Post by JABF on Oct 17, 2016 8:01:37 GMT -6
He's right. It is "maddening" to watch.
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1. The scariest thing about the Bears’ loss to me is when you stack the rosters up against one another, I think the Jaguars are more talented 1 to 53. I’m sure there are others out there that would disagree with me, and for the first 45 minutes it sure looked like the Bears were superior. Jacksonville didn’t rush the passer with any consistency. Didn’t run the ball well. And quarterback Blake Bortles looked like a guy with a 1-14 record as a starter on the road entering the final quarter.
The difference is the Jaguars had a young player make a play with the game on the line. The Bears had a veteran lose his footing and potentially injure his knee on a game-deciding play. Jacksonville’s first-round draft pick Jalen Ramsey, who had the task of shadowing Alshon Jeffery for the majority of the game, broke on the ball on the fourth-and-10 play with 63 seconds remaining and broke it up, nearly intercepting the pass.
Jeffery had schooled Ramsey a little bit earlier in the game. He made six receptions for 90 yards in the first half as Brian Hoyer found the kind of one-on-one matchup with Jeffery that proved elusive the week before in Indianapolis. Hoyer said if the Jaguars dared to cover Jeffery with one man, the Bears would make them pay and he did at times.
But Jeffery managed only one grab for three yards in the second half and even though he was quiet, Ramsey knew the ball was coming his way on fourth down. He knew that Hoyer had not gone Jeffery’s way on fourth-and-8 from the 28-yard line the week before against the Colts.
“I didn’t figure it was coming my way,” Ramsey told me afterward. “I knew it was coming my way.
“I knew he didn’t get the ball on fourth down last week or the targets he deserved. They didn’t go to him enough, in my opinion. I’m thinking Alshon is a No. 1 receiver, he is one of the elite receivers in the entire league. Why didn’t he get targets? I was thinking this whole week, ‘They’re gonna go to Alshon.’ I had to match up with him the whole game.”
Ramsey was planning on sitting on a route just after the line to gain. Jeffery had exploited him with some comeback routes and stop routes. That’s what he thought the Bears were going to dial up as they worked to get in position for what would have been a potential game-winning field goal. This time, Ramsey knew Jeffery wasn’t headed for the end zone like he did against Vontae Davis and the Colts. He couldn’t. Not 20 yards farther back with the ball being snapped at the 48 two snaps after a holding penalty on running back Jordan Howard had backed them up.
But Jeffery, lined up to the far left, cut his route across the middle of the field.
“I just reacted to be honest with you,” said Ramsey, the No. 3 overall pick in the draft. “They had stacked so I didn’t get to play press like I would like to. I was gonna sit on it regardless. Once I saw him break, I broke and just undercut him. I should have caught it.”
Ramsey said he made a slight adjustment at halftime in order to prevent Jeffery from being able to get his hands on him to gain separation while still pressing him at the line of scrimmage. The first half had not gone well as the Bears were moving the ball at will, racking up 204 of their 297 yards offense.
“I still shadowed him,” Ramsey said. “I just had (to physically mature), excuse my language. I mean, Alshon is an elite receiver. I knew this second half, I gotta come out here and show him I can be an elite corner.”
Meanwhile, the Bears’ first-round pick Leonard Floyd was inactive for the second consecutive week. Floyd is hobbled by a calf muscle injury and a variety of injuries and ailments has stunted his growth. When the Jaguars see Ramsey making big plays at critical points in the game, they’re building blocks for the future. That’s the maddening part for the Bears. They’re in Year No. 2 of Rebuild No. 2 since the Lovie Smith era and their young players are not delivering.
1. The scariest thing about the Bears’ loss to me is when you stack the rosters up against one another, I think the Jaguars are more talented 1 to 53. I’m sure there are others out there that would disagree with me, and for the first 45 minutes it sure looked like the Bears were superior. Jacksonville didn’t rush the passer with any consistency. Didn’t run the ball well. And quarterback Blake Bortles looked like a guy with a 1-14 record as a starter on the road entering the final quarter.
The difference is the Jaguars had a young player make a play with the game on the line. The Bears had a veteran lose his footing and potentially injure his knee on a game-deciding play. Jacksonville’s first-round draft pick Jalen Ramsey, who had the task of shadowing Alshon Jeffery for the majority of the game, broke on the ball on the fourth-and-10 play with 63 seconds remaining and broke it up, nearly intercepting the pass.
Jeffery had schooled Ramsey a little bit earlier in the game. He made six receptions for 90 yards in the first half as Brian Hoyer found the kind of one-on-one matchup with Jeffery that proved elusive the week before in Indianapolis. Hoyer said if the Jaguars dared to cover Jeffery with one man, the Bears would make them pay and he did at times.
But Jeffery managed only one grab for three yards in the second half and even though he was quiet, Ramsey knew the ball was coming his way on fourth down. He knew that Hoyer had not gone Jeffery’s way on fourth-and-8 from the 28-yard line the week before against the Colts.
“I didn’t figure it was coming my way,” Ramsey told me afterward. “I knew it was coming my way.
“I knew he didn’t get the ball on fourth down last week or the targets he deserved. They didn’t go to him enough, in my opinion. I’m thinking Alshon is a No. 1 receiver, he is one of the elite receivers in the entire league. Why didn’t he get targets? I was thinking this whole week, ‘They’re gonna go to Alshon.’ I had to match up with him the whole game.”
Ramsey was planning on sitting on a route just after the line to gain. Jeffery had exploited him with some comeback routes and stop routes. That’s what he thought the Bears were going to dial up as they worked to get in position for what would have been a potential game-winning field goal. This time, Ramsey knew Jeffery wasn’t headed for the end zone like he did against Vontae Davis and the Colts. He couldn’t. Not 20 yards farther back with the ball being snapped at the 48 two snaps after a holding penalty on running back Jordan Howard had backed them up.
But Jeffery, lined up to the far left, cut his route across the middle of the field.
“I just reacted to be honest with you,” said Ramsey, the No. 3 overall pick in the draft. “They had stacked so I didn’t get to play press like I would like to. I was gonna sit on it regardless. Once I saw him break, I broke and just undercut him. I should have caught it.”
Ramsey said he made a slight adjustment at halftime in order to prevent Jeffery from being able to get his hands on him to gain separation while still pressing him at the line of scrimmage. The first half had not gone well as the Bears were moving the ball at will, racking up 204 of their 297 yards offense.
“I still shadowed him,” Ramsey said. “I just had (to physically mature), excuse my language. I mean, Alshon is an elite receiver. I knew this second half, I gotta come out here and show him I can be an elite corner.”
Meanwhile, the Bears’ first-round pick Leonard Floyd was inactive for the second consecutive week. Floyd is hobbled by a calf muscle injury and a variety of injuries and ailments has stunted his growth. When the Jaguars see Ramsey making big plays at critical points in the game, they’re building blocks for the future. That’s the maddening part for the Bears. They’re in Year No. 2 of Rebuild No. 2 since the Lovie Smith era and their young players are not delivering.
