2024 NFL Discussion Thread

[yourout]

Man there has been a ton of injuries in today's games.

[adambr2]

1 hour ago, nate82 said:

Both Nix and Daniels are looking very similar to Caleb and Daniels has been losing games for Washington with the turnovers in the last two games.  Nix lost a 4th quarter comeback to the Chiefs on a similar play that Williams did to the Packers.  It hasn't really been on Williams it is the HC and not Williams that is the problem for the Bears. 

Not sure what you were watching but Caleb played really well in the 2nd half.  The Bears have been absolutely awful in the 1st half other than against the Jaguars, Packers and Panthers.  The Packers game was the first time the Bears had a 1st half lead since the Jaguars game in October.  This is a HC problem and not a QB problem.  Caleb needs to work on some things but when he is not holding onto the ball for a long time he has looked really good.  He hasn't thrown an INT since 10/13 I am not sure why you think he is not looking as good as Nix or Daniels.  He has been looking really good since Brown has taken over at OC for the Bears. 

Not sure where you read that I said Caleb didn’t play well in the second half, I never said he didn’t. He still was awful in the first half, missed a lot of throws, and tends to hold the ball too long. HC problem or not, the QB losing track of time at the end of the game and losing their shot at a FG is inexcusable clock management.

Caleb has talent, no doubt, but Nix and Daniels are far ahead of him in the ROTY race, it’s not close. Having your team in a playoff race matters.

Caleb also has a far more talented receiving corps than either of Denver or Washington. Both Nix and Daniels also appear to be far more coachable than Caleb, it’s not too surprising that they have had more early success.

Eberflus will be fired as he should be but you can’t just say it’s all a coaching problem and nothing to do with Caleb. He played his part in botching the last play clock management as plain as day.

None of that was really my point to begin with. I was simply refuting your original claim that most other rookie QBs are getting blown out which is clearly not the case.

[Jimbo]

4 hours ago, yourout said:

Who the hell is Shabozi?

My wife walks into the room, "Look, it's Shabozi!"

 

I did not watch the fourth quarter, but did see the final play on CBS post game.

Chicago Sports Radio: "Matt Eberflus ought to just walk into the interview room and just resign."

 

Interesting that it was a CBS game and not a FOX game.  Yeah, I know things have changed.  Just hard to follow anymore.

 

[adambr2]

Thibodeaux throwing his name in the hat for dumbest personal foul of the season.

[HarryDoyle]

1 hour ago, yourout said:

Man there has been a ton of injuries in today's games.

I wonder if it's because these are Thursday games, just four days removed from these teams' last games. If it is it scares the heck out of me.

[nate82]

1 hour ago, adambr2 said:

I was simply refuting your original claim that most other rookie QBs are getting blown out which is clearly not the case.

That was a historical point as a majority of rookie QB's get blown out.  Go back year after year and you will find maybe one or two a year that are not getting blown out week over week in their first year.  Majority of the time a team drafting a QB in the first round and having them play in the first year are usually one to three years behind in actually competing. 

[areacodes]

45 minutes ago, nate82 said:

That was a historical point as a majority of rookie QB's get blown out.  Go back year after year and you will find maybe one or two a year that are not getting blown out week over week in their first year.  Majority of the time a team drafting a QB in the first round and having them play in the first year are usually one to three years behind in actually competing. 

Counterpoint.  Historically, teams that are forced to start a rookie QB don’t have the offensive talent around them that the Bears do.  Usually they are blown out all the time because the teams are in rebuild mode and lack talent along with starting a rookie QB.

Williams has talent, no doubt but between it being the Bears and what’s between his ears, I’m still not worried about him.

Shortly after the last play, I text my family that are Bears fans and asked how they do it.

[nate82]

3 hours ago, areacodes said:

Shortly after the last play, I text my family that are Bears fans and asked how they do it.

It is the same as being a Brewers fan really.

[adambr2]

“I’m focused on getting everyone back and getting everyone lined up," Williams said. "I don’t have a microphone, so there is no communication with coach there. We could have taken a timeout, but if we hit that play, no one would be worried about it.”

“Knee is fine, but that play was kind of funky," Williams said. “I didn’t appreciate him diving right at my knee, but it is good.”
 

Caleb’s middle name should be a hyphenated “Passive-Aggressive”.

[endaround]

8 hours ago, adambr2 said:

“I’m focused on getting everyone back and getting everyone lined up," Williams said. "I don’t have a microphone, so there is no communication with coach there. We could have taken a timeout, but if we hit that play, no one would be worried about it.”

“Knee is fine, but that play was kind of funky," Williams said. “I didn’t appreciate him diving right at my knee, but it is good.”
 

Caleb’s middle name should be a hyphenated “Passive-Aggressive”.

If they had hit that play then they would have run out of time at the 5 yd line

[OldSchoolSnapper]

If you're a Bears fan I think you should honestly be encouraged by this season. Yes it's been a comedy of errors but they are competing and right on the fringes. They're not humiliating themselves as far as just getting destroyed. They just feel like one of those teams that's close, but just doesn't do the little things yet. I think Caleb will be fine long term. 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

1 minute ago, endaround said:

If they had hit that play then they would have run out of time at the 5 yd line

I assume he just meant if they had scored a TD. It was close enough that it was conceivable. The play just made no sense. It was 3rd and 26 so taking a shot is ok if a) it's 2nd down and you leave 3rd to get closer and b) you take less than 20 seconds to snap the ball.

Now once they did get it off they had to go deep. The sack on the prior play was also just the one outcome you absolutely can't have.

[LouisEly]

18 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

Oh well, it will be fun watching the Bears post game podcasts on YouTube later.

Who is that sportscaster who went on a rant this past season about the Cubs "horse(bleep)" level of effort on defense and the base paths?  Does he cover the Bears, too?

[areacodes]

2 hours ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

If you're a Bears fan I think you should honestly be encouraged by this season. Yes it's been a comedy of errors but they are competing and right on the fringes. They're not humiliating themselves as far as just getting destroyed. They just feel like one of those teams that's close, but just doesn't do the little things yet. I think Caleb will be fine long term. 

The lack of accountability that Eberflus and Williams took (based on the quotes I’ve seen) wouldn’t encourage me if I were a Bears fan.

For Eberflus, won’t really matter as I assume he’s canned at some point during or after the season.  Is Poles next?  If so, the merry-go-round will continue with another new GM/coach who didn’t pick their young QB.

For Williams, it just continues to show me he doesn’t have what is needed between the ears to be a long term solution.  

[young guns]

And eberflus does not survive the day.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

1 hour ago, areacodes said:

The lack of accountability that Eberflus and Williams took (based on the quotes I’ve seen) wouldn’t encourage me if I were a Bears fan.

For Eberflus, won’t really matter as I assume he’s canned at some point during or after the season.  Is Poles next?  If so, the merry-go-round will continue with another new GM/coach who didn’t pick their young QB.

For Williams, it just continues to show me he doesn’t have what is needed between the ears to be a long term solution.  

Maybe Williams is right though. I've never been bothered by athletes saying what they think. Everyone readily admits that speaking cliches is lame but the second any of them veer off that it's some sign of "immaturity."

The Bears just solved their biggest problem IMO. Now they have a major decision to make, but if they get a decent coach there is a lot of talent on that team.

[JosephC]

1 hour ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

Maybe Williams is right though. I've never been bothered by athletes saying what they think. Everyone readily admits that speaking cliches is lame but the second any of them veer off that it's some sign of "immaturity."

The Bears just solved their biggest problem IMO. Now they have a major decision to make, but if they get a decent coach there is a lot of talent on that team.

I did watch 1 quarter against the Vikings and 2 quarters against the Lions.  Williams looks like he will be better than I thought he would be.  He takes dumb sacks, but I didn't see him throw any balls to the opposition (only 5 interceptions all year), which to me is a big deal for a rookie.  The offensive skill positions are fine and the defensive backfield looks decent although they have one glaring dumb-ass playing back there.  But both lines looked terrible and I was less than impressed with their linebackers.  The defensive line did generate some pressure from what I saw, but they are downright terrible against the run.  So yeah, there are some guys there, but there are enough holes on the roster to where they looked like a 7-10, maybe 8-9, team to me.  Then add in all the injuries they had on the offensive line a few weeks ago (I think they only had 1 starter playing for the majority of the Patriots game), and it's no surprise that they have no shot at hitting 8 wins and are pretty unlikely to get to 7.  Looking at the rest of their schedule, 5-12 seems most likely to me.

[LouisEly]

14 hours ago, adambr2 said:

“I’m focused on getting everyone back and getting everyone lined up," Williams said. "I don’t have a microphone, so there is no communication with coach there.

The "microphone" comment is odd.  Doesn't he have a speaker in his helmet to hear from the coaches?  Does he think that he's the one telling the coaches what to do?  I wonder if he's already tuned the coaches out.

And the job of a NFL QB is to get everyone lined up.  And also manage the game clock and play clock.

[nate82]

6 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

The "microphone" comment is odd.  Doesn't he have a speaker in his helmet to hear from the coaches? 

It is probably going to come out that Ebeflus didn't say anything and that is what Caleb was referring to.  You don't want to have your rookie QB running and managing the clock at the end of the game.  That needs to be ran by the HC.

 

8 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

And the job of a NFL QB is to get everyone lined up.  And also manage the game clock and play clock.

The HC needs to recognize that they are not getting to the line fast enough which is what Caleb was trying to do.  The HC needs to call the timeout there and get a new play in to go to the sidelines and get closer for a FG attempt.  Eberflus just froze and did nothing.

[RobertR]

Eberflus more than earned his firing.

If nothing else, the Bears are in real need of leadership. Head coach would be a real start, but unless it was a mutiny, there were 11 people on the field at the end of the game who showed no game awareness. I expect that Caleb Williams will get better, but there were 10 other people on the field at the end and not one said anything to get them organized or instilled any sense of urgency. That's mainly on the coach, but a bunch should take a real look in the mirror.

[sveumrules]

14 hours ago, nate82 said:

It is the same as being a Brewers fan really.

The Bears last winning season was in 2018.. They’ve finished 3rd or 4th in five of the six years since with one Wildcard in an 8-8 year as their “high” point.

The Brewers have won the 6th most games in MLB since 2018 with four Division wins (and zero losing full seasons) in there.

The Bears are way more like the Pirates than the Brewers of late.

[adambr2]

It’s clear that Eberflus should be accountable for what happened yesterday, among other events, and deserved his firing.

However, the lack of accountability from Caleb would irritate me as a Bears fan, even as a rookie. It is absolutely his job to know the situation, know the game clock, and have the ability to improvise after the sack without inexplicably burning 25+ seconds before the next snap and walking off the field with a timeout in your pocket and no FG attempt.

I’m not saying it’s an easy job, but if that had been Jordan Love, you better believe we’d be looking for some accountability on his part for the mistake.

[areacodes]

2 hours ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

Maybe Williams is right though. I've never been bothered by athletes saying what they think. Everyone readily admits that speaking cliches is lame but the second any of them veer off that it's some sign of "immaturity."

The Bears just solved their biggest problem IMO. Now they have a major decision to make, but if they get a decent coach there is a lot of talent on that team.

Saying what he “thinks”… absolutely love that from athletes and much prefer that over speaking in cliches.

Williams didn’t do that based on that quote.  Seems like he just brushed it off with a “not my responsibility, not my fault” type of reply.

Eberflus screwed up bigly but Williams needs to have some situational awareness with the clock too.  That is 100% part of his responsibility as the QB.

I honestly hope that he truly thinks it wasn’t his fault and does nothing to learn from this as it will only help the Packers moving forward.

[adambr2]

What a dumb 4th down call by Pierce. Worst running game in football against that wall never had a shot.

[adambr2]

Typical gift PI call for the Chiefs. Contact was minimal, ball was horrendously underthrown, I don’t think Hopkins could have got to it anyway.