Mongo3451

The way the ball came over Olsens head prevented him from gathering up for a dive at it. Heck, he barely got his hands up in time. Then again, plays usually have aftermaths and it looked like Olsen wasn't extending any farther than he did.

You bring up the Steelers and Pats as examples and the structures aren't greatly different. All three are well managed fiscally. The main difference is the two winning teams draft the hell out of OL and have zero dependence on FA for OL. Upright QB's play winning football. That has nothing to do with Phillips and everything to do with Angelo and Lovie. Phillips may be a bean counter, but don't think for a second he doesn't know the shelf life of an NFL player and what W and L's look like.

Maybe we should combine posts? I think we were typing simultaneously.

One thing I have noticed in seeing film on Cutler in Denver VS Chicago is his mechanics. At times his mechanics with the Bears are atrocious. One thing my brother picked up in camp is that he thought Cutler practiced lazy. In asking him why he thought this a concern; he simply stated "you practice like you play". My brother, being a qualified leader of men through many years with the Marines expounded his assessment by stating by going hard all the time, you get used to where people will be in battle and /or game situations. Most importantly, when everyone works there ass off for a common goal it develops a steeliness that translates into more fight when it matters. Here's what I see. I see Cutler backpedalling when he doesn't need too. He also is not leaning into most of his throws. Both of these will definately lead to innaccurracy.(Grossman like) Is Cutler pussing out on us or is he just in need of a towel snap to get back to good mechanics? Also, I wonder why the coaches have not corrected this.

I believe Phillips is our only hope to get rid of Lovie and Co. Phillips is a bean counter and has the family's ear moreso than anyone else. He performed a coup with the stadium, firmly placing loot in the family coffers for years to come. He has turned the Bears into a product, remember the unprecedented licencing agreement he made with Bank One. Every team in the NFL followed suit. The guy is brilliant. If he can somehow convince the family that dumping Lovie and maybe JA will be money well "invested", the family may heed his advice. JA was most all our BFF for the Cutler deal. Phillips would/could be our saviour.

Problem is; you rarely get anything you can hold on to from our GM. I THINK IT'S LESS ABOUT FOCUSSING ON WINNING THIS GAME THAN IT IS - GETTING BAD PRESS. JA - brings in Cutler but fails to protect him = bad press Lovie - Mr. "trust me" finally places his neck on the chopping block by taking reign of "his" defense and it sucks. Marinelli - Brought in as the best off-season aquisition (BC) Has made zero impact. Cutler - despite the lack of OL and weapons does not get a free pass for making so many ill advised throws in the red zone. Those are our headliners and none of them get good press. That's why they are not talking. Your folks are better off hearing your version of the truth.

Both you and Nfo make good points here. I remember that draft and actually stood up for Angelo's philosophy. I thought it was really bright to draft huge upside players, even if they were a little early, as you may get an impact player with talent exceeding others from the draft slot. Jerry should have known better. I know I didn't. Two years ago, it seemed Angelo learned his lesson by drafting a good balance of talent / need. This year he was back to old tricks with Gilbert, Moore and Melton.(all of which have done nothing)

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/mulligan/18...ully20.article# First off, the title says it for me,"I'm Not Alarmed". At this juncture, it's like the boy that gets punched by his big brother and with tears welling up in his eyes, says "It didn't hurt". I highlighted the most disturbing portion of this article. Since when is NOT about work ethic and effort?? Work ethic and effort lead to execution. Execution and knowing you can duplicate it is what breeds confidence. Didn't Angie and Lovie call out the team a couple years ago for being over-confident? Now Angie is saying that's what it's all about. Trust me, I get what he is trying to say, but I think it is a crock of horse crap.

I'm going to primarily agree with Jurko and you. I will disagree with both of you on two key points. 1st - I disagree with Jurko on coaching. I am giving coaching an F. The days of "trust me" are over with me. Lovie has admitted failure to get the team ready one too many times. The fact that th D doesn't look much different than when Babich was at the helm does not bode well. Turner has failed to utilize the talent we have properly and has also failed to find a way to keep the D off the field with game planning and execution. Lastly, we are miserable in the red-zone. Hiestand either is horrible or completely hand tied by talent and/or Turner or higher. Marinelli - was supposed to be a huge acquisition and rejuvenate our DL - nuf said. F 2nd - I disagree with your assessment of our WR's, while agreeing with Jurko. I see the primary success of the recievers a result of Cutler hitting with quick strikes. I have yet to see good timing plays that would be the 1st sign of WR's being in time with the QB.

I watched the Bengals play yesterday and Tank was a stud. Too bad he couldn't get his shit together here. BTW - Benson looked fantastic as well and yes - ditto. This is something else I blame the staff for.

No thanks, you've been through enough today...

You guys are brutal. While I give the collective OL a D, only one player gets an F/ Omiyale may be the worst OL I've ever seen line up for the Bears. He alone lowers the curve. Give Beekman time to correct that curve. Pace C-, Beekman B-, Kruetz C, Garza C+, and Williams C-. I still think the OL will get a little better as time passes. Just don't think it will be enough. Our D is simply too horrible again. We are starting to look like 7-9.

Looking at this objectively, I would say you had an edge in the trade. It was NOT enough to be vetoed or implied to be a "brother in law trade". On the beef side of the issue, NFO is a classic debater and will do anything to slant an argument his way. That's why I like debating him. He did not mean to offend. He just can't help himself. That's what former soccer players and place kickers do.

If they knew how much you posted, they would fire you!!

Agreed. I have been on the drafting OL bandwagon for some time. As I grew up playing football in the 70's/80's the coaches always preached that it all began up front. I remember my Dad yelling at the Bears to draft an OL for Walter early in his career. Finks comes in and drafts a stud OL and the rest is history. Let me add, that we even freaked when Tait retired. We all knew he was done, but were all like "oh shit" "what are we going to do now?" We've tried to make several draft choices work at RB and QB during the Angelo era, but all have trouble thriving. Also the team has had trouble winning the time of possession battle, which is not good for a defensive / cold weather team. Although I was happy with what we did this off season, it doesn't mean I agree with the philosophy. A couple of seasons ago I had posts titled, "Fix the OL First" and "It all Starts Up Front". It still holds true today and will remain 20 years from now. There is hope though. Hope that our players feel the heat and rally upon the criticism. Hope that JA and Co are not complete morons when evaluating the talent they bring in. Hope that Hiestand is not a complete buffoon as he has been made out to be. Most of all, hope that this learning / gelling curve is delayed due to all the new peices we have in place. I gotta believe "all of the above" will occur. The extent of improvement mean everyhing to our season.

Thanks for posting that, as I agree with the assessment. The OL is no worse than it was last year and we have more availible talent at the skill positions. Cutler has to take some accountability. Not all or even most, but some. Orton knows how to make the most of a bad situation.

I haven't agreed with the fire Turner comments untill this season. There has been one thought I had that was the deal breaker for me. For the length of time Turner has been our OC, what is our "bread and butter" plays? Don't all good teams have them? Don't all good OC's establish them? That's the rub with me.

I'll have to disagree about putting the microscope on the players. When you get beat like that, it starts at the top. I agree that pro's should be pro's, but we also have to understand that we are dealing with young men who can be inspired by great leadership and most importantly a great battle plan.

We are pretty much in agreeance on this one. I think we all clamored for various upgrade scenarios before Pace and Shaffer were signed. I think what we got were leftovers. My main mistake was buying the Pace hype that the staff and media put out. They showed that he had good stats in the passing game last year, but as the saying goes, "The greatest lie of all is the truth cleverly told." We decided quantity was more important than quality. Unfortunately, it has yet to payoff.

Thank God for the sanity!

You know what pisses me off the most, is that they had the money to sign better players(OL in particular) and passed OL again in the draft. I was very happy with the Pace, Omiyale and Shaffer signings, but didn't have the scouting intell our staff was privy to.(which I guess was shit)

I'm not going to disagree on whether Url has value or not, because he does. His level of value is what I disagree on. It's not the MLB that makes the cover-2 work. Url just masked some of the weaknesses. The weakness in personnel is up front. They are the ones failing. The reason Url's skillset is missed is because the safeties have to play so far back due to the DL not getting it done. That's why the huge hole is in the middle of the field. Add to that, Afalava is not known for coverage skills and Manning lacks instincts. Heck the only MLB I can name that played the cover-2 is Urlacher. The weakness in the system is that it requires pressure from the front 4 to be successful. For a few years now, we have not had that pass rush and have payed dearly. Looks like we are exposed again, as Marinelli has not helped much. Top notch QB's also seem to tear up the cover two if they have a balanced attack. Problem is, there are more good QB's out there than at anytime I can remember. The 46 was great, but it is no longer a staple because it was exposed and also required the perfect personnel cocktail. The cover-two is in the same boat and "jumped the shark" a few years ago in Chicago.

Time for Harris to go. I don't care if it's by trade or cut.

Agreed on Hiestand and Beekman. Place Beekman back at LG and let him settle in for a couple weeks, then re-assess the situation. If his presence starts to make a difference, the rest of the OL can be evaluated. Right now, we don't know if Pace can play or not because of how bad Omiyale is. If Pace proves to be done, I'd insert Schaffer at RT and move Williams to LT so we can assess needs for next year.

Maybe this has something to do with it... For the limited action Wolfe gets he's responsible for 20% of the sacks given up. Liability or not, Turner could have Wolfe chip and flair out into a pattern instead of relying on him to make a block.(turn a weakness into a strength) Then the D would maybe have to slow that blitzer down to keep Wolfe in check????