CrackerDog

I think this potentially has more impact on his "value" than anything else. And it'll hurt him in the open market. He's historically been tough, though. So this is probably just a fluke. I'd be willing to take that bet. And if his value is hurt by his injuries this season, that may work in our favor in terms of a longer deal. It's in the best interest of the Bears (cap wise) to sign him, not tag him. It wouldn't surprise me if we had him inked to a 5 year before the draft.

Ain't nobody in the NFL stupid enough to give us a 2nd for Briggs.

Ha! Well said. Frankly I get the reasons some are thinking about McCown as an option. He's been playing really ferkin' well! But I just see the scenario probably a little worse than even you put it out there. We release Cut, he ends up with the Vikings and destroys us for the next 5 years or so, becoming what he might already be here if we didn't saddle him with dipshit O coordinators and a turd offensive line. And a D oriented HC and GM! No, Cutler has already proven to me that he's made improvements in the time he's been on the field under Trestman. And he's always had the tools. He just needs to get his mind right. McCown will be a nice backup. Contrary to what someone else said, he ain't going anywhere for starter money. Not at this point in the season and his career. If he ends up finishing the season for us because Cutler is worse than expected, maybe he gets a job elsewhere. Assuming he keeps his numbers up. And if Cutler makes good with the Vikings or someone else and McCown turns out to be journeyman mid-thirty's QB, the same folks here squawking about letting him go will be ripping on Emery for doing what they wanted. It's a way of life for internet experts.

I think everyone is agreed he messed up on the play. We just aren't willing to hang him for it like you and Terra. He made a mistake, hopefully he'll learn from it. Mind you, I'm no fan of SMC's. Just don't think most vets wouldn't have bit there, either.

The one thing I'll give you and the other "McCown is the Second Coming" folks; I do trust Emery and Trestman (unless it's about going for it on 4th down) and so, if they collectively think it's a wise move, I'll ride it out, watch what happens and hope like hell I was wrong about Cutler being capable of being an elite QB in this offense.

I'd like a source on that if you can find one. I'm talking about dead money, I think you're talking about the difference between what we'd pay him and the amount of the cap hit. Two different things but if we really free up $9 million despite the cap hit for cutting him, I'm happy with that result. Unless he's been playing on one leg or something and the coaches believe he's still got something in the tank, he's gone after this season.

OK, I see. I still think, despite McCown's solid play, that talk of moving Cutler is foolhardy. I do see the value in having extra cash for revamping the D but wonder how teams like Denver, New England, etc seem to have the money for a great QB and their D? I know, you're now going to say Cutler ain't no Brady. And that's true. I'm just saying, if they can afford both, and we should get Cutler for less than those guys, I don't understand why we wouldn't have the money to stock the Defensive team as well. Heck, if we can cut loose of Pep and his salary, I understnad there's a hit in 2014 for this, but we'll have shotloads of dough for the D after we deal with him. There's going to be a lot of hard decisions this off season. No question. Our team is basically a bunch of guys on one year contracts! But McCown isn't my guy long term. No way.

And wasn't the trade deadline like almost 4 weeks ago? If we "could" still trade some of our "talent", nobody would go for Pep because of his salary and savvy teams would understand he can be had next year for a FA signing. Hester might draw a 6th or later rounder from a team that needs a ST upgrade. There isn't much else to "sell" on the D and our O is pretty much a group of keepers, aside from Bush, and nobody would give us a 6 Pack for that turd.

I think there are potential calls to be made on damn near every play in the NFL. They pick and choose and sometimes they see things and sometimes they don't. I never saw the replay on the Hester return, if there was something to be called there, so be it. And yes, the team played sloppy, as Jason said, and probably deserved some of what they got. It's just that when everything seems to be going one way, call after call, there's a legit reason for a fan to get frustrated. Particularly when I saw the refs blow several offensive holding calls (that would've benefitted the Bears) go uncalled. Frankly though, there is a reason to be concerned with the undisciplined nature of this team. As I mentioned earlier. Not sure where to point the finger there.

Amen.

I don't buy it either. When Urlacher went down with the Bears, when he was their heart and soul, we got worse but we didn't friggen turn into a HS level defense. I'm sick of excuses. Tucker either produces with what he has or I'd shitcan his ass.

I agree with this post, 110%! All spot on observations. We got a few breaks from the officials too, however. They had bad afternoons, as a whole. It seemed like early on they hosed the Bears over and over on bullshit calls and then realized it and decided to try to even it out. It was a clusterf*ck on their part.

True. I've not seen such an undisciplined effort by a Bears team in a long time. Bring back Lovie! McCown made some outstanding throws. I'm coming around on him. With that said, I'd have prefered to have Jay out there when we were down by 14. Just think he had more of the tools necessary under those specific circumstances. Not something that can be proven, obviously. Besides, all of this discussion about QB ignores the elephant in the room.

No. But it had less to do with it than the mugging. Yes, potentially. Below this post you talk about "athletic potential" and in this case, as one of the best TE's in the league, I'd say had he not been forcefully pushed (pulled) out of the play, he would've had a chance at it. That would've been my "judgment" when I saw the play in full speed. Not sure how the hell the other ref saw it differently. And I think it should've gone to review because of that. I try to do it in a somewhat humorous manner. Like you said, locker room talk among the guys. Whatever, if it offended you I apologize. I don't think it did though. I think you were fine with it and the admins threw out the threat of censorship to shut down the chatter before it got more out of control. Which is cool. As to your being an expert on some things and not others, you seem to think highly of yourself on many things and come across as arrogant. I know I come across as an ass here myself but again, it's hopefully in good fun, we've got our personas here, etc. No blood, no foul.

Attempting? You do realize the word mature has two meanings, right? Just mean that their coaching staff, QB, Megatron, etc have been in the same system now for a while. When we were "winning despite ourselves" we were also in the very early stages of this offense gelling. And since then we've been going with our #2 QB and/or an injured Cutler. Damn I can't wait until we get this offense completely healthy with a little more time to grow, with a D that gets them the ball back more often... I'm giving myself a semi.

I thought Jason said locker room talk was acceptable? Alright gents, I probably crossed a line and I'll step back. Peace.

Yep, and they've won games they probably deserved to lose (as have we) but they did it with a mature roster while our boys were still growing into the new system. That said, we've got lots of problems on our team, don't get me wrong. Not being able to play D, get much of a pass rush, cover anyone on third down... It's going to be a challenge. But don't count us out!

OK, I'll expand on my thoughts since you asked so "nicely"... In this case, the receiver wasn't out of position due to his momentum, he was out of position because he was grabbed with both hands and ridden out of the play. I wouldn't even be surprised if the contact was well before the ball was in the air but I've never seen a replay that shows Brady and the endzone at the same time. Anyone who can't see that this was a blown call is dingy. How the official is graded is irrelevant because frankly they have to take into consideration the human element on the field. And they've got each other's backs as far as I'm concerned. Hell, I don't think there's ever been a discussion on this board about officiating where you didn't take the side of the refs! That play should've been reviewable at a minimum. Refs throwing a flag, having a chat about it, then reversing themselves means that, by default, two people saw the play differently. In those cases, it seems to me, there ought to be a third set of eyes that can take a look at it. and all of those slow-mo elements might actually help determine all of the things we've been talking about in this thread. But these dudes walked off the field basically saying it's a judgment call, f*ck off if you don't like it. If you stop being a pompous ass and complete dick about everything maybe you'll get better results from people like me who don't take your shit. Until then, expect short inflammatory responses under those circumstances.

PFFFFTTTTT.... You saying I'm wrong only proves otherwise.

If Troy Brown could do it for the Patriots, Hester, who has experience at the position and is of similar build, certainly ought to be able to pitch in. With that said, it's always been my opinion that Devin Hester was a friggen moron and could only be trusted with things that required nothing more than instinct. If he's being asked to do anything more than cover someone man to man, I think he'd be lost out there. But under the circumstances, I'd actually like to see him get out there a bit and prove me wrong.

Obviously not having the tie breaker hurts. I still feel like there's a long history of the Lions falling apart and I see no reason to believe that won't happen again this season. I've never felt like Bush was a legit three down back and he's already missed time. The way the Lions play they piss off the other sideline, making any sack of Stafford an opportunity to "even the score". I wouldn't be surprised if they took a few hits on the injury front down the stretch, can't play well outdoors in the elements, yadda yadda yadda. That doesn't mean the Bears will win the division but I'm not as resigned to failure as some of you seem to be.

I never suggested reviewing reviews. I said some of the things called on the field are called unreviewable and some of those things ought to be reconsidered. If you watch a replay on TV and it's obviously a blown call yet they can't review it because some things are not included in the replay rules, we end up with exactly what replay is meant to help avoid, contraversy. The NFL doesn't want your nightly news showing how the officials stole a game from your team that afternoon. If we can't review blatant errors, I'd be a fan of removing replay altogether and then just dealing with the results. Oh well, they're human. But if we mean to improve the calls on the field, we ought to do that with all options available. And before I get another bitch about making the game longer, all of the above could be accomplished while maintaining the same number of coaching challenges available per game.

LOL! Yeah, but there'd still be the same limits on the number of reviews a team could ask for. I'm just saying, there are clearly times when a call can't be reviewed because it's a so-called "judgment call" and the video evidence shows that the ref clearly made the wrong gawd damn judgment.

I wasn't a fan of not calling TO's there but the idea that maybe it rushed the Ravens a bit, them assuming the TO's would be called as they typically are, is an interesting one. And it worked out so who am I to judge? Next year, hopefully, this isn't an issue. We have a healthier D, more tools via free agency and the draft, etc. We stop them well before they get close to scoring.

As do I. Not debating that the refs aren't entitled to getting it wrong once in a while. Just that they clearly got it wrong this time. Just wish judgment calls were reviewable sometimes, particularly when they go against the Bears.