Thoughts and Observations: Week 6 Dolphins

Defense

-We are starting on the defense this week because of that absolutely deplorable performance that they put on the field coming out of the bye week. 274 yards after the catch, including a 43 and 75 yard TD in the 4th quarter that were thrown less than 10 yards from the line of scrimmage. 0 sacks and 4 QB hits against a banged up OL and a backup QB. I do not envy the guy who has to count the missed tackles because I have never seen anything like that before from a non-Mel Tucker Bears defense.

-Vic Fangio's game plan was hot garbage. His zone defense was getting torched all game, they were generating 0 pressure and he refuses to go to man to man and blitz more. What is the point in staying in zone when you are giving up huge plays?

-Eddie Jackson was brutal. His lack of effort and terrible angles on the long TDs was pathetic and it looked like he quit in the heat. He turned it on a little in the 4th quarter, but at that point it was too late.

-Roquan and Trevathan were a complete joke. Not only were they worked over in the run game, but neither had a clue what they were doing in the passing game. They both looked soft and lost. Late in the game on the OT drive Drake crosses right in front of Roquan and gains 15 yards because it looked like Roquan had lost the power of movement. Just a garbage game from both of them.

-Mack was hurt so I am not sure how much to put on him for the lack of pressure, but it sure would be nice if 25% of the holds committed against him were called.

-You see that Lynch and Floyd feed off of Mack. Neither was particularly good without the disruption that Mack causes. The Floyd roughing the passer was a terrible call, but what the hell was he doing on the suplex play?

-Hicks looked tired all game and still made plays.

-Goldman barely played, my guess is the heat chewed him up and spit him up. No wonder they were so garbage against the run. The Bears gave up 5.6 YPC to the Dolphins running backs.

-No one else stood out on the DL obviously. A bunch of guys standing around watching RBs run by in the heat.

-Nice game from Kyle Fuller. He actually brought some life to the defense in the middle of the game with those picks.

-I thought Callahan and Amos played fine, but it is hard to throw bouquets at anyone in the secondary with the pathetic missed tackles. Callahan was especially guilty of not wrapping up and finishing tackles, which is strange because he is normally so physical.

-Big picture I think this was just a really crappy game from a good unit and a good coach. I think we probably need to table the historic defense talk, because they simply give up way too many big plays in crunch time to be "historic". Historic defenses do not allow Albert Wilson to run through them on 2 different occasions. It is tough with New England coming into town, because I think that they are going to have another rough day. They need Khalil Mack to be healthy.

Offense

Offense

-I thought the 1st half the offense came out tight, the OL was bad, Mitch missed a couple of throws and then Nagy got a little conservative and screen happy. The major positive was that it did not last and he was able to get Mitch settled down and get the offense rolling. People talking about Nagy being in over his head are hilarious. He blew it in overtime and over trusted his kicker, that happens and he needs to learn from it, but the entire 2nd half he was getting guys wide open and was in the head of the Dolphins DC. We have never had this level of offensive play calling advantage.

-Mitch played well. He made 2 hot garbage throws, one he was punished for and the other was dropped, other than that and the slow start I thought he was on point. If you had told me Mitch was going to complete 70% for 320 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT, and 47 yards rushing I would have said that the 20 point win over the Dolphins was awesome. If you would have told me that he would have had completions of 47, 50, 54, I would have told you that it was pretty awesome to win a game by 21 on the road. Unfortunately, the fumbles happened and the defense shit the bed and a great day from our QB was essentially wasted.

Trubisky was throwing dimes. The deep passes to Gabriel for 47 yards [to the left], the deep pass to Gabriel for 54 [to the left], the TD throw to Robinson between 4 defenders [to the left], the sideline throw to Robinson that was reviewed for 22 [to the left], even the 50 yard pass and run to Cohen, those were all dimes and they were mostly deep and to the left, so maybe we can put that weak ass narrative to bed.

Mitch playing well is more important than this individual win/loss against an AFC team.

-Taylor Gabriel was a signing that some doubted and said we over paid. He is 100% what this offense has been missing for years, a consistent deep threat that can actually run routes and catch the ball. His ability to create chunk plays has been huge and he and Mitch seem to have a connection that is growing. Mitch seems dialed in to how fast Gabriel is and where he needs to put the ball based on what he is running. He has been the biggest surprise for me as I liked the signing and didn't think he would produce like this.

-Allen Robinson is a really nice weapon to have. His size and route running and really impressive to me. The TD catch he sits in the perfect spot in the zone and then catches a bullet from Mitch.

-Trey Burton continues to grow in the game plan, which is nice to see as well. I think that we have not yet seen all that he can do and I think he will benefit the most from Shaheen coming off of IR. I have been impressed with how smooth he is in the passing game.

-It is rare when a team goes out and signs multiple big money free agents and they all seem to be working out. Most of the time because of health, scheme fit, mis use, some of those free agents struggle and never live up to what they are paid. The offensive free agents seem to all be working out really well, which is awesome.

-Jordan Howard's fumble was probably one of the more back breaking single plays that I can remember. Partly because of the situation and partly because I just never expect him to fumble in that situation. Howard with an open hole from the 1 is automatic in my mind. He had some nice runs in the 2nd half and he did some serious work to get the team in FG range, I am glad Nagy didn't do the junior high move and shelf Howard, but it was back breaking.

-Tarik Cohen deserves to take some heat for the fumble, but I think we are not seeing that Nagy can use him to just gut defenses. The fact that he can run and catch the way that he does and also actually play RB makes him super difficult to stop. My guess is we have seen the last of the Jordan Howard 25-30 touch games in this offense. Cohen is just too capable of chunk plays not to designate more touches for him.

-It is time to make the switch to James Daniels at LG. Give him 2-3 games to get up to speed before we hit the divisional games that will decide our season. Kush is not bad, but he is also not good and Daniels could be good.

-The OL struggled early in the game and they physically were getting beat up a little. In the 2nd half they came out and played much better. The protection improved and the run game finally got going. I think part of it was that Mitch was hitting the defense with big passing plays, but they blocked better.

-I thought Leno had a nice day against Robert Quinn, who is not a bum, he continues to earn that extension.

It was 87 degrees in Miami yesterday, not 107. If guys really were struggling that's a conditioning issue. Ridiculous for professional athletes not to be able to handle 87 degrees.

bearmick said:

It was 87 degrees in Miami yesterday, not 107. If guys really were struggling that's a conditioning issue. Ridiculous for professional athletes not to be able to handle 87 degrees.

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Yeah, the weather was typical and not really newsworthy, IMO. It makes you wonder what would have happened if the Bears had worn their dark jerseys instead of their orange jerseys? Would the score have been 73-0 in favor of Miami?

Defense looked like they had been eating Krispy Kremes during the bye week.

Jackson & Goldman have played most of their life in the South, the heat shouldn't have been a factor for them

I'm not going to knock Floyd on the suplex play, he hit him, held him, got no help and no whistles were being blown and if he didn't do something Amendola (I'm pretty sure it was) would've escaped. Even one of the awful announcers said "what was he supposed to do?". I was fine with that play and the roughing the passer call was complete bullshit, even if he did hit his helmet which you couldn't really tell that he did, it was a tap of his arm because Brock's head didn't even flinch.

smilebit said:

I'm not going to knock Floyd on the suplex play, he hit him, held him, got no help and no whistles were being blown and if he didn't do something Amendola (I'm pretty sure it was) would've escaped. Even one of the awful announcers said "what was he supposed to do?". I was fine with that play and the roughing the passer call was complete bullshit, even if he did hit his helmet which you couldn't really tell that he did, it was a tap of his arm because Brock's head didn't even flinch.

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Welcome to the NFL. Cant hit anymore and supposed to let the offensive player advance the ball when it was clear he the play was dead

I was quite happy to see the Floyd Suplex Special. It was a sign of life that I didn't know he had coming off the hand injury, and it fired me the hell up.

If we had won this game, we'd all be talking about how it's that Bears attitude that keeps the defense so lively.

smilebit said:

I'm not going to knock Floyd on the suplex play, he hit him, held him, got no help and no whistles were being blown and if he didn't do something Amendola (I'm pretty sure it was) would've escaped. Even one of the awful announcers said "what was he supposed to do?". I was fine with that play and the roughing the passer call was complete bullshit, even if he did hit his helmet which you couldn't really tell that he did, it was a tap of his arm because Brock's head didn't even flinch.

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Im with you on that...Amendola was struggling to make the 1st down marker..It wasnt as if he gave up

WindyCity said:

-I thought Callahan and Amos played fine,

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???

smilebit said:

I'm not going to knock Floyd on the suplex play, he hit him, held him, got no help and no whistles were being blown and if he didn't do something Amendola (I'm pretty sure it was) would've escaped. Even one of the awful announcers said "what was he supposed to do?". I was fine with that play and the roughing the passer call was complete bullshit, even if he did hit his helmet which you couldn't really tell that he did, it was a tap of his arm because Brock's head didn't even flinch.

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Agreed.
He hit his arm going for the ball, Flop Lobster turning his head is what drew the flag up. Real speed from the refs angle, it looked like he punched him in the face.
Ref should've called Amendola down. Amendola jumped to try to get away, which got him suplexed. That was Floyd's best effort of the game.

bearmick said:

It was 87 degrees in Miami yesterday, not 107. If guys really were struggling that's a conditioning issue. Ridiculous for professional athletes not to be able to handle 87 degrees.

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87 degrees in a dry heat should be a walk in the park for prof athletes, 87 degrees with I think it was 86% humidity is a whole different story when you're not used to that kind of heat. I was expecting the defense to feel it at the start of the 2nd half not at the beginning though. It's hard to simulate that kind of humidity but either way, the heat didn't cause the Bears to lose yesterday it was their bad play that did.

bearmick said:

It was 87 degrees in Miami yesterday, not 107. If guys really were struggling that's a conditioning issue. Ridiculous for professional athletes not to be able to handle 87 degrees.

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102 on the field with the humidity factored in.

I think the NFL is going to have to move towards being able to challenge roughing the passer calls or at least have each one reviewed from the booth to balance it out. All contact to the QB's helmet does not immediately justify 15 yards.

Thx for all the work, Windy. I am curious-what did you think of the OPI against Burton? Huge play as it wiped a touchdown off the board and then TruBisky throws interception in the end zone.

The Howard fumble was definitely a killer, but given that Drake did the exact same thing for MIA in OT nonetheless, I'd say that evened it out.

bearmick said:

It was 87 degrees in Miami yesterday, not 107. If guys really were struggling that's a conditioning issue. Ridiculous for professional athletes not to be able to handle 87 degrees.

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Never been to Florida I take it?

dakbear said:

Thx for all the work, Windy. I am curious-what did you think of the OPI against Burton? Huge play as it wiped a touchdown off the board and then TruBisky throws interception in the end zone.

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I do not think it should have been called, but he could have done more to avoid the penalty. He just needs to turn and have Alonso run into his back and not his shoulder and it looks way better.

bearmick said:

It was 87 degrees in Miami yesterday, not 107. If guys really were struggling that's a conditioning issue. Ridiculous for professional athletes not to be able to handle 87 degrees.

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Yet the heat index in Miami will be 101 at the time of kickoff. Damn you, Miami.