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Jaguars 17, Bears 16 – Recap
- Updated: October 20, 2016
Grading Primer (I wrote this about Michigan, but the grading procedures are still relevant.)
Last week, the Bears gained 500 yards of offense and lost. This week, they took a 13-point lead into the fourth quarter and dominated time of possession and lost. The Bears moved the ball well, but they had too many drives stall and they settled for field goals too often. Bortles and the Jaguars did very little through three quarters, but were able to move the ball in the fourth as receivers kept finding open space. At this point, I’m getting somewhat irritated with the coaching, but we’ll break that down after we take a loot at the
Player Grades
How’d they do?
Ratings are out of 100 and should be read similar to Madden ratings. Overall ratings for the season and the change in that number from the previous week are in parentheses.
QB: 68 (Season: 75, Change: -3)
Hoyer made the simple throws and that’s it. And yet, there are people still banging the “Hoyer should start over Jay” drum.
RB: 83 (Season: 89, Change: -1)
Jordan Howard played very well when he was given the ball. Ka’Deem Carey generally got little more than what the line got him. Why he got as many carries as he did, I have no idea.
FB: 78 (I’m not doing a season rating for this anymore, as they’ve already waived Lasike once this season and used a TE in the FB spot more than they did Lasike in this game.)
Lasike played well in limited snaps.
WR: 91 (Season: 91, Change: 0)
Cameron Meredith had another very nice outing. Alshon Jeffery played well, but his effectiveness continues to be nerfed by Hoyer. Eddie Royal played well.
TE: 84 (Season: 87, Change: -1)
Miller played well, but didn’t get as many opportunities to really shine in the passing game. Logan Paulsen was just okay in the run game.
OL: 67 (Season: 77, Change: -4)
The grades look worse than the unit actually played, because pass pro doesn’t show up that well in grading and the protection for Hoyer was quite good. The run game was a different story. It wasn’t entirely their fault – Jacksonville was playing to stop the run, more on that later – but even so, oof. Whitehair routinely got driven backward.
DL: 76 (Season: 79, Change: -1)
Akiem Hicks continues to look like a great pickup. Unrein had another rough outing. Bullard played well, save for a penalty. Cornelius Washington played inside quite a bit and was nothing to write home about.
OLB: 90 (Season: 87, Change: +1)
Willie Young and Christian Jones are included here. Both played well. Sam Acho also had a nice game.
ILB: 77 (Season: 86, Change: -2)
Trevathan was okay, but not outstanding. Freeman had a bit of a rough outing. I still wouldn’t worry about him.
CB: 56 (Season: 71, Change: -6)
Bad. Jacoby Glenn was a -3 and wasn’t even the worst corner. That goes to Tracy Porter, recipient of multiple -2s and who slipped on the game-losing TD.
S: 83 (Season: 79, Change: +1)
So what happened?
Well, first of all, the Jaguars figured out that Hoyer can’t hit the broad side of a barn from more than 20 yards out. Jacksonville was playing a lot of cover 1, guessing, correctly, that the Bears weren’t going to be able to take advantage of that by attacking them deep. The scheme also kept somewhat of a lid on the Bears’ ground game by allowing the Jaguars to be more aggressive against the run.
I’ve seen better offensive play calling, but I’m not going to be too hard on Loggains right now while Cutler is still out. Brian Hoyer limits what the offense can do. Period. There is still support for him over Cutler and there should not be. He can throw for a bunch of yards on a bunch of attempts, but if a need play is needed, it’s not coming from him. There was one series where the play calls did have me shaking my head, and it was irrespective of Hoyer – the set of plays in the third quarter where the Bears had first-and-goal from the Jacksonville 5. Here are those plays:
| Down | To Go | Ball on | Personnel | Formation |
| 1 | G | JAX 5 | 12 to 21 | Ace Pair right to Weak-I right |
Miller motions from his TE spot to FB. Handoff to Howard, looks like they‘re going for a blast, but Whitehair (-2) gets driven backward, which blew up the whole play.
| 2 | G | JAX 5 | 11 | Gun Trips right |
Screen to Miller, Jacksonville has it sniffed out.
| 3 | G | JAX 6 | 11 | Gun Doubles left |
Hoyer (-1) throws over Jeffery’s head in the back of the end zone.
You have two Pro Bowl guards and a hard-running tailback. Run said tailback behind one of said guards at least twice.
On the other side of the ball, I’m still not liking the strategy of only rushing four. The secondary isn’t covering well enough when opposing quarterbacks have time to throw – time to start bringing more pressure and trying to disrupt the passer. Yes, that means pulling someone out of coverage, but what you’re doing now isn’t working, so why not try something that might work? The secondary is still missing Kyle Fuller and we didn’t see Deiondre’ Hall, whose play has been mostly encouraging this far in his career, so things on that front may not be quite as bad as they look right now, but even so, some work is going to need to be done in the off-season to upgrade the position group. There are a few exciting corners in this upcoming draft class, so there is certainly an opportunity there.
The last thing I want to talk about is the Bears’ troubles in finishing games. This is two consecutive weeks where the team has folded late against a team they need to beat. Some of that has to fall upon the coaching staff. How much that is is debatable. At this point, we have to address the QB position one more time, because, in my opinion, this team would be 3-3 with Jay Cutler at QB. Cutler doesn’t miss Jeffery last week. Cutler is capable of providing the big plays the team needed for a late scoring drive in this one, and Cutler is capable of making the throws that would have prevented Jacksonville from playing cover 1 successfully all game. That, in turn, opens up the run game. Yes, Hoyer has taken care of the ball and made the simple, safe throws, but the last two weeks should prove that that’s not enough.
Yet To Be Named Gimmicky Award Meant To Show Who The Best Overall Performers Were
If you have an idea of what I should call this, let me know. Twitter handle and e-mail address are at the end of the blog.
Anyway, up to 3 may be awarded per player. Not necessarily the highest-graded players since different grades mean different things to different players (refer to the primer).
Offense
3: Josh Sitton, Cameron Meredith
2: Eddie Royal
1: Josh Bellamy, Zach Miller, Alshon Jeffery, Jordan Howard
Defense
3: Willie Young, Adrian Amos
2: Sam Acho, Christian Jones, Danny Trevathan
1: Akiem Hicks, Harold Jones-Quartey
Yet To Be Named Gimmicky Award Meant To Show Who The Best Overall Performers Were Count
Bear Down!
Twitter: @KSchroeder_312
E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com
