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- Jan 14, 2013
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I used to do these type of threads a lot and haven't in a while. But yesterday's game made me want to vent some but also because I wanted to mention the brief "good" mired by such an awful performance.
The Good
1. Bradley Marquez, he stepped into the vacant hole left by Stedman "The Suspension" Bailey. And he immediately produced both in the offense and on special teams. He made a crushing hit on punt coverage and had a nice catch for a first down on the sidelines. He isn't the answer at WR but maybe he can provide some good catches and make us forget about the potential Stedman has never capitalized on. He looked like he had more heart than most of the other players out there. Give him more shots going forward.
2. Johnny Hekker had another ridiculous day for a punter. 3 inside the 20 and a 49.3 average with net 47.8. His pass on the all to predictable fake punt had a nice spiral and went through Cody's hands despite being a little short but the Bears were 100% ready for it so Hekker really had no chance. But punting wise he continues to look like the pro bowler he is.
3. Todd Gurley, what can I say about the kid that hasn't already been said. He was a beast on that first drive and continues to be one of the few things we have going for us on offense. Inexplicably Frank Cignetti forgot he was on our team after the first quarter. My only conclusion is Cignetti had a stroke somewhere before that because how in the **** was Gurley rarely used if at all? More on this in the ugly section.
4. Tavon Austin, he can't help that he had a touchdown and a potential drive saving first down on a huge catch called back because Greg Robinson can't pass block without Jeff Triplette throwing a flag. Austin had a great day that doesn't show up on the stat sheet. Despite most of his plays being called over and over again so much that I can't imagine they ever get yards. But his speed some how prevails despite the predictable play calling.
5. Aaron Donald, I was starting to get slightly concerned that teams had found a way to scheme around the guy as he has been fairly quiet (compared to his standards) the last several weeks. But he was one of the few players to show up on defense today. Continues to be a stud... can't imagine what his stats would be on a team that could score more points than the opposing team.
6. Wes Welker, the guy can still catch anything thrown his way and instantly made an impact. Unfortunately we are so bad that anything positive is an impact so it wasn't game changing. But this has signs of being a big help in the passing game going forward. Unfortunately by the time Welker is making a game changing impact it will probably be too late.
The Bad
1. Greg Williams, it's hard for me to put anything in the bad and not just go straight to the ugly. But I'm going to give Greg a slight reprieve here due to the fact he has been pretty good thus far this season plus we're pretty banged up across the board. Williams can't do anything about players not tackling or getting blown off their gap control. But the defense was not prepared for what the Bears were going to do. The lack of game plan change after the first half lands him in the bad spot. Second half was basically more of the first half. The Bears just simply beat our players from their first possession to the end of the game. We kept their few playmakers quiet but let their secondary players destroy us. Not good. It was almost like our players were scared of making contact this week after the Mike "Sand in my Vag" Zimmer's tirades last week and the media jumping all over it.
The Ugly
1. Nick Foles, you got to be number 1 bud. More overthrown balls than I've ever remembered seeing in one game before. Just out of control, throwing off his back foot, throws to no one. Yes he's had little support this season in the passing game with constant drops and bad route running. Yes our offensive line doesn't do him any favors at all. Yes our OC doesn't seem to have a full playbook in his arsenal to use in a game. But there were open WRs all game yesterday... not wide open but open... and he hit almost none of them and it wasn't even close. This was about as embarrassing of a performance as I can remember from a QB. The only bright spot was he didn't turn the ball over like he did the Green Bay game. But quality of opponents can't be ignored.
2. Frank Cignetti, The ignoring of Todd Gurley after the first quarter is disturbing. Yes we got down by a couple of scores but you do not give up on your best player because of that. You find ways to get him the ball. Why are we incapable of doing RB screen plays? We tried one that was the so badly executed no one blocked anyone anywhere. The Tavon Austin plays that get ran ad nauseam every game over and over again are becoming less successful. Austin is so gifted that they still work once in a while but jesus we've got to find something else to do. Was a repeat of the Green Bay game.
3. Offensive line, the whole thing is a mess. Havenstein's nagging injury sucks and Jamon Brown being out for the year is a huge loss even though his play wasn't great. But at least the rookies were getting experience for hopefully the better. But than you have Greg Robinson who stays healthy but seemingly never gets better and has drive/touchdown killing penalties at the worst possible times. The whole line gets blown backwards every passing down.
4. Jeff Fisher/Les Snead, head coach and to a lesser extent the GM has to be held accountable for the team on the field. Everyone was concerned about the lack of o-line experience back in free agency but we were told they had a plan. It would be taken care of. They spent the entire training camp and pre-season playing rookies out of the position they'd play week 1 and rotated the center position. Every game it looks like the o-line has no cohesion and little communication going on. This unit was not and is still not ready to play in the NFL. Schotty left for Georgia and we watched qualified and previously successful OC's get gobbled up by other teams while we did nothing. We were told no biggy we got an in house guy capable of leading us to better results. Despite adding possibly the best RB in the league we are averaging 1.90 less points a game than we were last season. We're well on our course to the Fisherball land of .500 football again. Will this ever change? Can it ever change with Fisher at the helm? I don't know, but this offseason needs to see some serious changes if they want to get over that 8-8 hump. I can't fault the QB trade, Bradford would have been out by now behind this o-line and we really had no other options at QB. Plus we fleeced Philly with a 2nd rounder so I give Snead props for it however the contract extension was unneeded. But this offseason has to be spent either getting a better QB or a better o-line. Maybe a little of both. A new QB and an OC that knows how to call games and utilize an entire NFL playbook is a must. Otherwise, we're spinning our tires on offense for another season.
The Good
1. Bradley Marquez, he stepped into the vacant hole left by Stedman "The Suspension" Bailey. And he immediately produced both in the offense and on special teams. He made a crushing hit on punt coverage and had a nice catch for a first down on the sidelines. He isn't the answer at WR but maybe he can provide some good catches and make us forget about the potential Stedman has never capitalized on. He looked like he had more heart than most of the other players out there. Give him more shots going forward.
2. Johnny Hekker had another ridiculous day for a punter. 3 inside the 20 and a 49.3 average with net 47.8. His pass on the all to predictable fake punt had a nice spiral and went through Cody's hands despite being a little short but the Bears were 100% ready for it so Hekker really had no chance. But punting wise he continues to look like the pro bowler he is.
3. Todd Gurley, what can I say about the kid that hasn't already been said. He was a beast on that first drive and continues to be one of the few things we have going for us on offense. Inexplicably Frank Cignetti forgot he was on our team after the first quarter. My only conclusion is Cignetti had a stroke somewhere before that because how in the **** was Gurley rarely used if at all? More on this in the ugly section.
4. Tavon Austin, he can't help that he had a touchdown and a potential drive saving first down on a huge catch called back because Greg Robinson can't pass block without Jeff Triplette throwing a flag. Austin had a great day that doesn't show up on the stat sheet. Despite most of his plays being called over and over again so much that I can't imagine they ever get yards. But his speed some how prevails despite the predictable play calling.
5. Aaron Donald, I was starting to get slightly concerned that teams had found a way to scheme around the guy as he has been fairly quiet (compared to his standards) the last several weeks. But he was one of the few players to show up on defense today. Continues to be a stud... can't imagine what his stats would be on a team that could score more points than the opposing team.
6. Wes Welker, the guy can still catch anything thrown his way and instantly made an impact. Unfortunately we are so bad that anything positive is an impact so it wasn't game changing. But this has signs of being a big help in the passing game going forward. Unfortunately by the time Welker is making a game changing impact it will probably be too late.
The Bad
1. Greg Williams, it's hard for me to put anything in the bad and not just go straight to the ugly. But I'm going to give Greg a slight reprieve here due to the fact he has been pretty good thus far this season plus we're pretty banged up across the board. Williams can't do anything about players not tackling or getting blown off their gap control. But the defense was not prepared for what the Bears were going to do. The lack of game plan change after the first half lands him in the bad spot. Second half was basically more of the first half. The Bears just simply beat our players from their first possession to the end of the game. We kept their few playmakers quiet but let their secondary players destroy us. Not good. It was almost like our players were scared of making contact this week after the Mike "Sand in my Vag" Zimmer's tirades last week and the media jumping all over it.
The Ugly
1. Nick Foles, you got to be number 1 bud. More overthrown balls than I've ever remembered seeing in one game before. Just out of control, throwing off his back foot, throws to no one. Yes he's had little support this season in the passing game with constant drops and bad route running. Yes our offensive line doesn't do him any favors at all. Yes our OC doesn't seem to have a full playbook in his arsenal to use in a game. But there were open WRs all game yesterday... not wide open but open... and he hit almost none of them and it wasn't even close. This was about as embarrassing of a performance as I can remember from a QB. The only bright spot was he didn't turn the ball over like he did the Green Bay game. But quality of opponents can't be ignored.
2. Frank Cignetti, The ignoring of Todd Gurley after the first quarter is disturbing. Yes we got down by a couple of scores but you do not give up on your best player because of that. You find ways to get him the ball. Why are we incapable of doing RB screen plays? We tried one that was the so badly executed no one blocked anyone anywhere. The Tavon Austin plays that get ran ad nauseam every game over and over again are becoming less successful. Austin is so gifted that they still work once in a while but jesus we've got to find something else to do. Was a repeat of the Green Bay game.
3. Offensive line, the whole thing is a mess. Havenstein's nagging injury sucks and Jamon Brown being out for the year is a huge loss even though his play wasn't great. But at least the rookies were getting experience for hopefully the better. But than you have Greg Robinson who stays healthy but seemingly never gets better and has drive/touchdown killing penalties at the worst possible times. The whole line gets blown backwards every passing down.
4. Jeff Fisher/Les Snead, head coach and to a lesser extent the GM has to be held accountable for the team on the field. Everyone was concerned about the lack of o-line experience back in free agency but we were told they had a plan. It would be taken care of. They spent the entire training camp and pre-season playing rookies out of the position they'd play week 1 and rotated the center position. Every game it looks like the o-line has no cohesion and little communication going on. This unit was not and is still not ready to play in the NFL. Schotty left for Georgia and we watched qualified and previously successful OC's get gobbled up by other teams while we did nothing. We were told no biggy we got an in house guy capable of leading us to better results. Despite adding possibly the best RB in the league we are averaging 1.90 less points a game than we were last season. We're well on our course to the Fisherball land of .500 football again. Will this ever change? Can it ever change with Fisher at the helm? I don't know, but this offseason needs to see some serious changes if they want to get over that 8-8 hump. I can't fault the QB trade, Bradford would have been out by now behind this o-line and we really had no other options at QB. Plus we fleeced Philly with a 2nd rounder so I give Snead props for it however the contract extension was unneeded. But this offseason has to be spent either getting a better QB or a better o-line. Maybe a little of both. A new QB and an OC that knows how to call games and utilize an entire NFL playbook is a must. Otherwise, we're spinning our tires on offense for another season.
