Week 1 film review: OFFENSE

[Adipost]

Testing, testing, testing... I seem to have inadvertently somehow turned off the ability to see GIFs on this site. Please let me know if the GIFs are visible.

1ST HALF

Matt Nagy signaled he was not messing around this season on his very first play. He went with Graham at TE, Holtz at FB and quasi TE wims in the slot...

The second play illustrates the improvement in the run game. Leno gets driven and thrown into Cohen’s running lane. Last season, this goes for no gain or negative yards. This year it goes for 3 yards because everybody else does their job. Ifedi holds his ground, Whitehair wipes out the NT on his own, Daniels hits the 2nd level and disrupts the LB...

The right guard position looks to be much improved this season. Not only does Ifedi consistently hold his ground, something that was not happening for most of last season, but he actually generates a push. Just competent play from the position is a huge upgrade.

Here’s a really nice play design by Nagy. Starts out with 3 TE’s set to the left of the line. Kmet motions to the right presnap. Harris and Graham release to the far sideline post snap, sandwiching the safety at different levels of the field. This gives Trubisky an easy half field read. If the safety sinks back, he goes underneath to Graham. If the safety drives in, he goes over the top to Harris. Unfortunately, it looks like Kmet tips off the play call to the linebacker at the snap with his slight indecision...

Perfectly placed ball from Trubisky without the ability to step into his throw. This is the type of ball placement we need to see more consistently. On the downside, Daniels was susceptible to the bull rush on a few occasions in this game...

On tv, the 4th down play looked like a zone coverage with only 3 pass rushers. But it was actually man coverage with 1 deep safety, a spy on Trubisky, and the other safety doubling Robinson from start to finish. This is an extremely risky coverage to play, giving a QB all the time in the world within the pocket and 4 of his 5 targets in straight man. This shows how little the Lions think of Trubisky (to say that we’ll take away Robinson and your legs knowing you won’t be able to do anything else). The KC Chiefs deployed a similar strategy last season. On crucial downs, they would double team both Robinson and Cohen from snap to whistle...

A lot of easy play calls from Nagy early to ease Trubisky into the game. This is a 2 read play on the same side of the field. If it’s man coverage, he goes to Miller cutting across the field. If it’s zone coverage, go short to Montgomery...

Man coverage Mooney, zone coverage Graham...

The offensive line already looks more cohesive than at any point last season. A play like this would have had two Bears players running into each other last year...

Great athleticism shown by Daniels here to get to the second level in a flash, bouncing off a lineman...

This is a 7 man blitz with two deep safeties presnap. Probably should have gone underneath to Mooney. Maybe that’s why Robinson gave up on his route early. Trubisky ends up taking a helmet to the chin for his troubles...

Even though this pass was almost completed, there was no window for this throw. The safety stumbled over his own feet and fell to his knees right before the ball arrived or it would have been intercepted. Up until this point, Trubisky had checked down on all zone coverage plays. He may have started feeling like he needed to push it...

Montgomery gets tripped up just shy of the 48 yard line and falls forward for an additional 6 yards. You can’t teach that...

This move ...

Watch Miller in the slot between Robinson and Graham and the move he puts on the CB at the LOS...

That was actually a setup play. Next snap, Nagy calls the same exact play. This time Miller releases straight through rather than fake inside. Unfortunately, the setup play actually worked much better than the payoff play in this instance...

 

[Adipost]

2ND HALF

 

[Xuder O'Clam]

I can only see the 5th and 7th pic, and they aren't gifs, just jpgs.

The rest are red x'ed. Many images uploaded here have been doing that for me lately.

 

[dweebs19]

I see images but no gifs

 

[Chris Sojka]

Leno is an average LT at best most games. He’s not bad he’s just not good. An upgrade at LT would produce significant offensive dividends. He gets no push in the run game. He’s solid most snaps in pass pro.

playcalling much improved. QB played well.

 

[Adipost]

I can only see the 5th and 7th pic, and they aren't gifs, just jpgs.

The rest are red x'ed. Many images uploaded here have been doing that for me lately.

Thanks, I thought it was just me. The visible images are the only 2 pics, the red X’s are all the GIFs. I can see them when I go to edit the post, but not when it’s actually posted.

 

[Xuder O'Clam]

Thanks, I thought it was just me. The visible images are the only 2 pics, the red X’s are all the GIFs.

Are you hot linking them from a hosting site, or just uploading here?

Edit, try deleting the &hash=87c42b38fe1329e144377f81b29d21ce type entries after the .gif in the urls, so the links end with .gif

 

[Adipost]

Are you hot linking them from a hosting site, or just uploading here?

Thanks, they are inputted correctly but it looks as though it has to do with the site I use, makeagiF.com. I created the same gif on Giphy and it’s viewable here.

 

[JoJoBoxer]

A few things on the offensive line.

Proof that our offensive line coach was a joke last year:
Look closely at the blocking on the "the offensive line already looks more cohesive" play. This is the video that should be used as an example in a master class on blocking.

The only offensive lineman who actually blocks the player in front of them is Leno. Whitehair blocks the defensive tackle on his extreme left who is Daniels' responsibility and puts him on his ass. Ifedi lets his defender pass and blocks the inside linebacker on his left. Daniels blocks Ifedi's defender on his right. Massie lets his man pass and blocks the linebacker on the second level. He also ends up getting in the way of his original defender as Graham somehow stays in front of that defender enough to lead him to Massie's backside.

It was a ballet with offensive linemen compared to Keystone Cops last year.

On the very next play (great athleticism from Daniels), The right hand side is solid, Whitehair starts looking to help the right hand side but then takes out a player in the second level. The Daniels bounce-off is a called move because you can see Leno moving into position to take over the block. Daniels does great while Leno does his job by getting in the way of the defender. Even the TE Harris has his head on a swivel, looking to block someone.

This is a completely different offensive line. It seems like they have been coached well. Hopefully, this play style continues.

 

[wazzupi]

"Robinson gave up on his route early". Yessss every fucking tool in this shed was calling that a overthrow when robinson clearly gave up on that the route if he continues who knows what could have happened td? long completion ?

 

[iueyedoc]

Good Job Adi. Now finish that 2nd half.

 

[Bearly]

Didn't notice where that safety basically fell in the forced ball to AR. Mitch got a good break to go along with the bad ones in the 1st 1/2. I also thought Robinson gave up too early on the heave. So early that it looked like a throw away but I suspect that there was a chance for a play if AR stayed in it. Mitch is still Mitch. He looked like a better version but it's early and coverages not very confusing that game. Accuracy was similar to other established QBs so that was better. They all miss reads and that was also pretty normal. Ball looked less floaty as well and arcs turned over so that was better as well but he's looked to turn corners before but come up short and hit the wall so...

As for the Lions not thinking much of Mitch, really? He's about made his career on them. We may not think that much of him but they would be silly not to respect what he's done against them.

I don't know why so many thought the OL would play the same this year. Outside the LT they are average or better and you can help one guy without collapsing your o too much if needed. Ifedi is a G that was playing out of position and Castillo knows what he's doing. I expected significant improvement but that was a lot for this early and no preseason. We'll know more in a few weeks.

 

[Bearly]

"Robinson gave up on his route early". Yessss every fucking tool in this shed was calling that a overthrow when robinson clearly gave up on that the route if he continues who knows what could have happened td? long completion ?

At worst it was a throw away but I agree. He saw one on one and trusted AR would make a play and at least prevent the negative. Other options as Adi mentioned but I like the downfield mindset that Nagy seems to have finally instilled. Teams are going to have to cover the entire field if we maintain this mindset and that will help Mitch a lot. He's got an arm. He has to make opponents respect it to become a viable starter.

 

[Bearly]

A few things on the offensive line.

Proof that our offensive line coach was a joke last year:
Look closely at the blocking on the "the offensive line already looks more cohesive" play. This is the video that should be used as an example in a master class on blocking.

The only offensive lineman who actually blocks the player in front of them is Leno. Whitehair blocks the defensive tackle on his extreme left who is Daniels' responsibility and puts him on his ass. Ifedi lets his defender pass and blocks the inside linebacker on his left. Daniels blocks Ifedi's defender on his right. Massie lets his man pass and blocks the linebacker on the second level. He also ends up getting in the way of his original defender as Graham somehow stays in front of that defender enough to lead him to Massie's backside.

It was a ballet with offensive linemen compared to Keystone Cops last year.

On the very next play (great athleticism from Daniels), The right hand side is solid, Whitehair starts looking to help the right hand side but then takes out a player in the second level. The Daniels bounce-off is a called move because you can see Leno moving into position to take over the block. Daniels does great while Leno does his job by getting in the way of the defender. Even the TE Harris has his head on a swivel, looking to block someone.

This is a completely different offensive line. It seems like they have been coached well. Hopefully, this play style continues.

Hiestand must have done nothing but confuse these guys and scheme poor assignments. They looked more like the OL of 3+ years ago.

 

[Chicago Staleys]

Trubitsky is terrible vs zone. How can a #2 overall pick be so confused by a basic defensive scheme.

 

[legendxofxlink]

Pace deserves props picking up Ifedi and not freaking out, throwing money at over priced FAs.
Leno got rolled by a good Trey Flowers, but only a handful of teams have quality starters at every OL position. I mean, Grasu is starting for the 9ers...

 

[Visionman]

Pace deserves props picking up Ifedi and not freaking out, throwing money at over priced FAs.
Leno got rolled by a good Trey Flowers, but only a handful of teams have quality starters at every OL position. I mean, Grasu is starting for the 9ers...

Flowers is a beast, and was Detroit’s big splash FA signing a couple years ago.

 

[SugarWalls]

Ifedi played much better even in this 1 game sample size than I thought he would all year. Hopefully I’ll continue to be wrong about him.

 

[dabears70]

Good to see you again this year Adi. Some of the clips are in the worst slow motion and some aren't and some aren't even there but i get how much work you put in to do this for us and really appreciate it cause it really gives us a better look of what really happened in some plays that we thought was Trubisky's fault or a blockers fault or whoever and we get to see that it really wasn't all on that player. That's why Nagy and all head coaches throughout the league always tell the media they have to watch the tape when they get asked certain questions after games.

 

[WindyCity]

Ifedi was better than I expected and was what the Bears needed at RG.