DABEARSDABOMB

So is Grassu the worst center you've ever seen? I don't think I've ever seen someone as bad as him at the center position (a position you normally don't notice that much). I notice him getting mauled all the time? And in Long's case, why would he be a better LT than a RT? Is he getting beat lately because of strength (aren't RT's typically more maulers vs. your LT who is more athletic?). I think you put Long back to a spot where he is a plus.

The defense has played poorly but the oline has been brutal. Jay was crushed again this week and the good news is, he still is largely playing smart football, however, this was the 2nd street week Long had a brutal block that led to a quick sack and fumble. On top of the 5 sacks this week (and similar to past weeks) the penalties by our oline absolutely killed momentum and big plays. This is a totally different football game if we aren't consistently negating big plays with penalties (not to mention killing momentum). I'd argue the defense is bad (and it is...scheme could only cover up so much for the lack of talent) but man the oline is playing horrendous football (and this is with a scheme that is largely well designed to minimize the time a QB is dropping back and that focuses on rushing so a defense can't just guess pass). They need a significant infusion of talent. At this point, we have to ask if Grassu is a bust or if they truly think he can get strong enough (and that is what he needs). He is getting absolutely mauled. Long is stinking it up. Its bad. LB corps and secondary need playmakers too. Pace, Fox, Gase and Fangio have their work cut out for them.

I was more perplexed by our use of timeouts at the end of the first half. We could have used timeouts to ensure we had about 45 seconds to a minute to try and get more points (and get further into the game). Instead we kept our timeouts and had almost no time and than tried to go for it. Made no sense. Fox does a lot of things right, but he, like many coaches, has his faults too. With our playcalling and game strategy, we stand no chance to win games where we give up that many points (that just doesn't fit to our conservative style).

Lovie had some solid lines (back when we signed Miller and had Ruben Brown, Kreutz, and Jonathan Tait). They got crappy later on but early in Lovie's tenure Angelo had been pretty succesful dumpster diving on some free agents (in addition to the big Tait signing).

I read somewhere that technically, they could still get the #1 pick, although that scenario seems highly improbable. I wouldn't be a fan either, because if we lost the next 3 games, it means something very bad happened. I.e., total lockeroom issues / team quit and those type of issues set you back much farther than the difference in talent between the #1 pick and the #10 pick or wherever we end up. This year was about fixing the culture in Chicago and giving everyone confidence for the future (as well as ideally finding some new pieces to build / plan around). Thus far, we have done that, you lose 5 in a row to finish your season and that can be well detrimental and basically puts you back at square one, if not worse (unless of course Jay gets hurt and its purely because Fales can't move the football).

I think safety is about as bad of a waste of a pick as early as the Bears are projected to go as anything else. I do agree with the other areas of need. Ultimately though, outside of say wideout/rb, I think you go BPA. We absolutely could use additional talent on the oline. I'd say one of guard / tackle is a major area of need (hoping that our center can continue to develop and thus fill the current need at center). I leave it to the Bears to decide whether Long, with a full off-season and more coaching, can become above average to elite at tackle. If he can't, than I think we need to put him back where he is elite and a game changer. No matter who the QB is, it is important to have a quality line. Makes every aspect of the offense better.

Yep...I think the whooping Grasu is getting will be further validation to listen to the coaches and put in the work this off-season. Still, I hope he is able to show enough that the coaches see a guy who can be a starter with added strength.

I want more picks. I want so many guys early on in the draft...so many needs to fill and the right coaching staff to develop them. Desmond King is a guy I like a ton, just a total playmaker who plays a very instinctual CB position for Iowa. Turnover machine. We need playmakers on the Defensive side of the ball.

I tend to agree...lets put him back to where he can be the best at his respective position and find a new tackle. Additionally, it definitely appears all the coaches were right on Grasu needing to get stronger. Hopefully he can do it and become effective cause right now he is brutal. Looks like a guy who doesn't belong on the NFL field.

Unless Manziel plays well, fairly certain Browns are looking QB. Similarly, unless Gabbert is a stud, Niners are looking for a QB. No way around that. Kap has played his last game (Barring an injury to Blane) and I would be surprised if Gabbert is the direction they go. That said, their isn't a QB really worth picking top 10 anyway.

What kills us more is the fact that we don't create turnovers, like at all. That and we consistently have penalties. A lot of the penalties are on our oline and they are because of the lack of talent up front. I think oline is moving up my list of needs (along with impact defensive players).

Would be odd for Tribune to make that type of statement without being pretty damn confident.

Tucker, is in my opinion, the best kicker in the league. That said, he's also less accurate than Gould (IIRC) this year.

In the game thread a bunch of people wanted to cut him.

I really think the only game you can put on him is this game. That said, he's been on the right side before, including nailing some pretty long clutch field goals (that includes this year). While Gould's misses were bad, I am not going to ignore our inability to execute in the red zone anymore. It is something that has to get cleaned up. I gave passes when our playmakers were out and gave passes when we went up against strong D's, but this past week it was our playcalling and execution that really got us down their. That said, while I want to blame us, i also realize their is a very valid excuse regarding poor timing. Bottom line though, guys got to make plays and we didn't execute all over the place, especially offensively (and on ST) yesterday. Cutler with some big plays missed (and by the way, I don't expect him to hit every throw when a guy is beat...it isn't that easy to throw a 50 yard pass on the time...but some of you seem to think he should hit every one...I completely disagree but he should have had roughly 2 of the 4 big plays, imo). Bears receivers had some costly drops. I can specifically remember Alshon with two costly ones and Langford had one as well. All were the variety that moved chains and/or put us in a position to score more points. Our poor execution on the screen pass that led to the pick 6. Jeffrey, on one of the deep balls, didn't hit his stride (which very well could have been why it wasn't a TD).

Understand the cost component but I also argue the differential impact is not that significant. Plus I thought Gould was actually paid 2.9M (vs. the 4M being thrown around...I presume that is the cap figure). I don't want to be the Steelers or go back to times where we didn't have a kicker we could rely on.

And Jeffrey was looking sluggish and had his case of the dropsies as well. I think it is foolish / ignorant to ignore the fact that a lot of guys have missed time and it means your timing won't be perfect. Look at Rodgers struggling in GB or even Brady since he lost Gronk (+ Dion Lewis).

Just a reminder that he leads the league in field goals (yes that is more a sign of our offense not scoring TD's) but he also leads the league in 50+ yard field goals and despite his two different 2 miss games, is still middle of the road in overall accuracy. It was a crappy game, but its amazing how so many want to just kick him to the curb after years of being one of the more accurate kickers in the league (while kicking in a relatively hostile weather environment).

Insert any QB on that play and it is a pick. It is what it is. Receiver missed getting the chip and the opposition had enough film to jump the route. You want to blame someone, blame our wideouts or blame or coaching staff, but overall the screen has worked well for us this year, so you have to live with the occasional jumped route on it. Problem I have is we didn't ever want to put our foot on the Niners throat in this game, knowing we were the better team. We have to start getting touchdowns in the redzone. That said, Jeffrey was running slow most of the day and has had limited practice all season and the other cast of characters have all been all over the place (between injuries or having PSers). I'm really not surprised timing is poor, but this definitely was Jays worse game. That said, they did enough to win and Gould dropped the ball, but I blame this loss on a lot of people, mainly the offense. Defense clearly failed down the stretch and in the big moments as well.

I thought this is one of those games where we should have realized we were the better team and been on the accelerator. I like the conservative strategy against better teams / similar teams, but we could have put our throats on the Niners early but failed to execute. We had costly drops (way too many first down drops). Jay had some pourous throws which could have been big plays. Protection was bad. Outside of the rushing attack, it was a pretty pathetic offensive performance all the way around. Could be one of those games where we see how not getting to practice with guys and having a wideout carousel prevents people from having good offensive timing / flow. Not a pretty game from the execution to the performance to the calls, imo. Everyone had an off week on the offense.

I know I had read some reports saying he's still working on his stride, etc. Might just be continuously working on keeping it loose, etc. It also mentioned he still has some normal pain so could also be related to that.

So...Jay is now 11 games into the most consistent football he's played in his career, including a very difficult 3 game stretch against two top notch defenses (Rams and Broncos) as well as a road game against a defense that has historically eaten him up (Packers). We went 2-1 in that stretch and while he didn't light the board up in two of the games, you could see he didn't have the regression we've seen from him in the past. So basically put, he passed the test and continued to make progress. I had the stretch ear-marked to see how Jay would do. Now, my expectations have been slightly elevated as we head down the stretch of the season against some poorer overall competition. I'm hoping to see Jay continue to make progress at limiting turnovers / being smart, but I also hope to see our overall offensive efficiency in the red zone improve (and from a 3rd down perspective, get back to where we were earlier in the year). Jay...I know you are capable of this, now lead us down the stretch with some strong play!!!

Eagles have signed Barrett Jones off of our practice squad.

By the way...I don't know what to think about a draft proposal from jason that doesn't have an olineman in it. Guess that is a good sign about where our oline is headed. That said, I'd still be okay going oline somewhere in the first two rounds. I want a beast of an oline.

I have been in agreement with you all along.