counter what he’s doing and kind of on the fly make adjustments. I thought in the first half, like I said, there are a few plays I definitely want back. Looking back on it, at halftime you make those adjustments in head and make them on the fly when you go out there in the second half. I thought I was able to do that. Obviously, have to watch the tape and see what happened. Overall, that is kind of the story of it.”
The beauty of it for the Bears is the opposing right tackle is going to be forced to make in-game adjustments nearly every week and Mack is going to win plenty of battles. It seemed like the defense, particularly the front seven, played with heightened energy in the first half. The Bears need to find a way to recapture that and playing at home against the Seahawks might be part of the formula.
4. The Bears win the game if _____ (fill in the blank). Boy, you could come up with lots and lots and lots of items here. Start with cornerback Kyle Fuller dropping what should have been an easy interception – easy – with 2:39 remaining and the Bears ahead six points. Aaron Rodgers misfired for Davante Adams and the ball was right to Fuller. Clank.
“I’ve got to catch it,” Fuller said. “Gotta make that play.”
READ MORE: Khalil Mack proves his value with 2 huge plays against the Packers in his Bears debut »
Fuller answered a series of questions and made the point, correctly, that the Bears will find good things on film when they review the game. He said they didn’t view Rodgers as being injured in the second half, and that makes sense. A $14 million per year cornerback needs to make that play. That play puts the game away if he makes it. Fuller had six dropped interceptions a year ago when he made two picks. The Bears have to be hoping he shows better hands the next time the ball comes his way. It’s doubtful the play will be as easy as this one should have been.
Still, they shouldn’t have surrendered a 75-yard gain to Randall Cobb two players later. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio dialed up a blitz, a five-man pressure, and the Bears didn’t get home. Rodgers held the ball for 4.5 seconds which was enough time for Cobb, who ran a square-in from the right side of the formation at the line to gain – 10 yards downfield – broke off his route and began peeling back the way he had come from. Rodgers fed him the ball in the perfect spot and free safety Eddie Jackson dove and missed the ball, effectively taking himself out of the play. He can’t leave his feet in that situation if he’s not going to at least deflect the pass.
“Aaron started to scramble and I tried to break away and was able to find a lane and make the play,” Cobb said. “Once I turned around, I saw nothing but green grass so I went for the end zone.”
Strong safety Adrian Amos didn’t take the best angle on the play and Leonard Floyd had a shot to slow Cobb down or bring him down near the 15-yard line, but he failed. Cobb, of course, was the one that scored on the fourth-and-8 play at the end of the 2013 season to propel Green Bay into the playoffs.
“We celebrate this win, move on and get ready for next week,” he said. “That one put us in the playoffs. This one was to open the season.”
5. Rookie head coach Matt Nagy found the correct tone after the game and that’s to his credit.
“Of course it stings,” he said. “I want our guys to feel that. They understand. I want our coaches to feel it. We talked about finishing and we didn’t do that, but I will say this: I’m really proud of our team. I’m proud of our guys. They did a lot of good things tonight. We are going to learn from it. It is a long season. You’ve got to give credit to Green Bay. Obviously, 12 (Aaron Rodgers) coming back into the game, he showed who he was. We knew that. So give credit to them. Their coaches, their defense stepping up in the red zone. It was obviously a good one for the fans, obviously a better one for the Green Bay fans, but again, I’m proud of our guys. We’ve got to grow from this.”
Critics will point out Nagy was the play caller for the Chiefs when they blew a huge halftime lead over the Titans in the wild-card round of the playoffs, a loss that allowed the Bears to swoop in and hire Nagy the next day for their opening. But while some have labeled him too conservative and that is why the Bears lost, I don’t know that they took their foot off the gas as much as they simply didn’t play well. They tried a throw on third-and-1 to Dion Sims instead of a run play. That was aggressive. It didn’t work though.
Quarterback Mitch Trubisky was fairly interesting too with an introspective remark about an offense that has gotten so, so much attention.
“I don’t really even know that we made a statement,” he said. “We’re close, we know how close we are. These guys continue to believe, continue to work their tails off. Credit to the offensive line for giving me time and to the receivers for making plays. We just feel like we are real close. You get down to the red zone and you come up with a bunch of field goals and it feels OK because we got some points and we are taking care of the football, but they’re not touchdowns. That’s when you can really separate and help out the defense, continue to take pressure off them when we’re scoring.
“I don’t know that we made a statement. We moved the ball up and down the field, but there’s that sense and feeling in the locker room, especially on the offensive side, that we just need to continue to dig deeper and get over that hump of just putting up 20, 23, or however many points, getting to the 30s, getting the touchdowns, converting in the red zone, converting on third downs. Really dictate the game instead of giving them a chance at the end like we did. I feel like it really falls on me and the offense. And then when you can do that, you just control the ball and you can dictate the game, instead of letting them back in. Again, credit to their offense, their defense. We’ve just got to continue to pull together, which we will. We’re headed in the right direction. We’re close, but I don’t know if there’s really any statement.”
6. The shotgun snap that was a hot topic for center Cody Whitehair was an issue only once – a high snap on first-and-10 from the Packers’ 22-yard line with 3:05 remaining. Trubisky was athletic enough to corral the ball for a 3-yard loss. It set the offense back before the final field goal.
As you recall, there were some poor snaps in the Bears’ limited preseason action and training camp. Whitehair switched from the traditional spiral snap to what’s called a “dead snap” in the third week of the preseason leading into the game at Denver. Things were improved that week and then he didn’t play again in preseason as the majority of the starters sat out the fourth preseason game and then the fifth game.
“I’m getting more comfortable with it,” Whitehair said. “It’s coming together. Obviously, it is still a work in progress but I felt comfortable with it. One snap and other than that it was a good game so we’ll move on from it. Just trying to work at it every day and master it.”
When the decision was announced the night before that the Bears starters, or the majority anyway, wouldn’t play against the Chiefs at Soldier Field, that was one of the questions that popped into my mind. What about Whitehair working more with Trubisky on the shotgun snaps? They can drill it all day in practice but it’s not the same when you’ve got defensive linemen across from Whitehair intent on taking Trubisky’s block off
Packers center Corey Linsley used to be a spiral snap center from the shotgun until he had a chance to play in Green Bay.
“I try and do a dead snap,” Linsley said. “That’s the way Aaron (Rodgers) wants it. In college, I used the spiral. When I got here, if you want to get on the field, gotta use the dead snap.”
I asked if one was either than the other.
“It’s six one way, half dozen the other,” Linsley replied. “It’s just a matter of learning it. I guess it is just a feel thing for Aaron. That’s the way he had been getting it for a while so I had to change. It didn’t take me long. A month maybe. You get used to it. It’s as simple as it looks. It’s just a matter of doing it at full speed.”
It’s been nearly a month for Whitehair with the new snap. We’ll see how he does moving forward.
7. It’s not that the season opener meant more to Eric Kush than anyone else on the field but in his sixth season, Kush started a season opener for the first time. He held off second-round draft pick James Daniels over the summer and has the job, at least for the time being. Consider the winding path Kush has taken to arrive at this point. He was a sixth-round pick by the Chiefs in 2013, his first exposure to Bears coach Matt Nagy, and he actually got in three games that season with one start. Kansas City made Kush part of final cuts in 2015 and from there he really started bouncing around, making brief stops with the Buccaneers, Panthers, Texans and then the Rams in the first three months of that season. The Bears claimed him off waivers at the start of the 2016 season and he was a reserve before missing all last season with a torn hamstring that required surgery.
“Yeah, that was pretty crappy,” Kush said. “But I made the most of it.”
Kush went to work on a masters degree in exercise science through California University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater. He has four classes remaining to complete to achieve his goal.
“When the guys went out to practice last year I would just sit there and start writing papers, research, papers, research and I’d sit in front of the computer for five, six hours a day,” he said. “Just having a great time.
READ MORE: First-round linebacker Roquan Smith makes immediate impact on his first play as a Bear »
“It’s cool (to start the opener). I’ve worked really hard and I have had to battle through a lot of stuff. It’s rewarding. I keep coming in and improving every day. That’s all I know is to keep working, trying to keep going, trying to get better at something every day. Deep inside myself, that’s all I know.”
8. You have figure rookie Roquan Smith will be in line for more playing time against Seattle. Smith was credited with one solo tackle, two assists and the sack that was mentioned earlier while logging only 8 snaps.
The most important thing Smith said in the locker room came when I asked him how his hamstring is.
“One-hundred percent,” the first-round draft pick said.
The Bears have played it smart with Smith and now it’s time to give him some more work.
9. During a visit to training camp, former Bears right tackle James “Big Cat” Williams made sure he didn’t leave before having a conversation with Rashaad Coward, who is in his second year after signing as an undrafted rookie free agent from Old Dominion a year ago. The Bears transitioned Coward from defensive tackle to offensive tackle with the arrival of the new coaching staff, a move Williams once made before becoming a leader on the offensive line. Williams signed with the Bears as an undrafted free agent from Division II Cheyney State. He played sparingly as a reserve behind some pretty good frontline players like Steve McMichael and William Perry. The Mike Ditka staff shifted Williams right tackle during the next season and when Dave Wannstedt was hired as coach, bringing with him line coach Tony Wise, the young player started to blossom at his new position.
“I met (Williams) in camp and I talked to him a little bit,” Coward said. “He’s cool. He just told me don’t get down on yourself when you make mistakes, it’s going to happen.”
Coward is working on the basics – his kick step and sliding. He’s got to learn the nuances of not tipping run or pass with his stance or his first movement. He’s getting tested daily by outside linebacker Khalil Mack, who is lining up on the left side of the defense for the majority of practice reps.
“I’m going against him every day so I am going to get better,” Coward said. “If I can get better blocking him, I should be all right.”
Veteran Bradley Sowell projects as the swing tackle on the 53-man roster, but the Bears liked Coward enough to keep him and not risk exposing him to waivers with the idea of re-signing him to the practice squad. He hasn’t played offensive line since he was a center in high school and doubled as a defensive end on a squad at Sheepshead Bay High in Brooklyn, N.Y., that had only 22 players on the roster.
Right tackle Bobby Massie is in the final year of his contract. If Massie plays well, the Bears would at least consider working to bring him back. If Coward can develop on the practice field, he could emerge as an option in 2019.
“He’s in a situation like I was with a (line) coach that is really knows his (stuff),” Williams said. “It wasn’t until I was done playing that I realized how much I learned from Tony.
“As I was told when I was coming up, all is fair in love and war but if a guy goes down, you’re job is to go in there and try to take that spot. You get that spot and you hold onto that damn spot as long as you can. And even Keith Horne told me that, you know what I mean. It’s just a part of the game and if he knows what he is doing as far as his playbook and he can be taught the techniques he needs to play that position there is no reason why if Massie goes down for a while that won’t be his audition.”
Williams’ first action came when Van Horne suffered a neck injury and that cracked the door open. Not long after, Williams was on his way at right tackle and eventually made 134 consecutive starts.
“I told him to play with the same aggressive mentality he used on defense,” Williams said.
10. The Bears are getting conditional draft picks from both of the trades they made on the weekend of final cuts. As you know, they will receive a conditional fifth-round pick in 2020 from the Raiders. That’s the best the Bears can do. I’m told if Mack picks up certain postseason honors this year and/or in 2019, the pick gets worse. I would imagine the Bears are rooting to get a worse pick in exchange because that would mean Mack has been a beast on the field for them.
The Bears right now will receive a conditional 2019 seventh-round draft pick from the Eagles in exchange for defensive back Deiondre’ Hall. The obvious connection with Philadelphia is Joe Douglas, the former Bears college scouting director, is in the Eagles front office. The Bears are getting, at minimum, a seventh in exchange for Hall and that pick could improve slightly based on playing time for him this season. Sounds like the playing time levels are reasonable. My guess is the pick won’t get sweeter than a fifth round, at most, but hey some wondered if Hall was tradeable and general manager Ryan Pace made it happen. The Bears will be pulling to see Hall on the field for the Eagles.
10a. How many players were new to the Bears’ 53-man roster for this season’s opener? The answer is 16 and if you would have asked me before counting them up, I would have figured the number was a little higher. There are six players remaining on the roster that pre-date the arrival of general manager Ryan Pace – wide receiver Josh Bellamy, punter Pat O’Donnell, cornerbacks Kyle Fuller and Sherrick McManis and offensive linemen Charles Leno and Kyle Long.
10b. I did a double take when I saw the stat sheet after the game. Bears wide receiver Taylor Gabriel had five targets, five catches and 25 yards in the game … yet his long was a 31-yard reception. Yep, it’s accurate. That tells you there were some serious flaws in the four plays that went for no gain, minus-5 yards, minus-2 yards and 1 yard. That tells you the Packers were not fooled in the least.
10c. After a brief, and by brief I mean less than a week of working at fullback and playing some there in the final preseason game, practice squad running back Ryan Nall said he’s back to his original position.
10d. Punter Pat O’Donnell had a really nice game and that should not go unmentioned. He hit a 63-yarder and Randall Cobb called for a fair catch on three of his four kicks.
10e. Not to be overlooked on the stat sheet either was five targets and five catches for 25 yards for running back Jordan Howard. He did stay on the field in some third down situations.
10f. The Bears opened as a 3-point favorite over the Seahawks for the Sept. 17 game at Soldier Field, according to the at Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas.
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1. There are some positives to take out of this game and surely some stuff that Matt Nagy and his staff are going to lean on this week as the Bears take advantage of an extra day to prepare for the Seahawks at Soldier Field on Monday, Sept. 17.
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But there is a reason the team, in explaining the acquisition of outside linebacker Khalil Mack a little more than a week ago, referred to the edge rusher position as the second most important in the game. That’s because the quarterback remains the most important and we don’t need a reminder after watching this game, do we? The Bears’ heavy lifting this offseason helped close the gap between the teams but the Packers still have Aaron Rodgers, one of the best to play the game, certainly in the Super Bowl era, and a hobbled Rodgers was good enough to be the difference maker in what was the largest fourth-quarter rally in the history of the Packers.
Where does it stand in statistical perspective for the Bears? They blew a 20-point lead for the first time since Nov. 10, 2002 when they led by 21 against the Patriots down in Champaign at Memorial Stadium and lost 33-30. That was one of actually two games that season the Bears lost in Champaign after building a 20-point lead. The Bears led by 17 entering the fourth quarter here and this is the first time they’ve blown a lead that large in the final quarter since a 20-0 lead at the Metrodome on Oct. 4, 1992, which turned into a 21-20 loss. That was the infamous game when quarterback Jim Harbaugh ignored coach Mike Ditka’s instruction to not audible. Harbaugh called an audible and threw a pick six to Todd Scott. The Bears lost the game the Ditka was furious. Some point at it as one of the factors in his dismissal after the 5-11 season came to a conclusion.
We know Nagy isn’t getting canned anytime soon and Mitch Trubisky didn’t toss a pick six in this game. Trubisky had a solid first half when he completed 11 of 14 passes for 109 yards but the second half was rough. He was able to make some plays with his legs and finished with 32 yards rushing but he completed only 12 of 21 passes for 62 yards after halftime and looked frazzled on the final possession. Give him credit, the Bears had a nice drive after Green Bay had pulled within 20-17. The offense went 61 yards on 14 plays and took 6 minutes, 22 seconds off the clock in the process, converting three first downs. But they couldn’t move the chains on third-and-2 from the Packers’ 14-yard line and had to settle for a Cody Parkey field goal. That left Rodgers with a chance, trailing by six with 2:39 to play, and that’s all he needed.
What’s crazy is it looked like the worst possible scenario for the Packers when Rodgers was carted to the locker room during the second quarter. Imagine how the organization would be reeling Monday morning if it was an injury with serious implications?
He was injured when defensive end Roy Robertson-Harris sacked him, sort of collapsing.
“Yeah, it was painful,” Rodgers said. “I got it checked out, was in some pain so he (Dr. Pat McKenzie) wanted to do some further tests back in the locker room area. So we came back in, did some tests, felt like I couldn’t further injure it at the time, so doc and I agreed I could back and play.”
Limping and not able to get his base set to make every throw, Rodgers was electric in leading touchdown drives on the final three Packers’ possessions. A Bears’ defense that was pretty good last season when it came to limiting big plays by the opponents got torched. Randall Cobb’s game-winning touchdown went for 75 yards. Davante Adams had a 51-yard gain and Geronimo Allison scored on a 39-yard touchdown as Rodgers threaded a perfect pass over cornerback Kyle Fuller, who had pretty good coverage. One of the things that stood out to me on that play was Bears outside linebacker Leonard Floyd was a good 5 yards behind Rodgers when he released the ball. Floyd didn’t get a lot done, at least watching it live, playing with that large club on his right arm and Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari just rode him past the quarterback on this snap. Wonder how many times this happened throughout the game.
2. While Leonard Floyd was hard to locate, you didn’t have any trouble whatsoever finding Khalil Mack make an impact. For some reason Aaron Lynch got the start at outside linebacker. I suppose that is because he has a better understanding of the scheme but let’s be real here – it’s not like Lynch has been on the field with a team a heck of a lot more than Mack, right? Mack came in on the fourth snap and he shined. He finished with 42 snaps on 60 plays for the Packers. He was a stat-sheet stuffer with a sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery all on one play when he seemed to shock Packers backup quarterback DeShone Kizer. Mack had the ball out and in his own lap in a flash. It was Mack who had the initial pressure on the play quarterback Aaron Rodgers was injured on and Roquan Smith was only cleaning things up on his sack as Mack made that happen with a pressure as well. Then, there was the touchdown for Mack on a 27-yard return after Roy Robertson-Harris blew up a called screen and Mack made the easy catch and rumble to the end zone.
“You wanna win,” Mack said. “It was a cool game but you gotta finish. It’s something we can definitely learn from. I don’t feel like much changed. I feel like we let them make too many big plays down the stretch. That’s what you can’t have, especially when you talk about throwing it deep. You can’t have that. So we’ve got to put more pressure on the quarterback.
“Absolutely, (Rodgers was less mobile). You could tell. He looked like he was hurting a little bit. He was trying to get it out quick. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get it done. He came back and definitely put them in position to win.”
Mack had a bag of ice on his right wrist and hand after the game but said he was good and indicated there’s nothing serious to be concerned with. That’s good news.
3. In the other locker room, I thought veteran right tackle Bryan Bulaga, who went to high school at Marian Central Catholic in Woodstock, had an interesting explanation for how he processed having to block Mack as the game went along. Clearly, Mack was giving Bulaga some problems in the first half but things calmed down somewhat after halftime.
“We knew (Aaron Rodgers) was a little bit banged up so we knew probably his mobility was going to be limited a little bit,” Bulaga said. “Just have to give him as much time as he needs. He’s not going to be able to move around. You have to try to give him a clean launching points and things he can step up into. He can’t do what he normally does – step up, drop back, move out – he’s not going to be able to do those types of things when he’s a little nicked up. Just give him clean launching points, clean pockets where he can just move up and make good throws.
“I think just from technique standpoint, from what I was trying to do in the first half, it just … there were a few plays that he just got the better of me and that’s what it is. I’m not going to beat around the bush on it. There are a few plays he just got the better of me. I need to be better. I know that. It’s unacceptable. Coming in at halftime, kind of going through my brain what he did get me on and just making those adjustments and going out in the second half and maybe changing some things up, sets, set points, hands, things like that. Just trying to work technique a little bit better than I did in the first half. Not better technique but different technique that he was able to counter a few times in the first half. Just go out there, you know, and try to execute.
“I said it earlier in the week and I stand by it: He’s a total package defensive end. He does everything really well. So, you have to be able to counter what he’s doing and kind of on the fly make adjustments. I thought in the first half, like I said, there are a few plays I definitely want back. Looking back on it, at halftime you make those adjustments in head and make them on the fly when you go out there in the second half. I thought I was able to do that. Obviously, have to watch the tape and see what happened. Overall, that is kind of the story of it.”
The beauty of it for the Bears is the opposing right tackle is going to be forced to make in-game adjustments nearly every week and Mack is going to win plenty of battles. It seemed like the defense, particularly the front seven, played with heightened energy in the first half. The Bears need to find a way to recapture that and playing at home against the Seahawks might be part of the formula.
4. The Bears win the game if _____ (fill in the blank). Boy, you could come up with lots and lots and lots of items here. Start with cornerback Kyle Fuller dropping what should have been an easy interception – easy – with 2:39 remaining and the Bears ahead six points. Aaron Rodgers misfired for Davante Adams and the ball was right to Fuller. Clank.
“I’ve got to catch it,” Fuller said. “Gotta make that play.”
READ MORE: Khalil Mack proves his value with 2 huge plays against the Packers in his Bears debut »
Fuller answered a series of questions and made the point, correctly, that the Bears will find good things on film when they review the game. He said they didn’t view Rodgers as being injured in the second half, and that makes sense. A $14 million per year cornerback needs to make that play. That play puts the game away if he makes it. Fuller had six dropped interceptions a year ago when he made two picks. The Bears have to be hoping he shows better hands the next time the ball comes his way. It’s doubtful the play will be as easy as this one should have been.
Still, they shouldn’t have surrendered a 75-yard gain to Randall Cobb two players later. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio dialed up a blitz, a five-man pressure, and the Bears didn’t get home. Rodgers held the ball for 4.5 seconds which was enough time for Cobb, who ran a square-in from the right side of the formation at the line to gain – 10 yards downfield – broke off his route and began peeling back the way he had come from. Rodgers fed him the ball in the perfect spot and free safety Eddie Jackson dove and missed the ball, effectively taking himself out of the play. He can’t leave his feet in that situation if he’s not going to at least deflect the pass.
“Aaron started to scramble and I tried to break away and was able to find a lane and make the play,” Cobb said. “Once I turned around, I saw nothing but green grass so I went for the end zone.”
Strong safety Adrian Amos didn’t take the best angle on the play and Leonard Floyd had a shot to slow Cobb down or bring him down near the 15-yard line, but he failed. Cobb, of course, was the one that scored on the fourth-and-8 play at the end of the 2013 season to propel Green Bay into the playoffs.
“We celebrate this win, move on and get ready for next week,” he said. “That one put us in the playoffs. This one was to open the season.”
5. Rookie head coach Matt Nagy found the correct tone after the game and that’s to his credit.
“Of course it stings,” he said. “I want our guys to feel that. They understand. I want our coaches to feel it. We talked about finishing and we didn’t do that, but I will say this: I’m really proud of our team. I’m proud of our guys. They did a lot of good things tonight. We are going to learn from it. It is a long season. You’ve got to give credit to Green Bay. Obviously, 12 (Aaron Rodgers) coming back into the game, he showed who he was. We knew that. So give credit to them. Their coaches, their defense stepping up in the red zone. It was obviously a good one for the fans, obviously a better one for the Green Bay fans, but again, I’m proud of our guys. We’ve got to grow from this.”
Critics will point out Nagy was the play caller for the Chiefs when they blew a huge halftime lead over the Titans in the wild-card round of the playoffs, a loss that allowed the Bears to swoop in and hire Nagy the next day for their opening. But while some have labeled him too conservative and that is why the Bears lost, I don’t know that they took their foot off the gas as much as they simply didn’t play well. They tried a throw on third-and-1 to Dion Sims instead of a run play. That was aggressive. It didn’t work though.
Quarterback Mitch Trubisky was fairly interesting too with an introspective remark about an offense that has gotten so, so much attention.
“I don’t really even know that we made a statement,” he said. “We’re close, we know how close we are. These guys continue to believe, continue to work their tails off. Credit to the offensive line for giving me time and to the receivers for making plays. We just feel like we are real close. You get down to the red zone and you come up with a bunch of field goals and it feels OK because we got some points and we are taking care of the football, but they’re not touchdowns. That’s when you can really separate and help out the defense, continue to take pressure off them when we’re scoring.
“I don’t know that we made a statement. We moved the ball up and down the field, but there’s that sense and feeling in the locker room, especially on the offensive side, that we just need to continue to dig deeper and get over that hump of just putting up 20, 23, or however many points, getting to the 30s, getting the touchdowns, converting in the red zone, converting on third downs. Really dictate the game instead of giving them a chance at the end like we did. I feel like it really falls on me and the offense. And then when you can do that, you just control the ball and you can dictate the game, instead of letting them back in. Again, credit to their offense, their defense. We’ve just got to continue to pull together, which we will. We’re headed in the right direction. We’re close, but I don’t know if there’s really any statement.”
6. The shotgun snap that was a hot topic for center Cody Whitehair was an issue only once – a high snap on first-and-10 from the Packers’ 22-yard line with 3:05 remaining. Trubisky was athletic enough to corral the ball for a 3-yard loss. It set the offense back before the final field goal.
As you recall, there were some poor snaps in the Bears’ limited preseason action and training camp. Whitehair switched from the traditional spiral snap to what’s called a “dead snap” in the third week of the preseason leading into the game at Denver. Things were improved that week and then he didn’t play again in preseason as the majority of the starters sat out the fourth preseason game and then the fifth game.
“I’m getting more comfortable with it,” Whitehair said. “It’s coming together. Obviously, it is still a work in progress but I felt comfortable with it. One snap and other than that it was a good game so we’ll move on from it. Just trying to work at it every day and master it.”
When the decision was announced the night before that the Bears starters, or the majority anyway, wouldn’t play against the Chiefs at Soldier Field, that was one of the questions that popped into my mind. What about Whitehair working more with Trubisky on the shotgun snaps? They can drill it all day in practice but it’s not the same when you’ve got defensive linemen across from Whitehair intent on taking Trubisky’s block off
Packers center Corey Linsley used to be a spiral snap center from the shotgun until he had a chance to play in Green Bay.
“I try and do a dead snap,” Linsley said. “That’s the way Aaron (Rodgers) wants it. In college, I used the spiral. When I got here, if you want to get on the field, gotta use the dead snap.”
I asked if one was either than the other.
“It’s six one way, half dozen the other,” Linsley replied. “It’s just a matter of learning it. I guess it is just a feel thing for Aaron. That’s the way he had been getting it for a while so I had to change. It didn’t take me long. A month maybe. You get used to it. It’s as simple as it looks. It’s just a matter of doing it at full speed.”
It’s been nearly a month for Whitehair with the new snap. We’ll see how he does moving forward.
7. It’s not that the season opener meant more to Eric Kush than anyone else on the field but in his sixth season, Kush started a season opener for the first time. He held off second-round draft pick James Daniels over the summer and has the job, at least for the time being. Consider the winding path Kush has taken to arrive at this point. He was a sixth-round pick by the Chiefs in 2013, his first exposure to Bears coach Matt Nagy, and he actually got in three games that season with one start. Kansas City made Kush part of final cuts in 2015 and from there he really started bouncing around, making brief stops with the Buccaneers, Panthers, Texans and then the Rams in the first three months of that season. The Bears claimed him off waivers at the start of the 2016 season and he was a reserve before missing all last season with a torn hamstring that required surgery.
“Yeah, that was pretty crappy,” Kush said. “But I made the most of it.”
Kush went to work on a masters degree in exercise science through California University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater. He has four classes remaining to complete to achieve his goal.
“When the guys went out to practice last year I would just sit there and start writing papers, research, papers, research and I’d sit in front of the computer for five, six hours a day,” he said. “Just having a great time.
READ MORE: First-round linebacker Roquan Smith makes immediate impact on his first play as a Bear »
“It’s cool (to start the opener). I’ve worked really hard and I have had to battle through a lot of stuff. It’s rewarding. I keep coming in and improving every day. That’s all I know is to keep working, trying to keep going, trying to get better at something every day. Deep inside myself, that’s all I know.”
8. You have figure rookie Roquan Smith will be in line for more playing time against Seattle. Smith was credited with one solo tackle, two assists and the sack that was mentioned earlier while logging only 8 snaps.
The most important thing Smith said in the locker room came when I asked him how his hamstring is.
“One-hundred percent,” the first-round draft pick said.
The Bears have played it smart with Smith and now it’s time to give him some more work.
9. During a visit to training camp, former Bears right tackle James “Big Cat” Williams made sure he didn’t leave before having a conversation with Rashaad Coward, who is in his second year after signing as an undrafted rookie free agent from Old Dominion a year ago. The Bears transitioned Coward from defensive tackle to offensive tackle with the arrival of the new coaching staff, a move Williams once made before becoming a leader on the offensive line. Williams signed with the Bears as an undrafted free agent from Division II Cheyney State. He played sparingly as a reserve behind some pretty good frontline players like Steve McMichael and William Perry. The Mike Ditka staff shifted Williams right tackle during the next season and when Dave Wannstedt was hired as coach, bringing with him line coach Tony Wise, the young player started to blossom at his new position.
“I met (Williams) in camp and I talked to him a little bit,” Coward said. “He’s cool. He just told me don’t get down on yourself when you make mistakes, it’s going to happen.”
Coward is working on the basics – his kick step and sliding. He’s got to learn the nuances of not tipping run or pass with his stance or his first movement. He’s getting tested daily by outside linebacker Khalil Mack, who is lining up on the left side of the defense for the majority of practice reps.
“I’m going against him every day so I am going to get better,” Coward said. “If I can get better blocking him, I should be all right.”
Veteran Bradley Sowell projects as the swing tackle on the 53-man roster, but the Bears liked Coward enough to keep him and not risk exposing him to waivers with the idea of re-signing him to the practice squad. He hasn’t played offensive line since he was a center in high school and doubled as a defensive end on a squad at Sheepshead Bay High in Brooklyn, N.Y., that had only 22 players on the roster.
Right tackle Bobby Massie is in the final year of his contract. If Massie plays well, the Bears would at least consider working to bring him back. If Coward can develop on the practice field, he could emerge as an option in 2019.
“He’s in a situation like I was with a (line) coach that is really knows his (stuff),” Williams said. “It wasn’t until I was done playing that I realized how much I learned from Tony.
“As I was told when I was coming up, all is fair in love and war but if a guy goes down, you’re job is to go in there and try to take that spot. You get that spot and you hold onto that damn spot as long as you can. And even Keith Horne told me that, you know what I mean. It’s just a part of the game and if he knows what he is doing as far as his playbook and he can be taught the techniques he needs to play that position there is no reason why if Massie goes down for a while that won’t be his audition.”
Williams’ first action came when Van Horne suffered a neck injury and that cracked the door open. Not long after, Williams was on his way at right tackle and eventually made 134 consecutive starts.
“I told him to play with the same aggressive mentality he used on defense,” Williams said.
10. The Bears are getting conditional draft picks from both of the trades they made on the weekend of final cuts. As you know, they will receive a conditional fifth-round pick in 2020 from the Raiders. That’s the best the Bears can do. I’m told if Mack picks up certain postseason honors this year and/or in 2019, the pick gets worse. I would imagine the Bears are rooting to get a worse pick in exchange because that would mean Mack has been a beast on the field for them.
The Bears right now will receive a conditional 2019 seventh-round draft pick from the Eagles in exchange for defensive back Deiondre’ Hall. The obvious connection with Philadelphia is Joe Douglas, the former Bears college scouting director, is in the Eagles front office. The Bears are getting, at minimum, a seventh in exchange for Hall and that pick could improve slightly based on playing time for him this season. Sounds like the playing time levels are reasonable. My guess is the pick won’t get sweeter than a fifth round, at most, but hey some wondered if Hall was tradeable and general manager Ryan Pace made it happen. The Bears will be pulling to see Hall on the field for the Eagles.
10a. How many players were new to the Bears’ 53-man roster for this season’s opener? The answer is 16 and if you would have asked me before counting them up, I would have figured the number was a little higher. There are six players remaining on the roster that pre-date the arrival of general manager Ryan Pace – wide receiver Josh Bellamy, punter Pat O’Donnell, cornerbacks Kyle Fuller and Sherrick McManis and offensive linemen Charles Leno and Kyle Long.
10b. I did a double take when I saw the stat sheet after the game. Bears wide receiver Taylor Gabriel had five targets, five catches and 25 yards in the game … yet his long was a 31-yard reception. Yep, it’s accurate. That tells you there were some serious flaws in the four plays that went for no gain, minus-5 yards, minus-2 yards and 1 yard. That tells you the Packers were not fooled in the least.
10c. After a brief, and by brief I mean less than a week of working at fullback and playing some there in the final preseason game, practice squad running back Ryan Nall said he’s back to his original position.
10d. Punter Pat O’Donnell had a really nice game and that should not go unmentioned. He hit a 63-yarder and Randall Cobb called for a fair catch on three of his four kicks.
10e. Not to be overlooked on the stat sheet either was five targets and five catches for 25 yards for running back Jordan Howard. He did stay on the field in some third down situations.
10f. The Bears opened as a 3-point favorite over the Seahawks for the Sept. 17 game at Soldier Field, according to the at Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas.
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