This game was so bad I can still feel it crawling in my brain, such a horrible offensive performance, I don't remember watching a Bears game that was as sad and depressing as the one played on Sunday in Cleveland, the Browns dismantled Matt Nagy's game plan and made Justin Fields disappear, the only semblance of familiarity was the defense once again trying to maintain the ship from sinking but was, like many other times, let down with the offense answering their efforts with six points, what a waste. Until now I have tried to maintain these notes short and concise, but I just had to take a deeper dive into what the hell happened in this game, so I wrote down all the plays that mattered to me the most so I could decide who or where to shift the blame of this result. (For anybody else reading this, sorry if I confuse you with what I think is the right terminology of play/formation names).
First drive: Second play after the first down run by David Montgomery, inside run play, Sam Mustipher loses contain of NT who forces Montgomery to improvise for no gain.
Third play play, Fields with time, has Damien Byrd getting open deep center but Fields doesn't see it and scrambles for a 3rd and short situation.
Second drive: First play, Germain Ifedi makes a premature decision and moves for an edge rush but defender goes inside, this doesn't allow Fields to climb the pocket and defender is to fast for him to escape, sack.
Second play, outside run for no gain because Mustipher can't make the second level block.
Third play, Cody Whitehair gets beat dead on, Fields manages to get the pass out for a short gain.
Third drive: First play, run with seven defenders on the box, the Bears at this early stage point are fooling no one, no gain.
Second play, QB option, defender spies Fields and goes for a late blitz, Fields doesn't see it, sack.
Third play, Fields with time, has Montgomery and Kmet open on short field, Fields scrambles but gets sacked, don't blame him much for not passing it short when needing a long completion to get the first down but nothing opened deep, hope he learns quickly that he needs to get rid of the ball even if not for a first down, take what the defense gives to help the punter and himself from getting hit when still early in the game with an even score.
Fourth drive: First play, Fields drops to pass, Ifedi makes same mistake moving outside prematurely and defender going inside, Fields gets the pass out to Darnell Mooney for a manageable second down.
Third play, after a first down run, Fields runs his first bootleg and gets it to Robinson for a second and inches.
Fourth play, play action but Fields short throw is too high for the receiver, bad throw, slip?
Penalty on Ifedi makes it 3rd and long (penalty should have been on Daniels).
Fifth play(personal opinion), Fields doesn't climb the pocket to keep searching for open receiver, instead he evades the rush thinking he could scramble for first down but two defenders drop to stop him, gets sacked from behind. There was a shot deep for Mooney he could have tried but is depending too much on his athleticism.
END OF THE FIRST HALF
Fifth drive: First play, Fields drops back to pass, enough time but throws into double coverage, bad incompletion.
Second play, edge blitz by defense, edge rusher beats James Daniels making Fields to hurry the pass to a well defended Mooney for a dangerous incompletion.
Third play, defense shows heavy formation to the right, Fields drops to pass with max protection TE left edge and RB inside, Ifedi gets beat on and edge rush for the sack. WHY NOT MOVE PROTECTION TO THE RIGHT?
Sixth drive: Second play, play action bootleg, second one called in game, accurate throw but defended, could have helped if Marquise Goodwin was more aggressive to come back for ball.
Third play, Fields drops to pass, gets time but barely, pocket collapses, Fields doesn't find an open receiver and scrambles but barely gets tangled up from behind and falls for a sack.
Seventh drive: First play, RPO, (personal opinion) Fields keeps ball but with a defender in front of him he hesitates to make a quick pass to Byrd who motioned to the sideline, then he hesitates a second time to lob it to Jimmy Graham to escape pressure but tries to scramble, finally gets rid of it to Graham but comes out a horrible incompletion.
Second play, it's getting embarrassing, Fields drops to pass and has Robinson in the short field but Jason Peters gets in the way and drills him with the ball for an incompletion.
Third play, defense shows heavy blitz, Montgomery stays to CHIP, Fields makes a quick decision to throw an accurate pass to Robinson for a first down. (THIS RIGHT HERE IS THE STRATEGY WHERE DALTON THRIVES AND THE "WHY" NAGY IS SEARCHING FOR AND THE "WHY" THE LINE SURVIVES TO PROTECT HIS QB FROM DEATH, until Fields improves on decision making and pre snap reads, he isn't going to make it in Nagys god awful strategy, its like Mike Martz throwing Jay Cutler out there to react or die. )
Fourth play, three rushers, short accurate throw on the move, defender slaps it from Montgomery for an incompletion.
Fifth play, miscommunication, play action fake handoff to Montgomery, Fields runs but Goodwin forgets to block the outside corner, no gain.
Sixth play (personal opinion), screen play but Fields hesitates to lob it above the coming defender, moves to the side to get himself a better angle but the time used is enough for the defense to react to the play, holding on Peters was called (bogus call).
Seventh play, 3rd and long, Fields is given time to throw but gets himself more time moving to the sideline, misses a shot to get Mooney at midfield, throws a deep ball for probably Robinson to jump catch it or Mooney to scoop it but gets picked, PI called on defender for shoving Robinson.
Ninth play, play action bootleg, Fields hesitates once more to quickly throw the ball to Cole Kmet going to the sideline, Fields thinks he can use his legs to much, he needs to get rid of it, gets sacked.
Tenth play, it's nothing special but it bothers me that Fields hops to make the pass and loses his structure, BUT he makes a fast short accurate throw in spite of this. The play goes for a short 4th down,
Nagy goes for the FG and trusts his defense to keep it close, normally and at the preset time I agreed with this because its still close and de defense is playing good so the offense has to step up and get back to the red zone once more, but rethinking it now, it would have been selfish for Nagy to think this way, he and his QB have struggled all day to move the chains and he is pouring it all on the defense to get it done? again? The defense at this point needed a spark of hope, a TD would have given them a boost.
Eight drive: Fields looks damaged. First play, Fields quick throws to a blanketed Robinson for an incompletion, there was nothing there.
Second play, Fields with time throws a bad short pass to Montgomery for an incompletion.
Third play, after a first down because of penalty, Fields quick throws an inaccurate pass to Mooney for an incompletion.
Fourth play, first designed QB run play, medium gain, better late than never I suppose.
Fifth play, miscommunication between Whitehair and Mustipher on a stunt, Fields need to hurry up pass for a well defended play for an incompletion. Had a better option to the other side with Robinson, his timer is screwed by now.
Ninth drive: Second play, Fields with time throws not so well placed pass to Robinson, gets defended for an incompletion.
Third play, Peters covers inside instead of the edge blocker, gets beat for the sack on a rollout by Fields.
Tenth drive: First play, A SECOND SCREEN. First down.
Second and third are forced throws and final fourth play was a blitz that got to Fields for the final sack.
GAME.
I'm not gonna deep dive with the defense, they did their part, it wasn't perfect but they made plays and controlled a dangerous running attack while getting to the QB against a tough OL. Not to bring down the Bears defense but it could have been worse against an elite QB, Baker Mayfield has got talent in bunches but he isn't there yet. Still with what the offense showed, or better put didn't show, is asking the defense way to much to do a better job.
Conclusion? Fields looked really bad, just as last week when he came in for Andy Dalton he looked uncomfortable in the pocket and obviously got worse as the game progressed, his decision making wasn't good nor was it quick which is normal for a rookie. The lack of quick decision exposed the Oline who weren't ready for a pro caliber Dline, burying themselves even more with stupid penalties, they needed help just as much as their QB. The people capable and with the responsibility to help these men was their coaches and the man in charge of the game plan Matt Nagy. I accept that Fields didn't do a good job but Nagy was as equal to blame for not putting his men in positions to succeed, time and time again Nagy refuses to play to his players strengths and forces them to make his plan work with whoever is on the field it doesn't matter to him, he has talent in this team but fails to make it work. What worked on this game? not much but Fields can extend plays and did when rolling out when it wasn't designed, even if he can't find someone he has the choice to run for short gains or throw it away. I couldn't understand why he was so bad at play action, he constantly hesitated to get rid of it to the nearest receiver who was open, I would assume this gets practiced daily but it doesn't show, every time Fields turned to find his receiver and noticed the defender coming his way he looked shocked. Props to the Browns for being ready for this game but even so, plays where there to be made but just didn't happen because I don't know why everybody looked so lost. The running game didn't have a chance with no tempo by the offense at all with all the bunch of three and outs, the Browns are loaded with athletic talent and got the Bears offense pinned in a corner all game.
There are hundreds of excuses to be said for what may be the reasons this was a total disaster of an offense but ultimately this is what I want to happen like many others.
Point one is to make Nagy relinquish play calling duties and give them to Bill Lazor, I didn't trust Nagy last year and I trust him less now, this team needs someone who understands how to play with the players on the field, not just against the opponent, if Lazor doesn't work then it will be very clear that the Chicago Bears need to change their offensive regime immediately. It may not be fair for Nagy to not have time to play with his new shiny QB but, maybe over exaggerating a bit, this team has never had one before and we fans can't afford to have Nagy break him. Impatience in Mustiphers improvement makes me what them to try out having Daniels play center and plug Alex Bars at RG, a more solid interior would help in Fields development.
If point one is done, then point two would be to keep Fields playing, he needs to play, he need to see the field as much as posible and experience the NFL because having him on the bench didn't work one bit, if there was a plan for him to get better it didn't work or wasn't a good plan, it didn't show on the field that there was a plan made for him, it's time to change that. I am open to regress my decision depending on what Lazor shows with Fields playing, if it's more of the same then it might be better to sit Fields and wait for better leadership to arrive. Nagy has had one good year where he enjoyed a stellar defense, he has shown no growth, made his QB Mitch Trubisky show no improvement what so ever, it would even be fair to say he got worse every year, the idea that he need specific players to make the team work is just not a good way to coach, he didn't like Jordan Howard, he needed a healthier Trey Burton. Ryan Pace has made himself no favors in keeping him, of all his so called mistakes of drafting Trubisky second overall, signing Robert Quinn who is balling this season and other free agents and picks he has signed, its getting more and more evident that his biggest mistake was to hire and keep Nagy as the HC. Pace is a flawed GM, but there is a place for him in an NFL team, he has talent to help a team out. I can't say the same for Nagy, he is just not ready and hasnt showed he can make a team win on the field. I am not holding my breath to see chance being made immediately, I just hope that when this team manages to beat Detroit next Sunday, they all see it with evaluating eyes and not as just a win everything is fine, unfortunately I can't be sure they will win anymore, they should but this can down spiral very easily, it will all be a reflection of Fields play, if he gets better then there is something to look forward to, if he looks like just another Bears QB or gets benched all hell is going to break loose.
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