Hoge's 10 Bears Things

Hoge's 10 Bears Things: Defense looks like NFL's best again

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Nick Foles says winning ugly is better than losing pretty, and he’s right. Here’s Adam Hoge’s 10 Bears Things after the Bears improved to 5-1.

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1/10

When the Bears let former first round pick Leonard Floyd walk away in free agency while signing 30-year-old Robert Quinn to a five-year, $70 million contract, it was a pretty clear declaration that they felt like they needed an upgrade opposite Khalil Mack. Quinn got off to a slow start to the season after being limited in training camp, but he has come on strong in the last two weeks.

Sunday against the Panthers, defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano easily could have sat back and tried to contain Teddy Bridgewater, but instead, he used frequent stunts and occasional blitzes to pressure Carolina’s quarterback. On the first possession of the game, back-to-back stunts involving Quinn and defensive tackle Bilal Nichols resulted in a sack and an interception, contributing to an early lead the Bears badly needed. Quinn crashed hard inside on both rushes, while Nichols came around the outside to apply pressure. The left side of the Panthers line struggled with it on both snaps.

Pagano also lined Quinn and Mack up on the right side together on a couple of snaps, providing a new wrinkle for opposing offensive coordinators to prepare for.

On the interior, Nichols was outstanding against the Panthers and Akiem Hicks is back to playing like the All-Pro caliber player he is. Late in the game, Hicks couldn’t get around right guard John Miller to get to Panthers running back Trenton Cannon, so he just tackled Miller straight into Cannon to make the stop near the line of scrimmage.

While the Bears’ offense continues to struggle, the defense is among the NFL’s best and the arrow appears to be pointed up.

 

 

2/10

I had a gut feeling rookie tight end Cole Kmet would find the end zone against the Panthers. Coming into the game with just one catch and three targets on the season, Kmet is just too talented not to be involved. It made sense for head coach Matt Nagy to scheme something up to the tight end in the red zone.

Sure enough, Kmet had his first NFL touchdown just over three minutes into the game. But as it turned out, the 3rd-and-goal throw from Nick Foles from the 9-yard-line was not supposed to go to the rookie.

“To be honest, the play wasn’t even designed for him. We haven’t thrown that route all week and there was just something in my gut where I’m like, ‘I’m gonna pull this trigger right here. He’s gonna catch it. We’re gonna go.’ And that’s football sometimes,” Foles said.

The quarterback mentioned Panthers linebacker Shaq Thompson’s coverage on running back David Montgomery, who ran a route into the middle of the field but wasn’t open. Foles felt the protection breaking down on his blindside so he just unloaded a pass to Kmet to the post.

“Really, just a faith throw that Nick made. The safety was playing a little shaded outside of me, and I was running that post route, kind of cleared the safety and I still had some guys on me, but Nick threw it up and I made the play,” Kmet said. “Obviously cool that a guy like that was able to trust me in that situation to go make a play for him.”

Foles went to Kmet later in the game for an 11-yard gain and while the tight end’s share of snap stayed pretty much the same, you wonder if he’ll start to eat into Demetrius Harris’ snaps. Harris dropped a pass and had a couple blocking issues against the Panthers, including allowing a big shot on Foles on the flea flicker that didn’t work. The Bears have plays that scheme Harris open and it wouldn’t be surprising to start seeing those plays go to Kmet instead.

That is why they drafted him at No. 43, after all.

 

 

3/10

By now, Nick Foles’ passionate postgame press conference has been well documented, but I found it to be eye opening for those of us that cover the team.

Among the many (way more important) challenges of 2020 is the lack of in-person access to players this season. Time spent inside Halas Hall often leads to observations and conversations away from the microphone, which are often more genuine and real. That allows us to get to know these guys as people, and not just football players.

But one of the things we’ve been told about Foles from those who knew him well in Philadelphia is that he is genuine pretty much all the time and I thought that came out in Sunday’s post game press conference. Bears fans were able to see his passion as he defended his teammates and how much they care about getting better.

“Are we where we want to be? No, we’re not where we want to be, but I am excited about our offense,” Foles said. “I’m excited about the guys that are there. I like the communication that is happening on the sideline. I love the passion of the players, most importantly. They care. We’re bonding. We’re getting to know each other. That’s football. You don’t just go out there and play football. You gotta care about the man next to you to make those plays.”

I heard from some fans Sunday that argued they don’t care how the quarterback handles his press conferences as long the team wins. I have a feeling some of those fans are the same ones that bashed Jay Cutler for his lack of leadership. Foles’ press conference showed exactly why his teammates love him everywhere he goes and why they’ll run through a wall for him.

That stuff matters.

 

4/10

When Cairo Santos was in Kansas City from 2014-16, he was a good NFL kicker. And in 2016, when he connected on 88.6 percent of his field goals (including 8-of-9 from 40+), he was one of the best kickers in the league.

Then he suffered a significant groin injury that he struggled to get over. When he joined the Bears briefly in 2017, he wasn’t healthy and aggravated that injury. From there, Santos had to reinvent the way he kicked, which led to him bouncing around from Los Angeles to Tampa Bay to Tennessee before re-joining the Bears in August.

“I had to change my steps, the way I kinda kick it to protect the groin, but that’s been the last 2-3 years or so I’ve gone through those changes,” Santos said in September. “I’m feeling so strong now and I’m very pleased with how I’ve been striking the ball, especially on kickoffs, too, pleased with that.”

The Bears have struggled to find a reliable kicker since they regrettably cut Robbie Gould in 2015, and while they were/are hopeful that 25-year-old Eddy Pineiro can develop into a longterm solution, his groin injury in training camp opened the door for Santos to revive his NFL career. After hitting the game-winner against the Bucs and nailing a 55-yarder before halftime against the Panthers, there’s real optimism that Santos is more than just a placeholder until Pineiro gets healthy. Keep in mind that he’s still only 28, which is young for a kicker. And if you listen to Nagy, you hear legitimate confidence, which he hasn’t had the luxury of expressing in his kicker since he took the head coaching job in 2018.

“When I was (in Kansas City) for those years, I always had a lot of confidence in (Santos),” Nagy said Sunday. “Every time he was there, never once did I ever think about the kick being made or the kick being missed. I’ll be honest with you, I’m really in that mode right now with him. I know that. That 55-yarder, it didn’t shock me that he hit it.”

5/10

When Alex Bars came in for injured left guard James Daniels against the Buccaneers, he promptly allowed a sack. However, I thought he settled down after that and played well enough to start against the Panthers Sunday.

That’s not the route the Bears went. Instead, Rashaad Coward, who failed to keep his starting right guard job in the offseason, got the start on the left side. And he struggled, to say the least.

I asked Nagy Monday why he went with Coward over Bars and whether or not that spot will be a competition going forward. I didn’t get a concrete answer to either question, but I also didn’t get a commitment to Coward.

“There's a couple of plays here and there that Rashaad had that he probably wants back,” Nagy said. “But he also, I thought there's a lot of other plays where, all things considered, he did a pretty good job.”

In my postgame evaluation of a pretty poor offensive line performance, I mentioned the 2nd-and-6 run play at the Panthers’ 10-yard-line early in the second quarter. David Montgomery had picked up four yards on first down, but on second down, Coward got overpowered by rookie defensive tackle Derrick Brown and Montgomery was dropped for a three-yard loss. I thought it was interesting that Nagy brought this play up on his own Monday in his opening statement.

“I think that was a play that jumped out to me that we wish we would have been a little better there,” Nagy said.

The Bears have multiple issues on their offensive line, but they need to come up with a fix at left guard in a hurry.

6/10

1. OK, this first one might not be underrated, but Kyle Fuller’s open field tackle on Teddy Bridgewater at the 2-yard-line in the second quarter was huge. Instead of the game being tied 10-10, the Panthers settled for a field goal and the Bears kept a 10-6 lead.

2. Another one for Fuller on the very next play! The Bears still needed a third down stop and it appeared they got a little lucky when DJ Moore couldn’t handle Bridgewater’s pass as rookie cornerback Jaylon Johnson fell down. But if you look closely at the replay, it appears Moore briefly has his eyes on Fuller, who is coming in like a missile. Moore couldn’t make the play and took a pretty good (legal) shot from Fuller.

3. On the Panthers’ second-to-last drive, trailing 23-16, Bears linebacker Roquan Smith made a textbook defensive stop for a loss. Facing a block at the line of scrimmage, Smith stacked left guard Chris Reed, but kept his eyes on Bridgewater and running back Trenton Cannon coming out of the backfield. As soon as Bridgewater committed to throwing to Cannon, Smith shed the block from the 320-pound guard and wrapped the running back up for a loss of three yards. Huge play.

7/10

On the same drive that Fuller made those underrated plays just mentioned, the Panthers successfully drew the Bears offsides on 4th-and-3 at the 6-yard-line. Worse, it happened after the Bears took a timeout, presumably to discuss that happening. Akiem Hicks was charged with the penalty, but he wasn’t the only Bear that jumped.

Later in the game, the Bears had two substitution penalties on the same drive when the Panthers essentially tricked them into substituting. On 4th-and-1 late in third, Teddy Bridgewater looked at the sideline as if to wait for the play, but the Panthers never actually subbed. There was some question about the spot on the previous play, but instead of challenging, the Panthers just quickly lined up as the Bears scrambled to get the right personnel on the field. They ended up with 12 men, giving the Panthers a free first down.

Then, remarkably, after an offsides penalty on the Bears two plays later, the Panthers opted for another quick snap and this time, the Bears had 14 (!) players on the field.

In total, the Bears had for penalties on that drive, which resulted in the Panthers’ only touchdown of the game.

Matt Rhule is a good coach and it showed in that sequence. Certainly something for Chuck Pagano’s group to address this week.

8/10

- Remember those special teams issues the Bears were having? They suddenly disappeared with Sherrick McManis back in the lineup Sunday. Unfortunately, he left the game late with another hamstring injury. That’s something to monitor this week as McManis is more important than most realize. Unfortunately, soft tissue injuries have been an issue for him in recent years.

- Speaking good special teams play, Pat O’Donnell had a strong game and is having a strong season.

- Another game where the no huddle attack appeared to take some pressure off the offensive line. Something to use more often? Nick Foles sure likes it.

9/10

The Rams got off to a strong 4-1 start to the season, but they sure looked beatable Sunday night in a 24-16 loss to the 49ers. Sean McVay is getting the most he can out of Jared Goff, but if the Bears can keep the pressure on, you have to think Goff will struggle next week. On the flip side, this is the exact wrong time to face Aaron Donald. The Bears offensive line successfully neutralized Donald two years ago at Soldier Field, but it was a different story last year in Los Angeles when Donald piled up two sacks and two tackles for loss against the Bears. Former Bears outside linebackers coach Brandon Staley is now the Rams’s defensive coordinator and he’s got that unit ranked fourth in total defense through six games.

In this year of high scoring games, is the NFL ready for a 13-6 game on Monday Night Football?

10/10

I picked the Bucs to beat the Packers, but I certainly didn’t expect a 38-10 final score. It was odd that Aaron Rodgers got receiver Davante Adams back and Green Bay’s offense somehow looked worse, but that’s a credit to the Buccaneers defense – the same defense the Bears found a way to beat in Week 5.

The problem with the Packers in their first four games was that some of the analytics suggested their defense wasn’t all that good despite a 4-0 start. And Tom Brady appeared to expose that defense on Sunday. Aaron Rodgers will be better going forward, but the Packers suddenly don’t look like a team capable of running away with the NFC North.

We’re still six weeks away from a Bears-Packers matchup, but this is starting to look like a two-horse race in the division. And it’s probably worth mentioning that the Packers visit Soldier Field in Week 17.

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