The Bear Market Report - A Positive Reminder After A Complete Disaster Of A Sunday In Lambeau Field
Dropping in for a quick Bears blog to do something absolutely no Bears fan probably wants to hear this morning. Give a little positivity. Not going to lie - this isn't exactly my lane. Especially after watching an absolute dog walking we were taken on by the Packers in a complete embarrassment of a game on offense and defense.
I was over Tyson Bagent after the second drive. The guy can't throw at an NFL level. Even his "best" throw of the game showed that. The pin-point perfect location right into the stretched hands of Rome Odunze was not Odunze's fault it got popped out. He had no chance to bring the ball into his body because the defender was given the time to close and make a play on a weak throw. Rome did have a bad drop Sunday. But that pivotal 3rd and long wasn't it.
Nothing went right in this game. Even when it did. I knew in the moment that even our sole touchdown drive was a kiss of death.
You generally want to score touchdowns on a drive in any early game situation. Like 99.999% of the time. This situation was that remainder. When your quarterback is reading the field like crap and throwing just the same, and you see the capable backup that balled out the week before warming up, the last thing you need is the current quarterback stumbling his way to success in Big Head Bighetti style. I'm not sure I've ever been more dismayed to see my team score a touchdown. The hook was out. I'm not even sure Green Bay didn't play into it (I'm pretty sure they didn't… but did they???)
Awful decision by Ben Johnson to keep him in the game despite the team scoring a touchdown. I'll say it. I just did. That was the worst thing that could have happened. Once he did put Keenum in the game the score was already out of hand so you needed to do that when it was still reasonable to run a well balanced offense. You can't ask him to turn into the next Doug Flutie old comeback quarterback guy.
Sorry - forgot this was supposed to be a positive blog! Let's get to that.
I'll be honest after watching Case Keenum vs the Eagles it did make the brain start wondering how much of the offensive success should be attributed to Ben and how much to Caleb Williams. And I think Sunday vs the Packers showed us that however good Ben Johnson is - even if he is the best coach in the league - it's Caleb Williams that is the guy with the truly special gift. Obviously we knew he was gifted. But management of the offense in structure was much better in that one game with Keenum. The very thing we need Caleb to get better at. But it was one game. Tape was out, so that's probably why Ben gave Bagent Bighetti the nod to begin with. But I think we certainly learned that not even Ben Johnson can use quarterback alchemy with a guy who just isn't quite NFL caliber. Sucks to say. Tyson seems like a cool dude. But it sure showed.
This team needs Caleb Williams. That's the biggest takeaway from this game as obvious as it is. And it sure looks like he's itching to get back this week. Who knows? Maybe Caleb can get Colston Loveland out of whatever prison he's currently held in. That'd be cool.
Side note - I know we were all hoping for a posthumous miracle in line with what Walton Payton gave us vs the Packers days after his death with Bryan Robinson blocking the would-be game winning field goal. But in Ditka's defense, he did bring some of the windy city with him to blow three kicks wide. He did what he could!