Week 10: Bears @ 49ers (Thurs, 7:20 PM NFLN, WPWR)

[Soul]

Yeah, Lovie was good at building his program from scratch. I give him full marks for that.

 

But now that we're heading down the other side of the hill, he's got no idea how to stop the slide.

 

The really sad thing is, there are likely players on this club who could be decent players. But I'm not seeing the coaching. We're going to wind up wasting what little talent we have, and Cutler will likely struggle mightily trying to make up for it, and also he could use a little good coaching and advice right now too. He's not going to get it with this staff.

 

What a sad state of affairs this team is. And it will likely continue next year.

[jersey cubs fan]

Yeah, Lovie was good at building his program from scratch. I give him full marks for that.

 

Lovie did not build the Bears from scratch. By the time he was brought on in 2004, Urlacher, Brown, Brown, Briggs and Tillman were all on the team. The only core piece brought in under Lovie was Tommie Harris, and he's a basket case who cannot be trusted. You can give him credit for putting it together, but the Bears had the makings of a dominant defense before Lovie was brought in.

[Banedon]

Yeah, Lovie was good at building his program from scratch. I give him full marks for that.

 

Lovie did not build the Bears from scratch. By the time he was brought on in 2004, Urlacher, Brown, Brown, Briggs and Tillman were all on the team. The only core piece brought in under Lovie was Tommie Harris, and he's a basket case who cannot be trusted. You can give him credit for putting it together, but the Bears had the makings of a dominant defense before Lovie was brought in.

 

Yep...and before that it was as recently as 2002 that we had Washington and Traylor in the middle, and everyone was talking about was that Bears D as good as the 85 Bears as we made a playoff run (and promptly got squished by Philly).

 

Everytime the D is good, that comparison happens and I hate it.

 

EDIT: Omg...Olin was on the 2001 team? He's been with the Bears since 98? I didn't realize...wow. His best years are definitely in the rear view.

[Old Style]

I want to strangle Lovie Smith with a microphone cord. He spews the same stupid lines after every frigging loss. Angelo, Smith, and the whole coaching staff need to go.

[jersey cubs fan]

I want to strangle Lovie Smith with a microphone cord. He spews the same stupid lines after every frigging loss. Angelo, Smith, and the whole coaching staff need to go.

 

I don't have a problem with the repetitive lines. I don't really care what he says. I do have a problem with the same issues coming up over and over and going on three straight years of no playoffs, and four of his six seasons with the Bears ending after week 16.

[Guest]

The interception in the endzone was an amazingly ironic finish to a game that featured 4 other INT's. I didn't even get mad. I chuckled. The Bears didn't deserve to win this game due to the errors, the inability to give Cutler more time to throw and the stupid penalties.

 

That they still had a chance to win was a credit to the defensive performance in that game. Unfortunately, they weren't defending a very good offense, so it's really hard to give a grade to the defense for this particular game.

 

Before the game started, I had it set to record. I had to decide whether to fast forward through the game to watch the commercials or vice versa. Unfortunately, I chose to watch the game. While I don't typically watch commercials, they certainly wouldn't have been nearly as frustrating.

[Soul]

They did stop the run though. The 49ers are supposed to be able to run the ball, and for the most part the Bears had that covered.

 

So I give them credit for putting forth a halfway decent effort on D last night.

 

But in true bad team fashion, when one thing goes well, another thing will suck to keep you down.

[Soul]

Yeah, Lovie was good at building his program from scratch. I give him full marks for that.

 

Lovie did not build the Bears from scratch. By the time he was brought on in 2004, Urlacher, Brown, Brown, Briggs and Tillman were all on the team. The only core piece brought in under Lovie was Tommie Harris, and he's a basket case who cannot be trusted. You can give him credit for putting it together, but the Bears had the makings of a dominant defense before Lovie was brought in.

 

Yep...and before that it was as recently as 2002 that we had Washington and Traylor in the middle, and everyone was talking about was that Bears D as good as the 85 Bears as we made a playoff run (and promptly got squished by Philly).

 

Everytime the D is good, that comparison happens and I hate it.

 

EDIT: Omg...Olin was on the 2001 team? He's been with the Bears since 98? I didn't realize...wow. His best years are definitely in the rear view.

 

Yes. He's been there forever. He's clearly not anywhere near the player he was. And for Olin to be skidding the ball along the ground on *ANY* shotgun snap is absolutely unacceptable. That's to say nothing about the fact that he gets owned on nearly every running play.

[jersey cubs fan]

Yes. He's been there forever. He's clearly not anywhere near the player he was. And for Olin to be skidding the ball along the ground on *ANY* shotgun snap is absolutely unacceptable. That's to say nothing about the fact that he gets owned on nearly every running play.

 

I can't believe what a free ride he's had for several years now. I really hate Kreutz. Even when he was at his best he was routinely sabotaging drives with horrible personal foul penalties.

[CubbieBum]

They did stop the run though. The 49ers are supposed to be able to run the ball, and for the most part the Bears had that covered.

 

So I give them credit for putting forth a halfway decent effort on D last night.

 

But in true bad team fashion, when one thing goes well, another thing will suck to keep you down.

 

You call giving up 104 yards on 25 carries including a touchdown to Frank Gore stopping the run?

[jersey cubs fan]

They did stop the run though.

 

Not really. They got gashed repeatedly on the stupid draw plays and did give up 100 yards to Gore. They stopped the pass, because Alex Smith is not a good QB.

[Keener98]

Yes. He's been there forever. He's clearly not anywhere near the player he was. And for Olin to be skidding the ball along the ground on *ANY* shotgun snap is absolutely unacceptable. That's to say nothing about the fact that he gets owned on nearly every running play.

 

I can't believe what a free ride he's had for several years now. I really hate Kreutz. Even when he was at his best he was routinely sabotaging drives with horrible personal foul penalties.

 

Not to mention the numerous false start penalties he gets during the season. I swear hes the only center I have ever seen who repeatedly gets false starts called on him.

[Soul]

They did stop the run though. The 49ers are supposed to be able to run the ball, and for the most part the Bears had that covered.

 

So I give them credit for putting forth a halfway decent effort on D last night.

 

But in true bad team fashion, when one thing goes well, another thing will suck to keep you down.

 

You call giving up 104 yards on 25 carries including a touchdown to Frank Gore stopping the run?

 

Yeah, pretty much. Compared to 180+ yards to Benson, and getting absolutely destroyed against more than one team up front, they did their job for the most part. 104 yards to Gore doesn't make me think they didn't stop the run, when compared with what I expected.

[dew1679666265]

I haven't read many pages prior to this one since the game, so this may have been posted already. I thought it was a good read, though, and summed up last night's game well.

 

It’s not all Cutler’s fault

 

The 10-6 loss to the 49ers was a horrible night for everyone in the Bears organization, from the coaches to the front office. In front of a national television audience, America learned the Bears have one of the worst offensive lines in the league and the defense has some real concerns. This is not a playoff team, not with problems in all three areas of the game — coaching, players and scheme. Much like the New York Jets, the expectations far exceeded the reality for the Bears this season. The prevailing feeling after the game was that Cutler stinks, and those five interceptions will be used as evidence to support the theory.

 

His stats will show he had a five-interception game, but in reality, he made two very big mistakes. He did not do the things he needed to do to help his team win -- but neither did his team.

[Soul]

The thing I'm hating about Cutler is that his two big mistakes were interceptions right down by the goal line. You have Hester falling down, an uncalled PI.......fine. But he continues to throw bad INTs by the goal line.

 

We can say what we want about it, but here's the bottom line: he will not be forgiven for those. Rightly or wrongly, or whatever way we want to say it -- those INTs will be hung around his neck like an albatross.

 

If he doesn't stop throwing goal-line INTs this city will eat him alive and spit him out, and then we'll be left with another Moses Moreno.

 

So it must be fixed. Period.

[jersey cubs fan]

The thing I'm hating about Cutler is that his two big mistakes were interceptions right down by the goal line. You have Hester falling down, an uncalled PI.......fine. But he continues to throw bad INTs by the goal line.

 

We can say what we want about it, but here's the bottom line: he will not be forgiven for those. Rightly or wrongly, or whatever way we want to say it -- those INTs will be hung around his neck like an albatross.

 

If he doesn't stop throwing goal-line INTs this city will eat him alive and spit him out, and then we'll be left with another Moses Moreno.

 

So it must be fixed. Period.

 

This wasn't the NFC championship game for a team with one last chance to win it all. The 2009 season was virtually over before they even kicked off last night. What is there to forgive him for? The city isn't going to eat him alive and spit him out. People say that's what happened with Grossman but his problem was he wasn't particularly good. He had a handful of quality games on his resume, but nothing else. He didn't leave big drives on his own, and he was actually on this team the last time they had a quality offensive line. Cutler moved the offense all by himself last night. His jackass offensive coordinator decided to run two doomed to fail dive plays and a freaking play action pass when the defense knew they had to pass and yet they had no receivers on the field. Why was Kellen Davis featured so prominently last night and why was Olsen on the sideline on goal line? Sure the last pass was also bad, but again, every play during that drive he was scrambling for his life and/or dealing with his teammates drawing penalties that kept negating gains. He got knocked around all game but stayed on his feet and in the game. I hardly doubt the venom of the city is going to destroy him. If they ever put a decent team around him, they'll be good and he will flourish.

 

Cutler has job security. Lovie and Angelo have some, but not nearly as much as Jay. They will be spat out long before Cutler is.

[Soul]

The thing I'm hating about Cutler is that his two big mistakes were interceptions right down by the goal line. You have Hester falling down, an uncalled PI.......fine. But he continues to throw bad INTs by the goal line.

 

We can say what we want about it, but here's the bottom line: he will not be forgiven for those. Rightly or wrongly, or whatever way we want to say it -- those INTs will be hung around his neck like an albatross.

 

If he doesn't stop throwing goal-line INTs this city will eat him alive and spit him out, and then we'll be left with another Moses Moreno.

 

So it must be fixed. Period.

 

This wasn't the NFC championship game for a team with one last chance to win it all. The 2009 season was virtually over before they even kicked off last night. What is there to forgive him for? The city isn't going to eat him alive and spit him out. People say that's what happened with Grossman but his problem was he wasn't particularly good. He had a handful of quality games on his resume, but nothing else. He didn't leave big drives on his own, and he was actually on this team the last time they had a quality offensive line. Cutler moved the offense all by himself last night. His jackass offensive coordinator decided to run two doomed to fail dive plays and a freaking play action pass when the defense knew they had to pass and yet they had no receivers on the field. Why was Kellen Davis featured so prominently last night and why was Olsen on the sideline on goal line? Sure the last pass was also bad, but again, every play during that drive he was scrambling for his life and/or dealing with his teammates drawing penalties that kept negating gains. He got knocked around all game but stayed on his feet and in the game. I hardly doubt the venom of the city is going to destroy him. If they ever put a decent team around him, they'll be good and he will flourish.

 

Cutler has job security. Lovie and Angelo have some, but not nearly as much as Jay. They will be spat out long before Cutler is.

 

I'm with you on the analysis, but I just don't have faith in this city to understand all that.

[Sammy Sofa]

The thing I'm hating about Cutler is that his two big mistakes were interceptions right down by the goal line. You have Hester falling down, an uncalled PI.......fine. But he continues to throw bad INTs by the goal line.

 

We can say what we want about it, but here's the bottom line: he will not be forgiven for those. Rightly or wrongly, or whatever way we want to say it -- those INTs will be hung around his neck like an albatross.

 

If he doesn't stop throwing goal-line INTs this city will eat him alive and spit him out, and then we'll be left with another Moses Moreno.

 

So it must be fixed. Period.

 

This wasn't the NFC championship game for a team with one last chance to win it all. The 2009 season was virtually over before they even kicked off last night. What is there to forgive him for? The city isn't going to eat him alive and spit him out. People say that's what happened with Grossman but his problem was he wasn't particularly good. He had a handful of quality games on his resume, but nothing else. He didn't leave big drives on his own, and he was actually on this team the last time they had a quality offensive line. Cutler moved the offense all by himself last night. His jackass offensive coordinator decided to run two doomed to fail dive plays and a freaking play action pass when the defense knew they had to pass and yet they had no receivers on the field. Why was Kellen Davis featured so prominently last night and why was Olsen on the sideline on goal line? Sure the last pass was also bad, but again, every play during that drive he was scrambling for his life and/or dealing with his teammates drawing penalties that kept negating gains. He got knocked around all game but stayed on his feet and in the game. I hardly doubt the venom of the city is going to destroy him. If they ever put a decent team around him, they'll be good and he will flourish.

 

Cutler has job security. Lovie and Angelo have some, but not nearly as much as Jay. They will be spat out long before Cutler is.

 

I'm with you on the analysis, but I just don't have faith in this city to understand all that.

 

Screw "the city." What are they going to do about it?

[UMFan83]

I can't find the stat to back it up, but I heard last night that not only is Cutler leading the NFL in INTs in the Red Zone over the last 2 years (9), but the next closest person has less than half that many (4). That seems unbelievable to me.

 

Also, Cutler was fined 20k for his "abuse against officials" in the Arizona game. He must have really verbally abused them because Tommie Harris was only fined 7,500 for punching another player.

[jersey cubs fan]

I'm with you on the analysis, but I just don't have faith in this city to understand all that.

 

Everybody always freaks out about how this city is going to treat a player. I get the issue, but it's really not an issue. Cutler isn't some in over his head nobody trying to make it big. He's an established quarterback who recently signed a substantial extension and will be the QB. There is no QB battle. Even if people freak out about him, nobody is going to build up a lot of support for needing a new one. Even his most vocal critics admit the problems mostly lie elsewhere. Everybody thought the Bears were great except for Grossman, nobody thinks this Bears team is just an upgrade from Cutler away from domination.

[JonJayCutler]

Well I feel a little better after looking at the replay and concluding that Cutler couldn't have made the endzone by running, after initially thinking he could have last night.

 

This game was a lot like the GB game. Outplayed the opponent but lost because we beat ourselves. I don't think I've ever seen such a lack of discipline on a football team, and that is all on Lovie. Since draft position doesn't really matter for us, we should just be focused on playing better football and getting on a winning streak so we at least have something good going heading into next year.

 

And I sure hope 49ers fans are being honest with themselves after this game despite the win. They don't have a good football team at all.

[Guest]

Well I feel a little better after looking at the replay and concluding that Cutler couldn't have made the endzone by running, after initially thinking he could have last night.

 

This game was a lot like the GB game. Outplayed the opponent but lost because we beat ourselves. I don't think I've ever seen such a lack of discipline on a football team, and that is all on Lovie. Since draft position doesn't really matter for us, we should just be focused on playing better football and getting on a winning streak so we at least have something good going heading into next year.

 

And I sure hope 49ers fans are being honest with themselves after this game despite the win. They don't have a good football team at all.

 

Plus it's so risky (probably too risky) to run in that situation given the clock.

[SpongeWorthy]

There were several times last night where Cutler needed to eat the sack. I think the reason he was sacked so few times last year is because he absolutely would rather sling it than take a sack (not to mention a much better offensive line) but he needs to eat it once in awhile. He's like the anti-Rodgers in that regard. If we didn't have to play from behind the sticks so much because the running game was getting stuffed then it wouldn't be as big an issue.

[UMFan83]

Well I feel a little better after looking at the replay and concluding that Cutler couldn't have made the endzone by running, after initially thinking he could have last night.

 

This game was a lot like the GB game. Outplayed the opponent but lost because we beat ourselves. I don't think I've ever seen such a lack of discipline on a football team, and that is all on Lovie. Since draft position doesn't really matter for us, we should just be focused on playing better football and getting on a winning streak so we at least have something good going heading into next year.

 

And I sure hope 49ers fans are being honest with themselves after this game despite the win. They don't have a good football team at all.

 

Plus it's so risky (probably too risky) to run in that situation given the clock.

 

It's a bit risky, but he had enough time to scramble throw the ball, have the ball get intercepted, and have the person who intercepted it dance around a bit before his own teammate tackled him and there was STILL 1 second left on the clock after (I believe the refs just let the clock run out because I distinctly remember seeing 0:01 on the clock immediately after the play when the SF players were celebrating).

 

Also, it would have been risky to run but less risky than trying to fit a ball through 2-3 SF defenders. Also, the one of the replays showed Bennett standing there at the goal line facing Cutler with a defender about 2 feet to his left. Now I can't tell if theres a defender to his right as well, but Cutler could have easily thrown the ball to his right and hit Bennett for a TD IMO. I have seen a couple of people bring this up in the press.

 

But the least risky thing he could have and should have done was throw the ball away and take one last shot at a play. He still had plenty of time to do that. People are making it seem like it was the very last play of the game but it wasn't.

[Soul]

I'm with you on the analysis, but I just don't have faith in this city to understand all that.

 

Everybody always freaks out about how this city is going to treat a player. I get the issue, but it's really not an issue. Cutler isn't some in over his head nobody trying to make it big. He's an established quarterback who recently signed a substantial extension and will be the QB. There is no QB battle. Even if people freak out about him, nobody is going to build up a lot of support for needing a new one. Even his most vocal critics admit the problems mostly lie elsewhere. Everybody thought the Bears were great except for Grossman, nobody thinks this Bears team is just an upgrade from Cutler away from domination.

 

I do understand what you mean. I guess I just let it bother me more than I should.