Thoughts on Bears-Vikings: Established Powerhouse

[CaptnSUG]

Also, so what was the deal with going for 2? Nagy seems to like to mix things up unexpectedly, like the no huddle offense against DET.

Puts a lot of pressure on opponents. Its pretty smart, especially since the Bears seem very adept at executing the plays Nagy draws up from 2 yards out. Helps when the QB is always a threat to run.

 

[Les Grossman]

This Bears team feels like one of those early 90's Bears teams to me from the stand point that they might end up being a 10-6 or 11-5 team, get to host a playoff game, are a pretty darn good team, but aren't in the class of the Rams or Saints(49ers/Giants/ascending Cowboys)

True, but how much longer will Brees be playing? I feel like the powerhouse Saints are going to be short-lived.

 

[Les Grossman]

Problem is the secondary is simply not elite. Jackson is ascending but they can't stop when teams go no-huddle & start throwing quick passes. I was kind of amazed that Minnesota just didn't ditch the run altogether and keep throwing quick passes

Our secondary is actually pretty awesome across the board. The defense was purposely giving up those short passes. It's amazing that anyone wouldn't know that that was the defensive gameplan at that point; i.e. don't give up the big play deep.

 

[legendxofxlink]

The secondary was tremendous in the first half. Cousins had nowhere to go outside of a LOS dumpoff.. The league leading WR in receptions didn't get a catch till the end of the half.. That first half was pure domination against a good offense.

 

[bamainatlanta]

Our secondary is actually pretty awesome across the board. The defense was purposely giving up those short passes. It's amazing that anyone wouldn't know that that was the defensive gameplan at that point; i.e. don't give up the big play deep.

Duh, the problem is they aren't good enough to stop the predictable passes. Diggs had his way with press coverage and easily got separation; Miami & NE both had their way when they went with the same offense and predictable short, quick passes. Its amazing that anyone cant see this.

 

[LiverpoolBearsFAn]

This is a very good and very young Bears team, there was a stat about it being the first without anyone 30 years old or more for a very long time. We have been rebuilt pretty much from the ground up over the last 3 years.

This gives us a great window to be successful - we could be better next year without adding anyone; just because so many talented young players have a year more of experience, the QB a full year of this offence and Nagy a full year as a HC.

We were going to be a promising young team in need of a superstar, but the opportunity to trade for that superstar came around and Pace took it. Mack put us over the top to a genuine playoff contender, he is the difference maker.

 

[didshereallysaythat]

Nobody is beating the Saints in NO. It's unlikely but if NO had to go to Chicago in the Janaury cold, then yes the Saints would be slowed down big time.

I would not mind playing at LA in the playoffs. Not that I think we would win, but we would have a shot. Tons of Bears fans in LA would limit the home field advantage. Plus it would be the 2nd time playing them.

Playing at New Orleans would be almost impossible.

 

[didshereallysaythat]

If New Orleans keeps playing well on defense, they will win the Super Bowl. Not many people are talking about their defense.

 

[Outlaw Josey Cutler]

*In general, the Bears looked to be the superior team, and the Vikings were somewhat fortunate to still be in the game at the end. If Mack’s ankle is good, the Bears can compete with anyone in the NFL. I was looking at this game as a “prove it” game for the Bears, and now its almost like if they don’t end up winning the NFC North, it will be disappointing. I think the expectation should be for the Bears to get a 3 seed, host a playoff game, then look to compete with LA or NO in the next round.

*I thought the Bears did a good job of stifling the Vikings’ defensive aggression and attacking the edges. The drive in the 2nd quarter that ended with Anthony Miller’s TD catch was essentially 3 Trubisky scrambles. Trubisky did some nice things, but it pains me to say that his accuracy continues to be an issue. It would be great to say that Trubisky won the game for the Bears, but he made some bad throws and the Bears probably should have had more than 14 points midway through the 4th period.

*Eddie Jackson’s TD INT was the big play of the game, but I never felt like the Bears weren’t in control. A notable play was in the 2nd quarter when Cousins was getting hit every play by Mack, so they ran a screen to Mack’s side. Danny Trevathan sniffed it out immediately and ran all the way across the field to tackle the RB as soon as he caught the pass. It proved that nothing was working for Minnesota’s offense.

*I thought the Vikings game plan would be to run the ball, possibly straight at Mack, and let Cousins pick his spots to hit his WRs. The Vikings kind of gave up on the run, but they also couldn’t get anything going with Cook and Murray. Very impressive performance by the Bears D.

*Speaking of Cousins, I thought LT Riley Reiff and Kirk Cousins did a great impression of JaMarcus Webb and Jay Cutler. In the pre-game one of the schmucks said “The Bears haven’t had a pro bowl QB since Jim McMahon…isn’t that unbelievable?!” Of course its not unbelieveable…the Bears had Jay Cutler for an entire decade! Anyways, Reiff couldn’t block anyone and Cousins looked ‘shook’ from the opening of the game. One of the big plays of the game was Cousins INT heave at the end of the first half that kept the Vikings at 0 points…very Cutler-esque.

*Mack was fantastic against an overmatched Vikings OL that has been poor all year. In Reiff’s defense, no one in the NFL has been able to handle Mack, and the Vikings never adjusted their protection to give Reiff help (JaMarcus Webb would have a TE next to him and a RB behind him, and he’d still make Frank Zombo look like Lawrence Taylor). I felt good for Hicks to get notice on a national stage. Too much of the NFL pro bowl is about stats, and a good all-around DE like Hicks will always get overlooked because its all about sacks. Maybe this will be the year Hicks gets into the pro bowl.

*Already sick of the Cody Parkey story. You made some FGs. Good for you. Interesting that Nagy kept going for 2.

*I think the overall picture looks good for the Bears. They should beat Detroit, but even if they lose they will most likely be a postseason team. I am most impressed with Chicago’s balance…they can pass, they can run well enough, they stop the run, they stop the pass. Jacksonville had a similar Cinderella run last season, but I think they were more one-dimensional than the Bears. Trubisky is much better than Bortles.

I agree with everything said including the bolded. My comments are limited to the offense and so to the bolded I add:

The Vikings D adjusted very well to the offense in the 2nd half. The offense was terrible. The only points put up in the 2nd half was the critical FG under 2 minutes and that was largely set up by the penalty on Smith. Even Mitch's completions on 3rd down in the second half was when MIN (for some reason) backed off the pressure and went zone. Robinson can find the empty spot in the zone easy and Mitch hit him for a first down or 2. When they blitzed and disguised zones and man coverages, Mitch was lost and that was for most of the 2nd half in total.

Now I am not down on him, he threw deep to one-on-one matchups when Smith came in the box but he can't hit them consistently and the CBs covered great with no PI.

My observation (FWIW) is Mitch is going through reads (progress) but needs to work on going through reads faster and drill those deep balls constantly. If he could have hit one of them in the 2nd half, it would have destroyed the Viking D and would make our passing attack as fully dimensional as possible.

Also, we are behind NO and LAR until we can even sniff a running attack that can take over the game.

 

[legendxofxlink]

If New Orleans keeps playing well on defense, they will win the Super Bowl. Not many people are talking about their defense.

Good rush defense, but their pass defense is pretty bad. The Eagles team they dominated just isn't the same this year. Not sure what's going on there.

 

[LiverpoolBearsFAn]

Good rush defense, but their pass defense is pretty bad. The Eagles team they dominated just isn't the same this year. Not sure what's going on there.

Wentz doesn't look close to the QB he was last year, struggling with accuracy.

 

[wazzupi]

Bears have the worse 4th qtr defense and we all know why I just can't tell if this team is mocking their opponent saying "hey, the game is over bud let's just get through the rest of the game without any ill intentions or injury"

 

[SugarWalls]

Bears have the worse 4th qtr defense and we all know why I just can't tell if this team is mocking their opponent saying "hey, the game is over bud let's just get through the rest of the game without any ill intentions or injury"

Bears offense has been bad as well though. Against the lions they definitely shut it down but last night the offense couldn’t do a damn thing in the 2nd halve.

 

[Kazu2324]

Fantastic stuff Rory! Thanks for the post-game thoughts, keep it up my man!

Still don't think the Bears can quite compete against the Saints. I don't think the Rams are as great as they're being touted but they've also played some great teams of late. I can't wait for the Rams game, but first things first is taking care of the Lions and finishing up the sweep!

 

[Les Grossman]

I agree with everything said including the bolded. My comments are limited to the offense and so to the bolded I add:

The Vikings D adjusted very well to the offense in the 2nd half. The offense was terrible. The only points put up in the 2nd half was the critical FG under 2 minutes and that was largely set up by the penalty on Smith. Even Mitch's completions on 3rd down in the second half was when MIN (for some reason) backed off the pressure and went zone. Robinson can find the empty spot in the zone easy and Mitch hit him for a first down or 2. When they blitzed and disguised zones and man coverages, Mitch was lost and that was for most of the 2nd half in total.

Now I am not down on him, he threw deep to one-on-one matchups when Smith came in the box but he can't hit them consistently and the CBs covered great with no PI.

My observation (FWIW) is Mitch is going through reads (progress) but needs to work on going through reads faster and drill those deep balls constantly. If he could have hit one of them in the 2nd half, it would have destroyed the Viking D and would make our passing attack as fully dimensional as possible.

Also, we are behind NO and LAR until we can even sniff a running attack that can take over the game.

I’m not sure the Vikings D adjusted very much as opposed to our offense scaling back. The announcers mentioned this, but during our scripted plays, there is all kinds of presnap motion and misdirection which confuses the defense. However, after that, all of that motioning kind of disappears and the defense can settle in.

 

[Outlaw Josey Cutler]

I’m not sure the Vikings D adjusted very much as opposed to our offense scaling back. The announcers mentioned this, but during our scripted plays, there is all kinds of presnap motion and misdirection which confuses the defense. However, after that, all of that motioning kind of disappears and the defense can settle in.

Kind of not either/or but both. Going on memory only, the defense started shifting coverage looks right up to his cadence and when he will snap the ball. Several times, H. Smith baited Trubisky to read the the deep ball pre-snap by lining up in the box and then sprinted back to single high formation 2 seconds before Mitch snapped it. This removed Mitch's first read ("Smith is up so I'm going over the top") and forced him into secondary reads while pressure mounted. It also limited his tuck it and run option which he always does after the second read is through.

Not down on Mitch, just reading what they did and saying CHI offense never really solved that new wrinkle that limited them.

EDIT: I am not disagreeing with you on lack of misdirection by the offense pre-snap, but I am also saying that the Vikings introduced new approach to taking away Mitch's presnap reads and did a damn good steady consistent job of it as the near total dropoff in offense in 2nd half attests.

 

[dabears584]

I could live with that for a first year with a new HC and offense.

Anyone who said the Bears could get to 10-11 wins at the beginning of the seasons would have been laughed off the forum.

I stood strong even before they got Mack that they were gonna win 12 games.

 

[pfcmsh]

*Already sick of the Cody Parkey story. You made some FGs. Good for you. Interesting that Nagy kept going for 2.

I have a thought that we are going to see a lot more coaches routinely going for 2 after a touchdown. NFL games come down to a handful of plays and many of the games are within a few points. Why not get (3) touchdowns and get (3) 2 point conversions to gain a 3 point edge. The 2 point conversions are not as easy to get as kicking the extra points, but if you have a balanced offense, you can get 2 yards in any number of plays.

I think Nagy knows this and he wanted the 2 point conversions simply for points. I do not think it had a thing to do with Parkey's difficulties last week.

 

[Les Grossman]

Kind of not either/or but both. Going on memory only, the defense started shifting coverage looks right up to his cadence and when he will snap the ball. Several times, H. Smith baited Trubisky to read the the deep ball pre-snap by lining up in the box and then sprinted back to single high formation 2 seconds before Mitch snapped it. This removed Mitch's first read ("Smith is up so I'm going over the top") and forced him into secondary reads while pressure mounted. It also limited his tuck it and run option which he always does after the second read is through.

Not down on Mitch, just reading what they did and saying CHI offense never really solved that new wrinkle that limited them.

EDIT: I am not disagreeing with you on lack of misdirection by the offense pre-snap, but I am also saying that the Vikings introduced new approach to taking away Mitch's presnap reads and did a damn good steady consistent job of it as the near total dropoff in offense in 2nd half attests.

Yeah, I hear you. I'd add that in your particular example, They did get a big play out of Robinson when Harrison Smith did that "show and go" for a big pass (3rd down?) conversion. It was the one Robinson almost broke into the open after stumbling. They threw right in front of the deep Harrison Smith for the play.

 

[Les Grossman]

I have a thought that we are going to see a lot more coaches routinely going for 2 after a touchdown. NFL games come down to a handful of plays and many of the games are within a few points. Why not get (3) touchdowns and get (3) 2 point conversions to gain a 3 point edge. The 2 point conversions are not as easy to get as kicking the extra points, but if you have a balanced offense, you can get 2 yards in any number of plays.

I think Nagy knows this and he wanted the 2 point conversions simply for points. I do not think it had a thing to do with Parkey's difficulties last week.

Getting 2 yards outside the 20 yard line is MUCH different than at the goaline.