NFL 2011

[Dan Michler]

I was up in Wisc over the weekend and with the Brewers and Packers that question came up.  How about you Dan? Cubs or Bears? I am guessing Cubs for you.

Is that a real question?  I'd cut off a finger in exchange for a Cubs WS title.  A Bears Super Bowl would be nice, but I just don't care about football even 1% as much as baseball.  Another Bulls title would also rank well ahead of the Bears.

Brewers off to a good start.  Hopefully they can finish off AZ quick and rest up while the Cards/Phils battle it out.

[pdga#7648]

It took 1 game for Doug to change his opinion on the Steelers offense.  Last week he said "thats Big Ben's style of play.  He holds on to the ball and makes plays.  He can play through the hits."  What happened?  Didn't you predict the Steelers would lose this game but still go 11-5?

If Ben can't play with his foot in a walking boot, they wont win too many more games. It is his style to make plays holding onto the ball, but when he has defenders in his face before he finishes his drop back, he has no time to get away. The left gaurd we have is horrible!  they sit 2-2 now, lose to Pats and Balt makes 4 losses. The schedule after those teams look easy, but if Ben is not playing or that O-Line doesn't get fixed, I guess it's another plate of crow for me this year??

[Jon Brakel]

The only way I see the Bears winning next Sunday is if the Lions team comes down with the flu. Or the Bears suddenly learn how to block and catch and run and stuff!

[tacimala]

Even with the Lions comeback on Sunday, they are still playing pretty sloppy. I've got $20 on them and a lot of trash talking, but if the Lions go down by more than 10 to the Bears, I don't see them coming back like they did against Dallas and Minnesota. If the Lions start out with the lead after the first few possessions each, they will retain it I think. It's safe to say that Green Bay will be able to get through Atlanta to be 5-0 next week considering they barely beat the phenoms that are the Seattle Seahawks yesterday.

[CEValkyrie]

I heard an inteview about WR Dane Sanzenbacher while eating lunch Sunday. One of the 5 undrafted rookies to make the Bears roster.  He basially said the Bears were the best team to join to have a shot of making their roster. What a pathetic bunch of WR's.

[pdga#7648]

The start the Lions and Packers are off to, going to be a meaningful Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit for once!

The night game looks interesting as well. S.F. vs Balt. Brother vs Brother as head coaches!

[stpitner]

If Detroit can stay healthy with their key players, they are looking really nice this year.  I think they are going to go 12-4 (losing to either the 49rs or the Panthers, @ Saints, against Chargers, and @ Green Bay)  That means I think the Lions are going to beat Green Bay in Detroit (blargh).  Calvin Johnson is just pretty stinking awesome, and it's going to be one stinking awesome shoot out on Thanksgiving day.

I think the Bears are in trouble.  They needed the Lions to suck so that they could get 2 wins there - and I don't think they are going to get either of them.  Bears snuck away with a win against Carolina - the blocked field goal and missed field goal in addition to Hester's return saved them.  I wonder how many Bears fans were ticked about Carolina nabbing that last touchdown to cover the spread heh.  My guess is that the Bears have at least 5 more losses on their schedule (@ Lions, @ Bucs in London, Lions, Chargers, @ Green Bay), and that means no better than 9-7.  The Eagles might wake up by the time the Bears get there to play as well, so things are not going to be easy at all if the Offense can't figure out what in the world is going on.  Right now the Bears are ranked 13th in points, 26th in yards, 25th in passing yards, and 19th in rushing yards.  That's going to be tough to overcome!  By comparison, Packers are 1st, 5th, 5th, and 14th in the same 4 categories.  The Lions are 2nd, 11th, 7th, and 29th.

[tacimala]

I doubt Bears fans were as bummed about the last second TD to cover the spread as non-Bears fans that picked the Bears to win and cover. At least Bears fans could be happy about the win!

[pdga#7648]

It took 1 game for Doug to change his opinion on the Steelers offense.  Last week he said "thats Big Ben's style of play.  He holds on to the ball and makes plays.  He can play through the hits."  What happened?  Didn't you predict the Steelers would lose this game but still go 11-5?

If Ben can't play with his foot in a walking boot, they wont win too many more games. It is his style to make plays holding onto the ball, but when he has defenders in his face before he finishes his drop back, he has no time to get away. The left gaurd we have is horrible!  they sit 2-2 now, lose to Pats and Balt makes 4 losses. The schedule after those teams look easy, but if Ben is not playing or that O-Line doesn't get fixed, I guess it's another plate of crow for me this year??

Just a sprained let foot. Nothing to worry about.

Playing with a foot injury wouldn't be new for Roethlisberger. He played part of last season with a broken right foot.

"You know me -- if I can be out there, I'm going to be out there. That's so for next week, too," he said Sunday. "If I can do it and if I have to cast it up -- we saw I had to do that last year. I casted up my foot for the last half of the year. If we have to do it, I'll do it."

[Dan Michler]

R.I.P. 2011 Bears.  Season done, box it up.  Cutler played about as well as you can hope for last night.  I thought Forte performed well too.  I think if you switched Cutler and Stafford, the Lions would have put the Bears away early last night.

Same old story with the offensive line, TE's, and WR's.  Not even worth discussing anymore.

I think our defense can be considered below average now.  Jahvid Best hasn't been able to run against anybody his entire career.  His best game ever was 78 yards rushing.  Last night he repeatedly gashed the Bears running through gaping holes for 163 yards.  We used defend our huge number of yards allowed by saying "we bend but don't break".  Definitely can't say that anymore.  The Bears actually held the ball for twice as long as the Lions last night (40 min to 20 min), yet we were still outgained.

Fire Angelo.  Fire Lovie.  Fire Martz (Why does he repeatedly call the same run play where Omiyale gets beaten by Suh?  If it doesn't work, try something else you idiot!).  Cut all of the WR's.  Lets start over.  We need at least 4 years of rebuilding to get this thing right, so we should start now.

[CEValkyrie]

I puked in my mouth watching that pathetic performance on offense. That was a very winnable game last night. The lack of an offensive line and vertical threat is killing this team. Teams can stack the box and tee off on Cutler. We have no recievers that can get open. It's a freaking joke!

I will not blame the coach or offensiver coordinator anymore. This has been a problem with the Bears forever. I called for the firing of Wannstedt, Jauron, Smith, and ever offensive coordinator.. It's the same story every year. The lack of drafting a decent WR is killing me. When is the last decent WR the Bears have had? To compound things this is probably the worst offensive line in Bears history. I actually have more respect for Lovie Smith now than I ever have. I've hated that bastard since he got to Chicago. He's won the NFC North with some of the worst offenses you could ever have.

Why Forte has not gotten a new contract is mind boggling to me. He is going to be worth a lot of money at the end of this season is he continues this pace. Another 151yds of offense last night. 50+% of the teams yardage on the year. If I were him i'd get out of this black hole of an offense and get out of town.

[Chainmeister]

Brett is right. I don't understand how Angelo cam keep his job. The personnel issues are pretty much the same as before. No problems were solved and the linebackers are a year older. The team has a very good running back, quarterback, kicker and reteurner. They have aging but still decent linebackers, D
end and corner . Not much else.

[airspuds]

arg    !!!

anyone think the lock out has anything to do with the cr@@ppy play we have been witnessing

how about #  6    St Rita Iowa State product  ?

nice game for a rookie punter 

might be time to get younger and faster

[pdga#7648]

arg    !!!

anyone think the lock out has anything to do with the cr@@ppy play we have been witnessing

fans can only wish they could blame that!  if that is the case, why are the Lowly Lions 5-0? weren't they part of that lockout?
I agree with Dan & Brett, let them all go, and start over! starting with the coaching staff!

[tjdub26936]

how about #  6    St Rita Iowa State product  ?

Arg!!!!  Your haiku might be borderline bearable if you at least got your facts right.

[Dan Michler]

arg    !!!

anyone think the lock out has anything to do with the cr@@ppy play we have been witnessing

No Spuds.  They were crappy last year only we didn't realize it.  I think we all knew deep down last year was a fluke, but as a fan you never want to admit that to yourself.  How does a 30th ranked offense have a home game for the NFC title?
1.  They lost the opener to the Lions.  The call to reverse Calvin's TD was an unbelievable break for the Bears.
2.  They should have lost the game in Detroit also.  A bad personal foul call against Suh gave the Bears the go-ahead TD.
3.  It took a last second pass interference call and a team record # of penalties for the Packers to give the Bears the game in Soldier Field by 3 points.

I like to say the breaks usually even out over the long haul.  Last year the breaks clearly went the Bears way.  That was probably an 8-8 or 9-7 team that found themselves with an 11-5 record and 1 playoff win against a 7-9 team.

Brett, I think the consensus Bears fan agrees Angelo is enemy #1.  However, don't tell me Lovie is doing a good job.  Thats a joke.  I agree there isn't much he can do with this team, but a bad job is a bad job.  Did you see that 4th and 1 last night?  WTF would you go for it?  Even if you make it, the odds of you eventually scoring a TD on that drive are very low when you are still 30 yards out.  It was only thanks to a bunch of Lions penalties that we even got into FG range.  

Then Martz is so shocked that Lovie actually decides to go for it, that he can't get the play called in time and the Bears burn a timeout.  Time management has been a joke ever since Lovie came to town, year after year after year of the same problems at the end of halves and at the end of games.  He gives away points.

Then how about the Lovie decision to challenge the spot after Forte so clearly got stuffed behind the line?  There was obviously nothing there, but he just throws the red flag in desperation.  Lovie has ranked near the bottom every year of his tenure when it comes to success rate on replay challenges.  He's just an idiot when it comes to game management and I can't take it anymore.

You need to hate this whole team.  They are all terrible.  And I actually can see why the Bears wouldn't want to give Forte a new deal.  They can put the franchise tag on him and keep him for 1 more year.  After 4 full seasons its possible Forte won't have much left.  Running backs come in and out of this league faster than any other position.  Look at Chris Johnson and Deangelo Williams this year.  They both got a big pay day and now look like they're on fumes.  Don't pay guys at the RB position.  That has been a philosophy that has seemed to work for several other teams.  We need to focus our resources on every other position.  Its not fair to Matt Forte, but thats the system the NFLPA agreed to.

[jasonc]

It was very difficult to watch that game last night.  It has become painfully obvious that the Bears DO NOT have the players to run Martz's offense.  He had a Pro Bowler/possible HOF player in Orlando Pace to anchor the line and protect Warner in St. Louis.  The Bears have somehow decided that starting J'Marcus Webb at left tackle would be a great idea.  FAIL!!!!

It's not much better on the other side.  How many more seasons are they going to try and run the Cover 2 without a disruptive DT?  Since Tommie Harris disappeared b/c of the long list of injuries, the Bears have not done much to replace him.  Sure they got Peppers, but the Cover 2 needs a Pro Bowl level DT to be successful.   

[Bruce Brakel]

I think between the Lions and the Bears, my loyalties are starting to run to the team that is having the good season.  It was nice and different to see Ford Field sold out with more Lions' jerseys in the stands than Bears'.  I think there were more Bears a couple of years ago when Jon and I went to the game. 

[CEValkyrie]

I watched the entire game the other night. I don't have a problem with him going for it on 4th down. If you can't get 1 yard on 2 downs you aren't going to win many games this year anyway. I refuse to blame Lovie even with some of the decisions he makes. Tons of coaches make bad decisions during games. This guy has found a way to win the NFC North 3 times and make it to the super bowl with some awful offensive talent.

The constant has been offensive talent. The Bears are at the bottom of the list every year. Going into the offseason there were many areas that needed to be addressed. None of them were. They've scored 107 points which ranks last in the division. They've gone 5 years without addressing the offiensive line in the draft. Now the defense is getting old and isn't getting it done.

Dane Sanzenbacher leads the WR core with 16 receptions.

5 undrafted FREE AGENTS made this football team!!! It's all about the GM.

[Dan Michler]

I watched the entire game the other night. I don't have a problem with him going for it on 4th down. If you can't get 1 yard on 2 downs you aren't going to win many games this year anyway.

Teams like the Lions will stuff alot of good teams in that situation.  Coaches that are dumb enough to go for it in that situation aren't going to win many games.  4th and 1 inside the 5 yd line I can see, because a TD is likely if you make it.  4th and a full yard at the 30 yd line is for fools.  In the 1st quarter you take the 3 points every single time in that situation.  Lovie is an idiot.

They've gone 5 years without addressing the offiensive line in the draft.

Actually they have tried to address the offensive line repeatedly in the NFL draft.  They are just terrible at assessing offensive talent.
2007  4th and 7th rd picks were O.line
2008  1st round pick was an OT  Chris Williams
2009  traded away 1st/3rd rd picks for Cutler   picked Lance Louis OT in 7th rd
2010  again had no 1st/2nd rd picks.  drafted Webb OT in the 7th rd
2011  1st rd pick Gabe Carimi OT

So, in the last 5 drafts we've only had 3 1st round picks, and 2 of them were OT's.  We took a total of 6 offensive linemen in those 5 drafts, 4 of whom were supposed to be starters for us this year (Williams, Louis, Webb, Carimi).  We should probably stop trying to address the line through the draft and just sign or trade for proven veterans, because we totally suck at drafting.

If you go back a little further we also spent a 1st rounder on Marc Colombo.