But I’m beginning to wonder if we made a mistake letting Ben go. With a journeyman backup quarterback, they dominated the Eagles on primetime. Not sure why other teams can’t or aren’t copying his system, but those Bears receivers are running wide open, just like we used to do. It looks like a game of catch in the front yard out there. That doesn’t even touch on how well the running game looks. I thought we would be OK, but those Bears are starting to scare me a little bit. I always assumed that DC was intricately involved in the design of our offense, but we seem to have regressed since Ben left. I’m sad and mad.
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i think we’re seeing what stirred the drink. our defense is still not great. the team isn’t as good talent wise as it was a few years ago.
Ben appears to be a pretty good head coach.
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Did you want to replace Dan Campbell or were you planning on keeping Ben Johnson tied up in the basement? I’m a no on the first, and an eww on the second.
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Letting Ben go? He left, you can’t blame him for leaving, but the BEARS.
Philly is highly overrated.
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Well, that’s the conundrum right? Sheila would’ve had to have King Kong balls to pull that off.Very hard to get rid of DC at the time because we didn’t really know how much of our success was Ben and how much was Dan. I’m just getting a queasy feeling of hindsight. Wouldn’t it just be the most Detroit Lions thing to do ever? Imagine if Chicago were to win three or four Super Bowls over the next decade.
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One, that queasy feeling is probably dietary. Two, they’ll be the Indiana Bears by that point. Three, really?
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Sorry I’m not understanding this thread. The Lions offense has been fine and just had their best game against a good defense. It can be true that Ben is a good coach and also that the Lions don’t really miss him, also keeping in mind that Ben had more proven weapons to work with as OC and a better offensive line than the Lions have now. The same problems with the Lions now are the same problems with Ben as coach which is the pass defense as usual, I don’t think Ben being gone is the issue here.
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They’re now the Gary Bears
No longer scary Bears
We’ll beat their asses inside of their lair…
When we unpack our whoop ass can
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Currently, the Lions have the best OT in the league, the best RB in the league, and likely a top 5WR in the league. Chicago dismantle a very good Eagles team last night with none of those types of players and a backup quarterback. If that doesn’t scream great scheme and coaching, nothing does. I appreciate if you’re not worried, but I am.
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If I were you i’d change my user name before I joined the Bears’ message board.
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We’re on our 3rd OC/playcaller since Ben left. Its too early for me to say the O is fine or comparable to Ben’s O.
There’s no way this offensive line is better than the ones Ben had when he was here. He had peak Ragnow, Sewell, a still effective Decker, Glasgow playing well at his natural position, Zeitler. He also had Gibbs and Montgomery, a legit #3 and #4 receiver, pre-injury LaPorta who was a monster. This offense has potential depending on the development of the young offensive line, Teslaa, Vaki, Saylors etc. but it’s no comparison to those offenses in 2023 and 2024 in terms of personnel. You can argue that Jamo and Gibbs are better now but other than that, those offenses were more loaded with proven talent/balance.
Again, I’m saying that Ben is a good coach but you’re looking in the wrong places if you think the offense is the issue here.
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How many accounts do you have?
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What a useless stat. The Lions had a terrible roster before Ben got promoted.
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Lions 2-1: 95 points scored (3rd)
Bears 2-1: 92 points scored (5th)
Can someone help to understand what we upset about?
Petzing is great and I believe will get better as the season moves forward.
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The Lions didn’t really have a choice.
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Yep:
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/det/2021_roster.htm
Before Josh Reynolds arrived & ARSB developed in the second half of the season, the Lions had almost nothing at WR.
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I complained about how I feel like he’s not utilizing Goff’s strengths (intermediate passes to the middle of the field on ins and crossers) in my post last week. But the O has put up 31 points in three straight games. It’s hard to argue with that kind of success. Plus, they appeared (to me) to be more comfortable this week than earlier in the season, which is a good sign.
Of course, that doesn’t mean Ben Johnson isn’t good- he clearly is. But Petzing has them performing well, even if it looks different.
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So Ben spent 2 first rounders on WRs, paid a WR3 5M AAV, paid a top 14 contract to a RN, drafted a top 10 overall TE, and last year had a top paid WR in DJ Moore as well… they also paid their first round top 10 drafted RT more than Sewell got and they pay a ton to Thuney as well.
We may have better weapons, and we’ve also scored more points the past 2 years, but it’s not a lack of investment by the Bears on their offense
FYI- any time a team only allows 7 points against, they have about a 99% chance to win… so we could have easily played Dobbs or Keenum and won a game so long as we held our opponent to 7 points..
That is where Dan is failing, not holding our DCs to any real standard
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