Re: Week 6 - Chicago Bears at Atlanta Falcons, 7:20 PM NBC

[rawaction]

The Vikings are a mirage to me. The Lions, the Browns, a new Green Bay defense with an awful O-line, and a miracle lucky play against the 49ers. I haven't seen a win that impresses me yet. And maybe they think the same about us...that we've gotten lucky with some missed field goals, and that's fine.

 

Even if you are impressed with them though, I don't see how they'd be so hard to catch...two of our final six games are against them. Plus they'll be playing a Cincy team that could possibly be making a playoff push, and the Giants the final week while we have the Lions. (Though the Giants might not care about that one.)

 

Anyway, I just think it's too early in the season for must wins or worrying about playing catchup when we're 1 game back in week 4.

 

I didn't say there were any must wins. I just said it would be tough to catch the Vikes if they get off to a 2-game lead midway thru the season. And the Vikings were better than the Bears last year. The additions of Favre, Harvin, and a healthy Henderson make them one of the best in the NFC. Plus, the Bears couldn't beat those same Packers in the season opener, though it was on the road vs. home for MIN.

 

That being said, I think the Bears may be better than the Vikings. But I think being 2 games back near the halfway point is going to make things tough. You can look at it as the Bears still get 2 shots at the Vikes, but I see it as the Bears still have to go to Minnesota, which is one of the top 2 or 3 games left they are most likely to lose.

[jersey cubs fan]

Oh ye of little faith raw. I'm telling you, this is following the script. Minnesota will falter.

[Flames24Rulz]

Oh ye of little faith raw. I'm telling you, this is following the script. Minnesota will falter.

 

I hope so, but I don't see it happening. They're a pretty damn good football team.

[rawaction]

Oh ye of little faith raw. I'm telling you, this is following the script. Minnesota will falter.

 

I hope so. I predicted both teams would be 3-1 right now, with the Bears losing the game they did and Min losing the game they should have vs. SF. I would feel a lot better if the Ravens beat them next week though and the Bears beat ATL.

[SpongeWorthy]

Oh ye of little faith raw. I'm telling you, this is following the script. Minnesota will falter.

 

I hope so, but I don't see it happening. They're a pretty damn good football team.

 

I'm kind of in the same boat. They might just rip off a 13-3 season in which case the Bears are probably in for a wild card battle. I'm hoping Childress will hold them back from making the necessary midseason adjustments. Personnel wise they could definitely have that type of year.

 

Plus not too many outdoor games in the cold to mess with Favre.

[Soul]

Oh ye of little faith raw. I'm telling you, this is following the script. Minnesota will falter.

 

I hope so, but I don't see it happening. They're a pretty damn good football team.

 

I'm kind of in the same boat. They might just rip off a 13-3 season in which case the Bears are probably in for a wild card battle. I'm hoping Childress will hold them back from making the necessary midseason adjustments. Personnel wise they could definitely have that type of year.

 

Plus not too many outdoor games in the cold to mess with Favre.

 

They have their own playoff misery to worry about, replete with fan neurosis and incessant media questions about when they are going to blow it. If they do get in, they might just pull a big blowup like they have at other times.

 

Plus, Favre has really been sketchy in the playoffs.

[SpongeWorthy]

Oh ye of little faith raw. I'm telling you, this is following the script. Minnesota will falter.

 

I hope so, but I don't see it happening. They're a pretty damn good football team.

 

I'm kind of in the same boat. They might just rip off a 13-3 season in which case the Bears are probably in for a wild card battle. I'm hoping Childress will hold them back from making the necessary midseason adjustments. Personnel wise they could definitely have that type of year.

 

Plus not too many outdoor games in the cold to mess with Favre.

 

They have their own playoff misery to worry about, replete with fan neurosis and incessant media questions about when they are going to blow it. If they do get in, they might just pull a big blowup like they have at other times.

 

Plus, Favre has really been sketchy in the playoffs.

 

I'm talking about them having the potential to just semi run away with the division. If they're going to go 13-3 there's not much the Bears can do about it besides fight for a wild card spot. I think the Vikings MAY be that kind of team. We'll know soon enough. They look strong though.

[Banedon]

Oh ye of little faith raw. I'm telling you, this is following the script. Minnesota will falter.

 

I hope so, but I don't see it happening. They're a pretty damn good football team.

 

Not as much as they're being built up to be.

[sneakypower]

the Vikings are a 12-13 win team, the best in the league at both running the ball and stopping the run

 

a team like that will win most of it's games, but their terrible safeties will probably get shredded by Brees whenever they face off in the postseason

[Omar]

This keeps bugging me... I cringe every time its a 3rd and long situation with the Bears on defense. I know the other team will pass it, and the Bears secondary scares the [expletive] out of me. It feels like the other team converts almost every time. I would honestly rather have it be 3rd and short, because I'm confident in the run defense. Maybe I'm just paranoid. I felt the same way last year, and the year before that about our defense. The only thing that really makes me confident this year is our special team and offense keeping the game alive.

 

Any thoughts?

[bukie]

This keeps bugging me... I cringe every time its a 3rd and long situation with the Bears on defense. I know the other team will pass it, and the Bears secondary scares the [expletive] out of me. It feels like the other team converts almost every time. I would honestly rather have it be 3rd and short, because I'm confident in the run defense. Maybe I'm just paranoid. I felt the same way last year, and the year before that about our defense. The only thing that really makes me confident this year is our special team and offense keeping the game alive.

 

Any thoughts?

On a per-play basis, the pass defense has actually been better than the run defense this year. They struggle against the #1 and #2 WRs, but they completely shut down slot WRs, TEs, and RBs.

 

A lot of that is likely due to the D-line this year, which has been stellar.

[Banedon]

This keeps bugging me... I cringe every time its a 3rd and long situation with the Bears on defense. I know the other team will pass it, and the Bears secondary scares the [expletive] out of me. It feels like the other team converts almost every time. I would honestly rather have it be 3rd and short, because I'm confident in the run defense. Maybe I'm just paranoid. I felt the same way last year, and the year before that about our defense. The only thing that really makes me confident this year is our special team and offense keeping the game alive.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Can't just blame the secondary, when Lovie likes to blitz in these situations nearly every time.

[Banedon]

In fact, I'm kinda wondering if the STL game might be a trap game for Minny. A last second win, a game against GB with Favre at QB, and then STL? That's a big drop in emotion, and they play Baltimore next week...so they could look past STL.

 

I'm not brave enough to pick them in my leagues, but I wouldn't be surprised if things went that way.

 

So much for this theory.

 

Although STL did move the ball against Minny.

[Soul]

In fact, I'm kinda wondering if the STL game might be a trap game for Minny. A last second win, a game against GB with Favre at QB, and then STL? That's a big drop in emotion, and they play Baltimore next week...so they could look past STL.

 

I'm not brave enough to pick them in my leagues, but I wouldn't be surprised if things went that way.

 

So much for this theory.

 

Although STL did move the ball against Minny.

 

It might have at least been a decent game to watch if STL didn't keep blowing themselves up after getting near the goal line.

 

I think this is the worst weekend of NFL football I've ever seen in terms of entertaining matchups. A couple of the games turned out to be close, but most of it was just slop. Even the Sunday night game. Tonight's game doesn't look like much either.

[jersey cubs fan]

So the line is Atlanta -3.5, a little higher than I thought it would be before they went out and blew-out an overrated 49ers team. I think I feel pretty comfortable taking the points in this one. Still a good chance Chicago loses, but the bye week should have them prepared for this game. How they do will say a lot about the coaching this season. If Lovie doesn't have that defense primed for a big game, I will be disappointed.

[Soul]

So the line is Atlanta -3.5, a little higher than I thought it would be before they went out and blew-out an overrated 49ers team. I think I feel pretty comfortable taking the points in this one. Still a good chance Chicago loses, but the bye week should have them prepared for this game. How they do will say a lot about the coaching this season. If Lovie doesn't have that defense primed for a big game, I will be disappointed.

 

Looks like Lovie is 3-2 in games following a bye week. But he's 2-0 in the past 2 years.

 

I think on their home turf, Atlanta has a clear advantage in this one. We'll see.

[bukie]

The next two weeks look a lot more challenging than they did 3 days ago.

[Soul]

Yeah. Those are pretty tough games now. Nobody will be able to say we haven't played anybody.

[jersey cubs fan]

How much does the success of Benson and Orton in other uniforms reflect poorly on the Bears offensive line and Ron Turner? I think it's pretty significant. Throw Olin Kreutz name into that discussion. Your center should not be your best offensive lineman. It might be the 4th or 5th most important of the 5 spots. Everybody talks about how wonderful it is that this team is Olin's team and he's the leader on offense, but I don't think that's a good thing. They had to spend big on a proven franchise QB (not to mention an approaching washed-up status HOF tackle) just to become a decent offense. Orton and Benson both had abilities that the Bears could not maximize, partly because their coordinator isn't any good, and partly because their line has been a major weak point.

[Soul]

To me Orton's success reflects horribly on the Bears. It pretty much confirms what many of us have suspected all along: the Bears have no aptitude when it comes to identifying and developing QB talent. While it's good that we picked up Cutler, it seems very clear that we could have ended our long QB struggles with a better organizational focus on the position. And it just never happened. That's really sad.

 

Benson I view as something else. He made things difficult for himself as much as the team didn't accept him. The Bears have no long history of RB ineptitude. I do think Kreutz is incredibly overrated at this point in his career, especially by the Bears. I wonder if we would even miss a beat if a switch was made at center tomorrow. I suspect that we wouldn't.

[jersey cubs fan]

To me Orton's success reflects horribly on the Bears. It pretty much confirms what many of us have suspected all along: the Bears have no aptitude when it comes to identifying and developing QB talent. While it's good that we picked up Cutler, it seems very clear that we could have ended our long QB struggles with a better organizational focus on the position. And it just never happened. That's really sad.

 

Benson I view as something else. He made things difficult for himself as much as the team didn't accept him. The Bears have no long history of RB ineptitude. I do think Kreutz is incredibly overrated at this point in his career, especially by the Bears. I wonder if we would even miss a beat if a switch was made at center tomorrow. I suspect that we wouldn't.

 

Benson made things difficult, however, much of that difficulty was apparently due to being alienated by a group of veterans led by Olin Kreutz. The fact that Kreutz can win a battle of wills with a potential franchise back is a bad thing.

 

As for Orton, I don't think it's a matter of better organizational focus. I think it has to do with having a weak OC and bad line. Orton was a guy who could do wel with a good line and a solid OC*. The Bears focused on QB a lot. But they ignored the line, and the one constant through the past two decades of struggling young QBs has been Ron Turner at OC. Sure there were a couple years where he was gone, but he has been at the helm for a very long time and the only times the Bears have had anything resembling stability at QB with him here is after acquiring established veterans. Going to Denver was absolutely the best thing that could have happened to his career.

 

 

 

*Should also mention that Marshall is making Orton look much better than he is.

[Derwood]

Benson held out for a contract and missed a lot of training camp, and the veterans scorned him for it. Benson then came out and sucked on ice.

 

Benson made that bed.

[jersey cubs fan]

Benson held out for a contract and missed a lot of training camp, and the veterans scorned him for it. Benson then came out and sucked on ice.

 

Benson made that bed.

 

Every one of those veterans would have held out as well, and it wasn't like he had a Crabtree situation. Also he did not suck initially. He sucked after he finally got the job when the offensive line fell apart. That group peaked when Jones was still around, but they started to show their age in the Super Bowl season and completely disappeared a year later.

[UMFan83]

Just for fun, rank these 5 QB numbers thru 5 games. I'm sure you can guess some of them, but just humor me. The data isn't intended to make any points or anything about the QBs, just interesting to look at without the bias of a name attached to it. Oh and these aren't 5 different QBs from this year, its a couple of QBs and their numbers through 5 games of a particular season and it's Bears-centric.

 

Player A:

96-155

62% completion percentage

1,100 yards

7.1 YPA

7 TD

4 INT

 

Player B:

104-165

63% completion percentage

1,236 yards

7.5 YPA

7 TD

1 INT

 

Player C:

125-191

65.4% completion percentage

1,502 yards

7.9 YPA

10 TD

4 INT

 

Player D:

104-161

64.5% completion percentage

1,126 yards

7.0 YPA

8 TD

4 INT

 

Player E:

110-155

71% completion percentage

1,040 yards

6.7 YPA

12 TD

2 INT

 

Rate them first but if you want to know who they belong to....

 

 

Player A: Kyle Orton's first 5 games of 2008 season

Player B: Kyle Orton's first 5 games of 2009 season

Player C: Jay Cutler's first 5 games of 2008 season

Player D: Jay Cutler's first 5 games of 2009 season (first 4 games, but projected into 5 games

Player E: Jay Cutler's first 5 games of 2009 season, removing the Packers game (other 3 games, projected into 5 games) Obviously you can't just remove a game but if you assume it's about as bad as you'll see Cutler it's interesting to see what it looks like without the game.

 

[WrigleyField 22]

I went E,B,C,D,A.