W7vsNE: So close, yet so far

   It almost happened, the Bears were in route to pull the upset by almost forcing overtime but came a yard short. That is how the game ended, in reality the Bears were very fortunate they even had a shot at tying the game. 

   The offense for a second straight game struggled to move the ball at the beginning of the game, luckily the defense and special teams both created turnovers for them to be able to score a pair of touchdowns to get a comfortable lead that lasted about 10 seconds. Aside from the forced fumble, Bears special teams had a really bad day and were a big factor on why they did not win this game, first blunder came at the ensuing kick off after the Bears second score, Cordarelle Paterson took it to the house, at the second half they got a punt blocked for a score and then gave good field position to the Pats on the last drive of the game. The Patriots rarely give the ball away, so when they do you do not give the favor back, you cant win against them like that. Patriots snatched the lead before half time with 14 seconds left, I said that Matt Nagy had to be aggressive and creative to have a chance of winning this game, if it weren't for the plays called on their last drives at the end of both half's I would have been OK with the play calling, but these didn't make much sense, if you are not going in to half time trying a long field goal then throw it to the end zone, both are gambles but throwing it short and trying to evade the secondary with no blockers for 30 yards I believe is an even bigger gamble.

   The Bears retook the lead at the beginning of the second half but it almost didn't happen. On both this score and the one after, Mitchell Trubisky was lucky he didn't get picked in the end zone with some horrible throws, one was a bad decision the other a very poorly thrown ball, he was off on his accuracy the majority of the game but instead helped the team get yards with his legs, which is good to know he can do that but would have made this game more winnable if he threw the ball better. His inaccuracy came later on to bite him in the ass, he wouldn't get away with those dropped picks the Patriots had. Trubisky's two picked balls were not on mark to his target but they were close enough, add some great ball skills demonstrated by the Pats DB's and the results were incredible interceptions, the one thrown to Anthony Miller was the one that hurt more because if he caught it showing more effort to fight for the ball, he would of had a shot to score, but yeah Trubisky could have placed that ball better.

   The defense for the Bears struggled to stop the short pass again but this time it was mixed up very well by the Patriots and the Bears played the run defense better this time, they didn't get to Tom Brady as much as one would like but Brady is the master of getting the ball out quick so I get it, still this team should be more focused on pressuring the QB with what they have and not fall completely on the other teams game plan. The Bears defense forced an interception in the fourth quarter that again was turned into seven points, an upside for this offense is that they made every turnover into a touchdown. This score made it a one score game, but the Bears special teams didn't help as they let the Patriots get very good field position on the kick off, the defense couldn't stop them until they reached the Bears side of the field and once the offense got the ball, the play calls got weird again with three short passes that didn't even made them reach across mid field, I don't know if these plays were chosen because of Trubisky's struggle with the deep ball but again, you had to be aggressive or get creative. So hail mary time and Kevin White came down with it near the 3 yard line, span around and got stuck on some defenders at the one, no push to help him, didn't reach with the ball maybe because of fear of loosing the ball or not knowing how far the end zone was, but that was it, one yard short, game over.

   Its something that they were able to maintain a close game against a very good team but it wasn't a well executed one, the Bears had a shot to win this game but didn't manage to maintain the advantage and made mistakes of their own, the rush got neutralized again, the run game is still struggling to get big chunks and Trubisky is running hot and cold. 

  

   Not to get ahead of myself, but the Bears get two must win games back to back, starting with the Jets at home led by rookie Sam Darnold and after that it's off to Buffalo to play against maybe another rookie QB who knows, the Bills are in desperation mode and are rounding up any QB available to play for them. The Bears defense has to get back to how they played the first 4 games and pressure these QB's, the offense and Nagy have to get on the same page and keep the foot on the gas at all times, the Jets and Bills defenses are no easy units so they will be good tests for the offense to keep getting better as a unit.

W6@MIA: Really?

   What a weird game this one turned out to be, the Bears offense and defense couldn't get it together for a full half and both ended up collapsing in the 4th quarter to a conservative offense led by none other than Brock Osweiler who ended up beating the Bears... again... for the third time.

   It started off slow with both offenses not being able to move the ball much, if it weren't for an iffie roughing call on Leonard Floyd (which he got fined for which is stupid, one thing is wanting to protect the QB and another is not even watching that the hit wasn't even serious but still charged meaning this is for discipline reasons what makes this a stupid move, add up it cost almost double the fine for the semi pile driver on Danny Amendola, meaning the cost is just because it was against the QB, stupid) the Dolphins would have been trying a field goal, instead they get close enough to get the touchdown. The offense lost the chance to get it tied after the half but Jordan Howard ended up coughing the ball near the goal line. Starting the second half, Mitch Trubisky and company remembered they where good enough to beat this Dolphins defense and scored touchdowns on three consecutive drives while the defense only allowed two field goals. Then entering the 4th quarter is where insanity hit, the Bears going for their 4th consecutive score where called for another iffie penalty on Trey Burton for a pass interference which overturned the touchdown. The next play on 1st and goal ended up being a Trubisky interception in the end zone which would end up being very costly, Trubisky played a good game but this mistake took away points, at least a field goal. The Dolphins never abandoned the short pass and screen game because Osweiler, but with a tired Bears defense due to the hot weather or because of the bye week, which ever the reason was they ended up breaking down allowing two touchdowns on catches of less than 10 yards that got taken for more than 40 yards to the house, this was possible by bad tackling and horrible angles taken by the defense especially by Eddie Jackson, who on both plays was in position to make the saving tackle. If you are going to allow them to take the short pass because Osweiler isn't good with the deep throws then you have to tackle, if you don't then this was bound to happen especially with all the small speedy receivers the Dolphins have. Aside that Osweiler isn't good throwing deep, the game plan was obviously to get rid of the ball fast to eliminate the rush and when the Bears took the lead I wonder if Vic Fangio challenged the Dolphins to go deep and cover the short to intermediate zone more tightly, it didn't help that they played the run poorly almost the entire game and couldn't take advantage of the lead to take away this part of their game plan. The Bears then had a chance to end the game in regulation with a late score but Tarik Cohen fumbled the ball near midfield and the Dolphins ended up being in good field position but finally got plugged by the defense. So to OT we go and the Dolphins went marching in to the Chicago 1 yard line where they ended up fumbling the ball, recovered by the Bears in the end zone. Then there go the Bears rumbling to the Dolphins side of the field with two big run plays by Howard, then they keep running the next three plays, not getting enough for the first down. I understand that the run plays where working but there was no reason to get conservative here or even worse there was no imagination on these plays, just running straight trough the gut of the line and just hoping the hole was going to be there when on the entire game there was only one run that went for more than 7 yards and it was a Cohen draw play, I would have expected an option play that would have more chances of getting the yards needed to make Cody Parkey's kick easier to make, because of course he missed it from 53 yards away. I really expected him to miss it because why not? If I'm Matt Nagy I would be thinking I need to get this ball inside the 30 yard line to have a chance, because I have the players to get the ball to that range and I don't have a reliable kicker from 50 and over. So Parkey misses it and Jason Sanders doesn't.

   The Bears blew this game, they had the better team but the turnovers just were to much for them to handle. The defense did let the Dolphins run game get the best of them but other than that it was the two touchdown passes that killed them. It was a crazy game that went the Dolphins way, it was like 85 when that deflected pass ended falling in the hands of a Dolphins receiver for a first down on OT, I couldn't help myself but just laugh at how this game was turning out to be, the two teams got their chances and at the end of the day the Dolphins took the advantage and took the win.

   Speaking of 85, next up New England goes for a visit. Its hard o believe the Bears will end up winning this one but if the Dolphins game tells you something is that anything can happen. The Bears are going in to this match almost intact while the Patriots are going Gronkless, this should be an advantage but Fangio cant get confident and will need to be ready for every player that Tom Brady will have on the field. If the game against Miami taught the Bears something is that the Patriots can play the short passing game as well as the Dolphins and Brady is more than capable of throwing deep if he gets the chance. What I expect from the Bears offense is to not hold back and get as creative and aggressive as possible, if you are going down then go down with style.

W4vsTB: Touch

   Well I wanted a better play out of Mitchell Trubisky and got it against the Buc's in a big way, he showed he has the accuracy and vision needed to be a great QB at least in this game, he did have a pair of passes he overthrew but there where plenty more where he was right on the money. Maybe the Buc's defense is a bad unit but this is what should happen when a good offense plays a bad defense, so yeah the Bears offense played as a good NFL offense and did it through the air without much help from Jordan Howard through the ground which is not to say that Howard played bad, just that the ground game was not moving the chains, at the end it didn't matter because Trubisky and company shredded the defense with the pass. There was little to worry about on defense, Tampa Bay went on to panic by siting Ryan Fitzpatrick and putting in Jameis Winston ending the Buc's offensive magic, second consecutive game where the Bears defense makes the opposing team bring in their backup QB off the bench, not counting when DeShone Kiser backed up injured Aaron Rodgers but it could count. Wonder if this could trend more this year, too much to ask? Knowing that the Bears can outplay a bad team that way is encouraging, if the offense can consistently play at least half as good as they did against Tampa Bay then this team looks like a playoff contender that should be feared and only thing stopping them would be how healthy they can maintain themselves... and maybe Aaron Rodgers.

   Next up is at Miami against an opportunistic defense that has created ten interceptions this season. Still I believe the Bears should win this one, even if the Dolphins started the season 3-0 those three wins came against low to mid caliber teams (Titans, Jets and Raiders) to then get destroyed by the Patriots and lose to the Bengals, both on the road to fairly good teams. What the Bears need is to not get sloppy returning from their bye week and continue where they left off.