jason

Daddy like. But I worry about yet another OL prospect who has had a back injury of any kind.

Unless the winner of the Webb/Williams battle, not to mention Spencer, makes ridiculous strides during the season, I will be pissed, once again, if the Bears don't invest heavily in the OL. Just like the last five years or so, it's been the key piece holding the offense back. This upcoming draft is absolutely loaded with OL talent in the first and second round, and skipping both rounds for a LB or DT replacement would be a mistake. Again. Reminds me of the Einstein (maybe) quote: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.

Not to mention the fact that Winslow is a complete dipshit with questionable character.

Yep! True story. A more likely scenario involves the kicking team committing several unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and snapping the ball from much closer to their own end zone. Still unlikely though. This is one of those oddities that is dicussed amongst football officials and almost always debated because of complicated rule book verbiage.

Actually, it's possible to score 1 point in a football game! If a team just scored a touchdown, and they're going for a try, and the holder muffs the snap, and they muff the ball over and over and over back into their own end zone, and THEN they recover the ball where they are tackled, then the team that was originally defending the kick would get one point. It's convoluted, and completely improbable, but possible.

Bad move, in my opinion. Watch him turn into a star in Texas. This is nothing more than a move to create room for Rodriguez on offense and justify his selection.

Just regular game broadcast. I wish I had access to more than that. I usually watch whatever reply is on the NFL network as well, but it's pretty much the same thing + a few more angles from time to time.

Sit Cutler. There is already a decent chance he's going to get hammered during the season. Let's save him bruises.

As usual, it turns into an agree to disagree situation. C'est la vie. I just wish you could speak specifics so that I knew where we differed on opinion. Because, to be quite frank, I honestly don't see how someone could grade every play and still come to the conclusion that Webb beat out Williams.

Seriously, a spreadsheet. I wanted to be as unbiased as posible and it was the only way I could keep track of each player on the OL over multiple plays. Unless you're freaking Rainman, that's about the only way I could see how someone could truly evaluate every player on the OL for each play. I hit the rewind button the DVR probably a couple hundred times, enough that my wife asked me when I was going to stop watching each play more than 5 times. Why is it that you won't say which plays were the deciding factors? I have a sneaking suspicion that you didn't actually grade each play, and you went on feel at the end of a series, quarter, or half. That's what most people do. But when you break down film, you have to grade each play one at a time. It's kind of like scoring in boxing. If you just go on feel at the end of the match, you could very well miss the fact that a boxer who seems like he lost was actually the winner in terms of rounds. Is it subject to interpretation? Absolutely. But I'm curious about how you interpreted the plays. I'm curious how anyone who actually looked at each player's performance on a play-by-play basis could say that Webb did better than Williams. Maybe I missed something. Maybe you missed something. That's the whole point of asking about the plays, to see which play(s) is the source of disagreement. As for the short-bus, I believe you're probably driving if you think my external belief in TO's ability (and not his baggage) has anything to do with game-tape, play-by-play evalution.

I actually did look at it objectively. I graded each play based on the type of play, what the player did, the overall result, whether they got help, etc. If doing so is not objective, then I don't know what objective is. If you think otherwise, which plays turned you the other way? I have an entire spreadsheet of the first half and I'd love to hear which plays were the ones you graded differently. Neither played superbly, but Williams played better than Webb overall.

Question for you... Do you think Webb outperformed Williams in the first half? If so, I'd challenge you to go back and objectively grade each player on each play they were in the game. By my play-by-play notes, Webb graded out with an even C and Williams graded out with a C+. Since the Giants took out the starters in the second half, it's awfully difficult to grade either in the second half (I haven't seen it yet). And by my count, at least up until the 2nd half of the Giants game, that makes: Game 1: Williams > Webb Game 2: Williams > Webb Game 3: Williams > Webb Unless someone is going on feel at the end of several series, a quarter, or a half, I don't see how someone can accurately grade/judge what the players do. And if someone actually looks at each players' performance, Williams should be the starter.

Something (i.e. drafting OL) that should have been done last year, again.

I think it's pretty damn good for a 12 team league. People are selling Cutler very short in my opinion. If he doesn't get 4000 yards I'll be shocked. What I like about the roster is you have far and away the best WR, and you have the TE who will put up the best stats this year (in my opinion, there is no way Gronk repeats with all the NE weapons). This strategy of "how much better is he than the next best at that position" is pretty sound, and has been discussed at length. The concept is where WAR comes from in the baseball sabremetric world. You know you are weak at RB. Seeing as how RB is thin and WR is stacked this year, I'd see about trading Fitz as well. Between Megatron and Bowe you should be doing well, and I'm sure there will be someone out there as a #2 WR who will step up as a FA.

Based upon what I saw in the first preseason game, I think 9 sacks is easily achievable on his hustle alone. Of course, that's all dependant upon how much playing time he gets, but if he attacks the entire game like the way he has been, I can't see how he won't capitalize on a mistake at least every other game.

Why they aren't using D-I refs: Most of the D-I coordinators of officials are former NFL guys or directly linked to former NFL guys. If you go work as a scab, your D-I college officiating career is pretty much over. This is not speculation. And as I pointed out in the postgame about the Redskins, you are wrong about the pass interference calls you are referencing.

Don't like it that much. While having Cutler on the team is nice, it's doubtful he'll play on your team. If you have Brady, you start Brady. I am guessing you sacrificed a mid-rounder for Cutler when you probably should have grabbed a RB somewhere in the range of Cedric Benson, Law Firm, or Shonn Greene.

I haven't seen the entire game yet - only the first three offensive drives - but if you think Williams did worse than Webb, who played pretty damn bad thus far (only one great job in 12 plays, touched virtually nobody on three of those plays, and required help three times, one of which definitely saved Webb from a blown assignment), then I can't wait to see how poorly Williams does. He must literally slap a DE on the ass on the way to the QB.

You're pretty much right on all accounts, but the thing that always bothers me about Webb is the fact that he has more gaffes. While Williams probably won't dominate his opponent often, he will seal the edge more often. Webb, on the other hand, may dominate one play, perform average the next, and then shit the bed on 3rd down. The Bears need more consistency than that. I don't know how the two-man package rotation will work out in the NYG game, but I doubt it make much difference if based on the Washington game. Remember that they played a 3-4, and most pressure went away from the LT and towards the LG. I hope that your observation goes the other way: I hope Williams and Rachal were kept together because they are thought of the starters right now, and the other two are thought of as guys who might lose their jobs. (I know, unlikely)

#4 made me think of this: F*#k Charles Martin.

I wonder if the same type of negotiation tactic applies to coaches?

There is virtually no argument to the following: Game 1: Williams > Webb Game 2: Williams > Webb If the same holds true against the Giants, who will probably present more pressure than any other team the entire season, and Williams doesn't end up as the starting LT, then the coaching staff has not only told a bunch of lies about an open competition and "whoever plays the best gets the starting job," but they are also directly responsible if the offense sputters because Cutler is running for his life. Again.

Regarding what the Skins do, what if they went into prevent the entire game and only rushed three? Then it doesn't matter? Then can anyone properly evaluate what the OL does when there are two double teams and a single one-on-one? C'mon. Give me a break. It matters what the opponent does. Even Tice admits it matters when there is a difference between a 3-4 defense (Washington) and a 4-3 defense (NYG). In fact, I'd say he almost dismisses the evaluation of a LT against a 3-4 defense when he says, "A 3-4 defense is a 3-4 defense. Eventually, at the end of the day, your tackles are blocking big linebackers. So now, you want to see them against some real large, athletic, strong defensive ends." While Tice appears to agree with my point of view on this, please point me to the expert articles where they break down film. I'd love to read those articles because I haven't found them. At best I've found an article by Pompei (not an X's and O's expert), where he neither breaks down plays, nor talks about specifics, and offers only, "Webb answered the bell. He played with solid technique and showed urgency." For the record, it's possible for someone to exhibit both and still play poorly because of mental miscues. Then there is Biggs, who wrote, to his credit, that Webb was beaten on the running play and Williams played well. Then there is Seligman who writes that "Webb seemed to hold up against Washington's Brian Orakpo until the Pro Bowl linebacker left with a shoulder injury late in the first quarter." "Seems," wow, there's some hardcore film breakdown from him. If they do break down things on a play by play basis, they'll find that most of the plays Webb was not isolated (which I contend matters). And on the plays he was isolated, he was average at best. I'd say subpar. It's more a design of the offense (as many noted following the Martz departure) that helped him avoid other problems. With shorter drops, plays away, and TE help it's a bandaid on the problem. Sometimes the bandaid stops the bleeding (3-4), but it doesn't necessarily heal the wound (4-3). (Side note: You have to take Tice and the coaching staff's words with a grain of salt when he also says that Spencer "bounced back" this game. That is ridiculous. Spencer was easily the worst person on the OL against the Redskins.)

I think you're probably right, but we have to wait at least one more draft to know for sure. If "Emery" makes the picks this year, and it smells like the same draft from previous years, then we'll know it's really Lovie pulling the strings.

It's fair to disagree on the one play. I feel like he was pressured enough that it caused Jay to alter movement/throwing motion. But I disagree that it doesn't matter what the opposition runs. If the opposition runs stunts the entire game and never directly attack an OLineman, then we don't know what the OLineman's initial post-snap ability is for quicker DEs. If the DL always attacks the gaps, and sends nobody outside the OT, there is a higher likelihood the OT will get OG help and a potential double team. It may not matter as much as the OLineman's performance on his limited isolation plays, but it matters.