adam

Game over, if he stays in we lose. Hopefully he will say his ankle hurts when he was touched on the pick-6 and they will put McCown in.

Put McCown in, I've seen enough of this garbage. 2 INTs in 13 attempts, 47.1 QB Rating, another bonehead decision by Trestman.

Nice 3 and out after a turnover. How was that drive? 2 horrible pass attempts to Marshall. He is also holding the ball way too long.

We still need to complete drives, 2x decent drives and 3 pts is not going to win anything. We need some TDs, now let's take advantage of the turnover.

Surprising to see the same Cutler MO: force to Marshall - check, throw off back foot - check, throw Red Zone INT killing scoring drive - check. So now that we got all those out of the way, now we need some lasers and pin point bombs.

Yep, the rest of the half will be telling, though Haden is on Jeffery right now. He needs to lead this team right down the field and score a TD on this next drive.

He was? He threw off his back foot to Bennett, and threw behind Marshall, though Marshall still caught it before the INT.

Are you serious, that was 110% on him, he forced that into Marshall (go figure) for no reason.

WTF Jay? Why force it on 1st down? You're an idiot.

Win or go home! I am hoping for a solid game from all phases and a good win, Bears 27-17.

I updated the original post again after last nights game. We are locked in at #17 based on SoS. All the teams above us other than GB have a stronger schedule than us, so we would have the best pick amongst those teams we tie with. PIT at #10 seems to be the highest we could end up (realistically) if we lost our last 3.

This is exactly how I feel. Cutler is a better athlete, but who knows if he is actually better in this system. Cutler should perform at or above the level of McCown regardless of the situation. I just feel that numbers are numbers, you can't try to take them out of context or manipulate them to suit your position. McCown, based on his stats alone is clearly outperforming Cutler in this offense. So for the Cleveland game, Cutler should perform somewhere between Rodgers and Stafford, that seems to be a fair assessment. So somewhere between: 25/36, 260 Yds, 3 TD, 0 INT and 25/43, 248 Yds, 4 TD, 1 INT = 25-40, 254 Yds, 3 TD, 1 INT To me that would be a decent game and something comparable with his skill level. The attempts are a little high, but the yardage and TD/INT should be close to those numbers.

He would be a great addition, and Seattle is eventually going to be strapped for cash.

1. I thought Week 9 after the Bye we would see the offense start peaking. However, it is nice to see progression. 2. Dallas held Philly to 3 pts and STL to 7 pts, so they are bad, but can put together good games. They did come into the game at 7-5. 3. You can't play the what-if game or count the almost INTs. Either they are INTs or they are not. For every INT Cutler throws, he has 1-2 more that should've been. Penalties negate great offensive plays as much as they negate INTs, so in the end, you can only count what is official. The other non-plays even out over time.

He actually leads the league now: http://espn.go.com/nfl/qbr

That is not necessarily true. Some teams realistically know they are not competing for a championship every year and have other goals to achieve. I would say making the playoffs after a regime change would be a success.

I would not actually make a decision until Friday after Jay showed no signs of injury.

Based on their QBR's, McCown is better than Brady this year, along with a bunch of other QBs. Brady is not the same without Gronk.

Every team's goal is to win the SB. It is not like we have an option to make the playoffs or not. This season is going to come down to Week 17 against GB. DET is going to lose against BAL, and we are going to win against CLE and PHI to setup a win and you're in scenario. At that point, we are not going to better our draft position that much, especially with us already having 7 wins. The worst we will do is 8-8 and best is 10-6 with a playoff berth.

Updated the first post, we are between 17-19th with a 7-6 record. 14th to 20th seems to be our range if we do not make the playoffs, and 32nd if we do.

I understand, that is why I used the term pedigree, because he is not in the same class as the others. He is a journeyman who needed the stars to align (right system, right coach, right skill players, right timing) to get to this point. While the others had more direct paths to this point. However, that doesn't mean he cannot play at a similar level to what Cutler has (or better) over the next 3-4 years. How many good years does Cutler have left in him with all the wear and tear on his body? I just don't think some realize how good McCown has been this season. He has the highest QBR for a QB this season, higher than Manning, which is shocking considering how good Manning has been. He is currently on pace to have the 4th best QBR ever. The top 10 is Manning(5), Brady(1), Rodgers(1), Brees (2), and McCown. If you consider a single season an anomaly, then Cutler's 2008 is his anomaly as he never had another 4,000 yard season, or QBR as high as his 72.1 that year. Actually, his next highest was this year at 63.2 and that is still 22.5 lower than McCown with almost the same amount of attempts. It is also interesting to note that Cutler has only had one season before this year on the Bears where he was above league average for QBR (2011). Another interesting fact is that Cutler has thrown more INTs than games played in a Bears uniform (71 in 64 games). That does not take into account the games he left, so technically the ratio is higher. I realized he had a bad first year, but I did not know he was still averaging over a pick a game. Is Cutler really all that different than Romo? Hell, you could make the case that Romo is better with 4x 4,000 yard seasons, and only one season with a QBR below 50 (49 in 2008). He has a 27-7 TD/INT ratio this year and will more than likely top 4,000 yards again. To me it seems that Emery and Trestman are ready to go in a different direction. I feel like McCown is a better fit for what Trestman wants to do, thus making McCown look better than Cutler even though Cutler is more skilled. Just like in Canada with the older QB (Cavillo) and Gannon winning the MVP in his late 30s, all 3 fit a similar mold more than Cutler does. Also, Cutler is getting beat up with these random injuries on what seem like normal hits. After that scrambling throw to Jeffery last night, I don't know what type of throw McCown cannot make that Cutler can unless it is a 60 yard bomb.

I just feel like the Bears know what they have in Cutler and what they have without him, and should be able to put a price on that. I just don't see that price being anywhere near what Cutler will earn on the open market.

In a weird way, I almost feel like Jay is already gone. Everyone is just saying all the right things so the separation is amicable and there are no hard feelings. Jay is on the sideline cleaning up his image supporting the team and Josh and looking like a team player. The first time he did that when he was out, didn't anyone else find that out of character for him? If he returns and plays poorly (which is highly likely due to time off and lack of timing with Receivers), there will be too much data that suggests McCown is a better fit for Trestman and the new offense. Additionally, how could the team invest that much money into a player who's play is not commensurate with his pay? That is just not good business sense. Emery and Trestman crunch too many numbers and a 13 to 1 TD/INT ratio is much better than 13 to 8. If he doesn't return, injuries will become an even bigger focus/concern and will impact his negotiating leverage. I can't see the Bears signing him without seeing him perform at McCown's level in this offense. Even if he returns and plays well, if we lose a game and don't make the playoffs, he will get blamed. He is supposed to be the big time QB that can win games with his arm (which McCown supposedly cannot). At this point, the only scenario I can see where he is given an extended contract or Franchise Tag is if he comes back, we win out, make the playoffs, and win at least one playoff game. That seems like a lot, but based on McCown's performance to date (highest QBR this year, 4th all-time), I believe he has to play comparable to even be considered for a new contract. Everyone is worried about McCown's age. He was born the same year as Brees and Palmer, is younger than Brady and Manning, and is less than a year older than Romo. It is hard to believe that anyone would turn down any of those QB's at their current age other than Palmer (due to injuries). Now obviously he does not have the pedigree as the others do but with the likes of Gannon and Warner and others that excelled in their mid to late 30's, why not McCown?

Hell there has been a bunch. How about that Washington game when our defense couldn't stop the hobbled RG2.5, or when we run into the teeth of the Detroit's defense to lose by 2. Those 2 games and the Minnesota game were maddening. We could have 9 or 10 wins right now.

Lol, I played him in the Keeper league and he single-handedly won the game for me this week. He definitely made it interesting and if he broke 400 yards, it would've been much closer in our game. I have been on board the McCown bandwagon since he came into the Washington game, playing with little to no reps and gave us the lead late. If we had even a league average defense right now we would have 9 wins. He has now won in GB, in brutal conditions against BAL, and in freezing and windy conditions tonight (on MNF again). A pretty nice run for a career backup.