Things I learned from watching the Thursday night NFL season opener

[BoomerFan]

Know your officiating crew or figure them out quick. If they're going to call you for defensive holding all over the place you have to adjust.

Also, even though Green Bay won, I don't know if Rodgers is going to last the season. He was sacked 5 times, 4 of which were on 3rd down. I guess the lesson here is...having a solid backup is important. Or at least don't be afraid to check it down for a short gain even if it means you'll probably need to punt. Live to fight another drive/day.

The run game wasn't really working for Green Bay but they did stay with it. With all those sacks you absolutely need to keep handing it off if only to give your signal caller some breathing room. The Bears actually were getting better YPC but ran it less, in part because they were behind but also in part because penalties were putting them in longer yardage situations. Trubisky got sacked 5 times too and you wonder if they had ran it more if he would've been fresher/had more time on those final drives.

Is this really going to be the look of the NFL this year, or was this a single officiating crew? Or maybe the refs will start the year flag happy and eventually settle down into letting the teams play by the start of November? I suppose it is possible that these defenses really were that good (certainly we know the Bears defense is good from last year and Green Bay has invested in their defense with draft picks and FA). Or else the Bear's offense really is that bad. I'm not really sold of their WR corp. I'm not saying there isn't some talent there but no one really stepped up and ignited the offense. Maybe the lesson for us here is that your skill position guys need to be rested, focused, and motivated at game time. There is a lot to be said for finding someone with hot hands to get things going. Or in our case, just throwing to an RB could jumpstart the passing game. Which, come to think of it, is another way the Gio signing could pay off (though of course Mixon can absolutely catch balls out of the backfield too).

I will give props to the Bears offense for engaging in a bit of history though. They came out in a T formation -- an offense they popularized 100 years ago.

Anyone else catch the game/have any observations that could be relevant to us?

[*psychdoctor*]

Bears defense looked good but neither team could run the ball. I saw in Green Bay a similar defensive scheme that the Bengals will use. Several DBs sometimes 6.

[Nicomo Cosca]

(09-06-2019, 08:10 AM)psychdoctor Wrote: Bears defense looked good but neither team could run the ball. I saw in Green Bay a similar defensive scheme that the Bengals will use. Several DBs sometimes 6.

Was it about 80% of the time?

[*jason*]

Last year's Thursday night opener was almost unwatchable too.

[RunKijanaRun]

Awful game. I fell asleep in the 4th quarter. Just a wretched way to kick off the season.

Mitch Trubisky is butt cheeks.

[Bengalfan4life27c]

The Bears would be a nightmare matchup for us more so than any other team in the NFL.

[*psychdoctor*]

(09-06-2019, 08:25 AM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: Was it about 80% of the time?

they switched it up quite a bit

[Bengalitis]

Bears great defense but they JUST.COULDN'T.SCORE.

[*Nately120*]

I'm not sure I've ever seen a team score on their first drive and then fail to score for the next 56 minutes of game time. Usually when a team just gets 3 points it's just some meaningless FG in the 3rd quarter or something.

[*bfine32*]

We should have taken Daniels over Price

[Destro]

I saw that NFL practices are too soft and preseason counts in getting the team in sync. It'll be after week 3-4 before some teams show what they really are.

[Luvnit2]

I started a thread of the preseason trend for offensive holding being way up. Well, it appears it may also be during regular season. Either GB OL stinks or refs are flag happy. We trash our OL, all pro LT for Packers had 2 holding penalties and gave up 2 sacks. Our fan base would be running him out of town and asking why we paid that guy so much.
Moral of story, the best lose one on one battles every NFL game.

Many will say the offenses were horrible and they did not help themselves especially the Bears. But, I would be thrilled if our defense played like either one of them. They attacked and controlled the LOS, the DB's were all over receivers (no space) most of game. 13 points were given up or average of 6.5 per game.

Trubisky may have been a 1st round draft pick, but how good is he? Many trash Dalton, but Dalton is smarter, just as athletic and a better QB in my opinion.

Both teams will be fine if they play defense for 4 quarters like they did last night every game.

[shanebo]

(09-06-2019, 09:23 AM)Destro Wrote: I saw that NFL practices are too soft and preseason counts in getting the team in sync. It'll be after week 3-4 before some teams show what they really are.

Agree.  When nobody plays in the preseason, the first few games become de facto preseason games ... but they count.  I guarantee Rodgers plays at least a couple of series next preseason.

[Luvnit2]

(09-06-2019, 09:22 AM)bfine32 Wrote: We should have taken Daniels over Price

Interesting to see if anyone can give us his PFF rating.

I saw him get beat badly off the snap at least 3 times with one a tackle for loss on 3rd and short. He barely touched his man.

[impactplaya]

Last year is last year.
The Bears went 12 and 4 last year.
Last night they looked like a potential 7 and 9 team.
You can never tell about teams
The Bengals can come out Sunday and look like
A potential 12 and 4 team
You just can never tell.

[Luvnit2]

(09-06-2019, 09:46 AM)shanebo Wrote: Agree.  When nobody plays in the preseason, the first few games become de facto preseason games ... but they count.  I guarantee Rodgers plays at least a couple of series next preseason.

Bears took it another level, I don't think one starter on offense played even one snap.

Nagy was too cautious in preseason and it cost him a crucial home division win against a rival.

Our fans would asking for his head on a platter (if ML had done it) for old coach, but our new coach would get a ZT needs to learn or some other excuse for a poor coaching decision by majority of fans in this forum.

[jj22]

I watch these games and I know I am a Dalton "lover", but all I can think about is how these QB's like Trubisky are somehow ranked higher than the 27th ranked qb in the league per pundits (Dalton).

[Luvnit2]

(09-06-2019, 09:53 AM)jj22 Wrote: I watch these games and I know I am a Dalton "lover", but all I can think about is how these QB's like Trubisky are somehow ranked higher than the 27th ranked qb in the league per pundits (Dalton).

Yep, Trubisky is not as good as Dalton. But many pundits and our fans will trash our guy by propping up other QB's.

[*Nately120*]

(09-06-2019, 09:50 AM)impactplaya Wrote: Last year is last year.
The Bears went 12 and 4 last year.
Last night they looked like a potential 7 and 9 team.
You can never tell about teams
The Bengals can come out Sunday and look like
A potential 12 and 4 team
You just can never tell.

The Packers beat the Bears in game 1 last year and Rodgers was back and the Bears were going to be 5-11 and GB was going to make a deep playoff run.  Fast forward and the Bears went 12-4 and the Packers won 6 games.

Week 1 division games are a real toss up.  Remember the Browns with Hue and Tylenol Taylor tied the Steelers last year and in week 1 of their 0-16 season they lost by a late FG. Week 1 last year Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Bucs beat the crap out of Brees and the Saints, in NO no less.

After our 2017 crapfest vs the Ravens in week 1 I've been glad to see us starting off vs non division teams. 

[Bengalfan4life27c]

That run on 3rd down 2nd too last series by packers was just awful reminded me so much of Marvin.