How Bout Dem Bears?

padraig_f

Great game. I was still happy with the performance when they were 17-6 down. The comeback started when McPhee blocked the field goal. Defense were playing lights-out. The offense had legitimate excuses for struggling, with all the injuries on o-line and receiver corps, I wasn't that critical of them. Then when they started to move the ball in the last 6 mins, it was very exciting. That Cutler throw to Forte, back-pedalling after mishandling the snap, beautiful. Agree it was the defense really that kept them in the game to that point. A lot of great performances, too many to mention....McPhee awesome again, Kyle Long blocking Justin Houston on the edge, Christian Jones with that big hit, Someone called Meredith making big catches, DBs breaking up passes!

I think it was my favourite game in about 3 years.

SameOleJay

Yesterday's D.

Vet Min, 2nd round Pick, 2nd Round Pick

Vet Min, UDFA, UDFA, McPhee

1st round, 5th round, UDFA, Vet Min

Vic Fangio, you da real MVP.

kennyb3

I don't know where to start with that game. All our old problems came back in one go - couldn't run the ball, defence (secondary) getting destroyed and some strange play calling.

We move the ball all the way up the field with 21 seconds to go via passing.

Then on our last drive in overtime , we run twice and leave ourselves 3 and 6 (7?).

We also got screwed by the refs.

Fuller & McManis were just pure horrible. We need better CB's for sure.

Yet saying all that we should of won the game a couple of times over. How do we manage to lose with a +2 turnover ratio?

Ultimately it probably doesn't matter much anyway.

padraig_f

Hard one to analyse there was so much going on. Got screwed by the refs, but also got a number of gifts from the Lions.

Main impressons were:
- Jeffery made a big impact being back. He was a bit at fault for not contesting Cutler's int on the red-zone fade route, but probably lacking a bit of sharpness.

- I'm very happy with Cutler's play in general this season, I think he's at last found his co-ordinator in Adam Gase, and made some great plays again yesterday.

- Fox's conservatism is going to cost us in a big game at some stage. Yesterday you could've picked out a few, but one was running the ball 3 consecutive times, when up 31-27 at the end of regulation:

(2:46 - 4th) S.Martin kicks 58 yards from DET 35 to CHI 7. M.Mariani ran ob at CHI 19 for 12 yards (N.Lawson).
1st and 10 at CHI 19

(2:42 - 4th) M.Forte up the middle to CHI 24 for 5 yards (S.Tulloch)

(2:38 - 4th) Timeout #1 by DET at 02:38.
2nd and 5 at CHI 24

(2:38 - 4th) M.Forte up the middle to CHI 25 for 1 yard (J.Bynes)

(2:35 - 4th) Timeout #2 by DET at 02:35.
3rd and 4 at CHI 25

(2:35 - 4th) (Shotgun) M.Forte left tackle to CHI 26 for 1 yard (C.Reid)

(2:31 - 4th) Timeout #3 by DET at 02:31.
4th and 3 at CHI 26

(2:31 - 4th) P.O'Donnell punts 40 yards to DET 34, Center-T.Gafford, fair catch by G.Tate

So much more value there in throwing and trying to ice the game by getting the first down, instead of running down the clock a bit.

kennyb3

http://www.chicagofootball.com/2015/10/18/hub-arkush-loss-to-lions-a-reminder-of-where-bears-stand/a7iukji/

I think Hub pretty much nails it

None of the reasons for Bears fans optimism coming off the two-game winning streak changed.

Cutler was very good again, Alshon Jeffery made a really strong return from his hamstring injury, the young offensive linemen certainly weren’t the reason the Bears lost and Eddie Goldman, Christian Jones and Adrian Amos grew up a little more at Ford Field.

On the flip side, the Bears still need another receiver, probably two, and they still have a clear talent deficit on all three levels of the defense, most glaringly at inside linebacker and in the secondary.

Much of that won’t change until the offseason, but right now, this team is learning and competing, and after last year, that’s not all bad.

kennyb3

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2015/10/19/chi-det-grades-lions-earn-first-win/

Well done Grasu! McPhee leads the way every week!

McManis :mad: I knew he gave up a lot - but the 5 catches came on only 6 targets! And Fuller gave up 8 catches from 9 targets.

Watching in real time you don't always realise it's that bad!

(Runs off to look at FA corner market)

Realt Dearg Sec

I was livid watching the regular time game yesterday because we were sol blatantly screwed on so many vital occasions, almost like the refs were trying to make it up to the Lions for how they got ripped off against the hawks. But then you watch the ludicrously conservative playcalling in OT and you wonder did they want to win at all?

Being more rational about it, we still have a problem generating a consistent pass rush, which probably made Stafford look better than he is. What really didn't help in that regard was the amount of single coverage they gave to Megatron, which was just depressingly naive, especially when our corners suck so very, very hard. Still though, McPhee is looking like the best FA acquisition we've made in a long long time.

But Jeffery's return was everything we could have expected, I thought Langford showed a few flashes (on a day when Forte wasn't getting much in the run game), Cutler is playing as well as I've ever seen (still ended up under a good bit of pressure but did really well to evade it).

So yeah, painful to lose in OT when you're playing against the refs, but the right result while lots of positives remain. Only thing was the optimist in me was looking at our easy schedule, the chance to have a 3-3 record and the outside chance of sneaking into a wild card spot. That seems very distant at this point and you start thinking about the draft again...

SameOleJay

Reality is you can't expect wins without a pass rush or run game. Both were awful Sunday.

Pace has recruited well to date but man did he whiff on Eddie Royal. 15 mill and the guy is just so limited.

padraig_f

Jay Ratliff cut. Not sure I understand it, given they stuck with him during his 3-game suspension, only to cut him now. He's 34 now though, so hard to get too upset about it.

Realt Dearg Sec

padraig_f wrote: »

Jay Ratliff cut. Not sure I understand it, given they stuck with him during his 3-game suspension, only to cut him now. He's 34 now though, so hard to get too upset about it.

I'm kind of shocked. Although reading about it on Twitter he seems to have been escorted off the premises at Halas Hall, and police stationed outside to prevent his return. Whether that's because of his response to being cut, or whether there were tensions before hand that led to the cut, I'm assuming we'll hear soon enough.

EDIT: http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/7/71/1038174/bears-cut-defensive-lineman-jeremiah-ratliff
"Sources described the situation at Halas Hall as an “isolated incident” and said a disagreement took place, leading to Ratliff’s release."

Very vague but seems to imply that it wasn't just an on-field performance issue that led to the cut.

padraig_f

Long, but good read from the Broncos GM that drafted Cutler, Ted Sundquist. The pre-draft scouting reports were pretty accurate.

Why I Drafted Jay Cutler, and What Happened from There

Good story as well about Josh McDaniels arriving in Denver, what a ****ing knobhead:

Owner Pat Bowlen felt change was necessary, and Mike Shanahan was fired after 14 seasons as the team's head coach and executive vice president.

Shanahan, Heimerdinger and myself—the three people most instrumental in bringing Cutler to Denver and the three people who had the most vested interest in developing him—were now all gone.

Cutler was openly critical of Shanahan's dismissal and equally upset over the potential loss of his position coach, Jeremy Bates, who would eventually leave during the offseason to take a job at USC. Bates had a young and fiery personality that seemed to resonate with Cutler. His way of communicating with his young quarterback struck a chord, and many of the weaknesses we'd seen at Vanderbilt were slowly being chipped away: improved footwork, avoiding the sack, progression through routes, finding the outlet.

Now Cutler had to convince a 32-year-old first-time head coach he was worthy of the position.


Shortly after Josh McDaniels moved into his office at Dove Valley, he called in Cutler and his agent, Bus Cook, for a closed-door meeting. The story goes that McDaniels began with a 20-minute dissertation of his resume, how he'd worked his way up the ranks in New England to become Bill Belichick's right-hand man with the offense and how the team would have been nowhere the year before without his tutelage of backup Matt Cassel. He continued on with justification of his hiring by Bowlen.

After the perplexing recitation of accomplishments, McDaniels suddenly shifted gears.

He began to bash and berate Cutler and his game to the tune of a verbal flogging neither had ever witnessed. The expletive-laden diatribe went on for a few minutes, after which Cook stood up and told Cutler they were leaving. As they walked down the long hallway past Bowlen's office, Cutler turned to Bus and said, "Get me out of here. I don't care how you do it."

Oat23

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y1uINZoDZE

Realt Dearg Sec

Oat23 wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y1uINZoDZE

Ugh. If McDonald's didn't already make you sick...

Realt Dearg Sec

Anyone giving us a chance against the Vikings? One thing is for sure, if we beat them it would be a step up on any opponent we've beaten thus far. But I can't really see it. By all accounts their O line is pretty bad but we have had a serious problem generating any kind of pass rush. More importantly, unless all the injury worries turn out to be true I can't see us stopping Peterson. Keeping him out opens up all sorts of possibilities for their passing game and with our secondary still a mess I would worry about how we keep it all in check.

I'm much more optimistic about our offense. Jeffrey should be firing on all cylinders by now and that should, at the very least, open up possibilities to involve Bennett (who was disappointing the last day) and Forte in the short passing game. There are still O-line issues but coming off the bye-week, I'm hopeful of us starting to generate scores. Hopefully we've been working on our red zone play because it's really held us back up to now. We can march down the field pretty well but if you're only getting field goals all day you're not going to win.

On another note, missing Ratliff is bad, but has anybody been reading about the longer history of his deteriorating attitude? The stories coming out about his behaviour last year, and the coach's reaction to it, are proof that the Trestman era was even more of a disaster and a joke by sthe end than we'd even imagined.

padraig_f

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Anyone giving us a chance against the Vikings?

I'm more optimistic...posted a few thoughts in the betting thread:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=97554515&postcount=215

I was listening to Zach Zaidman yesterday, and he had an encouraging piece of info....Marc Mariani had the same injury as Kevin White and told him "you come back fine, just the rehab takes a long time".

Realt Dearg Sec

padraig_f wrote: »

I'm more optimistic...posted a few thoughts in the betting thread:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=97554515&postcount=215

I was listening to Zach Zaidman yesterday, and he had an encouraging piece of info....Marc Mariani had the same injury as Kevin White and told him "you come back fine, just the rehab takes a long time".

In bad news, both Grasu and Bushrod are out this afternoon. O line is going to be very, very ropey by the looks of it:

RT Long
RG Omameh
C Slauson
LG Ducasse
LT Leno

A grand total of two genuinely good players, one of whom is very much out of position and the other still learning it. One guy who is serviceable sometimes, also out of position as it happens. And two scrubbers.

I hope Cutler has his running shoes on.

SameOleJay

Humiliating loss.

Realt Dearg Sec

SameOleJay wrote: »

Humiliating loss.

Awful. Two heart breakers in a row now against division rivals that we were manifestly better than. Done for the year anyways.

Realt Dearg Sec

Part of me wants to be mad about the fact we didn't get a first for the hit on the kicker, which by rule should have been a foul. But our special teams had set up the situation where it came down to that, and then bottom line, we didn't get it done when opportunities were there. I honestly thought when we were level that we'd just go up the field and get the field goal. We got a mighty lesson in how badly we need forte when Langford dropped the short pass.

Anyway we sucked, and the players can't blame the play calling, some key guys ****ed up some key plays. It was embarrassing, we clearly have a better team than either the lions or the Vikings, but the pattern is clear, that we need more balls to win in the crucial situations that we inevitably find ourselves in, because we're certainly not good enough to kill the game.

My kingdom for a d that can defend the run. I don't care who their rb is, we haven't stopped any running back going up the middle all year.

Anyway...sickening, no redeeming points for me precisely because we're clearly good enough to win, plenty of great potential there but so, so much difference between being great and almost being great. We suck. I'm hitting the sauce, have a good one.

kennyb3

They returned 3 punts for 77yards we returned 2 for 3 yards.:(

How we lost that game I ll never know. He did rolle not see Johnson?

Great to see Jeffrey straight bAck to being sensational.

Defence still our major problem. Lack of pressure up front and scarecrows at corner and nickelback.

Realt Dearg Sec

kennyb3 wrote: »

They returned 3 punts for 77yards we returned 2 for 3 yards.:(

How we lost that game I ll never know. He did rolle not see Johnson?

Great to see Jeffrey straight bAck to being sensational.

Defence still our major problem. Lack of pressure up front and scarecrows at corner and nickelback.

Yeah special teams was an unmitigated nightmare and there needs to be someone fired, just shocking to give up yet another td, and TWO ****ing muffed punts.

The D is terrible but to me at least it's a personnel issue that can be rectified long term. But special teams is a coaching thing.

All that said though, did someone in the bears ride goodells wife or something? The refs just ride us like it's cool. Bridgewater gets touched, on a technicality, fair enough, penalty. Cutler? Ah **** him. O Donnell gets hit long after the ball goes? Ah **** him. It's every week at this stage. Hopefully Jeffery starts to be recognised for the talent he is and starts getting the soft pi calls that come with that.

Hulk Hands

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

It was embarrassing, we clearly have a better team than either the lions or the Vikings,

Huh? So you've insinuated you were the better team today, and clearly better team overall. Wrong on the first and laughably wrong on the second. Vikings outgained the Bears, and that's even taking out the special teams play which would add a tonne of yards. The game only really became a close contest when Teddy threw a stupid interception at the end of the first half.

Anyway, how are the Bears clearly a better team? Worse record last season. Worse record this season. Couldn't beat the Vikings, off a bye, and at home. It's not even close. Judging by the markets in todays game, the Vikings would be a 4-5 pt favourite on a nuetral venue, and that was even before todays victory

Realt Dearg Sec

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Huh? So you've insinuated you were the better team today, and clearly better team overall. Wrong on the first and laughably wrong on the second. Vikings outgained the Bears, and that's even taking out the special teams play which would add a tonne of yards. The game only really became a close contest when Teddy threw a stupid interception at the end of the first half.

Anyway, how are the Bears clearly a better team? Worse record last season. Worse record this season. Couldn't beat the Vikings, off a bye, and at home. It's not even close. Judging by the markets in todays game, the Vikings would be a 4-5 pt favourite on a nuetral venue, and that was even before todays victory

Ah seriously, **** off, not tonight buddy.

Edit: that sounded pretty rude, i retract the **** off comment, but I said it on our thread. I'm not in the mood for a debate, enjoy your win but I don't fancy debating it, that loss sucked.

Hulk Hands

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Ah seriously, **** off, not tonight buddy.

Cos you're wrong, as are the ref insinuations. Greenway gets done for helmet to helmet on cutler when his head was nowhere near. McPhee dives like Suarez and gets holding calls. I genuinely would rather if ye did get rode, would make up for a some of the BS calls in this fixture in the last few years

Realt Dearg Sec

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Cos you're wrong, as are the ref insinuations. Greenway gets done for helmet to helmet on cutler when his head was nowhere near. McPhee dives like Suarez and gets holding calls. I genuinely would rather if ye did get rode, would make up for a some of the BS calls in this fixture in the last few years

Edited my post.

Your still wrong, but I'm too drunk and pissed off to talk to a Vikings fan tbh.

Realt Dearg Sec

Ugh. Sobering up and watching the stupid cowboys and the stupid Seahawks. Hulk, no malice intended, I'll come back to your points tomorrow or whenever. But basically, I thought we had the winning of that game in the second half, and we ****ed it up. Refs helped, but basically on a few key plays we made a balls of it and that's two weeks on the trot where we threw it away.

We still suck better this year than last year.

Realt Dearg Sec

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Huh? So you've insinuated you were the better team today, and clearly better team overall. Wrong on the first and laughably wrong on the second. Vikings outgained the Bears, and that's even taking out the special teams play which would add a tonne of yards. The game only really became a close contest when Teddy threw a stupid interception at the end of the first half.

Anyway, how are the Bears clearly a better team? Worse record last season. Worse record this season. Couldn't beat the Vikings, off a bye, and at home. It's not even close. Judging by the markets in todays game, the Vikings would be a 4-5 pt favourite on a nuetral venue, and that was even before todays victory

I don't know about being the better team overall, necessarily. For one thing, results are how these things are decided, and our results don't stack up. But looking at our performances in the last two games, I think it's hard to argue that we aren't very unlucky (or very stupid) not to currently be 4-3, instead of 2-5.

If you read back, you'll see that I was predicting a Vikings win this week, so it's not like I'm some kind of cheerleader for the Bears or anything. It's just that, at our best yesterday, we were a more impressive team than the Vikings. There's people on the Vikings thread honestly arguing that Bridgewater had a good game, which he most certainly did not. Adrian Peterson, on the other hand, carved us up, and we still have such glaring problems in our secondary that sooner or later we are always going to suffer.

Our offensive playcalling was very anemic in the first half, until the drive at the end where Cutler lit it up. The second half showed what we're actually capable of, and whatever about overall, we have far better skill players on offense than you guys (Peterson aside, although Forte is hardly a massive downgrade).

When it came down to it, our performance yesterday was a mix of being a serious offensive threat, and a competent defense, and then the usual boneheaded bull****, especially on ST, that has been costing us all season.

Whether all of that means that we are better overall than the Vikings, I don't know, probably that was an exaggeration. I wouldn't be at all surprised if ye kicked on and got to the playoffs now. What I do know is that the difference between us being a good and a bad team is very, very small, and we have most certainly lost two games on the trot that we should ahve put away.

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Cos you're wrong, as are the ref insinuations. Greenway gets done for helmet to helmet on cutler when his head was nowhere near. McPhee dives like Suarez and gets holding calls. I genuinely would rather if ye did get rode, would make up for a some of the BS calls in this fixture in the last few years

Wouldn't agree with that in the least. McPhee was being held all day, so I have no idea where that is coming from. Would need to see the Cutler/Greenway incident again. But if you can't see that Bridgewater and Cutler were being reffed differently I dunno what to say. And the hit on O'Donnell...whatever about the Vikings, if that was the Packers or the Patriots or god help us the Seahawks, it's a first down every time. That decision alone would have been enough to send the game to overtime. To some extent me moaning about the refs has more to do with how the Bears have been reffed all season, particularly against Seattle and the Lions.

Anyway all of that is a sideshow because like I said, we lost that ourselves, not through the refs. None of which was meant to be an insinuation about the Vikings. For one thing, I didn't go onto the Vikings thread to have a go (nor would I if we won).

But more importantly I was still drunk and angry, which is, in my opinion, the only legitimate way to watch football.

Anyway on mature reflection the Vikings on balance deserved the win, and congratulations to ye on that (would be more than happy if ye went on and did the impossible and beat out the Packers to the division title, obviously). But that doesn't mean we didn't throw it away ourselves, when the opportunity to win it was there. There's still a lot of learning to do for the Bears.

D9Male

RDS.

That is me that you are incorrectly talking about. I said he did a good job in the final stretch. I don't see how that is contentious. He had a bad first half.

Oat23

The natural reaction to losing like we have been the past two games is anger. This is the first proper rebuild the Bears have had in a long time. We are all used to being p*ssed off after losing because our team has been entering almost every season for the past decade+ with a competitive team and a goal. I keep losing sight of the fact that in August I really didn't care what happened this year for the first time ever, as long as some players on the roster showed something and we didn't finish 0-16 I was not bothered.

I woke up this morning and I wasn't even worried about the loss anymore. There have been more positives in the first 7 games than I expected in all 16. We are being competitive and some players are showing some real talent which gives us hope for the future, but we are also losing which gives us a better draft pick. This is a great season despite us being 2-5.

kennyb3

Oat23 wrote: »

The natural reaction to losing like we have been the past two games is anger. This is the first proper rebuild the Bears have had in a long time. We are all used to being p*ssed off after losing because our team has been entering almost every season for the past decade+ with a competitive team and a goal. I keep losing sight of the fact that in August I really didn't care what happened this year for the first time ever, as long as some players on the roster showed something and we didn't finish 0-16 I was not bothered.

I woke up this morning and I wasn't even worried about the loss anymore. There have been more positives in the first 7 games than I expected in all 16. We are being competitive and some players are showing some real talent which gives us hope for the future, but we are also losing which gives us a better draft pick. This is a great season despite us being 2-5.

Pretty much my attitude too.

We haven't been embarrassed this season (which I expected). Some young players are showing good signs (especially Goldman, Amos & Leno) and we clearly have an eye on the future rebuilding wise.

We, as fans, are getting some highly competitive and entertaining games. We are losing some we should win and winning some we should lose (Chiefs bar Charles injury). It's part of a process.

I was happy we lost in the end yesterday (given the Lions loss last week) - better draft pick. The way we lost was poor and frustrating but i was over it like 2mins later. Not like it meant we won't be getting a home playoff game or anything.

Just remember everygame we win is another step towards missing a Leonard Williams or Aaron Donald like the past 2 years drafts.

kennyb3

The only big long term negative of last night was losing the possibility of trading forte.

The positive being they can make a call on Langford now and decide whether they'll make any attempt to re-sign Forte.

Realt Dearg Sec

D9Male wrote: »

RDS.

That is me that you are incorrectly talking about. I said he did a good job in the final stretch. I don't see how that is contentious. He had a bad first half.

Fair enough.

Hulk Hands

I'd disagree with some of that Realt, albeit a fair post. I'd say we're comparable at the skill positions, with you only having the edge at WR1 (massively) and TE. Vikings we're poor yesterday, defence took a step back and TB was indeed terrible. Yet we still got the win in tough windy stadium against a team off a bye, and did it by outgaining in normal play. So I do genuinely think we're a reasonable margin better. That's not belittling the Bears, god knows you've been better than the Vikings for long enough and there's enough young talent there to make me worried. I'd much prefer to see you go 8-8 now and not get a high draft pick and potentially a new QB. I'd shudder to think of what Fox would do with all that cap space once Cutlers gone, provided he's given free reign.

On that point, you have an excellent coach there. A fire sale of assets, plus key injuries, and he's still made them competitive and very tough to beat. It also takes balls to fully accept you're in rebuilding mode. If there's one thing ive realised since Zim and Norv came in, and replaced the dross before them, it's the impact of good coaching. He'll have you back in the playoff's sooner rather than later. I assume that young GM is clever too. The league needs to accept an influx of young logical decision makers. When you see stuff like Lovie Smith last week, kicking a late field goal up 3 on the opponents 1 yard line, it hits home how archaic some NFL coaches are

padraig_f

I didn't like Ditka in the Packers jumper any more than anyone else, but I guess this is a pretty good response...

4. You recently made a commercial in which you wear a Packers sweater. Did you have a hard time putting it on?

I had no problem at all putting it on. It’s a commercial. I thought it was kinda funny and and kinda cute. Frankly, if people were offended by that, then get a life. Com’on. It’s no big deal.

I would say that I’ve been honestly more loyal to the Bears than they’ve been to me, so I don’t think I have to apologize anybody if I dress up in a Packers sweater or Detroit Lions sweater or Minnesota Vikings sweater. I will not apologize to anyone for that.

I think when you look at loyalty, it’s a two-way street. But this had nothing to do with anything. It was a commercial. They came to me and said will you make the commercial, will you do it this way.

You got Jerry Rice who is one of the greatest football players ever in San Francisco history, and he’s in all the Cowboys gear. He’s got the Cowboys jersey and the Cowboys hat, and there’s another commercial coming out where we’ll both be together.

Look, I played six years for the Bears; I played two years with Philadelphia; I played four years with the Cowboys. I coached 10 years with the Cowboys as an assistant coach.

You’re asking me where my loyalties are?

You know, I came back to [the Bears] to be the head coach, only because the man who started the Bears hired me. Only because of that. That’s the only reason. He’s the only one who would have done it, was George Halas.

I think we had a relative, good amount of success in Chicago.

Then all of a sudden we had other people who made their decisions based on whatever they make their decisions on, and they decided … And, that’s fine! I accepted that. I moved on.

If you’re asking me, do I have all my allegiance? Yeah, I owe my allegiance to George Halas’ Chicago Bears. There’s no question about that. That’s who I have my allegiance to right now. Nobody else, really. Nobody in the front office up there now. I have no obligation to anybody up there except to Mr. Halas, who hired me, who coached me, who was my mentor. All the credit in the world goes to him. No one else.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/7/71/1073440/4-downs-ditka-extra-points-unbeatens-mnf-packers-ad

SameOleJay

Apparently our schedule to close out is like 2nd easiest or something like that. With Jay playing pretty well we’ll likely win a handful more and push ourselves out of position.

Looking forward, the offense looks pretty set to me. I would keep Forte, provided it’s somewhat reasonable, keep Bennett because of the dearth of tight-ends around and obviously pay Alshon who is the team’s best player. Take one lineman in FA and one in the draft, have White return and things look promising here. Obviously the ideal would be a nice QB project to sit behind Jay but who knows if that will materialise. If Gase goes I trust Fox can replace him ably.

The D is in the process of a full scale rebuild. There are players seeing snaps who shouldn’t be anywhere near the league. Pace will be aggressive in FA with the treasure chest available and I’m sure stock up in the draft too. Every level of the D needs talent but a number one corner and primary pass-rusher are absolute musts. And, for the love of god, enough of the sticky plasters at safety. They need to find a premium talent to go alongside Amos, who does look promising.

Finally, and it can’t be ignored anymore, is special teams. They’ve been reprehensible for as long as I can remember. Toub leaving left them in total disarray. It’s clearly shorn of talent and coaching. Gould and POD are two nice pieces but the return game on both ends is deplorable.

Badabing

Have a question for the regular posters here, is Matt Forte in his last year with the Bears and lf so how much would it cost to keep him and should we keep him? Sorry it's just I'm a bit baffled by the draft and how much every team has to spend every year etc..

Realt Dearg Sec

Badabing wrote: »

Have a question for the regular posters here, is Matt Forte in his last year with the Bears and lf so how much would it cost to keep him and should we keep him? Sorry it's just I'm a bit baffled by the draft and how much every team has to spend every year etc..

He's in the final year of his contract and becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent next year. He has a cap hit this year of something like 9 million. He will probably be looking for big money next year, but given that he's also 30 next year and knowing how that goes with running backs, I'm not sure how willing the Bears will be to stump up. His injury now means that trading him won't happen but, depending on how he comes back from it, it will probably reduce his value.

Should we keep him? Matter of opinion I guess. My hope would be that he goes in for a club-friendly deal but I dunno, he might want to go somewhere and get a real shot at a ring too. I certainly wouldn't like to see us spend big on him, at all. He's a savage player but we're supposed to be in rebuild, so paying him big doesn't make sense for us. But at the right price he could be a great leader on offense, with reduced snaps he can keep getting it done (hopefully) while Langford or someone else comes in to replace him. My best guess is, though, that he's gone next year.

Badabing

Early days but Packers there for the taking. Weather we're good enough is a another story.

37 points against the Packers, very rare

Realt Dearg Sec

Badabing wrote: »

Early days but Packers there for the taking. Weather we're good enough is a another story.

37 points against the Packers, very rare

Great fun to watch tonight, especially seeing peanut do his thing. But the panthers are a far better team than we are, don't see us doing anything other than keeping it respectable against them this year. That said, even if we are basically just playing for a draft pick at this point (and we very much are), the packers game is the exception. Am o correct on saying that they overtake us on wins in the overall rivalry history if they win at lambeau this year?

Badabing

On the back of last night's win we could be looking at 9-7 record or at worst 8-8. Digging out victories all goes well for the future.

kennyb3

Badabing wrote: »

looking at 9-7 record or at worst 8-8.

Seriously? We scrapped past a Chargers team that have now lost 5 in a row and are devastated with injuries.

We'll likely lose our next 3 and won't win all 5 of the last 5.

Even if we beat the Rams say, which I don't think will happen personally given their defence, we'll need to win 4 of 5 to get to 8-8.

6-10 or less for me, which I'd be happy about.

I don't want the 8- 8 purgatory we've largely had to deal with

Badabing

Just think we'll beat the Lions and Vikings, bucs 49'ers and redskins as well. With Jeffrey fit anything is possible.

I'm maybe being over optimistic and probably fall apart next week but with Jay, Jeffrey and Langford we're going to be competitive in every game.

kennyb3

Wildly, wildly optimistic imho - every nfl team, bar a few each year, is competitive.

We've nothing at CB, no NB, average ILB's, one real pass rusher, a stout Dline but again no pass rush ability. Our oline is beat up (a patch work job) and we're over reliant on one (amazing) receiver. Langford is a rookie who's played one real full game hardly time to anoint him (though he looks v. promising but lets not get ahead of ourselves here).

Overall we lack talent and great coaching is making us competitive. Still though we are very much up and down from week to week and look anything from a terribly poor team completely devoid of talent to highly competitive average (but no better).

The big positive is that given these traits and the way we are keep games close - that's a sign of a quick flip around with a good draft and FA. I'd still rather do worse this year and get better long term talent for that flip around but it is nice to sprinkle in wins for confidence and psychology.

Badabing

Yeah your bang on, i can see some high scoring wins and losses. Wonder if we'll see white this season as well.

Realt Dearg Sec

Yeah not a hope we come out of this with a winning season, or even a .500 one. And the big worry if we DID do that, would be losing one or both of our coordinators. Fangio fell into our laps because of the stupidity and hubris of the 9ers front office and Gase was front runner to be our head coach at one stage. Losing either would be disastrous next year: Fangio has only just begun implementing a new system that we are adjusting all our D personel for, and Gase is the first coordinator who seems to be really getting the best out of Cutler on a consistent basis.

That, to me, is much more of a worry than the draft pick issue (although that's important too, obviously). This is all in contrast to my celebratory mood last night, but as a fan it gets awful tiresome watching us lose all the time. Anyway as I said last night the wins are less important than which players are shining in them. So in that sense I was pretty elated. But we have still not beaten a good team this year and being realistic I don't see us doing so. Looking at the schedule I would see four wins. I think, as it stands, we'll probably lose to the Rams, Broncos, Packers and Vikings, and probably get wins against the 9ers (although they're probably going to be better than we expected), Skins, Bucs and the Lolcats.

But a losing season makes it much less likely that other teams come knocking on our door about taking away Gase or Fangio.

Realt Dearg Sec

Badabing wrote: »

Wonder if we'll see white this season as well.

Does anybody know what the situation is with this? I was under the impression he's out for the season, but not really sure.

SameOleJay

We can’t worry ourselves with what happens Gase. You’ve got to trust that Pace has given him assurances of being Fox’s eventual replacement should he perform or that Fox could replace him if it came to that. Put simply, if he were doing a bad job we’d be suffering; you can’t suffer now that he’s doing well. That’d be one miserable existence as a fan! I’m not concerned about Fangio, he’s doing nothing new here he hasn’t been doing for years. I just don’t think he’ll ever go to a head coaching role.

Happy with last night. Jay moves the offense every week and Alshon is just a monster. Still lacking badly in defensive personnel but signs of progress at least. Looking forward to St.Louis but very surprised if Chicago won. Game there a couple of years ago still gives me fits.

SameOleJay

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Does anybody know what the situation is with this? I was under the impression he's out for the season, but not really sure.

Said he was nowhere close a couple weeks ago.


Be amazed if we saw him this year.

padraig_f

Watched the game this evening, thought it was pretty poor standard all round...felt bad for the neutrals watching, San Diego seemed to be even more banged up than we are.

Langford did pretty well, great diving catch to make up for his drop against the Vikings last week.

I thought on the Cutler interception, the CB got away with a hold on Jeffery, but wasn't sure. Nice call by Gase to go straight down the line on the same CB the very next play, after he tried to cut the route.

Some more strange refereeing....the one where they had a late hit on Cutler, Long sees it, talks to the referee about it, not animated at all, and the ref gives Long an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, knocking the team out of field-goal range. Joke.

With the draft in mind I was kind of rooting for the Chargers at the end

Bears fans at the stadium were great, loved Cutler giving them the signal to quiet down when they were in the red zone.

Realt Dearg Sec

Yeah just on the crowd, it was funny at the time but kind of depressing on retrospect to see the chargers having to go to a silent count in their own stadium. I know we have great support for away games but this arms to be a weekly thing for them. Must be very demoralising.

But yeah I commented at the time on the difference in the way cutler is reffed comparing to other quarterbacks, that was a fairly blatant example given we conceded a roughing penalty on the next drive. On general though I think we're just the victims of bad refereeing rather than biased.