UA-59049186-1 2022 Week 2: Chicago Bears 10*, Green Bay Fighting Referees 27 - Good if it Goes

2022 Week 2: Chicago Bears 10*, Green Bay Fighting Referees 27

Green Bay’s real MVP. [Photo: LA Times]

Player Grades

The grading scale goes from -3 to +3 for each play. Screens are graded as runs. Penalties are counted in whatever phase they were committed. Pre- and post-snap penalties are in the “Misc.” column. “Short” throws are 10 yards or less, “Medium” is 10-20, “Deep” is over 20. Everything else (scrambles, throwaways, reads, etc.) is under “Miscellaneous.” Parentheses in a column denote grades/snaps from the opposite side of the ball and are not included in grades/snaps from the player’s usual side. Snap counts are from Pro Football Reference. Box score and other relevant info can be found at that link as well.

Note: I don’t have snap counts this week because I stopped grading after the Bears were screwed out of a touchdown. Three blatant holds on the next drive went uncalled, including one on the deep pass, so, seriously, what’s the point? If you’d like, add a few more minuses to Kyler Gordon’s score in your mind and take a couple points away from Eddie Jackson, too. Coach Flus still singled out BoJack after the game as someone who played well, so that one play shouldn’t hurt his overall performance much.

Every time with these guys…

Yeah, this one was pretty bad. I don’t know if it was the worst one ever, because they “missed” two separate facemasks on Mitchell Trubisky in 2020, but it’s definitely up there. Seriously, man, this is a touchdown.

[Photo: @Bearlissimo1 on Twitter]

Penalties in this game were 12-3 and that doesn’t include a PI call on Morrow on a ball that was uncatchable that was declined because Vildor got popped (rightfully, to be honest) on the same play for holding. Three penalties. After the above touchdown was stolen from them, the Packers got away with three blatant holding penalties on the next drive alone. Elgton Jenkins attempted to tackle Trevis Gipson on the play that resulted in his second sack and the refs just picked up the flag. The penalty would have been declined anyway, but it’s the principle of the thing. Eric Stokes got away with a hold on the deep shot to Mooney. Admittedly, that would have been a ticky-tack call, but I’ve seen less called in the NFL. The Packers got away with 12 men on the field on Fields’ pass to Ryan Griffin. Multiple Green Bay false starts went uncalled. Did the Bears get away with a couple of their own? Absolutely. Kmet got away with a hold on one of Monty’s longer runs. But the disparity wasn’t close.

So who’s to blame here?

We just covered that.

Besides those guys.

A lot of people. Honestly, watching the game back, I wasn’t mad at Getsy. He actually called a fine game. Yes, I know, 11 passes, but he called more pass plays than that, but plays turned into scrambles and Fields took a few sacks. I did find myself more disappointed with Fields. The score was actually less bad than I expected, but I was just…disappointed. Like, he’s still doing the same silly stuff. He’s taking too long to go through his progression and he’s waiting until he actually sees a route come open before he throws it. He at least seems to understand what he’s looking at, so there’s an improvement over the last guy who was supposed to be The Guy, but that other stuff is truly Trubisky-esque.

Let’s look at the series coming out of halftime. That punt is completely on Fields. Fields runs for a gain of seven on a read option on first down. Good keep. Good run. Offense is on schedule. On second down, Fields hesitates and Rashan Gary gets to him for a sack. The Packers had De’Vondre Campbell lined up on Darnell Mooney. Fields needed to identify that mismatch and look there first. If he does, it’s a catch and run for a nice gain and a first down. Fields -2 Misc. On third, he’s got plenty of time to throw and Equinameous St. Brown wide open down the right side after he put a great move on Eric Stokes. If he sees it, it’s six points. Fields -3 Misc.

Now, I don’t think it’s all his fault. Protection hasn’t always been great and once he has a real center, he should be able to step up into pockets when guys start coming around the edge. Because stuff like this:

can’t happen. Watch Mustipher here. He starts by making sure Quay Walker (#7) isn’t coming on the rush. Good. He then looks for work. Also good. However, he decides that instead of helping Lucas Patrick with Kenny Clark, he’s gonna help Whitehair with his guy. Not good. He then proceeds to not even do that right. Mustipher -3. What do you even do with this? Fortunately, Patrick appears ready to return to center. Otherwise, Eberflus should put Patrick at left guard and slide Whitehair over to center. If you truly believe in Justin Fields, you can’t keep putting his safety in this guy’s hands.

So what about the defense?

Did you see the run grades for the edge defenders? Now seems like a good time to revisit what scores mean here. For an edge rusher, +2 or so is an average day, depending on how many snaps one plays. For guys like Quinn and Muhammad, +2 is average, zero is bad, what they did blows. Quinn at least has value as a pass rusher. Muhammad doesn’t. Split his snaps amongst Gipson, Robinson, and Jonathan.

When you have a complete inability to set the edge and keep contain, the linebackers are left out to dry. I’m not excusing Roquan and Morrow – they didn’t play well – but they were also put in impossible spots too often.

As far as Kyler Gordon goes, if he’s gonna be your nickel in the long run, leave him there and live with the growing pains. If you stick him on the outside, it should be because that’s where you see him when this team is ready to compete. All of that said, for all of his struggles, he did have a couple nice flashes. This space asserts he’ll be fine in time.

What does this mean going forward?

The Texans stink. You must beat the Texans. If Fields struggles there, it’s officially time to worry. Lovie Smith runs a defense that’s not too different from what Justin sees every day in practice. He needs to show something.

Defense could be a little bit of an adventure. Matt Adams is out and Roquan is questionable. I know everybody loved what they saw from Jack Sanborn in the preseason, but this team already has enough trouble stopping the run and then you bring up the possibility of replacing Roquan with a guy who has far less athleticism. I’m concerned.

Monsters

Monty, BoJack, Gipson, Brisker, Jaylon Johnson wasn’t targeted and there was a reason for that beyond Kyler Gordon’s struggles

Chipmunks

Mustipher, Gordon, Fields, Muhammad, Quinn against the run, Vildor

Four Stars of the Game

4star David Montgomery

3star  Eddie Jackson

2star  Trevis Gipson

1star  Jaylon Johnson

Twitter: @KevinSports312

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *