Bears Preseason Game

[RiverDog]

A home game at 5pm local, televised by ESPN. It's a pretty quick turnaround after having played the Steelers on Saturday, but it's the preseason, so what the heck.

With just 3 preseason games, this is the next to the last game before the regular season, so if we follow tradition, the starters should see quite a bit of action and it might give us a clue as to who the starters will be come 9/12.

It will be interesting as to whether Geno or Lock get the start and the reps with the #1 unit. I keep hearing that Lock has the edge, but it's mostly unconfirmed rumors that are highly opinionated. It will also be interesting to see who gets the start at RT, Lucas or Curhan.

[Hawktawk]

I haven’t heard any rumors of who has the edge but I heard Pete say he thought Geno should have been 10-11 to start due to receivers not catching it or in the case of Fant careless with his feet on an absolute dime for 20 plus yards . I found that play disappointing as I’m very high on Fant ..

something tells me Pete is at least as happy with 10 points , a 2 minute drive and no turnovers as 14 points and a game losing turnover . I never heard Flynn get any excuses for a couple critical drops in that pivotal 3rd game vs KC when Russell pulled ahead

I think this second to last preseason game is the most important for both guys . Although I’ve also heard Seattle may not name a starter prior to the first game . I wouldn’t be that coy . If you want to win this year make a choice and prepare them with the first team offense . May they both look great and make it hard to choose .

[NorthHawk]

Lucas played most of the game in Pittsburgh, so maybe he won't play as much this game and more the 3rd when there is more time to recover and get ready for the start of the season.
I rewatched the game last night and he played very well. He was better than Cross and at this point has a more complete game as well as burying his DL opponent a couple of times.
Cross looked lost a couple of times in run blocking but his pass blocking was pretty good.

I suspect we will see some action from the real #1's like Brooks, Metcalf, Lockett and others who will start without a doubt just to get some game action. It will be interesting to see
if the tackling improves along with whether the rookie DBs correct some of the mistakes they made on Saturday. I think Wollen has a huge potential and I was impressed with Myles Adams
at DT. He missed on some sacks, but the pressure he got was pretty good and welcome from the inside.

On Offense I expect to see more checkdowns than we have been accustomed to but with lesser QB play that will be good. Along with more passes to the RB's and pre snap motion, the
Offense could look a lot different, even if it isn't much more effective.

On Defense the last game we used mostly a 3-4 alignment and I wonder if we are going to keep that or if we will settle into more of a mix with both 3-4 and 4-3 looks. Mafe looked like
he could be an answer to the outside pass rush issue - maybe as good as Dunlap at this point and getting better as he gains experience.

But that was only 1 game to evaluate but it does give us hope for the future with this rookie class and younger players. Maybe they can become something special.

[RiverDog]

Of all the rookies, Mafe impressed me the most. That was a heck of a play he made to sack a very mobile quarterback on a critical 4th down that could have been a game winner.

I'll be out of town on Thursday, and being that it's on ESPN, I won't be able to record our game with da Bearst. Hopefully, I can catch a few glimpses from a bar stool or something.

[obiken]

Of all the rookies, Mafe impressed me the most. That was a heck of a play he made to sack a very mobile quarterback on a critical 4th down that could have been a game winner.

I'll be out of town on Thursday, and being that it's on ESPN, I won't be able to record our game with da Bearst. Hopefully, I can catch a few glimpses from a bar stool or something.

Bears beat the Chiefs River, what do make of that? How about nothing its Exhibition! They are looking at rookies and cuts. Do you keep Homer or Dallas? Does it really matter if you start GS or DL, one is slow death the other will put a bullet in the head of a good season. QB play is meaningless to evaluate because there are no second and 3rd reads. I DVR it on Youtubetv and fast forward through it.

[RiverDog]

Of all the rookies, Mafe impressed me the most. That was a heck of a play he made to sack a very mobile quarterback on a critical 4th down that could have been a game winner.

I'll be out of town on Thursday, and being that it's on ESPN, I won't be able to record our game with da Bearst. Hopefully, I can catch a few glimpses from a bar stool or something.

Bears beat the Chiefs River, what do make of that? How about nothing its Exhibition! They are looking at rookies and cuts. Do you keep Homer or Dallas? Does it really matter if you start GS or DL, one is slow death the other will put a bullet in the head of a good season. QB play is meaningless to evaluate because there are no second and 3rd reads. I DVR it on Youtubetv and fast forward through it.

I agree, the result of the preseason games are pretty meaningless, but that's not what interests me. There's a lot of players, more than usual, that I haven't seen before. For example, I never saw Drew Lock play in a live game until last Saturday.

I don't have DVR capability on ESPN. I have an over-the-air DVR called Tablo that I record all the network stations which works for most of the Seahawks games, just not those on ESPN, NFL Network, or Amazon Prime.

[Aseahawkfan]

When I sit back and look at that Pittsburgh game, we played quite a few people who will be starting for us against mostly nobodies in Pittsburgh and still lost 32-25. Lock and Geno will be our starting QBs. The O-line will be mostly our starting O-line. The D-line will mostly be our starting D-line. They got beat 32-25 playing Pittsburgh's 2nd string. Now that the euphoria of football season starting has worn off, this don't look very good at all. When we're facing Rogers or Mahomes or Wilson or some other QB that knows what they're doing making reads and adjusting with scheme, if our D-line is still getting pushed off the ball and our QBs are missing hot reads or playing it safe, we're not going to win much.

I guarantee guys like Donald and Bosa and Chandler Jones and the lot are going to be a whole lot harder to block than the guys Cross and Lucas faced Saturday. And the Qbs the defense will be going against are going to be a hell of a lot more accurate and better at reading pressure than the no name Pitt Qbs we faced. Those guys in the game on Saturday are a lot of the guys who will be starting for us and they gave up a lot of yards and points to a team that is as young and new as us.

[RiverDog]

When I sit back and look at that Pittsburgh game, we played quite a few people who will be starting for us against mostly nobodies in Pittsburgh and still lost 32-25. Lock and Geno will be our starting QBs. The O-line will be mostly our starting O-line. The D-line will mostly be our starting D-line. They got beat 32-25 playing Pittsburgh's 2nd string. Now that the euphoria of football season starting has worn off, this don't look very good at all. When we're facing Rogers or Mahomes or Wilson or some other QB that knows what they're doing making reads and adjusting with scheme, if our D-line is still getting pushed off the ball and our QBs are missing hot reads or playing it safe, we're not going to win much.

I guarantee guys like Donald and Bosa and Chandler Jones and the lot are going to be a whole lot harder to block than the guys Cross and Lucas faced Saturday. And the Qbs the defense will be going against are going to be a hell of a lot more accurate and better at reading pressure than the no name Pitt Qbs we faced. Those guys in the game on Saturday are a lot of the guys who will be starting for us and they gave up a lot of yards and points to a team that is as young and new as us.

Yeah, I just mentioned something similar in another thread. Pittsburgh was supposedly holding out most of their starters or at least limiting their playing time. Some teams like ours have a lot of starting spots up for grabs, meaning that the #1 unit might see more playing time than they normally would, while other teams might have a new system that they need to work the bugs out of, so the priorities for these games change from team to team and from game to game. This is why you don't see Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers playing in Preseason Game 1 but you do see a lot of Geno Smith and Drew Lock.

[Hawktawk]

We had at least 4 dropped passes , a dropped int and possible pick 6 at that , missed numerous tackles with square shots on people . We had 1 skill position #1 in Fant , maybe 2 if you count Walker who looked very good although he cost Geno a series with 3 straight runs to start and end it . I thought Waldron had morphed into Bevfool. Our line looked great we ran it up their wazoo and they gave up 1 sack of the 3 taken . I thought both QBs played fine for the most part other than the massive error by Drew and took what was there . In the case of Geno you can’t throw it and catch it too . When we get DK and Rocket and Penny , all our defensive starters were going to kick some Donkey ass and go on from there .

[Aseahawkfan]

Yeah, I just mentioned something similar in another thread. Pittsburgh was supposedly holding out most of their starters or at least limiting their playing time. Some teams like ours have a lot of starting spots up for grabs, meaning that the #1 unit might see more playing time than they normally would, while other teams might have a new system that they need to work the bugs out of, so the priorities for these games change from team to team and from game to game. This is why you don't see Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers playing in Preseason Game 1 but you do see a lot of Geno Smith and Drew Lock.

I was looking over the game.

Every Pitt QB had a 100 plus QB rating against our defense. All of them threw at least one TDs. No turnovers.

They ran for 185 yards against. We played quite a few possible starters on the D-line and in the secondary.

I hope we see some better play from the D-line in the next game. You cannot get pushed around like that and expect things to go well during the regular season.

[jshawaii22]

1st Bear drive... at least the Seahawks D didn't give up another TD on the first drive. Made their crappy QB look better then he is. Hate ESPN coverage so far. Hard to tell who's playing.

[Aseahawkfan]

Mafe and Lewis injured. Damn.

[TriCitySam]

Injuries, poor tackling, Penalties, QB misses targets, trips on his own feet .....time to watch Andy

[c_hawkbob]

We're sucking right out loud. Some decent individual plays but no cohesion, no rhythm, stupid mistakes abound and as the announcer asked "are these guys being coached?"

[Aseahawkfan]

This is still all the young'uns and bubble players...except for Geno of course. I think we all know the QB play is going to be painful this year.

[c_hawkbob]

Eason's the player of the game. Had 3 TD balls dropped. Why hasn't he been more involved in this QB competition?

[Aseahawkfan]

What does Hawktawk think of Eason versus Geno?

[Old but Slow]

That was depressing.

Offense was horrid. Defense was bad. Special teams sucked. A couple of good sideline interviews, and that's it.

I hope that Lewis is OK, but it did not look good. Smith was Smith, a few very nice plays and a lot of ????. Eason looked better, but he's not very accurate, throwing high much of the time. Stupid penalties, tripping over the emblem on the field, poor tackling (again), and a general lack of unity or rhythm.

The main plus is that there is no lack of teaching moments. The film breakdown should be brutal.

[TriCitySam]

Lewis X-rays were negative, just a lateral sprain. Drew may have improved his position.

[Hawktawk]

I’ve been watching the Seahawks over 4 decades , seen a lot of preseason . That may have been the most brutal preseason game in all phases I’ve ever seen out ot Seattle . Eason ? I suppose he helped himself somewhere but if he’s suiting up for Seattle week one it won’t go well .he had some nice throws but some thst missed by 10 yards . Geno had 2 huge drops but that doesn’t explain getting tangled with the back and falling or getting a ball batted by the only defender in the area . It’s the worst he has looked in the uniform since he stepped on the field vs the Rams . Not enough lipstick for this wart hog .Cross may as well have never played the game .

I think we are better than last night . I think the bears are an improving team too who appeared well coached and fired up. I’m concerned about the defense more than anything right now . With Geno with some sort of knee thing , Eason this big raw wild kid , last we saw of Lock he was getting hit in the ear . Whoever starts our receivers need to catch balls in the hands . Good grief . I’ll stay optimistic till live bullets fly but that game surprised me .

[RiverDog]

The only positive I can take away from that game was that at least it was only preseason. I watched the game in a bar and without sound, and I had trouble identifying players as I couldn't always see their names on their backs and I haven't gotten acquainted with the new player's numbers.

How many flags did Cross end up with last night? I counted 4. I almost thought that was Germain Ifedi out there. And what kind of punt coverage player doesn't know to make sure that he's not in the end zone BEFORE he touches the ball? Geno looked horrible, and please, HT, stop with the excuses about dropped passes! You're beginning to sound like Anthony. Every quarterback is the victim of dropped passes. Granted, like every quarterback, Geno had the occasional nice throw, but they were offset by his late and/or off target throws or his own clumsiness. He showed last night why he's just a backup quarterback. Lock helped himself by not suiting up.

For the 2nd week in a row, there were lots of missed tackles on defense. They need to get back to basics.

I had to laugh at their cartoon of Pete and the salmon toss. That was as good of a numberless graphic to describe the regression of the Seahawk defense over the past 8 years as I can think of.

[NorthHawk]

I laughed at the cartoon, too.

I think this is what we have to expect from the QB play and all OT's looked like the inexperienced players that they are.
Cross does have some great feet, but there will be some games where he's going to get schooled real bad this year as will Lucas.
We didn't play a lot with our #1's but the depth on this team is clearly lacking. There's some potential there but we may not be able to hold onto them until they develop.
Homer and Dallas looked good as backup and occasional or emergency starters at RB.
Like RD said, the tackling is not up to par and that's going to hurt us badly if it continues. I'm also concerned with how soft we are playing up the middle of the DL. and
we were getting pushed around on both sides of the ball at the LoS.
Next week we're in Dallas so let's hope things get turn around by then because these bad trends don't bode well if they continue.

[TriCitySam]

Pretty clear Pete was not happy - not common for him to say "if they can't get it right, they won't be here". Cross blocked well, just stupid false starts. That's not been an issue with him in the past, so I assume this will get cleaned up. We continue to not catch some balls - although I would say Geno's location didn't help either. But - we'll see how it looks with the starters in.

[NorthHawk]

I think false starts with rookies along the OL is to be expected.
They have so much going on in their heads that until the game slows down for them, the mental errors will happen, often regularly.
But once they fully understand what they are supposed to do on every play, it should settle in. The one concern is if Cross was trying
to get the advantage against his opponent or if he was simply expecting something different from the QB cadence. It's all part of the
steep learning curve of rookie OLinemen.

[I-5]

Poor tackling was one of the biggest disappointments...especially Marquis Blair. I think he is going to get cut unless something dramatic changes.

Dave Wyman said that he observed that the Seahawks coaches don't have a lot of hitting being done in practices...are we getting soft?

[obiken]

This game was over at the half. We sucked period. The Bears are a 4 win team this year, and they beat our butts. However, Hawk Talk, and anyone else who thinks we can have a winning season with this group, can close his eyes, click his heal together, and say, its only and Exhibition game, its only an exhibition game.

[Aseahawkfan]

Poor tackling was one of the biggest disappointments...especially Marquis Blair. I think he is going to get cut unless something dramatic changes.

Dave Wyman said that he observed that the Seahawks coaches don't have a lot of hitting being done in practices...are we getting soft?

New league rules that you can't do much hitting or contact during practice. Pete was getting fined a while back for overly intense practices. Welcome to the new NFL.

[Hawktawk]

The only positive I can take away from that game was that at least it was only preseason. I watched the game in a bar and without sound, and I had trouble identifying players as I couldn't always see their names on their backs and I haven't gotten acquainted with the new player's numbers.

How many flags did Cross end up with last night? I counted 4. I almost thought that was Germain Ifedi out there. And what kind of punt coverage player doesn't know to make sure that he's not in the end zone BEFORE he touches the ball? Geno looked horrible, and please, HT, stop with the excuses about dropped passes! You're beginning to sound like Anthony. Every quarterback is the victim of dropped passes. Granted, like every quarterback, Geno had the occasional nice throw, but they were offset by his late and/or off target throws or his own clumsiness. He showed last night why he's just a backup quarterback. Lock helped himself by not suiting up.

For the 2nd week in a row, there were lots of missed tackles on defense. They need to get back to basics.

I had to laugh at their cartoon of Pete and the salmon toss. That was as good of a numberless graphic to describe the regression of the Seahawk defense over the past 8 years as I can think of.

I’m not ready to throw Geno under the bus quite as quick as those who hated him the thought of him, admitting he played starter quality ball. Yeah everyone has dropped passes . And everyone gets feet tangled . I remember his royal highness getting stepped on by the guard and falling on his ass in the end zone for a safety . Except that was the divisional vs Atlanta , not a meaningless preseason game . My observations every single Geno drop was a perfectly thrown ball. Most were chunk throws if not all . Most were on third down or long yardage . He also lost a huge pass to penalty . He’s lost at least 6 big pass plays to drops or fants brain fart . What Geno did last year matters more to me then this preseason unless he absolutely sharts himself and he’s done nothing of the sort . I’m still with KJ, team Geno all the way . Looks like we may well find out if he can be a starter in a few weeks by default if nothing else . GO HAWKS

[Agent 86]

You wanna watch tape on how to get cut in the NFL, watch all the plays that #48 LB Joel Dublanko was involved in last night. Missed assignments and tackles every play, it was cringeworthy. Never heard of this guy before and really not trying to come down too hard on him, obviously won't make the final 53 (will he?), but it was so noticeable the first series I actually started watching just him on defense and oh boy, awful.

Lock gained momentum to start by not even putting the pads on.

Only preseason, but seems like there is alot to clean up.

[RiverDog]

You wanna watch tape on how to get cut in the NFL, watch all the plays that #48 LB Joel Dublanko was involved in last night. Missed assignments and tackles every play, it was cringeworthy. Never heard of this guy before and really not trying to come down too hard on him, obviously won't make the final 53 (will he?), but it was so noticeable the first series I actually started watching just him on defense and oh boy, awful.

Lock gained momentum to start by not even putting the pads on.

Only preseason, but seems like there is alot to clean up.

He's one of the players that I couldn't recognize their number or see their name. I thought the same thing as you did. Man, did RB's run out of his arm tackles or what?!

[NorthHawk]

I think he's an Undrafted Free Agent who was picked up just before camp. A local kid who has been given a chance.

As far as the team goes, I've been saying for a couple of years that we don't have an identity.
Pete seems to want a bully type team but we keep getting pushed around along the LoS, so are we more of a finesse team? We don't really have the personnel to be that, either.
Teams that are good know who they are and play to it. Players are drafted to it and signed FA's are selected to fit that type. We are sort of stuck in the middle.
The Bears came here with a clear purpose and goal, we just showed up and the results were what we saw on Thursday night. In our winning years we were a tough, physical team
that would grind other teams down. No more. Peteball needs to play that way, but we don't have the players or apparently the schemes to do that.

[tarlhawk]

The pre-season has devolved into talent evaluation prior to passing out the "pink slips" and some "vanilla" displays of schemes not fully implemented yet. The explosion of pay for a teams key defensive/offensive positions has made the risk factor a deciding decision in who gets to play. Just having your potential starting QB on the field in such an environment is "high risk" if not forced.

The LB in question (DeBlanko) was a late UDFA pickup who played a key role on a Cincinnati College Football team that overachieved this past year...we need Cody Barton and Jordyn Brooks to stay healthy to keep the possibility of using Jamal Adams as a LB hybrid as a non-factor.

[RiverDog]

These very weak performances in our first two preseason games are having a definite psychological effect on everyone from the head coach to the casual fan. I saw where Pete made a not-so-subtle remark about players not giving their all won't be here much longer. IMO Pete senses the same thing that a lot of us have picked up on, that the team looks dysfunctional, lost. Likewise, I've seen a lot of remarks on social media of fans expressing their fears that we're destined for a season like so many of the talking heads have predicted. As a rule, I wouldn't care about the result of a preseason game, but we really need if not a victory, at least a solid outing just for morale.

Our 3rd and final preseason game is next Friday at Dallas. If we don't turn in a better performance in that game, we'll have to live with a loser mentality for over two weeks before we face the Broncos in our season opener on MNF. It's similar to wanting a win ahead of a bye week, so your team doesn't dwell on the loss. IMO even though it's still just a preseason game, it carries with it a little more importance than your garden variety, rest the vets, evaluate the talent, who cares about the final score game.

[tarlhawk]

True...morale is very important on a younger team in general. Pete's frustration is whenever core fundamentals of NFL play are not being displayed...executing coached fundamentals is key to a player wanting to stay with any NFL organization...bad execution reflects on a team as a whole and demoralizes players and coaches alike...so Pete's tolerance will be slim with further lack of focus.

[NorthHawk]

Which goes back to the team not knowing who it is.
We used to be a grind em up, spit em out type of team that left a trail of destruction behind us. Pete still seems to want to do this but we get pushed all over the field on both sides of the ball far too often and we
end up heading into the sunset with our tails between our legs.

There seems to be a dominant train of thought that Waldron is going to use a McVay based Offense. Outside of a few plays with pre snap motion and throws to the RBs, I've seen nothing of it.
McVay's Offense puts pressure on the edges with jet sweeps, bubble screens, runs outside of the tackles, pre snap motion that isolates WRs 1 on 1 or opens holes in the Defense that receivers fill unopposed.
Peteball doesn't do any of that, so is it that the Offense is just being throttled down until the season starts or are we going to have an Offense based on inside zone reads between the tackles and long throws
to WRs like we've always done? It worked well at times with Wilson because he could or would extend plays to the point it became a scramble drill and then he found someone open. Non of our current QBs can
do that, so we're left with a vanilla Offense that will in all probability be ineffective. Again, unless they are hiding the changes until the real season starts.

[RiverDog]

On defense, we're without the leadership of Bobby Wagner, and with neither Diggs or Adams playing, there aren't very many veterans on the field to give the team encouragement and support, thus the deer in the headlights look. Hopefully, that attitude changes when we get everybody on the field. And say what you want about Russell, but if you watched him in the preseasons in past years, you saw him going up and down the bench talking to people, giving them a slap on the shoulder pads, and so on. Granted, we haven't seen a lot of sideline shots, but in those they have shown, I haven't seen any type of similar behavior from Geno. Every time they show a close up of him, he looks like he's at a funeral. We are without credible leadership on both sides of the ball.

There's a completely different, very negative attitude that's swirling around this team. Some of it has to be due to Wilson and Wagner's departure, some of it could be from players listening to the talking heads saying that we'll be lucky to win 5 games. It's an atmosphere so thick that you could cut it with a knife.

[NorthHawk]

We didn't do very well on Defense the last couple of years with Wagner, either so it probably goes deeper than that.
However, I know what you mean about the lack of enthusiasm. Players haven't seemed focused or enthused as much as previous years.
There is definitely something different this year, though.

[RiverDog]

We didn't do very well on Defense the last couple of years with Wagner, either so it probably goes deeper than that.
However, I know what you mean about the lack of enthusiasm. Players haven't seemed focused or enthused as much as previous years.
There is definitely something different this year, though.

What you say about our defenses is true, and I'll even go one step further and say that Bobby was part of the problem with our defense during his last couple of years, particularly in our pass defense. But the quality of our defenses aside, Bobby brought to the table a certain number of leadership intangibles that hasn't been replaced, or at least that's how it appears to this casual bystander.

None of us know specifically what the situation is like in the locker room and on the sidelines or what the genesis of it is. But clearly, there's a noticeable change from past seasons, and it's not good. That's one thing that I'll be watching for in next week's preseason finale, is if they can break out of that mode or if it's going to dog them into the regular season.

[NorthHawk]

Maybe it's just time before that leadership vacuum is filled and right now younger players are settling into becoming leaders or aren't sure how to be one at this level.
The adjustment phase may take some time.

[RiverDog]

Here's something that I thought was interesting. It's the snap counts per player for the Bears game. They've been working out Curhan at RG a lot, which accounts for his high number of snaps as he's been starting at RT. Cross and Lucas have been getting plenty of work, and rightfully so. They need it.

https://www.fieldgulls.com/2022/8/19/23 ... hHb38M0GRQ