Not sure who watched the Patriots humiliate the Bengals today, but what a surprising team! Those guys were fired up! Was it a one off? We’ll know soon enough 
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NFL 2024-2025
- Thread starter mrpackerguy
- Start date
Pfffffft
Kirk Cousins sucks. No wonder Vikings couldn’t wait to let him walk. Total waste of a roster spot and another kick the can season coming. Super bummed.
Kirk Cousins sucks. No wonder Vikings couldn’t wait to let him walk. Total waste of a roster spot and another kick the can season coming. Super bummed.
A weird first game for Caleb Williams. A lot of good decisions and judicious slides, but he missed some easy, and potentially game changing, throws. The O-line remains a problem, so at least I still knew it was the Bears.
The defense had a couple shaky drives early, but it looks like Gervon Dexter is going to be the solution at 3 Technique, which mostly shows up in other guys’ stats. Jaylon Johnson, and the whole defense really, picked up where they left off last year.
I’m definitely glad not to be a Titans fan. Will Levis took way too much punishment for no good reason. If he keeps playing like that, he’s not going to play an entire season ever in his sure to be brief career.
Seriously, Caleb Williams took 1 big hit, diving for a first down they desperately needed. Will Levi’s took a bigger hit (one of several) a few yards past a first down. Not something you can make a long career out of in the NFL.
The defense had a couple shaky drives early, but it looks like Gervon Dexter is going to be the solution at 3 Technique, which mostly shows up in other guys’ stats. Jaylon Johnson, and the whole defense really, picked up where they left off last year.
I’m definitely glad not to be a Titans fan. Will Levis took way too much punishment for no good reason. If he keeps playing like that, he’s not going to play an entire season ever in his sure to be brief career.
Seriously, Caleb Williams took 1 big hit, diving for a first down they desperately needed. Will Levi’s took a bigger hit (one of several) a few yards past a first down. Not something you can make a long career out of in the NFL.
That was my impression as well.
On the other side of the ball, Justin Fields didn't make any major blunders, but he had to rely on an extraordinary kicking performance from Boswell to get any points on the board.
The Steeler offensive scheme looked as plain vanilla as the Canada era. Maybe because they know Fields can't drive the ball down the field (not even as well as KP did).
Ah well, it looks like the Browns are tanking, so the Steelers will be in sole possession of the AFC North lead.
Caleb missed a lot of basic throws *badly*. Thanks to the D for bailing the team out today (and Levis helped). What on Earth possessed the coaches to put Velus Jones back in the return rotation? He simply can NOT catch balls in the air, whether thrown or kicked. He's an extremely talented athlete WITH the ball but it must be *handed* to him, not thrown or kicked. I'm not upset with Velus; that would be like being upset with Shaq for missing free throws or Jon Lester for muffing throws to 1st base - you just accept they are things they simply can't do and Velus can NOT catch balls. Here's hoping that Caleb has the 1st NFL game jitters behind him and is able to connect on the routine throws going forward.
There were 2 or 3 that were really bad misses. Like you said, they were routine throws, but I was more focused on looking for the red flags we’ve seen with previous QBs - and we Bears fans have seen just about all of them. I’ll take good judgment as a first step, since it’s automatically a step up from his predecessors.
The O-line is a whole other story. If Jenkins can stay healthy, they’ve got 2 very solid linemen and 3 terrible performances waiting to happen. And Velus Jones, of course. Of all the mystifying decisions Eberflus has made, trusting him to catch a ball, whether kicked or thrown, is the most bizarre.
Otherwise, special teams looked better than it has since Dave Toub was ST coach. The defense looks like the real thing, and the most complete they’ve been under Eberflus. Tyrique Stevenson, in particular, has really improved in his second year.
Despite what some people say, though, defense does not win championships very often. What it does is keep you in most games, even when you shouldn’t be. It’s still going to come down to how well the rookie QB and makeshift O-line execute.
Oh yeah, to be clear, I'm not Caleb-bashing; I feel the need to add that disclaimer as bashing Bears QB's is somewhat Chicago's "5th sport". The O-line does need to be better and lots of other things, no doubt, but any O-line's job becomes a lot easier when their QB connects on the routine passes. There were TEAM things that I saw that I really liked, the kinds of things that don't get talked about up in the booth or written up in the day-after columns (or ranted about on the 'net). I think my favorite example of that was late in the 3rd qtr when Caleb had to scramble and ran out to his right to make a desperately needed 1st down; watch the replay and you'll see RB Travis Horner (#20) out on the corner looking back at the play. As *soon* as he saw his QB going for the run he turned back around and just *locked up* his defender who, if he had been free to close, probably would have stopped Caleb short of the marker. That was an aware play and a TEAM play that we just didn't used to see all that much.
On a Bears QB-adjacent note . . . no updates from Pittsburgh to indicate Justin Fields will *not* be the starter again for their next game. Reminder: if Fields plays 51% or more of the Steelers offensive plays the 2025 6th round draft pick the Bears received becomes a 4th round pick.
As a Falcs fan my outlook on the game went WAY down when Fields was named the starter.
I never understood the Fields hate. Not some but ALL of the games Bears won 2021-2023 were carried on Fields’ back.
Imagine a guy with a terrible O line and either 0 or 1 passing targets not piling on the stats.
My fear (as not a Bears fan) is that Caleb is essentially the same guy in the same situation. If he’s pressed to carry the load as a rookie he will have similar results. Bears have a leadership problem. Not a player problem.
Also FWIW Kirk Cousins is horrible. How did this get overlooked? Not just immobile and unwilling to scoot out of the pocket to save his own butt, but his passing was wildly inaccurate. We are in for a rough season.
I was never a Fields hater, still am not. I was pilloried online, however, when he was drafted and I pointed out that AFAIK NO tOSU QB has ever had what could even be charitably described as a modestly successful NFL career. Quick, name the first tOSU NFL QB that comes to mind that is NOT named Fields or Schlichter! That wasn't based on any Fields hate even then but rather that the Bears system was in SUCH disarray that it was clear he would get NO help in advancing to the next level . . . and he didn't. Justin seems like a great guy and he was let down terribly by the Bears organization that drafted and mismanaged him. I don't know whether he would ever have attained the level it was hoped (by the Bears, fans or even himself) but I do know that the Bears organization that drafted him did him no favors. Kudos to Ryan Poles for doing what he could to provide Justin the best opportunity available for *Justin*. I hope JF does well, and not just for the upgraded draft pick.
Wilson will want to start against Denver and it's a game the Steelers should win no matter. I'd rather see Fields start and make sure Wilson is healthy going forward. Tomlin needs to feel vindicated bring both these guys in, so who knows what he'll do.
A good friend of mine from Mankato said he wanted the Vikings to be pallbearers at his funeral so they could let him down one last time.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
CJ Stroud seems to be doing OK in spite of his Ohio State pedigree.
Williams will be OK now that he's gotten the first game in the NFL jitters out. He will adjust. Odunze more or less disappeared. That won't be a routine occurrence in the future. The Bears may have an offense in spite of the line. A better offense may improve the line since the defense can't just tee off if it cannot assume there won't be good throws anyway.
The Seahawks - Broncos game sure was a bizarre one. It was the first game I watched for more than a season. I have never seen two safeties in a game, let alone two in one quarter. My wife, who has become a football fan in spite of being English and not really understanding the game, was completely baffled by what happened. I told her to not worry, since she will never see that again anyway. And then the second half had a Seattle offense that worked pretty well after being abysmal in the first half. The o-line got their act together in a way that didn't happen in the first half. They were talking about adjustments. I don't know how you adjust your way from completely inept to pretty good. It seemed like it happened, and Geno still has it. Unlike the last few years, the Seahawk defense seems like a bunch of guys who can actually tackle. That's a nice change. They don't blow people into the next county like the Legion of Boom did. That doesn't matter as long as they make tackles. Too many guys look for a big hit and miss the tackle. They seem to have got over that mentality. It's good to see.
It's only one game. The new coaching staff started out about as bad as possible, then ended up getting a win. Was that coaching, the players getting their act together, or what? If they do that all season, I'll age a lot, or maybe just read about it in the paper on Monday morning to avoid the stress.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Hey, any Denver fans? I think Bo did some really good things. We can argue whether any rookie should be thrown into week one starting QB. He made some growth mistakes but don’t be surprised if he starts to stand out. He maybe the steal of the draft.
I felt the same way about Nix, and went as far to believe he is the best QB of this batch. Penix is right there with him.
Caleb Williams is flashy and getting most of the attention, but he'll be out of the NFL, or even if he is still in the league he won't be playing, within three years is my opinion.
-Mike
Yes, and when Fields was drafted . . . and when I wrote what I wrote . . . it was 2021. I wasn't claiming any ability to predict the future, only to analyze the past - and as I also wrote it was equally an indictment of the atrocious state of the '21 Bears to develop potential QB talent. I'm familiar with the concept of 20-20 hindsight but that's some next level stuff right there.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
I have at least 20-15, maybe 20-10 hindsight. It's a superpower.
I was surprised by Fields' lack of success, even if it was for the Bears. I joke about Bobby Douglass being the ultimate Bears quarterback, but that's partly because Chicago just seems to be where quarterbacks go to turn into anything but quarterbacks for as long as I can remember. Have the Bears had a quarterback since Sid Luckman, really?
I think Bo will be OK. The O-line isn't great yet, and his receivers are in the process of getting to game speed with him. I watched and he seems calm and as prepared as a rookie can be. He may have played 61 games (or whatever) in college, but that's not the pro game.
In today's NFL they don't have enough training camp time to learn much. The camps are so short and involve so little actual hitting that they're not much more than a series of walk-throughs. The first month of the actual season is now the training camp.
I have felt for years that putting a rookie QB onto the field in his first year after being drafted is a huge mistake. There's so much money involved that teams are desperate to show off their new toys, but QBs like Rodgers and Love in Green Bay show the benefits of sitting for at least a year before starting. I suspect many potentially solid QBs have been run out of the league by being started too soon. Even waiting half a season has value.
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