AZ54

He's not the biggest issue we have by far but if he keeps running scared his replacement is going to show up sooner than he thinks.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...1019-story.html I'm pretty sure Callahan played poorly on special teams earlier in the year giving up the early kickoff TD to Cardinals and was put back to the practice squad so there isn't much to like about this move. At one point on the sidelines Hurst was shown trying to loosen up a hamstring. I have no idea if he's injured (two weeks before next game?) or what he did to lose his job after helping force that second punt turnover by pushing Fuller into the ball.

Things I liked: Amos put some big hits on players. His closing speed and play recognition are coming together. We might finally have a keeper at S. Our offense scored 34pts. Everyone here is correct in the opportunities to score more. Alshon Jeffrey made a big difference in what we could do in the passing game. DBs....I've seen some critiques but I thought for the most part these guys had good coverage throughout the game. Stafford killed us several times by pulling the ball down and running and that is not something he likes to do. Despite all that the Dline couldn't get pressure. Fuller has improved but he's still about a half step from where he needs to be in coverage. He made some excellent tackles including the open field play on Johnson that prevented what I thought was a certain TD. The arrow for the DBs continues to point up. Online pass protection. Solid effort against a team with some good edge rushers. Cutler often had plenty of time to make plays including the game tying drive. Things I didn't like: Online run blocking. We hit some plays here and there but there was little consistency to the inside running game. ILBs. Anderson over-ran so many plays. On one play he ran right in front of Jones leaving the cut back lane wide open which was quickly the exploited. Everyone remembers him running behind the official and giving up another big play. Reynolds split time with him so this might have been both guys out of position. At other times things just looked out of sorts in terms of gap responsibility. I saw no signs of Jones being the leader on the defense actively working to make sure guys were lined up correctly. I look forward to getting SMC back on the field. DLine little pass rush. Drafting a DE for this scheme, or signing one in FA, is going to be a top priority. We need some inside pressure and that will help the edge rushers a bit. We need some real speed off the edge too. Coaching: First, once Detroit got inside the 10 keep some time on the clock. They had to get a TD so it's clear what they will do. Give Cutler more time to work the magic as he's done the last two weeks. When we had the ball with just under 3 min left we can't go so conservative with 3 running plays. It might be reasonable IF we had a good defense that had stifled them all game but we don't have that.

Agreed, couldn't get anywhere near Stafford except for a few plays. Running game was really bad. I didn't watch him closely but it's hard to believe Grasu had a good day with all the missed blocks on the running plays.

Didn't see this coming... http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...34-bd1defcdb08a

At this point Detroit has nothing to lose and with players getting benched in the middle of the last game I expect a hard fought game. Given all the injuries we're stacking up it's hard to know which players will take the field. I think Bushrod will start but I'm not sure that's a good thing against Ansah's speed. Alshon seems like he'll be back but I think he'll be in a limited role. Marcellus Bennett is questionable too. Detroit is ranked lower than us in run defense and their pass defense is more solid. I think we'll go heavy and try to run on Detroit, or keep extra blockers in as protection and let a 2-3 WRs run around until they get open. Leno has played well, bring him in now and then alongside one of the OTs to give Bennett some rest throughout the game and just pave the way for Forte and Langford. Defense has to find ways to get to Stafford early. I think we need to plant some doubt in his mind early, and ideally get their fans booing before halftime. Losing SMC is a big loss IMO, I don't even know who starts alongside Jones. The loss is moreso from the play calling and adjustments before the snap. Jones didn't handle that well last week and it looked like a completely different defense for a bit until they pulled it together later on that drive. Abdullah is lightning quick and fast, miss an assignment and it's not 10 yards given up, it's a TD. This won't be like KC, our offense will need to score more than 25pts to win this game. Toss in a defensive score for us and it might be the final nail in their coffin.

HJQ on his path to the NFL... http://www.scout.com/nfl/bears/story/16001...d-jones-quartey

My target date for his return is the Thanksgiving game.

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago-bears/post...-than-last-week

Prosinski. We've had so many roster changes this year I actually had to keep a roster list open on my phone last week so I could figure out who was on the field.

I didn't expect him back on the field this quickly doing anything much less running. This is very promising.

SMC hasn't played great but he hasn't played poorly. I know he struggled early on with some of his assignments but that settled down in the last few games and his coverage has improved. It was noticeable to me the moment he left the field and how disorganized our defense looked for the next few plays. What I'm waiting to see is that light go on with the play recognition and then he starts producing plays in the backfield.

He was brought up to the 53 man roster when Cutler was injured. Putting him back to PS likely means Cutler is nearly 100%. I didn't notice if he was listed in our injury report today.

If that is true about not risking Langford/Carey on ST, it makes me wonder if there is more to the possibility of a Forte trade than we realize.

I agree on his history and I don't even expect Porter to make it through the rest of the season. I was a bit surprised he even made the team given how much time he missed in preseason. Now we see why they kept him around. We'll just take what we can get out of him this year and likely move on to a younger player next year.

Jeffrey is going to get paid very well. He won't be among the elite WRs money but he'll be right behind them. Porter is not playing with a bad hamstring, recall he missed about 6 or 7 weeks (including preseason) recovering before showing up the last few games. Even in his first game back he had a grand total of 5 snaps. Cutler is playing with a bad hamstring but he also does not have to run, cut, and jump like a WR. Recall he did not run out of the pocket last week and just this week started looking a bit better but he's not at full speed.

Good start for the rookie, plenty to build on though. Here's a glimpse of why we drafted him. http://www.chicagobears.com/multimedia/vid...b2-87068cc4900b

Ravens offense is 13th in yards per game and 10th in points per game. On defense they are 24th in ypg and 24th in pts/game. There is that glaring difference in QB ranking but it's PFF's ranking. OTOH Flacco has thrown for more yards than some guy named Rodgers. If the Ravens offense implodes it will be later in the year when Trestman has refused to adapt when defenses know what's going on.

On Antone Smith: http://atlantafalcons.blog.ajc.com/2015/09...h-antone-smith/ Hamstring issue and probably the emergence of their other RBs caused them to let him go in the preseason. It's hard to understand why we're signing this guy. We have Carey and 3 RBs should be enough. Unless they aren't that sold on Carey but bringing in a 30yr old RB coming off a hamstring issue is not really a move with an eye toward the future. "Smith was a standout on special teams for the Falcons since 2012."

A good point about the scheme and lack of pressure with the focus being to take the running game away. I didn't think about it at the time but I do remember seeing just 3 guys rushing a few times in the game.

Does Brady need to cheat to win? Absolutely not. Why he did it is beyond me but it doesn't change the facts. Then again these aren't exactly the cold weather/bad weather scenarios where he wanted the ball pressure lowered.

Agreed but again we have neither Jeffrey or White which takes away the fade options. Nor do we have a mobile QB so that takes away some roll outs. Eventually we'll get some more options.

Watching in the bar again so it's hard to pick up on some of the details on how guys played. Here's some thoughts on the KC game: Offense Oline: Forte managed to run for 3.9ypc behind a rookie center and 7th Rd pick Leno while going against a stacked box all game long with no credible deep threat on the outside. There was nothing spectacular in the run game but it was effective enough. On the edges Kyle Long and Leno shutout Hali and Houston from getting any sacks. The line often had help from Cutler who was elusive in the pocket but he also had places to move to on most plays. It seems to me that when the QB has space to move around it's a credit to the blockers for at least staying with their guy even if they get beat to one side. I didn't see very many free-runs at the QB like we've seen in the past. Leno has done well enough IMO that the team is not going to be in a rush to get Bushrod back on the field. RBs: Forte was his usual jack-of-all-trades again. I still want to see a little more of Langford but with the banged up WR corps and the way the game went it is understandable. WRs: Wilson is finally getting it. I see reports of Cutler getting on him during practices to run his routes better (he needs that) and it's paying off. Hopefully that light is coming on for Wilson. Bellamy is not flashy but is productive. Meredith had 4 rec 52yds and might be the real gem long-term among this backup trio. Meredith made a great shoestring grab and turned upfield for a 1st down. He has a quickness to his cuts and acceleration once the ball is in his hands that the other two don't have and he has really good hands. There is a steep learning curve for him but I don't think he'd be safe if the Bears put him on the practice squad once Jeffrey and White are healthy. ---------------------------- http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300000047...om-fcs-runnerup Wide receiver Cameron Meredith (6-3 3/8, 207) ran the 40 in 4.42 and 4.45 seconds. He had a 39-inch vertical jump and 10-foot-7 broad jump. He did the short shuttle in 4.17 seconds and the three-cone drill in 6.76 seconds. He performed 12 lifts on the bench press. He had a good positional workout and could be a priority free-agent pickup following the draft. ---------------------------- QB: Two weeks, two game winning drives late in the game. With all the changing pieces around him from WRs, C, LT he's leading them. I'm leaving it there. Defense Dline: I expected more pressure in this game and it never really materialized. That was disappointing. Our sacks were more coverage sacks (which is a good thing too). Ratliff didn't show much in his first game back but maybe after a month off I shouldn't have expected much. I love Unrein's hustle chasing down plays from behind but I'd like it better if he made more plays going forward. While it wasn't flashy the effort across the board was again productive giving up just 10pts on the road. Having Charles out late in the game helped but no sympathy from me given all the injuries and the fact we had two rookies playing safety and a ILB we signed 12 days ago. LBs: McPhee. Everyone else was ok but we did see a couple splash plays from Jones (finally) with a big hit on Kelce to stop a 3rd down play, and Reynolds ran through some blocks to make a nice stop for a loss. Lamar Houston is not fast nor quick, expect to see one of our early draft picks (of FA pickup) to get some speed on the edge. Loved seeing Willie Young on that sack, hope to see more of that from him. I think the biggest take away is that Kelce didn't have a big game 3 rec / 35 yards. Not sure if that was DBs, LBs or a combination of the two but he was not nearly as effective as KC wanted. DBs: This was not a tough challenge given KC WRs and Alex Smith. Aside from Porter's mistake taking the inside gamble and giving Thomas a 19yd TD they kept everything in check. Smith helped with several bad throws this game. We started two rookies at safety and yet there has not been a single thread, either pre-game or post-game, mentioning this as an issue. Doesn't mean it's not an issue but it does indicate how far down the list of concerns it is. I'm not putting our safeties in the Pro Bowl, and this was a game with little deep threat, but the rookies held up. Coaching: With so little talent these coaches on both sides of the ball are getting production. Fangio gets guys into the right spots on the field. Did you notice our defense is now ranked 4th in yds/game given up? Passing defense is 3rd in yds/game but rushing D not so good at 24th. I know stats don't tell the whole story and we're far from a shutdown defense. But we're also far from where we were last year when we couldn't stop anything. Gase likewise has been able to get productivity from backups at many positions as long as Cutler is on the field.

Overall he held up well. Aside from the obvious missed blitz pickup early in the game I'm sure there some other gaffes but I have to say for a rookie against that Dline in that stadium he exceeded my expectations. When you consider all of his struggles in training camp he's come a long way in a very short time.

This is one of the biggest upsets of the day. maybe the biggest after it's all said and done. We were 10pt underdogs and rightfully so. These coaches impress me with what they can get out of the talent they have the on the field. One day I want to watch a Bears game where I don't need to keep my roster webpage open so I can figure out who is on the field.