Post by JABF on Nov 28, 2016 11:42:53 GMT -6
A lot of interesting info here. It may be better viewed on the original web site, but I did paste it all here anyway. I am really curious to hear what posters here think about Biggs take on it all:
LINK
10 thoughts on the Bears' 27-21 loss to the Titans
10 thoughts after the Chicago Bears’ rally came up short and they lost to the Tennessee Titans 27-21 on Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field, dropping them to 2-9.
1. The loss ensured the Bears will have a losing record for the third consecutive season and the franchise is now off to its worst start since beginning the 1997 season 1-10. At this point, the remaining five games are about the Daniel Browns on the roster, the young players the Bears don’t know a whole lot about. The young players that need more experience. The young players that are being evaluated for the future. Most of the unknowns are not going to pan out. But you don’t know what you have until the players are tested and Brown became the next man up in a season of next men up when veteran tight end Zach Miller suffered a broken right foot last week at the Giants.
Brown was claimed off waivers from the Ravens on Oct. 24 and was inactive for the previous three games. The Bears had been eyeing Brown for a while. They tried to sign him to their practice squad after final cuts but Brown made the decision to remain in Baltimore, where he played as a rookie. Then, the Bears tried to sign Brown off the practice squad of the Ravens in early October and Baltimore was able to promote him to its 53-man roster to keep him. When the Ravens needed a roster spot, they placed Brown on waivers and the Bears pounced.
Matt Barkley connected with Brown on a 7-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter. The Bears were looking for man coverage and got it with safety Rashad Johnson following Brown off the line. Brown was able to get inside leverage on linebacker Avery Williamson and Barkley placed the ball low where only Brown could catch it.
“It’s a play we talked about all week,” Brown said. “We knew it was going to be there. We got the coverage we wanted. Matt put the ball where I could catch it.”
The Bears were dividing the time for the tight ends, including veteran Logan Paulsen and rookie Ben Braunecker, until they went into hurry-up mode in the fourth quarter. In my unofficial tracking of playing time, Brown was on the field for the final 34 snaps of the game. Including penalties, I had Brown in action for 51 of the 81 snaps. It was a heavy workload for a guy that had not suited up on game day for the Bears previously. Paulsen had 33 total snaps by my count and Braunecker got 14.
“We had talked about and it was going to be a collective group,” Brown said. “When Zach goes down, all three of us have to step up. And really it was going to depend on how the game was going. Obviously, we found ourselves down a little bit. We found success with the up tempo and the 11 personnel and I had been doing the 11 personnel all game. We got into the up tempo and it kind of just worked out that way that I was getting most of the reps.”
Brown is a converted wide receiver. That is the position he played last season for the Ravens as an undrafted free agent from James Madison. He got some action late in 2015 when the Ravens were decimated by injuries at the position. But the Ravens told him he needed to bulk up to move to tight end when they signed him to a futures contract in January. Listed at 6-foot-5, 243 pounds, he looks a little like Miller. Who is faster?
“Obviously, right now probably me,” Brown joked. “Healthy Zach? I don’t know. That scooter he is on is probably pretty fast too.”
Miller will have surgery to repair his broken right foot Monday. If Brown can make some more plays in the final five weeks and show some versatility in the offense – in practice and games – that will bode well moving forward to 2017. Paulsen stays on the field with both of the young tight ends almost every day and he’s been favorably impressed. Paulsen has played with some pretty good pass catchers before including Jordan Reed and Chris Cooley.
“He is a converted wide receiver so most of the stuff we do with him after practice is run blocking, pass pro and a lot of that showed up out there today,” Paulsen said. “He did some great stuff there. Naturally, he is a good pass catcher and has this natural fluidity to the way he runs. He’s just been so willing to make this transition, which is hard for guys to do.
“The thing I have been most impressed with is just his physicality. One of the hardest things about making the transition is the physical aspect of the game. Because you are moving tighter to the ball and you have to buckle your chin strap up a little bit more and he’s willing to do that stuff and he is still able to kind of keep his athleticism. It’s been really cool.
“I see a lot of similarities to Zach. They are both kind of deceptively fast. When you see them run, they don’t look like they’re burning. When you watch Zach run routes, he looks like he’s just kind of jogging but he’s covering that distance very quickly. I feel like Dan is the same way. Very effortless coming out of is breaks. Very similar body types, very similar approaches, very similar styles.”
You can’t look at three catches for 24 yards and feel like the Bears have made a true discovery. But I had been wondering when Brown would get a look. The Bears liked him enough to claim him and at some point it made sense to throw him out there. Miller’s injury created that opening and now there are five more weeks to look at him.
2. If the draft order was determined by the current standings, the Bears would own the No. 3 overall pick and that makes Sunday’s game against the 49ers at Soldier Field interesting. The 49ers are 1-10 and they have lost their last 10 games although they put up a credible fight in Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins.
Here is how it looks right now:
Browns 0-12, .549 strength of schedule
49ers 1-10, .517
Bears 2-9, .514
Jaguars 2-9, .531
Jets 3-8, .503
Bengals 3-7-1, .520
The strength of schedule is used to break ties between teams with identical records. These strengths of schedule are calculated for all 16 opponents based on the current standings. That means if the Bears were to lose to the 49ers on Sunday, they could potentially slide ahead of San Francisco to the No. 2 pick. The team with the lower strength of schedule picks higher in the draft in the event of a tie and that is why the Bears are ahead of the Jaguars (.514 to .531). The head-to-head meeting isn’t part if the tie-breaking process. Of course, these strength of schedule figures can shift in the final five weeks.
For what it’s worth, the Bears have not had a pick as high as No. 3 since 1972 when they selected offensive lineman Lionel Antoine No. 3 overall from Southern Illinois. He started 39 games for the franchise.
3. Matt Barkley made two bad throws in the red zone that resulted in interceptions but he showed a lot of grit. I didn’t know what to make of him. You figured he would be better than he showed in the relief effort at Green Bay last month because he was going to get a full week working with the ones during practice. But I tend to think Bruce Arians is a pretty sharp guy when it comes to quarterbacks and the Cardinals cut Barkley at the end of preseason, so that wasn’t a good sign especially when you consider that’s an organization that is on the lookout for a young quarterback considering Carson Palmer turns 37 on Dec. 27. Barkley showed a real command for the offense and no fear. The offensive line did a nice job of keeping him upright and he knew where to go with the ball.
Sure, the secondary is probably the weakest part of the roster for the Titans and they were playing soft coverage there in the fourth quarter to not get hit with the big play. But Barkley still made some big throws and showed a full understanding of what was going on. For a guy that didn’t have an offseason or training camp in the system, that was a positive sign. I don’t know if Barkley, who is 26, ever projects as more than a possible backup but Titans safety Rashad Johnson, who played with Barkley in Arizona last season, was impressed.
“I told him after the game I was really proud of him,” Johnson said. “He played really well. Spun the ball well, especially second half when they started going to the no-huddle offense. Just showed that he understood everything and I think the Bears have something to look at going into the future to be able to see where he’s at.
“I knew he was accurate and a smart guy. He knew where to go with the ball in certain coverages we were in. He knew his matchups and made some really good throws. It didn’t seem like he got too rattled at all when they got behind. He stayed in command of the offense, which is important for a quarterback, and then it just shows how smart he was, especially in two-minute because it was a lot of no-huddle late in the game and he was getting guys and running the plays and getting them in the right formations. Definitely saw a lot more out of him today than I saw in the past but I knew he had potential.”
You have to figure Barkley is the likely starter for Sunday’s game against the 49ers at Soldier Field. We’ll see what a little more experience in practice does for him.
4. Eddie Royal has been doing everything he can to be available despite a toe injury that has had him in a walking boot. He was wearing it at Halas Hall on Wednesday and after the game on Sunday Royal was working to stuff that boot in his backpack to take it with him. I had him for 12 snaps in the game and that gave him a good vantage point from the sideline to watch his younger teammates drop the ball all over the place. The Bears dropped 10 passes in the game, some more difficult catches than others, and none easier than the simple drop by Josh Bellamy on first-and-goal from the 7-yard line in the final minute.
Ten drops is insane for one game, especially when you consider that according to STATS Inc., the Bears entered the game with 11 drops through the first 10 games. They ranked 14th in the league in drops, dropping 4.7 percent of catchable passes, again according to STATS.
Cameron Meredith had three drops. Bellamy had three. Deonte Thompson had two. Marquess Wilson had two. Jordan Howard had one. The craziest thing? Eight of the 10 drops came in the fourth quarter. Meredith dropped passes on consecutive snaps.
With comeback victory in hand, Bears drop the ball — twice
Wide receivers had dropped only two passes in the first 10 games and Howard, with six, was the only player on the roster with more than one.
“That’s the game of football,” Royal said. “There are ups. There are downs. It’s all in how you handle it, you know. If you play lights out one week, you’ve got to come back and be the same guy in practice and compete and try to get better. Guys made plays. I know it didn’t finish the way that we wanted but guys made a lot of plays to even be in position to make it a game.”
There’s no explanation for how it happened and how the problem struck so many players. If everything was going right, most of those guys aren’t even on the field. Howard has too many drops. He missed a pass in the flat near the goal line that likely would have been a touchdown. Per STATS, he had 32 targets entering this game and six drops. The Bears need to come up with a better option in third-down situations. If Jeremy Langford can’t start getting more action in passing situations, it’s a sign the coaches do not trust him in pass protection. Otherwise, I thought Howard played a pretty nice game. We might not see the Bears drop 10 passes in the remaining five games.
5. Connor Barth’s onside kick to open the third quarter was a thing of beauty. He got the ball to more or less roll on its side and it went just 10 yards before going off Titans linebacker Nate Palmer before Adrian Amos covered it to give the Bears a real boost. Barth got the call from special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers in the huddle just before they took the field. The Bears were trailing 21-7 and were seeking a spark, to steal a possession.
It’s a kick Barth estimates he practices about 25 times each week. A lot on his own and them a few in live team periods. The idea is to get the return team to bail out but the Titans weren’t caught completely off guard.
“I hit it pretty good and they reacted pretty well to it,” Barth said. “Usually you can catch them off guard a little more but the guy came back to it. I hit it the exact length I wanted – 10 ½ yards – right at where I wanted it to be and it was how I wanted it to spin, so it was good. It worked out. I try to disguise it to where it looks like I am kicking it deep but I just pop it over there. You try to get the guy to leave.”
If Barth practices the kick 25 times a week, what percentage are quality kicks, one that would give the Bears a chance to recover? Sometimes, the ball almost boomerangs back toward the kicking team.
“Probably 90 percent of them,” he told me. “That’s one of my best kicks. I did it back when I was in Tampa. I had so much spin on it, it would hit and shoot back at our guy. I try to pull my ankle up and just cup it. So I try to get to the rotation to spin so when it goes to them it comes back. This one didn’t quite do that. The one I had in Tampa back in 2010 it had so much rotation, it checked back that our guy did the same thing – it hit off him and went forward. I’ve always had that in my bag of tricks and I feel pretty confident about it.”
6. The Titans hit a big shot to tight end Delanie Walker in their second possession when he got behind safety Adrian Amos for a 38-yard gain. Walker has been the best target for quarterback Marcus Mariota this season and entered the game with 49 receptions for 657 yards (13.4 average) and six touchdowns. The defense did a nice job on him after that as Walker caught only two more passes for 12 yards.
“They were triple teaming and double teaming me after that,” Walker said. “They were putting 97 (Willie Young) and 92 (Pernell McPhee) over me. They were jamming me at the line, and then I had the linebacker and a safety. It was crazy. They did a good job after the first few big plays. They said, ‘Were going to take you out of the game.’”
The Bears had done a nice job on Odell Beckham Jr. and Mike Evans the previous two weeks although the attention they paid to Evans allowed some other Buccaneers to make big plays. I thought the Bears did a nice job here although it wasn’t the best game for Amos. But using outside linebackers to chip on Walker and help out did impact the pass rush, which did not produce a sack.
7. It was terrific to see former Bears special teams ace Tim Shaw at Soldier Field. I believe it’s the first time Shaw has been back to the stadium since he announced he has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, during the summer of 2014. Shaw spent three seasons with the Titans after playing for the Bears in 2009. He was released during 2013 and eventually determined he suffered from the progressive neurodegenerative disease.
Titans coach Mike Mularkey invited Shaw to speak to the team during training camp and he was such a hit that the club had him back again to sign a one-day contract and retire as a member of the organization. At that point, Mularkey invited Shaw, who resides in Nashville, to come around regularly. The team have Shaw a locker and he delivers advanced special teams reports on future opponents regularly. That’s been a bonus for the club since it fired special teams coordinator Bobby April in the first week of October. Assistant special teams coach Steve Hoffman was promoted and now he’s got Shaw to help him out.
Shaw is still able to walk and said this is the third road trip he has made with the team. He has a book that right now is scheduled to come out in January – “Blitz Your Life.” He said it’s more about pursuing your dreams than it is Shaw’s life story. Keep an eye out for it.
8. Lawrence Okoye’s dream of making it in the NFL continues with the Bears and he’s trying a new position. The former Olympic discus thrower from England originally worked out for the Bears in the spring of 2013 before signing a contract with the 49ers as a defensive end. He was added to the practice squad this week as an offensive lineman after a tryout on Tuesday.
The Bears want to see if Okoye, 25, shows traits that will make him an interesting developmental prospect and certainly one of the most athletic offensive linemen on the planet. Okoye is listed at 6-foot-6, 310 pounds, and he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.78 seconds with a vertical jump of 36 inches and a broad jump of 10 feet, 7 inches at the 2013 super regional combine in Dallas.
Okoye has trained briefly as an offensive lineman during a stint with the Jets but has been worked at defensive end otherwise and was training as a defensive player since his release from the Cowboys at final cuts back in September.
“During the season you can get shortened numbers and need guys to do both,” said Okoye, a native of Croydon, England. “I did that and obviously now they have some injuries on the O-line and they asked me if I would be willing to come in and work out.
“I have done enough of it in practice just during the season to have a decent grip and obviously being D-line, you study O-line play and it has helped me in the past learning the terminology and learning their patterns and their techniques. So it’s not completely alien.”
A member of the personnel staff put a printed out list of offensive linemen that have converted from the defensive line in Okoye’s locker on Wednesday. Names on the list included Jason Peters, Demar Dotson, Jeremy Parnell and J.R. Sweezy.
“Some interesting guys on the list,” Okoye said. “I told them I would be open-minded and give it a shot. I did tell them I would give it my all week-to-week and do everything I can to get better. It is a week by week business. I don’t know if I am going to be here next week. So, I just take it each week as it comes and by the end of the season I will review everything and make a decision going forward.”
Okoye, a former rugby player, did not begin throwing the discus until he was 18. If he can be a quick study as an offensive lineman as he was with the discus in his hand, perhaps there will be some intrigue by the end of the season when the Bears have to consider what to do with futures contracts. Okoye placed 12th in the discus at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
9. Back on April 1, Mike Singletary took to Twitter and congratulated Jerrell Freeman for wearing his former No. 50, a number that James Anderson wore in 2013. Prior to that, No. 50 had not been handed out since Singletary last played for the franchise in 1992.
Singletary wrote: “Congrats! Wear #50 with pride. I'm more concerned with the character of a man and not a # and know you'll wear it well.”
Considering Freeman’s four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs, you have to wonder if Singletary has a new message.
10. With five games remaining in the season and the Bears 2-9 and in last place in the NFC North (2 ½ games behind the Packers, who play Monday night), it’s not too early to take a peek at the 2017 schedule. The Bears will host Atlanta, Carolina, Cleveland and Pittsburgh and play road games at New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Baltimore and Cincinnati. The two games up in the air are a home game against the corresponding finisher in the NFC West and a road game at the corresponding finisher in the NFC East. The 49ers (1-10) are three games behind the Rams in the NFC West making them a good bet to return to Soldier Field for a second consecutive season in 2017. The NFC East race is much more interesting. Currently the Eagles (5-5) are in last place but that is a competitive division. The Bears have gone 0-3 against the NFC East so far this season with a Dec. 24 meeting with the Redskins remaining. They’ll travel to face one of those teams in 2017.
10a. The Bears entered this week tied for 31st in the NFL on third down, converting just 33.3 percent of their options. They were very good here, moving the chains on 9 of 17 tries. That was a bright spot for quarterback Matt Barkley.
10b. The loss drops the Bears to 0-4 against the AFC South and for my money that’s the worst division in football.
10c. Congratulations to former Bears quarterback Henry Burris, who threw for 461 yards on Sunday as the Ottawa Redblacks defeated the Calgary Stampeders 39-33 in overtime to win the Grey Cup. The 41-year-old Burris passed for 461 yards and threw for three touchdowns while running for two more scores. Burris’ left knee locked up before the game and he was forced to limp off the field but was able to play and was named the game’s MVP in winning the Grey Cup for the third time. Jeremy Snyder, who started as a video intern for the Bears in 2003 before moving into football administration, serves as the director of football administration for the Redblacks and does scouting in the U.S. for the team.
10d. Bears announced 11,086 unused tickets for the game. In 16 seasons, I don’t think I can recall a regular-season game with that many. Certainly not on a day with solid football weather.
10e. Tight end Zach Miller isn’t the only player that will have surgery Monday. Right guard Kyle Long will undergo surgery on his right ankle.
bmbiggs@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @bradbiggs
10 thoughts on the Bears' 27-21 loss to the Titans
10 thoughts after the Chicago Bears’ rally came up short and they lost to the Tennessee Titans 27-21 on Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field, dropping them to 2-9.
1. The loss ensured the Bears will have a losing record for the third consecutive season and the franchise is now off to its worst start since beginning the 1997 season 1-10. At this point, the remaining five games are about the Daniel Browns on the roster, the young players the Bears don’t know a whole lot about. The young players that need more experience. The young players that are being evaluated for the future. Most of the unknowns are not going to pan out. But you don’t know what you have until the players are tested and Brown became the next man up in a season of next men up when veteran tight end Zach Miller suffered a broken right foot last week at the Giants.
Brown was claimed off waivers from the Ravens on Oct. 24 and was inactive for the previous three games. The Bears had been eyeing Brown for a while. They tried to sign him to their practice squad after final cuts but Brown made the decision to remain in Baltimore, where he played as a rookie. Then, the Bears tried to sign Brown off the practice squad of the Ravens in early October and Baltimore was able to promote him to its 53-man roster to keep him. When the Ravens needed a roster spot, they placed Brown on waivers and the Bears pounced.
Matt Barkley connected with Brown on a 7-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter. The Bears were looking for man coverage and got it with safety Rashad Johnson following Brown off the line. Brown was able to get inside leverage on linebacker Avery Williamson and Barkley placed the ball low where only Brown could catch it.
“It’s a play we talked about all week,” Brown said. “We knew it was going to be there. We got the coverage we wanted. Matt put the ball where I could catch it.”
The Bears were dividing the time for the tight ends, including veteran Logan Paulsen and rookie Ben Braunecker, until they went into hurry-up mode in the fourth quarter. In my unofficial tracking of playing time, Brown was on the field for the final 34 snaps of the game. Including penalties, I had Brown in action for 51 of the 81 snaps. It was a heavy workload for a guy that had not suited up on game day for the Bears previously. Paulsen had 33 total snaps by my count and Braunecker got 14.
“We had talked about and it was going to be a collective group,” Brown said. “When Zach goes down, all three of us have to step up. And really it was going to depend on how the game was going. Obviously, we found ourselves down a little bit. We found success with the up tempo and the 11 personnel and I had been doing the 11 personnel all game. We got into the up tempo and it kind of just worked out that way that I was getting most of the reps.”
Brown is a converted wide receiver. That is the position he played last season for the Ravens as an undrafted free agent from James Madison. He got some action late in 2015 when the Ravens were decimated by injuries at the position. But the Ravens told him he needed to bulk up to move to tight end when they signed him to a futures contract in January. Listed at 6-foot-5, 243 pounds, he looks a little like Miller. Who is faster?
“Obviously, right now probably me,” Brown joked. “Healthy Zach? I don’t know. That scooter he is on is probably pretty fast too.”
Miller will have surgery to repair his broken right foot Monday. If Brown can make some more plays in the final five weeks and show some versatility in the offense – in practice and games – that will bode well moving forward to 2017. Paulsen stays on the field with both of the young tight ends almost every day and he’s been favorably impressed. Paulsen has played with some pretty good pass catchers before including Jordan Reed and Chris Cooley.
“He is a converted wide receiver so most of the stuff we do with him after practice is run blocking, pass pro and a lot of that showed up out there today,” Paulsen said. “He did some great stuff there. Naturally, he is a good pass catcher and has this natural fluidity to the way he runs. He’s just been so willing to make this transition, which is hard for guys to do.
“The thing I have been most impressed with is just his physicality. One of the hardest things about making the transition is the physical aspect of the game. Because you are moving tighter to the ball and you have to buckle your chin strap up a little bit more and he’s willing to do that stuff and he is still able to kind of keep his athleticism. It’s been really cool.
“I see a lot of similarities to Zach. They are both kind of deceptively fast. When you see them run, they don’t look like they’re burning. When you watch Zach run routes, he looks like he’s just kind of jogging but he’s covering that distance very quickly. I feel like Dan is the same way. Very effortless coming out of is breaks. Very similar body types, very similar approaches, very similar styles.”
You can’t look at three catches for 24 yards and feel like the Bears have made a true discovery. But I had been wondering when Brown would get a look. The Bears liked him enough to claim him and at some point it made sense to throw him out there. Miller’s injury created that opening and now there are five more weeks to look at him.
2. If the draft order was determined by the current standings, the Bears would own the No. 3 overall pick and that makes Sunday’s game against the 49ers at Soldier Field interesting. The 49ers are 1-10 and they have lost their last 10 games although they put up a credible fight in Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins.
Here is how it looks right now:
Browns 0-12, .549 strength of schedule
49ers 1-10, .517
Bears 2-9, .514
Jaguars 2-9, .531
Jets 3-8, .503
Bengals 3-7-1, .520
The strength of schedule is used to break ties between teams with identical records. These strengths of schedule are calculated for all 16 opponents based on the current standings. That means if the Bears were to lose to the 49ers on Sunday, they could potentially slide ahead of San Francisco to the No. 2 pick. The team with the lower strength of schedule picks higher in the draft in the event of a tie and that is why the Bears are ahead of the Jaguars (.514 to .531). The head-to-head meeting isn’t part if the tie-breaking process. Of course, these strength of schedule figures can shift in the final five weeks.
For what it’s worth, the Bears have not had a pick as high as No. 3 since 1972 when they selected offensive lineman Lionel Antoine No. 3 overall from Southern Illinois. He started 39 games for the franchise.
3. Matt Barkley made two bad throws in the red zone that resulted in interceptions but he showed a lot of grit. I didn’t know what to make of him. You figured he would be better than he showed in the relief effort at Green Bay last month because he was going to get a full week working with the ones during practice. But I tend to think Bruce Arians is a pretty sharp guy when it comes to quarterbacks and the Cardinals cut Barkley at the end of preseason, so that wasn’t a good sign especially when you consider that’s an organization that is on the lookout for a young quarterback considering Carson Palmer turns 37 on Dec. 27. Barkley showed a real command for the offense and no fear. The offensive line did a nice job of keeping him upright and he knew where to go with the ball.
Sure, the secondary is probably the weakest part of the roster for the Titans and they were playing soft coverage there in the fourth quarter to not get hit with the big play. But Barkley still made some big throws and showed a full understanding of what was going on. For a guy that didn’t have an offseason or training camp in the system, that was a positive sign. I don’t know if Barkley, who is 26, ever projects as more than a possible backup but Titans safety Rashad Johnson, who played with Barkley in Arizona last season, was impressed.
“I told him after the game I was really proud of him,” Johnson said. “He played really well. Spun the ball well, especially second half when they started going to the no-huddle offense. Just showed that he understood everything and I think the Bears have something to look at going into the future to be able to see where he’s at.
“I knew he was accurate and a smart guy. He knew where to go with the ball in certain coverages we were in. He knew his matchups and made some really good throws. It didn’t seem like he got too rattled at all when they got behind. He stayed in command of the offense, which is important for a quarterback, and then it just shows how smart he was, especially in two-minute because it was a lot of no-huddle late in the game and he was getting guys and running the plays and getting them in the right formations. Definitely saw a lot more out of him today than I saw in the past but I knew he had potential.”
You have to figure Barkley is the likely starter for Sunday’s game against the 49ers at Soldier Field. We’ll see what a little more experience in practice does for him.
4. Eddie Royal has been doing everything he can to be available despite a toe injury that has had him in a walking boot. He was wearing it at Halas Hall on Wednesday and after the game on Sunday Royal was working to stuff that boot in his backpack to take it with him. I had him for 12 snaps in the game and that gave him a good vantage point from the sideline to watch his younger teammates drop the ball all over the place. The Bears dropped 10 passes in the game, some more difficult catches than others, and none easier than the simple drop by Josh Bellamy on first-and-goal from the 7-yard line in the final minute.
Ten drops is insane for one game, especially when you consider that according to STATS Inc., the Bears entered the game with 11 drops through the first 10 games. They ranked 14th in the league in drops, dropping 4.7 percent of catchable passes, again according to STATS.
Cameron Meredith had three drops. Bellamy had three. Deonte Thompson had two. Marquess Wilson had two. Jordan Howard had one. The craziest thing? Eight of the 10 drops came in the fourth quarter. Meredith dropped passes on consecutive snaps.
With comeback victory in hand, Bears drop the ball — twice
Wide receivers had dropped only two passes in the first 10 games and Howard, with six, was the only player on the roster with more than one.
“That’s the game of football,” Royal said. “There are ups. There are downs. It’s all in how you handle it, you know. If you play lights out one week, you’ve got to come back and be the same guy in practice and compete and try to get better. Guys made plays. I know it didn’t finish the way that we wanted but guys made a lot of plays to even be in position to make it a game.”
There’s no explanation for how it happened and how the problem struck so many players. If everything was going right, most of those guys aren’t even on the field. Howard has too many drops. He missed a pass in the flat near the goal line that likely would have been a touchdown. Per STATS, he had 32 targets entering this game and six drops. The Bears need to come up with a better option in third-down situations. If Jeremy Langford can’t start getting more action in passing situations, it’s a sign the coaches do not trust him in pass protection. Otherwise, I thought Howard played a pretty nice game. We might not see the Bears drop 10 passes in the remaining five games.
5. Connor Barth’s onside kick to open the third quarter was a thing of beauty. He got the ball to more or less roll on its side and it went just 10 yards before going off Titans linebacker Nate Palmer before Adrian Amos covered it to give the Bears a real boost. Barth got the call from special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers in the huddle just before they took the field. The Bears were trailing 21-7 and were seeking a spark, to steal a possession.
It’s a kick Barth estimates he practices about 25 times each week. A lot on his own and them a few in live team periods. The idea is to get the return team to bail out but the Titans weren’t caught completely off guard.
“I hit it pretty good and they reacted pretty well to it,” Barth said. “Usually you can catch them off guard a little more but the guy came back to it. I hit it the exact length I wanted – 10 ½ yards – right at where I wanted it to be and it was how I wanted it to spin, so it was good. It worked out. I try to disguise it to where it looks like I am kicking it deep but I just pop it over there. You try to get the guy to leave.”
If Barth practices the kick 25 times a week, what percentage are quality kicks, one that would give the Bears a chance to recover? Sometimes, the ball almost boomerangs back toward the kicking team.
“Probably 90 percent of them,” he told me. “That’s one of my best kicks. I did it back when I was in Tampa. I had so much spin on it, it would hit and shoot back at our guy. I try to pull my ankle up and just cup it. So I try to get to the rotation to spin so when it goes to them it comes back. This one didn’t quite do that. The one I had in Tampa back in 2010 it had so much rotation, it checked back that our guy did the same thing – it hit off him and went forward. I’ve always had that in my bag of tricks and I feel pretty confident about it.”
6. The Titans hit a big shot to tight end Delanie Walker in their second possession when he got behind safety Adrian Amos for a 38-yard gain. Walker has been the best target for quarterback Marcus Mariota this season and entered the game with 49 receptions for 657 yards (13.4 average) and six touchdowns. The defense did a nice job on him after that as Walker caught only two more passes for 12 yards.
“They were triple teaming and double teaming me after that,” Walker said. “They were putting 97 (Willie Young) and 92 (Pernell McPhee) over me. They were jamming me at the line, and then I had the linebacker and a safety. It was crazy. They did a good job after the first few big plays. They said, ‘Were going to take you out of the game.’”
The Bears had done a nice job on Odell Beckham Jr. and Mike Evans the previous two weeks although the attention they paid to Evans allowed some other Buccaneers to make big plays. I thought the Bears did a nice job here although it wasn’t the best game for Amos. But using outside linebackers to chip on Walker and help out did impact the pass rush, which did not produce a sack.
7. It was terrific to see former Bears special teams ace Tim Shaw at Soldier Field. I believe it’s the first time Shaw has been back to the stadium since he announced he has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, during the summer of 2014. Shaw spent three seasons with the Titans after playing for the Bears in 2009. He was released during 2013 and eventually determined he suffered from the progressive neurodegenerative disease.
Titans coach Mike Mularkey invited Shaw to speak to the team during training camp and he was such a hit that the club had him back again to sign a one-day contract and retire as a member of the organization. At that point, Mularkey invited Shaw, who resides in Nashville, to come around regularly. The team have Shaw a locker and he delivers advanced special teams reports on future opponents regularly. That’s been a bonus for the club since it fired special teams coordinator Bobby April in the first week of October. Assistant special teams coach Steve Hoffman was promoted and now he’s got Shaw to help him out.
Shaw is still able to walk and said this is the third road trip he has made with the team. He has a book that right now is scheduled to come out in January – “Blitz Your Life.” He said it’s more about pursuing your dreams than it is Shaw’s life story. Keep an eye out for it.
8. Lawrence Okoye’s dream of making it in the NFL continues with the Bears and he’s trying a new position. The former Olympic discus thrower from England originally worked out for the Bears in the spring of 2013 before signing a contract with the 49ers as a defensive end. He was added to the practice squad this week as an offensive lineman after a tryout on Tuesday.
The Bears want to see if Okoye, 25, shows traits that will make him an interesting developmental prospect and certainly one of the most athletic offensive linemen on the planet. Okoye is listed at 6-foot-6, 310 pounds, and he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.78 seconds with a vertical jump of 36 inches and a broad jump of 10 feet, 7 inches at the 2013 super regional combine in Dallas.
Okoye has trained briefly as an offensive lineman during a stint with the Jets but has been worked at defensive end otherwise and was training as a defensive player since his release from the Cowboys at final cuts back in September.
“During the season you can get shortened numbers and need guys to do both,” said Okoye, a native of Croydon, England. “I did that and obviously now they have some injuries on the O-line and they asked me if I would be willing to come in and work out.
“I have done enough of it in practice just during the season to have a decent grip and obviously being D-line, you study O-line play and it has helped me in the past learning the terminology and learning their patterns and their techniques. So it’s not completely alien.”
A member of the personnel staff put a printed out list of offensive linemen that have converted from the defensive line in Okoye’s locker on Wednesday. Names on the list included Jason Peters, Demar Dotson, Jeremy Parnell and J.R. Sweezy.
“Some interesting guys on the list,” Okoye said. “I told them I would be open-minded and give it a shot. I did tell them I would give it my all week-to-week and do everything I can to get better. It is a week by week business. I don’t know if I am going to be here next week. So, I just take it each week as it comes and by the end of the season I will review everything and make a decision going forward.”
Okoye, a former rugby player, did not begin throwing the discus until he was 18. If he can be a quick study as an offensive lineman as he was with the discus in his hand, perhaps there will be some intrigue by the end of the season when the Bears have to consider what to do with futures contracts. Okoye placed 12th in the discus at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
9. Back on April 1, Mike Singletary took to Twitter and congratulated Jerrell Freeman for wearing his former No. 50, a number that James Anderson wore in 2013. Prior to that, No. 50 had not been handed out since Singletary last played for the franchise in 1992.
Singletary wrote: “Congrats! Wear #50 with pride. I'm more concerned with the character of a man and not a # and know you'll wear it well.”
Considering Freeman’s four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs, you have to wonder if Singletary has a new message.
10. With five games remaining in the season and the Bears 2-9 and in last place in the NFC North (2 ½ games behind the Packers, who play Monday night), it’s not too early to take a peek at the 2017 schedule. The Bears will host Atlanta, Carolina, Cleveland and Pittsburgh and play road games at New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Baltimore and Cincinnati. The two games up in the air are a home game against the corresponding finisher in the NFC West and a road game at the corresponding finisher in the NFC East. The 49ers (1-10) are three games behind the Rams in the NFC West making them a good bet to return to Soldier Field for a second consecutive season in 2017. The NFC East race is much more interesting. Currently the Eagles (5-5) are in last place but that is a competitive division. The Bears have gone 0-3 against the NFC East so far this season with a Dec. 24 meeting with the Redskins remaining. They’ll travel to face one of those teams in 2017.
10a. The Bears entered this week tied for 31st in the NFL on third down, converting just 33.3 percent of their options. They were very good here, moving the chains on 9 of 17 tries. That was a bright spot for quarterback Matt Barkley.
10b. The loss drops the Bears to 0-4 against the AFC South and for my money that’s the worst division in football.
10c. Congratulations to former Bears quarterback Henry Burris, who threw for 461 yards on Sunday as the Ottawa Redblacks defeated the Calgary Stampeders 39-33 in overtime to win the Grey Cup. The 41-year-old Burris passed for 461 yards and threw for three touchdowns while running for two more scores. Burris’ left knee locked up before the game and he was forced to limp off the field but was able to play and was named the game’s MVP in winning the Grey Cup for the third time. Jeremy Snyder, who started as a video intern for the Bears in 2003 before moving into football administration, serves as the director of football administration for the Redblacks and does scouting in the U.S. for the team.
10d. Bears announced 11,086 unused tickets for the game. In 16 seasons, I don’t think I can recall a regular-season game with that many. Certainly not on a day with solid football weather.
10e. Tight end Zach Miller isn’t the only player that will have surgery Monday. Right guard Kyle Long will undergo surgery on his right ankle.
bmbiggs@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @bradbiggs
