nfoligno

Thoughts on the OL: - as far as sacks go, only 3 of the 5 can be attributed to the OL. Even of thoese three, commentators even at times said they were coverage sacks. On most downs, Cutler had time (I'm not saying forever, but not like he had a guy in his face within a 3 step drop). So while the OL may not be great, heck, or even good, they were not awful. Even Webb, who was easily the worst of the group, wasn't getting beaten on a consistent basis as we have seen at times in recent past with our LTs. The OL is not where they need to be, but I think going into the season, most were saying if they were only average and didn't suck, our offense could be good. Well, after just one game, against a good defense, I think they were better than most would have expected. - I think you also really have to consider other factors here. Webb is not exactly a seasoned veteran at LT, and it's reasonable to think he will improve through the season. Garza is at a new position, and we had to insert Spencer. The interior OL was actually pretty decent. Opinions of the rookie's play vary, but I'd argue he played fairly well for a rookie in his first game. Last year, the OL improved as the season went along. This group has ONE player returning to the same position, and a lot of youth. I think there was always the expectation is was going to be better later than sooner, but I think we are better than we were game one last year, and frankly, didn't think they looked awful in general. Lots of room to improve, but not starting from as low of a point as last year, and with more hope IMHO. - Finally, consider the system and the OC. Martz called a game unlike his norm, but at the same time, he is still Mike Martz. In his system, the QB is going to get hit more than in most other systems. So for me, I think the OL did give us fans reason for hope that they will not suck this year, and could even be average. Not sure I would go much higher than that. But if the OL plays average, I think this offense can be pretty solid or better, and paired with the defense I saw, this team could really surprise a lot of people. With ALL that said, while I think we may get by for now with this OL, what still troubles me is I'm not sure I see the great future. Not sure I count Garza or Spencer as future starting pieces. Garza has a lot of wear, and I think it reasonable to expect him to begin to decline. Webb at LT simply doesn't look like our future LT. Williams does look like a solid young fixture. As does Carimi at RT. Not sure Louis or other young players we have are viewed as future pieces either. So we have Williams and Carimi, with maybe Garza for a couple more years. That leaves two spots we still need to find long term solutions, and a center before too long as well.

I think that is more an issue of the team saying we will not discuss it with reporters anymore. You know they will continue to keep an open door with the agent, but they want to avoid it being a press issue during the season.

I don't. Look, I realize how popular Forte is. He is a damn good RB, and a better fit in our system. But I'm sorry, I think he is watching AP and Chris Johnson signing huge deals, and thinking he should get a ton too. I thought we put a fair offer on the table for him. Time will tell. Not long ago, Briggs turned down all offers to re-sign with us, and choose FA. Guess what. The offers didn't flow in for the bank breaking $ he expected. As good as he is, outside our system, it was questioned how "special" he was. Thus he signed with us. If Forte hit FA, I just don't think teams would offer him the big bucks he thinks he is worth. If he puts up sick numbers this year, maybe that changed, but I look at yesterdays game. A game he played very well. Hell. Played great. As a runner, he had 16-68. Nice 4.3 avg., though it drops to 2.7 if you take out the one big run. Forte is a dang good all-around back. He can run and is dangerous as a receiving option as well. But IMHO, he is going to have to prove he can do more on the ground this year. If he does that? If he puts up 1,300+ yards rushing plus a big chunk of receiving, then he will likely command more. But if he puts up 1,000 rushing, or around there, I don't think the offers will be much more than what we are offering today.

TY, I've always gone to a bar to watch games in the past, but just seems to be more and more difficult to do these days. Yea, I think I'll drop the coin. I would have yesterday but just couldn't tell from the description whether the games were streamed lived or as replay. thank you

re game pass, one thing I couldn't tell from the description was whether it was a live stream, or if you simply got the game after it was over, in replay format

NFL Game Day. Does anyone have this?

I just went to the site I used to watch games online (channelsurfing.net) but there is a message the site was busted and shut down. Do ya'll know of any other sites to watch the games online?

IMHO, if this was purely about patriotism, and nothing else, we would not be reading about it days before the game. We would simply see him wearing the shoes the day of. No. Sorry, this is a publicity "look at me" stunt and little more.

From my perspective. Their offense is damn good. We expected that, but crap. They have a lot of weapons. Covering their TE is a struggle. I hate to put Urlacher on him, but I"m not sure anyone else can cover him. One real good thing is, NO's was getting torn up early on, then shifted to a cover two, and were far more effective. NO stopped giving up the big plays, and forced GB on extended drives. They put GB into a bunch of 3rd and longs, but then allowed GB to convert. Point here is, our base defense seems the better way to defend GB, which helps us. NO does not have a good pass rush, but still often seemed to get inside the pocket. Rodgers was good moving around and getting rid of the ball, but a better pass rush (which ours hopes to be) could/should do far more to rush the throws. Their run game didn't impress me. On the other side, their run defense was pretty stout. I also think their pass defense looked better than some might think looking at Brees' huge game. Brees had 420 passing yards, but also 50 pass attempts. Further, he freaking Drew Brees. But I thought GBs corners still looked good, and they we pass rushing pretty well too. Brees is a MVP caliber QB, with a host of talented weapons. I really don't think fans should look at what he did and simply assume GB's defense sucks.

Actually, they might. From what I read, due to the new rules which will effectively have an extra player active for the bears, they seem to plan to use that spot for the extra WR.

LOL. No argument Shoop was predictable, not to mention stubborn. One of the things that drove me nuts was Miller talking about how Shoop would call a play. Miller would call it in the huddle, then approach the line. He would see the defense was in the perfect set to stuff the playcall, BUT shoop did not allow any adjustments, so Miller had no choice to run a play he knew was dead before the ball was snapped. I always understood why some liked Crowton. Even if the offense failed, at least they tried to be more aggressive. That wasn't enough for me. I wanted more too, but you still have to be smart about it. Yea, that does also point to Martz. Early on last year, Martz continued to run his scheme in spite of what the players did on the field. OL can't block, but he refused to give them help. QB was getting killed, but he continued to ignore the run game. Receivers continued to run deep routes that had no chance. It wasn't until Lovie had a sit down with Martz that he changed. And wonder of wonders. Our offense got better as we ran the ball more, called more quick pass plays, kept extra protection back to block, etc. Suddenly we are moving the ball and making plays. I wonder if Martz would have made this adjustment on his own, if Lovie didn't say anything.

I LOVE cooking shows, so I love working with this analogy, though I'd differ from it a bit. The two are chefs, given ingredients, and told to make a contest winning dish. Ingredients are eggs, cheese and chives. Crowton decides to make a western omlette. Oops. Wrong ingredients. Worse, because he cooked the eggs as if the other stuff was in there, everything went wrong and the eggs burnt to the pan and had to be thrown away. Shoop has no grand thoughts. He makes scrambled eggs forgets to use the cheese, chives and doesn't even salt. The dish is edible, but tasteless, bland and boring as hell. Judges rule no winner saying their 6 year old kids could have scrambled eggs and refuse to hand an award to someone who's dish failed so bad it had to be tossed into the trash.

I could try and jump off the Sears tower. Doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Not for me. Shoop drove many nuts, often me as well, as he simply refused to take risk. However, I think Jauron also kept him on a tight chain as Jauron wanted to win with special teams and defense, and the offense was meant to eat the clock and keep the defense fresh, which it did. Again, I am NOT hyping Shoop. He was another in a long line of crap OCs, but to me, Crowton was the worst.

I get the thinking/logic behind saying Spaeth #2. The writer obviously felt OL/blocking was our biggest weakness. #1 was an OT in the draft. #2 was a player who is essentially a 6th OL. The logic isn't far off IMHO.

In part I only said it to get a rise out of Jason. With that said, yes, I would take Crowton over Shoop and Poop, and I'm not fan of Shoop's. Crowton represents what I hate worst about coaching as he tried to put square pegs through a round hole. Hm. We have this kid Cade McNown who has virtually no game experience. We have dreadful OL that can't pass block. I know. Lets go with an empty backfield and put all the pressure on the QB. I also remember about that same period of time watching Minny, and how they dealt with their young QB Culpepper. Minny had FAR better weapons, but they also knew the game is still fast for young QBs, and they needed to give him time. So Minny max protected. 5 OL, but then also a TE and RB were often blocking every down. Hell. I remember when they would have 3 extra blockers, and only 2 receivers running routes. I'll never forget that game against TB. Sapp laughed after the game how they licked their chops and couldn't believe all the empty backfield sets. And this was TB in the defensive hayday. I know Cade sucked. I'm not making excuses for him. But putting a young QB, behind a bad OL, and asking so much of his was messed up. Shoop then followed. First year, we had the offensive rookie of the year under him. And lets not pretend A-Train was a special RB. Was that Booker with 100 catches and 1,000 yards? I think it was. And did he do it again the following year? Yes, I think he did. And for the record, it was under that conservative OC that we had our last 1,000 yard receiver. Look. I'm not saying Shoop was good. I think he was good for the team the first year, maybe two, as we needed a ground game and conservative offense to compliment our very good defense, but as the defense faded, Shoop proved he couldn't do more. I could run off a list of knocks on Shoop, but he was still a better NFL OC than Mr. Razzle Dazzle Crowton.

Gary Crowton That's right. Crowton. LOL. Can't wait for Jason to start screaming

Understand. I am totally in favor of the move. My point was only on the thought that DM totally sucked under Lovie's mentorship. With that said, my expectations for Merry are not great. No question of his talent, but (a) not sure of his fit in our scheme ( he has to learn a new scheme and that takes time © he is a high risk player, and Lovie isn't the sort who usually likes risk. Everything about our scheme is designed to take away the big play. If his risks allow big plays when he misses, which was a big problem in NE, then I can't see Lovie playing him. Not saying it was a bad move, or that anything like that. Just saying my expectations are not that high.

Actually, I'll give DM a bit more credit than some here. For the record, I was never a big fan of DM, but I did feel he was a pretty solid nickel DB. As I recall, DM was playing nickel the year Lovie "took him under his wing" and he actually did improve and was IMHO even solid in that role. The problem was, he was a 2nd round pick (high 2nd) and the team really wanted more out of him than as a nickel. So they tried him at CB, FS and even SS. He was never a fit in any of these roles. At SS, he simply lacked the size to play with bigger TEs or defend the run well. At FS, he lacked the downfield awareness or instinct. At CB, see FS. I think it "possible" he could have been developed into a man cover corner (not saying great), but that isn't the corner role in our scheme. At nickel however, his assignments were more specific. He would be assigned to cover the #3 WR. Less zone issue for a player lacking instincts, and the quality of the WR was usally less too. Again, I'm not making him out to be great by any stretch, but I did always feel he was a solid nickel, but our staff continued to move him around trying to make him an everydown player, even if the role didn't suit him.

Good piece on ESPN about this. Talked about how he is crying he is underpaid today, but is quick to forget he was "over-paid" early in his deal when he was getting an average of $7.5m per year. So yea, the yearly money today is below market, but early on it was above market. So it washes out. Loved the analogy used too. Your a parent and tell your kid on Monday they can watch 5 hours of tv for the week. They have watched 4 hours by Thursday, and cry for more hours. Do you give them more hours because they choose to have the bulk of their tv time early in the week, or teach them a lesson and hold firm. Maybe next week they will learn to spread out their time more evenly.

Only issue I have with that is, we did the same with Thomas Jones. And the following year, had to take whatever we could get because it was known we told him we would trade him, and it would blow up on us if we didn't move him. Hurts our position/leverage. Honestly, he has 3 more years on his deal. I'd like to take a total hard line stance here. Not only send him a message, but other players who want to pull this crap down the road. Play for us, or retire.

If you go back to camp and practices, I think Davis was far more used on offense than Hurd has been.

Yea, this is a joke Players and agents are not stupid. They know a deal signed today will be low in 3 or 4 years. So if you are a pro bowler and sign a deal today, which is market value, you flat know that in 3 years lesser players will get equal or greater contracts. That's simply the way it is. Players and agents know this. Briggs could have signed a deal then for 3 years with less bonus and guaranteed money, putting him in position for a new deal now. But he didn't. He choose to maximize his contract then, which meant more years. Look at Larry Fitzgerald. He could have signed a long term deal for eye popping numbers. Did he? Nope. He was smart. He took a deal that may not have had the signing bonus equal to some, but was for fewer years allowing him the opportunity for another contract before his age/value decline. Briggs and others could have done the same, but choose their contract. I was irritated when I heard Briggs wanted a new deal, but shrugged it off as business as usual. But to demand a trade now? That is about the most classless move I have heard of. More than ever before I want the team to take a hard line stance. Inform Briggs he is going no where. He will play for the Bears, or we do like TB did in the past, and burn a roster spot and the cap space on a player who chooses to sit at home rather than play. Or stick him on the bench if he doesn't want to play. But take a hard line stance. I'd have considered a trade after this season. I'd have even considered giving him a bit of a payraise after this season. But after this stunt, I would draw the line in the sand and let him know he will either play for us the next three years or he can retire.

Not to defend Hurd, but if 00% of a player's contribution is special teams, how much will we hear/see? Davis was a special teams ace, but also very much involved in the offense. If Hurd isn't getting much time in offense, or maybe only running with the 3rd string or worse, then he likely won't get much publicity. So he could be working his tail off, but simply in an area that doesn't get much publicity. He could also be slacking. I don't know. Just saying

Hey Lemonhead, To be honest, I am not sure I have much more insight than what has come to be known. Roy Williams - He was never hated here. His play never matched expectations, but his character didn't make him a hated player. That he went to the University of Texas may have contributed. Texas fans love their own, regardless what happens. As for play, the top knock you heard most often was his hands. Besides the issue with drops, which most Bear fans have already figured out, there was also the issue of fumbles. He is the sort of player that often would try to stretch out every yard possible. At times, the led to a fumble. It's one thing to fight for every yard, but Roy's decision making would come into question. He would fight when there was no reason. Like the team was up, and only needed to let the clock run, but rather than go down he stayed up and fought as multiple defenders tried (and did) strip the ball. Cowboys turn it over and the other team scores to win. There were a couple moments like this. Frankly, I am pretty down on most any player (especially the highly touted ones) that come out of the University of Texas. I've had the argument with others here at the office. While there are exceptions, no question, I think most players who come out of that school lack character and discipline. Texas gets some high talent recruits, but does little to develop the character and create men. They enter the NFL immature and lacking responsibility. Again, I'm not saying all, but IMHO, many if not most seem to fit this mold, especially those who were stars for Texas. I had no issue with the signing. My expectations were not high, but I felt he could potentially contribute, and the cost wasn't high. Barber - Loved this signing. I felt he was no longer a player you could count on every down, but as a change of pace back, thought he had plenty in the tank. And we had a big need as our short yardage running has been simply so bad. Forte runs to up-right and gets drilled in short yardage. Barber isn't likely to break off longer runs as he once did, but is still a solid pile mover and if not used too much, can even be more. And again, price was right. Hurd - I wasn't sure of the plan when we signed him. Was he brought in for receiving ability or special teams. As a receiver, I didn't think he would offer much, but it seems he was added for special teams, and in that area, I think he was a solid signing. We needed players after losing several solid ones, and he can play teams. Like I said. At this point, I think all the above opinions have already played out, so I doubt my insight offers much. But for what it's worth, there you go.