There has been a lot of discussion over who is mostly at fault for the Bears poor offense. Is it Fields? The offensive line? The receivers? Getsy?
I rewatched the Texans game and made notes. I tried to answer the question, “Who killed the drive?” For every drive that did not end in a score, which player(s) failed execution was mostly responsible for killing the drive?
So here goes…
FIRST QUARTER
Not much to report here. The first two possessions ended in a field goal and a TD. The FG was mostly set up by a long run by Fields (30 yards). The TD was set up by EQ’s 43-yard run and Herbert’s runs in the red zone. Bears had over 100 yards running in the first quarter!
The next possession was killed by Fields’ interception on a pass to Kmet (who was open).
The final possession began with a Borom false start. The next play was a screen to Herbert for 5 yards.
SECOND QUARTER
The third play was a sack caused by Fields tripping over Braxton Jones’ left leg as he was getting pushed backwards into Fields. That made it 3rd and 17. Getsy called a run with Herbert and punt. This drive was killed by the tackles – Borom and Jones.
The second possession started around the 10 yard line, and Getsy did not trust Fields to throw the ball there. He ran Herbert on 3rd and 6. The crowd booed. The Texans were set for run defense. Getsy killed this drive.
The next drive begins by Fields throwing a bad pass on a screen to Ebner, but it didn’t look like the play was going anywhere.
The next play Braxton Jones gets beat on the outside and his guy is chasing down Fields, who scrambles to the right for 6 yards. Braxton also never gets beat on the outside, unless he is slow responding to the snap call and so is slow getting out of his stance – which is what happened here. The next play is another scramble by Fields run for first down.
The next series was two runs by Ebner for first down. The Bears now have 152 yards rushing. Fields overthrows Mooney. After 5-yd. run by Ebner, Fields hits Kmet on a beautiful pass to the 26 yd. line. Then Getsy goes back to Ebner for a couple more runs. I wanted him to throw the ball. That made it 3rd and 6. Borom gets beaten very badly, and Fields is sacked. So I would say Borom killed this drive with an assist from Getsy for conservative play-calling. Santos kicks FG. James Loften made comment that the Bears desperately need a #1 go-to guy on 3rd and 6 but don’t have one. Getsy doesn’t call that little slant over the middle like other team’s do. Apparently, he doesn’t trust Fields/receivers to pull it off. Another play that he never calls is the “back shoulder” pass to WR on the sidelines. This requires perfect timing between QB and receivers. I doubt it is even in the playbook.
The next drive also demonstrates a lack of trust. With a first down and all 3 timeouts and 40 seconds on the clock, they let the clock run and the half ends with Fields getting sacked on a play where he could have avoided the sacked by dropping back instead of running. But I will say Getsy/Flus mostly
killed by drive by not calling a timeout. The crowd booed. Lofton also criticized.
THIRD QUARTER
Not much to say here. Herbert had his 52 yard run to the 23. Nice pass to EQ to 4 yd. line. Herbert pounds it in for TD on third try. Good blocking by Braxton and Blasingame.
FOURTH QUARTER
It is 3rd and 6. Fields has pass protection. He overthrows Mooney in triple coverage (!). Interception. Fields kills the drive. When you see the all 22 video of this play, you will notice that Pettis is wide open by 10 yards on the other side of the field. There was time for Fields to throw over there, if he had even glanced to that side of the field. He didn’t. We had the same thing last week where Pettis was wide open for a TD but was not the primary target. Fields is like Trubisky – he gets locked in on one guy and doesn’t see the whole field. He holds the ball too long instead of throwing it before Pettis finishes his route. Yes, he needs guys to run precise routes and get to the right spot at the right time, but he also needs to TRUST that they will get there and just throw to the spot. Russell Wilson did it perfectly on his back should throw to Sutton on their final TD drive on Sunday.
There were a couple more drives before the decisive interception by Roquan Smith to win the game for the Bears.
The first drive was killed by poor blocking by Kmet and a run by Fields when he could have thrown the ball. So they each had a contribution.
The other drive was killed by the Texan’s defensive back who made a great play to get the sack on Fields. Nothing Justin can do about that.
To sum up: I have to lay most of this on Fields who, by his own admission, “played like trash.” The amazing thing about the Bears offense at this point is that we are phenomenally good at running the ball – best in NFL. But phenomenally bad at passing the ball – worst in NFL.
Despite it all, we are 2-1. Go Bears!
I rewatched the Texans game and made notes. I tried to answer the question, “Who killed the drive?” For every drive that did not end in a score, which player(s) failed execution was mostly responsible for killing the drive?
So here goes…
FIRST QUARTER
Not much to report here. The first two possessions ended in a field goal and a TD. The FG was mostly set up by a long run by Fields (30 yards). The TD was set up by EQ’s 43-yard run and Herbert’s runs in the red zone. Bears had over 100 yards running in the first quarter!
The next possession was killed by Fields’ interception on a pass to Kmet (who was open).
The final possession began with a Borom false start. The next play was a screen to Herbert for 5 yards.
SECOND QUARTER
The third play was a sack caused by Fields tripping over Braxton Jones’ left leg as he was getting pushed backwards into Fields. That made it 3rd and 17. Getsy called a run with Herbert and punt. This drive was killed by the tackles – Borom and Jones.
The second possession started around the 10 yard line, and Getsy did not trust Fields to throw the ball there. He ran Herbert on 3rd and 6. The crowd booed. The Texans were set for run defense. Getsy killed this drive.
The next drive begins by Fields throwing a bad pass on a screen to Ebner, but it didn’t look like the play was going anywhere.
The next play Braxton Jones gets beat on the outside and his guy is chasing down Fields, who scrambles to the right for 6 yards. Braxton also never gets beat on the outside, unless he is slow responding to the snap call and so is slow getting out of his stance – which is what happened here. The next play is another scramble by Fields run for first down.
The next series was two runs by Ebner for first down. The Bears now have 152 yards rushing. Fields overthrows Mooney. After 5-yd. run by Ebner, Fields hits Kmet on a beautiful pass to the 26 yd. line. Then Getsy goes back to Ebner for a couple more runs. I wanted him to throw the ball. That made it 3rd and 6. Borom gets beaten very badly, and Fields is sacked. So I would say Borom killed this drive with an assist from Getsy for conservative play-calling. Santos kicks FG. James Loften made comment that the Bears desperately need a #1 go-to guy on 3rd and 6 but don’t have one. Getsy doesn’t call that little slant over the middle like other team’s do. Apparently, he doesn’t trust Fields/receivers to pull it off. Another play that he never calls is the “back shoulder” pass to WR on the sidelines. This requires perfect timing between QB and receivers. I doubt it is even in the playbook.
The next drive also demonstrates a lack of trust. With a first down and all 3 timeouts and 40 seconds on the clock, they let the clock run and the half ends with Fields getting sacked on a play where he could have avoided the sacked by dropping back instead of running. But I will say Getsy/Flus mostly
killed by drive by not calling a timeout. The crowd booed. Lofton also criticized.
THIRD QUARTER
Not much to say here. Herbert had his 52 yard run to the 23. Nice pass to EQ to 4 yd. line. Herbert pounds it in for TD on third try. Good blocking by Braxton and Blasingame.
FOURTH QUARTER
It is 3rd and 6. Fields has pass protection. He overthrows Mooney in triple coverage (!). Interception. Fields kills the drive. When you see the all 22 video of this play, you will notice that Pettis is wide open by 10 yards on the other side of the field. There was time for Fields to throw over there, if he had even glanced to that side of the field. He didn’t. We had the same thing last week where Pettis was wide open for a TD but was not the primary target. Fields is like Trubisky – he gets locked in on one guy and doesn’t see the whole field. He holds the ball too long instead of throwing it before Pettis finishes his route. Yes, he needs guys to run precise routes and get to the right spot at the right time, but he also needs to TRUST that they will get there and just throw to the spot. Russell Wilson did it perfectly on his back should throw to Sutton on their final TD drive on Sunday.
There were a couple more drives before the decisive interception by Roquan Smith to win the game for the Bears.
The first drive was killed by poor blocking by Kmet and a run by Fields when he could have thrown the ball. So they each had a contribution.
The other drive was killed by the Texan’s defensive back who made a great play to get the sack on Fields. Nothing Justin can do about that.
To sum up: I have to lay most of this on Fields who, by his own admission, “played like trash.” The amazing thing about the Bears offense at this point is that we are phenomenally good at running the ball – best in NFL. But phenomenally bad at passing the ball – worst in NFL.
Despite it all, we are 2-1. Go Bears!