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Chicago Wins Ugly Affair in Charm City (Rapid Fire)

| October 16th, 2017

Tommy Gilligan – USA TODAY Sports

Listen, it was an ugly affair at M&T Bank Stadium Sunday. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. The Ravens offense isn’t capable of playing a pretty game. The Bears coaching staff had no interest in one. Thus you get a game like that. Thoughts…

  • Bears ran the ball 54 times, with 50 called runs. I won’t reiterate what Data wrote well post-game regarding the predictability of their rushing attack. I will just say this: the Bears have to stop coaching like Mike Glennon is under center. Their offense seems to be a combination of 1943 and gimmicks. Take the cuffs off Trubisky and let him play football.
  • Someone told you the punt game would play a pivotal role in this game. Who was that again?
  • Jordan Howard, prior to his 53-yard run in OT, was averaging just 3.25 yards per carry. Completely a product of play-calling. Running on obvious running downs and throwing on obvious passing downs won’t beat a team with a competent offense.
  • Kendall Wright is the Bears best receiver. Why can’t the coaching staff see that?
  • Trubisky’s big mistakes in his first start were trying to do too much when the play broke down. Love that he showed growth in his second start and didn’t hesitate to fling it out of bounds.
  • Also loved Trubisky’s slide technique. Don’t take hits you don’t have to, kid. Just look around the league. Quarterbacks are falling Antietam. (Too soon?)
  • Down around the goal line, Loggains has to let Trubisky’s legs be a weapon. These quick, one-read calls have to go.
  • Adrian Amos played his best game as a Bear but my game ball would go to Kyle Fuller. The former first-round pick looked like a complete, shut down corner. Why did Flacco keep throwing at him?
  • Good to see Pernell McPhee flying around. Looked like a different player from the guy on Monday night’s tape.
  • Akiem Hicks has the same number of sacks as Von Miller. He has more than Khalil Mack and Geno Atkins. It’s early in the season but Hicks is starting to put himself in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year. That’s how good he’s been.

  • The kick return touchdown was a fluke play. How are Bears defenders supposed to assume Bobby Rainey wasn’t tackled? And in this day and age, if they hit him and he was down, they are getting flagged for 15.
  • On the flags…stop. The refs just have to stop. It wasn’t roughing the passer on Za’Darius Smith. It wasn’t unnecessary roughness on Christian Jones. These calls don’t make the game safer for players. They make the game harder to watch.
  • Aaron Rodgers’ injury doesn’t mean the Bears are division contenders, even being just two games back. But it does make the road shorter. It won’t take 11 or 12 to win the NFC North now. (I’ll have more thoughts on injuries, the NFL, the division later today.)
  • Quietly having a very good season: Bobby Massie.
  • Not quietly struggling: Cody Whitehair’s snaps. Bears needs to get this fixed or move Cody back to guard. You can’t play center in the modern NFL and be a liability every time the team drops into shotgun.
  • If the Bears had lost this game, the calls for John Fox’s firing would be reaching fever pitch today. The man this staff managed the second half of the game was pathetic. Coaching not to lose. You see a second half like that and realize why John Elway didn’t want this mentality in Denver. Can’t imagine Ryan Pace quietly watched those last two quarters.
  • Have the Bears eliminated the bubble screen and slant from their playbook entirely? Just feels like these are easy solutions to getting the receivers into the game. Play action on first down wouldn’t hurt either but we can’t have everything.
  • Pat O’Donnell update: he’s having his best season.

The Bears should have won this game by two touchdowns. But that isn’t going to be possible on a day you allow 14 special teams points and refuse to throw passes.

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