Biggest team weakness

[anotheridiot]

1. the linebacker are awful (briggs looks like he is done)

2. special teams

Briggs got the late hit call, then put his arm down and let Wilson get to the end zone. If you are gonna hit the quarterback (it was a real late slide) why do you pull up when you have a chance to blast him at the sideline when you know he was not going out of bounds.

This is yet another case why the bears should be looking at more 4 linebacker sets, lack of mobility with Briggs and McClellan and Bostic needing to run too much to be able to really light anyone up.

 

[Butkus34]

Lack of any real direction on defense or special teams. It's apparent that neither DeCamillas and Tucker have no clue in how to truly put together competent schemes for their squads. Hopeful they start showing the ability though history dictates that they won't.

 

[noonthirtyjoe]

Emory has brought up the talent level among players. Now do the coaches Emery.

 

[PC Load Letter]

Unit: STs.

Coach: DeCamillis.

Tucker hasn't played a hand yet, so it's too early to judge what he can do with a real NFL roster. The D's *supposed* to be vanilla at this point, especially with so many new faces and a new system in place. STs should be showing about what they have to show, and so far it's been embarrassing.

While I agree with you that DeCamillis and his unit is a glaring weakness, I'm getting tired of hearing (not meant to be directed specifically at you - I see a lot of the same thing on a different board I frequent) how Tucker and the D are saving the real defense for the games that count. You mentioned the new system and new faces, so wouldn't they want to iron out the wrinkles in the meaningless games as opposed to saving it for the real games? I don't buy that for one second and I think anyone who does is going to be severely disappointed.

Tucker may be a nice guy and all, I just don't think he has what it takes to game plan, call plays, anticipate how the opposing offense is going to attack and make adjustments. Seattle's first team offense was toying with us and destroyed us again and again over the middle especially on 3rd down. We were showing our hand and our generic blitzes early and left the same spots open again and again. Surely Tucker could've come up with a way to stop this without "playing his hand" on whatever real defense he is going to be rolling out week 1?

 

[NCChiFan]

While I agree with you that DeCamillis and his unit is a glaring weakness, I'm getting tired of hearing (not meant to be directed specifically at you - I see a lot of the same thing on a different board I frequent) how Tucker and the D are saving the real defense for the games that count. You mentioned the new system and new faces, so wouldn't they want to iron out the wrinkles in the meaningless games as opposed to saving it for the real games? I don't buy that for one second and I think anyone who does is going to be severely disappointed.

The problem with your argument is that DeCamillis really doesn't know WHO his starters are going to be on ST. It really comes down to cuts, then he can pick up his starters from those left over back ups still on the roster. With only a few exceptions 2-3 maybe, DeC has to work with the leftovers, back ups.

 

[PC Load Letter]

The problem with your argument is that DeCamillis really doesn't know WHO his starters are going to be on ST. It really comes down to cuts, then he can pick up his starters from those left over back ups still on the roster. With only a few exceptions 2-3 maybe, DeC has to work with the leftovers, back ups.

The same can be said for all teams and that was also the case all the years Toub was here. With DeC we're constantly having breakdowns on returns, coverage and even in the kicking game. You can take away Hester's stats from when Toub was here and we'd still be much better than what we're getting from DeC.

I was also not on board with the hiring from day 1 (in addition to making him Assistant HC for some damn reason?), so I'm not just basing it off of last year and the preseason so far. If you told Bears fans a few years ago that you had to pick 1 coach to stay and 1 to hit the road and our choices were Lovie and Toub, a good number of people would have packed Lovie's bags. Go back and see the reaction of Dallas fans when DeC left and you'd be hard pressed to find a single fan saying they are going to be worse because of his departure. That's the sign of a piss poor coach.

 

[noonthirtyjoe]

Lack of any real direction on defense or special teams. It's apparent that neither DeCamillas and Tucker have no clue in how to truly put together competent schemes for their squads.)..... I'm not a Tucker fan from day one, but he has yet to run his game plan. Last year he used Lovie's and there has been no game plans used this preseason. Let's give him a fair chance to fail, I'm pretty sure he will. But not yet.

 

[yutch]

While I agree with you that DeCamillis and his unit is a glaring weakness, I'm getting tired of hearing (not meant to be directed specifically at you - I see a lot of the same thing on a different board I frequent) how Tucker and the D are saving the real defense for the games that count. You mentioned the new system and new faces, so wouldn't they want to iron out the wrinkles in the meaningless games as opposed to saving it for the real games? I don't buy that for one second and I think anyone who does is going to be severely disappointed.

Tucker may be a nice guy and all, I just don't think he has what it takes to game plan, call plays, anticipate how the opposing offense is going to attack and make adjustments. Seattle's first team offense was toying with us and destroyed us again and again over the middle especially on 3rd down. We were showing our hand and our generic blitzes early and left the same spots open again and again. Surely Tucker could've come up with a way to stop this without "playing his hand" on whatever real defense he is going to be rolling out week 1?

You're responding to something I wrote before last night's game, so yeah. On the basis of two preseason games, I don't think it's smart to presume much about a DC in Tucker's position.

And I still don't think we can read anything about Tucker's gameplanning and playcalling into a preseason game. There are good reasons for not gameplanning at all, and for calling plays that tell you about your guys instead of worrying about the other team's. Shoot, Denver didn't have an offensive gameplan against Houston, except for "Let's see what Montee Ball and Emmanuel Sanders can do for us".

But the scheme itself looked horrible. If it's that bad in the regular season, then I'll be with the anti-Tucker crowd. Even worse to me, whatever we seemed to be doing on D didn't put guys regularly enough in good enough positions to make plays that we can necessarily learn much from the experience. Except that Austen Lane has grit. That's why I'm down on Tucker for now for handling the preseason weirdly, maybe too cutely.

In any case, we had half of an old D last year, so I can't call that season representative of anything, really. We've got a lot of new faces this year, so it's not like we're fine-tuning anything in the offseason. At some point, though, you've got to start building an identity, and I don't see much evidence that that work has really started yet. Tucker seems to be gambling on an offseason of drills and fundamentals, and a quick rendering of the D into a cohesive regular-season unit. I'm nervous about that gamble.

 

[JoeyTourettes]

And to make our Special Teams any worse... Devin Hester just had a return for a touchdown for Atlanta.
Preseason is preseason...but still. That wasn't supposed to happen anymore.

 

[nebearsfan70]

And to make our Special Teams any worse... Devin Hester just had a return for a touchdown for Atlanta.
Preseason is preseason...but still. That wasn't supposed to happen anymore.

Oh, I have a feeling this will bite us on the butt.

 

[beardown07]

Hester will still shatter the old return record. Gets to play on turf now!!? No doubts.

 

[Mikefive]

The same can be said for all teams and that was also the case all the years Toub was here. With DeC we're constantly having breakdowns on returns, coverage and even in the kicking game. You can take away Hester's stats from when Toub was here and we'd still be much better than what we're getting from DeC.

I was also not on board with the hiring from day 1 (in addition to making him Assistant HC for some damn reason?), so I'm not just basing it off of last year and the preseason so far. If you told Bears fans a few years ago that you had to pick 1 coach to stay and 1 to hit the road and our choices were Lovie and Toub, a good number of people would have packed Lovie's bags. Go back and see the reaction of Dallas fans when DeC left and you'd be hard pressed to find a single fan saying they are going to be worse because of his departure. That's the sign of a piss poor coach.

My emotional inclination is to be right there with you. However, my logic center says to wait until the real games start before judging. You may be completely right. But too many things are different between preseason games vs. real games.

I can confidently say that if we play D or STs like we looked in the last 2 practice games, I am on the "those coaches must go" bandwagon.

 

[anotheridiot]

And to make our Special Teams any worse... Devin Hester just had a return for a touchdown for Atlanta.
Preseason is preseason...but still. That wasn't supposed to happen anymore.

Hester signed 3 year 9 million with 3.5 guaranteed contract with the falcons, was definitely not happy with the special team scheme here and the bears did not even attempt to keep him here. It was only three million, but its tough to find a three million dollar hole when you are paying the offense so much money. It would have been different if he still played some offense, but Trestman didnt even utilize his speed to at least take a safety to the end zone every play he was in by sprinting down the field. Have a guy decoy 9 times a game, that time he does get the ball thrown to him will be a score.

Hester would have had trouble breaking that record if he stayed here with these special teams. We should be happy he will have a chance to destroy the record now, he will most be remembered as a bear..

 

[toooverbearing]

The game I'm circling is Week 2 against San Francisco. If our D is bottom half again this year, and the Niners D is top 10 without Bowman and Aldon Smith (especially if new LBs step up for them), then I think we need to look hard at Jim Leavitt as the next DC for the Bears. We'd probably be losing Briggs anyway and, if we're in the bottom half, it probably meant that Jared Allen wasn't awesome. So we'd have a group of very young LBs and an opportunity to grab a DC who has been minting some great LBs as a LB coach for a top defense. Plus he was the HC for USF for 15 years and had them coached up to number 2 in the nation in the BCS at one point... and they probably had no business being in Division 1. I know its too early to talk about replacing Mel Tucker but... well... no I don't know that.

 

[richig07]

What? Devin was very good last year, and I'm pretty sure everyone still said he has some left in the tank. He just isn't what he was three years ago.

 

[anotheridiot]

Atlanta is at least going to utilize him in the offense. I guess we see how wrong Trestman was in making him only a returner.

 

[nomoreshoop]

I don't understand Phil Emery, all these draft picks and we cut them. I though Jordan Lynch would be a practice squad player. I thought the best return man in decades would keep out special teams dangerous. But ST is average, scares nobody. Defense scares nobody. backup QB scares nobody.

 

[richig07]

Atlanta is at least going to utilize him in the offense. I guess we see how wrong Trestman was in making him only a returner.

Didn't we see what happens when Hester plays WR the six years before he did that?

Now, in his 30's you think he'll suddenly breakout?

 

[richig07]

I don't understand Phil Emery, all these draft picks and we cut them. I though Jordan Lynch would be a practice squad player. I thought the best return man in decades would keep out special teams dangerous. But ST is average, scares nobody. Defense scares nobody. backup QB scares nobody.

The Bears kept every single player they drafted. They didn't cut a single rookie draft pick.

They did not draft Jordan Lynch. He was signed as an undrafted free agent.

 

[leomaz]

Atlanta is at least going to utilize him in the offense. I guess we see how wrong Trestman was in making him only a returner.

Devin was quoted as saying he would not play offense for the Bears. good riddance