Friday Recap on a Saturday: Myles Garrett, Quarterback School, Faking Views and the Bears No Good, Very Bad Week
Another Friday recap on a Saturday, this time discussing analytics and player evaluation, the Bears' bad week, JT O'Sullivan's quarterback school, "cancel culture" and Steven Crowder faking views
I didn’t want to double-post on a Friday after already writing a lengthy piece on analytics and recording a podcast, so we’ve moved this week’s recap to a Saturday again. It seems like this may happen from time to time.
As always, items behind a paywall are marked with a ($).
My work:
I wrote about the use of analytics and film study ($) in football, with particular focus on Brock Purdy as well as the Myles Garrett/T.J. Watt debate
I also used data to look at Puka Nacua’s breakout ($) and wondered if we had enough of a sample to get a sense of the direction of his career.
The Vikings signed Dalton Risner to their team. I wrote some quick thoughts about that early in the week.
On Norse Code, I talked to Michael Peterson from Bolts from the Blue to discuss the Vikings-Chargers matchup. My co-host James and I also talked about the Bears organizational collapse and some questions about the Vikings.
I was on the Lightning Round Podcast on their show the Walkthrough to discuss the Vikings-Chargers game in-depth
I appeared on two episodes of the Minnesota Football Party this week. The first was to discuss Kirk Cousins and reasons for optimism coming off of an 0-2 start. We also talked about key Chargers matchups and what to think about Cam Akers signing with the team.
Work that I liked (sports):
I’ve been watching J.T. O’Sullivan’s QB School YouTube channel for almost as long as he’s had it. I love it. It’s incredible. And I’ve seen a lot of discussion on the timeline about his videos, which is awesome to see. He’s also become a bit more opinionated over this past year, which I think is a good thing. Watching his reviews of Jalen Hurts and Kirk Cousins is incredibly informative. The Hurts one gives us a little bit of an understanding of the Vikings defense while the Cousins one is just a great breakdown of a great game.
Also his Justin Fields review went a little viral in part bc of how long it was
Pablo Torre saw that Ohio banned trans girls from competing in girl’s sports throughout school and asked how many trans girls that would effect. It turns out just one. So he talked to her.
I missed this piece last week but I’ve skimmed a fair amount of coverage of Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes and most of it is fairly boring, even when it attempts to be exciting. This is a genuinely good piece at the Ringer.
Let’s talk about the Bears.
Last week, defensive coordinator Alan Williams declined to travel with the team to Tampa Bay, citing personal reasons. He had announced that to the team the Wednesday morning before the game.
Before the game, Chase Claypool evidently had to apologize to the team for his lack of effort and the fact that he was a locker room problem? Jay Glazer reported that if he put in a “half-ass” effort against the Bucs, he’d be “shipped out of town again”
In the warmups before the game, Devin White told D.J. Moore that the Bears didn’t know how to use him, and Moore evidently agreed, though the audio isn’t exactly clear.
Injuries during the game depleted their already suspect offensive line, sending Braxton Jones to IR.
Justin Fields had a catastrophically poor game, and was asked about why he struggled the following Wednesday. He said “coaching,” evidently throwing offensive coordinator Luke Getsy under the bus.
He then walked back — or clarified, depending on your point of view — his comments on coaching. He argues that the media took the quote out of context. “I’m not blaming any kind of coaches, I would never blame any kind of coaches.” He adds, he’d never blame anyone else and says “I need to play better.” He asks that next time the media put the “whole quote out.”
The full set of quotes: “I felt like I wasn’t necessarily playing my game. I felt like I was kind of robotic. Not playing like myself. My goal this week is just to say F it and just go out there and play football how I know how to play football. That includes thinking less and just going out there and playing off of instincts rather than so to say info and data in my head.”
When asked to detail why he wasn’t able to play naturally, he said, “Could be coaching, I think. They're doing their job when they're giving me what to look at, stuff like that. But at the end of the day, I can't be thinking about that when the game comes. I prepare myself throughout the week and then, when the game comes, it's time to play free at that point. Thinking less and playing more.”
Meanwhile, questions about Williams’ continued absence from the facility ramped up. When the Bears were asked about it on Wednesday morning, after more than ten days of his absence from the facility. Head coach Matt Berflus declined to indicate whether Williams was even still employed by the team.
All the while, rumors spread of Williams’ home having been raided by the FBI along with erroneous reports that Halas Hall itself has been raided. The Bears denied the rumor. Ian Rapaport not only says the FBI did not raid Halas Hall, but that the league has no involvement and neither does former Bear and current FBI agent Peanut Tillman.
The original reporter says he stands by his reporting.
Pat McAfee says his “sources” tell him that a raid did occur at Williams’ house. McAfee twice references potential drug crime allegations and one of his co-hosts references a different, but unsubstantiated, rumor.
The Bears announce Williams’ resignation with a simple, no-details statement. Absent from the resignation announcement was a statement from the coaches or owners thanking him for his time with the team.
Typically, teams will include quotes from a coach or an owner thanking the resigning coordinator. Here’s the Vikings announcing Norv Turner’s resignation in 2016.
Williams then sends a picture of a printed-out resignation letter to media to announce his resignation from the team for his health and family. No one in media seems to have talked to him in person in at least ten days.
Williams’ attorney announces that there is “absolutely no criminal activity” when asked if that could play a role in Williams’ resignation.
His lawyer also reaffirmed that the resignation was due to family and health issues and not the “false rumors and what seems to be out there on social media.”
General manager Ryan Poles holds an emergency press conference, where he says that no one in the building is panicking and that no one sees Justin Fields as a finger-pointer. The GM holding an emergency presser two weeks into the season is, of course, a classic sign of a team not panicking.
Albert Breer reports in MMQB that many had expected Matt Eberflus to take over defensive playcalling for some time, regardless of the personal situation surrounding Williams. He also reported that the personal absence was deemed unrelated to any medical reasons.
And then about $100,000 worth of equipment was stolen from Soldier Field.
Meanwhile, the coaches never told the players that Williams was resigning and had not yet addressed the team about the resignation a full day later.
Oh, and Dan Wiederer revealed that the Bears were prepared to draft Patrick Mahomes at third overall if they had stayed there and someone else had traded into the second pick for Mitchell Trubisky. They viewed Mahomes as an elite talent and top-three player in the draft, but that Trubisky was less risky.
I think that’s it.
Here’s a great story about IMG Academy ($).
Work I liked (non-sports):
Parker Molloy at the Present Age talked about how insane it was ($) that Fox News ran a ”cancel culture” headline about pushback against Drew Barrymore for deciding to run her show during the writer’s strike.
Some More News has a great video on planned obsolescence and product quality.
YouTuber Jose has a very good video on how Steven Crowder, and streaming service Rumble in general, are living off of faked viewcounts.