AZ54

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.

I'm not sure you could put together numbers in a more meaningless way than Total QBR. Rodgers threw for 77 yards with an average of 3.5/catch, an incredible 10pts on offense, and he's ranked 11th in Total QBR. That is above players like Brady who's team put up 36pts in a win over Miami while throwing for 356yds, 9.4/catch. http://espn.go.com/nfl/qbr/_/type/player-week

I didn't notice this during the game: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...1102-story.html The loss of center Hroniss Grasu to a neck injury forced a switch that moved left guard Matt Slauson to center, shifted right guard Vladimir Ducasse to left guard and brought Patrick Omameh in to play right guard. I'd say the Bears are taking a look at Omameh to become our starting RG over Ducasse. Earlier in the year Omameh came in and played LG when Slauson moved to C so that seemed like the logical move again. Instead they made two changes pulling Ducasse over to the left side. We know Ducasse won't replace Slauson when he can move back to LG.

That's true but Langford needs some experience so he can start seeing these things. He has to be able to combine what he sees real-time on the field against what the film shows afterward. I think the light will go on.

It didn't look that bad when he got hit. Hopefully he's back by Thanksgiving.

First I have to admit the free tequila shots at the bar made this game feel better than it was. Cutler: With another Oline combination in front of him against a strong pass rush threat he kept his composure and stayed within the game plan. Overall a good game with no turnovers. Oline: I think these guys were the cause of all the conservative play calls early in the game. With interior line of Omameh, Slauson, and Ducasse I believe Gase didn't want big mistakes early and allowed the Oline time to settle in and get a feel for the inside pressure the Vikings like to bring. Later on he opened up the play calling. RBs: Forte is still a good RB but he's not a big play threat. Langford is and despite his bad drop that could have helped us seal the game with a victory he needs more carries. WRs: I can't see how there will still be any trade talk about Jeffrey after this game. Nobody else stands out among this group but part of that was the pressure the kept Cutler moving around a lot. I expected to see more from Royal this week. TE: Marty where are you? Dline: Pass rush is non-existent. Often had some big holes for their running game. Some of that I think is on the LBs who at times completely disappeared. The line's biggest asset was that Teddy Bridgewater was throwing the ball. ILB: I might be alone on this but I really want SMC back on the field. Jones made a couple splash plays but he's often late to the show or can't even be found. The players sharing the other spot on the field are lost. I shouldn't expect much more than that seeing as they are off the street or practice squad but this is a need area. There's nothing spectacular about SMC but the D as a whole played their assignments better when he was out there. OLB: Aside from McPhee it's the same as ILB. DBs: Fuller played well and finally we have an INT. Amos and Rolle were big in run support early in the game. Rolle stood there as a WR ran in front of him to catch a pass and that turned the game. There were WRs open throughout the game that a better QB would have made us pay for. Bryce Callahan was on the field quite a bit. Not sure how well he did overall but he did show some good athleticism on a couple plays. Coaching: Once again we were right there at the end and while there are no moral victories these coaches seem to be getting the most out of the talent they have.

I'd be perfectly fine if they cut Mariani tomorrow and signed Hayne to return kicks. Meredith was inactive today but IMO he can easily replace any production Mariani gives us at WR, if not more. Hayne is a threat with the ball in his hands, Mariani is not.

There aren't many but it's not hard to find a Forte fumble that has cost us a game or two in the last two seasons. Nor is it hard to find Forte's missed blitz pickups that have caused some negative plays. I agree, we can't isolate on that one play. The burst Langford shows over Forte is noticeable in his first two steps. We need that on the field.

Making a deal for either player is very tempting. I doubt we go after them since we're more likely to highly value our draft picks than a team that is better established. Thomas and Mack are signed through the 2018 season so you'd get 3 years out of them on their current deals. Not sure I like the idea of paying Mack $8mil/yr but Thomas at $10mil/yr is far better than Bushrod at $8mil/yr.

I like what we saw from Langford. There is a lack of vision at times but the only way that improves is with game experience. Not sure how badly Forte was injured but even if he is back we need to keep giving Langford at least 10 carries a game.

I'd take a chance on this kid. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300000056...kendall-gaskins With our WRs getting healthy, and some young ones like Bellamy and Meredith showing potential we won't miss Mariani much if he were cut. I think the 49ers put too much on Hayne's plate with this being his first year playing football. He's an excellent athlete but they had him doing returns and also getting snaps at RB. Just keep him focused on returns and give him another offseason to settle into the NFL environment, playbook, etc. before asking him to play RB.

Hits keep on coming for Goff's draft stock. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300000056...-top-college-qb Others are right, I haven't watched any OSU games so I really have no clue on how Cardale Jone's has done other than the fact he got benched, which isn't a good sign. Right now it seems clear there are no QBs worthy of going in the top 15 of the 2016 draft. There is still Cleveland whose history shows no fear of taking average QB prospects in the top 10.

There is absolutely no way we trade Cutler unless someone throws a couple 1st Rd picks at us. That won't happen. He hasn't shown enough to any other team to increase his value...there is still time to regress to what he's been. OTOH to our staff he has clearly shown signs of improvement so there's no reason for them to bailout now when his backup is horrible and the top QBs in the draft are looking worse and worse each week. No QB means no wins...ask Houston Texans how it's going for them? If one thing is clear our coaches want and expect to win in Chicago. They know this year isn't going to be easy but you listen to them talk about building the roster and they know where they are going long term. Jeffrey...any thoughts about trading him went out the door after the Detroit game. For Jeffrey to come back after all those weeks and put up the kind of numbers he did was very impressive. This is a completely new offense and after missing preseason and most of the regular season nobody would have questioned if he struggled a bit in that game. Again, we want to win sooner than later, we have cap space, and so no reason not to keep him around while Kevin White develops (hopefully). Forte...if the offer is good you take it. Love the guy but I love the future Superbowl ring more and I don't think he'll be here long enough to see that happen.

I'm still wondering how a 300b man this athletic can't get more than 12.5 sacks in 5 years. It's easy to see what got him drafted in the 1st Rd. I get the whole "jumping out of a pool doesn't mean a thing" in terms of playing football but OTOH the physical traits are there so the question becomes "what is missing?" Attitude? Film study? Knowing and executing his assignment? Workout dedication? Just because he was working hard in 2012 doesn't mean he did so in other off-seasons. It's not like the Steelers can't develop Dline players so I'd say he's had the proper coaching. Nobody knew Ratliff was going to blow up as he did yet the Bears were very quick signing Hood so they clearly already had interest. He's late to the program so I don't expect he'll be anything other than what he's done throughout his career as compared to a guy like Jenkins who had the entire offseason to work with the coaches and has pleasantly surprised us with more pass rush than he's shown in years past. As street mid-season FA's go he's a better prospect than what Emery brought in mid-season to help the Dline get past injuries.

Looks like Grasu is questionable for Sunday with a neck injury. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&a...vWAun6EHkMFyLMQ

I'm in complete agreement with you here. Dallas is going to get that which they cultivate in Greg Hardy. Enabling and even rewarding him for his antics means you get more antics. Even Jason Garrett's words the next day...."that wasn't exactly the time and place for that"... which means what? There is a correct time and place for Cowboy's players to be disrespectful to a coach? Grab your popcorn and sit back and watch this show. I'm glad Pace was decisive with Ratliff. These are decisions that have long term benefits even if the short term suffers with the loss of a good player. Will Sutton is now the most senior Bears Dline player in terms of games played with the team.

I don't think I'd mind this change at all. I didn't like Ducasse when we signed him and he hasn't played well enough to date to change my mind. Scout.com is reporting he's on the hot seat with possibly Omameh getting a look soon. http://www.scout.com/nfl/bears/