BYEWEEK: Desicions

    The Bears hit their by week with an even 5-5 record and seemingly no solution to improve their offense which would result in the very familiar result of a wasted year of good defensive play and no playoff games. Still there are 6 games to be played to see if some experiments work or in the worst case just to see where this team sits for the 2021 season. So, at this point who do you blame for this result? What needs to happen to win the confidence back of the team and fan base? And if it stays the same or gets worse at the end of the season, does he stay or go? The three usual suspects that damaged the growth of the team are in no particular order GM, HC and QB.

   Mitchell Trubisky had an unspectacular but normal rookie year in 2017 where he messed up in various occasions like usually every rookie does, then he goes and makes the pro bowl his next year, the year after that has a bad season filled with injuries and bad decision making leading to declining stats. This year shows more of the same and desperation gets him benched. You can see the guy has physical traits, he is agile enough, above average arm strength, can make touch passes, as a player he looks to be accepted by hes teammates, coaches and personnel. His problem is not easy, he is inconsistent, but knowing why is the hard part to explain. One thing is for sure, he is been coached or asked to play like a pocket passer, he hasn't been able to be a good one yet and might not be for the Chicago Bears. My problem with Trubisky is that he makes bad decisions seemingly by not watching the field properly pre and pos snap. Trubisky was a 1 year starter where he showed his skills that are not questioned, the doubts were on his mental skills to play pro football, is he failing because he doesn't have it or is he not being coached properly?

   Matt Nagy got his first HC position with the Bears in 2018, in part because he accepted to coach Trubisky and what he has tried to do so far is to mold th QB to his game scheme which has not worked since 2019. In 2018 the Bears looked like they were having fun on the field and showed Nagy as a creative offensive play caller, this did not progress, with a subpar 2019 and a very bad offense this year. Nagy brought almost a new group of coordinators and coaches to turn thing around but hasn't worked and is getting worse with a very poor offensive line group. He passed play calling duties to his offensive coordinator this last game and didn't go well. So, did Nagy do a bad job coaching Trubisky or is the QB not good enough? Can Nagy rebound back to 2018 with a new QB or is he still too young a HC that needs more experience?

   Ryan Pace was given the GM position in 2015 as a young talent to give the Chicago Bears organization a more fresh perspective, his biggest decision was picking Trubisky as his 2017 first round draft pick and is the pick haunting him the most, he hasn't made a big boom on any draft year but has been good with his picks especially in the middle rounds of the draft to find some very skilled players. He has brought some key FA players compared to the years before him specially bringing in Akiem Hicks and has strengthened the depth chart and special teams every year. His move to trade for Khalil Mack was huge and would have paid dividends if it wasn't for the lack of offensive progress. His knocks have been the decision of letting Robbie Gould go, missing in first rounders Kevin White because of constant injury and Leonard Floyd because of lack of sack production, extending the contracts of average players on important positions in Charles Leno Jr. and Bobbie Massie, his decision to wait and see if he extends his best WR Allen Robinson,  but nothing more gut punching that missing better QB talent when picking Trubisky over more favored Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes who nobody expected he would play the way he is but still was considered a high skilled player, Pace decided to go with the less experienced wild card. Add the choice of Nagy to be his next HC and both have combined to create disaster. Has Pace done enough to get another shot to bring a new QB/HC? 

  The problem is that all of them are new to their positions and could be seen as going through their learning curve, but if the higher up is flunking then it's obvious that it will domino to the one below him, all of them could get better with time. With this said, I believe that Nagy has more of the blame to the present state of the Bears than the other two. Pace might have brought them together but i believe he get more the benefit of the doubt on not knowing this would happen and his hits might be more impactful than his misses. Trubisky as I mentioned has a good skill set but his inconsistency is killing his chances and I believe he could do better with a better scheme and coaching (and Oline). Nagy is still green and hasnt showed he can adjust, to get rid of coaches and get 10 TEs to the team to find the one he need to run his scheme correctly and still blame the QBs bad play is a bit overboard. Sadly the easier move is to get another QB and see if the result of you big guys above can make things work this time around so Trubisky need these opportunities to make the Bears organization think twice about letting him go or sell himself high to another team this coming offseason and in Chicago there is no other better way to do it by beating the Green Bay Packers, although I don't believe he will have a chance without Akiem Hicks but he can still win personally by playing good football.

W10vsMIN: Back breaker

   As expected, even with another good performance by their defense, the losses keep piling up with the Bears offense falling flat again, this time to an average Vikings squad. The game ended being close but just because Bears defense and special teams showed up to help put point on the board and stop Dalvin Cook from being a factor in this game. In short, the offense did nothing to help their team break the losing streak. They have fallen to a 5-5 record going to their bye week.

   Nick Foles looked out of sync, he had chances to gain big chunks of yardage but never saw the open receiver down field, instead he went with short escape routes or held the ball to long, a still struggling Oline at best means he didn't really had that much time to begin with. Truth be told, the Oline played better, if graded their improvement would be from an F to an F+, still mediocre. Rashaad Coward is still getting snaps, kill me now. Germain Ifedi, Alex Bars and Cody Whitehair still can't get in the same page in some plays and are still struggling to win position in run plays but of the bunch they are the ones that made the Oline play better even if it was brief. Charles Leno Jr. is just not good enough anymore. Cordarrelle Patterson isn't a running back, he showed fight and it's what this team needs, if he maintains that fire he should get the ball but he isnt a running back and cant be considered to be the backup, not with this Oline. I expect David Montgomery to get his spot back once he is out of the concussion protocol and have Lamar Miller or Artavious Pierce as backup RB. Ryan Nall shows to be a good football player and deserves to get some snaps, it would be awesome if he could play better at FB but he isn't there yet, still he could be better than J.P. Holtz and this team needs a good FB. Screens and bubbles will continue to not work if the wideouts and TEs keep missing blocks, Allen Robinson as talented as he is as a receiver is not showing to be interested in blocking, could an extension make him better? guess it will be a mystery this season. Anthony Miller is the Chicago Bears in a nutshell, has the ability to be great but falls short most of the time. Now with all this being said, knowing your team is the coaches job to help them play better by using their strengths, so why did Bill Lazor play 3rd downs like this team was the 98 Vikings? No short or intermediate routes and didn't try to exploit the middle of the field. Are these coaches incapable of accepting that they have Oline problems or do they simply don't know what to do? That they need to pick apart the other teams defense by getting small chunks of yards to keep the chains moving and help the run game open up the field more, that it doesn't matter if a receiver gets deep when your QB is getting blasted by blitzers and seems to be taking a mental toll on him? Foles was supposed to be better with RPOs but its not really used much. 

   The defense is playing to win, morality must be hanging by a thread and I believe it will break if they lose this next one to Green Bay. Two more loses and I believe this season will be officially over, there is little to try to salvage it, one move is to insert recently signed Eric Kush to RG and push Ifedi to RT, the other is to change back to Mitch Trubisky. Nick Foles has shown what he can do with this offense and it almost cost him his spine, if the Oline improves with Kush then let Trubisky help improve it more with his mobility, the Bears have literally nothing to lose at this point, if it keeps falling it will not be because of Foles, it will be because coaching and the decision making was not on point, let your first round QB go out in flames, there is a chance that he still has some unfinished business.

W9@TEN: Next in (O)line please

   No surprises in this game, just more of the same. The Bears Oline got worse with new bodies on it and no practices to try and mold this scrapy unit together due to COVID issues.

   I'm not gonna even talk about the defense, this is plain and simple, the Oline will cost the Bears the season, it shadows any other problem that this team could be having, the Oline is so horrendous that you can't possibly be able to evaluate individual performances correctly or fairly, not even as a group, it makes everybody look bad or worse. I don't believe it can get better, I haven't seen anything that tells me it can, this team will only continue struggling even if they manage to win, which I don't believe they will get many the rest of this year. What concerns me is whoever is behind this line at QB is possibly going to break and if that happens it hurts the future of this team, imagine trying to get FA talent to fortify the position, anybody with talent will look somewhere else first because no one will want to play with this empty shell of an offensive line. 

   If Cody Whitehair is down, the coaching staff cant do anything but to start their new guys and evaluate them to see what they got and if it's enough to consider getting them back for next season. There IS one important step to do before anything else and it's not debatable, that is to get Rashaad Coward OUT, I do not what to see him again in the starting line up, I don't even want him to be considered as an offensive player on the roster, he is done and should not place a foot on the field when the offense is in, if there is no other RT then push Alex Bars to that spot, there is nothing to lose right now, he looked awful at center and its maybe why Ryan Pace signed Eric "tanktop" Kush. It's a mystery as of now to know what this line is going to look like depending if he plays RG or C which is how he is designated on the roster as of now. I would put Sam Mustipher at C, Kush at RG, Jermain Ifedi at RT, Bars at LG and Charles Leno Jr. at LT. With this being said, I want Leno benched, Bars or Whitehair at LT and the other at LG, but LT is no joke, Bars would need reps first to possibly make the change permanently, any of these changes is not a simple task and LT is the least one you want to meddle with.

   The news of Matt Nagy passing the play calling to Bill Lazor might just get Nagy a chance of keeping his job next year, if honestly this was his and only his decision then he has shown a a small sample of flexibility and willing to change and learn as the young HC he is, sadly a losing record might get Pace fired and consequently him as well if the new GM decides to bring someone new, still its a bit to soon to know. Lazor might want to simplify everything for his offense especially the run game, no tricks meaning less Cordarrelle Patterson and maybe more Ryan Nall up the gut when he is in for David Montgomery. More bodies in the line of scrimmage doesn't seem to be working to get the run going, maybe showing pass to run can work, put 4 wideouts and make the defense think pass even if the passing game will have to be short and quick passes the important thing is to gain positive yards and get first downs consistently to get the defense rested.

   I don't expect this team to get fixed in time to be considered a real contender in January and maybe by even trying to get better they can hurt their chances of getting a good draft pick for next year but giving up is not something fans want to see from their team. Next they host the Vikings who are an inconsistent team to say the least, but someone that is not inconsistent is Dalvin Cook which will be a handful for the Bears defense but they can take him on, but again nothing matters if there is no progress with the Bears offense, at least it will be interesting to see what Lazor tries to do differently.

W8vsNO: Forcing change

    The Bears suffered quite a bit this past Sunday against the Saints not just losing the game but players and their temper as well. They might as well lose some pride in the process and really look in the mirror and ask themselves who they really are and what needs to be done to get better because they are not doing it enough.

   The Oline played like garbage most of the game, there is no other way to name this performance which has been showing time and time gain only getting worse as the season continues. Losing Bobby Massie to injury, Matt Nagy was forced to put Jason Spriggs in, who was already over due to play. At the end of the day it didn't make any difference wich says very little about Massie, saying that a backup can play as good as him without taking any snaps as a starter is just not good. For some reason Rashaad Coward is still starting at LG and played horrible once more. Sam Mustipher looked like he was playing his all but wasn't enough and got beat on several occasions. Overall it's hard to watch this unit play, they don't generate push at the line, they don't make lanes for the RB, they get lazy and don't maintain blocks or get to the second level, they don't seem to care. I had to go back and watch some 2018 games because it basically was the same playes minus Kyle Long and James Daniels but those guys were fierce, they weren't perfect but they fought for yards and looked more focused with their get off timings. My only guess is that Massie and Charles Leno Jr. have gotten to this abysmal point of play because of age and Kyle Long is missed badly. The only thing that I can say is that Mustipher and Spriggs showed flashes of aggressive play and really that is all I could ask for, even if it's not enough I want to see some fight in them.

   The defense had some bad coverages and got beat by versatile players Alvin Kamara and Taysom Hill, the defense was getting outsmarted and got picked apart by the short passing attack of Drew Brees who just took anything the Bears gave him to move the chains. The two TD passes by Brees, I believe where the longest passes he threw in the game, made Jaylon Johnson look like the rookie he is, let this be a lesson for him as he plays against the elite vets, even if Brees looks to be on the declining side. It could be that Chuck Pagano got outplayed as well, Kamara had a ton of plays were he was uncovered or given a lot of space, Brees wasn't looking particularly sharp with the deep ball and would have been better to man cover and smother Kamara, also blitzing more would have been nice, getting pressure against these veteran QBs is the better way to mess with their timing, I was pleading for some blitzing on the Saints last winning drive and when they did Pagano sent Roquan Smith of all people and Brees just tossed a short pass to Kamara on the sideline and gained like 15 yds. So the defense could have played better but this team again is counting on their defense to much.

   The trade deadline has passed and Ryan Pace did diddly squat, no line help, no offensive weapons, nada. Maybe he prefers to keep his draft capital to bolster the team or spend it all on a new QB, because that is one topic that popped lately, should Mitch Trubisky receive a second chance. That option is dead for the moment with Trubisky out for this next game at least with his throwing shoulder injured, IF he could play I would start him but not because I don't like Nick Foles, honestly I like Foles as the QB but it's imposible for him to play with the Oline problems, if this keeps up and nothing is telling me that it's not then eventually Foles is going to get hurt, it's a miracle he is still in one piece. Right now, Foles isn't outplaying Trubisky that much stat wise, the thing in favor for Trubisky is that he can run for his life and also he need another chance, his last chance, to show how much he is worth. I wouldn't be so optimistic to say he is going to learn Nagys offense because that ship has already sailed for me, Nagy and Trubisky are not compatible and Nagy I don't believe is willing or capable of calling the plays based on Trubiskys strenghts, Foles is more compatible but can't execute due to being constantly under pressure. If Foles continues to be the QB, Nagy also needs to change his game based on the Olines performance which is hideous, Sean Payton showed he can move the ball with a struggling aging Drew Brees, that is what is expected from a good coach, if Nagy can't make this change or refuses to pass it to someone more capable, it says somethings about him, either he is too young a coach and is still getting the hang of things or is just to stubborn and GMs need to work on getting him what he needs to make the game plan work. Pace on the other hand showed with his disinterest of moving around some pieces of his team that he isn't worried and is already thinking in the 2021 season, the Bears are going against the Titans who lost their last game against the Bengals who got two OGs to protect their franchise QB. Its being said that the Titans don't have a good pass rush front so it's going to be a slob fest in the trenches with the news that Spriggs and Mustipher are out along with Cody Whitehair, again forcing Nagy to play Alex Bars and I have no idea who will play at center. The only reason the Bears have a chance is because Tennessee has its own issues with their Oline but just not as bad as the Bears, we will see but I can't expect a Bears or anyone getting a sure win with such a poor group of dudes that can't hold their ground.

W7@LAR: Where is the panic button?

   So the worst case scenario against the Rams showed on Monday night football, Bears get obliterated offensively scoring only 3 points while the defense scores 7 trying their best to keep the game close but ends up submitting to jet sweeps and quick tosses, opening holes in the Bears secondary to finish with an easy LA Rams victory.

   Nick Foles was under duress the whole game getting picked off twice succumbing to desperation of not having space or time to set himself up to make accurate throws. Again, the run game was non existent which only made things more imposible to pass the ball deep. The defense showed up but couldn't keep up with their offense going 3 and out on many occasions, the lack of point production didn't help obviously, add to all that more bogus penalties by the ref against them.

   This team is going to keep struggling if Matt Nagy and staff keep thinking that their offensive plan is going to work with the pieces they have on the field these past few games, I understand that their Oline is playing garbage and little is possible to obtain offensively if this unit keeps playing like the are so far, but doing absolutely nothing won't help either, its due time that other players get a shot at showing what they got physically and mentally, the Oline is desperate for players that can bring toughness and hart to this group. Nagy needs to mold his offense or give it to someone who can, that 4th and 1 that got blasted for negative yards is unacceptable, why bring Cordarrelle Patterson as the tailback and not David Montgomery? with Patterson as the back on that situation you are not fooling anyone, the only way that works is if you go anywhere else, they knew the ball was going to him. Red zone offense was a mess, you are getting penetration in less than 3 seconds, how about some of that creative offense and maybe bring in Mitch Trubisky in on some situational snaps and try to confuse the defense with a QB that can be a threat with his legs in short field or short yardage situations. How about using all of your 6 foot 3 and above guys and physically get advantage against the defense, how about using these same guys and use them to block for your RB. Right now they need to know that your top players are Allen Robinson, David Montgomery and Darnell Mooney, Cole Kmet showed he has showed skills to catch and has improved in blocking, these guys need to be on the field as much as posible with Jimmy Graham and Anthony Miller close behind, everyone else is a situational player. Ted Ginn Jr. should not get punt return dutie, Dwayne Harris got called up to the 53 man roster this week, use him or Mooney. There is a chance to get John Ross from the Bengals and get some real speed at WR that got lost when Cohen went down, if he costs a 5th rounder maybe even a 4th, Ryan Pace should be considering bringing him to the team. Some say free agent G Quinton Spain has value, lock him up. Cam Robinson from the Jaguars for a 3rd? Why not? I understand that draft picks are valuable but Pace needs to see that he has a good core team that is in need of Oline help to make the leap, he need to consider pulling the trigger on some of these type of moves.

    Saint go to Soldier Field next, this is no easy team, they are missing one of the best WR in Michael Thomas and also Emmanuel Sanders. Drew Brees looks to be more conservative but has shown he can still throw it deep when needed. Alvin Kamara is as dangerous as a RB can be. The Saints secondary is average, the Bears have enough weapons to beat them by air. None of this matters if the Oline can't spot the Saints stingy Dline, if everything stays the same as last week then the result of this game will most probably be the same.