Post by JABF on Sept 26, 2016 10:45:30 GMT -6
Biggs is usually a pretty thoughtful writer, and not over the top sensationalist like some of the people covering the Bears. I found his view this week interesting. Here it is:
LINK to the entire article
10 thoughts after Bears start the season 0-3
Ten thoughts after the Chicago Bears fell behind early and were beaten 31-17 by the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night at AT&T Stadium.
1. If you would have asked me before training camp started where the Bears would be record-wise before their first division game, I would have told you they had a better chance to be 2-1 after their first three games than 0-3. My money would have been squarely on a 1-2 start because there were so many moving parts on offense, but I didn’t expect 0-3.
Now, preparation begins for the Lions, who Bears fans enjoy mocking. That’s the same Lions team that has swept the Bears for three consecutive seasons. A host of injuries affected the Bears in this beatdown from the Cowboys but let’s remember Dallas was without its starting quarterback and had a rookie at the position. Injuries and suspensions have hammered what at full strength is still a suspect defense for Dallas. Look at what the Vikings did without their quarterback, running back and left tackle – they went into Carolina and took it to the Panthers.
That’s the biggest problem with this loss by the Bears. It shouldn’t have been this bad. They shouldn’t have been throttled coming out of the gate. They haven’t come close to putting together anything resembling an entire game yet this season.
Dallas was leading 17-0 before the Bears got a first down. Too little, too late. The offensive line protected quarterback Brian Hoyer much better against a defense that cannot rush the passer. But the running game just wasn’t there. You saw a glimmer of hope when Jordan Howard broke off a 36-yard run. Howard got more action and people were waiting to see that. Jeremy Langford had one real nice run as well, a 23-yard gain before he left on a cart with an ankle injury. But Hoyer handed off only 12 times and the backs gained a total of 76 yards (59 on those two plays). That’s how you don’t sustain drives and how the quarterback can wind up attempting 49 passes.
The Bears are 30th in the NFL averaging 70 yards rushing per game and are 31st averaging 17.7 rushes per game. Coach John Fox has a track record of overseeing offenses that wear defenses out and in the process provide rest for the defense. Until the Bears begin experiencing some success running the ball, it’s going to be very difficult for them to win and impossible for them to win with any regularity.
It was good to see Hoyer get tight end Zach Miller involved in the offense. Miller caught eight passes for 78 yards and scored two touchdowns. Kevin White got involved with an acrobatic 32-yard catch in garbage time and Hoyer targeted him 14 times, double the number of passes that went the direction of Alshon Jeffery.
But you’re still left wondering what the identity of this team is offensively and you’re disturbed that the Bears have not had success running the ball and have lacked a commitment to the run. Yes, it’s tough to grind it out on the ground when you’re trailing by double-digits nearly the entire game. Maybe that was the biggest misperception about this team when camp opened. The idea after Matt Forte departed was that the Bears had young running backs and they were going to use them in a committee and ride the hot hand. That storyline simply doesn’t apply to this team.
2. For the last week, at least a lot of the feedback I have seen on Twitter is a building desire by fans to see the Bears claim one of the very top picks in the draft. They’re 0-3 right now with the Browns and the Jaguars the only other teams in that boat. That’s some miserable company to keep. The Saints (0-2) are a three-point favorite at home Monday night against the Falcons so there could be four 0-3 teams.
I’ll just say it now: As bad as the Bears have been in September, I’d be very surprised if they have a top-three pick. They haven’t competed well and have looked bad in nearly every imaginable phase. But you’ve got to be wretched almost the entire way through the season to be selecting in the top three.
If the offensive line is better in October than it was in September, things will be more presentable on that side of the ball. Wide receiver Kevin White should continue to get better. I think most agree that more playing time for rookie running back Jordan Howard is only a good thing.
Just look at the next three weeks. The Bears host the Lions, travel to Indianapolis to play the Colts, and then host the Jaguars. An 0-3 record could look like 2-4 by the time they prepare for the Oct. 20o trip to Lambeau Field. If the Bears are 0-6 when they head to Green Bay, I’ll revisit this and admit I was wrong.
I’m sure many are hoping the team doesn’t pull out of this nose dive but I think there is more talent than that. My instinct after Week 3 tells me this is a 5-11 team. I didn’t figure them to be 0-3 right now and I don’t figure them to be in the bottom three of the league when the season ends Jan. 1.
3. The Cowboys were gearing up to have to stop Alshon Jeffery but sometimes a quarterback switch can change the dimension of things and let’s remember the wide receiver was dealing with a knee injury that slowed him in practice last week. That meant a lot of action for Kevin White and that’s not a bad thing as the Bears need to get him going. Brian Hoyer targeted him 14 times and White made six catches for 62 yards with a nifty 32-yard catch in the fourth quarter. Cornerback Morris Claiborne had tight coverage and White used his right hand to basically tip the ball to himself, corralling it as he went to the turf. A fired up White popped up and had some words for the veteran Claiborne.
“I was saying a whole bunch of stuff,” White said. “I really don’t even remember. We were going back and forth and I feel like I have to bring that energy all the time. I said a whole bunch of stuff.”
Claiborne was able to recall.
“He was just like, ‘This is too easy,’” Claiborne said. “I was like, ‘Bro, do you know where you pulled that catch from?’ But I have him credit for it. That was coming up with a good grab.
“He’s just a big receiver and he’s got some speed. He came up with a couple catches. They kept throwing it to him. I don’t know if they were forcing it to him on those nine balls (go routes). We definitely thought they were going to 17 (Jeffery) more and that he was their guy. But we knew the other guys could play football as well. That was kind of shocking with them going to 13 (White) the whole night but I guess 17 had some stuff going on with him.”
As we know, the development of White is an important aspect of this season. He was upset that he also let a deep ball go off his hands.
“It was coming over my head and I slowed down to catch it with my hands instead of just running through it,” he said. “Some people like to catch with their body at times but I like my hands. That’s why I did that. I trust my hands. Maybe on that one I should have used my body.”
4. In the doom and gloom, here is an interesting nugget. With Bryce Callahan out with a concussion, rookie Cre’Von LeBlanc, who was claimed off waivers from the Patriots at final cuts, was the nickel cornerback. The Bears spent plenty of time in nickel but there wasn’t a lot of action that came LeBlanc’s direction. What’s so interesting? LeBlanc lit it up in practice last week with four interceptions and multiple other pass breakups. It made turning to the newcomer easier for the Bears when they learned Callahan would not be cleared from the concussion protocol.
“For a week of practice, yeah, that’s a lot,” veteran cornerback Tracy Porter said. “It’s not like he’s got a deal with the quarterback. They’re trying to complete it and get better. Anytime there is a young guy getting his hands on the ball as much as he did, deflections, interceptions, it is definitely going to catch your eye.”
It’s too early to say if Callahan will return for next Sunday’s game against the Lions. It would be interesting to see LeBlanc get more game action where he’s tested by the opponent. Put him into the fire and see what he can do.
“When I repped it during the game it started to slow down,” LeBlanc said. “The big part for me is being consistent. It’s showing up for work, going into the office and correcting the mistakes I had and build off that.”
The defense is suffering from a lack of takeaways. If LeBlanc can continue to get his hands on the ball in practice, the coaches will have to roll the dice with a young guy with hope he can replicate that action in the game.
5. At first, Jonathan Anderson had no idea he’d been called for offside on the onside kick that was wiped out by penalty in the second quarter after Connor Barth had nailed a 34-yard field goal to make it 17-3. The Bears were in a deep hole and were looking for a spark. Barth made a really nice kick and Sherrick McManis was able to recover. Television replays made it difficult to see how Anderson was offside.
“We’ll look at it,” coach John Fox said. “We’ll send it to the league like we always do.”
Even if the call was wrong – and bad calls happen in every game, every week – the Bears aren’t going to achieve any satisfaction. In the long run, I don’t think it really altered the course of a game in which the defense couldn’t stop the run and the Bears couldn’t run the ball.
McManis lined up in the L5 position meaning he was the player directly to Barth’s left. McManis had been the R4 on previous kickoffs, meaning he was two players to Barth’s right.
“I waited back a couple yards and we practice it all the time,” Anderson said. “I’m going to watch it on film. See how it looked. See if I was too fast or not. It’s a game changer.”
Barth called it one of the best onside kicks he’s hit in game action ever. Kickers have to simulate a regular approach and run up to the ball and then delicately strike it. In some ways, it’s like a pitcher learning to repeat the same delivery, arm motion and mechanics for a changeup as he has for his fastball.
“I can’t see what happened when I’m approaching the ball,” he said. “I don’t know. It was just one of those things. It’s a tough kick. You’ve got to make it look like you are hitting it deep and then pull off at the very end. You try to wind up. Hopefully they bail out.”
It looked like it was executed well. I’ll be interested to hear what special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers has to say this week.
6. Gil Brandt is an absolute treasure when it comes to football. The former personnel man for the Cowboys has a major hand in action at the Scouting Combine every year and is a fountain of information and tidbits in his work for SiriusXM. Brandt, 83, worked for the Cowboys from 1960 through 1988. I took the opportunity to ask him about outside linebacker Leonard Floyd and wide receiver Kevin White.
“(Floyd) has got to get bigger and stronger,” Brandt said. “If they hit on him, he has a chance to be All-Pro, so I thought it was a really good choice. We tried to bring him to Chicago for the draft because we thought he was a top 15 guy and he was.
“I loved Kevin White. He’s a great person. He’s not a route runner. All they did (at West Virginia) was run nine routes or fly routes, whatever you want to call them, but I liked the guy’s attitude. He’s a worker and if he ever gets healthy, I think he’ll be a good player.”
Then, Brandt sang the praises of former Bears scout Teddy Monago, who was hired by former general manager Jerry Angelo in 2001 and primarily covered the Southeastern Conference for the club until he left to become a national scout for the Rams in May 2013.
“Teddy has got more connections than anybody,” Brandt said. “They love him. Wherever he goes, the coaches welcome him with open arms and everything. I was just telling (Bears GM Ryan Pace) that the guy in this area now covering Texas is pretty good.”
That scout Brandt is referring to is Breck Ackley. The Bears also have Francis St. Paul over the top as a national scout for the southern half of the country. If Brandt says a guy is pretty good, he’s usually working with pretty good information.
7. Matt Barkley’s stay on the practice squad was a short one as he was promoted to the 53-man roster on Thursday with Jay Cutler out with his right thumb injury. That was a positive for Barkley, who spent last season as the No. 3 quarterback for the Cardinals behind Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton. But Arizona, which acquired Barkley from the Eagles for a sixth-round draft pick at final cuts in 2015, opted to move on from him when he was released three weeks ago. The Cardinals signed Aaron Murray and Zac Dysert to their practice squad after final cuts and the Bears effectively replaced David Fales with Barkley on their practice squad.
The 26-year-old is with his third coach now and I was curious if he’s wondered “what if” when it comes to his pro career at any point. What would have happened had Barkley entered the 2012 NFL draft after his junior season at USC?
Instead, Barkley returned to school in 2012 and became a Philadelphia Eagle when coach Chip Kelly traded up to get the first pick of the fourth round in 2013, No. 98 overall, and added the quarterback. Barkley was with the Eagles for two seasons before being traded to the Cardinals last year.
That’s a lot of bouncing around for someone who could have potentially been a first-round pick in 2012. There’s no guarantee Barkley would have gone in Round 1 but he sure didn’t help himself in terms of his professional stock by returning to USC for his senior season.
As a junior, he passed for 3,528 yards with 39 touchdowns and seven interceptions. The Trojans upset No. 4 Oregon 38-35 and then closed their season with a 50-0 victory over rival UCLA. The team was ineligible for a bowl game and 18 starters were returning the following season. What to do? Head to the NFL or return for another season when some projected he’d be the Heisman Trophy favorite in 2012?
“I thought a lot about it but once I made the decision, I lived with it,” Barkley told me. “I’m not the type of guy to look back and say, ‘Woulda, coulda, shoulda.’ Would it have been different? No doubt. Probably some good, probably some bad. Who knows what would have happened. I don’t like to speculate like that.”
The good? Barkley admits he probably would have been drafted higher. Had he gone in the upper half of the first round in 2012, he’d have roughly $10 million more right now. There’s no saying he would have been selected that high but there is little doubt he would have been at worst a second-rounder.
The bad?
“I don’t know,” he said. “I could be out of the league by now. I don’t know what to think of but I don’t look at it that way.
“It was tough and I’ve talked about it hundreds of times before, just the allure of finally being able to play in a bowl game again. We had pretty much our whole team coming back, all the main players, we had just come off beating Oregon at Autzen Stadium and we beat UCLA 50-0. We had an optimistic look on that season. Then Week 1 our starting center gets hurt, we get crushed by Stanford the week after that and there is a lot that went into that season that I thought was going to be different. I learned a lot through it and I think getting hurt too pushed me to work harder a lot of different ways that I maybe wouldn’t have before.”
The injury Barkley suffered was a separated right shoulder at the end of his senior season. He wasn’t 100 percent until the beginning of his rookie season with the Eagles.
Barkley’s story is a good example of why the decisions NCAA players must make when it comes to the draft aren’t always easy ones. We’ll see what becomes of his spot on the 53-man roster when Cutler heals up.
8. Barkley’s story is certainly different than that of practice squad wide receiver Daniel Barverman, who left Western Michigan with a year of eligibility remaining, a move that coach P.J. Fleck said caught the staff somewhat by surprise. Braverman was drafted in the seventh round, 230th overall. He received a signing bonus of $79,396 but was part of the team’s final cuts and is now earning $6,900 per week on the practice squad, meaning if he lasts the entire season he’ll collect $117,300 in addition to the signing bonus. So I asked Braverman if hindsight was 20/20 would he be playing for Western Michigan, which is 4-0 for the first time since 1994 and has had wins over Northwestern and Illinois.
Braverman had 108 receptions for 1,367 yards and 13 touchdowns last season, the kind of production that caught the attention of the NFL even though he’s only 5-foot-10, 185 pounds. Could he have positioned himself to be a higher pick with another ultra-productive season at WMU?
“Who knows?” Braverman said. “I am a short, small, white kid which usually to scouts isn’t a high guy on the sheet no matter what. And I came from a small school so I don’t really know if that would change. You see the same guys get drafted every year in the first four rounds, the same type of players. So why would it change?”
Too many people have compared Braverman to Wes Welker, who made 903 receptions in his career, most from Tom Brady. It’s unrealistic to look at every undersized receiver and compare them to greats. Maybe a more realistic comparison is a player like the Cowboys’ Cole Beasley. He’s been a pretty crafty slot receiver the last three seasons in Dallas and if the Bears could eventually turn Braverman into a Beasley-like player, they would be ecstatic.
“I have Cole Beasley on my iPad, all his targets the last two years,” Braverman said. “They gave us iPads to watch so we can watch specific guys. I have 20 different. I watched him before the draft too. He’s got extraordinary quickness and I like the way he can feel a guy’s leverage if he is gonna jump over the top or stay underneath.
“I am trying to learn as much as possible from everybody. I ask a lot of the receivers questions on everything, anything possible. Coaches. I am watching everybody’s film, every rookie that is playing right now. I am watching a ton of guys and just trying to learn as much as possible to be ready and keep my conditioning up.”
Beasley wound up with seven receptions for 73 yards and withstood a big hit from safety Adrian Amos that sent him to the sideline briefly.
“Being a small guy, you can’t really take many big hits,” said Beasley, who is listed at 5-foot-8, 180 pounds. “I took one tonight. I usually don’t take very many. I’m all for breaking tackles and making yards after the catch but when there is nowhere else to go, you gotta know when to get down and get under them.”
Beasley said he was perhaps better prepared than most slot receivers coming to the NFL because he played for June Jones at SMU. He’s also heard the Welker comparison thing even though Beasley, now in his fifth season, has made a name for himself.
“Wes Welker was a baller,” he said. “I’ve been compared to him since Day 1. Anytime there is a short, white guy, you’re going to get compared to Wes Welker whether you play like him or not. I’m not saying we don’t have some similarities, but we have our differences.”
9. There is a lot of football remaining in the season but if the Bears continue to sputter, it’s worth wondering if they will eventually lose the interest of the networks when it comes to prime time games. The NFL’s third-largest market is a huge draw for NBC on Sunday nights and ESPN on Monday nights, but if the team is struggling, it gets harder to sell a big market to the rest of the country. It wasn’t that long ago that it was hard to find the Bears in prime time. Monday night used to be the prime spot for the week with games that were not quite as coveted on Sunday evenings. The Bears did not appear on “Monday Night Football” in a span of four seasons from 1998 through 2001. Then, they went without “MNF” appearances again in 2004 and 2005 after struggling in 2002 and 2003.
This game in Dallas was their lone scheduled appearance of the season on Sunday night. It was their 16th game in prime time on Sunday since the start of the 2007 season. The team’s record in that span is 71-76. They were on “MNF” last week and will appear again on Oct. 31 against the Vikings at Soldier Field. That will be their 16th appearance on Mondays since 2007.
10. The Bears lost a safety to a concussion for the second straight week as Harold Jones-Quartey left the game. Adrian Amos was knocked out of the loss to the Eagles with a concussion. Both times Chris Prosinski has been the next man up. At some point the Bears need to see what rookie fourth-round pick Deon Bush can do, right? Prosinski isn’t the difference between the 2016 season being memorable or not. Young players need to play and that had to be the thinking in turning to fellow fourth-round pick Nick Kwiatkoski at inside linebacker with Danny Trevathan sidelined following thumb surgery. The team has seen Jonathan Anderson and Christian Jones in the role. Give the rookie a shot.
10a. Starting to get a little puzzling why former first-round pick Kyle Fuller remains out. Fuller has not played since the Aug. 11 preseason opener with the Broncos. He underwent arthroscopic knee surgery the next week and has been practicing since Week 1. By all accounts, the scope was a success and what was required turned out to be very minor. The Bears have questions about the cornerback and this delay is only adding to them. I’m sure Fuller is as frustrated as anyone but he’s got to find a way to get back on the field.
10b. The Bears’ longest drive consumed 4 minutes, 54 seconds in the third quarter and resulted in a touchdown. The Cowboys had four drives that consumed more time. The Bears have yet to have a five-minute drive this season.
10c. With four sacks through three games, the Bears are tied for 21st in the NFL. The Vikings lead the NFL with 15.
10d. Pretty nice job by Tracy Porter shadowing Dez Bryant for most of the game. Porter lost leverage on Bryant’s 17-yard touchdown, the first TD pass for Dak Prescott. You hate to wonder where the Bears secondary would be without Porter. He’s not spectacular but he’s far and away their best defensive back and a good leader for the locker room.
10e. The Lions could be without two of their best defensive players on Sunday at Soldier Field. Defensive end Ziggy Ansah is dealing with a high ankle sprain and linebacker DeAndre Levy has a quadriceps injury. The Bears have done a pretty solid job against Ansah, limiting him to two sacks in five games. Levy is far and away Detroit’s best linebacker.
10 thoughts after Bears start the season 0-3
Ten thoughts after the Chicago Bears fell behind early and were beaten 31-17 by the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night at AT&T Stadium.
1. If you would have asked me before training camp started where the Bears would be record-wise before their first division game, I would have told you they had a better chance to be 2-1 after their first three games than 0-3. My money would have been squarely on a 1-2 start because there were so many moving parts on offense, but I didn’t expect 0-3.
Now, preparation begins for the Lions, who Bears fans enjoy mocking. That’s the same Lions team that has swept the Bears for three consecutive seasons. A host of injuries affected the Bears in this beatdown from the Cowboys but let’s remember Dallas was without its starting quarterback and had a rookie at the position. Injuries and suspensions have hammered what at full strength is still a suspect defense for Dallas. Look at what the Vikings did without their quarterback, running back and left tackle – they went into Carolina and took it to the Panthers.
That’s the biggest problem with this loss by the Bears. It shouldn’t have been this bad. They shouldn’t have been throttled coming out of the gate. They haven’t come close to putting together anything resembling an entire game yet this season.
Dallas was leading 17-0 before the Bears got a first down. Too little, too late. The offensive line protected quarterback Brian Hoyer much better against a defense that cannot rush the passer. But the running game just wasn’t there. You saw a glimmer of hope when Jordan Howard broke off a 36-yard run. Howard got more action and people were waiting to see that. Jeremy Langford had one real nice run as well, a 23-yard gain before he left on a cart with an ankle injury. But Hoyer handed off only 12 times and the backs gained a total of 76 yards (59 on those two plays). That’s how you don’t sustain drives and how the quarterback can wind up attempting 49 passes.
The Bears are 30th in the NFL averaging 70 yards rushing per game and are 31st averaging 17.7 rushes per game. Coach John Fox has a track record of overseeing offenses that wear defenses out and in the process provide rest for the defense. Until the Bears begin experiencing some success running the ball, it’s going to be very difficult for them to win and impossible for them to win with any regularity.
It was good to see Hoyer get tight end Zach Miller involved in the offense. Miller caught eight passes for 78 yards and scored two touchdowns. Kevin White got involved with an acrobatic 32-yard catch in garbage time and Hoyer targeted him 14 times, double the number of passes that went the direction of Alshon Jeffery.
But you’re still left wondering what the identity of this team is offensively and you’re disturbed that the Bears have not had success running the ball and have lacked a commitment to the run. Yes, it’s tough to grind it out on the ground when you’re trailing by double-digits nearly the entire game. Maybe that was the biggest misperception about this team when camp opened. The idea after Matt Forte departed was that the Bears had young running backs and they were going to use them in a committee and ride the hot hand. That storyline simply doesn’t apply to this team.
2. For the last week, at least a lot of the feedback I have seen on Twitter is a building desire by fans to see the Bears claim one of the very top picks in the draft. They’re 0-3 right now with the Browns and the Jaguars the only other teams in that boat. That’s some miserable company to keep. The Saints (0-2) are a three-point favorite at home Monday night against the Falcons so there could be four 0-3 teams.
I’ll just say it now: As bad as the Bears have been in September, I’d be very surprised if they have a top-three pick. They haven’t competed well and have looked bad in nearly every imaginable phase. But you’ve got to be wretched almost the entire way through the season to be selecting in the top three.
If the offensive line is better in October than it was in September, things will be more presentable on that side of the ball. Wide receiver Kevin White should continue to get better. I think most agree that more playing time for rookie running back Jordan Howard is only a good thing.
Just look at the next three weeks. The Bears host the Lions, travel to Indianapolis to play the Colts, and then host the Jaguars. An 0-3 record could look like 2-4 by the time they prepare for the Oct. 20o trip to Lambeau Field. If the Bears are 0-6 when they head to Green Bay, I’ll revisit this and admit I was wrong.
I’m sure many are hoping the team doesn’t pull out of this nose dive but I think there is more talent than that. My instinct after Week 3 tells me this is a 5-11 team. I didn’t figure them to be 0-3 right now and I don’t figure them to be in the bottom three of the league when the season ends Jan. 1.
3. The Cowboys were gearing up to have to stop Alshon Jeffery but sometimes a quarterback switch can change the dimension of things and let’s remember the wide receiver was dealing with a knee injury that slowed him in practice last week. That meant a lot of action for Kevin White and that’s not a bad thing as the Bears need to get him going. Brian Hoyer targeted him 14 times and White made six catches for 62 yards with a nifty 32-yard catch in the fourth quarter. Cornerback Morris Claiborne had tight coverage and White used his right hand to basically tip the ball to himself, corralling it as he went to the turf. A fired up White popped up and had some words for the veteran Claiborne.
“I was saying a whole bunch of stuff,” White said. “I really don’t even remember. We were going back and forth and I feel like I have to bring that energy all the time. I said a whole bunch of stuff.”
Claiborne was able to recall.
“He was just like, ‘This is too easy,’” Claiborne said. “I was like, ‘Bro, do you know where you pulled that catch from?’ But I have him credit for it. That was coming up with a good grab.
“He’s just a big receiver and he’s got some speed. He came up with a couple catches. They kept throwing it to him. I don’t know if they were forcing it to him on those nine balls (go routes). We definitely thought they were going to 17 (Jeffery) more and that he was their guy. But we knew the other guys could play football as well. That was kind of shocking with them going to 13 (White) the whole night but I guess 17 had some stuff going on with him.”
As we know, the development of White is an important aspect of this season. He was upset that he also let a deep ball go off his hands.
“It was coming over my head and I slowed down to catch it with my hands instead of just running through it,” he said. “Some people like to catch with their body at times but I like my hands. That’s why I did that. I trust my hands. Maybe on that one I should have used my body.”
4. In the doom and gloom, here is an interesting nugget. With Bryce Callahan out with a concussion, rookie Cre’Von LeBlanc, who was claimed off waivers from the Patriots at final cuts, was the nickel cornerback. The Bears spent plenty of time in nickel but there wasn’t a lot of action that came LeBlanc’s direction. What’s so interesting? LeBlanc lit it up in practice last week with four interceptions and multiple other pass breakups. It made turning to the newcomer easier for the Bears when they learned Callahan would not be cleared from the concussion protocol.
“For a week of practice, yeah, that’s a lot,” veteran cornerback Tracy Porter said. “It’s not like he’s got a deal with the quarterback. They’re trying to complete it and get better. Anytime there is a young guy getting his hands on the ball as much as he did, deflections, interceptions, it is definitely going to catch your eye.”
It’s too early to say if Callahan will return for next Sunday’s game against the Lions. It would be interesting to see LeBlanc get more game action where he’s tested by the opponent. Put him into the fire and see what he can do.
“When I repped it during the game it started to slow down,” LeBlanc said. “The big part for me is being consistent. It’s showing up for work, going into the office and correcting the mistakes I had and build off that.”
The defense is suffering from a lack of takeaways. If LeBlanc can continue to get his hands on the ball in practice, the coaches will have to roll the dice with a young guy with hope he can replicate that action in the game.
5. At first, Jonathan Anderson had no idea he’d been called for offside on the onside kick that was wiped out by penalty in the second quarter after Connor Barth had nailed a 34-yard field goal to make it 17-3. The Bears were in a deep hole and were looking for a spark. Barth made a really nice kick and Sherrick McManis was able to recover. Television replays made it difficult to see how Anderson was offside.
“We’ll look at it,” coach John Fox said. “We’ll send it to the league like we always do.”
Even if the call was wrong – and bad calls happen in every game, every week – the Bears aren’t going to achieve any satisfaction. In the long run, I don’t think it really altered the course of a game in which the defense couldn’t stop the run and the Bears couldn’t run the ball.
McManis lined up in the L5 position meaning he was the player directly to Barth’s left. McManis had been the R4 on previous kickoffs, meaning he was two players to Barth’s right.
“I waited back a couple yards and we practice it all the time,” Anderson said. “I’m going to watch it on film. See how it looked. See if I was too fast or not. It’s a game changer.”
Barth called it one of the best onside kicks he’s hit in game action ever. Kickers have to simulate a regular approach and run up to the ball and then delicately strike it. In some ways, it’s like a pitcher learning to repeat the same delivery, arm motion and mechanics for a changeup as he has for his fastball.
“I can’t see what happened when I’m approaching the ball,” he said. “I don’t know. It was just one of those things. It’s a tough kick. You’ve got to make it look like you are hitting it deep and then pull off at the very end. You try to wind up. Hopefully they bail out.”
It looked like it was executed well. I’ll be interested to hear what special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers has to say this week.
6. Gil Brandt is an absolute treasure when it comes to football. The former personnel man for the Cowboys has a major hand in action at the Scouting Combine every year and is a fountain of information and tidbits in his work for SiriusXM. Brandt, 83, worked for the Cowboys from 1960 through 1988. I took the opportunity to ask him about outside linebacker Leonard Floyd and wide receiver Kevin White.
“(Floyd) has got to get bigger and stronger,” Brandt said. “If they hit on him, he has a chance to be All-Pro, so I thought it was a really good choice. We tried to bring him to Chicago for the draft because we thought he was a top 15 guy and he was.
“I loved Kevin White. He’s a great person. He’s not a route runner. All they did (at West Virginia) was run nine routes or fly routes, whatever you want to call them, but I liked the guy’s attitude. He’s a worker and if he ever gets healthy, I think he’ll be a good player.”
Then, Brandt sang the praises of former Bears scout Teddy Monago, who was hired by former general manager Jerry Angelo in 2001 and primarily covered the Southeastern Conference for the club until he left to become a national scout for the Rams in May 2013.
“Teddy has got more connections than anybody,” Brandt said. “They love him. Wherever he goes, the coaches welcome him with open arms and everything. I was just telling (Bears GM Ryan Pace) that the guy in this area now covering Texas is pretty good.”
That scout Brandt is referring to is Breck Ackley. The Bears also have Francis St. Paul over the top as a national scout for the southern half of the country. If Brandt says a guy is pretty good, he’s usually working with pretty good information.
7. Matt Barkley’s stay on the practice squad was a short one as he was promoted to the 53-man roster on Thursday with Jay Cutler out with his right thumb injury. That was a positive for Barkley, who spent last season as the No. 3 quarterback for the Cardinals behind Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton. But Arizona, which acquired Barkley from the Eagles for a sixth-round draft pick at final cuts in 2015, opted to move on from him when he was released three weeks ago. The Cardinals signed Aaron Murray and Zac Dysert to their practice squad after final cuts and the Bears effectively replaced David Fales with Barkley on their practice squad.
The 26-year-old is with his third coach now and I was curious if he’s wondered “what if” when it comes to his pro career at any point. What would have happened had Barkley entered the 2012 NFL draft after his junior season at USC?
Instead, Barkley returned to school in 2012 and became a Philadelphia Eagle when coach Chip Kelly traded up to get the first pick of the fourth round in 2013, No. 98 overall, and added the quarterback. Barkley was with the Eagles for two seasons before being traded to the Cardinals last year.
That’s a lot of bouncing around for someone who could have potentially been a first-round pick in 2012. There’s no guarantee Barkley would have gone in Round 1 but he sure didn’t help himself in terms of his professional stock by returning to USC for his senior season.
As a junior, he passed for 3,528 yards with 39 touchdowns and seven interceptions. The Trojans upset No. 4 Oregon 38-35 and then closed their season with a 50-0 victory over rival UCLA. The team was ineligible for a bowl game and 18 starters were returning the following season. What to do? Head to the NFL or return for another season when some projected he’d be the Heisman Trophy favorite in 2012?
“I thought a lot about it but once I made the decision, I lived with it,” Barkley told me. “I’m not the type of guy to look back and say, ‘Woulda, coulda, shoulda.’ Would it have been different? No doubt. Probably some good, probably some bad. Who knows what would have happened. I don’t like to speculate like that.”
The good? Barkley admits he probably would have been drafted higher. Had he gone in the upper half of the first round in 2012, he’d have roughly $10 million more right now. There’s no saying he would have been selected that high but there is little doubt he would have been at worst a second-rounder.
The bad?
“I don’t know,” he said. “I could be out of the league by now. I don’t know what to think of but I don’t look at it that way.
“It was tough and I’ve talked about it hundreds of times before, just the allure of finally being able to play in a bowl game again. We had pretty much our whole team coming back, all the main players, we had just come off beating Oregon at Autzen Stadium and we beat UCLA 50-0. We had an optimistic look on that season. Then Week 1 our starting center gets hurt, we get crushed by Stanford the week after that and there is a lot that went into that season that I thought was going to be different. I learned a lot through it and I think getting hurt too pushed me to work harder a lot of different ways that I maybe wouldn’t have before.”
The injury Barkley suffered was a separated right shoulder at the end of his senior season. He wasn’t 100 percent until the beginning of his rookie season with the Eagles.
Barkley’s story is a good example of why the decisions NCAA players must make when it comes to the draft aren’t always easy ones. We’ll see what becomes of his spot on the 53-man roster when Cutler heals up.
8. Barkley’s story is certainly different than that of practice squad wide receiver Daniel Barverman, who left Western Michigan with a year of eligibility remaining, a move that coach P.J. Fleck said caught the staff somewhat by surprise. Braverman was drafted in the seventh round, 230th overall. He received a signing bonus of $79,396 but was part of the team’s final cuts and is now earning $6,900 per week on the practice squad, meaning if he lasts the entire season he’ll collect $117,300 in addition to the signing bonus. So I asked Braverman if hindsight was 20/20 would he be playing for Western Michigan, which is 4-0 for the first time since 1994 and has had wins over Northwestern and Illinois.
Braverman had 108 receptions for 1,367 yards and 13 touchdowns last season, the kind of production that caught the attention of the NFL even though he’s only 5-foot-10, 185 pounds. Could he have positioned himself to be a higher pick with another ultra-productive season at WMU?
“Who knows?” Braverman said. “I am a short, small, white kid which usually to scouts isn’t a high guy on the sheet no matter what. And I came from a small school so I don’t really know if that would change. You see the same guys get drafted every year in the first four rounds, the same type of players. So why would it change?”
Too many people have compared Braverman to Wes Welker, who made 903 receptions in his career, most from Tom Brady. It’s unrealistic to look at every undersized receiver and compare them to greats. Maybe a more realistic comparison is a player like the Cowboys’ Cole Beasley. He’s been a pretty crafty slot receiver the last three seasons in Dallas and if the Bears could eventually turn Braverman into a Beasley-like player, they would be ecstatic.
“I have Cole Beasley on my iPad, all his targets the last two years,” Braverman said. “They gave us iPads to watch so we can watch specific guys. I have 20 different. I watched him before the draft too. He’s got extraordinary quickness and I like the way he can feel a guy’s leverage if he is gonna jump over the top or stay underneath.
“I am trying to learn as much as possible from everybody. I ask a lot of the receivers questions on everything, anything possible. Coaches. I am watching everybody’s film, every rookie that is playing right now. I am watching a ton of guys and just trying to learn as much as possible to be ready and keep my conditioning up.”
Beasley wound up with seven receptions for 73 yards and withstood a big hit from safety Adrian Amos that sent him to the sideline briefly.
“Being a small guy, you can’t really take many big hits,” said Beasley, who is listed at 5-foot-8, 180 pounds. “I took one tonight. I usually don’t take very many. I’m all for breaking tackles and making yards after the catch but when there is nowhere else to go, you gotta know when to get down and get under them.”
Beasley said he was perhaps better prepared than most slot receivers coming to the NFL because he played for June Jones at SMU. He’s also heard the Welker comparison thing even though Beasley, now in his fifth season, has made a name for himself.
“Wes Welker was a baller,” he said. “I’ve been compared to him since Day 1. Anytime there is a short, white guy, you’re going to get compared to Wes Welker whether you play like him or not. I’m not saying we don’t have some similarities, but we have our differences.”
9. There is a lot of football remaining in the season but if the Bears continue to sputter, it’s worth wondering if they will eventually lose the interest of the networks when it comes to prime time games. The NFL’s third-largest market is a huge draw for NBC on Sunday nights and ESPN on Monday nights, but if the team is struggling, it gets harder to sell a big market to the rest of the country. It wasn’t that long ago that it was hard to find the Bears in prime time. Monday night used to be the prime spot for the week with games that were not quite as coveted on Sunday evenings. The Bears did not appear on “Monday Night Football” in a span of four seasons from 1998 through 2001. Then, they went without “MNF” appearances again in 2004 and 2005 after struggling in 2002 and 2003.
This game in Dallas was their lone scheduled appearance of the season on Sunday night. It was their 16th game in prime time on Sunday since the start of the 2007 season. The team’s record in that span is 71-76. They were on “MNF” last week and will appear again on Oct. 31 against the Vikings at Soldier Field. That will be their 16th appearance on Mondays since 2007.
10. The Bears lost a safety to a concussion for the second straight week as Harold Jones-Quartey left the game. Adrian Amos was knocked out of the loss to the Eagles with a concussion. Both times Chris Prosinski has been the next man up. At some point the Bears need to see what rookie fourth-round pick Deon Bush can do, right? Prosinski isn’t the difference between the 2016 season being memorable or not. Young players need to play and that had to be the thinking in turning to fellow fourth-round pick Nick Kwiatkoski at inside linebacker with Danny Trevathan sidelined following thumb surgery. The team has seen Jonathan Anderson and Christian Jones in the role. Give the rookie a shot.
10a. Starting to get a little puzzling why former first-round pick Kyle Fuller remains out. Fuller has not played since the Aug. 11 preseason opener with the Broncos. He underwent arthroscopic knee surgery the next week and has been practicing since Week 1. By all accounts, the scope was a success and what was required turned out to be very minor. The Bears have questions about the cornerback and this delay is only adding to them. I’m sure Fuller is as frustrated as anyone but he’s got to find a way to get back on the field.
10b. The Bears’ longest drive consumed 4 minutes, 54 seconds in the third quarter and resulted in a touchdown. The Cowboys had four drives that consumed more time. The Bears have yet to have a five-minute drive this season.
10c. With four sacks through three games, the Bears are tied for 21st in the NFL. The Vikings lead the NFL with 15.
10d. Pretty nice job by Tracy Porter shadowing Dez Bryant for most of the game. Porter lost leverage on Bryant’s 17-yard touchdown, the first TD pass for Dak Prescott. You hate to wonder where the Bears secondary would be without Porter. He’s not spectacular but he’s far and away their best defensive back and a good leader for the locker room.
10e. The Lions could be without two of their best defensive players on Sunday at Soldier Field. Defensive end Ziggy Ansah is dealing with a high ankle sprain and linebacker DeAndre Levy has a quadriceps injury. The Bears have done a pretty solid job against Ansah, limiting him to two sacks in five games. Levy is far and away Detroit’s best linebacker.
