Bears / Packers. Dec 29. 3:25 CST

[Derwood]

I've never once considered the possibility Cutler leaves. To where, Tennessee? Nope, the league hates him. Only a team like Chicago would take him.

Houston, Jacksonville, Arizona, Tennessee or St. Louis are really the only landing spots.

 

None of those teams have anything close to the weapons Chicago does

[NonProfitCow]

I've never once considered the possibility Cutler leaves. To where, Tennessee? Nope, the league hates him. Only a team like Chicago would take him.

Houston, Jacksonville, Arizona, Tennessee or St. Louis are really the only landing spots.

 

None of those teams have anything close to the weapons Chicago does

Some of them have defenses.

[minnesotacubsfan]

non of them save TN wants Cutler. and I bet TN would turn into a PR nightmare

 

Cutler will be back. Emery will force it on Trestman

[bddavidson]

non of them save TN wants Cutler. and I bet TN would turn into a PR nightmare

 

Cutler will be back. Emery will force it on Trestman

 

So you don't think Trestman wants Cutler? From everything I've heard it seems like he really liked Cutler.

[Guest]

Hope is pointless. It's only heartbreak forever, we will never have a successful team again.

[Guest]

The Packers will win every important game against for all time.

[Guest]

non of them save TN wants Cutler. and I bet TN would turn into a PR nightmare

 

Cutler will be back. Emery will force it on Trestman

 

Trestman doesn't need any forcing. He, too, is not an idiot.

[gscool89]

Don't worry, Aaron Rodgers is getting older. He won't be around forever. Oh wait the Packers just stole another QB late in the first round as his successor while the Bears have spent 80 years looking for someone above average.

[minnesotacubsfan]

Don't worry, Aaron Rodgers is getting older. He won't be around forever. Oh wait the Packers just stole another QB late in the first round as his successor while the Bears have spent 80 years looking for someone above average.

 

 

ITS THE 1ST RD YOU CANT MISS ON THIS [expletive]

[minnesotacubsfan]

[expletive] formatting

[JonJayCutler]

Today sucked, but still the best thing to happen in the long run, assuming we all agree that this team was never going anywhere in the playoffs. Picking at least 7-8 positions better every round is a pretty big deal. As long as the loss didn't cost Cutler a chance at coming back, and it shouldn't, then all is fine. I would hate to potentially throw away a year with a stop-gap QB when you have guys like Forte and Marshall who are getting old for their position, and in Marshall's case, going into a contract year.

 

If we can patch up the defense, this team has a chance to be special next year, provided Jay is still under center. 13-3 might be pushing it a little, but assuming nobody blows up the offense I have total faith this team will make the playoffs next year.

 

And as soon as GB is tossed from the playoffs I'll be totally over this one.

[gscool89]

Today sucked, but still the best thing to happen in the long run, assuming we all agree that this team was never going anywhere in the playoffs. Picking at least 7-8 positions better every round is a pretty big deal. As long as the loss didn't cost Cutler a chance at coming back, and it shouldn't, then all is fine. I would hate to potentially throw away a year with a stop-gap QB when you have guys like Forte and Marshall who are getting old for their position, and in Marshall's case, going into a contract year.

 

If we can patch up the defense, this team has a chance to be special next year, provided Jay is still under center. 13-3 might be pushing it a little, but assuming nobody blows up the offense I have total faith this team will make the playoffs next year.

 

And as soon as GB is tossed from the playoffs I'll be totally over this one.

Yep, agreed. There's no sugar-coating this, it sucks to miss the playoffs like this two years in a row though.

[BigSlick]

This season managed to squeeze every inch of heart ache that it could out of it. It's almost an art piece. At no point did the Bears ever feel very comfortable, every small victory was snatched away immediately, like so many Chris Conte's falling at the feet of receivers. There were barely any easy victories. Just, blergh.

 

And yet tons of progress was made over the course of the season. The NFL is a offensive passing league, and the Bears made vast improvement in that area. The defense is bad, atrocious even, but like the NBA this is a game where you are expected to hold serve, to score and and score and make occasional stops. That's what this game is turning into, and I'm glad they are planning for that new game.

 

Painful though.

[Guest]

oh well, bad teams don't deserve to make the playoffs

[Guest]

oh well, bad teams don't deserve to make the playoffs

And yet, the Packers made the playoffs.

[gscool89]

oh well, bad teams don't deserve to make the playoffs

And yet, the Packers made the playoffs.

They would have won 12 with a healthy Rodgers all year. The Bears literally have no excuse for missing even with injuries. They blew it.

[Guest]

oh well, bad teams don't deserve to make the playoffs

And yet, the Packers made the playoffs.

 

You think the packers are a bad team with Rodgers? I know the Bears had injuries too, but nothing comparable to losing Rodgers

 

Anyways, you're right. 8-7-1 shouldn't get you in either

[Soul]

oh well, bad teams don't deserve to make the playoffs

 

They were exactly half a football team. And not surprisingly, ended up with a mediocre result.

[Wilson A2000]

oh well, bad teams don't deserve to make the playoffs

And yet, the Packers made the playoffs.

They would have won 12 with a healthy Rodgers all year. The Bears literally have no excuse for missing even with injuries. They blew it.

 

Maybe, but they still had starters missing more combined weeks than any other team

[Guest]

@AdamHoge: Marshall just said on Sports Sunday that the TD wasn’t Conte’s fault. Said Conte didn’t get the call. There was “miscommunication”.

 

@AdamHoge: Sounds like #Bears were supposed to be in man, but some, including Conte, were playing zone. That’s either on Tucker or Briggs.

[Sosa21MVP]

It would certainly require an extraordinary set of circumstances for Chris Conte to [expletive] up.

[UMFan83]

@AdamHoge: Marshall just said on Sports Sunday that the TD wasn’t Conte’s fault. Said Conte didn’t get the call. There was “miscommunication”.

 

@AdamHoge: Sounds like #Bears were supposed to be in man, but some, including Conte, were playing zone. That’s either on Tucker or Briggs.

 

Maybe its unfair to place on Tucker, but there are just several examples of his guys making dumb errors that this is just another example. Bottom line is he 'led' a defense from best in the league to bottom 2 with a lot of the same players playing the same scheme, etc. I was on the 'give him another year with a healthy team' guy until the last 2-3 weeks, but I have a hard time being confident in him leading our defense again next year.

 

Man I wish Marinelli had just stayed with this team. I guess he didn't help Dallas all that much, but some stability is probably what the Bears needed on defense.

[Guest]

It would certainly require an extraordinary set of circumstances for Chris Conte to [expletive] up.

 

I laughed way too hard at this.

 

Sorry Bears fans, just saw the highlights this morning. What a brutal way to lose all around.

[Wilson A2000]

Bring Frazier in as DC now that he is without a job

[UMFan83]

Good but brutal look at the 48 yard TD that ended the Bears season by Barnwell:

 

First this note:

 

You'll note that Kuhn sprinting over to take Peppers still leaves the Packers with five men to block six Bears, which is true; it's hard to tell from the sideline camera, but it sure looks like Evan Dietrich-Smith got away with a pretty good hold on a Bears lineman who might have been able to clean up after Peppers's miss.

 

Oh, you thought the Chargers skated through to the playoffs on a razor-thin margin of victory? Let's talk about the Packers, who were basically written off after getting blown out by 30 points by the Lions on Thanksgiving Day. Green Bay then beat the Falcons and Cowboys by a point each before losing to the Steelers and, on Sunday, prevailing in a classic contest with the Bears that came down to one devastating play, Aaron Rodgers's 48-yard touchdown pass to Randall Cobb on fourth-and-8 that gave Green Bay a 33-28 lead. It was a play in which the Bears tried to win the game with pressure, narrowly came up short, and were beaten by a pair of incredible individual efforts before beating themselves.

 

The whole play is dictated by Chicago's decision to bring what amounts to an all-out blitz. The Packers line up with trips receivers to the left and a lone receiver split out on the right, while the Bears show pressure with a "mug" look, pushing both linebackers onto the line of scrimmage to create confusion as to who will come and attack after the snap. With five seconds left on the play clock, slot corner Isaiah Frey also sneaks his way into the box to make a seventh rusher. With four wideouts, the Packers only have six players who could conceivably block for Rodgers: their five offensive linemen and fullback John Kuhn. That's enough unless the Bears decide to bring all seven rushers … which is exactly what happens.

 

Now, if you're the 2013 Bears and you're bringing seven men against six, who do you hope goes unblocked to get a free shot at Rodgers? Julius Peppers, right? That's exactly what happened. When Frey moved onto the line of scrimmage and rushed, he forced left tackle David Bakhtiari to honor the inside rusher and block him, leaving Peppers a free run at Rodgers. The only reason the Packers are still alive right now is because Kuhn, lined up next to Rodgers on the opposite side of the formation, saw Peppers running free and sprinted across the formation to dive at Peppers's knees in the hopes of slowing him down. He got to Peppers no more than a quarter-step before Peppers was about to engulf Rodgers and end Green Bay's season.4 Peppers's lunge still would have been enough to take down a fair number of quarterbacks, but Rodgers does just enough to elude Peppers's outstretched arm and step to the left.

 

The hope with this blitz in this situation is that the pressure forces a sack, an errant throw, or a quick pass to a hot read that would allow the Bears to make a play on a receiver well before the first-down marker. By rushing seven and leaving four men in coverage behind the play, the Bears are exposed if Rodgers escapes the pressure and has a moment to set himself and throw. That's bad. You know what would make that worse? If three of the four guys in the secondary blow the coverage, too.

 

When the Bears blitz Frey and leave four men in the secondary to guard four receivers, their coverage options are limited. On this play, according to coach Marc Trestman after the game, the four defensive backs are supposed to be in man coverage with no safety support behind them, a Cover-0 look. If you watch the play, you'll see that the Bears corners peer into the backfield and sit at the sticks in zone coverage. Free safety Chris Conte — who might theoretically have been the person stuck covering Cobb — drifts into the flat. As Bleacher Report writer (and former Bears safety) Matt Bowen noted, the only person correctly playing man on the play was strong safety Major Wright, who might very well have committed an illegal-contact penalty while he was doing so.

 

Now, go back and watch Cobb. You know how soon he realizes he's going to be wide-open? He's signaling for the ball while he's still three yards in front of Conte. The angle makes it impossible to see which route the near-side receiver ran, and Jordy Nelson gets laid out by Wright midroute, but it looks like the Packers were a team after our Chris Brown's heart and ran four verts with their season on the line. Rodgers actually underthrows Cobb, but what he does on the play — elude a Hall of Fame–caliber defensive end, quickly reset, identify his open receiver, and get the ball out quickly and accurately without even really stepping into the throw — is incredible.

 

The offseason debate among Bears fans has already begun, as I suspect that some will be upset with defensive coordinator Mel Tucker for bringing a big blitz with the game on the line. I don't think it was the wrong move or necessarily an obviously wrong call. How often do we hear that prevent defenses don't prevent anything? The play call almost got Peppers a free sack on Rodgers to end the season. Peppers versus air with the season on the line is a good matchup for the Bears. The Packers overcame it with a heroic block from Kuhn and a moment of brilliance from their best player. And the Bears made an undesigned mental mistake that cost them the game behind the blitz.5 Had Peppers made it that one final step or gotten just enough on his lunge to trip up Rodgers, we would be sitting here talking about what a great call the blitz was and how Mike McCarthy's mental mistake cost the Packers the game.6 I don't think you fault the Bears for bringing pressure. I think you credit the Packers for what they were able to do on the biggest play of their season.

 

 

One final note:

 

I don't mean to haunt Bears fans, but I wonder if the secondary makes that same mistake if Charles Tillman is in the lineup and making sure everybody knows what to do.