12/11 - Bears vs. Steelers

[UMFan83]

Fitting for Bettis to randomly get a first down by pushing 5 Bears players with him

[UMFan83]

Doesn't look like there will be a Bears Postgame Live on Comcast with the Blackhawks still early in the 3rd Period

[Jon]

Well this game sucked worse than I have imagined.

 

Rams waste another opportunity.

[rawaction]

Well, I was expecting to be happy with 1 of IU/UK Bears/Pitt. Man, it's gonna suck to go to work tomorrow.

[UK1679666180]

Well, I was expecting to be happy with 1 of IU/UK Bears/Pitt. Man, it's gonna suck to go to work tomorrow.

 

Screw you... :)

[sethuel1]

I just got back from watching this one at Murphy's bleachers and getting bithced at by all the bears fans (I'm wearing my Big Ben #7 sweatshirt).

 

Good times.

 

I don't think the Steelers can actually get that far in the playoffs, but I'll still take it for today.

[CP_414]

Not our day today. Couldn't stop the run at all. Forced 3 fumbles, but couldn't recover any of them. Orton was Orton. The running game was decent (at best), but the Bears were forced to pass much of the 2nd half.

 

But with the Panthers loss we are still the 2 seed in the NFC. Bears lead over Minnesota is down to 1. Hopefully the Steelers will stay hot and beat Minnesopta next week.

[Outshined_One]

Here's the thing...

 

The AFC is still a good distance ahead of the NFC in terms of the quality of teams. They have the best team in the NFL (Indy), one very good team (Denver,), and a bunch of good teams (San Diego, New England, Pittsburgh, Cincy, Kansas City). You could toss Jacksonville into the good team pile if you want, but I think their current QB situation will end up knocking them out of the playoffs.

 

Meanwhile, in the NFC, the best team is Seattle. After that, it's a huge crush of teams that could all qualify as second best. Chicago, NY Giants, Minnesota, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Dallas, Washington, and Atlanta all fall into that group.

 

So...would you take one of those second best teams on the road against one of the good teams in the AFC? Or even on the road against each other? At home against one of those AFC teams wouldn't exactly be a guaranteed win, either. Heck, Indy could probably pound the crap out of any team in the NFC at this point at home, on the road, underwater, in space, on the moon, or in an alternate reality.

 

After watching today's game, this game cleared that up for me by a ton. I think whoever gets home field in the NFC Championship game is going to go to the Super Bowl. There are too many questionable QBs, too many shaky coaches, suspect defenses, and maligned special teams in the NFC to give road teams much of a shot at pulling off upsets.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

FWIW, in inter-conference games this year, the NFC has 24 wins, the AFC has 25. To me, Indy is head and shoulders above everyone else, Seattle and probably Denver are slightly above the next tier, then there's madness among the other good teams. I don't think the AFC "good" teams are appreciably better than the NFC's, but that's just me.

[Fred Hornkohl]

I gave up watching the BEARS game and started looking at the wildlife in my back yard.....

 

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b137/Hornkohl/Deer006.jpg

 

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b137/Hornkohl/Deer005.jpg

 

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b137/Hornkohl/Deer003.jpg

 

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b137/Hornkohl/Deer002.jpg

 

Just as a side note.... I never see any bears in the back yard anymore since I erected a goalpost back there.

[Marco4]

I don't know the etiquette on this, really, but I figure this is the thread where I congratulate the Steelers and say how pleased I am with the result. The Bears were always going to be a tough game and I'm really chuffed we came through it with a win.

 

Don't hate me.

[Jon]

This pretty much sums it up:

 

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2005-12/20920398.jpg

[Outshined_One]

FWIW, in inter-conference games this year, the NFC has 24 wins, the AFC has 25. To me, Indy is head and shoulders above everyone else, Seattle and probably Denver are slightly above the next tier, then there's madness among the other good teams. I don't think the AFC "good" teams are appreciably better than the NFC's, but that's just me.

 

I didn't say anything about the worst teams in the AFC, mind you. :) Here are the remaining teams:

 

Miami, Cleveland, Baltimore, NY Jets, Buffalo, Houston, Tennessee, and Oakland

 

vs.

 

Philadelphia, St. Louis, Green Bay, Detroit, San Francisco, and Arizona

 

I'd say that Miami, Cleveland, Philly, and St. Louis are all mediocre teams on any given Sunday. But the rest? Yuck.

[cubweiser03]

Great.....(from the trib)

 

First came the loss of safety Mike Brown with a calf muscle that coach Lovie Smith said was "tweaked" at practice Thursday. Then came the news that Brown, in a virtual deadlock in voting for starting safety in the Pro Bowl, could be gone for the rest of the regular season.

[Chocolate Milk]

Well, now we know why Lovie doesn't like Mike Green. Jesus, does Green even have arms? Every tackle he lowers the shoulder and bounces off. What a worthless turd.

 

Snow is bad for our defense. Obviously, having a light and speedy defense, we are going to get pushed around in bad footing conditions. Embarrassing tackling though.

 

Orton was still under 50% and most of his yards came in garbage time. We have only converted 3 third downs in 3 weeks. He was a little better this week though. Still, my position on the Rex/Orton situation remains unchanged.

 

All in all, losing to the Steelers away, isn't the biggest deal in the world. My concern is that the Vikings also won and are now a game back. I still think we can beat the Vikings, but I worried that we caught them: Our upswing, their downswing last time and the opposite might be the case the next time we meet.

 

Hopefully, we'll see this as a wake-up game.

[Mark Priors Calves]

Well, now we know why Lovie doesn't like Mike Green. Jesus, does Green even have arms? Every tackle he lowers the shoulder and bounces off. What a worthless turd.

 

Amen brother. I haven't as pissed off watching sports since the fall of '04 when the Cubs collapsed, as I was yesterday watching Mike Green's absolutley pathetic attempt at tackling on Hines Ward's touchdown in the 1st quarter. Terrible.

[cubweiser03]

Well, now we know why Lovie doesn't like Mike Green. Jesus, does Green even have arms? Every tackle he lowers the shoulder and bounces off. What a worthless turd.

 

Amen brother. I haven't as pissed off watching sports since the fall of '04 when the Cubs collapsed, as I was yesterday watching Mike Green's absolutley pathetic attempt at tackling on Hines Ward's touchdown in the 1st quarter. Terrible.

 

McGowan had some nice tackles. Pittsburgh's passing offense made it hard to see how well he performs in passing situations. If brown is out hopefully green wont see the field.

[YearofDaCubs]

Going into the season nobody expected Green to get benched for a rookie but after yesyerday's performance we can see why. Losing two starting safeties is really going to affect this defense.

[Jon]

UGH

Trib[/url]"]Concerns remain about safety Mike Brown's calf injury, but the Bears caught a break on the injury front Monday when linebacker Brian Urlacher walked away from a minor car accident.

 

Urlacher's car suffered damage when it was rear-ended, but he and his daughter were okay. He attended all team meetings and film review at Halas Hall but had to cancel a planned photo shoot in the afternoon to attend to accident details.

 

........

 

Brown still could miss the remainder of the regular season and aches and pains are mounting at safety. Coach Lovie Smith said Todd Johnson suffered a hip pointer, although Johnson played on Pittsburgh's last offensive possession.

 

Brown declined to comment, saying he had nothing to say because he didn't play. Chris Harris, out with a sprained knee, didn't sound optimistic about facing Atlanta.

 

That would leave Johnson and his sore hip, a Mike Green who was benched and rookie Brandon McGowan, whom Smith praised for aggressiveness on eight solo tackles Sunday, one for a loss.

 

...........

 

Smith also said defensive lineman Ian Scott sprained his right ankle and fullback Bryan Johnson's status is uncertain because of a lower back injury.

[sethuel1]

Brian Johnson?

http://www.thunderstruck.nl/brian.jpg

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Orton will start against Atlanta. :x

[Banedon]

Orton will start against Atlanta. :x

 

Don't be surprised if we don't see Grossman in a game until '06.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Orton will start against Atlanta. :x

 

Don't be surprised if we don't see Grossman in a game until '06.

 

If the don't take the risk with Grossman, the Bears likely won't be winning a playoff game.

[Banedon]

Orton will start against Atlanta. :x

 

Don't be surprised if we don't see Grossman in a game until '06.

 

If the don't take the risk with Grossman, the Bears likely won't be winning a playoff game.

 

See that's where the Grossman-Orton argument loses me. What determines whether we win a playoff game isn't gonna be the offense...it's gonna be the defense. If the defense is on, we'll win. If the defense is off, we'll lose.

[goonys evil twin]

See that's where the Grossman-Orton argument loses me. What determines whether we win a playoff game isn't gonna be the offense...it's gonna be the defense. If the defense is on, we'll win. If the defense is off, we'll lose.

 

No, see the point is playoff football is different than regular season football. You can get away with winning just with defense in the regular season. But in the postseason you will need your QB to make a play. And that is where the argument for Rex comes from. We know Kyle can't make that play. We don't know if Rex can, but at least he has a chance.