AZ54

Our D was not all bad against Green Bay. We shutdown the run, Lacy had nowhere to go. We typically had good (not to be confused with great) zone coverage on their passing downs for the first few seconds. What we didn't have is a pass rush and you can see on plays where guys don't know what to do or where to go in coverage after the initial route was run. More than once I saw Fuller look at the safety or LB inside of him with his hands up (as if asking is he your man or mine?) as a guy broke inside on a makeshift route. None of them knew, they all just stood at their landmarks like they had cement shoes on. Rodgers and most QBs in the NFL are going to pick apart any team that plays a zone scheme with no pass rush. Find two Dlineman that can get pressure on Rodgers and the game becomes more manageable. Not that we'd shut them out but enough stops would have happened for the offense to keep pace in the scoring column. I lay the blame more at the feet of the coaches than the players because I think it was the scheme that led to consistent long drives being given up. I would have liked to see us play more man coverage on occasion, at least on the outside. It also appears going into the game the main focus was on stopping Lacy because he ran all over us last year. We were so obsessed with stopping Lacy that we forgot they have one of the best QBs in the league. Why we didn't adjust what we were doing on D I have no idea. Maybe in part because we have so many young players out there, including Bostic playing a new spot that they felt better sticking with what they practiced all week. We'll see if we change up in the next game.

That guy is an idiot. At the beginning he hammers Cutler for the mis-read to Bennett then later in the same article he says Jay needs to stop waiting to see that guys are open and trust the timing of the throws. I don't know who was right or wrong on that route but to anyone watching the game it was blatantly obvious that if Bennett hooks up the route he's wide open. It's even obvious in the 3rd screenshot he puts in the article, yet Cossell says he had no clarity in the coverage.

We could lose because we'd cut one of these young guys that we recently signed to our DB ranks and who have solidified our kick coverage. Somebody has to go if we bring in Champ. Now if we end up with someone on IR among our safeties that's a different story.

We went out and got this guy pretty quickly after he got cut and he's been coached by Reggie Herring before. Must be something there we really like. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...0924-story.html I checked around some draft profiles. From a physical and athletic standpoint he's not a diamond in the rough like Christian Jones may become but he sounds as if he's pretty quick for a LB but on the smaller side. He's been around long enough that we want him for special teams now or as a backup player moving forward (as in next year) or both. I suppose this could be related to Shea breaking his hand but there has been nothing out there indicating that is a long term issue so I don't think so.

He has never been a safety. Plus you're talking about a backup who is not going to play special teams.

While there was nothing spectacular on our KRs I did like the speed and vision Rashad Ross showed later in the game. He's in a tough spot after only joining the team on Sep 1st and just a few weeks later he's out there auditioning for a full-time role. I couldn't find much on him in terms of draft profile and I don't remember him as a standout at ASU. Looks like he ran a 4.34 forty at his pro day http://www.houseofsparky.com/2013/4/26/425...rashad-ross-asu "The fastest players on the day were wide receivers Rashad Ross and Jamal Miles, who ran 4.34 and 4.44 in the 40, respectively." I don't know if he's the answer but he appears to offer a bit more than Senorise Perry did on kick returns.

I think part of the reason was also the attempt to "continue" with Lovie's scheme, Lovie's terminology, etc. I don't think that decision was Tucker's and I didn't disagree with it at the time. More than that though I think the biggest difference is we have better position coaches on D this year. Despite the new scheme guys like SMC, Bostic, and even our rookie DTs are playing well.

Tremendous win for the Bears. We're 2-1 after going on long road trips to both coasts in back to back weeks. We've done this with a depleted offense missing two Oline starters against the best front 3 in the NFL (Jets), and against one of the better Dlines (SF) and the WR injuries we all know about. We still had good pass protection most of the game but had a few missed assignments throughout the game. Against that front and the myriad of looks Rex Ryan threw at them I was pleased but I'm saying this because we had Ola and DLP there. 3 weeks ago if you told me we'd have a former CFL OG starting against the Jets Dline I'd have expected much worse. Maybe I'm the odd one out on this but I compare this game to what we had a year ago against Rob Ryan and the Saints when they did the same sort of tricks and our Oline, with all 5 starters out there, fell apart. I see progress in getting quality depth on the roster here. Run blocking is just bad. DLP was let go by New Orleans because he's not a good run blocker and Ola is a rookie learning on the job. Getting Garza and Slausson back should help here, so will playing the Packers dine next week. However, Forte had some good runs late in the game including some right up the middle. Cutler played a very good game. On the road, lots of pressure from the Dline and all the various looks he got yet he remained composed throughout. He stood in the pocket on a couple occasions with clear missed blocking assignments and made the throw just before he got hit. There was nothing great here but in years past this is the exact type of game he'd have struggled with, especially with his favorite target hobbled by a bad ankle. I continue to see progress on our defense. Many here don't like Tucker but seeing how far this D has come since last year I like what we have going on. Jets gained 114 yds on the ground against us, compared to 212 and 146 (against Peppers!) in their first two games. The ESPN bobble heads on the pre-game show all expected us to give up 200 yds rushing. This isn't a shutdown D, far from it but I said earlier I felt we could get average performance from this unit and I still think that. Toss in that we did this with Sutton and Ferguson playing a lot of snaps against the best rushing team in the NFL, along with Bostic at a new position, and the arrow is pointing up. Jared Allen was invisible in the first half. He showed up in the second half with several pressures and tackles on runs. I still like Willie Young a lot. He uses his long arms very well and several times kept his assignment and avoided the play fake to pursue Smith on a rollout. One of those pursuits led to Smith running out of bounds which is a sack so he has 4 on the season. While I don't like the penalty Houston got for talking disrespectfully to a ref I absolutely love that our guys where out there mixing it up with the Jets Oline. All the Dline and LBs in there defending each other, it was great to see the front seven playing with some passion afterward. Sometimes you need that moment, even that penalty, to light the fire and come together as a unit. Can't wait get Ratliff back out there next week. I'll mark this as the first game where I started seeing LBs making plays at and behind the LOS. It's not all good and I agree that Briggs is nowhere close to the player he used to be but his experience against Green Bay's offense will be valuable next week. Bostic played well enough that we won't be rushing SMC back onto the field anytime soon. The only thing that needs to be said about Kyle Fuller is that all football fans now know his name. 7 tackles, 2 FF, 1 INT and he's using the Peanut Punch! Jennings wasn't as good as he's been but we've been moving him around a lot, now he goes back to just focusing on his outside position and I think he'll start to play better over the next few games. I have no clue who plays at safety next week. Seeing Vereen helping the new guy (Ahmad Dixon) line up on that last drive had to make every Bear fan nervous. Maybe now the Bears can update Dixon's player bio with a photo of him in a Bears uniform instead of the Cowboys. (Except Holmes is still shown in Jets jersey). Special teams kick coverage was very good this week, huge improvement over the first game. Punting is better but we almost got another one blocked. I feel as if O'Donnell is being asked to go for hang time over distance and he's having to think too much on his form when punting, as in "don't out-kick your coverage". His motion as he punts looks deliberate, mechanical, and a little slow. Not the relaxed way you'd expect. If true, in time as he gets more comfortable with this approach he should get more consistent. The Bears stuck with Gould and his short kickoffs early in his career and it paid off long term.

How do you focus solely on the word great and then simply say it's ok to compare all QBs against the great ones but it's not ok to compare them against the non-great ones? Do we leave McCown's stats off the list of the NFL QBs or chop off the top 5 from the list? All QBs in the NFL are compared against each other. All RBs in the NFL are compared against each other. You say McCown was great in Trestman's offense. I compared the stats of both and don't see that. He was better than Jay and certainly played well but I don't see greatness in his stats from last year. I see efficiency. yds/game 228 vs. Cutler 238. Comp% 66.5 vs. Cutler 63.2% (McCown has a 63.1% at Tampa so far which is nothing more than..just interesting) TD% 5.8 vs. Cutler 5.4% Yds per Attempt 8.2 vs. Cutler 7.4 QBR 85 vs. Cutler 66.4 The only real difference that is in Cutler's favor is game winning drives. GWD 1 vs. Cutler 3 McCown had 5 starts but fininshed or played in 8 games. It's tough to be the backup and get few reps during the week so he had to overcome that. I think he was better than Jay in our offense last year but what the coaches saw is that Jay can do things late in the game that McCown wasn't as good at. It was the potential they gambled on if they can get Jay to read the check downs and go there early, which he did better later in the season, that they can have the best of both worlds. You are right about the talent. I haven't watched a Bucs game so really have no idea what is going on but on a few highlights of the Atlanta game I can see his WR just stopping on routes and standing there waiting for the ball. On these routes where you just settle down in a zone area, or stop on a route, a good WR will come back toward the QB a step or two to make it harder for the DB to get in front of them. Tampa's WR would just sit and wait for the ball. Marshall and Jeffrey both work back toward the ball a step or two. DB might still get the break on the pass but at least now they changed the angle of attack and make it harder to get in front for the INT. McCown would benefit if his WR would do that.

If you can't compare McCown to Cutler's performance then why are people always comparing Cutler's performance to Brady's, Manning's, Rodgers, etc.? Last year our entire offense performed poorly early in the season. It was a new and complex scheme with a ton of new players, including a brand new Oline (minus Garza), young and inexperience WR in Jeffrey due to his injuries his first season, and a stud RB in Forte to hold it all together. Cutler had his issues but it's ridiculous to put all the blame on him for the poor start last year. Fast forward to this season and McCown and his new offense gets to go through all the growing pains and folks are calling for his backup to start. I haven't watched any of the Bucs games so I have no clue how he looks or what's going on around him other than what the stats say. I'll sit back and see how McCown plays mid-season but at that point the comparison is fair. For now we know that the Bears put up 24, 31 (Cutler 2 INTs & fumble), and 40pts in our first three games last season with Cutler at the helm. I'm guessing the Bucs fans would love to have 31pts to go along with McCown's two INTs.

All I know is that I'm glad Lovie took the old Bears offense with him when he left town.

It is the Bears way but I think realistically it's because our depth at some positions (i.e. WR) is very thin and also in part these guys are not playing that well on special teams to make the coaches say they gotta have them.

My sons were laughing when they watched him run on the replays as all the fat (BBQ?) danced around. He looks like a baseball player but he did his job for the most part he just can't get to the edge of the field anymore, nor chase down plays from behind like he used to.

He didn't appear to be in a lot of discomfort right after the INT, nor later on the sidelines. Not sure if this was his surgically repaired shoulder but I think the Bears were being cautious with this one.

Not the ideal way to see Peanut's season end. He has always been a class act even back in the early days when fans were always complaining about him being too slow. It seem logical to see Hayden return as he played the nickel spot in the preseason and that is where we need help right now. Behind him it will be the best of the guys on our practice squad: Isaiah Frey, Al Louis-Jean, or Terrance Mitchell. However, this is likely to be a permanent roster spot so that opens it up to Emery grabbing someone they like from another team's practice squad.

Trestman had two gimpy WRs out there. You start them off slow and with shorter routes because you don't want to push them too much. The 49ers knew this and were playing everything close to the LOS. As both Marshall and Jeffrey felt more comfortable with what they could do you started seeing the deeper routes and double moves that opened up the field and changed the game.

It's not just you, it's him being fat and out of shape.

Your eyes are not deceiving you. The front 7 are getting better at reading and defending the plays in particular the read-option. If they can continue to progress hopefully it will allow our DBs to focus on better coverage.

The professor has not lost this team. Quite the opposite now and the same goes for Tucker and his defense. Cutler was absolutely Trestmanesque tonight. Despite all the early troubles he stayed patient and didn't rush things. Trestman often says you will face adversity every game and it's how you handle it that makes you a winner (paraphrasing of course). The entire offense did just that tonight. Defense was good…Gore just 63 yards total. Outstanding rookie Carlos Hyde had 4 runs for 0 yards. We're not a shutdown D but if they can give us that kind of a performance each week we'll be winning a lot of games. I was most impressed that they stuck to their assignments for the most part tonight. After what we saw last week there was clear coaching here and it paid off. As the game wore on and they became more comfortable with what they were seeing the reactions got better. Even Bostic and SMC were getting their coverage assignments right as the game wore on.

What is amazing is to see you praise rookies (not rookie).

I like Houston, he's tough against the run. Maybe he's not explosive in the pass rush but then again we've been chasing two mobile QBs and it's important to keep containment and he does that on his end. Jared Allen…eh not so much. We have a good mix among the 3 DEs and we need to take advantage of that in the rotation. I'd like to see Allen get less reps than he did against Buffalo, keep his legs fresher for later in the games (and season) and I don't know how many snaps he had tonight.

Yes and many teams might want him on their roster. He's not perfect but he's not the worst safety in the league as many make him out to be.

Writers list things comparing Briggs shenanigans against Marshall who did a short TV show on his day off yet still showed up for treatment on his ankle beforehand. Marshall is the same guy who took many offensive players down to Florida to train together. Has led Jeffrey in two off seasons helping him become a Pro Bowl player and helping 7th Rd pick Wilson ascend to what seemed a lock for our 3rd WR spot. I suppose I could hit Google to see if there's any evidence of Briggs doing similar actions for the young LBs on our roster but I know better. Briggs is doing enough on his own to take himself out of any leadership role, aside from respect for his past performance. If I'm a young guy like Bostic or SMC I am not looking to Lance for advice on how to be a professional. Given his performance last week I can't see them looking at him for advice on reading keys, diagnosing plays, and being assignment sound. Trestman and Kromer have done more to rebuild our Oline in just two off seasons than the cumulative talent that was brought in during the previous decade. Players like Garza know that and will tell guys to trust the coaches. Players like Kyle Long know that they helped him get to the Pro Bowl as a rookie and so the message will be the same. Cutler had his best year in a long time in terms of efficiency and has been lauded by teammates such as Clausen for helping them this past offseason. And Clausen has a job that he didn't think he'd have back in June. Among all this I can't see the dissension Telander speaks of among the offense at all. Defense might be different but I don't see it. We've added a lot of new players and it will just take time for young guys and new players like Houston, Allen, and even a young guy like Sutton who was ASU's defensive leader for two seasons, to rise to a leadership role as Briggs falls by the wayside. These things are always a process. I actually look forward to seeing this transition over the course of the season. We need it.

Our TE's practiced out of the H-back role in training camp so we'll be seeing some of that. Not likely with Bennett as he is our best receiving threat at TE, but Rosario and Mulligan. We will definitely be using a lot of two TE sets in this game and hopefully we'll be able to run because we cannot be forced to rely on the passing game. Holmes doesn't know the offense yet but he should be adding plays each week. I think Marshall will be out there but we'll not make him the focus of the offense. Expect Martellus and Forte to get a lot of passes their way in this game. The 49ers know this and they'll be focused on stopping the run to force us into the pass. My first offensive play call would be play action pass and I'd be looking to hit Santonio Holmes deep, or 2nd option Martellus in the seam up the middle. Even if it's incomplete I'd let them know we can and will attack the field deep. Their secondary is not the strength of the defense.

….and the crowd goes silent as they try to remember what he did in the first game.