I used to very grateful for the Bears. They gave us a top ten first round pick for Rick Mirer. That became Walter Jones. But I think Schneider had paid back the organizational debt to the Football Gods by giving a top ten first round pick, another first round pick, and top of the market contract to Jamal Adams. So I no longer felt indebt to the Bears.
Yes, they generally have boring teams. I did live in Chicago in the mid nineties and followed them closely during those years. Yes, I see you Dave Wannstedt!
Tried to watch the highlights on the train to the south coast, but app was rendered unviable due to poor connection. Or was it because iPhone now sports a new feature to protect your mental health by screening out content likely to trigger negative reactions?
That was horrible, but all preaseason offerings should be taken with a huge grain of salt. We’ll be better when the games matter, but my god, Geno looked slow out there. I think I’ve run out of the last reserves of rabidly misplaced off-season optimism. All aboard the Lock train, and fingers crossed for Lewis.
Who cares about protecting the ball if you can't get a first down. I'd rather watch Lock throw red-zone interceptions than Dickson punt 10 times (no offense to Dickson). If any nails were driven into any coffins tonight it was Geno's.
I hope the coaches are learning something about the WRs from these games, because I'm not. Special teams kick return coverage was bad. I know a lot of the guys playing preseason special teams aren't making the final roster, but it'd be nice to see one or two of these guys stand out. I'm sad for Cade and I hope he gets another chance.
I was only able to watch the highlights, but O and D line looked solid again. I'm dreading the news on Lewis' injury, but at least there is some depth at guard (we think).
Cobe and the Avatar looked good. If they and Abe Lucas all continue to progress into solid contributors (or better) then we killed this draft!
Can we put Roquan Smith on the plane and bring him home with us?
Lock gets COVID and may have cemented himself as the starting QB.
Fourteen possessions (not counting the ends of the halfs), seven 3-and-outs, ten punts. Of the 27 receptions, two accounted for 70 yards. The other 25 went for 183 yards (7.3 YPC).
OK, not many starters played. But (a) that’s true every year and (b) this was at home against a roster that some say ranks as the worst in the league. I get that eternal optimism is part of Corbin Smith’s schtick, but there’s such a thing as insulting your audience.
Cross had at least two false starts I thought it was three and a holding penalty. The only thing negative I have seen about Cross is he did have 12 penalties in his Sr year. As soon as he concentrates a little more, and realizes how good he is the penalties will come down.
I agree with Ken in that Lock's stock has gone up. If he plays well against the Cowboys, he is in.
Is it me or has our new defense not figured out how to fill run gaps ?
Personally the Bears also rank low on my list of teams to watch, but Walter Payton was the all time leading rusher and great to watch. That however was 36 years ago so I am showing my age
I'll be supremely disappointed if Geno doesn't start. You've made this point many times now but what more is there to learn about 32 year old Geno Smith? If you're not putting points up in preseason or inspiring your teammates to play well then why wouldn't you go with the young guy instead?
To me this seems like an easy call, play the guy who's shown some upside and is still young enough to learn new things.
I did have to keep reminding myself that this is not the team that will be playing during the season. I get the impression Pete views preseason a bit differently than other coaches who can't back away from the obsessive need to win. Really chuckled at DK's annoyance with Pete for not allowing him and Lockett more than 3 snaps. He might want to keep the binky for another season.
While I probably wasn't paying real close attention to the tackles the Bears made on the Hawks, I couldn't help but notice it seemed to take the entire defense to tackle a bear.
Some of the commentary on Kenneth Walker III made me think there are announcers who really want to be able to say "told you so" on the early draft pick.
Never forget, I have no idea what I'm talking about because I watch football differently than those who truly understand all the positions. 😜😜
They talk about cutting the players. When are they going to talk about cutting the coaches? And we need to cut the special teams coach first. Ok, maybe we need to give him a chance to get to the regular season with the starters but the special teams play is sub par. And just to be different from everyone else I blame the coaches for not preparing the qb, rb, and line for the blitz that caused the fumble last week. Yeah I know there was a similar play earlier in the game but I still think the coaches should have given that group a heads up. And while I'm at it I might as well blame them for all the dropped balls. Hurry up and get Lock in a game again. I was somewhat hopeful at the beginning of training camp but like some of the other commenters it looks like it's going to be a long season. Or maybe it's just our second string and the starters will make it somewhat watchable. Thanks Joe for all your posts and insights.
A comment on Eason: he sees the field well, is quick to make decisions and has a strong arm. Though he had *a lot* of incompletions, I don't recall a turnover worthy play.
The only thing to criticize is that he lacks touch. His fades were atrocious. Is that coachable? Because if it is, and Eason responds well to it, he can be the best QB on the roster (a small bar to clear, of course).
I've long felt this year's team will be somewhere between 2-15 and 7-10, with the under-over at 4.5 wins. I'm not going to say this preseason game validates my perspective because it's not really possible to evaluate a team based on its pre-season performance. The pre-season is good for evaluating individual players but not teams. Too many starters sit and the coaches are trying guys out in new situations; not worrying about the final score.
Bingo card - every time they talk about Cross or Lucas they say “air raid”.
I’m SO proud of myself. I watched it to the VERY end
Actually the last 10-15 minutes were kinda interesting.
Eason made some pretty good throws. Too bad some of those were drops
He almost made a game out of it.
Things I'm not worried about:
- Cross penalties (yet)
- Geno struggling to move the ball
- Cade bobbling the punt
- A few drops by the rookie and practice squad receivers
Things I'm very worried about:
- Lack of discipline on special teams
- Bad tackling galore
- Losing this bad to Bears backups.
I used to very grateful for the Bears. They gave us a top ten first round pick for Rick Mirer. That became Walter Jones. But I think Schneider had paid back the organizational debt to the Football Gods by giving a top ten first round pick, another first round pick, and top of the market contract to Jamal Adams. So I no longer felt indebt to the Bears.
Yes, they generally have boring teams. I did live in Chicago in the mid nineties and followed them closely during those years. Yes, I see you Dave Wannstedt!
Tried to watch the highlights on the train to the south coast, but app was rendered unviable due to poor connection. Or was it because iPhone now sports a new feature to protect your mental health by screening out content likely to trigger negative reactions?
That was horrible, but all preaseason offerings should be taken with a huge grain of salt. We’ll be better when the games matter, but my god, Geno looked slow out there. I think I’ve run out of the last reserves of rabidly misplaced off-season optimism. All aboard the Lock train, and fingers crossed for Lewis.
Who cares about protecting the ball if you can't get a first down. I'd rather watch Lock throw red-zone interceptions than Dickson punt 10 times (no offense to Dickson). If any nails were driven into any coffins tonight it was Geno's.
I hope the coaches are learning something about the WRs from these games, because I'm not. Special teams kick return coverage was bad. I know a lot of the guys playing preseason special teams aren't making the final roster, but it'd be nice to see one or two of these guys stand out. I'm sad for Cade and I hope he gets another chance.
I was only able to watch the highlights, but O and D line looked solid again. I'm dreading the news on Lewis' injury, but at least there is some depth at guard (we think).
Cobe and the Avatar looked good. If they and Abe Lucas all continue to progress into solid contributors (or better) then we killed this draft!
Can we put Roquan Smith on the plane and bring him home with us?
Lock gets COVID and may have cemented himself as the starting QB.
Fourteen possessions (not counting the ends of the halfs), seven 3-and-outs, ten punts. Of the 27 receptions, two accounted for 70 yards. The other 25 went for 183 yards (7.3 YPC).
OK, not many starters played. But (a) that’s true every year and (b) this was at home against a roster that some say ranks as the worst in the league. I get that eternal optimism is part of Corbin Smith’s schtick, but there’s such a thing as insulting your audience.
Cross had at least two false starts I thought it was three and a holding penalty. The only thing negative I have seen about Cross is he did have 12 penalties in his Sr year. As soon as he concentrates a little more, and realizes how good he is the penalties will come down.
I agree with Ken in that Lock's stock has gone up. If he plays well against the Cowboys, he is in.
Is it me or has our new defense not figured out how to fill run gaps ?
Personally the Bears also rank low on my list of teams to watch, but Walter Payton was the all time leading rusher and great to watch. That however was 36 years ago so I am showing my age
It will be interesting to find out what caused Cross to commit four false start penalties. None at Pittsburg, right?
I'll be supremely disappointed if Geno doesn't start. You've made this point many times now but what more is there to learn about 32 year old Geno Smith? If you're not putting points up in preseason or inspiring your teammates to play well then why wouldn't you go with the young guy instead?
To me this seems like an easy call, play the guy who's shown some upside and is still young enough to learn new things.
I did have to keep reminding myself that this is not the team that will be playing during the season. I get the impression Pete views preseason a bit differently than other coaches who can't back away from the obsessive need to win. Really chuckled at DK's annoyance with Pete for not allowing him and Lockett more than 3 snaps. He might want to keep the binky for another season.
While I probably wasn't paying real close attention to the tackles the Bears made on the Hawks, I couldn't help but notice it seemed to take the entire defense to tackle a bear.
Some of the commentary on Kenneth Walker III made me think there are announcers who really want to be able to say "told you so" on the early draft pick.
Never forget, I have no idea what I'm talking about because I watch football differently than those who truly understand all the positions. 😜😜
They talk about cutting the players. When are they going to talk about cutting the coaches? And we need to cut the special teams coach first. Ok, maybe we need to give him a chance to get to the regular season with the starters but the special teams play is sub par. And just to be different from everyone else I blame the coaches for not preparing the qb, rb, and line for the blitz that caused the fumble last week. Yeah I know there was a similar play earlier in the game but I still think the coaches should have given that group a heads up. And while I'm at it I might as well blame them for all the dropped balls. Hurry up and get Lock in a game again. I was somewhat hopeful at the beginning of training camp but like some of the other commenters it looks like it's going to be a long season. Or maybe it's just our second string and the starters will make it somewhat watchable. Thanks Joe for all your posts and insights.
A comment on Eason: he sees the field well, is quick to make decisions and has a strong arm. Though he had *a lot* of incompletions, I don't recall a turnover worthy play.
The only thing to criticize is that he lacks touch. His fades were atrocious. Is that coachable? Because if it is, and Eason responds well to it, he can be the best QB on the roster (a small bar to clear, of course).
I've long felt this year's team will be somewhere between 2-15 and 7-10, with the under-over at 4.5 wins. I'm not going to say this preseason game validates my perspective because it's not really possible to evaluate a team based on its pre-season performance. The pre-season is good for evaluating individual players but not teams. Too many starters sit and the coaches are trying guys out in new situations; not worrying about the final score.