rawaction

As bad as the OL was and the penalties sucked, this L is on the defense and coaching staff. Get a FG early and the game may have been slightly different. Make a better call on 4th and 1 and the game would have been a lot different. Martz continues to refuse to give his obviously overmatched OTs any help. Even with that, the Bears D has gotta make some stops. No excuse for giving up 3 plays over 45 yards. Without those plays, the Lions can't score.

Watch for fake WR screen and sneak another WR deep. Only reason to keep calling that BS

And Roy Williams. The only receivers that have had passes intended are (I think) Sanzenbacher, Hester and Herd. There's gotta be something up, because Herd got on the field early in the first possession for the Bears. They've all been out there. Williams was out there on the TD. Knox has been out there a lot too, but seemingly mostly on run plays. I really wish the Bears would take a shot deep with Knox when Suh is not in there. Leave a TE and/or RB in there and take a shot. No Suh should buy some extra time.

I don't even think the call was on him. But either way, if you are ever going to take a cheap shot on a player (which I don't like or condone) that is the time to do it, after you take away possession and have a kneel down to go before halftime.

Hell yea! Ugliest 88 yard drive in NFL history. Kids don't play QB like that unless you have a cannon attached to your right shoulder.

Looking at the sidelines, it appears Omiyale has been benched. Wasn't really in the huddle of the OL men. Interested to see if he comes out. He was supposed to block down on Suh on that 4th and short that should have never happened in the first place.

What a terribly inept coaching staff. Fumb Ducks.

You're out of your mind. He's probably the only good thing we have left in the WR corps. Yeah, I don't understand cutting a cheap player that's actually halfway decent. And for some odd reason, Earl Bennett has gotten the "injury prone" tag. But before he was hit on a play that should have been a 15 yard penalty and $15K fine, he'd only missed 1 game due to injury in his career and that was the meaningless finale vs. the Packers last year. Earl is fine as the 3 or 4 WR, on this or any other team in the league.

that's their best safety duo. i'm not going to get on the meriweather-hater bandwagon. i think he's been pretty much what we thought he'd be and he hasn't necessarily been egregiously out of position on any play that i can remember. people say "he needs to wrap up", well, he's going for the vicious hit to jar the ball loose, people know what he does. he's not a great player, but he's been fine. wright is the one who is always out of position, steltz and the other white guy have been bad, but they're just bad football players. busts by angelo. Meriweather hasn't been out of position, but he hasn't been much better than Wright. He is a better bet at FS though, and Harris is better at SS and FS than Wright, so I'm ok with him not starting. Conte has been fine. Hasn't been on the field much, but he's a rookie that has seen the field in 3 professional games. Steltz is always a day late and a dollar short. Not sure why he's on the roster.

Some pretty big injuries for the Lions there. Spievey and Durant are starters on that defense. Durant gets replaced by a decent LB in Bobby Carpenter, but those are going to be losses that come into play at some point tonight.

Well, FWIW, here's my analysis/keys to this game. Had a little time on my hands and figured I would take a look at the Bears chances tomorrow night. 1. Mix it up with Forte. In 6 games vs. Detroit, Forte has had "good" games on the ground 4 times (3 x over 100 yards, 1 other time with 5 ypc). Last year in the opener, Bears could not run with Forte, but he ate the Lions alive in the passing game. Even you take out the 89 yard screen, Forte still caught 6 for 62 in that game. The Lions refused to let Forte beat them in the air the 2nd game last year, but still the Bears were able to get the ball to Matt twice for 20 and 16 yards respectively. This year, the Lions have allowed 8 catches to Earnest Graham, 4 catches to Adrian Peterson who doesn't catch a lot of balls, and 7 catches to the Cowboys duo of Tashard Choice and Felix Jones. So, even if the Lions focus on trying to not let Forte beat them, I think the Bears can pick their spots and get him the ball vs. a LB for a couple big gainers. 2. The run will be there. Kinda goes with #1, but Detroit hasn't done particularly well vs. the run. Sure the stats look OK because Tampa couldn't run in the opener and then got behind and threw the ball the 2nd half. And KC lost Jamal Charles early and again threw the ball a lot after getting down big. And then Dallas refused to run the ball last week up 27-3. But the run will be there. KVB and Suh are great pass rushers, but they don't really get the ball carrier on their way to the QB. Suh can be caught with trap blocking, which the Bears love to do with their guards. VandenBosch has been overly aggressive this year and has allowed plays to be run inside of him and wide of him. He has been very susceptible to misdirections and reverses. Forte got only 26 of his yards between the tackles last week. If the Bears can successfully get Suh and the DEs up the field, Forte loves to make 1 big cut to the outside, and there should be big yardage available as the backside OGs for the Bears has been great at getting to the 2nd level this year. 3. Test their DBs, get everyone involved. Again, the overall numbers look decent, but this is still the same Lions secondary that got abused last year. The Lions have actually allowed QBs to complete 67% of their passes (slightly more than the Bears DBs). Granted, the Bears don't have Kellen Winslow or Jason Witten, but the Lions have allowed 25 catches for 249 yards to opposing TEs this year. Chris Houston, despite 3 INTs, can still be picked on outside. I'd like to see the Bears get their big TEs involved in the offense and take more shots down the sidelines vs. Houston. 4. Keep them 1-dimensional. The Lions are one of the worst running teams in the league. Can't let them get it going tomorrow. The Lions have only given up 5 sacks, but Stafford has been hit 20 times. Their OL really isn't that good. Peterman at guard is a liability. Peppers has owned Jeff Backus in their careers, with 4 sacks against him in 3 games, including knocking Stafford out of last year's game. 5. Fast start. Both are these teams are teams that have started slow so far this season. Lions have started slow on offense the last 2 weeks. The Bears have started slow on defense the last 3 weeks, allowing early TD drives. With the Bears ability to run the ball (hopefully) and willingness (hopefully) to run, Detroit can't afford to get behind the Bears by 20 and expect to come back. Likewise, the Bears don't have the offense to go back and forth with the Lions and can't have the Lions DL pinning their ears back with the Bears in obvious passing situations. I'd like to see the offense put up a TD early, and the defense and special teams put the offense in good position.

Giving up on Bradford already? I got from that they are going to have the #1 pick and open it to the highest bidder. Holding Luck hostage = Rams deciding where he will play.

Looking decent so far, 1/4 way thru the season. 1. Looks to be right on 2. Not looking good. On pace for 800. 3. Colts and Steelers look pretty bad, Colts definitely not making it. Steelers do have easy schedule, but injuries are piling up. 4. Only hope is Cam Newton for this to come true. 5. Playing .500 so far 6. HA! Look at that. All 3 have won 3 of 4 games so far. 7. Sparano is trying to make this one fail, but got vote of confidence this week.....we'll see. 8. Ugh. On pace for 3400. Didn't factor in their impossible early season schedule 9. Not looking good. Some really bad teams in the league. Cincy has already won 2 10. Yeah, that was blown away in the season opener. AFCE- still in play, Jets just 1 game back. And *ahem* Bills ahead of Miami. AFCN- tight division. Cincy looks better than I thought. Steelers look worse than I thought. AFCS- Texans, Titans making me look good AFCW- Chiefs look worse than Broncos, but coming off a W NFCE- Moment of dyslexia. Division is completely opposite of my picks NFCN- Vikings clearly worse team. Monday night will go a long way toward these picks NFCS- So far so good. Exactly right. NFCW- Again, completely opposite.

Yeah, the real issue is 3 straight stinkers by the defense. Safety play is atrocious right now. Guys like Tillman, Idonije, and Adams seem to be just going thru the motions at this point. It's also concerning that holding Julius Peppers has not only become legal but seems to be encouraged at this point. But a win is a win. The Bears won 12 times last year and only the 2 Minnesota games are games you can consider that they played very well in all 3 phases.

The Bears came into the game leading the league in 3 and outs. You know how many they had today? 0 The Bears took advantage of good field position, but they also got the ball at or inside their own 25 in 5 of their 9 drives. They got a FG out of one of those drives. The next 3 times they did move the ball past their own 40 and changed field position starting Carolina at their own 8 and 7 in consecutive drives. The 5th time was the Cutler INT, and a good throw there would have changed field position again.

The Giants, Niners and Skins are 3-1 and have looked terrible doing it for the most part. The last 4 are clearly not in the conversation, along with Carolina. And the Bears beat Atlanta already pretty convincingly.

Yeah but they still have Philly (who knows if they get their [expletive] together by then), San Diego, Oakland (now tough because we cant stop the run), and 1 more against Detroit and Green Bay. The schedule is pretty tough this year. Philly is in Philly, but the Bears are coming off of a bye week. Eagles coming off of a game vs. Dallas. San Diego is in Chicago in late November, should be a factor Oakland will be tough, but you never know what you're going to get out of them (or the Bears really). They could come out and play well or lay an egg. 2nd Detroit game is also at home. Tampa is in a neutral site that should be a more pro-Bears crowd. The Bears should win Minnesota x 2, KC, Seattle, and Denver. Like to think they can take 1/2 of the other 6 (including MNF at Detroit). Despite how bad Minnesota has been, I have a hard time chalking up a gimme victory in the Metrodome when the Bears have won there once in the last 10 seasons, including seasons where the Vikings were bad. Yes, but that stat leaves out that the Bears dominated the Vikings in Minnesota last year, though not in the dome. Not to mention they blew them out both games, including 1 with Favre playing. That stat leaves out that one of those losses was after the Bears already clinched the division in 2005. All the other years, the Bears were a clearly inferior team to the Vikings. That's not the case this year.

Yeah but they still have Philly (who knows if they get their [expletive] together by then), San Diego, Oakland (now tough because we cant stop the run), and 1 more against Detroit and Green Bay. The schedule is pretty tough this year. Philly is in Philly, but the Bears are coming off of a bye week. Eagles coming off of a game vs. Dallas. San Diego is in Chicago in late November, should be a factor Oakland will be tough, but you never know what you're going to get out of them (or the Bears really). They could come out and play well or lay an egg. 2nd Detroit game is also at home. Tampa is in a neutral site that should be a more pro-Bears crowd. The Bears should win Minnesota x 2, KC, Seattle, and Denver. Like to think they can take 1/2 of the other 6 (including MNF at Detroit).

It is....but it's not the end-all, be-all game that I'm sure plenty of people will make it out to be. The biggest issue is that a loss would mean the Bears would be 3 games behind Detroit, and at least 2 games behind the Packers with both teams having a game in hand. The Bears are probably out of the division race at 3 games behind both teams, but the way things are shaping up, the NFC North could very well get 3 teams in the playoffs. And looking at the way teams have played so far, I truly believe the Bears will be favored in all but 3 games the rest of the season (depending on what the Raiders are doing by Thanksgiving weekend). And 1 of those where they could be an underdog is home vs. Detroit, a winnable game. But honestly, the Detroit game scares me. They are probably a better team than the Bears are at this point. The crowd is going to be nuts. Just gotta hope the Bears come to play on both sides of the ball.

Hell yeah. When you're 1-2, who cares about style points?

KOR TD by Carolina. haha. Just kidding lucky bastard

Better watch out for them taking a knee.

YAY! Fantasy team racking up garbage time points!

And bad play calls carry over to defense too.

Wasn't short. It was 6 yards to go.