bukie

Oh noes! Hyperbole abounds!

I have no problem with anyone cheering a team on, no matter which team it is. That's not trolling. What I do consider trolling is posting something like "HAHAHAHAHA" over and over again every time something goes wrong for the Bears. I mean, who are you really laughing at by posting that? I don't think the Bears read this board. To be fair, it's largely trolling the other way when someone cheers on the misfortune of the other team.

It's only in part Grossman's fault, but the receivers should be expected to catch anything within a foot of their chest, regardless. Manning was starting next to Brown, but once Brown was out, and then especially Chris Harris and Todd Johnson, there was no realistic possibility of Manning getting benched for poor play.

The Vikings were solid defensively this year, they just had nothing on offense. In terms of interdivisional defenses, I think the Saints actually had it easier by playing the Bucs and Falcons twice. Given the Bears competition within the division and the fact that they were never fewer than 3 games ahead of the next closest NFC competitor, the Bears last 7 games were all "throwaway" games. They just won 6 of them. That's not to say the Bears didn't play hard in any of them. It's just to say that there was little to no reason to go all out from the Giants game on. Of course, their performance this past week means more, and they didn't exactly play a whole lot better defensively. So who's to say what's going to happen with the defense.

My "scouting report" on the Bears: The Bears are basically a fantastically inconsistent team. They have the ability to play like the best team in the league at any given moment, but they also have the ability to implode at any time (see: Third quarter yesterday). Defense: Losing Harris and Brown has really stretched the defense thin, forcing the Bears to blitz to put pressure on the QB, and forcing a rookie safety into the lineup. Blitzing from the LBs opens up the middle of the field for 5-15 yard passes, and Danieal Manning tends to count on his speed too much to catch up, giving a large cushion to throw to. To improve, Manning needs to react better and guess less, so that he's on the receiver much quicker, either breaking up the pass or being there right away for the tackle, giving the receiver less chance for YAC (something Tillman and Vasher are generally very good at). The line has been getting almost no pressure for weeks now, and I think the Bears are overcompensating by blitzing too much, allowing open routes and opening larger holes in the defensive backfield. The best the Bears did defensively yesterday was when they simply sent the front four in to rush, keeping the LBs back to react to runs or short passes. Urlacher and Briggs played very well yesterday to keep the Seahawks offense honest. Offense: Rex is both a boon and a liability. He always wants to make something happen out of nothing, and that was the main reason for the fumble. He generally had a good game yesterday, other than 2 passes about 6 inches behind where they needed to be, 1 to Berrian that would've been a TD, and one to Muhammad that led to the fluke INT. Rushing, Jones always waits for a hole, even if there is none, and Benson generally just charges ahead right away. Benson's approach has been working better lately, but the run blocking was pretty good yesterday regardless. Pass protection was OK, but blitz recognition was abysmal. Sure, rattling Rex with pressure will make him force things, but there was an unblocked rusher on about 75% of the blitzes, and there were blockers just standing around waiting for something to happen. Either Rex needs to recognize what's going on quicker, or the blockers have to recognize everyone that comes on the blitz.

Just curious cuz I know nothing of Gould, but if he sucked how did he get to the NFL? Basically, because the Bears needed something after Doug Brien didn't work out at all last year. Gould was essentially hammering nails last year.

Gene Wojciechowski = former disgrunteled Tribune writer. From the tone of that article, he's currently disgruntled, formerly a Tribune writer.

Seconded. Brady had a crappy game today, threw in one good drive, and won. Unbelievable. So damn mad right now... Crap. I don't even care. Bears could beat either of these teams What happen to the Bears last time they played the Colts. I think Manning threw for fours TD's. The Bears can't beat either the Pats or Colts. When the Bears went 5-11? Yeah, I'm sure it's a similar situation.

Well, the defense was awful for the middle half of the game, but they came through when they needed to. The defense really needs to work on coverage and run defense up the middle. Anything from here is gravy, really. I just really, really wanted them to win this game.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cmon pick 6.

I mean, seriously, did they expect Seattle to punt with 2 seconds left?

Why the hell do you call a timeout with 2 seconds left?

WOO

They still need about 10 yards.

See that, Bears? A run play late in the game...with 3 timeouts, you can afford to do that.

Going to take a pick-6 to win this one in regulation.

Well, that "drive" went about as poorly as one could expect.

WOOO, IT'S A DEFENSE

Well, the last two times a team went for it on 4th and short, they got untouched rushing TDs. I really hope that doesn't happen.

Secondary just unable to cover anyone.

I really hope media pundits don't put this on Grossman if the Bears lose. This defense simply isn't working. Either the opponents have figured it out, or the personnel isn't working out.

The defense is getting no pressure, can't stop runs up the middle, and can't cover receivers in the middle of the field. And yet they somehow still have a lead. For now.

The defense has been very disappointing so far.

I'm worried that a team with a better secondary would have gotten a couple of picks though. To be fair, Tillman really should've had a pick-6 earlier in the game as well. That was as close to a gift as possible.