rawaction

The Pats are 4th in the league in yards per passing attempt. And while they are middle of the pack in yards per reception, they have just 2 plays fewer over 20 yards than Green Bay does. True, they don't have a guy that is a bonafide deep threat, but they will send any and every receiver (besides Welker) down the field. Tate, Hernandez, and Branch can beat you deep if they have the matchup in their favor (1-on-1). I definitely wouldn't play a ton of 2-deep. But you can't just not play Cover 2. Can't really play just 1 style against the Patriots at all, because they can do so many different things offensively. i disagree, gotta go with heavy doses of the tampa-2, which is player contingent not scheme contingent. if the players are doing well, it needs very little tweaking. the bears shouldn't outthink themselves. do what you do well and make new england play differently, don't get into a chess match with belichick, you'll lose. Agree, Bears gotta do what they do well. And what they do well is play aggressively and mix things up. Tampa-2 is fine, but it's not really aggressive at times. They can't let the Patriots catch the ball and then go tackle them. If so, you'll get the SB vs. the Colts all over again. The Bears DBs actually have a size advantage. I'd like to see them disrupt NEs timing as much as they can.

The PITT job is a very attractive one, IMO. Someone's going to be bringing back a decent pro-style QB. Two NFL caliber RBs. Even if Baldwin goes to the NFL, they still have 3 very solid WRs and a good TE. And they'll have 3 of their OL starters back. They lose some guys on D, but they are at positions where they have decent backups. And they have a top 25 recruiting class again.

Kevin Wilson is interesting. Hopefully, the Oklahoma experience shows that he can groom QBs and WRs. He also is a former OL coach, so that's good too. The only problem is IU hasn't had any problem at QB or WR in recent history. And the OL has produced a few NFL players. I really would have liked a defensive coach (Wisconsin DC was interviewed I think). But I can't fault a team for bringing in a high caliber assistant (08 assistant coach of the year) from a National Championship caliber team.

The Pats are 4th in the league in yards per passing attempt. And while they are middle of the pack in yards per reception, they have just 2 plays fewer over 20 yards than Green Bay does. True, they don't have a guy that is a bonafide deep threat, but they will send any and every receiver (besides Welker) down the field. Tate, Hernandez, and Branch can beat you deep if they have the matchup in their favor (1-on-1). I definitely wouldn't play a ton of 2-deep. But you can't just not play Cover 2. Can't really play just 1 style against the Patriots at all, because they can do so many different things offensively.

Loney isn't that good. He doesn't have any power at a position and for a team that needs power. He doesn't get on base enough to justify the relative lack of power (ala Mark Grace). He doesn't hit LHPs particulary well. FWIW, he does have some decent looking home/road splits, and getting him out of Dodgers Stadium could mean you get a low .800 OPS out of him. Nothing special, but more than the Cubs got out of DLee last year.

Grand scheme of thing, it doesn't matter. Will likely run a lot of nickel anyway. I like DJ Moore on a TE or even Danieal Manning with his size and speed if you want to play 3 safeties.

It's pretty clear the Bears were not really trying to run the ball early in the season. I understand they weren't very good at it, but in the aforementioned Washington game, Forte and Taylor ran the ball 13 times for 61 yards for a 4.7 average. And they completely stopped despite the game never being anywhere near the point where you had to abandon the run. It's pretty clear now that they have put an extra emphasis on the running game.

I thought he had 2. Yeah, you're right. I blocked out the one to the 9 that turned into a TD 20 seconds later.

Peppers had a pretty weak first half though. I know he got blown up on the Stanton TD run. And Urlacher played pretty strong in the 2nd half...he ended up with 17 tackles for the game. I just think the D overall came in too confident in the first half. Apparently Lovie actually yelled at the D at the half...which I have a hard time picturing. But apparently it worked. Yeah, Urlacher was a monster in the 2nd half. He had 7 (5 solo, 2 assists) second half tackles (Detroit only ran about 24 plays), and if you include the 1/2 sack, the total yards on the tackles he made was 0. Nick Roach got hurt at some point and Rod Wilson played some SLB (poorly). Briggs missed an buttload of tackles in the 1st half. Maynard was typically his not decent self. Did have 1 punt inside the 10 though, which is the only value he provides at this point. You're pretty on point with the guys that did well. Also, Olsen should get props. Even though he only caught 1 ball, he did a great job blocking on the perimeter and sprung Forte for a couple decent runs.

FWIW, teams are 10-13 after playing on Monday night the week before. Teams that play Monday and then have to go on the road are 4-7. Of those 4 wins, 1 was SD winning at Indy and getting a Sunday night game, so a few extra hours of rest. Two of the other wins are the Jets over Denver and KC over Cleveland. Both those teams got off to really slow starts and needed late scores to win those games (by 4 and 2 respectively). The other win was Washington winning at Tennessee in OT after the fiasco vs. Philly. This doesn't say a whole lot, except that maybe the Pats come out relatively slowly. The last time they played on Monday night, they had a bye week after.

Jay makes amazing throws that are barely noticeable. He made a 3rd down throw to Bennett in the 1st half (believe on the 2nd TD drive) that was a 12-15 yard out route that he threw off his back foot, about 10 yards deep in the pocket, and he hit Bennett on the dead run. He's done this several times since the bye too.

Cubs are looking like a strong 29th right now.

Atlanta is not helping. They are going to lose, keep the Bucs in it and the Bears will still not have homefield if both teams win out (or if NO wins out).

Wow seriously? Yahoo's headline is: Questionable call helps Bears beat Lions. Really Yahoo? They are talking about the freaking personal foul penalty on Suh for hitting Cutler on the scramble. First off all, if that was not called the Bears have the ball 2nd and 2 with the Bears having the ball at the Detroit 14. Even without the penalty, the Bears would have had a very good shot to get the short 1st down and have basically a goal to go situation to take the lead. Worst case, it's an easy game tying FG. Secondly, the hit was illegal. The penalty was called as a forearm to the head, which it was not. However, it was an unnecessary hit to the back of the head of a vulnerable player which is against the rules.

Bears didn't score at end of lions game. They got lucky first time vs Detroit but outplayed them. And the Washington non challenge remains inexcusable. Read clearer. He;s talking about today, which is still debateable.

I agree we benefit from having the Giants play 2 teams we're battling with. If they go 1-1 and we go 1-1 we're still up a game with 2 other games to go. If the Bears go 2-2, those 2 better be over Minnesota and Green Bay.

The good thing is that the Giants play Philly and GB coming up. So, AT LEAST one of the three 8-4 teams have at least 1 more loss coming. If Giants lose both, Bears are likely going to get in either way. If the Giants win both, the Bears are likely going to get in. If the Giants go 1-1, the Bears are also in good shape because they beat both Philly and GB. *Comes with the assumption that Tampa will continue their season of not beating a good team and lose today and vs. NO.*

Am I crazy for wanting to face the Giants again?

Bengals suck ass

Detroit got 91 yards on 2 plays before the half. They got 49 yards on 24 plays in the entire 2nd half.

DJ Moore can tackle. Everyone else? Eh.

Either go down or throw the ball Jay. WTF?

I don't think it will work out that way. I think we're in a dogfight. It could go either way. We won't dominate the 2nd half. I feared the defense would come out like this. It's only natural. A shutout, followed by a great effort vs. Vick, then facing a 2-9 team with their 3rd string QB. I expect them to get it together. But I said the same thing during the Seattle game, so who knows.

We only had one timeout at that point though. If that Best run were stopped for a short gain, like it should've been, then the Lions would've sat on the ball and gone into the locker room. Yeah, you're right. But still there was no good reason to go for that 4th down.