AZ54

Everything about our offense is much steadier now, from Oline blocking, route running, QB play, even TE Manu is actually blocking people these days.

Having watched most of the Cards games this year I would say Anderson is typically pretty focused on the sidelines and this one shot is not the norm. We've had this discussion before about TV cameras and their 5 sec view of the bench. While facial expressions indicate a lot you cannot and should not read too much into it without getting the context. My daughter has met and talked with Deuce and his family many times. From what I know he's the type of person who is going to try to lift your spirits in tough times. I can't imagine he wasn't concerned about the team's poor play but when you know, like he did, most of that blame is going to be leveled at your QB would you try to pick up his spirits and help him relax before the next series, or do you just keep piling on? Do you leave him alone and isolated on the bench? I know there are many different answers (I have my preference) but none of us know what's already been tried with Anderson, what had already been said to him during the game, etc. Without that context I can't say what Deuce was doing was wrong...but John Gruden can. There were plenty of camera shots of play on the field to show how uninspired the Cards were playing on both offense and defense and that was the real story. Obviously Anderson handled the question very poorly and seeing his meltdown it's clear the pressure he's under. He knows this is likely the end of his career; for sure his chances at ever being a starter. Yet the Cardinals have no other answer on their bench. Max Hall is at best a backup QB and on top of that he's looking every bit a rookie. Behind him is a more talented thrower, John Skelton, who doesn't have the playbook down. The fact Whisenhunt kept Anderson in the game says a lot about his backups. Regardless, you'll be seeing one or both of the backups soon.

On that throw I felt the same when I first saw it. However, on the replay it was clear the DB jumped to the inside when Cutler looked inside and that's when Cutler threw the ball to the outside receiver. No way to know if that's how Jay saw it or if he was just tossing it out there and got a bit of luck. I know this, if his name were Manning, Brees, or Brady he'd have been complimented for looking off the DB and coming back outside. Really the same goes for the Olsen catch. If Brady had tossed up something like that to Moss (he did in the past) he'd have been complimented for knowing his receiver would go get the ball. The only people Jay needs to make happy are Bears fans. Did anyone mention that with our draft picks Denver has won 3 games?

One thing I've noticed about Cutler is that lately he is taking sacks more in stride and not trying to force plays afterward to gain back the yards. He seems more content that if a drive stalls it's time to punt and give it a shot on the next try. Is it coaching? Maturity? Likely a combination but it's nice to see him head to the sideline looking more prepared to get back to work than dwelling on what went wrong the previous series.

Great game all the way around. I include the coaches on there too. Again there was some confusion on the Oline early on but it was fixed. Meanwhile Cutler hung in there during the troubles and kept his cool. Martz continued to call runs even when most of them went nowhere, for the fourth week in row! Can't say enough about the D, they kept everything underneath and that's what you have to do against these guys.

You have to go after Vick. There's no way our DBs are covering their WRs for 5 seconds. Don't bring the house but blitzing often with a LB is fine by me. I don't even care if we don't get sacks it's all about getting the ball out of Vick's hand early and then rally to the ball. The Giants showed the blue print on the pass rush we gotta duplicate it. I think our O can exploit their D because their secondary gives up plays. What you didn't see last week was the Giants don't have anywhere near the speed at WR that we have. It will make a difference. We just need Jay to keep his head on straight and be patient.

Izzy in his own way has been a great player for the Bears. He's not a Pro Bowl talent but he's done everything the club has ever asked him to do, and done it well. You need guys like this to fill out your roster and in order to be successful on Sundays. I hope he gets 10 sacks this year so he starts to get a bit more recognition. Of course if he does that it's good for the team too.

Total BS. Fitz isn't going anywhere. The Cards have already reworked his contract twice for him and that last contract resulted in Boldin leaving town. Why would he be upset with Whisenhunt who got the Cards to the Superbowl? It's ridiculous conjecture. Now if in two or three years there is no progress on the QB situation I can see this but not now.

I came away very impressed on a couple fronts. I know Miami was wounded but for us this was a short week on the road and I expected to see a flat performance, missed tackles, lack of hustle on edge rushes, etc. That wasn't there at all. Likewise on offense I figured we'd be stuck relying on Cutler's arm for better or worse yet we went up against a very good defense (8th ranked and no significant injuries there) and ran the ball on them. It wasn't pretty on offense but it was effective. I was disappointed we didn't roll more pass protection toward Webb's side. He got owned today. On the other hand he got a lot of one-on-one experience against a really good edge rusher. For the most part Webb has continued to improve each game and hopefully this experience helps him. Martz at least let Webb get even on a lot of run plays including Forte's TD. Now we have a nice long weekend to rest up our pass rushers and get ready for Vick and the Eagles. I think our offense will look much better against the Eagles than it did tonight.

Wrong...Phil Jackson told Jordan if he wanted to win a championship he better learn how to pass. I had no problem with the Bears making Hester a WR. He's dangerous with the ball and defenses know that. The problem I have is they kept saying he was (or was going to be) a #1 WR and they forced him into that role. That's now what he is.

I expect Jared Allen is next in line since he helped bring Favre back for this $20 million season.

Kreutz has never been good at blocking when on the move.

According to Cutler he was trying to throw the ball away and he threw it a bit too far. Who knows, I'm just resigned to the fact we'll always see 2 or 3 of these throws in a game. Sometimes they'll get picked sometimes they won't. Overall though I am noticing a nice trend of Cutler taking more and more underneath throws. Slowly but surely he is becoming more content to move the ball on long drives. Martz too, he called run and run even when they weren't going anywhere. Eventually they got it going and Forte ended up with over 100 yards (only to lose it on the last few plays of the game when Miami sold out with 10 in the box to stop him.)

Today's discussion at work: The Cardinals Oline and all the problems they have. Their Oline coach is Russ Grimm. My point of course is that Tice has had far less to work with, far more injuries forced upon him, and at this point in the season his Oline (including 7th Rd pick starting at RT) and are playing better. He has taken what looked like a disaster of an Oline in game 4 and turned them into acceptable 5 games later. The arrow is still pointing up but I'm impressed at the rapid turnaround nad perhaps he can get them to "good" before seasons end. Martz too has adapted and stood firm in support of his players throughout all the controversy. He's admitted his mistakes either in preparation or in play calling and to prove it's not just words he makes noticeable changes over the next few games. For Marinelli's part I understand he has some Pro Bowl caliber players but he also has a secondary that is questionable. He's making it work and I think given the talent he's getting the most out of his secondary. Plus he has demoted Tommie Harris and is making due with guys like Toea and Henry Melton at DT. Not Pro Bowl talent there.

Just setting the stage for his retirement BEFORE the end of the season. That's all.

I don't see how anyone cannot say the Oline is not playing better. It's because Cutler is scrambling more? Crazy idea. He was running for his life against the Giants how good did the Oline look that day? We only had a couple meaningless late game runs? Minn was ranked top 10 in the league against the run. Our horrible Oline managed to put up 100 yards against them. Those runs late in the game when they stacked the line because everyone knew we wanted to kill the clock, that's what good teams do. After coming back from 14pts down with 3min left in the game last week against the Cardinals don't think the Vikings were giving up either. I'm not anointing our Oline as one of the best in the league but they have clearly improved over what we saw just 4 weeks ago. So has the play calling.

Yep I think I've seen that request before on this board. I agree with it.

For sure I'd like to see more QB pressure I think the greater need right now is better coverage from our DBs to stop the quick passes. CBs are playing too soft once again. Maybe we could see them stop any pass, anywhere on the field.

I have no clue on who to draft at this point but I have thoughts about what position to draft. Mostly I'm talking about rounds 1--4 where you tend need takes a higher emphasis than the later rounds. I don't think we will be focused on DE at all. With each game Izzy gets better and better and I expect he'll be a good starter opposite of Peppers next year. I expect he'll be that in the second half of our season. I also think Melton has shown some very positive signs of improvement in his pass rush. This is a former RB turned DE turned DT so he's still learning but the arrow is pointing up and so is his productivity this season. If there is an elite 3-techique DT available in Rd 1 I can see the Bears drafting him. Set at LB for another year then they get serious about replacing Urlacher. Iwuh appears to be a soild backup for Briggs and Pisa plays well at SLB but Roach is a solid backup. I might get laughed off the stage but I also don't think we'll look at the safety position as a high need. If Wright comes back and shows he's the guy at FS during the second half of the season then we stay with him, Manning, and Harris as our top 3 and Steltz rounding out the group. Again, perhaps a late rounder to compete for the 5th spot. On defense that leaves CB and this should be in our top needs, rounds 1-3. On offense: We are set at RB with Forte and Taylor. QB: Set with Hanie likely the solid number 2 next year. WR: I could see us grabbing someone in Rd 1 IF they were an elite game changer but I suspect they won't be there when we pick. TE: Set That leaves Oline: I say we grab the best OG in Rd 1 and grab a good C in Rd 2 or 3 as appropriate for the players draft status and use the alternate pick to get more depth at CB.

Faneca is a bust in AZ, at least relative to the expectations they had for him. Can't think of any Cards fans who think he was a great pickup and I haven't seen anything out of him that Garza hasn't been doing for us (good and bad).

I don't think you need to link that one, if Collins were still our number 2 there'd be an riots on the streets of Chicago.

Don't worry, Lloyd is about to get injured and will miss several games. It's his m.o. Orton is still what he is...a good average QB. The magic will wear off soon.

LOL, an F+. It's as if you say Collins failed miserably but don't want him to feel bad about it. After seeing Collins last week I really regretted letting LeFevour go, and this week only confirmed that. At least Hanie acts like an NFL quarterback when he's in the pocket.

After 4 or 5 years kicking around the league one way or another you'd think DA would have been working harder on the weights. Just compare Knox and Hester to his physique and that tells you all you need to know about work ethic of the different players. You have to think that carries over to film study and work on the practice field...and the rumors have always been that DA isn't the best practice player. This is the NFL and dependability on every down is often worth more than a few flashy positive plays unless those positive plays are of the elite type. Thus we see Earl Bennett on the field. I absolutely hope DA gets it and starts working harder to get on the field instead of just saying "I don't know why I'm not on the field". You are a grown man, go talk to your coaches one on one and figure it out, I'm pretty sure they'll tell you what you need to do. For all the griping about DA not being on the field the other side of the coin shows a Lovie Smith totally into accountability this year. I haven't heard much arguing about the benching of Bowman, T. Harris, Anderson got cut, etc. and as much as it hurts to say I'm going to have to give Lovie and Martz the benefit of the doubt on DA.

Dangle Tommie Harris? The only way you can dangle someone who is on the bench for a trade is to cut him. Seriously, what has Harris done in the last 3 years to make anyone want him? If he were playing at an average level we'd be better off keeping him on the field, and he's not even doing that. I think this is another reason they brought in Charles Grant...because he can play inside as well as the LDE.