Still Gotta Come Through Chicago

Late-Night Thoughts in Week 2

Happy Friday Chicago!

The Federal Reserve slashed interest rates for the first time since March 2020 Wednesday, opening up the possibility that more mergers and acquisitions could come to fruition in the remaining three and a half months of the year.

Never mind. That’s for my other job.

(But if you’re looking for a house — good news.)

What is there to talk about here? My mind has been in the gutter all week.

On Sunday night, I was calling and texting friends and family pretty much nonstop from game end until I went to bed (way too late for a school night, I may add).

I was throwing myself at people like Vic Mensa in the song Liquor Locker, but while he’s vying for a girl to come over in that song, I was vying for someone — anyone — to discuss the Bears-Texans game with me.

It wasn’t the liqua liqua liqua that had me talking (talking) way too much — maybe a little — but instead the absolute catastrophe that was a six-point Bears loss on Sunday Night Football.

On Monday, I woke up with the feeling you’d have if you admonished your girlfriend for talking to a guy in the bar all night, only to find out after that it was her cousin (he had moved away, and it had been a long time).

It wasn’t the incessant outbound calls and texts that embarrassed me, though. Yes, I talked to one friend for an hour on the phone. Yes, I sent minutes-long voice messages to three others, with little-to-no response.

But that’s just what we call proactive therapy. And if you’re laughing at that… uh, men’s mental health matters, guys? If you got a problem with that, 2005 is calling, they want you back.

It was the reactionary takes I was throwing out that really had me cringing at myself, not the outreach itself.

Some of you may recall that I used to write this newsletter on Sundays, and man am I happy that that wasn’t the case for this week’s edition.

By Monday, I felt better. By Wednesday, I felt I finally had my head back on straight. And now I’m ready to discuss a game that is now four days old.

This was a good lesson for me in the danger of in-the-moment rash decisions. Thankfully I did not have any decisions to make.

Had I been running the Bears, you would have found Nate Davis’ #64 scratched off his locker with finger nails, and then a blood drip leading up to my office, where you would have found me asleep at my desk — beer empties around the computer — with the New England Patriots GM asking on the other line, “Are you still there? How many picks did you say for our best guy on the O-Line?”

I told you to enjoy the preseason, I told you those were the good days. No pressure, plenty of realistic yet ambitious expectations, and a whole lot to look forward to.

Now the knives are out, the grenades are coming over the walls, and those walls are caving in. Now it’s Week 3, and the weight of the world is on our shoulders.

It’s time to find a way out.

I’m still happy to be here. I’d rather feel pressure than nothing, which is what I generally have felt in the week leading up to Game 3 over the last few years.

Facing criticism, the Fed Chair waited, waited, and waited some more until he made the move to slash that rate by half a percentage point.

Monday, I waited. Tuesday, I waited. Wednesday, I waited. Thursday, I’m at the lectern and ready to roll.

Here is the skinny on your Chicago Bears, and the rest of the Chicago sports world, that you so desperately depend on me for. The level-headed newsletter scribe is here to give you what you need so you can enjoy your Friday and Saturday.

Let’s get into it.

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Alright, Bears fans.

The first thought process goes like this: the Bears, as touchdown underdogs, on the road against a Super Bowl contender, had the chance to win on the final drive of the game.

The second goes like this: the Bears had the worst offensive line performance of the season, in what was reminiscent of Bears games in years past, and that alone is going to sink what matters most: the QB. It’s also going to sink everything else, as it has done through two weeks — the rushing game, the passing game. It’s going to render our “weapons” useless. Not only is this season toast, but our long-term plans may be veering off course, too.

Like always, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

If we all didn’t watch the game Sunday, sure, a 6-point loss on the road in Week 2 would have been a fine outcome. I certainly didn’t expect us to win.

The problem is that, well, we did watch the game.

It was a jailhouse break on Caleb Williams from about the second drive on, and the Bears line not only looks no better than last year, it actually looks substantially worse.

If you had to describe what Williams faced on Sunday to someone who actually didn’t watch the game, it would be genuinely tough. It’s almost impossible to undersell.

I still fervently believe that Ryan Poles thought he upgraded an already improving offensive line this offseason, in a way that didn’t cost significant draft capital or long-term money.

The hope was that this group could be adequate — at least as good as last year’s offensive line, which has similar parts — until a true upgrade could be made in this upcoming offseason.

And I still don’t necessarily blame him for sticking to that thought process, and it is worth mentioning that Ryan Bates getting injured when he did likely through a wrench in Plan A.

But, at least for now, that thought process just hasn’t yielded the right results. And that’s a problem for the obvious reasons — wins and losses. But, for another now obvious reason, it’s also untenable to move forward without any change. And that second reason is the no. 1 overall draft pick’s physical and mental health, as well as his development.

Maybe it’s OK to give it another week or two. But if the situation is even near as bleak as it was against the Texans, Poles will have to make some sort of move — or moves — to change things immediately, even if it comes off as rash and reckless. Because what’s truly reckless is allowing your quarterback to be subject to that even just one more time.

There are plenty of clips floating around of this offensive lineman getting beat, and that offensive lineman getting beat. And I mean plenty. Eight Texans had more than one QB pressure on Sunday, and Williams was “under pressure” on about half of his pass snaps (this stat was misread widely). But the truth is that anytime he was not throwing right after receiving the snap, he was in immediate danger.

And I don’t mean in danger of being sacked. I mean danger.

He was the 6th fastest QB in terms of getting the ball out this past week, but that didn’t matter. He made a herculean effort to get out of a few sacks, and yet was still sacked seven times.

But what’s worse about the offensive line is that they appear to be in total disarray. They either have no idea who to block, or who to pick up. On runs, it’s the same, or the running back is going somewhere the offensive line is clearly not expecting them to go. That is documented well in this article.

I’ll stop here briefly to give my thoughts on Matt Eberflus.

His core strength is obviously the defense, and the defense has been phenomenal. The first place to evaluate when looking at a head coach is his group. And they’ve been one of the best in the league for about 12 games straight now, dating back to last year.

The Bears offense looked so bad, in fact, that it’s being largely glossed over how pedestrian the Bears made C.J. Stroud look, particularly in the second half.

But he’s also in charge of the challenges, both of which were god awful on Sunday. That’s the most visible thing fans can actually take into account when looking at an NFL head coach — like timeout usage and substitutions in the NBA — and he failed miserably there.

I don’t want to spend too much time here, but the process should be simple. If the Bears are breaking down specific referees in the offseason, they sure as shit should have a quick, surefire, and simple way to decide when to challenge and when not to.

That stunk of a poorly run operation, as did the pre-snap penalties in an away stadium filled with plenty of Bears fans.

I applaud Eberflus for playing starters more this preseason, but the fact is that the Bears have now looked woefully unprepared for September football for three straight years while he’s been at the helm.

Then there’s Shane Waldron, who has done absolutely nothing to ease my concerns over his job fitness in the first two weeks. Travis Homer, again? A screen to Gerald Everett, again?

I may not know anything about what’s going into playcalling, or what’s happening behind the scenes. But the Travis Homer and Gerald Everett usage alone is enough to get a novice to scratch his head.

Waldron from the start was a fine offensive coordinator pick, in theory. But also such a Bears pick. He was safe, he was the non-innovation pick. The Bears couldn’t have just hired Klint Kubiak, who has led the Saints to two blowout wins in a row to start the season.

Texans Head Coach DeMeco Ryans blitzed the Bears more than he had any other opponent this year and last, with most of it coming after that first drive. He found a clear weakness and exploited it over, and over, and over. The Bears seemingly made zero return adjustments of their own.

D'Andre Swift, while dynamic, is clearly not a bad-offensive line back. Now, I'm not sure anyone is. But, if I can be a meatball for a second, there are clearly players who understand "hit the hole, and fucking go" better than others. Swift is not one of them.

Swift averaged negative 0.5 yards before contact on Sunday, which put him 31st in the league among the backs who qualified. That is an offensive line problem, but it also suggests we need a back who is going to hit a fleeting hole and not think twice.

It’s a good thing we have two of those backs — Khalil Herbert and Roschon Johnson — on the roster. It’s a bad thing they’ve largely been absent from gameplay.

Swift can be used in other ways.

I could not care less that D.J. Moore was clearly peeved on television. In fact, I would be more concerned if he weren’t. But I really don’t care who he was mad at, because the fact is, he was probably mad at everyone. Who wouldn’t be? It’s called frustration, an emotion he tends to be much better at managing than his positional peers.

It’s not easy to do anything when the offensive line doesn’t hold up. We’ve learned that lesson time and again. But how we can’t give Moore more looks is beyond me.

It’s all secondary to the trenches, but not putting your best foot forward with your best players is a coaching problem. You can’t just throw your hands up and look up at the press box at Poles, hoping a Pro-Bowl center magically appears.

Williams does not have a touchdown pass yet, but he does have two dropped touchdowns to point toward. And no other rookie quarterback has thrown a touchdown pass to this point.

He, truly, is the least of my concerns. And contextually, I thought he played well. He also showed a toughness that I imagine many didn’t think he had.

Williams himself is not a problem. The problem is what could happen to him if the other problems aren’t mitigated. But I feel like I’ve nailed that pretty obvious point home enough.

The Bears are amazing, man. Death, Taxes, and a largely inept offense because of a glaring issue that was addressable in the offseason.

One variable changes — the quarterback — and nothing else does. But people will still blame the quarterback (they shouldn’t be allowed to vote).

All of the above is true, at least as far as I can tell.

So now, let’s turn this car back around. Son, I’m not actually taking you to prison. I just wanted you to know that, if you keep acting the way you’re acting, you could end up there.

There is a middle ground that we need to float back to.

We obviously were all way too overzealous around what Williams could do from the get-go. We knew if there was a key injury to the offensive line, it could be bad. Maybe not this bad, but bad. We knew that Nate Davis (who has been limited in practice this week, with a groin) sucked.

We also hoped the defense was for real. They are, and they’re keeping us in games. We also hoped Tory Taylor was the man, and he is.

We knew we’d probably lose that game, and we did.

It’s just Week 2. I’d be saying that if the score was 40-13, and I’m saying it now.

There’s plenty of room for improvement over the next two weeks against teams that look worse off than they did a week ago.

No matter what, the line is unlikely to be as bad this week. Sure, the blueprint is out, but hopefully our offensive coordinator will consider that in his week of preparation.

The reality is that, if the Bears win Sunday, the offensive line problems won’t go away. But a lot of the noise, a lot of the anxiety — that will go away.

Colts’ defensive tackle DeForest Buckner just hit the IR, and they made Malik Willis look competent last week. There’s reason to believe that even a shoddy Bears offense can move the ball on this group on Sunday.

To this point, the Colts defense ranks 30th in DVOA. They’ve accumulated just four sacks in two weeks.

The Bears are going to turnover Anthony Richardson, the only question is how many times.

If the offensive line is just bad, and not awful, and the Bears win this game on Sunday, the entire tune of this season turns just like that. Then you come home to play the Rams, who are currently a shell of themselves.

Prove to us it’s not the same old story, Bears. We’re banking on it.

#BEARDOWN

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I was so not in the mood to write about baseball today, but the Sox delivered.

The Cubs are not making the playoffs, which I’ve written for three newsletters in a row. This is the fourth.

But onto the Sox.

Brittany Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal published an article in The Athletic today that is full of bombshells, even if you were already completely and totally aware that Jerry Reinsdorf is hamstringing both of the organizations he owns.

It is legitimately devastating. I cannot recommend it enough.

I will go through some of my favorite parts of the article — dubbed “An owner who ‘thinks he knows everything’ led the White Sox to historic disaster” — here.

Ghiroli and Rosenthal spoke with 40 current and former White Sox players and staff for this one. And they started in the right spot: the team plane. Because, as we always suspected, all of this — all of the terrible shit — goes from the top, down.

The White Sox don’t hand out big contracts, which already puts them at a disadvantage. They also don’t treat players well, though, so it’s not as if there are mid-level players falling through the cracks to them.

Nothing about the organization says 2024, or even 2016.

Kenny Williams, of course, was one of the only people to speak *on the record*. Because he is, whether he realizes it or not, a beneficiary of Reinsdorf’s foolishness.

Williams, the article said, continually butted into business when his time had past. He decided to get more “hands on” in 2020, right around the time Rick Hahn had seemingly — against all odds — turned things around.

Williams also hired his son, who would continually butt heads with another top scout, the latter of which was Hahn’s favorite. In other words, someone who was actually qualified to have the job.

The divide manifested further in the polarizing lieutenants each man chose. Williams had his son, Ken Williams Jr., who eventually ascended to assistant farm director. Hahn trusted Jeremy Haber, another Harvard grad. The younger Williams butted heads with many in player development and, despite his inexperience, was quick to offer dissenting views.

I always got the impression that Hahn was a smart guy that had his hands tied by the morons around and above him. You could tell that in his interviews. Like when ownership had decided to hire Tony La Russa, for instance.

The White Sox have not invested properly in technology or analytics, mostly because Jerry is “not an analytics guy.” But also, likely, because he’s cheap.

When the Sox did invest halfheartedly in data, they had two sets of data — internal and external — and people within the organization could not decipher the two. Thus, it was useless.

"It was comical," a former employee said. "no one knew what was what."

The article also said that the White Sox organization basically does nothing to help their players improve. Seriously, like nothing.

"Minor league pitchers with high walk totals were told things like ‘work on your command,’” the article read.

This also jives with the injury issues. White Sox players are clearly given no instruction, and no details, around how to actually conduct themselves in the offseason. Or even before the game! That’s bad for good players, and even worse for players who don’t want to take care of themselves anyway — see Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada, etc.

Jerry Reinsdorf, after last year blew up, also decided to hire Chris Getz without interviewing a single external candidate. Not only is that just bad procedure, it also keeps the White Sox completely insulated from what the rest of the league is doing.

Then again, that may be what Reinsdorf wants.

He went above Hahn’s head to hire La Russa, which again, we all suspected. But it turns out that A.J. Hinch was on the way to Chicago, likely ready to accept the job, when he heard of the La Russa hiring.

I also forgot about this wonderful nugget:

This below blurb is so incredibly dumb, but also could make me cry, given my Bulls fandom.

The article goes into much more detail on just how behind and incompetent the Sox are.

But I keep coming back to the plane, and this:

Congrats, Jerry. Now you have the worst team in baseball history, and the worst play-by-play guy in the booth.

No thought about the players, no thought about the fans. He is, without a doubt, the worst owner in American professional sports.

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