Darkside wrote:
We're halfway thru the season. Things look grim. Here's my rankings. Lets get your opinions. Please feel free to provide your own rankings or rip me a new one if I'm wrong.
QB - F
Mitch has regressed badly after being worse than average last season. What's most maddening about him is his Sosa stats this year, the one series when it's too late where he makes great reads, and hits receivers in stride. But for the first 3 quarters of the game, hes overthrowing, underthrowing, missing reads and missing open receivers. His lack of adaptability has essentially torpedoed his progress. He cant remember how many steps hes supposed to take. He cannot read defenses... at all. Mitch has peaked in the first few games of the Fox administration when Glennon proved to be, unimaginably so, worse. Until the 4th quarter last week, I considered giving him a D because of his reputation of not giving up many turnovers, but two consecutive unforced turnovers killed any momentum they had to win that game. We are talking about an NFL starting QB with 5 touchdowns in the regular season halfway thru. So he gets the Fail. He may be the biggest Bust in Bears history.
O-Line D
Whitehair and Daniel's seem to be stabilizing forces but Leno, having had a couple good games looks utterly lost lately. The pockets have been collapsing in two seconds the last few weeks. Losing Long was supposed to be huge but he was having a poor season before his season ending injury. They're not making holes, and Mitch is still not getting time but even if he had it he wouldn't know what to do with it which is why they're rated a D today.
TE C-
They don't block, Burton can't be trusted to play or play well and Shaheen has granite rocks for hands. What can you say about a group that has not yet participated in this Bears offense? Not much. I'm not giving them a D because they haven't had any opportunity to play when manage to get ready for a game.
WR C
Robinson seems to be the only true receiver on this team. Mitch won't really look at other receivers. Is it because Anthony Miller cannot run the correct routes? Is it because Wims is basically Claide Rains out there? I know things are fucked up when Gabriel was injured. It's hard to grade a group that cant get a ball thrown to them beyond 10 yards from scrimmage. I don't really know what this group is capable of when they're never fed. I can assume they're average now but what happens when Robinson has a guy throwing deep routes to him and they're actually catchable? Is Miller really running the wrong routes or is Mitch forgetting plays?
RB C
Again I feel it's hard to rank these guys because they're never fed the ball. Could montgomery be an improvement Howard? Well we have no idea because until last week they never gave him a run. I can say that the line isn't making things easier. But Nagy loses a few yards on an initial run play and he publically calls it a gut punch. Everyone knows that if you stop the first few runs the Bears will abandon it. Cohen can be dangerous in space, but you see way too many screens and hes getting wrapped up way too fast because that play appears to be the extent of the offensive creativity. Is Cohen's 9 reception for 19 yards a sign hes bad or the scheme was positively ridiculous. More on coaching later. I'm giving them a C for now but it's hard to not just call this Incomplete because honestly we don't really know what we have here
Offense overall grade D/D-
I only don't give an F because I believe Mitch is the root cause of most of the poor grades. They can't pass. They won't run. They're not getting into then endzone even multiple chances and penalty augmented opportunities. They really do deserve an F.
D Line B-
This group looks so much different without Hicks. I guess Goldman has been serviceable to good but they're getting pushed around in the run. A big part of why they're losing games is those 4th quarter drives that they're not stopping. Now, granted, these guys are on the field for what 35 minutes a game? More sometimes? Remember this group is part of the reason why the bears still haven't given up a first possession touchdown.
LB B
Mack is solid as to be expected, but when hes drawing doubles all the time you expect more from guys like say Floyd who for whatever reason has regressed significantly after showing some promise last season. Smith seems to be having issues outside of football that are affecting his game on the field. Kwiatkowski is a decent backup but has shown us why hes not first on the depth chart. I do like this group a lot, but they're beat to shit. You simply cannot expect a defense to play in elite fashion for 35 or more minutes.
DB C
Dix is somewhat inconsistent. I feel like he shys away from contact somewhat. And I guess I like Jackson just fine but the last few weeks he seems to be missing. Fuller shows signs sometimes but seems to me to play too far off his assignment and creates room that doesn't have to be there. That being said his coverage has been somewhat solid leading me to think this is a scheme problem and not a cornerback problem. Amukamara has been good to quite good. I trust him more than anyone else back there. Skrines has shown some interesting things, particularly a few early season nickle blitz packages but i dont remember seeing that in quite some time.
Overall Defense Grade B
You can run on them. Quick passes neutralize Mack. Eventually in the 4th quarter you can do whatever you want to them because they're too tired to stand.
ST C
Patterson's is quietly stacking up some decent returns, including a TD, but it seems hes asked to run way too much. Essentially if that kick isnt out of the end zone hes going. Pineiro has missed a few kicks, including a potential game winner that we want to blame on Nagy but cmon man your kicker should hit a 41 yarder. He just should. As it stands, Pat o'Donnell might be the MVP on this team. Can you fucking believe that?
Coaching F
Yeah. Fail. All day, all the way. Nagy is a failure. Yeah, he was a coach of the year. Sure. But hes been figured out. He cannot adjust. His team frequently looks unprepared. Communication is awful as proven at the end of the Chargers game. Hes super quick to abandon the run. That means hes relying on a QB remake throws and plays, a quarterback whom he scouted, who appears to be an all time bust. It's all screens and quick outs. Its timeouts when your radioncuts off because Nagy isnt preparing his QB with 15 plays to run under certain conditions.
Your head coach has publically stated that he does not trust his offense in any way with his comments after the Charges game.
Nagy wants to run cute little disguise plays every single down. Did we really wait until game 7 to see an I formation? In a traditionally running franchise? With a QB who cannot throw or read defenses?
It took a room full of reporters to shame an NFL coach into running the damn ball. Imagine that.
Hes a failure. And hes getting further exposed every week.
The only way Nagy can save himself is to turn over the playcalling sheet to a real honest to god coordinator. Until then this shit is over.
Oh, and Pagano today appears like he has a completely undisciplined defense. Is that coaching or a very pissed off defensive unit?
Final thoughts...
Our Bears are 3 and 5. You can put this 60% on Mitch and 40% on Nagy.
I respect all the effort you put into this post, but in the end all that matters is your coaching grade. As long as our coaching is an F, poor play will resonate all over the field in every aspect.
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