Follow Up Observations
-I have tempered my expectations for Charles Leno as I did not want to get ahead of myself, but I felt he played another strong game. There were a couple of reps [I saw 3] where Everson Griffin beat him on and outside rush and forced Jay to step up. Griffin never really got a hand on Jay, but the rush effected the play. What I like about Leno is that he does not give up the inside, a cardinal sin for an OT, he showed good recovery when the rush got him off balance, and finally he use his long arms really well. I thought his run blocking was improved from the Lions game. Leno at this point is playing, not because he is young and they want to see what he has, but because he is a better pass protector than Bushrod.
-Patrick Omaneh is better than Vlad Ducasse, but neither is any good.
-It would be huge if Charles Leno could lock down the LT spot, not only because if represents a serious stealing of value, but because Kyle Long still has enough technique breakdowns at RT that I would worry about making another position change quickly. The most difficult change to make on the OL is not from OT to OG, it is from right to left.
-I am not sure what Eddie Royal does for this team. He doesn't block all that well, he is not making anyone miss on screens or in the open field, and he is constantly injured.
-Jeremy Langford has good feet and vision inside, he routinely took 3 yards worth of blocking and got a hard 5 yards. Would like to see what he can do with some open field and a crease, but right now he is looking like a guy who is just trying to ensure a positive play, which is okay.
-Marques Wilson got wide open because of play design and a nice cut, but then slowed down out of his break leading to an easy TD that was an over throw. There are still some rough edges in his route running. I would assume with Kevin White that the throw in question would not have been an overthrow.
-I have been critical of the pass rush, but there were 3-4 plays in the 1st half where Jarvis Jenkins got a disruptive rush or forced a throw. His inability to close on an escaping Teddy Bridgewater late in the game was painful though.
-Eddie Goldman is a monster. He plays low, with good hand extension and control. The issue is that he does the same thing on passing downs. He engages the OLmen and then struggles to get off. Goldman does not need to engage on passing downs, he has success when he attacks the gap and does not go chest to chest. You see a couple of rushes a game where he just blows into the A gap and OLmen are not strong enough to handle him when they cannot square him up.
-Mitch Unrien was dominated in the run game. Routinely pancaked and blown back.
-Will Sutton is active and hard to move at times, but no overly consistent in what he is doing. He flashes at times because of effort, but I think he struggles when playing DE against the longer OTs. At his reps at NT I thought he looked much better. I am not disappointed in Sutton, but I am not impressed so far.
-Tough to evaluate the DL in this game because all of them played way more reps than they should. Wondering why they couldn't close on Bridgewater late? They were exhausted as only 4 DLmen played.
-Reynolds and Anderson didn't really do anything to impress. Neither was decisive against the run spending most of the time getting caught in the wash.
-Adam Jahns told us in the Twitter question session that the Bears were happy with Christian Jones, but I continue to see a player that struggles with inside runs. In space Jones has it, in coverage he looks good, but in the inside run game he stands at 5 yards and waits for the blockers to come to him. There is no attack, shooting of gaps, or physicality against the blockers. Jones looks like a coverage LB at this point.
-Confirmed: Sam Acho cannot rush the passer.
-At this point the Bears should release Lamarr Houston and sign an OLB off of a practice squad. At least a young guy with some speed could give you the occasional rush.
-Kyle Fuller played well.
-Adrian Amos had a couple of really nice run stops, which continues to impress me considering the biggest knocks on him were his physicality and tackling.
-This is your weekly Sherick McManis is terrible. That was the worst series of 8-10 plays I have ever seen.
-Bryce Callahan looked okay. Tough to see everything, but he was in position to contest throws and make tackles. He also looked like a willing tackler, which is key in a slot CB.
-I get that the special teams has limited talent. Bad team will have a really bad bottom of the roster, but at some point it has to come to coaching. The fact that they seem routinely fooled and there are so many technique breakdowns has to come home to roost on a coach at some point. There are lots of special teams coordinators in the league with sub par talent, who do not allow 30% of the leagues kick return TDs.
