Biggs 10+ Thoughts on Bears victory

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0 thoughts after the Chicago Bears snapped a 10-game road losing streak to upset the Baltimore Ravens 27-24 in overtime Sunday afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium.

1. For a couple of kids raised in Baltimore who grew up in a city where guys like Ray Lewis and Ed Reed were larger-than-life icons, faces of a franchise for more than a decade, it had to be a thrill to return to Charm City for the first time as NFL players and have a chance to compete.

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Adrian Amos and Kyle Fuller have both been seeking a bit of redemption too whether they want to admit it or not. Amos was effectively demoted after two years as a starter when the club bucked up for journeyman Quintin Demps in free agency and then used a fourth-round draft pick on Alabama’s Eddie Jackson. Those who weren’t sure if Jackson would crack the starting lineup from Day 1 haven’t paid close attention as the franchise, going back multiple coaching staffs now, has plugged and played rookies at the position, even late-rounders.

Back in the spring, Fuller was maybe 50/50 to even crack the 53-man roster this season. He missed the entire 2016 season following minor arthroscopic knee surgery during preseason and there was a failed bid to have him return from the injured reserve in December. There was a clear disconnect between the player and the club.

Jordan Howard had the biggest day of any Bear, carrying a career-high 36 times for a career-high 167 yards, but the Bears don’t win this game without Amos and Fuller. Amos had appeared in 31 games in his first two seasons with 30 starts and didn’t have a pick. He’d been credited with only eight pass deflections. With Demps going out with a fractured arm in the Week 3 win over the Steelers, this was Amos’ third game back in the starting lineup.

It happened, finally. The Ravens trailed only 17-13 with 5:29 remaining and were on the move. They’d been comfortable with the kind of run-first approach the Bears were also using, and faced second-and-10 on the Bears’ 30-yard line. Take their time and go in and get a touchdown and the Bears would have been left with little time to rally. Flacco bootlegged right off a play fake and looked and looked, finally trying to force a ball down the right sideline to wide receiver Chris Moore, forced into a larger role with Jeremy Maclin ruled out before the game and Breshad Perriman lost to a concussion earlier on a big hit by Jackson that produced a diving interception for Bryce Callahan. Fuller had excellent coverage and broke up the pass. The ball deflected directly to Amos, who originally thought about cutting all the way across the field before deciding to cut and weave along the Bears sideline 90 yards to the end zone. The touchdown put the Bears ahead 24-13 with 5:08 remaining, a lead that looked pretty comfortable until a nearly brutal giveaway by the Bears.

It had to feel good, in NFL start No. 33, to get the first interception, right? The Bears, after all, have been takeaway starved, entering this week with an NFL-worst minus-9 turnover margin.

“Yeah man, I was really just waiting until today so I could come back to Baltimore and get my first pick,” Amos deadpanned. “That was really my plan. My mother told me to do it.”

In all seriousness, the last line of defense has to make some plays from time to time while also preventing them. The B ears have had a critical shortage of playmakers and one primary reason they came out ahead here is because they finished plus one in turnovers, getting three and giving two.

“We haven’t had a lot of turnovers here the last three years, period,” Amos said. “Hopefully this turns the tide. We really stressed takeaways this week. Hopefully moving forward this springs a lot more coming.”

Amos said he got 43 tickets for the game to spread between family and friends. He recalled watching his father play in 7-on-7 games on a nearby field with the rising stadium a site to behold in the background for a young kid.

“Just growing up around Baltimore and being a Ravens fan, watching Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, this was a dream come true coming back to play in this stadium,” he said. “It’s a blessing in itself.”

Fuller, after a solid training camp and preseason, was supposed to be the No. 3 and provide some depth but injuries to Prince Amukamara and Marcus Cooper, both signed in free agency to step in as starters, have created a situation where Fuller was making his sixth start. In this instance, Cooper either didn’t play or was relegated to just a few snaps in a sub package as he has been battling back spasms.

Fuller was credited with six tackles and more importantly three pass breakups. Flacco, who threw only twice at Amukamara, kept working Fuller’s side and there wasn’t a lot there. Let’s not make the Ravens wide receivers out to be something they’re not, but Baltimore’s wide outs were targeted 22 times and combined or 10 receptions for 103 yards and no touchdowns. The longest completion was for 17 yards.

“Kyle played lights out,” Amos said. “If I really had to give game balls, they tried him for a whole series one time and there was no completions. I don’t know how many actual PBUs they got him for but I know it should be like seven or eight. I don’t know if they will give it to him if he doesn’t actually touch the ball. All of his plays, he was in man to man basically, a lot.”

Fuller now has seven pass deflections for the season. Consider that he had 10 in 16 games as a rookie in 2014 and nine in 16 games in 2015. The biggest this year, of course, is the breakup that started Amos’ Pick 6.

“Kyle has been playing consistent like that all year and it’s a contract year,” Amukamara said. “He doesn’t think about that or talk about that but I am in his ear like, ‘Hey, your value is going up.’ I say, ‘I know you don’t want to talk about it, but keep playing.’ I am very, very happy for him.”

Now if the Bears can get the boys from Baltimore to make more plays in other cities, that will certainly help out a defense that needs more big plays to get on a roll.

“When you win, everybody really thinks you play good,” Amos said. “I feel like we both, off and on, we’ve had our ups and downs. When you win, everything feels good. If we lost the game, you know what I am saying, we made a couple plays but all right, what plays could you have made so we do win that game? Winning cures a lot.”

Week 6: Bears 27, Ravens 24 (OT)
Photos from the Bears-Ravens game at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017.
2. You’re not supposed to win when you play special teams like the Bears did here. The Bears became only the sixth team since at least since 1940, according to the useful site profootballreference.com, to win a game despite allowing a kickoff return for touchdown and a punt return for touchdown. The Ravens’ Bobby Rainey became the first player in the league this season to score a touchdown on a kickoff return, going 96 yards to the house even though it appeared he might have been tripped up by Josh Bellamy. That was midway through the third quarter. Then, with the Ravens trailing by eight and hoping to get a shot at a game-tying drive, Michael Campanaro had a 77-yard punt return for a touchdown with just 1:37 remaining. The two-point conversion that followed sent the game to overtime.

How rare is this feat for the Bears? Consider teams are now 6-21 when allowing the double whammy on special teams – a kickoff and punt return touchdown.

It looked like Rainey was tripped up by Bellamy but referee Ed Hochuli went to review (all scoring plays are subject to replay review) and the call was not overturned. Fox analyst Dean Blandino, the former head of officiating for the NFL, said via Twitter: “Two issues. Did (Bellamy) touch him? Did (Rainey) maintain his balance as a runner after the touch? Neither aspect was clear so they let it stand.”

The issue for the Bears is even if Bellamy did trip Rainey up and the officials missed the call, they needed to get Rainey on the ground without any doubt. That didn’t happen.

“I thought he was touched,” Bears coach John Fox said. “Obviously, (officials) didn’t. And I’m not going to get into the middle of that thing, but that was obviously a big play for them.”

The punt return was a clever move by the Ravens. Remember, Baltimore coach John Harbaugh used to be considered one of the better special teams coaches in the league when he worked under Andy Reid in Philadelphia. It was Reid who hired Dave Toub to be an assistant under Harbaugh before Toub came to the Bears in 2004 as part of Lovie Smith’s staff. So Harbaugh and the Ravens are generally excellent on special teams and what they did on this Pat O’Donnell punt is take away the Bears’ gunners on the outside. Baltimore moved 10 players inside at the line of scrimmage showing a punt rush. The Bears had to bring their gunners in to help block and prevent a blocked punt. Well, the Ravens were showing rush but they didn’t sell out. Their hope was to set up a return and it worked. Campanaro found plenty of space along the Ravens sideline and he was gone.

It should be noted that cornerback Sherrick McManis, the special teams captain, was not on the field for either score. He left early in the game with a left hamstring injury. Later, running back Benny Cunningham, another core special teams player, was lost to a hamstring injury. Still, the Bears have to make these plays.

“They came down as if they’re gonna go for the block, so we’ve got to acknowledge it,” said cornerback Cre’Von LeBlanc, who replaced McManis as a gunner on the punt team.

Said O’Donnell: “They tried to bring our gunners down and they did. They lock you up at the line so there are no gunners to get out and cover. It’s like what do you do? We brought them down. I tried to get the punt off and I tried to hang it up there. They got a good return.”

I thought the Bears would have been best off ordering O’Donnell to kick the ball out of bounds there. That’s always a little dangerous because if the punter aims for the sideline, he can have a shank that goes only 15 yards before sailing out of bounds and that’s a big problem. Baltimore really struggled moving the ball on offense. But the Bears were backed up on their own 24-yard line. By striking it 53 yards, O’Donnell might have made it even more difficult for the coverage team to cover.

The Bears have been in on three other games with a kickoff return and punt return for scores by the same team. Here are the details:

37-34 OT win over Broncos, Nov. 25, 2007. Devin Hester 75-yard punt return touchdown and 88-yard kickoff return touchdown.

28-14 win over 49ers, Dec. 3, 1967. Gale Sayers 97-yard kickoff return touchdown and 58-yard punt return touchdown.

48-23 loss to Lions, Sept. 26, 1954. Detroit’s Bill Bowman had a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown and Doak Walker had a 70-yard punt return touchdown.
Bears' Tarik Cohen
Photos of Bears rookie running back Tarik Cohen.
3. What’s Dowell Loggains have up his sleeve for the Carolina Panthers this coming Sunday? We saw his nifty two-point conversion play last week against the Vikings and Loggains went back to his bag of tricks when he had running back Tarik Cohen start right on an outside zone play and pull up to loft a pass to tight end Zach Miller for a 21-yard touchdown late in the second quarter, staking the Bears to a 10-0 lead. The Bears had just taken over possession after Bryce Callahan dove and intercepted Joe Flacco when safety Eddie Jackson hit Breshad Perriman hard from behind to break up the play. Callahan popped up and returned 52 yards to the Baltimore 20. Jordan Howard lost 1 yard on first down and then Cohen substituted in. As Cohen stretched the play out to the right, Ravens strong safety Tony Jefferson came flying up from the secondary to fill a lane. That left Miller uncovered.

“Shoot, we have been working on that since OTA’s,” Miller said. “Obviously, I didn’t take part in OTA’s but we had it in the arsenal back then. I just saw (Jefferson) hitting it. Tarik put that thing up there and I was like (long pause, eyes slowly tracking imaginary ball). It took forever. Dime ball. I didn’t know if any (defender) was coming or not. I was just focused on the ball. It seems like an eternity when it’s up there. He threw a great pass. “

Cohen was proud of his work. His job was to read Jefferson. If the safety honored Miller, he was to throw the ball out of bounds or keep it and see if he could pick up a little something on the ground.

“They know that is what we do as an offense,” Cohen said. “We run outside zone. So when they see us running outside zone, they try and come up the field and open that up. It was a dime. I channeled my inner Mitch (Trubisky). It was definitely up there for a while. I was backpedaling just looking at it. It was like a movie scene. I didn’t mean to hit it that high. Might have been a little too high. But it dropped in a perfect spot and only (Miller) could catch it.”

The Bears say Cohen is the shortest player to throw a touchdown pass in the NFL since Nov. 29, 1934 when Wee Willie Smith of the New York Giants threw a 20-yard scoring pass to Kink Richards in a 27-0 victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Like Cohen, Smith was listed at 5-foot-6. But while Cohen is 181 pounds, Smith was listed at 148 pounds.

“Before I threw it, I was thinking about that too,” Cohen said. “‘I’m about to be the shortest player to throw a touchdown.’”

Cohen certainly isn’t the lightest to pull off the feat. The upshot? Let’s see what creative designs Loggains has in store for an offense that needs every advantage it can create.

4. The game-winning 40-yard field goal by Connor Barth gave him a measure of satisfaction and it should. The Bears brought in two kickers for a tryout at the beginning of the month after Barth missed twice on 47-yarders. This winner doesn’t mean he’s locked in for the remainder of the year or anything like that, but when the game was on the line, he made it happen. It was the third overtime winner in his career. He hit one to beat the Falcons in 2015 and one to topple the Saints in 2009. Both came on the road when he was a member of the Buccaneers.

“It’s a what-have-you-done-for-me lately kind of business,” Barth said. “You are expected to make kicks and if you don’t they are going to obviously bring guys in to either take your job or light a fire under you, whatever. You just gotta trust in what you are capable of doing and swing away and have fun. You gotta have fun.

“It doesn’t light a fire under me. I’ve been around long enough to know that it’s a very simple business in kicking. If you don’t make your kicks, you don’t stay around. I’ve always told myself that. If you are productive, you’re going to stay around. It’s a very bottom-line business and that is why it is easy to figure out. The team worked so hard to get down there and it’s your job to put it through. It’s a good way to end it.”

Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky
Photos of quarterback Mitch Trubisky, who the Bears selected with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 NFL draft.
5. This was not a game to promote passing. The Bears will have a shot in most of their remaining games if they can run the football, play good defense and avoid wacky stuff (like allowing two special teams touchdowns). But it’s never that simple and they’re going to need to be able to rely more on the passing game at some point. The Bears Mailbag fills up every week with questions about what the team can do to find help at wide receiver and the answer is pretty simple: Not much. If there was an easy fix, the Ravens, another team desperate for help on the outside, would be looking at the same options.

Because the Bears were able to run the ball so well, they were able to live without using the wide receivers much. Kendall Wright was targeted three times and made two catches for 36 yards. His 18-yard grab on third-and-11 in overtime set up Connor Barth’s winning kick. In my unofficial snap count tally (and this count includes plays wiped out by penalty), Wright was on the field for 26 snaps. I’m probably off by a couple. The press box at M&T Bank Stadium is terrific with a really low view but it’s a little easier to chart player participation from a more elevated perch. Tanner Gentry had 75 snaps (again unofficial and including plays wiped out by penalties). Gentry was targeted one time and did not catch a pass. Tre McBride was on the field for 58 snaps and was not targeted.

It worked in this instance against the Ravens but that formula isn’t going to be a fit every week, especially if the Bears find themselves needing to play some catch up. It’s an opportunity for the Bears to see what Gentry and McBride can do. Can one of them emerge like Cameron Meredith did last season? They’re going to get lots of playing time, way more than the Bears had ever envisioned. When this thing has finished playing out, no one will be able to say they didn’t get a chance to prove themselves.

6. Dion Sims’ 27-yard touchdown came on a nice play by Mitch Trubisky, who was getting hit as he delivered the ball and didn’t see the touchdown. Sims was uncovered off the line of scrimmage. The Ravens had some pre-snap confusion and that allowed Sims to release from the line and head downfield with no one on him. Strong safety Tony Jefferson was late arriving and it was a really good play for the Bears. It’s nice to see Sims making some plays downfield and after some dropped passes in previous weeks, he needs to step up with plays like that. Trubisky said he took a while to get to Sims because it wasn’t his first read. I’m interested to see this again on the All-22 tape, but live I thought Sims was open immediately and if that’s the case, the quarterback needs to sense that immediately. Especially in this case as the Bears were facing third-and-7 and the goal was to move the chains and avoid having to attempt a field goal.

7. I’ve never covered safety Eric Weddle on a consistent basis or anything like that but he’s always come across as a smart and he’s certainly been a terrific player on the field. Credit to Weddle for talking about going for the strip on Jordan Howard during overtime. Weddle had a chance to bring Howard down but tried to jar the ball loose. When he failed, Howard was off for what turned into a 53-yard gain, setting up Connor Barth’s winning kick.

“It’s an unacceptable play,” Weddle said. “I have to make the tackle. I had a good hand on the ball. But you just can’t do that in that situation. You have to get him down. We were playing so well on defense. It’s unfortunate to lose the game because of that but I’ve got big shoulders and I can man up to my mistakes.

“I thought (the ball) was coming out. Then I slipped, not slipped, he’s just a big back. In that situation, you have to grab on and then if you’re going to do it (strip the ball), you have to hold on and wait for the calvary to get there.”


8. Special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers offered a really interesting answer this past week when asked about teams routinely aiming for touchbacks when kicking off when there is a good chance to pin an opponent inside the 20-yard line and sometimes inside the 15 with quality kickoff coverage. Rodgers takes you inside some of the really nuanced decisions that take place during the week when putting together a game plan and for that matter a practice plan.

“It's tough to say league-wide what the decision-making is,” Rodgers said. “At times, if you've got an elite leg strength kicker and the guy is able to put it out the back (of the end zone), you're really talking about covering kickoffs only after a 15-yard flag from the 20-yard-line. Even at that point, guys are still able to reach the end zones. So sometimes it may have to do with, we can pick up an extra eight minutes of practice this week on something else if we just blast it out of the back (of the end zone) kickoff coverage-wise.

“You may have to make some roster decisions and say, where as in the past, ‘Boy, we really need these two guys up for kickoffs.’ Well, if you can eliminate that with the kicker sometimes those decisions are made. Again, as the season goes on, I think everybody kind of finds out who they are, what they're good at, and strategically that plays into it, along with the opponent that you're playing. I mean, all those things kind of factor in.”

9. It’s always a good time to talk football with Ross Tucker, the former offensive lineman, who does fine work for SiriusXM NFL Radio, has his own podcast and was calling the game as an analyst for Westwood One. Tucker had done his homework on the Bears so I bounced a few questions off him before kickoff:

Is the remainder of the season pretty much Mitch Trubisky and his development for the Bears?

RT: “Basically, and the unfortunate thing for him is he is not being put in a great spot. I do think that they have an OK offensive lineman and the fact that they can run the ball pretty well works well with his skillset. What’s jumped out to me so far is how well he throws on the move. It’s a shame because Monday night (against Minnesota), they should have won that game. Especially in the first half, the other guys let him down. When you have a rookie quarterback, and I have been around several young quarterbacks, everyone else has to elevate their game. That’s not what happened. The dumb penalties, the Dion Sims’ drop, (John) Fox getting that delay of game on fourth down after they had called timeout. It’s like, help the kid out. Instead it felt like they did the opposite.”

“But the first thing I look for from a rookie quarterback: Does it look like it is too big for him? It didn’t. He looked fine. He looked calm, poised. No. 2: Does he have the ability to make plays? Definitely. He’s got a good arm, he’s accurate, he moves well. I thought it was definitely more encouraging than discouraging. Like the Harrison Smith interception where he gets fooled, that stuff is going to happen to a rookie and you just have to go into it and know that is going to happen.”

Fair or not, the thing I keep hearing from readers are comparisons to Deshaun Watson. It’s early and there is an apples to oranges element to the comparison. Eventually this is a valid and fair comparison though, right?

RT: “If I were a Bears fan, I would probably be the same way but he’s not throwing to DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller and those guys. Those guys will be compared to each other for years. Certainly in the preseason, I thought Trubisky looked better than Deshaun Watson did. They’re in different offenses, different coordinators.”

You’re an old offensive lineman. How do you stack the Bears’ line up?

RT: “They’re pretty good but they need them to be better. Center Cody Whitehair has struggled a little. It’s like anything else in life the more reps you have at doing something, the more familiarity, the more comfortable, the better you are going to be. Most of my career I was the swing inside guy so I am taking reps at left guard or right guard and you’re doing a different stance, different hand down, different weight and balance, everything is different. So you are not allowing him to master the center position when you move him (as the Bears have done some since training camp). He’ll be fine. I just think that probably slowed his development a little bit.”

10. Really tough blow for the Packers and a tough blow for the NFL with quarterback Aaron Rodgers going out with a broken right collarbone in the first quarter of Sunday’s loss at Minnesota. The Packers announced that it could be a season-ending injury. Rodgers missed seven starts in 2013 when he suffered a broken left collarbone on a hit from Bears defensive end Shea McClellin. It’s likely more problematic this time because it’s on Rodgers’ right throwing side. The team has not announced yet whether or not he will require surgery. This makes Brett Hundley the starting quarterback unless coach Mike McCarthy veers off the path.

This injury really opens things up in the NFC North. The Packers and Vikings are both 4-2 now and the Lions, after falling 52-38 to the Saints in a bizarre game in New Orleans, are 3-3. I don’t think the Bears can play consistently enough on a week-in and week-out basis to really be part of the picture here but they’re 2-4. Rodgers going out also opens things up in the NFC. It’s certainly less likely that a wild card team will come from the North Division now. Still early, still could happen but who knows what to make of the quarterback situation in Minnesota right now. A wild statistic I picked up reading a story by ESPN’s Rob Demovsky? Since 1992, the Packers have used a grand total of six different starting quarterbacks. Process that. The Bears are on their fifth since the start of the 2016 season.

Bears running back Jordan Howard
Photos of Bears running back Jordan Howard.
10a. Jordan Howard believes he’s in better shape this season and that’s why he was able to carry the ball 36 times. Only Walter Payton (three times) and James Allen (once) have more carries in a single game in club history. There’s a trivia question for you. See if your buddy can name Allen. One knock on Howard from this game: He’s got to get down in-bounds on the third-and-20 run with 31 seconds remaining in regulation and the score tied. The Ravens were out of timeouts and Howard was a long way from the line to gain. Had he given himself up in bounds, the clock would have expired without another play happening. As it was, Howard went out of bounds with 23 seconds remaining and the Bears had to punt from their own 23, a scary proposition on the heels of the punt return touchdown they had just allowed. I’m betting Howard doesn’t make the same error again this season.

10b. Ravens punter Sam Koch was a treat to watch. He’s probably got more clubs in his bag than any punter in the league in terms of the variety of kicks he can execute. There was one that backed up like a wedge shot from 85 yards out. Koch finished with seven punts for a gross average of 55 yards and a net of 48.9 with two inside the 20-yard line.

10c. At some point I think the Bears will take a look at Taquan Mizzell on special teams as a returner. If Benny Cunningham is out for any time with this hamstring issue, maybe it happens soon.

10d. Interesting subplots to the game this coming week. Former Bears linebacker and defensive coordinator Ron Rivera of course leads the Panthers. Carolina’s interim general manager Marty Hurney, who was hired as the GM about a month after the Panthers named John Fox head coach in 2002, is also the man that fired Fox in Carolina. They’ve maintained a good relationship though.

10e. The Panthers opened as a 3 ½-point favorite for Sunday’s game against the Bears at Soldier Field at Westgate SuperBook. Carolina (4-2) is coming off a home loss to the Eagles on Thursday.

10f. The Bears’ 231 yards rushing was the most ever allowed by the Ravens. Of course, Baltimore’s franchise history only goes back to 1996. Yes, the Ravens were born when the Browns rolled out of Cleveland after the 1995 season but the NFL mandated that the Browns’ records remain in Cleveland. Get this though: The Bears have had 81 games where they’ve rushed for more than 231 yards, most recently picking up 235 in the Sept. 28, 2014 loss to the Packers. The Bears put up 496 yards of offense in that game and lost by three touchdowns.

10g. The Bears need to start faster. They’ve been outscored by opponents 27-9 in the first quarter. Yes, they’re electing to defer when they win the coin toss so the opponent can potentially strike first but they’ve also struggled in the third quarter when they’ve been outscored 38-14.

10h. Finally, this was well put by Bears tight end Zach Miller following the loss: “Dude, we should have buried them. Buried them. They’re a great football team, their defense played great. We need to finish better than we did. I am happy we got a win but we should have closed that thing out way better than we did. We held on, we got the win. I don’t want to be up and down like that. I’ve never been a part of an ending like that. We were up 11 with four minutes left.”

bmbiggs@chicagotribune.com

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Newblood

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Why the hell is Kendall Wright only getting 26 snaps?

Well, there is really no point wasting him on the 1st down reps. We know they ain't gonna pass it. The Bears know they ain't gonna pass it. And the other teams knows they ain't gonna pass it.

Same can pretty much be said for 2nd down.

May as well throw the scrubs out there for place holders till 3rd down and long, when there is actually a fathomable shot of passing the ball.
 

Les Grossman

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Ha, and I got flamed on this board for saying the exact same thing:

“I’m interested to see this again on the All-22 tape, but live I thought Sims was open immediately and if that’s the case, the quarterback needs to sense that immediately. Especially in this case as the Bears were facing third-and-7 and the goal was to move the chains and avoid having to attempt a field goal.”

Sweet, sweet vindication.
 

Mdbearz

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Why the hell is Kendall Wright only getting 26 snaps?

And Gentry got 75?

I want to see something out of Gentry and McBride, but Wright is the only real WR we have. Are they playing him exclusively in the slot, and only on 3 WR Sets?
 

Jack Lame

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I don't even remember seeing him out there, but I did miss the first half.

I wanna say in the Steelers game he had a solid block on a TD run. I have no idea what is going on..you might as well get him up to speed.
 

jc456

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Ha, and I got flamed on this board for saying the exact same thing:

“I’m interested to see this again on the All-22 tape, but live I thought Sims was open immediately and if that’s the case, the quarterback needs to sense that immediately. Especially in this case as the Bears were facing third-and-7 and the goal was to move the chains and avoid having to attempt a field goal.”

Sweet, sweet vindication.

i think they call that experience. how much did trubisky have before that play?
 

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Les Grossman

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i think they call that experience. how much did trubisky have before that play?

No, it’s called seeing the field. Recognizing a broken coverage with a guy wide open directly in your line of sight is the easiest read a QB is going to experience.

You know, it’s OK to admit that he should have seen it sooner. Nobody here is saying that he isn’t going to get better.
 

jc456

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No, it’s called seeing the field. Recognizing a broken coverage with a guy wide open directly in your line of sight is the easiest read a QB is going to experience.

You know, it’s OK to admit that he should have seen it sooner. Nobody here is saying that he isn’t going to get better.

again, that comes with experience. fk give the kid a break, he made the throw and it was a touchdown.

Looking at it, had he made the throw earlier, it may not have been a Touchdown. Just saying. I take it cause he got it there.
 

JeffSpicoli

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Ha, and I got flamed on this board for saying the exact same thing:

“I’m interested to see this again on the All-22 tape, but live I thought Sims was open immediately and if that’s the case, the quarterback needs to sense that immediately. Especially in this case as the Bears were facing third-and-7 and the goal was to move the chains and avoid having to attempt a field goal.”

Sweet, sweet vindication.

I recall reading a quote by Trubisky that Sims was his third read on that play, so it makes sense he didnt see it immediately, regardless if you think he should have 200 degree peripheral vision. .
 

jc456

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I recall reading a quote by Trubisky that Sims was his third read on that play, so it makes sense he didnt see it immediately, regardless if you think he should have 200 degree peripheral vision. .

pre-snap showed Sims covered. The mix up came after the snap. And the kid got it there. so everyone should just shut up about it.
 

payton 34ever

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Ha, and I got flamed on this board for saying the exact same thing:

“I’m interested to see this again on the All-22 tape, but live I thought Sims was open immediately and if that’s the case, the quarterback needs to sense that immediately. Especially in this case as the Bears were facing third-and-7 and the goal was to move the chains and avoid having to attempt a field goal.”

Sweet, sweet vindication.

Wow. Congratulations. Your mom is probably posting your exploits on Facebook as we speak.
 

ijustposthere

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Ha, and I got flamed on this board for saying the exact same thing:

“I’m interested to see this again on the All-22 tape, but live I thought Sims was open immediately and if that’s the case, the quarterback needs to sense that immediately. Especially in this case as the Bears were facing third-and-7 and the goal was to move the chains and avoid having to attempt a field goal.”

Sweet, sweet vindication.

Trubisky can't be criticized, ever.
 

Aesopian

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How is Shaheen not gettng more targets?

Bears probably don't want to fill the recieving core with inexperienced WR's and TE's. Zach Miller is good enough for now and this year is probably his swan song.
 

r1terrell23

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Ha, and I got flamed on this board for saying the exact same thing:

“I’m interested to see this again on the All-22 tape, but live I thought Sims was open immediately and if that’s the case, the quarterback needs to sense that immediately. Especially in this case as the Bears were facing third-and-7 and the goal was to move the chains and avoid having to attempt a field goal.”

Sweet, sweet vindication.

That's the point of playing him now. So he can get these types of things cleaned up. This is the season he learns from mistakes. He isn't going to make the right decision every time but the hope is that he will soon.
 

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