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I know this is a stupid thing to obsess over, but I don't think the London game should count as a noon game for the Bears even though it was noon in Chicago while the game was being played. Of course, I don't count the fact that the Raiders game was at 1pm in Oakland either. But that was the closest the Bears have had to a "regular" gameday routine in a long time. They have either been waiting around most of the afternoon or waiting around until the evening to play for 2 months.

That doesn't matter though. If two people do their jobs correctly (Hanie throwing the ball on a line and Williams blocking the linebacker) then that play works. This is Monday morning QBing. The only reason the play call sucks is because it was not executed well. No, it is not. It was an idiotic call for that time and place on the field with far too many moving parts. It was the epitome of being too cute when the Bears should not have been cute. You had a QB playing really poorly and throwing the ball to the opposition and you asked him to do something you shouldn't have asked him to do. It was dumb and it is pointless to try and pretend it's only hindsight. It was the exact same play called in Week 1 vs. Atlanta when Cutler missed Kellen Davis wide open in the flat. While I agree it wasn't necessary to call that play, it wasn't a dumb call. First down is the only chance that play has of working. QB has to be smart enough to see it wasn't there though. The fact that they tried it with Cutler before and it failed hardly qualifies as a defense for trying it there. The coach has to be smart enough to know he has a careless QB out there who is throwing the ball to the opposition. Where and when did it take place in Atlanta? I see 1 1st/10 incompletion to Davis on the play-by-play, it occurred on the 40. I vaguely remember the play. You try that stuff in the middle of the field, not in tight in the red zone with a pressing defense, a careless QB and a team in desperate need of points (and not a turnover). It was a screen pass. Granted it was all the way across the field, but a screen is typically a low risk play for a turnover. A misdirection screen is even a lower risk. And I think the opposite. What's the point of calling a TE screen with the slow Davis in the middle of the field? The play is designed to get a wide open WR in the flat. He's not going to take it in from the 40 on that play regardless of if he's wide open or not. That play is more likely to get 6-yards and a TD than 10 yards and a 1st down in the middle of the field. You say the defense is pressing, but on the goalline, the defense usually is pressing against the run. That's why you see wide open passes to TEs with delayed leaks off the line of scrimmage all the time. You sell run hard (or in this case sprint out the QB to the right) and you misdirect an overzealous LB into blowing the coverage. Whether the pulling OL and TE took off too early, whether the QB screwed up the throw, it was a solid design and an ok call.

That doesn't matter though. If two people do their jobs correctly (Hanie throwing the ball on a line and Williams blocking the linebacker) then that play works. This is Monday morning QBing. The only reason the play call sucks is because it was not executed well. No, it is not. It was an idiotic call for that time and place on the field with far too many moving parts. It was the epitome of being too cute when the Bears should not have been cute. You had a QB playing really poorly and throwing the ball to the opposition and you asked him to do something you shouldn't have asked him to do. It was dumb and it is pointless to try and pretend it's only hindsight. It was the exact same play called in Week 1 vs. Atlanta when Cutler missed Kellen Davis wide open in the flat. While I agree it wasn't necessary to call that play, it wasn't a dumb call. First down is the only chance that play has of working. QB has to be smart enough to see it wasn't there though.

But that's pretty much all this defense is capable of. They can't shut down teams completely, especially if their QB can throw at all. Agreed. But they needed to yesterday and didn't. They got only 1 TO which came deep in their end of the field. But the D is getting off without criticism for the most part due to the offense's issues.

I'm not as down on Hanie as you appear to be. He had 3 ints, 2 of which were really bad decisions. The third was a bad play call following a misread on Hanie's part (he should have seen the 2 defenders). Out of all that, Oakland got 6 points. That's it. Hanie can make the throws, his deep pass to Knox showed his arm, and he can scramble. He's just so [expletive] raw. The defense really needs to do better this game, and especially the special teams. Leckler (or whatever the hell his name is ) killed us. We just didn't match up to them well enough. Eh. I see the INTs differently. No excuse to throw that one on the sidelines. That was definitely a horrible decision. But the INT in the deep middle wasn't a bad decision, it was a bad throw. He had a window to hit Forte and overthrew it. But a play was there. Granted, you could argue it was a poor decision because he's Caleb Hanie and probably doesn't have the ability to complete that pass anyway. The screen wasn't that bad of a call. Granted it was 1st and goal vs. a team that couldn't stop Barber from running them over, but the issue wasn't the call but the execution. Hanie either didn't see the LB or thought the pulling linemen would block him. As for the defense, I think they are getting off pretty easy due to Hanie's picks and clock management. I think watching that game most people saw the Raiders on short fields most of the game. But the Bears only gave up 6 points on short fields, 3 of which came after the long INT return. They forced 3 punts on drives that the Raiders started outside their own 40. The Raiders scored 4 times on drives of 50 yards or more, for a total of 16 points. Defense gave up several plays over 20 yards. Basically they just got lucky that the Raiders were inept inside the 30 yard line. Bend/don't break is crap when you are facing a mediocre offense and know your offense isn't capable of putting up 30. Holding a team to a FG is not good defense, when you do it 6 times.

What about when you consider, it won't take 9 years and even after 3 years as one of the top 5 players in baseball, Pujols will still be above replacement level for a couple more years? And you also have to consider that 3 years gives you plenty of time to extend that window of opportunity. Gives you a chance to develop a farm system. Gives you a chance to get rid of expiring bad contracts. Gives you a chance to develop your own players and figure out the holes on your team.

Butler's not that good. But this was a good test for IU, no matter how you spin it. First team they've faced with comparable talent. Biggest and most athletic team they've faced so far. They are the first time IU has faced that is better coached than they are (will face many more this year). They are the only team IU has faced that will play defense. That being said, Butler did lose to an Evansville team that IU beat by 20. They also played Savannah, Gardner-Webb, and Chattanooga and played them all much closer than IU played them (IU beat all by 25+). But Butler is going to be a tournament team again. If somehow IU shows well enough in conference to even be considered in March, this will be a win to look back on very favorably....probably the best they're going to get in the non-conference. Wednesday will be an interesting game. NC State has a lot of athletic guys on the front line. Don't have the size to Would be a huge road win, bigger than the Butler W. NC State is probably on par with IU. Probably a team that needs a couple upsets to get into the NCAAs. I think the home game gives them the advantage. Win this game, and this team is 12-1 when the non-conference schedule is said and done.

Like I said earlier in the week, if the Bears had won this game, I think the Bears would have been a longshot to miss the playoffs. 8-3 and 9-3 with a win over KC, with NYG and Detroit losses in New Orleans would have meant the Bears would have been 2 games up on both teams and would have had tiebreakers over both. If NO takes care of business still, the Bears should be in good shape assuming Hanie gets even slightly better. He looked nervous as hell in the 1st half and actually was half decent in the 2nd before whatever the hell that last play was.

Terrible calls on 1st and 2nd down. Make them stop the run. Just got 2 carries for 10 yards and the 2nd carry could have been better if Forte hit the hole harder.

BS Martz! Your effing QB sucks and you are getting 7 yards when you run the ball, don't effing stop running.

This game should be out of reach right now. Lance Louis with amazing hustle.

This isn't going that well. DL came to play though.

Link Wow. That's absolutely hilarious!

Jacoby Ford and Denarius Moore are out for the Raiders. Heyward-Bey is active, out of necessity. For the Bears, no DJ Moore. And McCown also inactive, meaning Enderle's the #2. Let's hope he doesn't see the field.

Tillman was a highly regarded prospect just a couple years ago and hasn't stuck at the MLB level yet, but it seems the O's had their expectations too high. Like it says, he's still just 23, and has performed poorly in the toughest division in baseball. Would Tillman be a possible buy low trade candidate worth looking into? He was supposed to be a future cornerstone of that rotation along with Matusz, Britton, and Arrieta... but all of them have been so-so thus far in the majors, with Tillman having the worst of it. He intrigues me, and is still very young so it's not like his career is done for. Heck yeah. Looks like he hasn't been able to find the strikezone consistently, but he's 6-5 and his scouting report says plus fastball and plus curve. Be well worth a look, given his age.

That's only true if you're the Marlins. The Cubs have plenty of money. A good GM should be able to put a team like the Cubs, Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, etc. with money to spend in a position to still be very good even with 1 albatross contract on the roster 4-5 years from now. Pujols and Fielder are both going to be worth that money for at least 3 years, if they are a bad contract after that point, then so be it. Should be able to build a team with the other 125 Mil anyway.

The Indiana State finals were on ESPN3, and I watched my high school's biggest rival play (and lose). 3 schools from South Bend area went to states. My highschool is now closed, but SB Washington was the other closest school to me and I conceivably could have been on that team if I was still in high school. They have a 6-3, 6-4 WR who is going to Notre Dame who had over 2,000 yards receiving. My school didn't throw for 2000 combined the 4 years I was there total. St. Joseph HS has a coach that I played against in HS that won state with the school in 1995. Penn HS was also in my school's conference and one of the guys I played HS football with has a son that is the team's leading RB. I feel old.

More hope? Some interesting stuff I read on another board. - Forte is tied for league lead with 11 runs of 20 yds or more.........Raiders have allowed a league worst 15 such runs. - Raiders are one of three teams to allow at least 2 punt returns for scores this season......And supposedly, they want to kick to Hester - Raiders are on a record setting penalty pace, 103 for 892 yds.

Wow, I'm liking this game more for the Bears than I thought I would. I had this chalked up as a loss, even with Cutler playing. That was based on the west coast trip, playing a team that gets after the QB pretty well, and playing a Raiders team that likes to run the ball. But the Raiders are more beat-up than the Bears coming into this one. Darren McFadden, Jacoby Ford, and Jarvis Moss are already ruled out. I'm guessing Heyward Bey misses this game, and Denarius Moore is also very much in doubt. A total of 9 players are questionable for the Raiders (6 of them starters), in addition to the 3 ruled out already. They could be without as many as 9 starters. McFadden's injury is huge, because the Bears don't do as well vs RBs who test their gap control defense. Michael Bush is a good RB, but he's not a threat to go the distance if the Bears lose gap control the way Jahvid Best did in Detroit. The Bears really like to hit bigger RBs. With Taiwan Jones also in question for this game, the Raiders don't even have a change of pace on the bench. I expect the Raiders to go to the run a lot (probably 25-30 times), but I'd be surprised if the Bears allow more than 3.5 per carry. Oakland reminds me a lot of the Tampa offense. They are going to pound the ball on the ground with Bush (like TB would have done if they had Blount against us) and they are going to throw a lot of options out in the passing game. Can't focus on 1 player on defense. They are going to try to get their WRs the ball in space and occassionally take a shot deep. As for the Bears on offense, the Bears think the Raiders are going to blitz the inexperienced Hanie the way they did Christian Ponder last week. I think if I'm the Bears I welcome that. Hanie is a pretty mobile guy, and he's more apt to leave the pocket than Cutler would be. The Raiders have had a few games where they've allowed QBs to scramble for decent yardage, including Ponder last week. Also, the blitz really opens up the screen game. This is a Raiders team that has allowed 100 yard receiving games to Arian Foster and Tomlinson this year, and 8 catches to SD runningbacks. Forte could have a huge game receiving. This is also a Raiders team that allowed 300 yards rushing to a Broncos team that was completely incapable of throwing the ball. The Bears have shown when they focus on running the ball, they can run it. They've also shown that when Cutler is out, the defense plays with an extra sense of urgency. They did allow an 85-yard TD drive to the Giants after Cutler left that game, but after that only allowed a TD on a 2-play 32 yard drive in the 4th quarter of that game. Allowed less than 150 yards and 0 TDs vs. Carolina without Cutler. Allowed NO points to Green Bay in the playoff game, and only 125 yards to GB after halftime, the longest of those drives ending in an Urlacher INT. I think if the Bears can hold Oakland to under 17 points and don't allow defensive/ST TDs, they should be able to win this game.

With the Detroit loss, the Bears are now the 5th seed in the NFC win or lose tomorrow. Even if they lose they hold tiebreakers over Detroit and NY Giants (if they win Sunday) in conference record. And they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Falcons (if they win Sunday). Didn't realize how huge winning this game would be for playoff purposes. The Bears are going to beat KC, so win this game also and the Bears are 9-3. The Saints (who have won by an average of 22.5 points in their 4 homes games) have the Giants and Lions in New Orleans in primetime in the next week and a half. And if NO takes care of business, that would leave the Lions at 7-5 and the Giants at best 7-5, and basically give the Bears a 3-game lead with 4 to play for 1 of the wildcard spots.

The Raji INT was just a lack of experience. Wasnt' really a head scratcher. He just missed the big fat man dropping into the zone.

That seems a little absurd. The Raiders aren't a great team. They're borderline even to be considered "good". And you're still talking about a Bears team that has shown it can take the ball away on defense and coming off of holding 3 of the 10 team offensive teams in the league to an average under 17 points with 10 forced turnovers (not counting the Jackson fumble vs. Philly) in the last 3 games. And the Bears have shown they can run the football when they have to.

Twenty-eight wins and eight conference wins over three seasons is pretty damn close to burning. And the tears of blood? I think it would have been difficult for any IU fan watching the last three years not to have those. I do every time Daniel Moore takes the court. Actually, Daniel Moore hasn't played too poorly this year. Elston also appears to be the best shooter in the Big Ten and Tom Pritchard will be Defensive POY based on 5 games so far, so I'm expecting my tears of blood to come heavily streaming back in the near future.

Mike Klis of Denver Post reports Orton invited release from Broncos after Jay Cutler was injured. Would invite a return to Chicago. 9 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

FOX NFL insider @JayGlazer says he hears #Bears and/ Chiefs will claim Kyle Orton. Chiefs obviously have higher waiver position