It was refreshing to sit back and watch football this past weekend and enjoy the games. It was Championship Sunday for the major football conferences. There were some great matchups in the NFL. There were upsets and surprises galore.
One of those surprising games was played Monday night. The Cincinnati Bengals were playing without their standout quarterback Joe Burrow, whose season was cut short three weeks ago. Before last week, the Bengals backup QB, Jake Browning, had not had a meaningful start in a game since 2018, when he played for the University of Washington.
All Browning did was throw for 354 yards, while completing 32 of 37 passes. The mastermind behind this game was their offensive coordinator, Brian Callahan. Callahan started the game with short passes to the edge, most were at or behind the line of scrimmage. He then started to open up the playbook, calling plays that worked well with Browning’s skillset. The Bengals upset the heavily favored Jaguars, who were playing at home. A win would propel Jacksonville into a tie for the best record in the AFC.
The game also proved how inept Luke Getsy has been as the offensive coordinator for the Bears. Getsy rode in on the coattails of Aaron Rodgers, and has not shown anything once he came to Chicago.
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Luke Getsy cannot create games plans that play to the strength of the elite talent Justin Fields possesses. Looking back at Chicago’s last game and comparing it to what we witnessed Monday night shines a beacon on the problem. The problem is Getsy.
After keeping Fields bottled up with 15 passes thrown at or behind the line against Minnesota, the Vikings inevitably scored a late touchdown to lead 10-9, late in the 4th quarter. The game plan was a failure. Only when the game was in the last minute, did Getsy allow Fields a chance to get the ball downfield to his receivers. Fields responded and led the Bears on their first game-winning drive of the season.
There are career decisions that need to be made during the last five games of the season.
Being forced to decide on the future of Jusin Fields, when he has been misused his entire career in Chicago, is criminal.
@Barry.. he’s an UDFA rookie… he also won as many games as Fields this year. My comments on Bagent are directed at his pocket presence and mental capabilities. Not his stat line.
Luke Getsy is a disaster. There have to be better ways to get playmakers the ball in space on the outside when the box is stacked than to throw the same dumb WR screen 15 times. Fields tries to do too much because the offense he’s operating in is boring and unimaginative. If Mike McDaniel were in charge of this offense it’d be scoring 40 points per game.
@Sam K Tyler Bagent has three TDs, 6 INTs, and a QBR of 50.
Arnie I fully understand audibles sir. Including the simple “kill” call. There’s also always the complete switch to run/pass, with true audibles… as you said, based on the D alignment. Fields is rarely making adjustments to put the team in a better play, or as u said, better route combinations. Manyyyy plays are also choice routes based on pre and post snap reads. I get it.. not everything is a literal audible. I am in my 40’s tho, so I do appreciate the throwback to 70’s ball 🙂
@Sam K So, what you’re saying is that you really don’t quite understand what an “audible” is, or at least that you use the term very very loosely? FYI, most NFL plays include a variety of calls that a QB makes at the line of scrimmage, pre-snap, based on how the defense aligns. That does not mean he is “changing the play” or has the freedom to do so. It simply means that if the defense, for example, is showing a single high safety, with 8 in the box, then a receiver’s route may change from a curl to an… Read more »