Offense
-I thought that we finally saw Nagy get into a play calling groove in the 4th quarter TD drive. He had a QB that was struggling, he had a running game that was going nowhere and he schemed a ton of yards rushing to Gabriel and some easy completions for Mitch as they headed down the field for a TD. That felt like the first time outside of the scripted 15 plays that he and Mitch had a groove going.
-There were some play calling positives from Nagy that I saw, did not get screen happy, kept running the ball even when Howard was getting stopped, calmed Mitch down at halftime and gave him some easier read stuff in the 2nd half.
-The offensive operation was better. The play clock was not as much of an issue, the time outs weren’t getting burnt, the lining up issues were decreased. That is a positive development. It is difficult to clean up bigger issues when you are still making simple mistakes.
-I felt Mitch was really up and down again. There were some incredible moments and some great throws and there were times when he was flat out bad. I felt like it was a better performance than against the Packers he seemed more in command and was making checks and audibles that seemed to work.
The bad
-The pick to Robinson was just a bad underthrow
-The miss to Gabriel in the middle of the field was one you need to make
-The 2nd pick doesn’t bother me
-The throw to the endzone that was almost picked was a huge issue
The good
-The throw to Cohen will scrambling was incredible
-The TD throw to Miller was a really nice roll and throw
-The shovel pass to Burton was well read and timed
-I thought he and Robinson had a nice repour in the middle of the field
-His ability to run continues to be a useful weapon
-Mitch is not where I wanted him to be at this point. I probably should have listened to the bear guys who were telling us about his inconsistent camp, but I didn’t and this surprised me a little.
-Jordan Howard has been targeted 8 times with catchable passes and has caught all of them so that is a positive.
-The Seahawks were selling out to stop the run and the OL did not play well yesterday and the run game looked bad. The Bears feel like they are to horizantel in their run game and they need to go forward and bully some people more often.
-Allen Robinson is good. He is better in the middle of the field than I was expecting and he converted some big 3rd downs. I would like to see more from him on the first pick, the ball was underthrown, but come on back big guy and get involved. I have been impressed for a guy who is not a burner that he is able to get behind CBs as often as he does. If he and Mitch ever get on the same page on those throws it could be big for the offense.
-Another positive is that the ball was spread around. Trey Burton with 4 catches was nice to see and I would like to see Mitch get back on the same page with Burton. Hoge and Jahns were talking about how on the long Howard completion that Burton again was wide open. Those 2 need to get the chemistry going.
-Using Taylor Gabriel in the run game was a nice change of pace. With the Seahawks selling out downhill to stop the run the misdirection seemed to really throw them on the TD drive.
-I wish that the 15 yard completion in the 3rd quarter to Miller had stood. Instead, it was a formation penalty that made it 3rd and long and a punt. That pass was a great slide out of the pocket and dart from Trubisky that would have put them in field goal range and made the offensive narrative a little different.
-Dion Sims is still garbage, but at least they didn’t throw him the ball.
-I think this was bad Bobbie Massie game, which we knew were coming. The Frank Clark offside sack is a brutal non-call, but the rest of the game he did not seem as effective in the run game and he was getting pressed into the pocket in the pass game. He is the biggest liability on the line right now.
-The OL was not very good against a depleted front 7. They did not generate a ton of room in the run game and at one point you could over hear Kyle Long yelling “do it like we do in practice”, which tells me that there are still some scheme and adjustment issues happening.
