Let the excuses begin

[Guest]

No excuses. The offensive line is a joke and the D-line does not match up well with Chicago, but can anyone with a straight face tell you the Bears aren't the dominate team in the NFCN and look to be for the foreseeable future? They bitch slapped Minnesota around twice.

[Guest]

@StickyBun said:
No excuses. The offensive line is a joke and the D-line does not match up well with Chicago, but can anyone with a straight face tell you the Bears aren't the dominate team in the NFCN and look to be for the foreseeable future? They bitch slapped Minnesota around twice.

I think the Bears have a very real shot at winning it all.  They remind me of Philly last year.  Their defense is the best in the NFC (or NFL), they can run the ball and have a smart passing game.

[Guest]

@StickyBun said:
No excuses. The offensive line is a joke and the D-line does not match up well with Chicago, but can anyone with a straight face tell you the Bears aren't the dominate team in the NFCN and look to be for the foreseeable future? They bitch slapped Minnesota around twice.

I'm not ready to crown the Bears anything other than NFCN Champs this year. I think what happens in GB will be fascinating to watch - they still have the #1 or #2 best player in the NFL @ QB to build around. 

Mitch T will get overmatched week 1 or wk2 of the playoffs. Bears are a cute little team with a nice D and I like their RB's too. And Nagy, I like what he's done. 

But I don't see a juggernaut in the making. A dynasty. 

[Guest]

@purplefaithful said:

@StickyBun said:
No excuses. The offensive line is a joke and the D-line does not match up well with Chicago, but can anyone with a straight face tell you the Bears aren't the dominate team in the NFCN and look to be for the foreseeable future? They bitch slapped Minnesota around twice.

I'm not ready to crown the Bears anything other than NFCN Champs this year. I think what happens in GB will be fascinating to watch - they still have the #1 or #2 best player in the NFL @ QB to build around. 

Mitch T will get overmatched week 1 or wk2 of the playoffs. Bears are a cute little team with a nice D and I like their RB's too. And Nagy, I like what he's done. 

But I don't see a juggernaut in the making. A dynasty. 

Who needs a dynasty? Takes a bunch less to be NFCN champs and really, that's all I mentioned in my post....the division crown.

[Guest]

How big was losing Berger?  He at least provided stability at RG.  Remmers proved to be a swinging gate.

But the loss of Easton and pushing Compton in at LG was a disaster.  Easton was no all-star but had at least proven to be serviceable, meanwhile Compton proved to be even worse than Remmers.  Vikes gameplan was so focused on #52 and Khalil Mack and giving help to the OT's that they moved Elflein away from giving help to Compton and Remmers.  Compton single-handedly destroyed 3 of the first 4 drives.

Coupled with the loss of Sparanao ... the O-line was destined to fail.  And VIkings had no way to scheme around it.  It was like Norv not recognizing how bad LT Matt Kalil was and continuing to call for 7 step drops.  Now our OG's are awful and our bonehead OC's kept calling for Jet-sweeps and stretch plays that take forever to develop and OG's can't hold the point of attack for shit.

[Guest]

@StickyBun said:
No excuses. The offensive line is a joke and the D-line does not match up well with Chicago, but can anyone with a straight face tell you the Bears aren't the dominate team in the NFCN and look to be for the foreseeable future? They bitch slapped Minnesota around twice.

Agreed. PA said we will probably be picked to finish 3rd in the NFCN next season and I can't argue with that. In a draft that is stacked with defense this year, how are we going to fix our offensive line?

[Guest]

@TBro said:

@StickyBun said:
No excuses. The offensive line is a joke and the D-line does not match up well with Chicago, but can anyone with a straight face tell you the Bears aren't the dominate team in the NFCN and look to be for the foreseeable future? They bitch slapped Minnesota around twice.

Agreed. PA said we will probably be picked to finish 3rd in the NFCN next season and I can't argue with that. In a draft that is stacked with defense this year, how are we going to fix our offensive line?

I don't know how they fix it, but they better get some stronger players on both sides of the line if they want to beat the Bears. It was complete physical domination in both Bears games. Not enough lead in the pencil!

[Guest]

Only in Minnesota can you have a QB post a 70.1% completion rate for 4300 yards 30td’s against 10 int’s for a 99.7 rating and still be called a bust and/or blamed for being the team’s main reason for losing. It’s absurd. 

The man was sacked 40 times and we all know it could have been much much worse. The most recent stats I can find are through the end of November.

Cousins under pressure: sacked 28 times on pace for 41. 

As of December 1 Kirk Cousins was the most pressured QB in all of the NFL according to PFF.

At the time he was their 4th most efficient QB under pressure despite the continual onslaught most other successful QB’s simply don’t see.

As of the end of November Cousins was pressured an astounding 201 times. 40% of his drop backs! This number of pressures was nearly as much as our QB’s faced all of last season. The Vikings still had 5 games to go! I’m not sure the final tally but he was likely to face 300 pressures which would have come out to 50% of the time. He faced north of 50% pressured on 3rd downs. 

I know some of you as well as the media poo poo stats but stats matter - especially pressure when talking about a QB’s performance. When I evaluate a QB’s performance/draftability under pressure it’s the first thing I look at. It’s the one area that an elite QB will outshine others. 

Aaron Rogers was shown to be human this year seeing more pressure. He still saw less than Cousins yet posted a less than impressive 33.6% completion rate while under duress as of Dec 1. Tom Brady does not perform as he does seeing the onslaught Cousins faces every game. This is an extremely important facet for winning or losing.

Is this team stacked? Yes but only at certain positions. Our offensive line (kicker close second) is the number 1 reason this team is not in the playoffs. The stats are clear on this. It wasn’t that it made Cousins job difficult it made our running game implode. It’s super hard to win in the NFL without a running game. If one pays attention to what it takes to be a successful NFL QB you will realize how much of this team’s deficiencies were hidden by Cousins and our WR’s. 

I love Mike Hughes but like many of you desperately wanted another top lineman investment. This team MUST improve this line. Did losing their coach make a difference? There’s no way to know for sure but I think this team was better with him.

My point is there is much more to why this team didn’t make the playoffs. Coaching must improve  - having the guys ready to go and the line must be fixed. We keep a lot of our players next year. The right decisions must be made and it starts up front. 

Personally I wouldn’t touch our head coach or GM for at least another year but I get the angst. Just one guy’s opinion. Thanks for reading.

[Guest]

@SFVikeFan said:
How big was losing Berger?  He at least provided stability at RG.  Remmers proved to be a swinging gate.

But the loss of Easton and pushing Compton in at LG was a disaster.  Easton was no all-star but had at least proven to be serviceable, meanwhile Compton proved to be even worse than Remmers.  Vikes gameplan was so focused on #52 and Khalil Mack and giving help to the OT's that they moved Elflein away from giving help to Compton and Remmers.  Compton single-handedly destroyed 3 of the first 4 drives.

Coupled with the loss of Sparanao ... the O-line was destined to fail.  And VIkings had no way to scheme around it.  It was like Norv not recognizing how bad LT Matt Kalil was and continuing to call for 7 step drops.  Now our OG's are awful and our bonehead OC's kept calling for Jet-sweeps and stretch plays that take forever to develop and OG's can't hold the point of attack for shit.

I think you have given a good synopsis of the primary excuse plan that will be presented. It's probably being preached to the Wilfs this morning and I won't be surprised to see OL coach Clancy Barrone fired today or tomorrow as the official scapegoat of the 2018 season. I wouldn't be shocked to see Spielman with a picture of Sparano's grave behind him at every press conference as a means of saying, "How could I have prevented this OL problem??"
But, sad as Sparano's death was, Spielman has been under-supplying the line for a decade and the guys he has brought in for that position have mostly been BAD selections. Yes, his supporters will call out O'Neill, Elflein, and Reiff - but he missed badly using the #3 pick in the draft on Kalil and then picked a bunch of crappy guys like Beavers, Clemmings, Yankey, Baca, Boone, Compton, Remmers, and repeatedly counted on injured guys like Sullivan, Loadholt, and Fusco coming back good as new. Even Elflein now looks like only an average player, and Reiff has been better than Kalil but he's not a top 5 LT, which is how we pay him.
Part of me thinks Spielman will now sign a UFA lineman and use his first rounder there too, hell or high water. OTOH, I wonder if he'll claim that Collins and Easton will return, hire a new OL Coach, and continue to be stingy for OL, because he truly does not like picking linemen (and isn't good at it).
Moreover, as many have aptly pointed out, there are many problems besides the offensive line. But I expect the blame and scapegoating will not go beyond that unit.

[Guest]

Well hopefully we can field a decent enough OL so that Cousins won’t be closing his eyes when he chucks it next year...