rawaction

I voted no, because Hell no was not an option. This is Gary Gaetti all over again. You don't re-sign a guy near 40 when everybody thought he was done in May. There's a reason everyone thought he was done. Because he's pretty close to it. Granted, he's been great with the Cubs, but so was Gaetti. He would probably be pretty much guaranteed a starting spot, because of what he's done this year. That's not a good idea.

It's a waste throwing to the RB if you are not designing plays to get them the ball in space. Not including the last drive vs. the prevent defense, 4 of the 8 completions to RBs went for 4 yards or less, and two more went for less than 8. That's not even worth throwing. The WRs suck, but an offense moves the ball by getting it to their WRs down the field. I do agree that the ball needs to go to the TEs more, but it's going to have to be down the field to make any difference. considering the lack of a true #1 wr and development there of, they will have to use the RB more often. Again, that's not the point. The Chiefs of a few years ago were mentioned earlier as a team that threw to the TEs and RBs a lot and were successful. Well, those teams were able to get the ball to the RBs and TE (Tony Gonzalez) because they weren't afraid to throw the ball down the field some. Eddie Kennison average 17.5 per reception in 04. Johnnie Morton 14.5. Samie Parker only had 9 catches, but averaged over 15 yards per catch. Kennison and Parker got 16 and 15 ypc respectively the next season. San Diego last year, Gates and LT caught 135 balls between them. Their top 3 WRs caught a combined 96. But 2 of the 3 WRs averaged well over 15 ypc. Their 4th leading WR got 14 ypc. Not a #1 WR between the 2 teams. The Bears with Rex and Orton had 2 plays over 15 yards, one was due to Hester getting 16 with a RAC. Berrian was by far the Bears leading WR last year, and the closest thing they had to a #1, and averaged 13.4 per catch. That's not gonna get it done, especially now when you have to respect the WRs even less.

It's a waste throwing to the RB if you are not designing plays to get them the ball in space. Not including the last drive vs. the prevent defense, 4 of the 8 completions to RBs went for 4 yards or less, and two more went for less than 8. That's not even worth throwing. The WRs suck, but an offense moves the ball by getting it to their WRs down the field. I do agree that the ball needs to go to the TEs more, but it's going to have to be down the field to make any difference. There's potential there with throwing to Forte. He's the best looking pass receiving RB I've seen here in awhile, albeit only one performance to judge by. It's not hard to judge when a guy has good hands though. I'm not saying the Bears did a good job of it yesterday, but it would be a mistake to abandon the proposition when there's talent there to be exploited just because the first few plays in the preseason didn't yield big gains. Plenty of offenses have been successful throwing primarily to their RB's and TE's. Look at the Chiefs a few years go. It can work. You don't need to necessarily make the WRs the go-to weapons. Especially when the WR corps is as doubtful as ours. Outside of Hester, who is going to consistently get deep? I'm not talking about making the WRs the go-to weapons. But they have to be threats. Most of those throws to the RBs were designed checkdowns. There were 3 throws to WRs that weren't 7 yard outs (Lloyd catch, Hester catch, Grossman overthrow to a wide open Booker, was it?). That's not gonna get it done. And nobody has to consistently get deep. I'm not asking for that. The 3 plays above is more of what I'm talking about. Lloyd caught an 18 yard out pattern on a 5-step drop. That was the biggest play of the game, outside of the Wolfe catch and run when anyone who is gonna play this year was on the field. The Bears offense may not have the most talent in the league, but they can't call plays like it. Teams will take advantage of that. Eight in the box not only stops the run, it stops the short passing game also because of all the bodies around the line of scrimmage.

It's a waste throwing to the RB if you are not designing plays to get them the ball in space. Not including the last drive vs. the prevent defense, 4 of the 8 completions to RBs went for 4 yards or less, and two more went for less than 8. That's not even worth throwing. The WRs suck, but an offense moves the ball by getting it to their WRs down the field. I do agree that the ball needs to go to the TEs more, but it's going to have to be down the field to make any difference.

I'm just listening to the video highlights on Gameday and even in such a short burst, you could tell how horrid Pleasac is. Yeah, I did that too. He LOVES to hear himself talk.

I didn't think the team looked that bad. I thought St. Clair and Beekman were pretty decent. When JSC got beat he kept his man to the outside and away from the QB. Tait was pretty good on the right side. I agree with Goony that you keep him there. When the offense was stopped it was dropped passes, a couple poor throws, and WRs not getting open. The least encouraging thing about the offense was again the lack of creative plays. 11 of 20 completions went to backs. Several other throws went to backs incomplete for very short yardage. Still can't execute a screen pass properly. Hester ran a great route for his only catch. The curl is going to be there for him all season as teams have to respect his deep ball ability. Forte looked solid. The defense was bad in the first drive. But the key plays were a 3rd down broken play QB scramble and a perfect pass between the 2-deep coverage. The starting LBs were pretty horrible. Briggs missed key tackles on the first 2 drives and was out of position on a 2-3 other plays, including getting ran over on the Johnson TD run. Urlacher and Williams were pretty much M.I.A. Tillman was lackluster and Tommie didn't do much. I was encouraged that Alex Brown and Anderson abused a LT they should abuse. Adams had a decent game. McGowan looks to be a very good safety this year. Probably will never be a star, but I could see him being like Shaun Gayle was for the Bears. Very strong run support, won't kill you vs. the pass. Mike Brown looked pretty good moving to the ball. Payne was similar flowing to the ball, but a step late vs. the pass.

I was hoping for a Blanco K and Edmonds walkoff Granny!

Hate to be cliche, but Howry is a guy with a lot of pride from all accounts. Don't be surprised if he has a good last couple months. He seemed to be truly embarrassed his last time out.

Yes. He's due up next. NO, I was thinking Perez was a LHP.

Does Edmonds even bat?

Cards are not good strategizers.

Screw them. Office fist pumps are necessary.

+1 I was going to say I don't have a problem, given the low pitch count. But I forgot he was about to face the top of the order. You have to have people warm, preferably good pitchers. Yeah, with Marmol, Wood, Samardzija and Gaudin in the pen, no reason for Lilly to be allowed to get into too much trouble here.

Looper's last 2 starts: both 7 IP, 2 ERs. His only start vs. the Cubs this season 7 IP, 2 ERs. He started 4 times against the Cubs last year. 7 IP, 1 ER 6 IP, 2 ER 7 IP, 1 ER 7 IP, 1 ER

The interchanging of Fukudome and Edmonds and Derosa and Soto is baffling. Maybe Lou just feels the need to tinker, but you'd think Derosa would stay hitting 6th with the way he's been hitting the ball lately and driving in the middle of the order.

Bryant Johnson- WR 49ers

If the Cubs go to a 3-man rotation for a full season, Zambrano would get 90 RBIs.

Bears Defense.

Jacksonville had a very successful season last year and started with a QB controversy til Leftwich got cut. Before last season, Leftwich/Garrard was no more productive than Grossman/Orton. Cleveland won 10 games and their QB was cut after week 1. Granted they didn't make the playoffs, but I'd take Grossman/Orton before 08 over Frye/Anderson before the 07 season.

What does everyone thing of Orton getting the start Thursday?

Gaudin and Samardzija should be setup men, taking Howry out of that role.

I'd take my chances of Zambrano and Harden vs. Webb and Haren. By then, Webb will be on his 4th straight 230 IP season. He will have had over 800 innings in the last 3 years, including the playoffs last year. Haren will be on his 3rd straight season of 220 innings. As many innings as Carlos has thrown over the years, he doesn't have as many innings in the last few years as those two. While he did throw 230 with the playoffs in 03, he has only thrown over 220 twice since then. Once in 05 and last year as of the 5th inning of the NLDS.

Now, that is an interesting tidbit. I woulda never guessed it. Actually, just looked it up myself. He had another double-digit K game 3 starts before he became a Cub. The only other one came in 2003.

Remember what a dugout fight did for the Cubs last year.

IIRC, he's being doing fairly well as of late and also, Riot could probably use a night off. He didn't start on sunday. Dero played 2B and Theriot was at SS. Cedeno may start tomorrow too with a lefty on the mound.