A few gameday observations from the Chicago game

[StickierBuns]

A road win in the division to kick off the season, sweet.....one at a time. 

• Watching Caleb Williams for 1.5 quarters to start and I was like 'holy shit'. He looked good. Super quick and elusive, like he was by far the best athlete on the field. I get why some GMs could get intoxicated with that, I really do. He was decisive. I was blown away in a way like 'shit, Johnson turned on the light bulb for him'. Vikings' defenders had him and then he was like magic in eluding them. Not good things to think when you hate the Bears. But we saw what happened eventually and he's what he was and will be. JMO, but he'll prove to be a bust. I think he's already down that path, ChicagoNation is gutted.
  
• Shout out to Will the Thrill, what a great kick on that 59 yarder and this was outside. Its different outside (especially Soldier Field on Lake Michigan) and having that 59 yarder tie for longest in Soldier Field history says it all. It changed my mood heading into halftime. JJ hitting Nailor and then Reichard nailing it felt like a momentum shift to me. The team got a lift.
  
• Bad toss on the Pick 6. That bothered me more than anything he had done in the first half. I felt it squashed a possible momentum swing and an 11 point lead felt huge at that point. The first half stuff didn't bother me, he looked poised and confident through the whole thing. But that throw did. 
  
• Back couldn't have been further against the wall. The haters were out in full force. The announcers sounded sorry for him. But I kept watching his face. Nothing but stoic determination and he didn't change one bit with his interaction with the team. Same guy. Focused. I didn't see any crisis of confidence at all, to the contrary actually. And the rest is history. He will make mistakes and then he will learn from them in the same game, almost real time. I mentioned this very fact in a thread 3 weeks ago and we all saw it. 
  
• Thank you Myles Price....no more worries on punt returns.
  
• Some drops from AT, Jefferson, etc. Odd.
  
• Very encouraged by the interiors of both lines. Both should incrementally improve each game.
  
• Jordan Mason is a beast. 
  Alec Lewis
  @alec_lewis 17h
  "Jordan Mason averaged 3.86 yards after contact last night, per @TruMediaSports. That's the highest a RB has posted in a game for the Vikings since head coach Kevin O'Connell got the job."
  
• Very interesting how KOC is going to use Aaron Jones, basically as a deep WRer sometimes. I love it. Mismatches galore for defenses. 
  
• Donovan Jackson, that's the stuff.
  
• We need Darrisaw back ASAP. Saying Skule is the weak link is an understatement.
  

As Colin Cowherd said, and he's been one of the few vocal detractors: 'He looked horrible for 3 quarters and then he looked like Joe Montana'. Reps, reps and more reps. This was an 11 point game at that point, it wasn't like this was a 24 point lead. These weren't garbage time drives, in fact they cut the lead to 5 very quickly.

[viking012]

Good post!  Agree with you on everything.  I think the reason why AT and Jets had some drops is because JJ was gunning them in there on them.  Assuming he had a little more mustard on it than normal.

Cant agree more on CD.  Also cant wait until Smith and Addison are back!

[MaroonBells]

Yep, momentum and the psychology of the game is such a huge factor. I agree that the out to Nailor was the turning point. It wasn't an emormous play, but it was a laser and it seemed to light a fire under JJ and the offense.

[Montana Tom]

When Caleb Williams got past the first two scripted drives, he basically fell apart.
I think that reflects on his inability to think and process information independently (and fast).
I saw him play in college, after he was already annointed as the likely #1 pick and I was unimpressed. Later in the season, after a couple losses (USC lost four games his final season there), he came across as an emotional whiner.

The old saying, "you get what you deserve" is playing out in Chicago right now.

[greediron]

Good post!  Agree with you on everything.  I think the reason why AT and Jets had some drops is because JJ was gunning them in there on them.  Assuming he had a little more mustard on it than normal.

Cant agree more on CD.  Also cant wait until Smith and Addison are back!

Yeah, Jets let those balls get into his body.  He wasn't ready for the heat.


The thing that impressed me more on the long FG was that the initial spot was messed up.  There was some confusion on the broadcast, but it sounded like the refs had the ball 5 yards closer initially and the moved it back.  That made me wonder how Will would handle that?  A long FG, on fresh sod, in Chicago.  Now tack on 5 yards.

But he boomed it, lucky it wasn't blocked, but he nailed it.

[badgervike]

[purplefaithful]

I agree with just about everything Sticky, but not re: CW

Not ready to call him a bust yet. In fact, I am even maybe a bit more nervous as Ive seen what he can do with Johnson while being disciplined in his play.

His off-script is stuff of nightmares for defenses. If the bulb does go off this year? I think his ceiling is amazingly high.

[MaroonBells]

I agree with just about everything Sticky, but not re: CW

Not ready to call him a bust yet. In fact, I am even maybe a bit more nervous as Ive seen what he can do with Johnson while being disciplined in his play.

His off-script is stuff of nightmares for defenses. If the bulb does go off this year? I think his ceiling is amazingly high.

I think if you let him play backyard football and don't try to force a square peg into a round hole, you might win a lot of games. But then you render Ben Johnson useless, and you might ruin the kid long term. I suppose it's probably best to keep teaching him to play from the pocket and hope that it eventually syncs. Chicago will not be a pushover though. Dennis Allen has their defense playing well.

[viking012]

Love this!!  Need more of these.

[JR44]

I re-watched the game (love the NFL+ 30 minute replays) and watching in a more rational state, the first 3 quarters for JJ were really not as awful as they seemed watching it live. As opposed to the 4th quarter when he was getting great protection, he was getting instant pressure on him most plays. He had two huge drops by Jefferson and Thielen on 3rd down which would have kept drives going and helped him build some momentum. I didn't think the passes were thrown too hard, they seemed just right and where they needed to be, Jefferson was coming back for the ball just didn't create a basket for the ball and Thielen didn't focus on the catch all the way through. In addition, he missed out on another potential 3rd down 1st down when Jefferson inexplicably ran the route 1 yard short of the first. That is 3 drives that he could stayed on the field and built on a big 1st down conversion. The defense keeping it close was huge and then I think Mason helped picked the offense up, not just in the yardage he was getting, but the powerful way he was running, think it gave the team some swagger back.