SpongeWorthy

Brady's 2007 was a historically great season. Anybody who expected him to repeat that is an idiot. He's also coming back from a knee injury and before the first game of this year, hadn't played in a real game (not preseason) since the Super Bowl loss to the Giants. The odds of him stepping back in and throwing for 300 yards and three TD's week in and week out right away were slim. Teams had already started to adjust to Brady in the 2007 season (e.g. the playoffs). It's not a knock on him it's just that teams learn how to defend things that terrorize the league. Now Orton is nowhere near the caliber of QB that Brady is but he'll fall from this level of performance. He's simply not that good a quarterback to maintain a 100+ passer rating. Remember when Grossman was lighting up the league in the first half of 2006? Orton has a much better cast around him now but he'll slip. So far the only game he's had to play catch up in was a miraculous fluke. His team simply hasn't given up points in the 2nd half of games this year and is denying an ungodly amount of 3rd down conversions. That stuff isn't sustainable. At some point Orton will have to perform coming from behind or will meet a team that can force him to attack downfield for an entire game. Denver could scrape by because of their D and running game but he's still not going to WIN the game for you in that situation. I guess my point is that Denver hasn't been in a situation where they absolutely had to be explosive in the passing game.

Teams will adjust to Orton and what McDaniels is doing. It's not like Brady kept tearing up the league after his 2007 regular season (Titans aside). He has GREAT personnel around him but a team with a decent secondary can stack the box and will make Orton have to attack downfield to move the football and he'll struggle. I have zero doubt about that.

Orton has time to cook steaks back there and they have a good receiver group and scheme. Teams will adjust and find ways to pressure him or make him beat you down the field. The Chargers don't have the personnel for it. He'll come back down to Earth. He's doing a great job now though. God I wish the Bears had Ryan Clady. He flat out embarrassed Merriman tonight.

http://i37.tinypic.com/jp8owi.jpg

Ryan Clady is making Shawne Merriman look like Tila Tequila.

Denver's offensive line is amazing in pass protection. Merriman is completely worthless now.

God Norv Turner is so dumb.

Watching the Bulls/Magic preseason game that just started on NBATV. Noah has definitely bulked up in the upper body. Hopefully he turns into a defensive anchor down there.

Are they really worth insulting? BC is a nonentity. Though their punk fan base would never accept that. I attended the BC game in 2004 that we lost by one and their fans were intolerable leaving the stadium. It's good that you clarify they lost that game by one since it's so hard to differentiate between all the losses without such details. I attended the game in 1993 when all the ND student section cried like a bunch of little girls and it was glorious. I believe that was a 2 point margin. Good memory, buddy. By the way, that win cost ND the national championship. If BC knew anything about being in the title picture in November I'd expect them to cry upon being removed from it too. 1993 was my introduction into how stupid college football is. Wasn't there some committee after the season to determine who should've been #1 between FSU and ND? I was 7 years old then and knew that the system for determining a national champion was freaking dumb. Sadly, it's not gotten much better. I believe that was the first time BC ever beat ND too.

If Alabama is one dimensional (and that isn't even close, btw, Bama has 6 guys with over 130 yards and a TD, Bama has and forever will be a running team first) it is because McElroy seems to be forcing it abit. If McElroy goes back to spreading the field like he did earlier, Bama's offense will be fine. If Tenneess needs a big defensive play to win the game, then they are in trouble. Besides, Bama will stay away from Berry. I so expect Eric Berry to be a complete no factor in the game. Tennessee will keep the game competitive, and the game will be close, but ultimately Alabama's superior talent and depth (not to mention the superior coaching Bama has over Tennessee, excluding Monte Kiffin) will prevail like it has in every game this yr. I say Bama win the game something like 24-7. Alabama is one dimensional because Greg McElroy is god awful.

I want to vomit looking at those pictures. Why the eff did you do that Devin?

no, that's not even a little bit true They can compete with any team in the NFC in any game. that's sort of besides the point. putting up a fair fight is nice for moral victories or whatever, but the Bears really don't have "elite talent". who's even got a shot at the pro bowl, besides Briggs? they aren't outclassing teams and beating themselves like people are suggesting, the reality is they just have an inconsistent QB and merely a decent supporting cast. he's got to force the issue to compensate for the guys around him. Elite teams win the games they are supposed to. They don't say "well if we did this" or "we did some good things but we didn't do them with consistency". Every team in the NFL or at least the upper 2/3 of the league do things well at least from time to time, but the best teams do them with consistency and execute when they need to. The Bears did some good things tonight, but didn't execute when they needed to, and it's now the second loss that you can say that. This isn't baseball where you can say "oh well we'll do it right next time", there are 16 football games in a season, and you don't execute like the Bears did today when they needed to and its the difference between winning the division, or making the playoffs altogether. Elite teams also have coaches who aren't late getting the defensive signals in on critical 3rd downs.

I've seen him on the field for maybe 10 minutes of total game time this year and basically have loved his play. It blows he can't stay healthy.

It's a nice thought and it should remain as a wrinkle for sure. My fear is that you don't really ever want Hester thinking on the field (e.g. making a zone read). He's an all instinct type of guy.

He has absolutely ZERO holes to run through. None. Give him a decent Oline and hes going to be productive, but this Oline is horrendous. Productive? Sure. Most running backs will be productive if they have consistent lanes to run through. Forte's best strength is that he can catch the ball out of the backfield but we've somewhat rightly gone away from that with Cutler in the fold. I still like him but Forte's not the kind of guy that can turn woeful run blocking into at least something semi productive. He doesn't get downhill or hit the hole hard enough for that. His vision was pretty bad tonight too. He missed some cutbacks for sure.

This game sort of destroyed my confidence that Forte is more than a slightly above average NFL starting running back.

He's afraid of contact.

Williams was pretty awful tonight.

Cutler should use his legs more. I admire that he stays in the pocket and tries to gun it but he shouldn't be so trusting of his crappy offensive tackles.

Forte, if you're going to be a painfully average runner you could at least hold on to the ball.

Nice [expletive] toss, Jay.

You guys are totally wrong about fades, btw.

There's nothing wrong with fades. You're just not going to get receivers streaking open very often close to the goal line. Now throwing it to your shortest receiver is an issue. I'd rather see Olsen out on the perimeter there.

I wish we had a red zone target.

Gonzalez might destroy us tonight.