AZ54

It's not a call they can't miss because at least one official spotted the ball after the play so he had to see the tackle. Plus the head referee is standing back there watching the QB. This has probably been the worst year for officiating in Bears games that I can think of. There's always a few calls that don't go your way during a season but this is every single game. I don't know how other teams' fans feel but seems like things are worse now with Blandino in charge of officiating.

Hadn't seen anyone wanting to cut him right now but I just woke up so maybe I missed the big discussion. I said he had lost it and got smacked backwards. Reality is he missed two relatively easy kicks in the same manner, by pulling through the kick. The first seemed like a bad snap, a little wide of the holder, but it was pulled back in and placed in the what looks like the same spot as the second kick he missed. When I see someone repeat his kicking mistakes like that he's lost something, doesn't matter if it's a free kick in the EPL, La Liga, or NFL. What's wrong with Gould is correctable, why it's wrong is unknown. Timing with the new snapper? Injury we don't know abot? Worst case is something else like a mental block? Next year his cap hit is $4.1million. According to http://overthecap.com/position/kicker/2016/ that makes him the highest paid kicker in the NFL in 2016. I don't care what position you are playing on the field, if you are the highest paid in the NFL you should perform like one of the best. I fail to see how this is any different from how we discuss Jeffrey's future contract since it's fair game to consider his performance and his injuries into the calculation. Do we keep Antrelle Rolle's $3mil cap hit next year based on age and performance? Jerome Bushrod is another aging player who merits the same discussion. If he's doing his job right I fully expect the GM to bring in some serious competition to camp next year. I don't fall into the group that this automatically means we can't find another good kicker. I'm also not in the group that automatically assume's Gould will overcome these issues. He's average in FG made %, and he's near the bottom of the league in TBs despite being 9th in KO attempts. Can't blame the snapper for the lack of TBs and being 34 years old next season it's not like his leg should get stronger. On a side note, kicker salaries are an odd lot. Chance are in 2016 you either make $1mil or less (11 players), or you make over $3mil (10 players). There's only 5 making between $1mil to $3mil in 2016. This adds up to many kickers in that middle bracket being FA next year, including a young kicker named Justin Tucker who has been automatic inside 40yds this season and leads the league in TBs. The only category Gould has him beat is 50+ yards but that is a broad brush because there is a big difference between 50yds and 59yds. (based off this site http://www.footballdb.com/stats/stats.html...&sort=kotb)

I'll jump in at least for the first few rounds: 1st: I don't see Nkemdiche lasting until we pick because I think we pick 13-16. Myles Jack falls to us and fills the ILB need. http://draftbreakdown.com/video/myles-jack-vs-virginia-2015/ 2nd: Jonathan Bullard. He's a bigger 4-3 DE who doesn't really have the edge burst a 4-3 team wants but he can anchor against the run and can slot inside to play DE in our 3-4 alignment. http://draftbreakdown.com/video/jonathan-b...-ole-miss-2015/ 3rd: I looked at some of Kearse video and don't like how he plays the game. He's not physical and he's late to the play. Regardless I think we go CB here and grab an improving prospect in Cordrea Tankersley. I can't find any video highlights of him yet but it'll show up. He fits the mold of what Fangio wants in his outside CBs as evidenced by the $3mil we gave to Alan Ball. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players...drea-tankersley I like your 4th and 5th Rd picks. The WR Switzer reminds me a lot of Tayvon Austin in how he runs and that's a good thing. I wasn't able to research the later picks.

8th game this season that has gone down to the last minute. QB: Off day for Cutler. I'm not one to blame him for the INT as those are not even "read" plays you just have to trust the WRs execute correctly. I don't think we called that play again the rest of the game. Beyond that he was inaccurate on deep throws and generally didn't seem comfortable reading the defense. Maybe that's because nobody could get open. Regardless not his best week. RBs: I like Forte but I will take the extra $$$ and keep Carey and Langford as our 1/2 next season and bring in some more competition for the 3rd spot. Forte runs with good vision he just doesn't have the quickness and burst anymore and there is no reason to think that will get better next season. There were plays where you know Langford would make it to the outside and upfield for a big gain that Forte has to cut back behind the defender. Loved seeing the coaches put Carey back out there after the bad holding penalty, and he responded well. Carey also had one of the block that allowed the big KR at the end of the game. TEs: Another non-descript game for Bennett. He'll be around next year but if he holds out thinking he'll get some big money deal it won't happen. WRs: Jeffrey looked very plodding out there. Maybe he's taking it easy after the groin injury but his cuts and acceleration were mostly pedestrian. Even on the deep ball Cutler over-threw Jeffrey didn't hit top speed until he saw the ball was thrown. Mariani kicked in his 2 or 3 receptions (2 this time) for 33 yards. Nobody else showed up although there were a few opportunities missed due to bad throws. Oline: They struggled with SF's interior defenders on run blocking all game but did enough to have an effective running game. Pass protection was good although helped by Cutler's mobility in the pocket. Dline: Goldman is becoming a beast. It's easy to forget how young he is since he came out early but there are signs he could develop into a Pro Bowl player. Now if we could just get another playmaker next to him we'd be alright. Jenkins and the rest of the DTs have done alright for us but I think this is their "plateau". ILB: SMC is all over the field and making a lot of tackles, 9. He's still not recognizing plays fast enough to make the splash plays for a loss. I think his pass coverage was good although he got caught on one play looking back at the QB while the TE cut back inside for a big gain. I hardly noticed the LB next him this game and Jones and Anderson each had just one tackle. OLB: Willie Young is back to his old self and is giving us some solid but not flashy play off the edge. McPhee looked like a guy who hasn't practiced much in the last month because of a knee injury and is not playing with the quickness he displayed earlier in the season. DBs: Callahan continues to shine with passes defended each game. Porter looked disinterested this game and often played too soft. I didn't really notice Kyle Fuller but he did finish with 4 tackles, as did Callahan. They were not handed a tough task as the best WR for the 49ers was Boldin. Safeties played well until the last play. Special teams: Some good play here throughout the game with punts downed inside the 20, a huge booming punt late the game to flip the field with good coverage. Outstanding KR at the end of regulation to give us a shot at a game winning FG. And now our biggest special teams problem is a FG kicker who has "lost it". Coaching: Good coaching is only going to take you so far. We need more talent on the field at WR but we have those answers on the roster. Other positions like Dline, OLB speed rusher, ILB, interior Oline, need upgrades.

GB has been reduced to needing a Hail Mary TD to beat the Lions. Officials helping them or not, I see the writing on the wall with that team. I'll say what nobody in the media will: They haven't drafted well in recent years. Actually that was obvious the moment they gave Peppers $10mil/yr which is totally outside their MO.

Because of you there is a bottle of Lagavulin sitting on the counter waiting for the right moment. When I bought it the salesman asked me why I was interested in Lagavulin because he had other scotches that were his favorites. I told him a bunch of Bears fans recommended it and that was good enough for me. He didn't understand. Now I know that right moment will be with some good steaks grilled over Mesquite charcoal.

...and now we know it was performance related to some poor snaps. Now what is the "short-snap area"? I'm guessing that means for FG. http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...9b-c8e4a282581e Snap decision: Special-teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers explained Wednesday why the Bears made a change at the long-snapper position last Saturday, waiving eight-year veteran Thomas Gafford and signing first-year pro Patrick Scales. "We had struggled a little bit in the short-snap area over the last few weeks," Rodgers said. "You always give your players a chance to try to work out of things. Thomas, a veteran guy, did a great job in some of the aspects we were asking him to do. Terrific pro. "It was just one of those things that we felt like we worked a player out and felt like he was good at what he did, and we decided to make the switch."

Nkemdiche is a fantastic athlete, reminds me of Aaron Donald somewhat. There is that question about their size holding up against the run but if gets the edge on a blocker it's all over. Getting to the QB is a priority in the NFL so I don't see him falling to us but if he did I'd be very happy to add him to the team. He's not a pure DE in terms of pass rushing but he is so good athletically that I think he can be used like McPhee and line up all over the Dline in 3-4 or 4-3 scenarios.

Given the original scenario setup by Jason I'd take Nkemdiche/Wright. However I don't think Nkemdiche will last until our pick. What we do really depends on what we get in FA. My top FA targets are Wilkerson and Brandon Marshall. I see SCS says the Jets will likely be tagging Wilkerson. Their QB situation is not good and there isn't an easy solution. They may very well go all in on defense seeing that as their best path to the playoffs but that won't leave them much room under the cap so they will have to make other changes. Denver has more of a challenge because they have to re-sign Von Miller and Marshall. What they do all depends on what happens with Peyton Manning and Osweiller. Von Miller is going to break the bank. It is safe to say that Osweiller has already done enough to make himself a top FA target because finding any QB in FA that can play well is rare. Osweiller will get at least $10mil/yr if he hits the market and maybe as much as $15mil/yr. History has shown guys like Flynn and Charlie Whitehurst can get huge contracts based of just a few games work so as crazy as it sounds desperate teams do desperate contracts. I think we'll get a shot at signing Brandon Marshall the only question is if we'll choose to win the bidding war. I think we will. That leaves DT/DE as the early favorite for 1st Rd pick and I'll say we end up Deforest Buckner. He could develop into the type of player that Calais Campbell is with the Cardinals. Scooby in the 2nd is good.

And not a hint of resistance from the Bears. If they were confident he had something to contribute next year he'd still be around just like Fales.

I only saw the last quarter of the game, not enough to get a realistic assessment of Gabbert. What I saw was a motivated 49ers defense pushing the Cardinals around a little bit. Gabbert seemed very much in control while in the pocket and was comfortable when scrambling around extending plays. That was a division game for the 49ers against an opponent they know well. Not surprisingly in recent games between these teams there has been quite a bit of after the whistle action. With this game in the rear view mirror, what motivation the 49ers will have for a road game against us after dropping to 3-8 is hard to say. Just know that there is still some good talent on their roster.

Anyone have any idea what is behind this move? It's not like long snappers are in the spotlight for much of anything except bad snaps. That hasn't been much of a problem. Rarely does a team swap a long snapper mid-season because this is a key part of your FG unit that normally you don't want to change on the fly. They did this swap right after the Thur night game so there are extra practice opportunities for Gould to settle in with the new guy. The only thing I can think of is that there is some sort of suspension coming up and the Bears decided to get ahead of it and sign the new guy now while they had the 10 days between games, and maybe while Scales was available. http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...35-17c9122bd148

Toughest job next week: ESPN selling the MNF matchup between Baltimore and Cleveland.

Trouble in paradise. Rodgers was blaming his WRs for the poor offensive performance not being where they are supposed to be. Where's the media with the "bad QB" stories as they do to Cutler? HC blaming the officials for a correct call, ignoring all the BS calls that went their way for huge plays in the game. Packer fans are blaming their punter ( go read their message boards). Now they head into another Thur night prime time matchup against Detroit. Grab some popcorn this is going to be fun.

This was a great win for us, one that the team can really build upon. Offense moved the ball well at times but penalties killed us too often. Despite all the negative plays Cutler kept his focus an stayed within the game plan. Same goes for Gase who didn't fall into the trap of abandoning the run despite the Packers focus on stopping it. Cutler: People will find better numbers but given the circumstances of missing Royal and Bennett, being on the road on a holiday game, short week, and horrible weather, it is hard to think of a better game Cutler has played for us. Bennett's absence especially had me worried because he's such a big part of our protection scheme. Early in the game Cutler had trouble finding either time to throw or open receivers to throw to but he played smart and just threw the ball away instead of forcing it. Throughout the game he had the team lined up early enough to make a lot of adjustments before the snap, credit Gase too on this one. Oline: Inconsistent overall. Grasu was back but there were a lot of missed assignments, missed blocks, and penalties. Long didn't play his best. Despite that when they got it right there was plenty of time to throw and there enough holes for the RBs to make the run game effective enough. I'd like to see what these 5 starters can do after spending a few games together. WRs: Alshon once again makes a huge difference for the offense despite being the only receiver they had to worry about. Wilson played with the most confidence I've seen, taking a lot of short screens and running hard for good gains. Packers seemed to forget about Mariani (how else to explain him being so wide open) and Cutler found him open for a few plays to keep drives alive. Getting Royal back as our slot receiver will help this offense. TEs: I hoped we'd see more from Zach Miller in the passing game. RBs: Nothing special at all from either RB but they held onto the football. Dline: First drive wasn't pretty but after that they battled all night long and were very effective on some of the short 3rd/4th down plays GB had. It appeared their main effort on pass rush was keeping Rodgers contained and for the most part they did. OLB: Houston continues to get better with 7 tackles and 1 sack. McPhee hasn't been as effective in pass rush since his knee injury but I think his leadership at the LOS before the snap plays a big part in how effective the defensive front is. Willie Young didn't get a ton of pressure he did well in closing the pocket around Rodgers and keeping him uncomfortable. ILBs: Still late to the ball too often and while they are effective enough they don't provide the occasional big plays that are needed. I thought it was Anderson out there early and then Jones came in later. Seems the coaches are still searching for an answer at this spot. DBs: I think these guys were the stars of the game for us. Rodgers only threw for 202 yards, just over 50% complete, and many of the completions were challenged throws. Given the time he had in the pocket the DBs were often covering players for 4 or 5 seconds. Porter garnered most of the attention but Fuller and Callahan played well too. We have a good player in Callahan. The safeties, with Prosinski out there again, were solid. Amos was all over the field even in run support and finished with 8 tackles and 1 assist. Prosinski had 6 tackles and looked much more comfortable out there this game. Fangio continues to shine and on a short week had this group well prepared for everything except perhaps the weather (which I think played a role in the missed early tackles). While we nitpick and see the gaps in talent his group gave up just 13pts on the road which is a phenomenal effort against GB. On the other side of the ball you hear the Packers fans whine that the offense isn't the same without Jordy Nelson and if... blah blah blah. Our coaches lined up our offense with a backup LT, backup C, backup RG, backup TE, backup slot slot WR, and we're still missing Kevin White, and they got it done with Jay Cutler at QB. It's been a long time since I said this but we clearly out-coached the Packers yesterday. Officiating was horribly one-sided. Lot's of missed holding penalties and some phantom calls that went against us on big plays.

Great win. We beat GB and the officials all in one. Nothing pretty about this game but then again when you step back and look at it we stayed the course won a duel in bad weather 17-13=4.

Even if he's on the field I doubt we'll see him play at his full capability so that wouldn't help the division much for next year. In his own words he's making significant improvement week to week but I still don't think he'll get there physically before the season. OTOH what will help him is getting glimpse of how physical the DBs are in the NFL and the play speed. Right now an aggressive return target might be the 13 Dec Redskins game, more likely target the 20 Dec Vikings game. In that case he'd see action against two division rivals, Minn and Detroit.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...1124-story.html Good interview with White and where he's at in his rehab.

Why assume they are rushing him? We've seen nothing of the sort from the team regarding this situation to date. I think it's safe to say he's just on track and healthy. He started light jogging on the grass about a month ago so we have to think he's been going at or near full sprint by now with no setbacks. After all this there's no way I could see them risking him in a contact situation, even moderate contact like practice, if he hadn't handled the full stresses of running routes with no issues.

Makes sense for them, where else could they get someone who knows what Trestman is doing on offense? It was going to be Fales or Clausen.

Great news and opens the floor for debate. Who plays the most games this year: Jeffrey, Royal, or White?

I think you are correct. Aside from bringing up Fales we waived Terrance Mitchell from the practice squad. So we have two openings on the practice squad. It's pretty surprising that we brought up Fales and cut Clausen. If Fales was the better backup they should have just made the decision earlier. At this point the roster is becoming more about the future and this says Clausen is not in next year's plan but Fales is. I'm sure Clausen was kept around because they felt he had a better grasp of the offense since Fales missed so much time in preseason. Barring disaster at the QB position Clausen has played his last game as a Bear. Fox said nothing about Kevin White but he did say the open spot on the practice squad would likely go to another QB prospect down the road. Since you can't sign another team's practice squad player to your practice squad that would mean taking a QB off the street. That would seem like a waste of time to be honest because what good young QB prospects are FA right now? Or do we just need someone to run the scout team, anyone who has a pulse? That only explains one of the practice squad openings. This leaves open the possibility of bringing White to the 53-man roster and pushing another WR to the practice squad, likely Cam Meredith. More disappointing for Jason and others would be that this means Mariani (who is not eligible for the practice squad) stays on the active roster. Tue 4pm is the deadline to have White start his 3 week practice window or move him to IR.

I'm with you on the Thur night game. For once I'd like to see what Cutler can do with most of the weapons we have on offense. There is no indication White is doing anything other than watching games so I think he's done for the year.

Defense Coming into this game it seemed clear Fox was more focused on being healthy against Green Bay. The most surprising inactive, or the one I wasn't expecting, was Antrel Rolle and I think he was missed a lot. Why was Prosinski out there instead of Jones-Quartey? We'll never know but I'm pretty sure I saw JQ out there on special teams. I trust these coaches to put the best players out there but I also recognize that they are not afraid to develop new talent keeping an eye toward the future. Overall the D held up but it wasn't pretty. Yes it was the Broncos with a backup QB but they gave up 17pts and that should give your team a fighting chance. There were a lot of breakdowns that I'm not accustomed to seeing in the last few games. Some of this might have been because we blitzed like I haven't seen Fangio blitz before. Correct me if I'm wrong on that but how often have we seen Amos blitz? Blitzing like that with Prosinski back there was asking for trouble. It was effective at times but more often seemed to give up big plays. It's all speculation but I can't shake the feeling that we used this game somewhat to learn some of these blitzes in preparation for Thur. Dline: They were dominated by the Broncos up front and that caused most of the issues behind them. We got free runs at the QB on occasion but it seemed that if we didn't blitz we'd never get there. Too often the players on the edge gave up the edge. The hit and miss type of game confirms for me that a dominate DT is a key to making the rest of the D effective. Put someone like that on the inside and it makes it harder for Oline to run out and hit the ILBs. Safety: Prosinski was mostly lost out there on the field but improved as the game went along. Amos was his usual steady self with a few good plays throughout the game. CB: I think overall we regressed quite a bit in coverage this week and it was across the board. LBs: I think we regressed in run support this week and pass coverage. Both players often got moved around and were late getting to the ball. Offense: Once I saw Royal and Jeffrey were out it was game over against this defense. Despite that we did move the ball enough to get into the red zone but without real threats nothing was going to happen inside the 10yd line. QB: The first INT by Cutler was nothing but a bad pass. There's no other way to see that because even if that route was run incorrectly, unless it was a come-back route, then any type of cut Wilson made would have left the ball behind him and open for an INT. The second INT was just what will happen from time to time in a season. For the most part Cutler kept his wits about him as he navigated a turbulent o...d WRs: It was surprising that guys got wide open in spots deep down field throughout the game but other than that there wasn't anything consistent we could execute. Among the backup WRs nobody's performance said "you must to keep me around next year". TEs: It was an ok day but with Jeffrey and Royal out there was an easy focus on these two guys. Oline: Run blocking largely went nowhere. Pass blocking was good in spots but Cutler had to move around on almost every play to keep it alive. We expected a challenge going against the best defense in football and we got it. Despite all this had we kicked a FG with 10min left in the game we could have won it. One day when this coaching staff gets talent on the roster and some depth we''ll be tough to play against.

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