Is Bears' Week 1 debacle vs. Packers reason for long-term concern?

welcome to the Under Center podcast brought to you by Saint Xavier University, I'm lucky enough to be joined by our Bears Insider Josh Schrock, follow him on Schrock underlined and underlined, of course, our Bears reporter Alex Spiro, follow him on Alex Shapiro NBCS Claire runs the show. and we're broadcasting virtually from the NBC podcast studios, the Bears took an L in the lake losing to the Green Bay Packers 38-20 uh, let's start things off with the fields report and get right to Justin Fields' performance, um, for the most part. I'll start with my emotions first. I felt good.

I felt like the interception was dumb. It was a bad move. But I feel like I'm trying. Not just because this is for me and for everyone. from our listeners and everyone who watches us, if you don't, you can watch us on YouTube wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe, but we've talked a lot in the background about the man. Justin needs to take a step and it's too early to know. Yes he took a step, but I think Justin is taking a step. I still think there are other steps he needs to take and get rid of the ball, but I saw him going through progressions and then we'll have to talk about who. gets but Justin Fields 24-37 216 yards uh one says it's a touchdown an int um and he also had a fumble um a QB rating of 78.2 um you guys let me start with you guys Josh how do you feel about the Justin's performance behind that? horrible offensive line, yeah man it's true, it's really hard to separate everything right, it's hard to separate Justin from the offensive line from what I thought was a really bad game plan that the Bears just didn't get out of fast enough.

If you isolate what Justin did, I can see your point. I think he had a lot of times where he made his progressions really quickly and hit the guy on the ground. I mean, it's very difficult to judge if he's making a jump when he had a career-low 4.1 yards per air yards per target. I mean, it was just a Dink screen play and dunk, he went the five yards, he traveled 10 or more yards in the air and he went two for five with a touchdown and a pick six, you know, obviously, the third touchdown by Mooney was a really good ball, the throw to Mooney a couple plays earlier for 14 yards is a really good ball, but the game plan was the big problem if you isolate Justin, I thought it was good, this loss is not about his shoulders, it wasn't something I walked away from, it was like man, he was terrible, it was just something I walked away from and I was like, man, that offensive line looked like they hadn't played together at all because, I guess. which they haven't played together at all, the Run game was garbage, the play was bad, you know, all this talk about DJ Moore, two targets, 25 yards, Jire Alexander, he took him out of the game and Luke Getsy certainly helped with that . because they weren't trying to give him the ball Chase Clay got two targets with no sacks uh Darna Mooney was the only one who did anything and a lot of that came late so like I said Justin's fine I'm not going to kill.

I thought he did what the game plan called for and what I think Alex and I learned last year is that the Bears don't give Justin much freedom to make Aaron Rodgers' plays like Justin does what he's told. do and he operated the game plan and the game plan was shit, yeah, I agree, you know, the amount of short passes was, uh, I'm not saying alarming, but it was head-scratching, you know, there were some screens at the At first, we thought Okay, they want to work on the short game that was clearly a focus during the offseason and then they didn't work on it and then they continued with their support passing and it's like I don't know if after a point it was like that.

You have to try something in the field and sometimes you could see that they were and it was Fields getting to the control, so I'll echo what you said about him going through the progressions of him and finding the controls that I thought. It was okay, but I will say that towards the end of the game I think we saw Fields reverting to his old bad habits, maybe he was giving in, I don't want to say giving up, but you know, instead of going one, two, three, four . It was like one, two, I need to go and again it's hard to separate the bad play from the offensive line because there was so much traffic, but one thing I'll say a lot of times last year, when things got bad, we saw Justin Fields really do it. special things was probably when he was most special is when he was at his best when he was improvising dancing behind the line of scrimmage or wrestling and I don't think he was special at any point uh on Sunday and the Bears are going to I need it to be special, uh, If they want to go where they want, if that's the case, if they know they want to go where they want to go as a franchise, if they want to be a Super Bowl contender, Justin Fields is going to need to be special.

He's going to have to be better than he was on Sunday, whether it's wrestling and I know the Packers had spies on him. Maybe he's taking more ownership of the offense, as Josh was referring to. Don't know. Don't know. I know I don't know anything about that then, but it was boring, it was a boring day for Justin Fields and the Bears need Justin Fields to be more than boring. I'll turn it down, I'm thinking I had some special plays today, the spin move came off the catch, when it took off I thought it was nice and I'm not saying I was a world killer today, I think 1-1 and I said this. a lot um and I'll be on the offensive line in a minute.

I've had great questions about Luke Etsy and I like people's assumption that, like me, this is different and this second year caller is now just going to continue to progress and somehow we had a discussion last

week

talked about 2.0 as far as class, next class when Matt Nagy is referenced and we'll see that when it comes to Luke, I think Luke had a bad game plan because clearly you already know that DJ is going to be more. be bracketed or whatever coverage I know they have Jair Alexander, he's phenomenal, but the coverage will change his way, what are you going to do to open it up?

How are you going to plan to open it? or if they are going to take it. outside of the game, how are you guys inserting Chase Claypool at least because what you guys and my guys in camp told me was, of course, Chase Claypool can be this kind of West Coast offensive guy and it means so far. like moving the sticks okay even though he's their big man don't necessarily look at him upright but look at him as someone and down and distance can be very helpful when it comes to the quarterback so I blame Lou Getsy because He had a full journeyman, they had an entire offseason to prepare for this game, an entire offseason knowing what the hell Green Bay is doing right now, maybe they don't know what Jordan Love does well and you have to look at that too. like this is Matt leflore running the purest form of his office because Aaron Rodgers isn't changing anything um so the offensive line you guys talked about the fact that you guys haven't played together um, which hey, I don't know, Nate Davis picks and chooses. win he wins what he wants to do um our guy seven is out um Lucas Patrick Cody was defeated and then hey, where was Braxton Jones' improvement?

I'm like one of the false starts, one of the Jabraxton Jones holds was okay because all hell. He had gotten loose so I saw why he held the guy back then, yeah it's like four defenders coming into the backfield and holding someone down so Justin doesn't get hurt. I'm fine with that one, I don't want to just sit there and hurl insults at Braxton Jones, but that offensive line was so terrible, how can we know right? No, I'm about to lie. I was going to say how do we know what Justin can do. I saw an improvement because last year Justin played. behind that line last year and I'm talking about before he started going crazy, he would have been even worse than what the hell he was today, that's how bad, that's how bad he was last year, but you saw him not doing hero. plays and Alex, I understand what you're saying towards the end of the game to a certain extent, not making heroic plays and also checking for easy layups, the things we discussed last year, there was only one time where I think he had a silly play. and it was when he was struggling and he should have thrown the ball and he got it and it's like look, don't move your sticks back, he was out of the pocket so he was out of The Tackle Box tackles so clearly he could have gotten rid of the ball but outside of the exception it was also a crazy play like that but I opened I opened a good play that was an I opened Alex I opened with that Alex I opened with that was a dumb play I said that at the beginning of the program, okay, but those are my complaints, so I just want to, I just want to sit here as a fan and say, you know, I'm voicing my complaints, okay, um, and these are my complaints, um and then I'll talk about the defense, but again I want I mean, definitely let me know what you guys thought about the offensive line and also Luke Etsy's thoughts and his play of this horrible game against Jordan's unruly love and they called him like As for Aaron Jones Josh, I mean, we've seen him. come, but sir, sir, sir, sir, sir, sir and one more sir, yes, not in the way we expected, perhaps, but shout a

long

with Lance, all kinds of things.

Aaron Jones had his own field day, uh. field day, but it's a good thing he got hurt for the Bears. You never want to see guys, you never want to see guys get hurt, but yeah, you were able to block him, he cramped, he cringed from dragging him up and down the field. Aaron Jones did a lot of heavy lifting, um, no, I mean, man, where do you want to start with the play calling Ken? I think we talked about it while our good friend Alex was on vacation this summer. I think Luke Getsy is like an Under the Radar, high pressure candidate for this football team and he was man, he was, he was, he was so bad today, I get this, I get the short passes, I get it, you want to get it going, you want to move .

Side to side, you probably want to try to get Green Bay out of their spy look where they were kind of holding at the edge and pinching in the middle. I had a koi Walker wandering around and trying to free Justin some more, but man. only it wasn't working and then going down if they were down 24-6 and it was like run, run, pass short to Roshan, punt, it was like they were men so they were so stubborn I thought the Bears were out of practice. at all three levels they're completely out of practice, you know, DJ Moore has those two catches, they came in at eight and they took him off the field, they took him off the field and then they went back and put him back on the field and it was incomplete they kicked a field goal um the offensive line like I said was bad it just seemed like it looked like a group that hadn't played together Braxton Jones wasn't good he had a bad day I mean you didn't even mention the smuggling of play action on his own side when Braxton missed the assignment and Devonte Wyatt just got a free throw against Justin for a loss of 11. uh Darnell Darnell Wright didn't have a good day Lucas Patrick I I don't think we need him to go there uh Cody if everyone had a bad day uh the Bears couldn't couldn't run the ball this was a good running team last year that's all the only thing they did well was run the ball uh if you take away Justin's nine for 59, they had 20 carries for apparently 63 yards and one one of them was a Cole Comet tight end, which you know, I'm sure we'll get to that, yeah, and Alex's point about Justin being special.

I think what you saw the Packers do is what a lot of teams are going to do this year. I think a lot of teams saw Justin be special last year and saw Houdini and the wizard on his way to 30, 40, 50 yards and they'll have if I have an athletic linebacker, you're spying on him, I'm containing at the edge, let's pinch in the middle and we're going to have him take the layups and if Justin takes all three four-yard passes, then maybe that's what we see a lot until they find a way to give DJ the ball more because I guarantee you that teams They'll bracket him and take him away and if Chase Claypool isn't going to be part of the equation, he'll just leave. be Darna Mooney because that's what we saw today and it was bad, terrible, mine with the DJ.

More things is that he's too similar to Darnell Mooney last year, last year, all summer

long

we heard, oh man, the chemistry with Darnell Mooney. off the hook, he's ready to be the wide receiver, he looks great in the summer and then what happens in the first

week

? He's getting all the attention, they can't get him the ball, hey, how could we get him the ball? He's getting all the attention, what? what we're supposed to do and it took them several weeks to figure out how to get the ball to Darnell Mooney, something that can't happen again this year, not with DJ Moore, they invested too much in this guy and he's too good for them to just say what's wrong we're supposed to do he's getting all the defensive attention we can't get him the ball right we have to go with other guys and that's what we heard hey they clouded them they pushed the defense to him that's what it was that's how it felt like the chips today but it won't always be like that it will always be like that he will get all the attention and they really need it sooner rather than later finding a way to put the ball in his hands is not just we will take what the defense gives us, we will accept these dunks and mates no, they have to find a way to outline itopenly and not just outline it openly outline the ball in his hands uh because I mean we've seen it when he's got the ball in his hands he's effective and they just can't go they can't play any more games in my opinion with him getting two goals and both targets come on consecutive plays in a series, it's a little crazy when you think about it, you got two catches on facts on plays and that was it and truly, they've just invested too much and he's too good and too important to this offense for him to come back happen, they're going to have to go back to the drawing board and really figure out how to get this guy the ball because he's going to get the attention every game, I mean.

I also want to say, just to finish this point. Justin pitched, he threw the ball 37 times, 41 dropbacks. Mooney had seven targets, the other receivers had six combined, two for Scott, two for more, two for Claypool, that's 41. disadvantages 13 passes directed to wide receivers just the game plan was bad, they didn't understand it, they didn't get out of the game plan and when they tried to go off the game plan, he had nowhere to go, you know? Okay, crazy about that. Justin got hit on 60 of his dropbacks in the first half, which is crazy, but then you played this defense last year like that again and now it's the first game they're playing better. what we expected last year from this defense, but you're playing the same defense and you do it and you have more weapons like you're supposed to say and you come from this organization you're supposed to say here as a man, listen I'm going to let me go early with my hot version of this about the Hebrews not letting this guy get them in trouble, okay don't do it because they both can't.

I understand that they came together and want to be successful together. Don't let him know early or late if this is your guy because you may be wasting another year taking your quarterback, if possible, in this offense to a completely different level, but don't do it because I've always questioned it and Again, maybe it's just the first game, but sitting there as someone rooting for this organization on this particular team and Jordan Love Oh My Oh Me Oh My to go 15-27 for 245 and three TDS and a 123 QB rating I gotta say you put whatever flu you're putting guessing into flus, I mean guess who's defense already gave up 38 points against her too, more or less rookies, well Alex, you think that's not what it's about?

We've been talking about run defense all along. "The whole offseason is good and again, I don't know where Alan William starts and Maddie Perfumes ends well, so I see them as a tandem. um, clearly at this point you solve nothing when it comes to solving your problem with run defense ". I have absolutely fixed myself and like you said Alex you are lucky that Aaron Jones turned out okay because think about what he would have done, think about his numbers and Jordan loves numbers it would have been even more ridiculous if he had stayed healthy like you pointed out because To a certain extent We were able to stop AJ Dylan and I saw a scream.

Tremaine Edmonds was in the Gap a couple of times as a man, as was Bojack, even though Bojack bounced off Dylan, but he stopped him good as if he had bounced. but he stopped there, stopped him, but the run defense and also the defensive backs don't know what the heck to let a player go and who's supposed to pick up a player. There seems to be some confusion in that defensive backfield with too many guys having the F wide open and this is going to Beaver flus because you're supposed to be the guy who knows all this information, you're supposed to have these guys ready to go and this difference is still a question and look I'm, I'm happy they have Yannick and Gakoway, he got a coverage sack, where was the pressure?

You got four sacks you got a sack when it comes to Jordan love there's still no pressure when it comes to getting to the QB um so I'm not at all Alex giving the defense a pass but usually if the head coach he gets another chance because the new GM picked him, so he'd probably say, "Find out, clean your house, and figure out what it is." I have to do it because the next thing is going to fall on you until the guillotine, uh, but yeah, no, the defense was putrid. I mean, you gave up 38 points and that's the worst part.

Let me tell you something so you can get to know Josh. he's about to attack me so at a time so clearly you know if if I'm not in the chat I'm not, I haven't, I'm not even close to living. Got home from doing the big ten country this morning driving back. to the city and I went to bed before I went to watch the game or whatever so sometimes anyone knows if you're trying to avoid seeing a score something comes up and you just look at your phone and I saw um 38 points of them. and then the rest got cut, so I thought, damn, the best one scored 38 points.

I'm sitting here like, oh God, so I'm reviewing the game right now, okay, it's doing the Super Bowl Shuffle when did they drop that 38 on them? So what am I? I'm like, oh wow, that said the Packers score 38 points. This is when the Packers are like 20, kind of low 20s. I think this is the packing school. I was like these MFS. was destroyed, the only look, the only thing that makes me feel good is that the damn Cowboys shaved the Giants in the Sunday night football game on NBC, but I don't care that the Bears sat there and beat them all these cheese heads. talk about his quarterback is better than ours right now, he's fine if we're just being chased right now because he listens, it's winning from the pocket, that's the most important thing and yeah, Jordan loves.

He threw a couple balls that would have been very close touchdowns, they had like two or three where he knocked guys down and he'll probably get better with that as this is the second start of his career for this one. in your second start you did a very good job let me say that and now this guy waits this guy here this guy this this guy is a prediction that they are going to win the conference, I mean the division, yeah, I bet they will, that defense plays like that. So you're telling me that it didn't go well, it's going to take Green Bay a little bit, they have these young players, but now they could be the cream of the division with a new quarterback and you guys have done it. agitated this oh the way Christian Watson didn't play the way they're number one you didn't need it you didn't need it and it wasn't totally necessary you're right can you imagine that imagine that deep? threatened everyone before, yeah, the running game is doing whatever it wants to do right, Dobbs is out there doing it and then you have Superman and Christian with Christian Watson and what the hell did the Bears do, what the hell is.

Ryan's pose was done again. I have to see that I am disappointed. I have been very patient and will continue to be patient. This is the first game of the season, but for this to be your first game and what it meant. for you to wet the bed and for you to sit there and spend how much money they spent on that defense just think about the amount of money spent on the defensive side of the ball and there was no improvement there there are a couple of batted balls but they did it, no there was no significant improvement on that defense and you spent all the money on the defensive side of the ball last offseason without any improvement yet so always with a second time starter um yeah I'm good when it comes to this team and the amount of time I had to watch that game and then think especially again, let me do well on this one because, first of all, it's already putting pressure on this team as we go through this desperation, but it's just It's frustrating and I want to express my frustration because it's very frustrating to open the season in such a putrid way and you had and had the gall to not face these guys in that preseason game, just the nerd like you're that good dad.

It's not them and who I'm referring to. All of them. Alright. All. I apologize. Just this was um, I just apologize. I don't want to be a negative Nancy. I don't want to be a negative Nancy. but what the hell are you doing like this? I'm thinking about all the business scenarios I've heard from any of you, particularly Josh. your this and it's this is early I don't want to buy my own words again um I think sometimes Ryan's posturing shows off the offensive line. I'm going to go outside the offensive line so he can pick out some players. true, I think I want them to keep building during the draft because that's the best way to build your team, it's the most responsible way, although sometimes GMs make mistakes and you have to use Draft Capital to cover your ass with those. mistakes, but part of me is already thinking who, who, what offensive lineman is out there, that a team knows they're not going to sign and I know it's early and no team would sit there and give you something valuable and basically put up a sign selling.

Out and the season is over, but it's definitely like overpaying and doing it because the offensive line was garbage. We talked about depth. Depth showed his butt today. I get it, I get the fact that they didn't play together, but the last thing. We all wanted to see Lucas Patrick on the damn field again and Lucas Patrick is right there on the damn field. This should have been a remedy. We saw it last year. He can play. Why are you still here? Has no sense. That's where he is. and I always say at the beginning of a rebuild no, you are more advanced now and you also saw the mistakes you made last season and you haven't fixed them, so I'm hot because I want to root. for them, but then my heart tells me: do you trust them? because they know that the Bears are right and it is normal for the field to have muscles. uh, sorry, I'm supposed to, yeah, let me go with the defense that was kind of My postgame approach because as much as Lou Getsy is going to get a lot of pressure for a bad game plan, the defenseman can't talk. everything they talked about for five weeks about being dominant.

You want Aaron Rodgers back in the division. you're going to do this you're going to do that guess who's not on the stat sheet at all Justin Jones nothing chicken egg zero um I talked to eight of the 11 defensive starters in the locker room and I think the most

concern

ing thing is that there was not a coherent message about what the problem was Jalen Johnson said the players lacked focus they made mental mistakes he called it uh Eddie Jackson said uh you know they needed him I thought Japan Briskar talked to him he was the last one out of the locker room. and he said they came in written too high and they needed to get a slap in the face why are you going too high why are you overconfident about you were overconfident you weren't prepared you didn't execute they didn't turn the ball over they did Second, Demarcus Walker is here saying that we urgently need to have a better plan.

I mean, they're exes, it's all over the gamut, like they didn't practice together, they were going too high, they were mental mistakes, they weren't. focused, the game plan wasn't very good, uh, and now you have to go back to the drawing board and a week two game in Tampa where everyone claimed a victory for seven months. Baker Mayfield just arrived in Minnesota, a team, the Bears, I mean, they can. I didn't even touch the Vikings and beat them, so I mean this defense has a lot of problems, the Packers were nine of 16 on third down. I mean, Jordan loves to just sit there, Pat Pat Pat, dive in and of course, I mean, yeah, his stats look great.

I had all day to pitch and I think Ken, you mentioned it, there were so many mistakes on the back end that there were guys you know that didn't pass guys the right way, uh, I think it was TJ Edwards and Tremaine Edmonds on the back end. slant for Aaron Jones, where he beat Kyler Gordon, he was in the wrong spot, he doesn't cut it and it's a 35-yard touchdown on fourth-and-three. I mean, it's unforgivable stuff like that when you talked about all that crap about being dominant and having all this talent. and they are more talented, there are no results and we set it from July, don't go from bad to dominant, go from bad to good, just try to be good and once again they were horrible, it's interesting, you know, we just talk about roster construction and free agency and draft and the same issues from last year are coming up, it's interesting that this will be something to follow all year and again I'm trying not to overreact to week one, but it again questions how it plays out.

He put this team together without a contract. As for the agent's money, they spend all this money to renovate their linebacking court. I mean, so Jermaine Edmond has some good attacks, yes, TJ Edwards had all these tackles, but so there's still no pass rush, Javon Hargrave, who made all that money, is playing somewhere else. they weren't on a Von Hargrave page three tackles on a sack today they added yannicking towards the end of the summer and we're like okay good move yannicking pass rusher got a sack but Demarcus Walker Rasheem Green Dominique Robinson one of two Dominic Robinson invisible um and Justin Jones as Josh said they didn't do it all the wayrenewal and you know again, it will be interesting to see if these investments in linebackers paid off.

We questioned it at the time. It's worth it? pay a middle linebacker all this money, we'll see if he can play like Brian Urlacher, that would be cool, but not many people have played like Brian Urlacher since.Brian Urlacher at middle linebacker um, they didn't give a linebacker a ton of money from Will after we heard, hey, Will's linebacker is actually the most important linebacker position on this team. It'll be interesting to see if Javon Hargrave is the one who was an overspend right, an overspend on Jafar Hargrave ends up having a great year again as an older guy it's like at what point is the cost of doing Biz just the cost of doing Biz like you're alluding to Kenneth right at what point you just have to jump up and overpay to get a guy in a premium position and again I'm trying to we have to pump the brakes a little bit you're right you're right it's the first week and there's A lot of football went away last week, we're talking about OMG the Bears just beat the San Francisco 49ers, maybe things are going to be a lot better than we expected and what happened was they finished 2 and 14 the rest of the way.

So we may overreact to the first week, but it's definitely something worth following all year long if they still can't figure out that pass rush and if Tremaine's admins have some good attacks and TJ AdWords has all these tackles, But really it's not so. If nothing matters, then it's time to ask: Hey, did they do it? They made a serious misstep when they allocated funds this offseason the way they did. I mean, it's not even part of the allocation of the funds. but it's also like at what point do you like to say that the scheme is perfect?

I'm going to go with the good player like Orlando Brown Jr. who could help this offensive line. It's absolutely good. I don't care what he's doing in the run game. he's helping Justin Fields, you know, make a jump as a passer Mike mcglinchey, another guy who overpaid exactly, was like okay, cool, yeah, All Pro Caliber starting right tackle. I'd love to, sure, 80 million, no, don't start, but Jay ties Jalen Carter. I'm about to get to that 32 win rate today against the Patriots, that's pretty good for Jalen Carter, but I want to get back to the Bears being coached and just about defense and Alex and I talked about this during the game with the defensive line rotation and appeared appeared early in that third Nate when they couldn't pressure Jordan.

I love it, the line is in gakway. Walker inside the buildings and Dominique Robinson third and goal from the eight. You need juice from the edge. Dominique Robinson is put on the grass and Jordan Lopez all day, two drivers, two Red Zone drives later, so in the first series of the third quarter they go back there, go down to the place where they take Andrew Billings off the field when he is the third and they pass the one, yes, a little, yes, it is third, it is starting to go from the one yard line and I guess what they are going to do, they are going to run the ball, they take the running block out of the field , they put Javon Dexter in it. it's stopped, it's a touchdown, the Bears were like I said, I said it, they were already out trained like Matt Leflore ran circles around Maddie refused and it wasn't even close and it started on the first series when they couldn't get there. one yard with two damn plays the guy who pushes the tight end I'll never understand the play that pushes the tight end what are you doing what's that what was nice the first time they did it the last four times it hasn't worked out well buddy and then it's fourth and one and you don't just do the push that the Eagles do, what do you like, they telegraphed it.

Sorry, I guess not, you're good, so was there something else in the locker room? Was there something else? In the build-up, after the post-game press balked at you, and furthermore, what else did the player say to not participate? Alex, you didn't say anything about the guys you talked to in the aftergame, so Josh took care of it. defense I talked to mostly offensive guys and what was interesting to me is the main theme, so there was a unified message from the offense and it was that we beat ourselves, the Packers didn't beat us, they said it was all self-inflicted wounds.

Hey, listen to yourself. You could look at those, you could look at that ineffective running game, you could look at the lack of drive up front, but they really said the decline begins. We Holdings got behind the sticks too many times and that's what they saw. big deal, you know, they really believe, hey, if we can clean up these penalties and we know we can clean up these penalties, then we'll be a little bit stronger, but obviously you've got to look at the blocking in the front of the game Run and you've got to look at the blocking in the screen play like screen passes didn't really work because the blocking was pretty atrocious on those plays, the wide receivers who were blocking really didn't do a good enough job of setting up a player well.

In particular, I was completely run over. I was Chase Claypool Chase Claypool, yeah, well, meanwhile we joked about the even-keeled Saint Brown being a good blocker. We joke that you're right, even-handed, the good blocker was inactive today and the wide receivers couldn't block positively. keep in mind Trent Taylor is pretty good at returning punts, they figured out that position, I mean look this is this, I won't say it makes me mad because I don't trust this offense in the first place, but to say they beat themselves up and basically I got beat by 25 points because that last touchdown was garbage time, like if you get beat by 25 points and I could and Green Bay took their foot off the gas.

Yeah, okay, they were direct, yeah, they were direct like you were crazy. Understand that you have to do it. I get positive affirmations, it's okay and you don't want to beat yourself up. It's the beginning of the season, but you guys have to look in the mirror and offensively, the worst part about the offensive line is that this is. That's supposed to be what you all are good at, so if you're not good at it, it's supposed to be not just one guy, two guys, your general, the assistant general manager, right, you still have Lucas Patrick in the Damn team, do you know Cody? white hair is prone to injury at this point in his career being long in the teeth the same for Tevin Jenkins very big Braxton Jones your beloved your beloved player that you have I won't say that you have taken care of him like a baby but you have given him passes when other plants have had to have competition and now we have to see what happens with Darnell Wright, he's a rookie, but he should, he should move much faster with this pedigree compared to Braxton Jones' game. uh, against lesser competitors in college um, but because of the offenses they say they beat themselves, that's funny.

I mean, I want to know, I want to know who they know, maybe they meant they defeated themselves because the game plan was so bad, that's what I was just getting there Josh, who the hell is the voice in that offensive group and I know it's not Chase because probably no one is listening to go after Claypool? It's like Chase is being chased, but you need someone and I don't mean just for the players in the Huddle, I mean Jay Cutler telling Mike Marsh to shut up, you know what I'm saying, you need someone to be honest with Luke Etsy and we know that DJ Moore is more of a leader by action than by being vocal, you know what I'm saying, do the same with Justin, but someone needs to say, buddy, you gotta know what our weaknesses are Right now, it's one, two, three, the ball has to come out, so I can watch.

Sometimes we're going to take L on these series because the offensive line can't block, that's the truth, but you have to plan at least five or six plays where at least three of them we score a damn ball, you know? What I'm saying is you have or at least got your hands on the best players in the space, like you have to do, so this is football, this isn't, it's difficult now that you didn't have players, we're talking . about how bad that slot was for wide receivers last year, yeah, why was it hard to do it because you lack talent, now you have talent and it's more of the same, where the hell is Tanya, there was something available, he was healthy, today played, he was too.

One of the guys was blown into a block for a screen. He did get blown up on a block for a screen. In fact, where was he? Where were 12 staff in gray sunscreen, but look, they kicked your ass? Okay, you need more, you need more. Men we don't believe you, you need more people, as Jay-Z once said in a rhyme like you like it, what are you doing? This is the beginning of, you know how long we wait for this, we wait for this to give us ecstasy. It's okay and I think all I can hear is Afton apologizing to me today like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have to do that building.

I mean, I think, to your point, Ken, I think when you have a DJ. Moore Chase Claypool Darna Mooney Cole commits I mean, you have weapons like I think and I know it's cultural, that's a little different, but I think what Texas did to Alabama and a guy like Steve Sarkeesian only has four or five , I'm sorry, I apologize. the Alabama fan, I forgot, I'm not sorry again, no, I'll apologize, but I'm sorry, I didn't mean, I'm sorry, we mentioned the Crimson Tide last night, but I'm just saying that as an offensive coordinator you have to have four five six plays. where you say this is getting us something like this is in my bag we need a big play this is like I'm plotting to get someone open I'm plotting something this is going to get me at least 20 30 yards I could guess a touchdown and The Bears, if they had had one of those, would get a touchdown.

The cute rock combo with Claypool and Mooney, you didn't spend this entire offseason trying to find ways to DJ more. the slot to see if you can take it from whoever was going to follow it or whatever hiatus they were going to do because you knew they were going to try to take it from you, I mean, in a screen game, screen game, yeah, you. Are you how many plays where you're hitting Mooney Chase Claypool or Coca Matt but you're using DJ Moore as a decoy to take where's that where's where's where's also like you every time they talk about Justin, they talk about how cool he is a deep ball thrower, he has a tremendous deep ball and then they just don't use it, you throw exactly five balls, there are five balls over 10 yards, although okay, what is it?

The point then is why are you handcuffing your quarterback to his best asset besides his legs. Sorry, I don't know if it's an accusation on the offensive line or if it's like that, I really believe what they're saying, but it's an accusation about something, right, go, Max protect, do something, man, right, you brought in Mercedes Lewis , yeah, from the pocket, move the pocket, why is Tyler Scott here? I thought I was here so we could see Justin throw the ball deep, everything we've been hearing here. We're talking about what he did at Ohio State, why did we bring him here?

You learned last year to move the damn pocket, move the damn pocket once that offensive line is doing that, move the damn pocket, okay, that's it, let's go like this, this, this. This upset Lisa, this is why you as an adult tune out sports, okay, because this upset you about something you care about and all these moves they made and Aaron Rodgers left, he's here, yeah, clearly , yeah, the new rivalry was similar to the old rivalry, right?, right?, and I hope Justin never gives his mom the choice of choosing a new boss. The same example of who was right, who was right. much worse than last year the second year.

I'm about to say last year then last year this was and you know what makes it worse, Josh, when the bully is getting older and you like, man, he's about to graduate, so at least I don't. I don't even worry about him next year, as much as possible and they say it's another guy your same age and it's like, wait, wait, they have a new book, he'll be here for the rest of my time here in this school like, oh. really, really, like ah, the fact that you didn't know and again I'll say this, it's still early on both sides for both teams, you didn't know and I don't want to disrespect Matt Leflore because clearly he should have. won, I don't know if I don't think he won a coach of the year, but he should have won one if he didn't understand how they put their stuff together after the pandemic, helping Aaron Rodgers with two back-to-back MVP seasons, but he wondered without Aaron Rodgers and how they had to come together, before that, what could he really do?

And it is clear to see when Josh said how he ate and coached the Bears' defense and offense a lot. he's the head coach um but that's alarming moving forward in this division um it was pathetic man yes it was it was um anything else you guys want to talk about before we get out of here we want some positives I have some positives Linings, it was a hard game. I know there is no escape. Listen, it was a gamedifficult. There's no way to escape that, but there are a few that you mentioned. Hey, Brian Pulse has shown a propensity to recruit some good guys who have come here and look good.

I think Tyreke Stevenson had a great game. I know they beat him, quote, by a touchdown. It's going to happen, it was a pretty solid defense and it was good. They just defeated him. Tip your cap, but I think we immediately saw the instincts and we saw the. physicality that the Bears pointed out and said that's why we changed to get this guy to sniff out that play option and lick the ball carrier. I think it was Jaden Reed that he really hit well and then another play to the boundary that he sniffed was either sideline to sideline or not to sideline, but he sniffed the play that The Tackle made around the boundary for a one yard game and then also, you want to talk on screen plays that worked, the Packers had a wonderful screen play today Aaron Jones makes a 51 yard play that looks like it should have been a score Tyreke Stevenson doesn't give up on the play he traces Tackles him from behind and saves a touchdown inning, so I think Tyreke Stevenson had a really good debut with the Bears and you want to feel good about that because it's hard to play cornerback as a rookie in the NFL.

I think he did it. really nice job and then Roshan Johnson also, you know, had a bit of a twitch today and again showed the physicality that we've heard about, carried a guy, gave the bear something to cheer up the Bears fan, something to cheer up . for a brief moment in the middle of the game when it seemed like, hey, you know, we're only down by 10 points, maybe something can happen here before everything falls apart, uh, and then he scored the touchdown too, you know, use, use the physical. uh I thought Kyler Gordon was also having a phenomenal day before he got hurt, that'll be something we'll have to track what's going on with that hand.

He looked like he was hurting almost immediately and then we didn't get an update on Kyler Gordon. so the Bears will surely hope that's not a long

term

thing because Kyler Gordon after last year's struggles looked great just focusing on the position, he had a phenomenal pbu, so some positives from a couple of young guys, two newbies in particular. I thought they had really nice debuts, uh, I'll finish by saying the Bears are looking to continue trying to build around Justin Fields, obviously, and I think Justin is incredibly talented, they should just look at the Packers roster and why things are so easy.

For Jordan, love. and why are they so difficult for Justin Fields because let me tell you Justin Fields is more talented than Jordan, I love him, he's more talented, but one guy has all day to throw, one guy has a really successful running game, one guy has an offensive. head coach who makes your life so easy I always talked about the 51 yard screen which is a screen pass that worked that made the defense move in one direction easy putback it's 51 yards you're in rhythm you feel good um so you I know, look, I think I said it's a game where the Bears come out next week and kill the Bucks.

NFL week one is a liar, he lies all the time, so this could end up being Much Ado About Nothing like the Bears over the Niners. It was last year, it ended up not mattering at all, um, but as the Bears look to continue trying to build around Justin Fields, you just have to evaluate everything and look, the Packers just make Jordan a lot. Jordan loves life much easier than the Bears make than Justin Fields. Okay, I just want to attack. I talked about Justin Fields and you must be special. I don't think Jordan Love is special today, but he did the job well, you know?

And, like Josh said, the Packers made it easy for him. his job is fine, if you can make Justin Fields job easy and he has the special talent that he should have, he should be really good, but throughout his entire career it has never been easy for Justin Fields, he is not here , okay, be sure to check with us. leaves at 5:30 p.m. m. on NBC Sports Chicago every Wednesday, subscribe if you haven't subscribed and watch, we'll chat with you or see you in the future. We always appreciate you taking a little time to add us. your frustration not with us but with the Bears um yeah or me that's fine too yeah him um but uh, let us know um, let us know because this is again, it's the first game, but this left a putrid taste in my mouth. um coming off an offseason like anyone who's ever played sports, you spend the entire offseason for that first game and this was just ridiculous, thank you for Josh Alex and Claire, we appreciate it and we'll see you.