Chicago Bears game coaches film analysis

I'm not meaning to rail on the officials, but this was inexcusable and did cost us a TD on a drive when CK fumbled later:


This is the "hold" Boldin was called for.....

yet on the same freaking play this guy has Gore by the back of his jersey Ummmmm horse collar?

Still no horse collar?????

STILL NO HORSE COLLAR????!?!?!?!? The official has not one, but TWO eyes on the play - Gore is taken to the ground......
I'm sorry but there's no excuse for that.....

Originally posted by Canadian9erfan:
I am not saying Carrier is the answer at all. Just saying he made some big catches down the field and i dont remember McDonald ever doing that. Yes he dropped 1 pass, one pass that hit both of his hands! When you are known for dropping balls and you get your name called to make a play, MAKE IT. He was a 2nd round pick and we are not getting 2nd round pick production.

Delanie Walker was known for dropping balls, but he also made some good plays here and there and i think everyone would much rather still have him here (he is killing it in Tenn). If we want to use McDonald as a 2nd TE and a blocker then fine, but i do not trust him running any route down the field and actually catching the ball. We need to limit TE drafting to later rounds and focusing on 6'6 or 6'7 guys who we can throw jump balls to in the endzone. We lack that type of WR/TE and it hurts us in red zone.

I think it's easier to teach a big-bodied WR how to block than it is to teach a stone-hand TE how to catch. I'm willing to give Vance the benefit of the doubt. He basically played WR at Rice and all he needs is a couple of big catches to get his confidence up. But carrier is a more natural catcher since he's basically a WR converted to TE. He could be a better blocking Jimmy Graham if we nurture him and give him touches.

We also need to use Bruce Ellington to stretch the field. The guy ran a 4.3-4.4 40 time. Why isn't he our Percy Harvin or Desean Jackson?

^ Ya, he's staring Boldin down, mistake no1 but look at the pass itself. If there was an arch to it and placed in front of Boldin that's a TD. That ball was poorly thrown along wit the fact he was staring Boldin down. Look where Boldin is when the ball is intercepted, it is intercepted at the 30 and Boldin is at about the 28. Not only was the pass low but it was behind Boldin.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
I'm not meaning to rail on the officials, but this was inexcusable and did cost us a TD on a drive when CK fumbled later:


This is the "hold" Boldin was called for.....

yet on the same freaking play this guy has Gore by the back of his jersey Ummmmm horse collar?

Still no horse collar?????

STILL NO HORSE COLLAR????!?!?!?!? The official has not one, but TWO eyes on the play - Gore is taken to the ground......
I'm sorry but there's no excuse for that.....

There's actually 4 eyes on that. 2 officials at the goal line on either side.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

I'm not meaning to rail on the officials, but this was inexcusable and did cost us a TD on a drive when CK fumbled later:


This is the "hold" Boldin was called for.....

yet on the same freaking play this guy has Gore by the back of his jersey Ummmmm horse collar?

Still no horse collar?????

STILL NO HORSE COLLAR????!?!?!?!? The official has not one, but TWO eyes on the play - Gore is taken to the ground......
I'm sorry but there's no excuse for that.....

Totally agree...that call was BRUTAL!!! That would have been 17-0, which means we would have been up 24-7 at half and 27-7 after the first drive of the second half. I'm almost positive the outcome of the game is different.

Encouraged. They were little things that he has done before but just had a bad night. Hopefully this drives home the point of detail and not taking anything for granted. If they remain grounded and work hard after a loss where they should have won easily I think we see a different determined team going forward. I think this one that got away will replay in their minds all season as to not let this happen again.

The only thing Kap needs to do is throw the deep ball before the wr is deep. We need more than 1 deep threat but we need to take those shots down the field. That boldin throw was on a rope but if he lays it out there that's a td. he'll get there. I liked some of his check downs but I think the pass protection was inconsistent and got into his head, he got happy feet and that happens when you're under pressure for a lot of your drop backs. that being said failures all around and we still had a chance to tie the game. he still led us right down the field converted big 3rd and 4th downs and almost converted a td on 4th. A catch crab admitted he has to come up with. The sky wasn't falling and everyone knows we're the better team we just have to execute like we're the better team instead of thinking the other team is going to lay down.

Originally posted by Phil:
^ Ya, he's staring Boldin down, mistake no1 but look at the pass itself. If there was an arch to it and placed in front of Boldin that's a TD. That ball was poorly thrown along wit the fact he was staring Boldin down. Look where Boldin is when the ball is intercepted, it is intercepted at the 30 and Boldin is at about the 28. Not only was the pass low but it was behind Boldin.

i disagree that would have been a completion but he should have laid it out there. honestly we don't really run those type of plays enough imo. kap doesn't have to make those throws, i can recall just 1 to lloyd in the preseason and then this pass usually they go to vd and he can drop them in there to him. he has to do that with other people as well.

i think back to the bomb that vd caught against tampa bay.. so he CAN make those throws he just has to be called on to make those throws MORE. we need to take our shots down the field to stretch the defense and kill them with the underneath yards after catch stuff.

i think kap did a decent job on checking down against the bears. but overall he had a bad game and he's allowed to. he'll just work harder and be determined to not make those same mistakes again.

Here's the breakdown of Gore's big run - it's why we can't really abandon the read-option, it's still a very dangerous play.


We're going to "Z" down with the lineman, Staley is going to move right the 2nd level and McDonald is going to come on to the DE for a kickout block. He actually does a superb job of swinging his hips around to make an adjustment for this block.


You see Staley get to the MLB and McDonald coming at the DE. The OLB on that side has to respect CK's running, so he swoops to the outside.


you see how tough of a spot the LB's are in.

McDonald does a great job of adjusting at the last second and sealing off the DE this springs Gore. With the OLB having to take CK - look at all that beautiful new green grass.


Perfect lane opened up for Frank - now if only the officials didn't tackle him......

Originally posted by Canadian9erfan:
I think its safe to say Vance McDonald in the 2nd round was a terrible pick. He has stone hands and should have been a 5th-6th round pick. Carrier ( I think thats how its spelt) did more in one half of that game than McDonald has done in over a year.

The game came down to
1. Penalties
2. Kaepernick turning the ball over

We limit either of those 2 things and we win the game.

Time management and use of TO's is clearly something the staff have no clue how to utilize and I am no longer expecting us to get better in this category.

Disagree....it's all how you are used. We used McDonald in the passing game once and CK threw a bullet completely behind him from less than 10 yards away. Conversely, McDonald has THE key block on Gore's long TD run. That said, I am very surprised we didn't use McDonald in the VD-role (pass catcher) but I also saw that he got hurt for a big part of the game but came back in late so they probably just stayed with Carrier in that role and McDonald as the primary run blocker.

Originally posted by thl408:
The 49ers do run pick plays when appropriate, which it was not in this game as CHI played zone, exclusively. Pick plays are used to bust man coverage.

Well that makes sense lol...thanks man, I would love to see Kap look at his check downs more instead of forcing the ball into tight spaces...sometimes you got be the manager not the game changer.

Originally posted by Phil:




^ Ya, he's staring Boldin down, mistake no1 but look at the pass itself. If there was an arch to it and placed in front of Boldin that's a TD. That ball was poorly thrown along wit the fact he was staring Boldin down. Look where Boldin is when the ball is intercepted, it is intercepted at the 30 and Boldin is at about the 28. Not only was the pass low but it was behind Boldin.

Kap has a huge issue with throwing guys open and hitting guys in stride consistently and has an issue with putting a lob on his passes.

Originally posted by lamontb:
What are you seeing from Ahmad Brooks on tape? he seems to have peaked

Yeah, he was barely used. I think Fangio tried to spice it up with Lynch and Lemonier and that failed too. I'd hope he'd keep Lynch and Brooks out there AT THE SAME TIME and rush both from both SAM and WILL and see what happens...do some stunts like what we saw with McDonald starting inside and swinging out wide. Fangio is a bit too vanilla at times.

Originally posted by jonesadrian:

Originally posted by Phil:
^ Ya, he's staring Boldin down, mistake no1 but look at the pass itself. If there was an arch to it and placed in front of Boldin that's a TD. That ball was poorly thrown along wit the fact he was staring Boldin down. Look where Boldin is when the ball is intercepted, it is intercepted at the 30 and Boldin is at about the 28. Not only was the pass low but it was behind Boldin.

i disagree that would have been a completion but he should have laid it out there. honestly we don't really run those type of plays enough imo. kap doesn't have to make those throws, i can recall just 1 to lloyd in the preseason and then this pass usually they go to vd and he can drop them in there to him. he has to do that with other people as well.

i think back to the bomb that vd caught against tampa bay.. so he CAN make those throws he just has to be called on to make those throws MORE. we need to take our shots down the field to stretch the defense and kill them with the underneath yards after catch stuff.

i think kap did a decent job on checking down against the bears. but overall he had a bad game and he's allowed to. he'll just work harder and be determined to not make those same mistakes again.

That's a hard one to analyze because there is a receiver running deep on almost every play. What do you mean by "deep threat" it's a term that's used a lot, but I think sometimes it means different things. Are we meaning someone who can go vertical and make the plays or plays designed with multiple deep routes where a good route runner will get open in the soft spots deep downfield?

Deep shots are great, but only if the play is there to be made. Teams are trying to make us work the short to mid outside zones. They are actively trying to take away the middle of the field and protect against the run. So, it's not like there are tons of shots deep downfield to take, teams rarely line up in man coverage against us, the Corners are almost always pressed off without safety help.

I do agree though, that if we are able to his some deep back shoulder/comback routes we'll be much more dangerous.

Originally posted by jonesadrian:

Originally posted by Phil:
^ Ya, he's staring Boldin down, mistake no1 but look at the pass itself. If there was an arch to it and placed in front of Boldin that's a TD. That ball was poorly thrown along wit the fact he was staring Boldin down. Look where Boldin is when the ball is intercepted, it is intercepted at the 30 and Boldin is at about the 28. Not only was the pass low but it was behind Boldin.

i disagree that would have been a completion but he should have laid it out there. honestly we don't really run those type of plays enough imo. kap doesn't have to make those throws, i can recall just 1 to lloyd in the preseason and then this pass usually they go to vd and he can drop them in there to him. he has to do that with other people as well.

i think back to the bomb that vd caught against tampa bay.. so he CAN make those throws he just has to be called on to make those throws MORE. we need to take our shots down the field to stretch the defense and kill them with the underneath yards after catch stuff.

i think kap did a decent job on checking down against the bears. but overall he had a bad game and he's allowed to. he'll just work harder and be determined to not make those same mistakes again.

IMO he needs to work with Whitfield on getting an arch/lob on his passes with a softer touch. A little rainbow on that pass, laid out in front of Boldin and it's a TD. He can do it, just not consistently. And we design way too many plays with stationary receivers.

Too soon for me. But thanks!