AZ54

Agreed on that...going to tough sledding on offense today.

It has been years since I watched him play at ASU but here is what little I can remember... Osweiler is a good athlete, similar to Cutler, who won't really run away from people but can move well enough to save a play that broke down. I never liked how he read defenses and he often seemed late on making throws. However, he only started at ASU for one year so there is that. He wasn't the type of QB that can throw a guy open, he saw the open player and then threw to the target which was often static. Was it setup that way because of his limited accuracy or just how the offense was setup? It has been several years and so this is one thing that NFL coaching from a guy like Adam Gase may have improved upon. Arm strength was good. If he stepped into throws he can get the ball downfield for sure but if there was pressure around him he'd throw quickly and passes often tailed off as they reached their target. Many passes on out-routes 10yds or more were often easy targets for INTs. In the NFL those windows are even smaller. Keep him from stepping up and opportunities for INTs might be there. If you are bored there is this...which not surprisingly shows some of his throws coming up short and being intercepted or nearly intercepted. Others are driven right on target especially if it's his first read. He'll move the ball against us but we'll definitely want to take away the early read and force him to think a bit. What do Fox and Gase know? Why isn't Peyton Manning attending practice and at least sitting in meeting rooms helping this kid win games? What would you say if that were Cutler doing the same?

Bummer. I don't think Denver has the push up the middle like the Rams do from their DTs. Their pass rush relies heavily on the ends crashing in and forcing the QB up in the pocket. They still have Shane Ray and Von Miller so speed on the edge is there but perhaps not the power to stop the run.

The only way I see the playoffs happening for this team is if we win the next two games. Don't win both, don't worry about it. I'm sure there are other mathematical possibilities but IF this team truly is what we think they are becoming they should beat the Broncos at home against their backup QB. After that it's payback time on T-day. I think health is the biggest factor so we need to get Grasu back at C which returns Slauson to LG and Ducasse to bench, have Jeffrey at full speed so we have a deep threat, and have Royal on the field which conveniently takes Mariani off the field. I'm not going to sweat it because of the progress I've seen this season with all the new players. We're still going to have some ups and downs.

This team is trying to rebuild and is getting closer to what they want to be. The last thing they need is a player who makes mistakes on a muffed punt or fumble on a return as that kills the momentum the defense is starting to build, takes opportunities away from an offense that needs as many shots at scoring as they can get. Most of us would have been fine with Mariani for the rest of the season if the ball security was there. Since we have that guy making mistakes in Mariani we need to find some alternative. I still think part of the problem delaying the change is that with our WR health being poor we need to rely on Mariani as a WR, however little he contributes, and we won't get that from any new KR/PR. One option could be putting Zach Miller split out more often, instead of Mariani, and try to benefit from the matchups. Given that defenses matchup based on personnel that could put teams in a spot wondering if Miller was out there as FB, TE, or WR. Do they keep 3 LBs on the field or go Nickel given the speed and receiving ability he showed the past two weeks?

Maybe the better question to Jason is why can't we fix the Oline with $50mil in cap space? I realize Kyle Long and Jeffrey will get a big chuck of this but still we'll be left with $30-35mil. Cut Bushrod and we have another $4mil to spend. Aside from Long's increased cap hit Slauson and Grasu will stay. I expect Leno will continue as our starting LT so we're looking at adding perhaps either a RT or RG depending on where they want to lineup Long next season, and then some guys for depth.

Bennett is a far better blocker than Miller and he's a good receiver. We already have $50mil in cap space for next season and TE is a position we finally have some strength at. I don't see any reason to cut Martellus and we should re-sign Miller. There is plenty of money to sign players for the Oline. If more is needed we will likely cut someone like Willie Young or Antrel Rolle as those actions would free up another $2.5- 3mil each but that would also have to go toward likely replacements for those spots. Or we can cut Bushrod and save $4mil (with $4mil in dead money). Houston was another potential target for cap space but he's playing better the last two games so we'll see if that continues.

No. The two plays are identical except one helps the Patriots and one does not.

I recorded the game and reviewed it late last night. Rolle played a big part of the in-the-box defense in this game making several plays for minimal gain. On the Rams first drive that pass to Gurley that took them down near the red zone: Jones completely blew his assignment and got lost standing around behind the Dline as Gurley ran out of the backfield. If you see that highlight you'll see Jones about 8 yards behind chasing after Gurley the entire way. I think right after that Anderson got on the field for the first time. Anderson was a little lost on his assignments yesterday (little bit of a position change) but once he saw it he went after it. I'm not sure how much longer Jones will be a starter. It's not that Anderson was much better than him but Anderson is learning on the fly and rapidly catching up. If Jones doesn't improve he might get passed up. Ducasse looks just as bad on replay as watching live but Slauson also didn't play well at times. That might have been a game where Grasu's quickness would have helped more than Slauson's power.

Seems certain the Broncos are resting Manning in this game. It's not a division game and now that path is their most critical for entering the playoffs. I haven't watched much of Osweiler since he left ASU. All I remember from him back then was a QB who was often late in his reads, not a guy who anticipates well nor can he throw someone open. That's been several years so a lot can change. Regardless he's not going to read NFL defenses like Manning does. Forgot to add: Good call about Fox and Gase knowing what Osweiler can and can't do well. We have a big advantage here even if Kubiak is running a different offense.

Offense: Overall Gase did a good job especially considering he had to work with a limited Alshon Jeffrey and Royal was out again. There are still gaps on the roster that need to be fixed but more on that later. Considering what he's working with on our Oline, WR, and the backup RBs (not that they were a problem) against a very fast defense he called a good game. He stuck with running the ball late when everyone knew it was coming. Cutler: Rarely did he have more than 2 seconds in the pocket before he had to avoid pressure. Despite all that he kept his cool and moved around well enough to extend some plays. Other times when it wasn't there he just folded and took the sack and moved on to the next play, or the next series. I'm not sure how he was able to block out of his mind that each drop back he knew Ducasse would be a turnstile and let Aaron Donald up the middle but he did it. Numbers aren't great especially considering the two long TDs added a lot to yardage, 3rd down efficiency was horrible, but mentally this was Cutler's best game since he game to Chicago. Oline: This was a bad game. We had some well blocked runs throughout the game but had trouble doing it consistently. Pass protection was bad. I hoped Grasu would be back so we could get Slauson in at LG but we had to see Ducasse spin around all game long. We hear it all the time but it is about match ups and that Dline was a bad matchup for our Oline. They are a tough matchup for any Oline. Gase however took advantage of their pressure up the middle and dialed up a few plays to the outside at just the right time to take advantage and on these plays the Oline executed well. RBs: Can't say enough about Langford and his speed is a welcome change to the backfield. He's starting to have a better feel for the game as seen on his TD run where he cut back to the left away from the direction of the play and found a crease into the end zone. Forte may return soon but he'll be sharing carries more than he did the first half of the season. Carey runs hard between the tackles and it's a nice mix between him and Langford. Carey finished with 4ypc, a good bit of it after first contact. He took the big hit late and fumbled but overall a good game from Ka'Deem and I think as he gets more reps he too is getting a better feel for the blocking. Nobody misses Jacquizz Rodgers. WRs: Quiet game in large part because there was so little time to throw and because of injuries. Jeffrey was limited in what he did and Marquess Wilson just doesn't run his routes well enough to get open. He's rounding off his cuts and then fades a bit downfield making it easy for a DB to undercut the pass. If I were Cutler I wouldn't be looking his way much at all. I can't wait to see what we can do with Jeffrey and Royal both healthy for a few games. TEs: One thing is clear Zach Miller will be a bigger part of this offense going forward. Defense: This largely no-name defense grew up today. Fangio's and his coaching staff are turning these guys into consistent performers. Dline/OLB: Missing McPhee off the edge was worrisome especially knowing what Gurley and Tavon Austin can do. The edge players were disciplined and largely shutdown the reverse game. RBs had tough sledding up the middle. I saw guys like Bruce Gaston (who I didn't remember being on our team) making plays inside. We have to start giving some credit to Jay Rodgers for what he's done with all these backup DTs. ILB: Welcome back Shea! 8 tackles, 1 forced fumble. The first drive the defense looked to be too focused on stopping Gurley. That stopped for the rest of the game and the defense, looking well organized up front, only gave up 3 more points. I didn't watch closely enough but I know I saw Anderson out there on some plays so it would appear he split time with Jones. Anderson finished with 3 tackles while Jones had 2. I don't know if they alternated series or if Anderson was used more on passing down while Jones had the early downs. CB: Porter with 3 PBU late in the game. Kyle Fuller continues to improve in coverage. Foles had some options but pressure kept him inaccurate or indecisive throughout the game. Some will point out that STL is last in passing yards per game but they are also 5th in rushing. In the overall scheme of what we had to do on defense the CBs played their part. S: They didn't stand out. Might be the first game in years where I didn't find myself saying over and over "I hope the safety is there". They kept everything in front of them. Special Teams: We're getting good on kick coverage. Prosinski (I think it's him) flies down the middle of the field on punt coverage often arriving first at the returner. I'm not sure where he's at in the blocking scheme but he's handling that and hustling downfield. I'm more accustomed to seeing our gunners arrive first from the edges. I'm giving some props to Jeff Rodgers for the improvement. Mariani is about to get benched. I doubt we'll be putting Royal back there when he's healthy simply because he's likely to be less than 100% when he first returns. Mariani's poor decisions, lack of vision as a KR, and muffed punts won't stay on the field long with this coaching staff. It's possible we put someone out there just to make a fair catch on PR. Unfortunately part of the challenge is the active roster and setting that up when we have so many WR injuries. If we didn't need Mariani at WR we might be seeing Antone Smith, or even Langford, on KR. It will be interesting to see what happens this week. HC: John Fox has won this team over. It was great to see all the camaraderie on the sideline late in the game. I know winning cures everything but this has been a long road and a decisive win like this while missing several key players, and with so many new additions contributing, says a lot. 8 weeks ago this upcoming Denver game looked like a sure loss. Right now with Denver sliding and the Bears ascending it sure looks like we have a chance to pull off a win at home. Key will be protecting against Denver's edge rushers but Ware might still be sidelined.

We have players returning from injury but there are questions about who will remain a starter. Bushrod should be close to returning. I haven't heard anyone clamoring for him to get back on the field, not even our Oline guru Jason (not that Bushrod was a favorite of his). Will Leno stay as our starter when Bushrod is healthy? I think we're going with the future here so I say yes. Grasu...I think once he recovers from his neck injury he'll be back at center. That brings up the option of Ducasse moving back to RG or do we keep Omameh at RG and put Ducasse on the bench? I think our starting Oline becomes Leno, Slausson, Grasu, Omameh, and Long. SMC... I haven't been happy with the ILB play since he went out. Not that it was great while he was on field but there was a clear drop off when he left and IMO the level of play still hasn't recovered. I thought Anderson was abused in pass coverage this past week yet after the game I was surprised to learn he had the radio and was calling plays for the defense. Obviously the coaches see something there that they weren't seeing with Jones. I think it's clear Fangio prefers to get SMC back on the field but I have no clue who his sidekick will be: Jones or Anderson. At this point I think Fangio will lean toward putting Anderson out there with SMC but he could also rotate plays among Jones/Anderson.

I don't think this is as much about record as it is about the future and getting White any reps this year will help him next year. Of course they won't risk anything with this injury so I agree we will know soon if he has a shot to return this year. He's had a lot of weeks without running and that takes a long time to recover from. If he makes it back to the field I doubt we'll see the athlete that ran the 4.3x forty. It's the same with Dez Bryant watching him these last two games, he just can't run away from players as he used to. Dez will recover his speed within a week or two but White hasn't been running for many more weeks than Dez was out so his recovery will take longer. If White makes it back to the field this season we need to temper our expectations.

I look forward to Fangio's weekly updates. He's so straightforward with his words it's sometimes funny. His matter-of-fact approach when talking about the players is never far off from what you'd read here on the board. http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...f3-172828460cb5 ... on Houston ------------------------- "[The sacks] were huge plays," Fangio said. "Now if we can just eliminate the offsides, he'll play even more and more. But that should do a lot for his confidence, to go in there and make plays at a crucial time like that." -------------------------- From the same link the most surprising statistic I've seen at midseason: ----------------------------- After allowing nine touchdowns in the first two games of the season, the Bears defense has permitted just 10 TDs in its last six contests. The unit has yielded only one touchdown in three of its last four games against the Chiefs, Vikings and Chargers. ----------------------------- We're not a shutdown D by any means, often not even close to being pretty, but something good is starting to happen on the defensive side of the ball. That's with some very significant injuries and/or losses in personnel (Ratliff, Ferguson).

This has turned into the best "Cutler" thread ever.

I'm with you on the decision making. At the end of the day you have to find a QB you can win with and I think playing as he is now Cutler can be that guy. It is interesting there is a sticking point for AG no matter what on that route it had to be Cutler's bad decision and Jeffrey, or the defensive PI, had no culpability whatsoever. Even if you want to go down the route of Cutler killed the team with the Pick 6, it's easy to find many other culprits who made equally critical bad plays from Robbie Gould missing two FG, Jeffrey dropped a sure TD pass that hit him in the hands, among other dropped passes. Acho and the defense blew a coverage that gave up an easy TD. Kyle Long took points off the board with a 15 yard penalty, not his only penalty by the way. OTOH I get the fact that your QB is a leader on the team and shouldn't put the team in a bad spot. Then again he also led them back to a win in the 2nd half. Review the list of QBs with more INTs than Cutler this season and it's a who's who among future HofF QBs, Pro Bowl QBs, or 1st Rd draft pick QBs (except for 2): Peyton, Luck, Stafford, Bortles, Bradford, (Cousins), Newton, Tannehill, Flacco, Brees, (Fitzpatrick), Rivers, Matt Ryan, Winston, Bridgewater, Eli, Palmer, Roethlisberger, Wilson, and then Cutler. There is more to the story of any QBs play than just INTs of course but by any measure that's a pretty good list of QBs widely respected around the league. The alternative among "good" QBs is to end up with a guy like Alex Smith who will consistently have good QBR numbers and low INTs but consistently won't throw TDs and stretch the field. I don't think you win big games with a guy like that unless you really have an elite defense, in which case you can have Trent Dilfer as your QB. There are just two players of note that aren't ahead of Cutler on INTs: Rodgers and Brady and both of them have been in the same offense for at least a decade. Two recent 1st RD picks that standout are Derek Carr and especially Mariota.

Run defense was ok, passing defense not so good. He is young and I'm not giving up on him he just needs more time to learn.

On Anderson ... sometimes a player leads in tackles because the other team keeps coming their way.

Nice work on the screen shots. I remembered the jersey pull on the inside shoulder as Alshon was leaning into his break. The official is right there but cannot see through Alshon so no PI call is made. It happens in games, sometimes we'll get the benefit of the break and sometimes we won't.

After spending most of their air time praising the Chargers and giving them credit for fighting through multiple injuries ESPN analysts were lost when talking about the Bears, especially after the game was over. Did you know the Chargers had to play with several backup Oline players? Poor Chargers. Did you see the Chargers were missing two of their top 3 WRs? Blah blah blah... let's play some football! Oline: Not a whole lot of goodness here with plenty of mistakes all the way around but for the most part the offense was effective enough in the run game and passing game. Ducasse again lined up at LG so he'll be on the bench when Grasu returns leaving Omameh at RG. Kyle Long didn't have a good game. WR: Jeffrey needed to wake up, maybe the big stage was on his mind early, but way too many drops in the first half. He made up for it later. Cutler didn't want to look at anyone else (except Bennett) most of the game. TE: Bennett looked more focused this week. Maybe the praise from the coaches this past week regarding his all-around game made him feel better. Zach Miller finally showed up in the passing game in a big way. Need to fix the Oline so we can get him out in space more often. RB: I believe we have seen the future in Langford. Numbers weren't great on the ground but he was consistently productive and he was excellent in receiving. More important were the solid blitz pickups on the road where clearly the Chargers intended to challenge Langford. You'd have a hard time convincing a casual observer who the 1st Rd RB was in this game. I liked what Carey did as well, quick decisive inside running. The offense can survive with these two players as a 1:2 combo, plus we had a brief sighting of Antone Smith. Cutler: Big mistakes early but I believe the jersey pull that Verrett did on Jeffrey's inside shoulder as he made his cut kept him off balance and unable to come back for the ball. Both the QB and WR responded in a big way after that. In the NFL you will face adversity, and bad plays (several from Kyle Long, Slauson, Leno, Jeffrey) but Cutler kept the entire offense focused and fighting late into the game. That's what good teams and leaders do. Dline/OLB: McPhee played another good game. He's just all-in on every play. Broken record warning: We still need more pass rush. We had a UPR sighting (Unidentified Pass Rusher): Houston decided he'd had enough watching Willie Young play and made several excellent plays on the Chargers last drive. Not only the two sacks but he was right in Rivers face and forced him to throw the ball down field on their last play or he'd have had a 3rd sack. I hope he learns from this. He's not a finesse pass rusher, he needs to attack OTs physically like McPhee does, and as he did on that last drive. On Houston's first sack Sutton had an excellent bull rush up the middle that kept Rivers from moving up in the pocket. Overall throughout the game the run defense was good and they held Gordon to just 31 yards rushing on 11 attempts, Woodhead OTOH did some damage on a couple plays but giving up just 77 total yards rushing is pretty good. ILB: Anderson needs to get back to the bench. He's slow on every play, lost in his assignments. Not that we shouldn't expect some of this but it's too often. Half the time he's in Jones' way preventing him from making a play. He may be out of shape or just beat down mentally but he wasn't hustling late in the game. It seemed Rivers targeted the ILBs on 80% of their pass plays, and he should have because the routes were wide open. I hope SMC is back soon. CBs: Callahan may end up a good player for us. Kid makes some plays and even when beat recovers quickly. There wasn't much spectacular here but they made some good plays and gave up some plays especially early. Passes defended is slowly trending upward. Again, most of the damage in the passing game was done around the ILBs and the DBs weren't challenged too often. S: Amos keeps on showing up with a couple splash plays each game. I can't believe Woodhead got right up after that hit early in the game. If Amos could trust the ILBs in front of him he might be able to standout more. Rolle, even if he is assignment sound, is just two steps too slow to cover the deep part of the field. While I think bringing in his leadership this year was and is a good thing, I can't see him returning next year. At least not for $3mil and there is no dead money if we cut him. Coaches: Solid performances on both sides of the ball. They keep getting something out of this roster when a 2-5 team could have easily folded on the road after two big mistakes on offense plus the early drive we gave up to the Chargers. ESPN couldn't do much more to dismiss our team but yet there the analysts were stunned afterwards and praising the coaches for putting these players in a position to win the game. If it weren't for Gould our special teams would have been good today.

I agree, the GM/owner has to sell the hiring decision to the players and also to the fans. When you are rebuilding it takes time of course but start off with a losing record with a coach who came from a team with a losing record and doubt and second guessing creep in everywhere by the end of the first season. The Bears sit at 2-5 but there is patience in Chicago largely because Fox, Fangio, and to a lesser extent Gase have proven themselves at previous stops. The special teams coach gets no such pass.

That worked perfectly.

There was an interview with Gase about a month ago and I can't find the link now. When asked about his future and HC prospects he spoke very long term about the Bears in a way that made me think he has been given an indication he'd be considered for replacing Fox down the road. Gase is very young and I don't think he's ready for that transition to HC yet. By his own words he's still learning how to be an OC.

I'm watching this week's press conference's and there are a lot of questions to Adam Gase about him being a HC next season and to Fox about his assistants becoming HC next season. I'm impressed with our coaching staff and I think going forward into next season we'll see some very good things. However, right now when you step back and look at the entire league how many owners and GMs really want to pursue the assistants from a 2-5 team? Especially two assistants (Gase and Fangio) who did not get chosen last year after all the success they had at their previous jobs. I think our media and fans are way over-estimating league-wide reactions to our team. Yes, Cutler is playing much better than in years past but is what he's done in Gase's offense really going to stand out to someone looking for greatness in his next HC? If you are the owner is this what you sell to your fans to by season tickets by bringing in the coach of a 2-5 team? Any team searching for a new HC, with rare exception like Denver last year, is a bad team. Fans want some proven success over the long term and we were no different last year when Pace was searching for a HC. Based on total yards thrown Cutler ranks 27th in the league. Our entire offense is ranked 27th in yards per game. We all know the injuries we've dealt with and can see the production despite that but I highly doubt that is as visible to outsiders as compared to what the assistants on teams like the Bengals, Cardinals, and Patriots (always while Brady is there even though they all fail without Brady) have done this season. Even Houston's offense with no QB of note is ranked 8th in yards per game. If you want a guy that's getting something out of nothing I'd start there. Team stats are similar for the defensive side of the ball...29th in points per game except we are a surprising 9th in yards/game. So if you are considering Fangio for HC now you ask yourself was that 49ers defense good because of Fangio or was it because of Harbaugh? I'm on board with these coaches 100% as I believe they have done very well with the talent they have. However, I think outsiders will sit back and wait to see what they can do over a two or three seasons before they become the hot HC candidates. They'll probably get some interest this offseason but I don't think it will "top of the list" type headlines. In the meantime, sit back and enjoy watching the media congratulate our coaching staff at the halfway point of a 2-5 season. That surely is something none of us have ever seen.

LOL, neither like sitting on the bench. I love the fact these coaches only care about one thing: Who is the best player. Your contract or draft status mean nothing. Look at Alan Ball collecting $3mil on the bench as well. Now I don't like spending that kind of money on guys sitting on the bench but the message has been sent. Then there is the future. At this point those players know sitting on the bench is not helping them get a good contract next year. They also know we're not likely to pay Houston almost as much as McPhee next year. We'll likely eat the $3mil cap hit to free up $4mil in space. We saw a huge overhaul of the defense last offseason and we're going to see another one this offseason. Except this time around we have something like $60mil to spend and if we cut players like Young, Houston, Bushrod, and potentially Antrel Rolle we'll see over $70mil. I know a couple big chunks of that will go to Long and Jeffrey but we're going shopping this spring. We'll probably look to bring back some of our own FA like Montgomery and Porter. My favorite FA target: Muhammed Wilkerson. Jets don't have much cap space and they just drafted Leonard Williams. Can't see them giving him the franchise tag.