Bear Goggles On
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Hot Take Tuesday: Bears cool off in the heat of Miami

By Bill Zimmerman

MIAMI, FL - OCTOBER 14: Danny Amendola #80 of the Miami Dolphins is flipped by Leonard Floyd #94 and Roquan Smith #58 of the Chicago Bears in the first quarter of the game at Hard Rock Stadium on October 14, 2018 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
MIAMI, FL - OCTOBER 14: Danny Amendola #80 of the Miami Dolphins is flipped by Leonard Floyd #94 and Roquan Smith #58 of the Chicago Bears in the first quarter of the game at Hard Rock Stadium on October 14, 2018 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images) /
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Hot Take Tuesday: The Incoherent Rantings of a Belligerent Bears fan.

Brocktober? Are you kidding me? Brocktober?

Welp, all winning streaks come to an end, and for the Chicago Bears, it came at the hands of Brock Osweiler and the Miami Dolphins in the sweltering heat of South Florida. This is a game the Bears should have won, and quite frankly, they blew it.

Officiating

Some of you might think I’m about to go off on an officiating rant, well, I’m not. I’m going on a rant about the fans who scream and yell about the officiating. Get over it! The Bears lost, the refs didn’t blow a call at the end of the game, the Bears had every opportunity to win that game and they failed, not the officials.

The Leonard Floyd roughing the passer penalty was stupid. But guess what? Floyd grazed Osweiler’s head. That’s a penalty. It shouldn’t be, but that’s the rule. The pick play from Trey Burton that cost the Bears a touchdown? Burton lowered his shoulder. You can’t do that! He should know better. Sure it was a little ticky tacky, but by letter of the law, that’s a penalty. The Khalil Mack hold in OT? That was a Mack flop.

I’m not saying the refs were good, but those questionable calls weren’t as blatant as you think. Not to mention, the refs missed a trip on Danny Trevathan on Kenyan Drake that would have resulted in a big play for the Dolphins and Danny Amendola was called for a block in the back in overtime and that was not a good call.

The Bears deserve to lose. They didn’t play well enough to win. The Dolphins outplayed them in every aspect and deserved to win. Do not complain about the refs. They did not cost the Bears this game.

More from Bear Goggles On

Defense

Well, suddenly, the Bears can’t tackle. Let’s hope this is an anomaly and not an issue moving forward because if it is, Adam Gase just gave the blueprint on how to beat the Bears defense. Quick passes before your QB gets into trouble, and force the Bears to make open field tackles in space. The Bears failed at it miserably. According to Pro Football Focus, the Bears missed 19 tackles against the Dolphins after missing a combined 15 tackles through their first four games.

The Bears’ defense and their missed tackling is the reason they lost the game. That’s it.  There are other smaller things that contributed, but if the Bears make tackles, they win by two scores. The Bears missed about 80% of those tackles in the second half, so let’s hope that the defense wore down in the heat and that was the reason. I will give them a pass until I see reason that this is an issue and not a fluke.

Offense

Two things to address on the offense, first, Mitch Trubisky. Anyone notice what’s happening with Mitch the last couple of games?

Those be rookie Madden numbers right there. Has Mitch figured it out? It’s still too small of a sample size to see if he’s turned the corner, but the stats are really starting to show that Trubisky is looking like he just might be the real deal.

Last year everyone wanted to yell about how they should have drafted Deshaun Watson. This year?

How has Trubisky fared compared to other QBs thus far this season?

The numbers are there. If Mitch keeps this up, Bears’ fans should be thrilled at the young quarterback they have.

One other note on the offense is Matt Nagy. I don’t have a problem with anything Nagy did in that game, sure, there’s a few things to nitpick on, but when you get to 3rd and 4 in OT, that’s when there’s a problem.

How Matt Nagy thinks it’s acceptable to settle for a 53-yard field goal is ludicrous. That is dumb. There is no other word for it. Nagy claims he had all the confidence in the world that Cody Parkey would hit that. Nobody has confidence that their kicker will hit a 50+ yarder consistently! Just stop, it was a bad play call. Trubisky was on fire. Let him win the game.

Nagy’s a smart, aggressive offensive mind, but on the big stage or with the game on the line, is decision-making gets suspect. He’s young, he needs to figure that out. That is unacceptable moving forward.

Quick Hits

  • Jordan Howard is awful. I don’t know what happened to him but the Bears need to get him going. Starting to be concerned that maybe he’s Anthony Thomas.
  • Taylor Gabriel is quietly on pace for about 1000 yards. What a pick up by Ryan Pace.
  • Let’s all stop and applaud Kevin White for playing in his fifth game this season, which is a career high for games played for him. Way to go, Kevin!
  • Loved how Roquan Smith played. Missed a couple of tackles, but had his best game of the season, he keeps getting better.
  • Let’s hope Khalil Mack isn’t banged up, he needs to terrorize Tom Brady next week.
  • Adrian Amos isn’t good right now- like at all. The Bears may not even make an effort to re-sign him at this rate.
  • Eddie Jackson was inconsistent but still makes plays, he will keep getting better.
  • Tarik Cohen is a weapon and Matt Nagy is figuring out exactly how to use him.
  • One Adam Gase note- how was Frank Gore not in the game when Kenyan Drake fumbled in OT? I don’t care how gassed Gore was, he had ONE more run in him. That was a huge mistake and the Bears should have capitalized on it, but Nagy out dumbed Gase down the stretch.
  • Patriots next? Bears can win if the defense reverts back to their previous form, but if Chicago falls to 3-3, I cannot stress this enough- DO NOT PANIC.
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