Looks like the Sun Times got a new Hammer

[GrizzlyBear]

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/be...carol09.article

[Guest TerraTor]

eh, what does any woman know? haha

 

funny how every team we beat has a million excuses and we never are given any...

[madlithuanian]

She's been pretty poor for her career.

 

Sleeze-sack is just not very good...

 

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/be...carol09.article

[DaBearSox]

The Bears better hide those blowup dolls in the clubhouse...

[bradjock]

It's easy to blast her, but seriously, aren't you guys all wondering the same thing she is??? Since the Super Bowl, we've had bad defense, bad o-line, bad running-backs, bad quarterbacks, and bad receivers . . .

 

DO YOU GENUINELY BELIEVE THIS IS ALL FIXED???

 

Christ I hope it is, but I'm skeptical. Personally I've been thinking all day that I wish it was Sunday cause I can't wait to find out if this was a fluke or not. If we can do that week in and week out, we'll quickly be up there with Dallas as the team most likely to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.

 

Honestly, I was shocked as hell Sunday night watching Briggs, Urlacher, Payne & our defensive ends constantly shifting and switching on the line. Weren't you guys surprised with that? Did anyone think we'd make Manning look confused as hell? More importantly, now that we've shown our hand, can other teams adjust to that and expose us?

 

"Sleeze-Ak" asks tons of questions like this in her article.

 

I'm flat out giddy we kicked the crap out of Indy on Sunday. But it's WAY to early for high expectations.

 

I'll feel much better after we get done thumping Carolina.

[jason]

It's easy to blast her, but seriously, aren't you guys all wondering the same thing she is??? Since the Super Bowl, we've had bad defense, bad o-line, bad running-backs, bad quarterbacks, and bad receivers . . .

 

DO YOU GENUINELY BELIEVE THIS IS ALL FIXED???

 

Christ I hope it is, but I'm skeptical. Personally I've been thinking all day that I wish it was Sunday cause I can't wait to find out if this was a fluke or not. If we can do that week in and week out, we'll quickly be up there with Dallas as the team most likely to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.

 

Honestly, I was shocked as hell Sunday night watching Briggs, Urlacher, Payne & our defensive ends constantly shifting and switching on the line. Weren't you guys surprised with that? Did anyone think we'd make Manning look confused as hell? More importantly, now that we've shown our hand, can other teams adjust to that and expose us?

 

"Sleeze-Ak" asks tons of questions like this in her article.

 

I'm flat out giddy we kicked the crap out of Indy on Sunday. But it's WAY to early for high expectations.

 

I'll feel much better after we get done thumping Carolina.

 

Do I think, worry, or believe as she does? Hell no. The defense and special teams are solid, and when healthy they are both in the top five of the NFL, if not the best in the NFL. Put that with an average to good offense, especially if that offense is primarily based on a strong running game, then that is a recipe for success.

 

I honestly think that the bad defense was almost a direct result of injuries. And the bad QB, RB, WR problem was almost a directly result of bad OL play. If the OL play improves, or does as well as it did versus Indy, then the Bears will be fine, and the skill players (QB/RB/WR) will look better as a result.

[selection7]

It's easy to blast her, but seriously, aren't you guys all wondering the same thing she is??? Since the Super Bowl, we've had bad defense, bad o-line, bad running-backs, bad quarterbacks, and bad receivers . . .

DO YOU GENUINELY BELIEVE THIS IS ALL FIXED???

"Since the Super Bowl" is only one year. Maybe that year was the "fluke". Nevertheless, our offense has had a lot of turnover. It's not suprising that things are different.

I'm flat out giddy we kicked the crap out of Indy on Sunday. But it's WAY to early for high expectations.

Seems like Sleakak is getting ahead of herself. Minus the post-game lockerroom outbursts, has anyone out there been suggesting the Bears problems are behind them...only blue skies ahead? Just last week I was having to endure "hypothetical" forum posts about who would replace our coaching staff and GM at the end of the season. Only someone who's uncomfortable with how wrong she was to think the Bears had no shot at Indy would need to write an article saying "but come one, what does one ass-kicking win prove?". It's just not an article that needed to be written is my point.

 

The main issue that Sleazak doesnt' get is that preseason is jus that. Tackling is worse, reads are worse, etc. because players still need practice to get back into the swing of things. It's not a confusing concept. Actually, she probably knows this but couldn't come up with a better story idea, which is ok I guess since the story is far from being vitriol.

[bradjock]

"Since the Super Bowl" is only one year. Maybe that year was the "fluke". Nevertheless, our offense has had a lot of turnover. It's not suprising that things are different.

 

In 2005 we finished 2nd in the NFC, and won the NFC North. That could have been considered a fluke, but we backed it up by going to the Super Bowl the next year. That's a natural progression.

 

Seems like Sleakak is getting ahead of herself. Minus the post-game lockerroom outbursts, has anyone out there been suggesting the Bears problems are behind them...only blue skies ahead? Just last week I was having to endure "hypothetical" forum posts about who would replace our coaching staff and GM at the end of the season. Only someone who's uncomfortable with how wrong she was to think the Bears had no shot at Indy would need to write an article saying "but come one, what does one ass-kicking win prove?". It's just not an article that needed to be written is my point.

 

The main issue that Sleazak doesnt' get is that preseason is jus that. Tackling is worse, reads are worse, etc. because players still need practice to get back into the swing of things. It's not a confusing concept. Actually, she probably knows this but couldn't come up with a better story idea, which is ok I guess since the story is far from being vitriol.

 

Let me ask you this: Do you believe there's a possibility the Bears could look this good every week for the entire season??? Hell, I do . . . of course I could also see us going back to our old ways fairly quickly.

 

The entire league was shocked at our domination of Indy. So on a Tuesday after the game when the Bear's didn't practice on Monday, what better story is there? Are the Bears for real or was this a fluke? That's the question.

[selection7]

Are the Bears for real or was this a fluke? That's the question.

But it's not really the question. I think though that Carol's angle was that we shouldn't let our expectations get so high, which was an odd angle since our expectations aren't so high. Because of the nature of preseason, there was no good reason for some people's hopes to be so low as Carol's in the first place...to think it'd be a fluke that the Bears could even play the Colts competitively. That's why her recent article was unnecessary. She's still trying to justify her old M.O. without acknowldedging that she (and others) were just being silly before, which is the real story.

 

Alternatively, you could ask the more extreme question "are the Bears for real or are they a fluke" with respect to beating the tar out of the NFL's elite teams, but that would be equally silly.

 

As an aside, it's funny to me how much the media comments about Peyton being off his game, but he still looked better than what we're used to seeing at our QB position. I honestly thought he did fine, but I guess expectations for him are quite high.

[nfoligno]

But it's not really the question. I think though that Carol's angle was that we shouldn't let our expectations get so high, which was an odd angle since our expectations aren't so high. Because of the nature of preseason, there was no good reason for some people's hopes to be so low as Carol's in the first place...to think it'd be a fluke that the Bears could even play the Colts competitively. That's why her recent article was unnecessary. She's still trying to justify her old M.O. without acknowldedging that she (and others) were just being silly before, which is the real story.

 

Alternatively, you could ask the more extreme question "are the Bears for real or are they a fluke" with respect to beating the tar out of the NFL's elite teams, but that would be equally silly.

 

As an aside, it's funny to me how much the media comments about Peyton being off his game, but he still looked better than what we're used to seeing at our QB position. I honestly thought he did fine, but I guess expectations for him are quite high.

 

Manning missed the entire preseason, and IMHO, he did look off. Frankly, so did his receivers on a few plays. I might write it off by saying his recievers were afraid of our guys and getting hit, but does anyone really believe that about Wayne? Manning's stats may have still be good by our standards, but his play overall was not very good by his own standards. I am not taking away from what our team did, but IMHO, Manning was simply not making some throws he normally would, and that likely does have to do w/ being rusty.

 

Hey, thats life. Tomlinson skips the preseason, and is usually a slow starter, and we were lucky enough to get him in the first game last year. Sometimes, that is simply luck of the draw. We got to play Indy at a good time. Nothing wrong w/ that.

[BigDaddy]

It's easy to blast her, but seriously, aren't you guys all wondering the same thing she is??? Since the Super Bowl, we've had bad defense, bad o-line, bad running-backs, bad quarterbacks, and bad receivers . . .

 

DO YOU GENUINELY BELIEVE THIS IS ALL FIXED???

 

Christ I hope it is, but I'm skeptical. Personally I've been thinking all day that I wish it was Sunday cause I can't wait to find out if this was a fluke or not. If we can do that week in and week out, we'll quickly be up there with Dallas as the team most likely to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.

 

Honestly, I was shocked as hell Sunday night watching Briggs, Urlacher, Payne & our defensive ends constantly shifting and switching on the line. Weren't you guys surprised with that? Did anyone think we'd make Manning look confused as hell? More importantly, now that we've shown our hand, can other teams adjust to that and expose us?

 

"Sleeze-Ak" asks tons of questions like this in her article.

 

I'm flat out giddy we kicked the crap out of Indy on Sunday. But it's WAY to early for high expectations.

 

I'll feel much better after we get done thumping Carolina.

 

Yes, it appears that the defensive injuries that devastated this team last year have been resolved AND we have added some more depth. Bad running backs? Hell yes that's been fixed. Benson was a bum and a bust. Forte just ran for 123 yrds in his opener against a pretty good d line. Receivers bad?I didn't see anything spectacular out of Berrian Monday night. Moose is nothing but a drop waiting for a place to happen and his route running leaves alot to be desired. What I see in Hester or Lloyd are 2 guys that can take their place and perform better. Add in Davis and THEN look at our TE situation which is great and the new 2 TE sets we began to use and Hell yes our receiver situation is better. Maybe the o line wasn't as bad as it looked. If we remember correctly, Orton and Griese seemed to have no trouble stepping up into the pocket but the guy we had problems with was Rex. We saw that he still hasn't mastered the footwork this year. I think between he and Benson, they made the o line look atrocius. All im saying is, maybe they weren't that bad.

 

I think that based on past performance by this very same defense and no, I don't mean it's ranking #5 in 06, I'm talking about it's ranking #1 in the NFL for much of that season untill Tommie went out and that finally caught up with us. I do think we have the best d line in football and the best depth and that will be the differnce maker for many games. I think we will be able to tell more Sunday if our o line has really been fixed. Carolina has a great defense too and if we can put up points against them, it's gonna be very difficult to argue that this team hasn't been fixed.

[CrackerDog]

it's gonna be very difficult to argue that this team hasn't been fixed.

 

Amen brother. It's early, there's a long way to go, but your comments are spot on. I think we have the O Line as a continuing concern and injuries can always play a role, but if you have to go by what we saw in game one, I'd say this thing is "fixed" at least for now.