Game Day Thread Official Post Game Thread- Bears beat the Pats

[upstater1]

About no complaints about the coaching last week, to the contrary there were scores of news articles about how genius BB "has done it again" with the 2022 draft and the strong play of the Pats in the last couple of games (before last night). I feel like I'm getting whiplash after the changed narrative after one game.

1. Obviously Mac is still hurt as you say, the recovery time for a high ankle sprain is 6-8 weeks and it's only been 3 weeks. It is admirable that Mac has tried to play through injury after being beat up so much (especially last year), but this time the coaches should have kept him on the bench until he was more recovered.

And if I can add my own:
3.) It doesn't happen often, but the Pats got thoroughly out-coached. For one thing, the coaching staff didn't have the team ready to play, they evidently had already mentally checked off a win. And, on the Bears coaching side, from what I read in a Chicago news article about the game, the the Bears have never had so many designed QB runs for Fields before, and I think that wrinkle surprised and flummoxed the Pats and their run defense went down the drain. That error was really on the Pats coaches, having a bunch of designed runs for Fields may not be a sustainable long term strategy (just look at what happened to Cam Newton after years of repeated big hits on his designed runs) but Fields was super effective running the ball at Ohio State and the Pats coaches should have been ready for some new wrinkles on a Monday night football stage where BB was about to overtake Halas for career wins.

The Bears were run heavy with Montgomery and Herbert so we went big with our linebackers. We needed entirely different personnel. More Mack Wilson etc. Agree that we were outplanned even more than outcoached during the game. This is why we couldn't adjust.

Three huge plays gave the Bears life, and in all 3, we were lost in pass coverage. Bentley went for a WR and left the middle wide open. Myles Bryant twice tried to undercut routes and was burned. These players are not good in coverage. The only time I noticed Marcus Jones was when he had a pass breakup. He needs to replace Bryant

 

[Thelonious]

While I do agree with posters regarding how Bill has mismanaged things (personnel, coaches, etc.), why does the board only go crazy when there's a loss?

See Freud on the Oedipus Complex? We are a community of aspiring tough guys, beset by self doubt?

 

[Lagaffe_07]

1. Obviously Mac is still hurt as you say, the recovery time for a high ankle sprain is 6-8 weeks and it's only been 3 weeks. It is admirable that Mac has tried to play through injury after being beat up so much (especially last year), but this time the coaches should have kept him on the bench until he was more recovered.

His 24 yds running yesterday lead me to believe that the ankle was fine. He was moving fine. The ankle was not a problem yesterday. It’s been 4 weeks and one day since the injury not 3 weeks.

 

[Real fan 02]

Yeah, I especially loved how he held one of the top 10 offenses in NFL history to 3 points. So many great tackles that night.

And I credit Flores for that, I hope people are paying attention to what dabol has done in Buffalo and with the giants.. 2 of BB BEST coaches to leave..

AFC East.

Plenty of AFC teams with a worse record than the Pats.

It’s a long season, friend. More ahead than

 

[Deus Irae]

Last year Mac was calm and composed and we praised him for taking care of the ball and his pocket presence. Something looks totally different this year.

Only thing I can think of is going from McDaniels to two failed bozos in Patricia/judge. Anyone take a look at the giants since Judge left?

His OL got him killed in 2 out of 3 games.

 

[mgteich]

Extending Wynn was our only option at the time. All of the LT/RTs we'd want went to contenders.

The issue is NOT, is NOT, that we took out an insurance policy at $10M a year when we had no one signed for 2022 and little was available. On a good day Wynn would have been a backup, and a relatively expensive insurance policy that wasn't needed.

 

[Deus Irae]

1. Not sure why you continue to ignore this, but Zappe had zero experience with UC PA plays before joining the Patriots. So, the PA was definitely not used to help him since he had no prior experience with it. The fact he's been able to perform the PA at the NFL level is actually a compliment to his fast learning ability.
2. Mac had several unsuccessful PA plays last night.
3. Both QBs had deep vertical plays, Zappe was more successful, by far.

Stats with same # of attempts.

View attachment 46599

What a bizarre post.

 

[raduray]

Cole Strange, Tyquan Thornton, Marcus Jones, Jack Jones, Bailey Zappe

These are all good players.

In a universe of unlimited draft picks, maybe we'd have more picks to fill more positions, but that's not the real world.

If you think this was a poor draft, we're not going to have much agreement. I will say however that defensive backfield was a huge area of need after JC Jackson left, much more so than tackle, and Belichick addressed it. We also grabbed a potentially explosive WR who has already shown he runs great routes, can get off the line, and so far he's shown he has great hands.

Not just talking about the most recent draft.

 

[ashley]

 

[ashley]

Not just talking about the most recent draft.

Their last three drafts have been produced good players.

 

[upstater1]

And I credit Flores for that, I hope people are paying attention to what dabol has done in Buffalo and with the giants.. 2 of BB BEST coaches to leave..

OK, then who do you credit for 2016 when we had the #1 defense in the NFL?

We also faced a top 10 offense in NFL history that year as well.

 

[Deus Irae]

The Zappe high was a nice one for the first half, but quickly wore off

Looks like I spoke too soon, though. There are still several posters here who are sick with Zappe fever to the point of delusion.

 

[upstater1]

Not just talking about the most recent draft.

Barmore, Stevenson, Dugger, Onwenu and we still don't know what we have with Mac Jones, Uche, Bledsoe, Anfernee, etc. They may turn out.

Heck, we've given up on players who went on the play well elsewhere, like Hjalte Froholdt who was throwing people around yesterday.

 

[Deus Irae]

Wow. You're very emotional this morning. Nobody is saying Mac is trash, but you do you.

A bunch of posters, including you, are saying very silly things. So whether you call it "emotional" or just crazy, you have no room to be talking on this subject.

 

[Deus Irae]

"I talked to the quarterbacks, talked to the leaders of the team. Everybody knew what the plan was," Belichick said on The Greg Hill Show on WEEI. "I mean, not every single person, obviously. I wouldn't talk to every person about another player's role in the game. That's just ... like, they all have their jobs to do. But there was no lack of communication." - BB on the "plan" to play Mac and Zappe.

That's hilarious. If you buy the "plan" narrative, I've got a bridge for sale in Brooklyn.

The broadcasters knew. How did they know, if it wasn't part of the plan?

 

[Deus Irae]

His 24 yds running yesterday lead me to believe that the ankle was fine. He was moving fine. The ankle was not a problem yesterday. It’s been 4 weeks and one day since the injury not 3 weeks.

If you've ever had a high ankle sprain, or even just a regular, but serious sprain, you know that is often not how it works when you get deeper into the healing process. When you get going, you can push through the pain during the plays. It's the in between where the pain hits, and it's the recovery after the game that's crucial.

And that's before you get to the Toradol.

 

[mgteich]

We are a rebuilding team. IMO, the last three drafts were really, really good.

A GM gets players from many sources. If we have deficiencies, it is NOT because of the poor drafts.

DEFICIENCIES OR WEAKNESSES
1) OT
2) QB (we may still be OK with our draftees) Is the issue lack of development by coaches, and poor game planning by coaches?
3) Defensive game plan to stop the run against teams with running QB's
4) backup OG's (our backups are not close to NFL standard)

BOTTOM LINE
We have spent a huge amount of assets acquiring players in 2020-2022. How can we have been so delinquent is our planning and acquisition at OT?

Was there really no OT worth signing or trading for, perhaps instead of a 2nd TE?

I guess that we will wait to see if we beat the jets before deciding whether to trade for an OT.

 

[upstater1]

We are a rebuilding team. IMO, the last three drafts were really, really good.

A GM gets players from many sources. If we have deficiencies, it is NOT because of the poor drafts.

DEFICIENCIES OR WEAKNESSES
1) OT
2) QB (we may still be OK with our draftees) Is the issue lack of development by coaches, and poor game planning by coaches?
3) Defensive game plan to stop the run against teams with running QB's
4) backup OG's (our backups are not close to NFL standard)

BOTTOM LINE
We have spent a huge amount of assets acquiring players in 2020-2022. How can we have been so delinquent is our planning and acquisition at OT?

Was there really no OT worth signing or trading for, perhaps instead of a 2nd TE?

I guess that we will wait to see if we beat the jets before deciding whether to trade for an OT.

Well, there was Orlando Brown, Jr. and Lael Collins

 

[PatsFanInVa]

True, but we didn't give Jones much to defend on offense, questionable play calling, going away from the run, again not trying to involve the TEs more.. HH is a 6'6 TE look at the 3rd down play komet caught on the bears.. that is HH game! But agreed the depth on defense was apparent.. still had enough to contain that offense.. competition gets harder, don't know about you but, Cincinnati to me is the most dangerous offense in the league.. Buffalo beats you with 2 guys mainly..

I am really a pro-Zappe, attempting-to-be-rational guy, aware that pro-Mac might be the right answer, long-term. I think we might look back in a couple of years and say "remember when we thought the real QB should be ______? Ha!" regardless of who becomes The Man.

I can't say sitting here today that Jones is a superball about to bounce back up, or a deflated Brady ball listlessly settling to the turf. Same with Zappe after last night's shlitzshow. He had 2 scores worth of magic in him and then just became the kid running the tip drill.

As usual, as the game approached, like the oddsmakers I kept thinking "well, with a team as crappy as Chicago, 'next man up' will be enough on D." But wow did we get pushed around. I can't help but notice they had their George Halas initial patches on... maybe they were fired up to protect Papa Bear's tied-for-second status for one more game or something. Something made them all look like super-heroes Monday night. Unfortunately, I think that "something" might be New England's level of play more than anything else.

Our defense evidently is not good enough, especially against the run, without the named lost players (uche, Barmore, Dugger by the end, etc.) -- either that or they weren't aware the Bears get paid too.

 

[ashley]

Have to fix this going forward. Not sure if we have anymore running qb's on our schedule other than Josh Allen, but we know what he did to us late in the year.