The Smith boys showed up. Not a bevy of tackles between them, but both had sacks, and both had a lot of hurries to their credit. They were on Trubisky regularly, forcing his passes out a little earlier than the Bears wanted.
It was refreshing seeing more pass receivers available. The injury list has been killing us. Rodgers picked his shots well, and it did wonders in opening up the running game. The reverse was true. The run opened up a lot of shorter routes in passing. It's kind of like washing your hands. Hard to do it when there's only one hand. Need both.
Elgton Jenkins is our most important offensive lineman. They pointed that out last night, and I knew that beforehand. I wouldn't doubt the guy can also play QB, be an RB, FB, and WR. He's just plain athletic for his size. Like Dungy pointed out, the differences in how you set your body to play various positions plays a role in what a player can do. Jenkins, as he pointed out, can play any darned position out there on the offensive line. He looked pretty darned good at center, and was able to call out the assignments as well as Linsley. The guy should be an All Pro. Period. He's going to end up with one hell of a second contract or we're going to lose him. He becomes a UFDA in 2023. Sign him in 2022 to a long term contract, when the cap opens up.
No sacks out there. Rodgers stayed clean except for a couple of knock downs after the pass was gone. Credit to the blocking.
Tonyan is the TE we've been looking for. He's now on the same wave length as Rodgers, and finding the seams to sit down in. You can see it's becoming a comfort zone for Rodgers. It pairs nice with the Adams and Lazard WR routes. The passing game is a threat that needs to be addressed in every defensive game plan, because they can put points on the board. All they need now is a little more consistency. They need to finish games as strong as they start them.
Don't be fooled. Savage got two INTs because they were picking on him. Trubisky is a horrible QB, and responsible for both of them. It was a matter of the bears choosing Savage as the weakest link. But, we could have had two to four more picks from what I saw. It depends on how you view the plays. They got luck we didn't get them.
Kirksey? Not that good. Rashan Gary actually looks like he might be getting it. He's actually showing signs of being worth a pick. Not a first, but a pick. That's an improvement. Startling fact. He's only 22. He has a lot of growth ahead of him, and could actually end up pretty good. He's getting better every game. Being behind Z kind of hides his improvement.
I have become an Alexander fan. He probably is as good as they get out there. Interestingly enough, our secondary is not our problem on defense. it's in the front seven.
Pettine's soft defense is killing me. It's predictable, and it never even slows a defense down. They are simply going to score, and they'll take less time off the clock than they would if they played their straight up defense. What the hell are they thinking? They keep letting people up off their knees. You don't do that in the NFL, because there are times they will kick you square between the cheeks. I've reached a point that I'm obsessed about how he has to go after this year. I don't care if the win a Lombardi Trophy. It won't be because of what he's done. It will be in spite of what he's done.
Our kick-off coverage is not good. Players are not staying in their lanes. We're susceptible to some big returns if we aren't careful.
But, we did beat the Bears, and that alone makes this a very happy Monday!
CORRECTION MADE: SAVAGE, NOT KING AS ORIGINALLY POSTED.
