Thread: It's bad coaching as much as anything else

Originally Posted by PhilM

I guess comments similar to the one I'm about to make are buried underneath some other posts, but here's a thread that starts about coaching comments and hopefully will continue with coaching comments.

I know that there's plenty of blame to go around with the offensive offensive line (yeah, I meant two "offensives" for a reason) and Cutler's problems.

But WTF with the playcalling and coaching?

When we knew early on that Clay Matthews was a huge problem, why did we not keep a tight end in to help Webb with the blocking? We have plenty of other good receivers for Jay to throw to. We didn't need to constantly use the tight end as a receiver to help open up the passing game. (Although Davis did catch that one TD, I'll give you that.)

We have (had) Forte and Bush... a very potent backfield. Yet, the game was all pass, pass, pass for Cutler. The Packers knew it, and they had a great day against our o-line. We should have run to set up the pass.

We're not adjusting when adjustments are needed. That's poor coaching.

And somebody needs to introduce the screen play into Tice's playbook.

We would have fared much better (Cutler, O-line, receivers) if we had just mixed up the playcalling better. And had a coach that is not so incredibly stubborn that he can't see beyond himself.

If we're going to blame Cutler and the o-line, we should blame our coaches with AT LEAST equal measure.

Thoughts?

Phil, good post brother. Can't disagree with anything you said. You know I was upset with the gameplan, playcalling, lack of adjustments, intensity gap out there (let's just lump it all together under "coaching") too initially. But I became all the more so when I read Pompei's grading piece this morning. I posted a thread on it and copied the article if you wanna check it out. I admit after reading it and seeing his analysis that I was probably too critical of Cutler. He certainly didn't shine out there but the stats Pompei cited really were eye-openers from a coaching-failure standpoint.

There were 11 dropbacks where Webb was left isolated on Matthews. That resulted in a holding call, 2.5 sacks, a pick, and several ICs. No excuse for the coaching staff to not foresee and give Webb help. No secret that Webb ain't Jake Long. No secret that Matthews was coming every chance. No secret that keeping Spaeth/Davis in to assist Webb was for more beneficial than anything they might have added as receivers (not much). Basically it was the D's job to contain Rodgers and not let him beat us all by himself. They did that quite well. Can't complain about 16 offensive points and only 1 TD pass. Tice's job was to not let the only other single player who could beat us by himself, CM, do it too. He failed and miserably. As you said, it was a combination of not establishing the run 1st half, poor passing calls that ignored the short game, delayed/inadequate adjustments, and the above mentioned blocking scheme follies.

I think we ran ONE screen (which wasn't run well).
I don't recall a single slant.
No "Hester packages" as promised there would be.
Didn't use backfield guys as short receivers over the middle till the game was all but over.
Didn't "establish" the run until we were 2 scores down in the 3rd.
No roll-outs away from pressure.
And no determined effort to keep CM from winning the game largely by himself.

Epic Fail on the coaching staff and hard to understand why this was so difficult to prepare contingency plans for.

Tice has never been an OC before and it shows.

Originally Posted by bearsinhouston

Tice has never been an OC before and it shows.

Yeah, well he's supposed to be Mr. OL/run guru and he's supposed to have Bates there to be his vice-OC/passing assistant so that doesn't absolve him one bit. None of this stuff is rocket science and none of it wasn't easily foreseeable.

Other then the game plan which assumed Webb has turned a corner in his career the main flaw of the game plan was being so damn pass happy so early. We were using play action before selling the run. It didn't fool them one bit. I think not establishing the run early kept the I out of sync. Another gripe I had was when it was obvious they weren't going to give us anything deep why not shorter passing plays

I hope tice can grow as an oc because his first showing against a real team was pathetic. Maybe we are asking too much from a rook oc

Originally Posted by motownbear

Other then the game plan which assumed Webb has turned a corner in his career the main flaw of the game plan was being so damn pass happy so early. We were using play action before selling the run. It didn't fool them one bit. I think not establishing the run early kept the I out of sync. Another gripe I had was when it was obvious they weren't going to give us anything deep why not shorter passing plays

I hope tice can grow as an oc because his first showing against a real team was pathetic. Maybe we are asking too much from a rook oc

Again, none of this stuff (all true) is flippin' rocket science. Even for a competent rook OC.

But the trick is isolating the problem. Is it lovie who says stick to the script at all cost or is it tice being a rook coach or even a dumb ass coach which is also a possibility

We showed last season with garbage wr and bad oline we could still over come that with a different game plan so to me it is tice

Originally Posted by MPBears68

Again, none of this stuff (all true) is flippin' rocket science. Even for a competent rook OC.

The competent part is what is being questioned.

Lovie, and his assistants have always showed an arrogance. and this gameplan showed it. Instead of trying to run on them(and we showed when we did, we could) we wanted to go out there and show off our new toys and our new look O rather then trying to win the game.