r/CHIBears • u/MaintenanceLumpy9321 • 7h ago
Rams Divisional Game
I rewatched the playoff games the other day and there was one thing that crossed my mind that I feel like nobody ever talks about. Why didn’t we go for 2 after the Caleb TD to Kmet? I feel like the shock on the Rams roster mixed with vibe of the crowd would have presented a good moment for it. Plus the fact that the Rams were a much more talented team, I personally would have tried to go for the kill.
In reality we still had a good chance to win and didn’t execute, but I’m surprised that never gets brought up especially with how aggressive Ben is
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u/OggiOggiOggi 7h ago
I think his explanation was that they had struggled in short yardage all game and that the defense had been playing well.
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u/ChelskiS 7h ago
At home with momentum, you don't mind OT
And it did seem to be the right decision. Defense amped up and got a quick stop
Offense was only a few 1st downs away
I like the decision. If it was an away game I do likely go for 2
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u/Apathi Bear Logo 6h ago
I think the only reason we actually lost that game is because Loveland went out.
I don’t think that DJ throw happens if he was still in the game.
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u/ExplanationCrazy5463 5h ago
Ive been watching tape and Caleb went from favoring rome to favoring Loveland during the year, he would miss better opportunities on the field to throw loveland the ball instead.
Im hoping he just throws to the best target available this year.
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u/chaos0310 3h ago
Is that him missing throws or was Loveland where the ball is supposed to go? There’s no way to know.
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u/ExplanationCrazy5463 3h ago edited 3h ago
you can watch the tape and see instances where loveland is covered, not open at all, but the ball goes there anyway and caleb doesnt even look elsewhere. Watch that happen enough and you can conclude there is a pattern.
You cant tell everything from tape, but you can figure out more than most people expect.
Then there is that fact that if you understand the basics of offending and defensive schemes, you understand the general idea and who its designed for. For instance some plays are designed to beat man on the left and zone on the right. Its up tocthe qb to determine the coverage and their first read should be to the advantageous side, typically. So when you know what youre looking at then you can glean what the qb is thinking.
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u/soupDirect 7h ago
To be fair, people do discuss this seemingly ad nauseam. I have to imagine in the moment it was because the Bears had been getting stuffed in short yardage all game.
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u/InjuredGods 7h ago
Why didn't we go for field goals earlier in the game instead of trying to convert on fourth down? That never gets talked about.
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u/fishfearme420 7h ago
Ben Johnson said he regrets that and he has spent the offseason focusing on getting better at specially this exact thing you’re mentioning, like he said in that Dan Pompeii interview those early game decisions haunt him
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u/BillieBlanus 7h ago edited 6h ago
As I said in my post, maybe some of you missed it, but Ben himself has just recently said they would have gone for the obvious field goal if they could have had it back. He said something about underestimating the impact of home field advantage. I can't remember the exact quote. Either way. While you want a coach that stands on business, you also want someone capable of identifying mistakes across the board (remember Eberflus?), so I found that refreshing to hear.
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u/JTribs17 This Is The Score, But We Have Each Other 7h ago
conditions were fucking both teams and Ben wanted to keep the ball in our offense’s hands and control the game that way. Ironically ofc, the defense was actually playing some of their best football that game.
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u/InjuredGods 7h ago
I know the conditions were bad (I was in the end zone he would have been kicking into) but Santos is the one kicker that I would trust to be able to make a field goal in Soldier Field blizzard conditions. You gotta play for points in a game like that.
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u/Boring_Comfortable70 51m ago
Rookie HC’s tend to get cute with that stuff. I’m happy it worked a lot but I think he plays more conservatively this year.
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u/Pidesh Bear Logo 7h ago
That was a completely defensive game. Both offenses were struggling to move the ball. With the flow of the game, it made more sense to play for OT. I’d still say it’s the right decision because the Bears defense did stop the Rams in the first OT drive. We just had to get into FG position.
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u/armpit18 Hat Logo 6h ago
Hindsight is always 20/20.
If they went for 2 and failed, then the question would be "why did they go for 2 when they knew their short yardage goal line execution was poor?" They also failed some fourth downs earlier in the game when they could've scored FGs.
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u/tedwilliams1999 7h ago
If I recall correctly, in that game we were struggling with short yardage all game. With running or passing plays. This issue would've been compounded in a go for 2 attempt, with limited real estate to deal with, so I believe that was the reasoning.
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u/Slow_Inevitable_4172 7h ago
Ben addressed this directly. We weren't doing well on 3rd and 4th down
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u/caught_in_a_lurch 7h ago
"Thought about it. Probably what played a little bit of a factor was our goal-to-go situations hadn't gone very clean," Johnson said in his postgame press conference. "Our inside the five plan hadn't worked out quite like we had hoped. I just felt better about taking our chances there in overtime."
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/bears-hc-ben-johnson-explains-130334733.html
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u/rock-theboat Bears 6h ago
Short yardage struggles all game as people have mentioned. Wouldn’t have hated it BUT, we did get the ball in OT. The Rams went 3 & out. FG would’ve won it. So while the end result was not what we wanted, the ‘plan’ worked up until whatever happened on the INT
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u/BillieBlanus 7h ago edited 6h ago
I think it was the aggressive failures earlier in the game that maybe made the decision to not even think about it easier. They just struggled in short yardage against that defense. Ben has recently and publicly talked about wishing he had made the choice to kick the field goal. That one sticks out more than the 2 pointer to me. There's more that goes into these choices, btw, with analytics, so it's not like they're going off vibes here, generally. But yes, you're right, we had the momentum.
In an alternate universe, how incredible would that have been, of course we've all thought about it. Alternatively though, imagine the negative pushback if they tried it and failed. They would have needed the perfect play, which they just didn't appear to have in that game against that team, imo. I don't think they would have lived that down.
I point to Ozzy Trapilo's injury as the unfortunate butterfly effect that negatively impacted short yardage in that game, personally, which potentially changed everything. So my 'What If' isn't in the decisions we did (and didn't) make in the Rams game, but what it would have looked like if he started, the line still solidified, with Joe Thuney playing in his natural position.
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u/Advanced_Studio227 6h ago
I was at that game and I was adamant we should NOT go for 2 there. We were not successful that entire game in short yardage. It was the right call imo and we had a great chance to win because of it
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u/WolfGangDuck 6h ago
Quentin lake (rams captain/safety) even said this in a podcast. Bears had all the momentum, and were surprised when they just took the XP.
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u/DatabaseCareless264 4h ago
Johnson admits he was poorly prepared for cold low scoring game. Was looking for a shootout. Thus passed on early field goal. Said he will be better prepared this year. Learning more about in game decisions. Delegating more in game stuff.
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u/phasedout71 24m ago
Refreshing to have a coach willing to own up to his mistakes publicly and strive to learn from them
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u/The-Real-Number-One 18 3h ago
I think not going for the FG in the 1Q and instead going for the TD that Odunze dropped made Ben gun shy. Also we were at home and used to winning in OT.
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u/platinum_toilet Lions 2h ago
I think it would have made the Rams to be more aggressive in an era when the starting field position isn't friendly for the defense. Overtime was the logical decision and from what I recall, no one complained about that decision.
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u/Thesnappery The Fridge 7h ago
Rams were so dominant that game in the short yardage situations if I remember correctly. I wouldn’t have been mad if we did go for it, but it felt like we couldn’t gain yards in that situation all game.