The defense was picking up sacks on Mitch Trubisky, Brett Hundley came up with a couple huge throws in the 4th quarter and the Packers got back in the win column. They still have a tough task ahead of them to get into the playoffs, but, for one day, they were heroes.

It has been a busy week and I’m already exhausted. Let’s cut the chit-chat and get to the film.

I wrote about the two big Hundley-to-Adams plays in the 4th quarter in One Big Play this week. You can read that here.

The Bad

I’m putting this in The Bad because of the outcome, but I really like this play design by the Bears.

It’s worth noting that the Bears have the worst All 22 angle in the league. This play takes place on the opposite side of the field and it might as well be taking place on Mars. This has been an issue for as long as the coaches film has been made available – and likely before that, though I have no visual evidence – and I doubt it will ever change.

3rd and 9. The Bears come out with a bunch route to the right side. The Packers are in Cover 2 Robber Zone Under, but it’s more than that. Josh Jones [27] is carrying the tight end in man coverage down the middle of the field. It’s possible this is Cover 3 with Jones taking the middle third, but the way he’s reacting appears to be in man coverage. Ha Ha Clinton-Dix [21] starts to drop to the middle – again, signaling Cover 3 – but he comes down as the Robber to take away a curl route at the sticks.

The bunch route consists of a go route in the middle, a quick curl at the sticks and a corner route. Jones picks up the go route, Clinton-Dix picks up the curl route and no one picks up the corner route.

That’s Dontrelle Inman [15] on the corner route and you can see how he gets open. Davon House [31] is the outside corner on that side. His job is to backpedal to the sticks and hand off a deeper route to Jermaine Whitehead [35] over the top. He does exactly that. Inman clears House and cuts to the corner under Evans.

Whitehead has his eye on the go route in the middle, holding him in place. Because of that, he’s late to rotate on Inman. Mitch Trubisky [10] delivers the ball as Inman is coming out of the break and Inman is wide open.

I can’t put too much of this on Whitehead; even if he plays this perfectly, that’s a good cut by Inman and good timing on the throw by Trubisky. He should have reacted quicker to Inman clearing House, but I understand being torn between the corner route and the go route in the middle. This was a good call and execution on the part of the Bears.

10:48 remaining in the game, Packers up 16-6. The defense had held up well and things were looking pretty good at this point.

1st and 10 for the Bears from the Packers 46. Josh Bellamy [15] is lined up in the slot to the left. Packers are in Cover 1 Man, with Davon House [31] lined up across from Bellamy. Josh Jones [27] is the single deep safety.

Bellamy gets an outside release and burns House from the jump. Beyond the immediate burning, Bellamy gives a stutter-step 20 yards downfield, creating even more space between himself and House.

Meanwhile, Jones is held in place in the middle by the route of Adam Shaheen [87] running straight up the field. He pushes his way through Blake Martinez [50] and Jake Ryan [47], and I think there’s a bit of miscommunication between them. As Shaheen runs for freedom, Martinez and Ryan both jump up on the curl route out of the backfield. Ryan eventually realizes he’s supposed to drop, but it’s not in time. Jones sees Shaheen running uncovered through the middle and is forced to stay over the top of that route.

With no safety help over the top and House getting burned, this is an easy throw for Mitch Trubisky [10].

I was all set to come into this space and put the blame on Jones, but I can’t do that. If Jones vacates the middle, Shaheen is wide open and it’s an even easier throw for Trubisky. I don’t love the idea of putting Jones – a guy who is still learning the safety position at this level – as the sole safety while having Ha Ha Clinton-Dix [21] playing down in the box, but that’s not the fault of Jones. He did what he was supposed to do. Ultimately, this falls on House for getting roasted off the line and Ryan for not dropping back in his deep middle zone under Shaheen.

The Good

Coming into this game, the Bears were averaging 130 yards per game on the ground. When these teams met in week 4, the Bears rushed for 103 yards (although they ended up running more than anticipated late in that game, as a way to run out the clock after attempting to murder Davante Adams). Due to the dominance of the Packers defensive line, the Bears only rushed for 55 yards in this game. I wanted to highlight a few of those plays, starting with this one starring Mike Daniels [76].

He starts this play in the middle, slightly to the right. His job is to hit the center hard and drive him back, and he does it magnificently. He launches off the line and immediately gets Hroniss Grasu [55] off-balance. Daniels drives Grasu across the formation and ends up backing him into Jordan Howard [24].

To reiterate: Daniels uses the body of Grasu – a grown man – to tackle Howard in the backfield on a run going to the opposite side of the line.

It’s worth bringing up Dean Lowry [94] and Clay Matthews [52] on the left side. Lowry crashes into the line, opening up the outside for Matthews. If Howard had any ideas of escaping from the pressure of Daniels on the right, they were dashed by Lowry and Matthews collapsing the left side of the line.

As many teams have found out this year, it’s hard to keep Kenny Clark [97] out of the backfield. It’s even harder when you give him a giant hole to run through. Hroniss Grasu [55] shoots up the field to block Jake Ryan [47] while Cody Whitehair [65] is blocking out, opening a huge lane for Clark. Clark is looking to play off Grasu, but once he sees Grasu firing up field, Clark doesn’t hesitate. Adam Shaheen [87] is pulling from the left but he never has a chance to make this block. He gets just enough of Clark to stop him from stealing the handoff right out of Mitch Trubisky’s [10] hand.

That immediate pressure forces Tarik Cohen [29] to his left. It looks like there is a gap there, but it’s all a lie. Montravius Adams [90] is locked up with Josh Sitton [71]. It looks like a pretty even battle, but you can see Adams looking into the backfield and waiting for an opportunity to shed this block. He ducks his head in, sees Cohen heading to the outside, then comes back to the outside and gets off the block of Sitton to make the tackle.

Adams only played 7 snaps in this game but I like what I saw. Here’s hoping we see more of him going forward.

I wanted to show this angle just to get the big picture of this play. The Bears are running a bit of misdirection here, but it doesn’t fool the Packers defense. Jordan Howard [24] takes the handoff and tries to get the corner on the right, but it was not meant to be. The line is stacked all the way down, forcing him to string it out to the sideline. Clay Matthews [52] shoves Adam Shaheen [87] into the backfield on the end, ending any hope of Howard attempting to cut this up the field. Jake Ryan [47] gets close to the line but stays out of the main action. He’s able to scrape over the top of Matthews and tackle Howard in the backfield (with an assist from Davon House [31]).

Let’s talk about Tarik Cohen [29] running to the left. It looks like he has that entire side of the field open to run to, but it’s not quite as easy as all that. A few players to point out that could counter that:

Nick Perry [53]. He keeps an eye on Cohen and only releases down the line when he sees that Howard has the ball in his hands. If Cohen gets this ball, Perry could hold that edge and force Cohen to take a wide path to the outside.

Ha Ha Clinton-Dix [21]. He’s in the box at the beginning of the play. He angles in at the snap, but he keeps his head up. If Cohen gets this ball, he can loop outside of Perry.

Josh Jones [27]. He’s the single deep safety on this play. He looks at the post route on the left, looks to Howard, hesitates, then heads in the direction of Howard. If Cohen gets this ball, Jones is in a good position to come down in support Perry and Clinton-Dix.

It wasn’t just in the run game that the defensive line did well. They sacked Mitch Trubisky [10] five times in this game. Sacks have been tough to come by lately, so it was pretty nice to see this.

The dynamic duo of Mike Daniels [76] and Kenny Clark [97] get a good initial push up the middle. I say “good initial push” because that’s the nice way to say that they mauled the offensive line. If you’ve got time, just watch what Clark does to Cody Whitehair [65] a couple dozen times. It’s ridiculous.

Daniels basically does the same thing to Hroniss Grasu [55], but he’s a bit delayed on that move since he takes an initial chip from Josh Sitton [71] before swimming over to Grasu.

Watch Daniels keep his head up. As he is destroying Grasu, he sees a gap in the line to Trubisky’s right. Daniels gets off the Grasu block and breaks for the hole a split second before Trubisky does. Daniels hits Trubisky as he is attempting to escape and picks up the sack.

The great push up the middle by Daniels and Clark force Trubisky to move before he’s ready, and the vision of Daniels stops any hope of a quarterback scramble.

One of the things I hate seeing on this defense is a player dropping into a defensive zone and just sitting there. I’ve seen entirely too many throws go to a receiver sitting between two defenders in zone while they stick to their spots and allow the reception to happen. I understand the need for structure in a defense, but I hate how inflexible this defense seems to be at times.

Blake Martinez [50] is the linebacker in the middle on the defensive left. At the snap, he backpedals wide and gets to his zone. Tarik Cohen [29] is running an out-and-in out of the slot on Martinez’s side. Josh Jones [27] is lined up across from Cohen and gives him a little bump before falling underneath and picking up Jordan Howard [24] out of the backfield.

Martinez sits in his zone and reads Mitch Trubisky [10]. When Trubisky comes back to his right and sees Cohen, he waits a beat and has to set his feet before firing. Martinez sees this and is able to jump under this route.

This is really nice from Martinez.

Let’s look at a couple plays from the offense before getting out of here.

The Packers love their dual ins/outs, and it works well here against Cover 1 Man.

On the right side of the line, Randall Cobb [18] and Jordy Nelson [87] are running in routes while Lance Kendricks [84] is running a post from just off the line. The single-high safety – Adrian Amos [38] – is aligned on the opposite side of the field.

The post of Kendricks drags his man to the middle and it also drags Nick Kwiatkoski [44], who drops from the middle under the route of Kendricks. Nelson also drags his man to the middle. That leads Cobb with some free room on the outside and he makes good use of it. He has a cushion before the snap and a good route allows him to keep some space between himself and his defender. Brett Hundley [7] delivers this ball on-time and on-target, hitting Cobb in stride and leading him to the middle.

All of that works perfectly. Cobb is able to catch the pass and turn upfield, under the tackle of his defender. When all is said and done, the Packers pick up 38 yards. It’s a route concept I’ve seen from the Packers a lot. Good call against this defense and great execution. (Combined with a less-than-ideal tackling angle from the Chicago cornerback, of course.)

3rd and 4, early in the first quarter. The Packers go five wide, with Ty Montgomery [88], Jordy Nelson [87] and Richard Rodgers [82] on the left side, while Lance Kendricks [84] and Davante Adams [17] are on the right side.

This is where Ty Montgomery as runner can help out in the passing game. It’s not just in the no-huddle game. This play took place immediately after Aaron Jones limped off the field, so the Bears saw Montgomery coming onto the field. But let’s think about this package for a moment. The Packers trot out 12 personnel (1 running back, 2 tight ends, 2 wide receivers). With those pieces, they can line up heavy for a legitimate run play or spread out the defense. In this case, they spread out the defense. What that means for the Bears in man coverage is that they have to line up a linebacker – Christian Jones [52] in this case – on Montgomery. That’s a mismatch and the Packers know it.

They give Montgomery a little help to spring him. Nelson is running a clear-out route up the field, with Montgomery running a slant underneath. It works perfectly: Jones gets caught up with Nelson, giving Montgomery a free release on the slant. Brett Hundley [7] releases the ball at the top of his drop and the Packers pick up 7 yards.

I want to show some pre-snap stuff for a second.

Eddie Jackson [39] is directing traffic before the snap and this could help Hundley with his read. Sam Acho [93] is showing blitz off the end of the line, and Jackson moving Prince Amukamara [20] over Rodgers before the snap pretty much tells Hundley that the blitz is coming. Acho could be bluffing, but with Amukamara over the top, that would likely mean that Acho would be dropping into zone, hoping to take away a quick throw.

So Hundley can read Acho. With Jones lined up over Montgomery on the outside, this is likely man coverage across the board. If Acho comes on the blitz, Hundley knows he has to get the ball out, but he also knows he has man coverage. Provided Montgomery gets space, it’s a quick release for Hundley. If Acho drops back, Hundley reads the zone. If he’s not in the throwing lane to Montgomery, Hundley throws there. If he does drop under Montgomery, Hundley is forced to look elsewhere, but he likely already has an idea in his mind of where he would go in that scenario.

There’s nothing hugely interesting about this play, but I like it. 3rd and 6. Brett Hundley [7] drops back to his right in a slightly moving pocket. Randall Cobb [18] pushes up the field and has a quick turn at the sticks. Cobb turns at the same time Hundley is loading up to throw. Kyle Fuller [23] never really has a chance to get to this pass. Nice route by Cobb and nice job by Hundley to get this ball out quickly. The Packers pick up 6 yards and the first down.

Make sure you look at the slick move by Jordy Nelson [87] out of the slot against Cre’von LeBlanc [22]. A jab step to the outside before coming back inside and he’s flying past LeBlanc. With the safeties over the top there’s not much room to fit this ball to Nelson, but I loved seeing this release from him.

Let’s close it out with this play. This is an RPO (Run Pass Option). Brett Hundley [7] sees the cushion Kyle Fuller [23] is giving Davante Adams [17] to the right and fires a quick pass in his direction.

Randall Cobb [18] has perfect timing on this block, not engaging until the second Adams catches the ball. That’s really impressive. Also impressive is Cobb’s block on Cre’von LeBlanc [22]. He has a good initial punch to knock LeBlanc back, then attacks and keeps blocking him downfield, clearing room for Adams. I’ve talked a lot about Cobb’s ability as a blocker and this is a perfect example.

Also impressive? Davante Adams juking the soul out of Fuller. It’s violent and beautiful and I want to watch it for the rest of my life.

You want more angles? I know you do. I know I do. Let’s get it.

Let’s watch that a bunch more times.

That’s good. That’s real good. Hit me with another.

Adams has done this more than a few times this season and I hope I never get tired of it.

Random Thoughts

Happy Death Day was great. Really, really great. It’s basically a slasher version of Groundhog Day. If that sounds appealing to you – and it should, because you’re a rational human being – you should check it out.

You know what else was great? Season 2 of Stranger Things. I didn’t think the second season could come close to doing what season 1 did, but it delivered in a big way. When all is said and done, I may end up liking this season better than the first.

The 4th quarter hasn’t been overly kind to Brett Hundley, but he made up for that with a huge 4th quarter in this game, posting a perfect QB Rating. He was 5/6 (83%) for 89 yards and a touchdown.

Hundley was also perfect on deep passes (15+ yards down the field). When targeting deep, he was 3/3 (100%) for 79 yards and a touchdown.

Both of Hundley’s huge completions to Adams in the 4th quarter were in the deep right direction, so it’s not surprise to see that come out on top as the yardage leader.

This shows Average Yards to Go vs. Average Yards Gained by down. There was not a single down where the Bears averaged more yards gained than yards to go. After some rough weeks, it was nice to see the defense put up a fight.

Albums listened to: Ellery – Lying Awake; Maggie Rogers – Now That the Light is Fading; Middle Kids – Middle Kids; Bleachers – MTV Unplugged; Feist – Pleasure; Lo Tom – Lo Tom;