Another Great Inside Linebacker.

It should come as no surprise that in this painfully-typical Bears season, a season defined by terrific defensive play and non-professional offensive output, it has been a middle linebacker, the franchise’s most-storied position, that has proven to be the revelation. And Roquan Smith has been nothing short of that in 2020.

There’s a bit of Brian Urlacher in Roquan. His ability to play in space, cover sideline-to-sideline, and track the sport’s best backs in the screen game have been hallmarks of his campaign. This is not just about speed, which Roquan has in abundance. It is about awareness. It is about football intelligence. And Smith displays both weekly.

There’s also a bit of Lance Briggs in 58. Roquan sheds blockers and attacks the line of scrimmage in the run game. (This is something Urlacher struggled with once the Bears changed to Lovie Smith’s system took the big bodies out from in front of him.) If there’s a criticism to be made of his season, it’s that Roquan has several times blown up runs behind the line of scrimmage and failed to finish the play. He finishes those 2-3 plays and his statistics land him as a no-brainer All-Pro in 2020. As it is, he should still be in the discussion for that prize. Per Kevin Fishbain’s Twitter feed from Monday night: “The stop behind the line on Dalvin Cook on the screen was TFL No. 13 for Roquan Smith this season, one behind T.J. Watt and Vince Williams for the NFL lead.”

When reaching out to a scout friend who had to prepare for the Bears this season, I asked him what he saw when looking at Smith on tape. His answer: “He might be the most talented, versatile inside backer in the league right now. And he’s not reached his potential yet.”

Thayer Breaks Him Down.

There are many reasons to be dejected about the Chicago Bears. But even as higher-priced veterans leave this defense in the years to come, there is still a young core that can anchor this unit and keep them near the top of the league. Eddie Jackson. Jaylon Johnson. Eddie Goldman. But no player on this defense will be more important moving forward that Roquan Smith.

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It was January 2005. The production was As You Like It, in the Harvey Theater of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. There were seats on the stage, literally on the boards themselves, just feet from actors. That’s where I sat, on a small cushion, surrounded by a bunch of other 20-somethings who could also only afford the $25 it cost to sit there.

Directed by Sir Peter Hall and starring his daughter Rebecca, this production had created quite a buzz around the NYC theatre scene and – being my favorite Shakespearean comedy –  there I sat, legs crossed, like a child in kindergarten waiting to hear “goose” after being tapped on the head.

The production started and I was taken to places I had never gone before. I was swept away, ravished by the colors and textures and nuance in each moment. I fell madly in love with Rebecca Hall, glaring into her eyes as if this wasn’t an audience member/actor thing but two young people at opposite ends of a crowded bar, never to speak but never needing to.

When the play ended, I walked out out onto Atlantic Avenue and it was snowing. Heavy, too. I skipped through it. I frolicked. I danced between snowflakes because that’s what theatre can do to those willing to succumb.

Those experiences are few and far between, however. True rarities. They are like the Bears games you tell stories about for years to come. “They are who we thought they were”. Mike Brown interception returns in overtime. 46-10.

I’m not asking for the 2020 Chicago Bears to provide one of these experiences. I don’t demand that from any piece of theatre, either. I ask that plays be entertaining. I ask that plays be interesting. But more than anything else, I ask that plays NOT be boring. Boring is the cardinal sin of any piece of art. Bad I can forgive if the badness is achieved in an attempt to do something unique. Boring is unforgivable.

And the 2020 Chicago Bears are the most boring fucking football team of my lifetime. I know exactly what I’m going to see before every single game and they don’t even slightly deviate from those expectations. They are a terrific defense. They are solid on specials. And they are the worst offense in the entirety of the NFL, Jets excluded.

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Offensive ranks this season:

Pts/game
31. Bears
32. Jets

Pts/drive
31. Bears
32. Jets

Yds/game
31. Bears
32. Jets

Yds/play
31. Bears
32. Jets

1st downs/game
31. Bears
32. Jets

3rd down pct
31. Bears
32. Jets

Avg drive dist
31. Bears
32. Jets

Efficiency
31. Bears
32. Jets

— Paul Hembekides (@PaulHembo) November 17, 2020

The Vikings were allowing 412 yards per game this season.

The Bears had 149.

The Vikings were allowing 29.3 points per game.

The Bears offense scored 6.

Pathetic.

FOCO is giving away the product above (full description available HERE) to the winner of tonight’s contest. It’s going to be a super cold winter across the country and having a hoodie that doubles as a mask will help.

So what is tonight’s contest? Guess the total yards COMBINED for Allen Robinson, Anthony Miller and Darnell Mooney receiving. (Receiving only.) For context, their totals over the last three games are 183, 229 and 130. So a wide range is possible.

As always the rules:

• Guess must be made in the comments section below.
• Guess must be made in an isolated comment.
  • Do not make the guess in the body of a longer comment. Do not make the guess in the thread of another discussion. I’m not going searching for your guess.
• Pay attention! Once someone guesses 169, 169 is dead. If you repeat 169, you’re guess is void.

Good luck! On to the remainder of the game preview!

On Matt Nagy Giving Up Play-Calling

As was broken in the comments section last week, Matt Nagy won’t be calling the plays tonight. It was the only move for him to make and it’s overdue.

Will this move fix the offense? Of course not. But when your offense is performing at a level this low, you have to empty the trunk and bring out the gimp. No move is too dramatic. If changing the play-caller means even two or three extra first downs a game, you do it.

Nagy didn’t want to . I get it. “I love it” he said repeatedly about calling plays. We take this game so seriously sometimes that we forget it’s a game and it’s supposed to be fun for EVERYBODY involved. Nagy just relinquished the part of the game he loves most. That ain’t easy.

And as much as I fell this move was belated, it should still be applauded. A mature head coach is benching his stubborn offensive coordinator.

Haiku

Calling plays no more,

Nagy paces the sideline.

His headset, on mute.

Bears on the Hot Seat

Offense. Allen Robinson. There’s no doubting that Robinson is this club’s number one receiver but he is looking for Michael Thomas money. Is it too much to ask for him to win 50/50 balls? Is it too much to ask for him dominate an inferior opponent? The Bears don’t need 4-for-70 from ARob tonight. They need 11-for-140. And they need that production to occur while the game is still being contested, not in garbage time. You can blame the quarterback play all you want but great receivers elevate mediocre quarterbacks. Is Robinson a great receiver?

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It’s gonna be a rough winter across the country, as we find ourselves once again in the throes of Covid-19. So when FOCO reached out to me about partnering, I wanted to find a way to incorporate their stuff into DBB and try and have some fun with these crazy times.

Above is the gaiter scarf. They sent me one. It’s warm as hell and it can serve as a mask. And it ain’t that expensive. (Like $15.) Here’s the link to the product. Christmas is coming, folks, even if we’re not spending the day with our families. (We’ll have a giveaway from FOCO in Monday’s Volume II post.)

Why Do I Like the Chicago Bears This Week?

I always like the Chicago Bears.

But this is a unique time. I have reached the point with this offense where I no longer believe they’re capable of first downs. And when they do manage a few first downs, or make a splash play, I just assume the penalties and sideline mistakes that follow will sabotage the progress and keep the offense from scoring points. There can’t be a less fun unit in the NFL, especially considering their talent on the outside.

A Little Look at Minnesota

• Minnesota is 25th in points allowed, allowing nearly 30 points per game. But ask yourself, does that matter? Is there any scenario in which you can imagine the Chicago offense scoring 30 points?
• Dalvin Cook has been torturing bad defenses for the last five weeks. Outside of Seattle holding him to 65 yards on 17 carries, Cook’s rushing totals have been 206, 163, 130 and 181. The Bears did the job against Derrick Henry a week ago. The test doesn’t get an easier Monday night.
• Vikings don’t have a single player on their defense in the top 50 in sacks. This is not a team that threatens the opposing passer. (Neither was Tennessee and one of their DL ended up Defensive Player of the Week in the AFC.)
• Stefon Diggs is having a remarkable year in Buffalo but the Vikings have a younger, more-talented version of Diggs in Justin Jefferson. He’s averaging 18.4 yards per reception, which is better than DK Metcalf and DJ Moore and probably DL Hughley. (The only player with a higher average is Nelson Agholor in Vegas but he’s got half the number of catches.)
• Doesn’t this Courtney Cronin headline from ESPN tell the story for the Vikings? “Key to Vikings’ success: Keep ball out of Kirk Cousins’ hands?”

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Me, London, 2019. (Back when I could go to London.)

The Rodgers Award-winning musical Rosa Parks, which I wrote with my collaborator and friend Scott Ethier, has been presented by non-profit theatres all over the country. Different spaces. Different directors. Different casts. Different everything. It’s taught me some of of my greatest lessons in the theatre. And I think some of them are relevant to what’s currently happening to Matt Nagy and the Chicago Bears.

The Will Harper Experience

Years ago, when the show was first written, we held auditions in NYC.

Will Harper – who has become a star on The Good Place – walked in with his script rolled up in his hand and “sang” Oscar Brown Jr.’s Signifying Monkey into those pages like they were a microphone. He was magnetic. There was no chance we weren’t putting him in this show in some capacity but he really couldn’t sing and Scott’s music is particularly difficult on non-singers.

I turned to the composer, affectionately known as “Half Pint” for his propensity to nurse half pints of Guinness once he feels he’s had too much to drink. “Let’s hear him read. No music.” Scott agreed. I had the casting director grab Will in the hallway and hand him a Martin Luther King Jr. side. (Sides are a brief passage of dialogue from the show used in the audition process.)

The side was a King sermon. But not a real sermon. King’s actual words are heavily protected by the family and they are a litigious bunch. I mapped out one of his sermons syllabically and wrote a knock off so good you could sell it on Canal Street.

He read it. He was brilliant. We had intended to write two songs for King. We scrapped that plan. We had our guy. We played to our strength. To this date, the show is better for those decisions. The songs were never written and they never needed to be.

TheaterWorks Palo Alto

We took the show to Palo Alto the next year and the company generously offered to pay for us to bring five performers. Having a show with 16 African American musical theatre roles is a lot of fun but it’s near-impossible to cast in most markets around the country. If you’re an African American musical theatre actor, you don’t stay in Palo Alto. You move to LA or Chicago or New York. 

We didn’t ask Will. King, since it’s basically a non-singing role, felt easier to cast and teaching speeches is far less time-consuming than teaching songs when you have a limited rehearsal schedule. We weren’t there to cast so we didn’t meet our King until we arrived.

Guess what? Fucker couldn’t act. Like…he couldn’t act, at all. He was a straight-up singer. (I’m leaving his name out of this because I don’t want him to Google himself and find this criticism. He doesn’t know this story, and doesn’t need to know it.)

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The Super Bowl champions for the 2019 season were 5th in the league in points scored.

The Super Bowl champions for the 2018 season were 4th in the league in points scored.

The Super Bowl champions for the 2017 season were 3rd in the league in points scored.

The Super Bowl champions for the 2016 season were 3rd in the league in points scored.

The Super Bowl champions for the 2015 season were 19th in the league in points scored. (The had the game’s most dominant defense and the team they beat in Super Bowl was 5th in the league in points scored.)

The Super Bowl champions for the 2014 season were 4th in the league in points scored.

The Super Bowl champions for the 2013 season were 9th in the league in points scored.

The Super Bowl champions for the 2012 season were 10th in the league in points scored.

The Super Bowl champions for the 2011 season were 9th in the league in points scored.

The Super Bowl champions for the 2010 season were 10th in the league in points scored.

The Super Bowl champions for the 2009 season were 1st in the league in points scored.

The Super Bowl champions for the 2008 season were 20th in the league in points scored. (They had the game’s most dominant defense and the team they beat in the Super Bowl was 4th in the league in points scored.)

Three thoughts.

(1) Twice in the last twelve years was the Super Bowl champions not in the top ten in points scored. And both of those teams – the 2015 Broncos and the 2008 Steelers – were the best defenses in the league by a wide margin.

(2) The average points-scored ranking of the other ten teams is 5.8. The 2020 Bears are 28th. The 2019 Bears were 28th. The 2018 Bears were 9th, because their defense scored points. Then the defense stopped scoring them.

(3) Do you think the Bears are even close to being one of the ten best scoring teams in the league? Like…even close?