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My favorite teams
Good morning!
Caveat on the title: I will take a boring W ANY day over an exciting L. And the defense was NOT boring at all. That adjective was solely used for the lethargic, paralyzed offense that had no answer for ARIZ blitzing in what yet again should have been a much more convincing win.
Also before I begin I want to say my schedule has been whacky this week. But it has settled and I will be posting these every Monday from now on as I enjoy re-watching these on weekends. So, this coming Monday will be: WEEK 4 (fuck yeah)
FIRST QUARTER SUMMARY:
Normal print is quick reminder of basic things that anyone can see as they watch. ARZ gets first drive and scores a TD. The TD pass to Seals-Jones was busted coverage. He was wide open with no Bear within a mile of him. The coaches' film doesn't reveal any blame to me. CHI's first drive was what we have come to expect after two great weeks of opening drives. Methodical, multi play clock-killing drive into the RZ and it's 3rd down. ARZ shows two blitzers off the edge and Mitch does nothing, no line shift, no signal to hot read (or fake signal away from hot read), no audible, nothing. He eats the sack and Parkey misses the FG. Next drive on 3rd down, ARZ shows blitz again and Mitch tries to twist up and away but gets the ball stripped for the sack fumble. And Bradford throws the second TD pass. On the second TD pass from Bradford, it was a corner route that was wide open and appears to be a bad call by Fangio. It looked like the type of coverage called for protecting deep and giving the big chunk underneath and out-of-bounds but that wide open space was right in front of the endzone. Again, I am unsure if it was a bad call by Fangio or miscommunication but it was weird to see from this otherwise great D.
14-0 ARZ over CHI and Bradford's passer rating is elite benefitting from some mistakes in the Bears' D. The Bears offense looks like they are fully aware of the extra blitzers ARZ is sending on 3rd down but just like last week vs. SEA have zero answer to do anything with it.
SECOND QUARTER SUMMARY:
This quarter is practically great D vs. bad O from both teams. It is not just great defenses slugging it out but big missed opportunities on the offense that makes these games so boring to me. I like watching great defense and CHI is a great defense fun to watch. ARZ played great defense as well. Two things to note particularly here:
1) Mitch's first half completion percentage was actually pretty good. He was 11-15 at one point but the yard totals were low. On first and second down, ARZ was giving him the short underneath completions and were tackling exceptionally well allowing zero RAC. It became very clear early that counting on short throws and RAC was not going to do it this day.
2) Jordan Howard had some decent runs and Nagy balanced run and pass calls early very well with good results. But his YPC this day would be shit due to Nagy calling pitches where he would get stuffed. On one play in particular, the play call was a end-around where Bellamy was sweeping in to the QB in gun formation with Howard and Budda Baker was up on the line in the middle showing blitz. Trubisky gets the ball and hands off to Howard who gets the ball and gets hammered by Baker as a reward while Bellamy is off running to the other side faking like he has the ball to no one in open space. Howard gets the -5 yards but that was all Mitch and his cluelessness about blitzing Cardinals. That is just a microcosm of Trubisky's inability to handle blitzes all day long here and by now it is 3 weeks in a row to open the season.
At the half it is 14-3 ARZ over CHI. The Cardinals have to be cautiously optimistic. They have scored points (!) something they have struggled to do in the first two weeks at all. The Bears D has re-asserted itself in the second quarter, and ARZ has tried to get a running game going but cannot. They absolutely cannot afford to go deeper than a 3-step drop and even then Hicks and Mack are tearing through their lines far too quickly. The Bears offense had two good drives but stalled due to obvious and unaccounted-for pressure leading to one missed FG and one FG. Nagy obviously needs to address the 3rd down aggressive blitzing that is killing drives.
SECOND HALF SUMMARY:
I am not going to even lie. This game is brutal to re-watch. If this isn't the worst, it has to be top 2. Here is what redeems this game for the re-watch factor: the Bears defense.
4 possessions for ARZ in the second half and 4 TOs. Now the first one I do not credit CHI but blame Bradford. Eddie Jackson was playing centerfield and when the ARZ receiver got behind the Bears CB up top, Bradford foolishly thought he could beat Jackson for the deep completion. The distance and range Jackson needed for the INT was not eye-popping. Any average NFL safety makes that play (and Jackson is far better than average particularly at being where the ball is going to be).
The Bears would win the second half 13-0 but the offense deserves very little credit for it. The ARZ offense was putrid and turning it over at every point they could. The ARZ defense was exhausted. Rosen's 4th quarter appearance was ill-advised to say the least as the O-line was doing him no more favors that it did for Bradford. I guess Howard's TD run was a nice show of power by running over his tackler and punching in for the 6 points. I will give him that at least.
I remember the conversation here on CCS at this point. If Trubisky is going to do NOTHING when the defense shows extra blitzers and keep snapping and trying to beat the pressure by rushing the play (ending in sacks, fumbles and INTs all in first half vs. ARZ by the way) ,
we will be wasting this elite D on what could be a playoff run. 2-1 never felt so concerning before.
That hard and contentious period of discussion here was fully warranted in my view.
Caveat on the title: I will take a boring W ANY day over an exciting L. And the defense was NOT boring at all. That adjective was solely used for the lethargic, paralyzed offense that had no answer for ARIZ blitzing in what yet again should have been a much more convincing win.
Also before I begin I want to say my schedule has been whacky this week. But it has settled and I will be posting these every Monday from now on as I enjoy re-watching these on weekends. So, this coming Monday will be: WEEK 4 (fuck yeah)
FIRST QUARTER SUMMARY:
Normal print is quick reminder of basic things that anyone can see as they watch. ARZ gets first drive and scores a TD. The TD pass to Seals-Jones was busted coverage. He was wide open with no Bear within a mile of him. The coaches' film doesn't reveal any blame to me. CHI's first drive was what we have come to expect after two great weeks of opening drives. Methodical, multi play clock-killing drive into the RZ and it's 3rd down. ARZ shows two blitzers off the edge and Mitch does nothing, no line shift, no signal to hot read (or fake signal away from hot read), no audible, nothing. He eats the sack and Parkey misses the FG. Next drive on 3rd down, ARZ shows blitz again and Mitch tries to twist up and away but gets the ball stripped for the sack fumble. And Bradford throws the second TD pass. On the second TD pass from Bradford, it was a corner route that was wide open and appears to be a bad call by Fangio. It looked like the type of coverage called for protecting deep and giving the big chunk underneath and out-of-bounds but that wide open space was right in front of the endzone. Again, I am unsure if it was a bad call by Fangio or miscommunication but it was weird to see from this otherwise great D.
14-0 ARZ over CHI and Bradford's passer rating is elite benefitting from some mistakes in the Bears' D. The Bears offense looks like they are fully aware of the extra blitzers ARZ is sending on 3rd down but just like last week vs. SEA have zero answer to do anything with it.
SECOND QUARTER SUMMARY:
This quarter is practically great D vs. bad O from both teams. It is not just great defenses slugging it out but big missed opportunities on the offense that makes these games so boring to me. I like watching great defense and CHI is a great defense fun to watch. ARZ played great defense as well. Two things to note particularly here:
1) Mitch's first half completion percentage was actually pretty good. He was 11-15 at one point but the yard totals were low. On first and second down, ARZ was giving him the short underneath completions and were tackling exceptionally well allowing zero RAC. It became very clear early that counting on short throws and RAC was not going to do it this day.
2) Jordan Howard had some decent runs and Nagy balanced run and pass calls early very well with good results. But his YPC this day would be shit due to Nagy calling pitches where he would get stuffed. On one play in particular, the play call was a end-around where Bellamy was sweeping in to the QB in gun formation with Howard and Budda Baker was up on the line in the middle showing blitz. Trubisky gets the ball and hands off to Howard who gets the ball and gets hammered by Baker as a reward while Bellamy is off running to the other side faking like he has the ball to no one in open space. Howard gets the -5 yards but that was all Mitch and his cluelessness about blitzing Cardinals. That is just a microcosm of Trubisky's inability to handle blitzes all day long here and by now it is 3 weeks in a row to open the season.
At the half it is 14-3 ARZ over CHI. The Cardinals have to be cautiously optimistic. They have scored points (!) something they have struggled to do in the first two weeks at all. The Bears D has re-asserted itself in the second quarter, and ARZ has tried to get a running game going but cannot. They absolutely cannot afford to go deeper than a 3-step drop and even then Hicks and Mack are tearing through their lines far too quickly. The Bears offense had two good drives but stalled due to obvious and unaccounted-for pressure leading to one missed FG and one FG. Nagy obviously needs to address the 3rd down aggressive blitzing that is killing drives.
SECOND HALF SUMMARY:
I am not going to even lie. This game is brutal to re-watch. If this isn't the worst, it has to be top 2. Here is what redeems this game for the re-watch factor: the Bears defense.
4 possessions for ARZ in the second half and 4 TOs. Now the first one I do not credit CHI but blame Bradford. Eddie Jackson was playing centerfield and when the ARZ receiver got behind the Bears CB up top, Bradford foolishly thought he could beat Jackson for the deep completion. The distance and range Jackson needed for the INT was not eye-popping. Any average NFL safety makes that play (and Jackson is far better than average particularly at being where the ball is going to be).
The Bears would win the second half 13-0 but the offense deserves very little credit for it. The ARZ offense was putrid and turning it over at every point they could. The ARZ defense was exhausted. Rosen's 4th quarter appearance was ill-advised to say the least as the O-line was doing him no more favors that it did for Bradford. I guess Howard's TD run was a nice show of power by running over his tackler and punching in for the 6 points. I will give him that at least.
I remember the conversation here on CCS at this point. If Trubisky is going to do NOTHING when the defense shows extra blitzers and keep snapping and trying to beat the pressure by rushing the play (ending in sacks, fumbles and INTs all in first half vs. ARZ by the way) ,
we will be wasting this elite D on what could be a playoff run. 2-1 never felt so concerning before.
That hard and contentious period of discussion here was fully warranted in my view.