Lets change the conversation a little. People are not judging Fields fairly, because of one phrase, one expectation: franchise Qb.

Forget franchise QB. Ok because as soon as we say that, people think Fields has to be the next Patrick Mahomes, or he’s a bust.

Can we get Fields to play something like Lamar Jackson? I think a lot more people would say yes, if we brought coaches in and built a system around him the way the Ravens built a system around Jackson, he could have similar levels of success as Jackson.

Justin Fields gets off to terrible on season

Fans: I just want Justin to show progress

Justin shows great progress with his 2 best weeks of football and QBS of 125 and 138, until breaking his thumb midway through Minnesota game

Fans: Forget the past 2 weeks of progress, lets extrapolate his 1/2 game of mediocre football before getting hurt to the rest of his fucking career.

Justin Fields is injured for several games, his come-back game against the Lions is very efficient with a QBR of 109, and has a ridiculous superstar-like 178 running yards, but late fumble and T/O kills potential gamewinning drive

Fans: I know we just said all we wanted was progress, but lets just forget all the good things he did against Detroit and focus only on the mistake he made in the clutch. We need to see him put together a game winning drive for one.

Justin Fields goes out and puts together a clutch, gamewinning drive.

Fans: Yeah forget the clutch drive, lets focus on how he almost wasnt clutch before he was clutch.

In his last 4 games, Justin Fields has a higher passer rating than – Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes, Dak Prescott and Patrick Hamomes just to name a few.

Ok why cant the Fields haters give the guy credit for this: He maybe just pulled out a victory despite being concussed! It probably affected his play negatively, even the announcer noticed on the following plays that Fields was wildly inaccuraty and “looked drunk stumbling around”

So I think its very possible he was concussed, making him slower than normal in processing. But he did enough to win. He should get credit for that, for the toughness shown, instead people are ignoring the fact that there is a possibility he was playing with a concussion

Dude he’s concussed. Watch the hit again, its crazy violent but also notice how Justin goes limp for a second. Then when he gets up his face is flushed. And then he literally stumbles around on a play and looks inaccurate. Like wtf guys, thats as much evidence as youre gonna get, stop hoping he’s not concussed and have some concern for his long term health – he probably is concussed so sit him. JFC

Man I have lost all respect for all the Bears coaches. Get Justin Fields out of the game!

Dude was clearly concussed, if you send him back out and he takes another hit to the head, – thats how CTBE happens.

Its sickening to watch, is there anybody at all that cares about J Fields long term health, or has an ounce of integrity? WTF?

I do NOT want to see Fields back out there. Is there any body that gives a flying cuk about this kid’s health long term? He clearly sustained a concussion, its sickening that everybody is just ignoring that.

Ill give you Moore, Wright. But the rest, I dunno about.

Claypool disaster has to be mentioned. Jury’s still out on Edmunds’. Still not sure letting Roquan go was smart (yeah yeah he didnt “fit” the system, but Eberflus and his system are outta here soon, sooo…)

Bagent??? What??? I mean I guess its nice we might have a mediocre backup QB, but thats not something to highligh on your resume.

Ill never forgive our fabase cause WE RAN HIM OUT OF TOWN CAUSE WE ARE A BUNCH OF CRYBABIES THAT CANT HANDLE A COACH MAKING A MISTAKE!

Do you remember the conniption our entitled fan base had after he lost that Sean Taylor memorial game? Honest Joe admitted that he didnt that realize it was against the rules to call back to back timeouts. EVERYBODY said the game passed him by, calling for his head for making such an “unforgiveable mistake.”

Mind you Gibbs could have minimized, to a degree, the error by just writing it off as a momentary brain cramp, “Oops I just goofed, I knew better.” Instead he ADMITTED that he didnt know that it was against the rules, which in the minds of our fans, was absolutely unforgiveable, and the next week everybody called for his head.

EVERYBODY. To the degree that when one fan called to leave a message of support for Joe with Patt Gibbs, she responded, “Thank you so much, we dont get any more of those these days, and itll mean a lot to know somebody still supports him.”

Reports are that the heaviness of the Sean Taylor loss, and the deep humiliation he felt for making that mistake to call back to back timeouts and single-handedly (in his mind) costing his team the game was enough for him to call it quits.

At that moment, obviously Joe was gonna beat himself up for the colossal mistake he made in such an emotional game, he needed the fanbase to console him; and instead the fanbase joined in on the beating. So, thats what you get.

It was over when Ron punted on 4 and 2 from the Cowboys 40 yard line. THat was such a gutless call. I actually felt sorry for the players that still care, like Howell. Ron Rivera is a coward, and the players know it.

That to me is an immediately fireable offense. He’s checked out. F him.

Im starting to feel sorry for Howell. Having such a terribly cowardly head coach. The opposite of Herm Edward, “We PLAY to LSOE the game!”

So obvious. We’re 4-7 with a bad defense. What is wrong with . Like seirously what is wrong with him?>??

Ehh. Its hard to get myself going for this game.

I just keep thinking about that loss against Seattle, or the GIants, or the Eagles and I get so mad because this could EASILY have been a relevant game with playoffs hopes still alive.

Now, we’re reduced to playing spoiler for the Cowboys. Which Ill take, but goddamit Ron, you couldnt even make sure we where at least a mediocre team? Thats the only thing you were good for, you at least guaranteed mediocrity. Now we’re just bad, its not even december and playoffs are out of reach. You failed, Ron, you failed us bad.

1. Promote EB to Head Coach. Push him to hire an OCoordinator to help him with playcalling duties, someone he trusts. I think EB is pretty good at drawing up plays, his concepts are modern and good, but HC is a lot of responsibilty to have and I dont think its wise to expect EB to be able to handle all the new duites without some help.

2. For D-coordinator, look at luring some college talent cause Im so sick of NFL retreads. First choice is Glenn Schumann out of Georgia, hes been instrumental in building that defensive juggernaut in GA. Second is Ferentz out of Iowa, knows how to run a traditional smash mouth defense well that can shutdown even highly talented offenses such as Michigan and OSU. Or Jim Knowles out of OSU, both of them. Built a creative and very good defense out of OSU that punched above its weight, and when he moved on to OSU he has transformed OSU’s defense from being an underachieving disappointment to being one of the nations best defenses. Schematically he has shown great flexibility, in adjusting his scheme to be a less risky scheme (though still aggressive) that was better suited for less-talented teams looking to confuse the opposition, to one that is still aggressive and disguises coverages well while being able to play more conservative football in areas where a talent advantage lies. For example, OSU D-line is a highly talented group, its secondary has talent but underachieves at times, nobody can run on them, and its LB unit leaves something to be desired. Sound familiar? No problem, Knowles figured out so far how to turn that into an elite shut down defense with a scheme that maximizes talent while minimizing deficincies.

3. Draft Oline and LBs, sign anybody decent in FA to shore up those positions. Get more talent iat TE through draft and by FA, even if we have to slightly overpay in FA, as long as they are relatviely you.

4. We’re good at Cb, thats enough of drafting CBs. But Look to replenish the Dline with some average level starters or some mid-round picks.

5. Extend Howell 's contract as early as possible before it gets to be prohibitively high. Do the exact opposite of what we did with Kirk.

Try watching the game. People who watched the whole game know Fields played well. He made most of the throws he should have. He was accurate, he threw down the field with accuracy. And he WAS the ENTIRE running game.

So there are apparently two crowds here regarding Justin Fields performance

There is the crowd that watched the WHOLE game, fromst start to finish.
And to a tee, even those who traditionally are doubtful about Justin Fields, said that Justin Fields played a very good game today and was robbed of victory.

Then there is the crowd that did not watch the whole game, , and so are left to cherry pick stats that are irrelevant or lack contecx, and point to the one lowlight (of course Fields fumble at the end) to conveniently feed a narrative and conclusion that were drawn long ago.

Its so obvious, the evidence is in the gamethread, which is markedly different from the post game thread. The whole game thread, even immediately following the last post of the game was almost 100% posts saying,“Please dont let morons that didnt watch the game try to blame Fields for this loss. He played great. This is 100% Eberflus fault, worst coaching job ever.”

The more I remember the end of the game, the more my BP rises and the more furious I get.

I cant believe we did the same stupid ass mistake again that we did against Philly. Didnt go for 2 late, even though we were on the road, ahd all the momentum thanks to the offense, and hadnt proven to be able to consistently stop anything or anybody.

RR again playing like the strongpoint of the team is the defense, when th edefense is clearly the weakpoint. Its just his ego that doesnt let him understand that fact, so fck him and ck his ego. Fire him and Del Rio. I dont even vare anymore if we dont have nay coaches to run the defense, Ask Madden would be a better Defensive playcaller than these two aholes.

OKay, lets actually approach this from a logical standpoint, and figure out what Harris may be thinking, instead of just reacting emotionally like we did in the Snyder era. Lets leave that type of thinking behind with Snyder.

Its quite clear Ron and JDR have coached themselvs out of job’s this year. Harris stated weeks ago, related to Ron Rivera’s job, that “he needs to see results on the field.” Thats as close as an owner is gonna get to saying, “Unless he pulls a miraculous turn-around, he’s gone.”

But now, what do we do with that? At 4-6, unfortunately, we are not mathmetically out of playoff contention just yet. Unilkely as it is, a 5-2 or 6-1 finish could see us squeek into the playoffs, and a 7-0 finish would virtually guarantee it.

As far as firing JDR, well thats up to Ron. Ron has tied his ship to the sinking JDR, and it will likely pull them both down. Thats Rons fault, Ron will bear the consequences of that. You cant expect the owner to go over Ron’s head and fire JDR, but but keeping JDR is pretty much Ron’s fatal final mistake, as coach and player personnel.

If JDR and Ron Rivera are fired right now, where does that leave us? Who is gonna coach the defense? I assume this type of move would see EB getting promoted to temporary HC? I would like to eventually see this move when/if we are mathematically eliminated, but whats the value in doing that now?

As for EB, I think he has shown value as a good O-coordniator. He deserves some of Howells success, he’s turned our offense from the leagues worst to a pretty good offense in just half season, and there’s no reason to doubt that, with perhaps a little more time and some help with the Ol-line, this cant be an elite level offense.

He has not proven he is a good HC. His playcall on 4th and short vs. Philly, going empty-backfield inexplicably announcing a short-pass that Philly easily stopped, is the type of messup that makes me forever doubt his overall ability to manage games from a supervisory role and understand situational football. But, perhaps thats a one time brain fart that he has learned from.

Anyhow, it leaves me with way too much doubt to be comfortable hiring him as a football HC, without giving him a trial period first to see if he can handle and understand how to manage games, manage other people, etc. But the only problem is, I dont want to do that in an impossible situation where I expect him to win games. He’s an Ocoordinator, if he has to be the interim HC with JDR and Ron gone, we have to be willing to evaluate and see him through the prism of understanding he has no help on the defensive side of the ball, and so wins or any imporvement are unlikely.

Thats why I think we should wait until we are MATHEMATICALLY eliminated to give EB a trial run. At that point, we just want to take a look and see if he can manage an organization, if he can get us still looking like professionals, if he can continue to field an improving offense while still handling the additional responsibilites of head coach. If he can, keep him as head coach obvoiusly, easy decision to make.

If he doesnt do well as interim head coach, but we decide that we really like him as an O-coordinator just keep that in mind when interviewing candidates for a new head coach. Would they be willing to work with EB as O-coordinator? Some guys may say yes, a lot will want to bring in their own guys – so keep your options open and evaluate the candidate accordingly, keeping EB as Ocoordinator doesnt have to be make or break, its just a factor that you can keep in mind when interviewing. Whatever you do, dont fire RR/JDR before we are mathematically eliminated, hand over keys to EB and expect him to somehow produce instant wins with no help on defense while being suddenly thrust into a vastly new rold, thats unfair to EB and would not be a good way to evaluate him as potential HC

tl/dr Moving forward in a logical manner is better than a reactionary emotional manner. Keep RR until mathematically eliminated, at that point put EB as interim HC as a trial, move forward after evaluating EB as potential HC without expecting wins just competency in a managerial role and continued improvement on offensive side of ball. In offseason interview HCs with ptoential option of keeping EB as O-coordinator in mind.

I agree with you except your first statement, the league isnt “outright rigged.”

Becuase what you described is outrgiht rigging. If refs are directed to steer the outcome according to the needs of infuential sports books, thats the definition of rigging. Doesnt matter if the rigging is from Vegas, not the NFL directly, its still rigging.

It would mean the NFL should be concerned and open investigations, but no they dont care, the NFL is letting Vegas destroy the integrity of the sport., Greed just has to spoil everything, huh?

Obviously.

I also dont think EB is a problem He’s shown me that he can be an excellent playcaller and very good O coordinator.

However, he has also shown me that he still needs the supervision of a head coach. Remember, this is basically his first time having full playcall duties. And, his concepts are good, he is capable of making adjustments, everything is great, but as a rookie he doesnt understand the big picture some times.

Like on 4th and 1, going with an empty backfield. Thats where he needs the supervision of an adult to say, “wtf do you think you are doing? Either run, or threaten to run.”