Chicago Bears game coaches film analysis

jonnydel · 2014-09-16T08:33:12-07:00

Well that sucked..... that was painful to watch...... After reviewing the film there's a lot to takeaway and a LOT to discuss so I'll try and keep it as succinct and clear as I can. I'll first start on the defensive side of the ball and then to the offense. I always like to start on a positive note, so we'll start out with the positives and then the negatives for each: Positives: The gameplan, for the most part, was solid. We ran a lot of different looks and different stuff than we did against Dallas. We were, for the most part, effective against them. I'll get to it in the negatives, but, the Bears really only put together one long scoring drive. The rest was gifted to them. The good news in this is that these things are correctable, it's not systemic. I do have to eat my words a little bit about Fangio not adjusting to Marshall in the endzone, because they did. After the first TD they tried to give Ward some help but Chicago did a good job of making sure to isolate Ward - not much Fangio could've done on the 2nd TD. The 3rd TD went to a TE on a fade against Reid because we were doubling Marshall, the 4th TD, the defense should've called a timeout because a couple guys were moving back and forth and talking trying to sort out some assignments and it allowed them to isolate Marshall once again. Our ILB's were better this game. Patrick Willis looks like he's really settling back into his "mike" spot, I think he's gonna have a big year and some big weeks coming up. He's every bit the All-pro we expect from him. Wilhoite played a MUCH better game than last week. Last week he looked hesitant, wasn't hitting his gaps hard with confidence and violence, looked like he didn't know where he was in pass coverage. This week he was very decisive in his run assignments and was much better. The only thing I would like to see from him is for him to get better depth on his zone drops. The Bears were still able to hit a few intermediate post patterns because he wasn't deep enough in his drop. But, overall, much improved performance. The D-line played very, very stout against the run. Overall, they did a pretty good job. They got decent push up the middle and Cutler did not look comfortable in the pocket most of the night. He was rarely able to really step up in the pocket and was often throwing with very poor footwork. Our DB's also did a pretty good job. They look like well coached, smart players. The veterans on the team played outstanding football across the board. Negatives: As good as our veterans were, our backups and rookies were that bad. Plain and simple, if the young guys do not step up, this is going to be a tough haul until we're fully healthy/not suspended. Ward had a good game last week, he didn't play terrible, but definitely had a rough night. He had penalties, blown assignments and got picked on in the endzone. But, he wasn't the worst of the problems. The biggest area of concern, from what I saw, came from our OLB's. They played a bad game - plain and simple. For as much push as the interior lineman were getting on the Bears O-line, we should've had a better pass rush. Lemonier in particular played the worst out of the bunch, I thought. He used one move most of the night - the speed rush. It didn't work. He has the physical tools to be a powerful bull rush guy, he just doesn't use it. If he could play off his speed rush, he could be a good pass rusher, but he's trying to finesse the game. He also gave up the running lane to Cutler within 2 minutes to give up a 25 yard run. He also had several costly penalties. Lynch and Skuta didn't play much better. Skuta did a good job in the run game, as usual, but disappeared in the pass game. Lynch also didn't get much rush and had a couple costly penalties. Each one of our OLB's either blew an assignment, gave up a play, or got a bad flag at some point. The penalties on the young guys ruined our defense in this game. On the Bears first scoring drive at the end of the first half - we gave them the yards to get that score. They got 65 yards off of 1 pass for 10 yards, a 25 yard QB run and 30 yards in penalties..... The fact is, Chicago should've never been in position to throw the ball up to Marshall in the endzone. The coverage was good by Ward, it was an unbelievable catch by Marshall, but they should've have been inside the 40 yard line. The Bears first possession of the 2nd half (which they scored on to make it 20-14) we also gave them timely penalties. We had them in a 3 and out, but on 3rd and 8 we had an "illegal hands to the face" penalty on Lemonier that gave them an automatic first down. 3 plays later, we were in another 3rd and long, get good pressure on Cutler, he makes a bad throw and Dontae Johnson makes a bonehead move to get flagged for "illegal contact" and an automatic first down. It was gifting them 2 first downs at a time when we could've had great field position and be up by 16 with a chance to go up by 19 or 23, our offense had just completed a 7 1/2 minute drive down the field for a field goal and it would've put so much pressure on their defense - who had to be tired after such a long drive. But, instead, we gift 2 first downs and allow Cutler to get into a rhythm and they move the ball down and score. To me, that was the turning point in the game. Now for the Offense: Positives: I know there are so many touchy subjects on the offensive side of the ball so I'm going to try and stay as neutral as I can. First, understand, I am not a fan of the read-option offense. Our high school here in town runs it and I hate it. It's poorly executed and works terribly. I just want to run down to the coach and tell him to put a freakin fullback in the game and run a conventional offense. Now, that being said, the read option was not our downfall Sunday night. Our 2 best runs of the night were out of the read-option. Gore's long TD run that was called back(totally bogus) was out of the read option, and Gore's TD run was also out of the read-option and it was set up by the threat of CK's running. Much like last week, it definitely has it's benefits and has gotten us scores(which we cannot ignore). Our receivers were able to make some plays with the ball in their hands and we did move the ball downfield on a couple long scoring drives. Gore was able to run like Gore and hasn't looked like he's slowed down. Negatives: The O-line looked out of sync/passive for different stretches of the game. I thought Boone looked very rusty. He and Martin were not in sync on running plays and he and Kilgore did not communicate well on pass blocking. That should(fingers crossed) get better as a lot of that rust was from not playing with these guys during training camp. Really, Boone's had one full week to work with two new guys beside him. He gave up some pressures and whiffed on a couple blocks and just had communication breakdowns on other plays leaving guys unblocked. Overall, our run game from under center wasn't effective at all -we had a couple decent runs, but mostly no yards gained from under center. A lot of it had to do with the O-line being out of sync. As a lot of the type of runs from under center are trap/power/lead plays that require the O-lineman to be in sync with each other and know who's going to peel off blocks and get to the 2nd level. Receivers dropped balls - I know it's not a shock, but, I have to mention it. Several times it kept our offense off schedule, forcing us into 3rd and long situations. I think some of this caused CK to get out of rhythm(even though I've never really seen him as a rhythm type passer) but he just looked off in the game. His throws were inaccurate at times(some of them were very accurate, but quite a few weren't good. He didn't look comfortable in the pocket, he seemed to bail out early sometimes like he was expecting to get mauled. CK played a BAD game. I know this also is not a shock, but, he just played poorly. Not sure what he was thinking on quite a few plays. The first INT that was reversed, I have no idea why he threw that ball where he did. It was a designed WR screen to Boldin......He threw the ball inaccurately and seemed skiddish in the pocket. It was like he was trying to force big plays to happen - which we didn't need. We were beating Chicago consistently, we were able to move the ball on most drives, it was the turnovers and penalties that put us in bad situations. We had one drive where he took a bad sack on 1st down, we got in 2nd and 16, completed a pass for 3rd and 8(which we were able to convert 3rd and less than 10 a fairly well in the game) then we have a false start on Staley to make it 3rd and 13, then CK panics and throws a pick on a well designed play with a receiver open..... I don't know if I would feel better if I could lay this at one persons feet. But, there were several bad play calls(although that does not constitute a complete failure by our OC, sometimes you just don't win on a play call) several BAD audibles at the line - the 3rd and goal from the 7 that was a run, CK audibled that play and why? I have no idea. I don't know what the crap he saw. Costly penalties for false start and holding and an O-line that did not play up to par. We gave this game to the Bears plain and simple. We beat them in every phase of the game, Offense, Defense Special Teams, but gave them free yards and possessions from bad penalties and poor execution - no TERRIBLE execution. Just about everyone had a hand in this performance. But, I do feel a little better(even though watching the film made my stomach turn a couple times) because the problems don't look systemic. As is the case most of the time, it's a lot of "little things". I think that's what the players are talking about in that "killer instinct" "letting up" kind of thing. The attention to the "little things" seemed to go out the window at times. As usual, many breakdowns to follow, it'll be probably about an hour before I'll get several up as there is a lot of work to do to get most of those out. Happy Tuesday!

Sep 16, 2014 at 8:42 AM

thl408
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Posts: 33,298

Only throws that show up in the boxscore are shown. Yellow routes are completions. Orange are incompletions. Blue are INTs. No sacks, penalties, scrambles.

Kap's stat line: 21/34 248 yds 1TD/3INT

1st Quarter

2nd Quarter

3rd Quarter

4th Quarter

[ Edited by thl408 on Sep 16, 2014 at 11:56 PM ]

Sep 16, 2014 at 8:53 AM

Jcool
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Posts: 44,523

Another great write up! Keep it up!

Sep 16, 2014 at 9:07 AM

thl408
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Posts: 33,298

I have only had a chance to watch every Kap dropback and the one thing that jumped out, which I was looking for, is that CHI came very vanilla with its defensive calls. Majority cover3 with sprinkles of tampa2, which is exactly what they showed in week 1 vs BUF. Cover3 so that they couldload up against the run. On a night where Kap was very inaccurate with his throws, instead of hitting short passes over the middle, the 49ers wanted to attack by getting the defensive front to get tight, then attack the CBs with short routes, relying on the fact that the CBs will bail to their deep thirds. We saw this on the throw where Fuller took it away from Crabs because Kap didn't throw it to the correct shoulder. That was a very long throw towards the sidelines and when the WR is not able to threaten vertically (Crabs is not a burner), the CB was able to jump the short route.

I thought the 49ers used the correct concepts, in whiteboard football, to try to attack cover3, but because Kap wasn't on point with his throws, they should have given him easier throws to make. The fact that the 49ers hit some very nice chunk throws to start the game made them a bit impatient when it came time for the need to throw. On one sack in the 4th quarter, Kap was waiting for a double move to take place to hit a big gain, but the CB was not giving up anything deep. Kap held the ball and in came the pressure.

Kap's pocket presence was also shaky. Given time, all zone coverages have holes to exploit. Between Kap not shuffling around the pocket, and the Oline being inconsistent, that time was not earned. I thought they could have hit some easy passes over the middle to go towards a ball control passing attack, but those chunk plays were a little too sexy.

Sep 16, 2014 at 9:19 AM

LasVegasWally
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Posts: 24,814

EXCELLENT - please keep up the excellent work!

With all the frustration and anger - it cools me off a bit and am able to think it through calmly.

I like that you don't take sides, like I often do, but call it on the facts.

I still have my issues w/JH & Roman but this helps.

[ Edited by LasVegasWally on Sep 16, 2014 at 9:20 AM ]

Sep 16, 2014 at 9:24 AM

brodiebluebanaszak
Veteran
Posts: 15,365

Thanks for the commentary guys. This is great stuff, interesting. Will there be ever a solution for delay of game with us? It should have called back our first touchdown, and came up again with the game on the line in the closing seconds. Arg.

Sep 16, 2014 at 9:29 AM

thl408
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Posts: 33,298

This is the simple way to attack cover3.

Similar to what happened in DAL, short throws over the middle to use a ball control passing type attack. Kap's rocket arm combined with WRs sitting down in quiet areas of the zone.

Easy 9 yards to Vance.

CHI LBs were crowding the line on some plays, but that just means the pass pro has to hold up a bit longer to allow the underneath zone defenders to sag into their zones, eventually spread apart, and reveal the holes in the zone. I felt the 49ers could have done more of this on a night Kap was showing inaccuracy in his throws.

Sep 16, 2014 at 9:30 AM

znk916
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Posts: 4,285

so basically, crapernick happened

Sep 16, 2014 at 9:31 AM

Phoenix49ers
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Posts: 131,247

The OLB's were the biggest thing I noticed in regards to the defense. This team is going to struggle when the OLB's don't perform, none of those guys played well, Lemonier in particular is disappointing because I had really high expectations for him coming out of Auburn but he's still overly reliant on trying to use his speed to get around the corner, seeing him use the same move over and over makes him completely predictable for any teams preparing to face the 49ers.

Sep 16, 2014 at 9:36 AM

SoCold
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Posts: 132,594

looks left, pump fake then hits open target over the middle
perfect

wish he would do this the entire game

think he gets lazy and a little too cocky

Sep 16, 2014 at 9:39 AM

#10

BleedsRedNGold
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Posts: 4,803

What pissed me off was the lack of a real 2 minute offense. Being down 8 with 6 minutes left in a game where the defense by and large can't stop you is a gift. Kap looked f**king retarded out there.

Sep 16, 2014 at 9:39 AM

#11

ltrain
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Posts: 4,921

Originally posted by SoCold:

think he gets lazy and a little too cocky

I'd agree with the latter but not the former.

Sep 16, 2014 at 9:40 AM

#12

Niners816
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Posts: 9,990

On the bright side, we were minus 4 with almost 120 yards in penalties and were still throwing in the endZone on the last possession in an attempt to even up the game. The the scenerio above most teams are staring at a 3-4 td loss. It's kinda of amazing given the guys we are missing.

Also, I think that the fact kap was so off and still hit at 62% and had over 300 total yards is a positive. You just have to chalk this up as one of those WTF type games and move on.

Sep 16, 2014 at 9:43 AM

#13

BleedsRedNGold
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Posts: 4,803

Originally posted by SoCold:

looks left, pump fake then hits open target over the middle
perfect

wish he would do this the entire game

think he gets lazy and a little too cocky

No, he was just cocky. Rocket arm syndrome. He thinks his rockets can overcome a poor read and a poor throw.

Sep 16, 2014 at 9:47 AM

#14

thl408
Moderator
Posts: 33,298

Originally posted by SoCold:

looks left, pump fake then hits open target over the middle
perfect

wish he would do this the entire game

think he gets lazy and a little too cocky

Yup, that pump fake earned Vance some room to easily make the catch and turn upfield for a little RAC.