AZ54

I had forgotten all about Woodny, I liked his athleticism in camp but I think he got put on the practice squad solely to protect our draft pick; D.J. Moore who played poorly in camp.

Don't want to give up Tillman and in any case a 1st and 4th is too little for those two players. Tillman is a starting CB in this league that just creates another big hole on the roster, one we can't fill. Bowman will remain opposite of Tillman next year and while I'm probably in the minority I like Bowman and think he'll be a good CB for us. Behind them we have to sort out what Danieal Manning is going to be: NB, or FS. I like him at NB. A couple passes on him but he was right there in coverage and they were (had to be) perfect passes. After that we have something of a mess at CB so there isn't really an heir apparent for Tillman. OTOH, I think we already have the depth on the roster to replace Hester at WR, KR and PR.

You know I'm on board with it. We need a higher pick for Oline in this upcoming draft and we need to go after the best guard we can get.

That's the most frustrating part of this season. I said weeks ago we should at least be an average team given our talent and we don't play like that. I do mean at least average because we do have some talent on the offensive roster, even if it's inexperienced. I proposed trading Hester for one because I think he has more value to us via Oline draft pick than WR/PR/KR now but he is still a talented player who I don't think we use properly. Perhaps it would be better said we over use him in a role he's not suited for. Regardless, the coaches are not getting the most out of these guys but if you consider last night an audition for a new OC then they got a real good feel that they will not be walking into a complete rebuilding situation. We put up 30 pts on what was considered a good defense, and added another 6 against their Pro Bowl CB in overtime. When the Cardinals did this to Minn everyone said well that's Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Beanie Wells, et al. We did it with who? If this was an audition for a new HC (I think it should have been) well then plenty of qualified people should be interested. Pull the trigger!

I agree that Harris came to play last night and that did help however, he wasn't the only one. I think the entire D was working hard throughout the game they were just handicapped by our scheme, or in some cases talent (DEs). Is there a guy out there who gets more out his athleticism than Hunter? Keeping in mind we still gave up 30pts. This was a "pride" effort last night for a national TV audience and had nothing to do with the coaches IMO.

We should have no choice but to activate Iglesias. I don't care if Rashiedi (as Gruden calls him) Davis is inactive and I don't care if it hurts special teams. We need to know more about him, and a bit of real game experience will go a long way to giving him confidence for next year.

I have seen refs occasionally help players get up but it's usually only in an awkward situation where the ref is kind of in the pile. I've seen them fix shoulder pads from time to time too. However, for one to go out of his way to pick up Favre is pretty bothersome and clearly indicates favoritism unless he was out there helping anyone else get up off the ground, which I don't recall. At least he wasn't helping Cutler up off the ground. But I'm a glass-is-half-full type and I'm damn glad we got him on his ass so many times he had trouble getting up. In fact the hit Alex Brown laid on him took quite a bit out of him, and someone else made his head groggy late in the game.

Last week Bilick was talking about how Cutler can only throw what he "sees" because he can't trust his WR or TE to run the route the way he's expecting it to be run. You add to that an Oline that been porous, a bad running game, plus a QB who is wants to always make the play, plus a defense that gives nobody confidence they can stop anyone and you have the perfect recipe for lots of INTs. I blame Cutler for 1/3 of the picks, WR for the other 1/3, and coaching for the last 1/3. Everyone leaves out the coaches but they have a hand in this mess too. I like Jaws though but I know enough about him (i.e. he is human) to know he isn't always right.

Let's not absolve Turner too quickly. Yes, the offense looked much better but why did we wait for so long to make some changes? Williams played well against Jared Allen. Yes, he had some chip blocks here and there but overall he shut him down. We had to wait this far into the season to find this out? Aromashodu showed again (on national television and against a Pro Bowl CB) why he should have been out on the field earlier in the year once he recovered from his injury. Knox did some things well throughout the year but he is not as good as DA. If it was a tough call to make Davis inactive they should have made Knox inactive earlier in the year. It's not like don't have other KR/PR on the roster. Just the kind of stuff that kills me with this coaching staff.

The thing about Omiyale is that he's a hit or miss guy in that he either gets a good block or none at all. As the season has gone he's gotten more hits and less misses but every time I see one of those misses it drives me nuts and destroys the play. Those are the kind of plays that kill a drive and so we put a higher weighting on it perhaps than these guys do. I'm surprised Kreutz is ranked so highly. When I isolate on him he seems to get pushed around a lot.

I agree this is not a perfect system at all but it does offer some points worth discussing. Penalties out of context can sometimes be misleading. For example I'd gladly take an offensive pass interference if it prevented an INT. While the overall ranking doesn't have the proper weightings you can look into the categories individually to see how players compare there. Which is why I listed things like Bennett's YAC or run blocking vs. pass blocking for Oline. Between Roach vs. Briggs I'm taking Briggs regadless of their rankings but I don't think Briggs has stood out as I would expect a Pro Bowl player to. However, I don't fault too much on our LB because playing behind what is a horrible Dline makes their job very difficult. I think our poor Dline performance is shown clear enough in the rankings on this site.

I know this list means nothing but for him to get any recognition at all is pretty good for a guy picked up off the street. Among OLB they have Roach ranked 13th in the league and Lance Briggs is rated our worst LB.

Same site; this time just select By Team http://www.profootballfocus.com/cstats.php...e=a&stats=o Kreutz is rated far and away as our best Oline. Garza is right behind him. Chris Williams and Orlando Pace are rated so poorly on pass protection it's embarrassing. Pace run blocking rating at -9.0 has to make you wonder why the staff didn't make a move to Shaffer sooner and move Williams back to his more natural left side. Then again, this is Lovie we're talking about so no need to wonder. If you look at OT performance overall Pace ranks and 74th out of 76. Ouch. (Minn OTs aren't rated that highly either, Arizona's are way down there too) It's interesting to note that Beekman and Omiyale ratings are opposite on run vs. pass blocking. Beekman better in pass protection and Omiyale better on the run blocking. Omiyale really loses points on penalties (as we all know). On the overall list Kreutz ranks #12 among the league centers. Behind these guys Matt Forte ranks 60/60 among HB in the league.

That's amazing. I'll have to check out the defensive grades to see how the LB compare.

Way back in the offseason someone posted this link where they analyze every play of every game and give a rating for each player. http://www.profootballfocus.com/by_positio...&numgames=1 I took at look at our WR ratings and was surprised to see DA ranked first when select "all" for snaps. DA doesn't have enough time on the field for me to trust any rankings, however, what was more interesting is that Hester is rated as our worst WR. When you consider the whole of the season (leave out DA and Davis) this shows Bennett as being our best WR. Couple things jump out in his stat line: He is our best YAC receiver, 6.7 vs 5.0 for Hester and just 3.4 for Knox. Although he is not rated as a good blocker he is rated far better at it than Hester, so is Knox. If you go just by receiving grades Hester is ranked as our best. One other stat that jumps out is the 6 INTs when Cutler throws at Knox. Next up the Oline...

I read this morning that after he got his new contract Lovie had just as much power as JA in personnel. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...0.column?page=2 ****************************************************************** And it is not out of the question that Angelo's recommendation may not be heeded. When the Bears signed Smith to a contract extension in 2007, there was a power shift in the organization. Smith went from Angelo's subordinate to his virtual equal. So should Smith get a pink slip, it is a certainty that more than one set of fingerprints will be on it. ******************************************************************* That opens the debate over who really is responsible for some of the poor personnel decisions. Not to absolve Angelo but it might not be as clear as we think on the personnel side.

Graphically that post was lacking. Literally it was good.

I think Grimm deserves consideration. I'd also like to see Jim Harbaugh in the mix and I like the idea of Heimerdinger as per the other thread. LeBeau is too old and likes what he does too much to leave. He'll finish his career there in Pittsburgh. Capers I'm not too interested in. He's done well as a DC but not as a head coach. Some guys are like that, even Mike Nolan after failing as a head coach is doing well again as a DC. Garrett. I hate the Cowboys and pretty much everything and everyone involved in the organization. I can say that we salvaged Ditka from there so perhaps there is another golden nugget worth looking at down there.

After reading the article I agree that Heimerdinger seems to be worthy of being on the list of candidates to replace Love. However, I want to approach this from a different view point: What happens if we don't fire Lovie? Cutler first and foremost is the future of this football team. From a draft standpoint as well as financially we've invested a lot in him. It's real simple, either you are committed to making Cutler successful or you are not. Given that is keeping Lovie around for another year worth it or will it simply delay what we believe can be the success of Cutler? I can't see anyway the organization can be pleased with Ron Turner's performance. For years he had the excuses of not having the right QB. Then we get him a QB who threw for over 4,000 yards last year and we end up looking the same. I realize the picture is more complex than that but the bottom line here is that we have struggled to produce successful players and consistent offense under his tutelage. Turner is not under contract so we must fill that spot and to get a qualified candidate when Lovie is in his make or break year will be very difficult. How does Cutler improve with a stopgap OC and then another new system started up with a new head coach the year after? Going against Lovie is that his defense is a mess. With him running the show and with the highly respected Rod Marinelli coaching his Dline we have simply gone from bad to inept. Losing two starting LBs is not the sole cause for this disaster especially when many in the organization were touting our LB depth at the start of the season. If Urlacher simply means that much to the defense then what is the value of the coaching staff? Other teams lose key players and while there might be some fall off in performance they don't go all the way to zero. Further complicating issues is player development. Was Nick Roach the right call over Jamar Williams when Pisa went down? Safeties anyone? We have lots of them and they all seem to get playing time every year for one reason or another. After years of this mess I simply don't see how players trust these coaches. To sum it all up the opportunity cost of keeping Lovie around is simply too great. We finally have the QB with the talent to be one of the best in the league. It is time for the organization to simply say that getting Cutler on track is the best thing for the organization and recognize that it won't happen under Lovie. We need to move on regardless of the money left on Lovie's contract. In the long run that will be the better financial investment for the organization.

This article has a segment where they talk about how the offensive coaches schemed to double team Ray Edwards (the other Vikings DE) instead of Jared Allen. Allen got two sacks against Pace that game. Pace also got hurt that game and Shaffer came in and we still didn't change our scheme. Turner is coy and won't tip our hand completely for this game though as Turner states we'll be switching off the chip blocks to either DE. I'm glad we have such creative coaches that we do such unexpected schemes like this so we can catch defense off guard. Cutler is pretty damning with his statement at the end. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...0,5015484.story The Bears had Pace singled up on Allen last time, choosing to help Williams on the right side where he went against Ray Edwards. "I obviously appreciated it," Allen said. "We'll see how this one plays out. Hopefully, I can get the same kind of treatment, get some more one-on-ones." He's not going to be so lucky. Offensive coordinator Ron Turner said the Bears are going to mix up their approach, asking Williams to solo block Allen at times and helping him in other situations. Kevin Shaffer figures to get solo duty on the right side with Edwards this time around. "It should be a tough matchup for Chris all day long," Cutler said. "But that's his job. That's what he has to do. "Obviously we have to help him and put some guys on Allen and get some chips. That's what you have to do against a defensive end of his caliber."

I realize it's nice to have your MLB call plays in the huddle but I still don't understand why Briggs couldn't have done that when Urlacher went down. Instead we went with Roach who just wasn't any good at lining up his teammates. Hillenmeyer has done much better there but why couldn't Briggs have done so?

Cribbs runs a 4.6 forty the difference between his current KR/PR and Hester's the amount of heart he runs with. Cribbs fights for the yards while Hester is just looking for the easy holes these days, or the least painful tackle.

Let's cut to chase here: Is Tommie Harris the problem with our DTs? His attitude has been sh***y ever since he got his huge contract. He has been disciplined multiple times for not adhering to team rules and/or not working out/rehabbing. While he might be our best player is he a cancer in the locker room? Fact is guys see who is making the big bucks and no matter what that gives a guy something of a lead role in the locker room. It's like that everywhere...people see what it takes to make more money and they'll emulate it even if it's selfish behavior. I say he is.

I agree. I watched the AZ vs. Minn game and the entire game their RB or TE chip blocked Allen to help their backup OT and the result was they virtually shutdown Allen the entire game. When they chip block they actually hit him hard enough to move him (take away his initial burst) and then they ran out into the flat or some other short dump off route. I've never seen us do this under Lovie, or at least not do it as well but then they hired this guy: Russ Grimm Asst. Head Coach/Running Game Coordinator/Offensive Line ...and we have Harry. Nobody can tell me the Cards have more talent on their line because Mike Gandy has been their starting LT. Other journeyman players have been among the starters. Point is he has managed to get these players to play at a higher level than you'd expect while on our roster we get the opposite. Maybe we should consider Grimm as our new HC? He was talked about a lot years ago but has since fallen off the "hot list".

I like Ogunleye and I like Brown and I feel either one would be a much better player if we had a premier pass rusher somewhere on the Dline. I know that isn't news but they are both solid players but that's all we have at DE and our DT situation seems to be worse than solid. Somewhere someway we need to get another elite player on the Dline. I don't see the point in keeping Ogunleye at his age. As I stated before our window is closed with this roster. We have a few core players we can continue to build around (Briggs, Cutler) but otherwise it's time to start investing in youth. Take his money and throw it at someone else who has a longer future than he does.