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SI names Urlacher most disappointing MLB of 2008


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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writ...ent-team/1.html

 

Inside linebacker

Brian Urlacher, Bears -- His reputation says he's one of the most dominating defensive players in the game. But reality says Urlacher just had a season in which he made almost no big plays for a Bears defense that has slid a long way from its 2006 hey day. Urlacher had no sacks, no forced fumbles and just two interceptions this season. That's almost hard to do when you start and play all 16 games in the middle of a defense.

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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writ...ent-team/1.html

 

Inside linebacker

Brian Urlacher, Bears -- His reputation says he's one of the most dominating defensive players in the game. But reality says Urlacher just had a season in which he made almost no big plays for a Bears defense that has slid a long way from its 2006 hey day. Urlacher had no sacks, no forced fumbles and just two interceptions this season. That's almost hard to do when you start and play all 16 games in the middle of a defense.

 

 

Totally agree with this.

 

There are those that will blame him being too close to the line and make other excuses, but that didn't hurt Briggs.....

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Totally agree with this.

 

There are those that will blame him being too close to the line and make other excuses, but that didn't hurt Briggs.....

 

Sorry, but that is apples and oranges. Briggs would often play close to the LOS too, but upon the snap, would still be in or near his area of responsibility, while you would see Urlacher running 20 yards deep into the secondary to get to his area. I am not dismissing Urlacher of all blame for his play, but at the same time, there are just too many former players and coaches who are pointing to how we used Urlacher as simply being poor.

 

Lovie once said Urlacher was best when running downhill, meaning attacking the LOS, yet we had him doing the exact opposite. Coaching may not be 100% to blame for Urlacher's play, but it is a huge aspect of it. I would also point out that his play seemed to improve when Adams and Harrison took over for Dusty, as Urlacher didn't have OGs so easily locking onto him.

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Totally agree with this.

 

There are those that will blame him being too close to the line and make other excuses, but that didn't hurt Briggs.....

 

COMPLETELY different responsibilities in the stupid defensive alignments that Babich called.

 

A MLB is almost useless when they are used as a decoy yo-yo, bouncing from up to back, and back and forth. A MLB should be there to read and react...and Urlacher was never really set up to do this. Instead, he was sent to the line, then forced to back up 45 yards to get into the throwing lane for the skinny post. And when he was blitzing, it was such a predicted blitz that he was damn near standing on the line before the DL was. He may as well have been in a 3-point stance.

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Sorry, but that is apples and oranges. Briggs would often play close to the LOS too, but upon the snap, would still be in or near his area of responsibility, while you would see Urlacher running 20 yards deep into the secondary to get to his area. I am not dismissing Urlacher of all blame for his play, but at the same time, there are just too many former players and coaches who are pointing to how we used Urlacher as simply being poor.

 

Lovie once said Urlacher was best when running downhill, meaning attacking the LOS, yet we had him doing the exact opposite. Coaching may not be 100% to blame for Urlacher's play, but it is a huge aspect of it. I would also point out that his play seemed to improve when Adams and Harrison took over for Dusty, as Urlacher didn't have OGs so easily locking onto him.

 

The zones are different against the pass. That is true.

So what is the excuse against the run? Even when Url was yo yo-ing and ended up where he was supposed to be, his angles were crap, he was guessing, running himself out of plays, etc.

 

None of the LB's were able to get to their pass responsibilities when they were up to the LOS. Thats why teams were able to complete the slants all day. But Briggs' effort was better, he was making plays in the backfield, etc. Thats why he is in the probowl.

 

Again, its just excuses for his poor play.

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COMPLETELY different responsibilities in the stupid defensive alignments that Babich called.

 

A MLB is almost useless when they are used as a decoy yo-yo, bouncing from up to back, and back and forth. A MLB should be there to read and react...and Urlacher was never really set up to do this. Instead, he was sent to the line, then forced to back up 45 yards to get into the throwing lane for the skinny post. And when he was blitzing, it was such a predicted blitz that he was damn near standing on the line before the DL was. He may as well have been in a 3-point stance.

 

 

Again. The different zones are when they were in the cover two vs the pass. Doesn't excuse the poor and lazy play again the run.

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The zones are different against the pass. That is true.

So what is the excuse against the run? Even when Url was yo yo-ing and ended up where he was supposed to be, his angles were crap, he was guessing, running himself out of plays, etc.

 

None of the LB's were able to get to their pass responsibilities when they were up to the LOS. Thats why teams were able to complete the slants all day. But Briggs' effort was better, he was making plays in the backfield, etc. Thats why he is in the probowl.

 

Again, its just excuses for his poor play.

That was easy for Briggs to do playing on the outside in which you have defenders coming at you from one side. But urlacher plays in the middle and has blockers coming from both sides of the ball. Like someone said eariler its hard to shed blockers that you d line is supossed to be holding with a double team. Also him standing at the line only give the Oline blocking assignments and if teams can block one on one with the LT,LG,C,RG,RT,TE and RB thats 7 on 7. How many times did D.Mannig get to the QB when we actually called for him to blitz? This scheme we have sucks. Look at the Giants, Philly, Dallas, Ravens and other teams that can get to the QB by the schemes they run.Its not just Urlacher truxt me!

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That was easy for Briggs to do playing on the outside in which you have defenders coming at you from one side. But urlacher plays in the middle and has blockers coming from both sides of the ball. Like someone said eariler its hard to shed blockers that you d line is supossed to be holding with a double team. Also him standing at the line only give the Oline blocking assignments and if teams can block one on one with the LT,LG,C,RG,RT,TE and RB thats 7 on 7. How many times did D.Mannig get to the QB when we actually called for him to blitz? This scheme we have sucks. Look at the Giants, Philly, Dallas, Ravens and other teams that can get to the QB by the schemes they run.Its not just Urlacher truxt me!

 

 

Hey, I'm an Urlacher fan, but if you are supposed to be an all nfl linebacker, the bottom line is that he needs to play better.

 

Its all just excuses. When did teams double team him with blocker from both sides of the ball? It didn't happen.

 

And as far as the d line getting double teams, who held double teams the year before. Url did just fine then.

 

Of course, he didn't have that fat contract extension to sit and choke on.

 

And what are the excuses for the lack of leadership from Url this year? How can the Captain of the defesne not have his squad ready to play the last two games?

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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writ...ent-team/1.html

 

Inside linebacker

Brian Urlacher, Bears -- His reputation says he's one of the most dominating defensive players in the game. But reality says Urlacher just had a season in which he made almost no big plays for a Bears defense that has slid a long way from its 2006 hey day. Urlacher had no sacks, no forced fumbles and just two interceptions this season. That's almost hard to do when you start and play all 16 games in the middle of a defense.

That's the best thing that's happened so far this off-season! I remember how Url responded to the "most over-rated" article(defensive MVP) Now, I hope they rank Tommie "most overpaid". Then, they can give the "biggest pu$$y" award to Vasher, as well as the "over the hill" award to our OL. Last but not least they can give the "can't sack groceries" award to our DL!

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Hey, I'm an Urlacher fan, but if you are supposed to be an all nfl linebacker, the bottom line is that he needs to play better.

 

Its all just excuses. When did teams double team him with blocker from both sides of the ball? It didn't happen.

 

And as far as the d line getting double teams, who held double teams the year before. Url did just fine then.

 

Of course, he didn't have that fat contract extension to sit and choke on.

 

And what are the excuses for the lack of leadership from Url this year? How can the Captain of the defesne not have his squad ready to play the last two games?

When i said both sides of the ball, look at some of the games were the lg and rg both block him on the same play because the other guys are one on one blocking our front four plus the back three. Yes last year he didn't play as close to the line as they did this year...were you even watching the games? Yes the bottom line is you need to play better yes I agree with that, but you can't always make sugar out of sh**. If you are getting block because of the scheme and others not playing well you are going to be an all pro nothing. The same with hester on the returns, guys are standing around watching instead of blocking somebody that's why he goes nowhere.

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I can see some of the issues with the scheme affecting Urlacher but he wasn't always up at the LOS. His play dropped off and that's that. He can say the fans don't know football and I suppose now he'll say Sports Illustrated doesn't know sports.

 

As for Hester, he used that blocking excuse all year long and it worked great until DManning took over KR duties and led the entire league. I'll also add that he did it consistently game after game getting big returns. You can't do that without blocking. I'll also add that DManning runs upfield towards the endzone while Hester runs sideways toward the bench. Perhaps that has something to do with how many yards he gets on his returns.

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When i said both sides of the ball, look at some of the games were the lg and rg both block him on the same play because the other guys are one on one blocking our front four plus the back three. Yes last year he didn't play as close to the line as they did this year...were you even watching the games? Yes the bottom line is you need to play better yes I agree with that, but you can't always make sugar out of sh**. If you are getting block because of the scheme and others not playing well you are going to be an all pro nothing. The same with hester on the returns, guys are standing around watching instead of blocking somebody that's why he goes nowhere.

 

 

lol. I did watch the games friend. And I didnt see one time where both guards blocked Url. Maybe it happened once or twice but not to the level that it effected his entire season. If he was at the LOS he was blocked one on one, if he was back and was sitting there waiting to get blocked by both offensive guards then he wasn't reading the play and getting "downhill".

 

And the only similarity that Url and Hester had was they both got paid this off season. The reason hester went nowhere is cause he got paid and got lazy. Running out of bounds most of the time. Two years ago he wouldn't have done that.

 

And its funny that D Manning had no problems with the same blocking.

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So what is the excuse against the run? Even when Url was yo yo-ing and ended up where he was supposed to be, his angles were crap, he was guessing, running himself out of plays, etc.

 

I would make two points here, both of which have been previously mentioned. First, it is a lot harder IMHO for the MLB to play the run when you are standing over the DT. When you are 5 yards off the LOS, more the norm for LBs, and it is a running play, you are running downhill toward the runner. You have space to work and momentum. When you are standing over the DT, I think it vision is more difficult, blocker find it easier to get to you, and you have no momentum to fight off/past blocks. Second point I would make is regarding the play of our interior DL. It improved when Scott started, and so did Urlacher's play on run downs. I'll address this more later, as I know you talk about this as well.

 

I can't believe, as a coach, you would not agree w/ this. Sure seems like Warren Sapp, Hampton and MANY other former players and coaches I have listened to realize this. Lovie himself said a couple years ago that Urlacher is best when running downhill, toward the play. When you stand him over the DT, he is not running at all, much less downhill.

 

None of the LB's were able to get to their pass responsibilities when they were up to the LOS. Thats why teams were able to complete the slants all day. But Briggs' effort was better, he was making plays in the backfield, etc. Thats why he is in the probowl.

 

Sorry, but once again, this is apples and oranges. How many times did you see Briggs running 20 yards downfield to get into his responsibility? On passing downs, Briggs area of responsibility was FAR shorter than Urlacher's, and thus didn't take nearly as much to get to.

 

Hey, I'm an Urlacher fan, but if you are supposed to be an all nfl linebacker, the bottom line is that he needs to play better.

 

And hey, we have highly paid coaches who are expected to put players into the best position to make plays, and few believe they did that.

 

And as far as the d line getting double teams, who held double teams the year before. Url did just fine then.

 

This answer is an easy one. Last year, Dusty was injured the entire season, and we basically had the same DTs we did at the end of this season, when urlacher's play improved. While I thought I saw it, Warren Sapp was the first person I would consider a near expect to point out just how bad the play of Dusty was. He was not just getting single blocked. Per Sapp, who has a job now as an NFL analyst and reveiws film, pointed out how Dusty was literally getting thrown down/away and his man was then moving onto the next level. That doesn't even count the 5th OL (other OG or center) that was most always free to attack the LB or next level. While no one is saying Adams, Harrison or Idonije are great players, they were light years better than Dusty, and w/ their increased playing time (and starts) blockers were not nearly so free to attack Urlacher. Same last year.

 

Like w/ where we lined Urlacher up, you do not seem to want to admit something most every "expert" has pointed out. Dusty was beyond worthless, and it wasn't until he began to lose playing time, and then was injured, that Urlacher's play improved and our defense as a whole looked much better against the run.

 

And what are the excuses for the lack of leadership from Url this year? How can the Captain of the defesne not have his squad ready to play the last two games?

 

One, urlacher may be a team captain, but he has never been what I would call a leader. He has always been the leader by example type, but he was NEVER been an outspoken or vocal leader. Never. Frankly, the only player on our entire defense I would say is a true leader is Mike Brown, and I think cut back on the leadership role due to years of not even being on the field, and feeling like he didn't have the right to play the role. That is not just my opinion, but something he actually said. Urlacher was a great player, who might help the team on the field, but was NEVER a leader, at least not in the sense he "got the squad ready to play".

 

And if you are going to question having the players ready to play, would the coaches not be the first you look at?

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