BigSlick

beating, or at least staying competitive and keeping me entertained while i wait 2 weeks anxiously for our first playoff game, would be nice, and since i can't have nice things that wont happen packer 41 bears 24

Except that they're playing the AFC West and NFC South. my bad, read it wrong, still not the worst draw

playing the afc west and nfc west isn't too bad, probably the easiest two divisions we could play (of course that also means the rest of our division gets easier than usual games as well) as a bears fan i'm fully prepared for our luck to peter out and us to be mediocre/bad again next year, so i fully anticipate us not taking advantage of the schedule

Wow, I might go out of my way and put some money on the Packers then. They'll take this in double digits, I mean, given Lovie's history, Caleb Hanie is going to have serious minutes in the second half.

lol, 'i'll give my credit to mike tice' *circles two guys* 'this guy isn't playing anymore, this guy isn't playing anymore'

stanzi had a really awful game and in the entire second half he must have been injured or something because everything was sailing, even his checkdowns were awful and hung there for his players to get squashed that interception + the return was one of the coolest plays ive seen all year though

while i firmly believe chris harris thinks this, he isn't in a position to make that decision

another poor fuckin effort for the first 3 and a half quarters of play. i stopped watching when the vikings-eagles game became more important, but i see we had a strong stretch to end the game and made the difference rose really pressed hard in this one...still glad we can go through the motions vs really bad teams, but god damn this was a team we should blow out

football rules as cool as it would have been to see a high pressure packers-bears game, at least my heart will survive for another few weeks i dont see lovie putting out a strong lineup after a quarter or two now (considering we'll know if we're alive in the 1 seed hunt by the time we play) and he's shown that he can and will rest starters with a bye locked up still kinda wish we'd play full effort and try to knock a team that has the potential to be the best team in the nfc out of the playoffs

yeah i'm not as irate over the nfc west division winner being (possibly) sub-.500 as some people are, its a freak occurrence and the first time its happened since the inception of divisions. if the nfl wants to do the nba thing and reseed it so wild cards can host home games, fine by me, but I can go either way with it.

Heres the thing that everyone misses out on: Everyone Is Susceptible To The Short Passing Game. There isn't a team in the league that can stop a really well run west-coast style short passing game akin to what the Patriots and Packers run. The way the game has been legislated and the rules have been enforced, its basically unstoppable. They'll roll up yards and points on you. Its the way the NFL wants it to be. You just do what you can to hold teams to as few points as possible, and try to get your turnovers when you can. The days of a shutdown defense are gone. Pine for those days all you want, but even the best defense in the league can't hold Aaron Rodgers, when he's on, from rolling up 270+ in the air. Its just the way the league is. Hope you can generate a pass rush, hope you can disrupt as many of those underneath passes as you can, but there is no more stonewalling. Those days are over. Now whether or not our corners and secondary are worse than average in stopping the short game is a possibility. We certainly played better at the beginning of the year, of course we also played much worse teams at the beginning of the year as well. With all that said: As scared as I am of a back-to-back playoff scenario vs. the Packers, when I stop and think about it, its not all that scary. We only need to beat them once to stop them (either shut them out of the playoffs at Lambeau, or beat them in the playoffs) Its...just not all that likely, even with a team as strong as the Packers, with a QB as good as Rodgers, to beat a team in back-to-back weeks. Yeah, its not unheard of, but I would take the Bears in at least overcoming them one of these times. As humiliating as it would be, it just probably doesn't happen. Either way everything in this season has been gravy since clinching the North. We've already played beyond our talent level, and we still have a young growing QB. I want to see strides, but I'm not going to be crushed emotionally if we lose in the playoffs, especially with this offensive line. Next year may be the make-or-break year, as our defense isn't getting any younger, and that may be our one window year to contend. Now if we don't pick a minimum of 2-3 lineman in next years draft...then I'll be crushed emotionally.

..someone like...Tracy McGrady?

that was certainly something whatever just gobble up as many wins as you can without noah, no complaining about how you go about gettin em

I don't see Cutler sitting out. Lovie takes pride in beating Green Bay and isn't going to roll over. Did you forget 2006 that soon? With the number one seed wrapped up the Bears played Grossman all of like 3 series and then gave the keys to Griese I think. Yeah and right now the Bears don't have their seeding wrapped up. They still have the #2 seed and a bye week to play for. You honestly think Lovie won't play for that? :-k No of course he will. I'm just saying when the Bears have nothing to play for they have, on two occasions, sat starters. And its possible, though unlikely, we'll have clinched the #2 seed by next week.

I don't see Cutler sitting out. Lovie takes pride in beating Green Bay and isn't going to roll over. Did you forget 2006 that soon? With the number one seed wrapped up the Bears played Grossman all of like 3 series and then gave the keys to Griese I think.

i, uh, really dont want to play the packers back to back in successive weeks, that would be...just ugh. i also would really love a bye.

ugh pretty crappy, just win in ot please, this is embarrassing

people don't like joniak? wow, i love him, though i will admit id ont have much experience with football play by play types, and i concede that its an incredible hard sport to do play by play for. (basketball and hockey are much worse though, i listen to a lot of bulls games on the radio at work and the wennington-swerski team is [expletive] terrible, i can barely tell who scored at any moment) this game is gonna be fun. i have a load of confidence for some reason, and we can only lose so much, practically speaking, so i wont be screaming at my television like i usually.

because we're the cubs

gallinari looks and acts like such an incredible douchebag its astounding can they stop shooting 80% from three or is that just not gonna change vs us?

kurt thomas had the most amazing game i've seen from a player to not leave his feet. i dont think he jumped even once. he had like 3 steals when he just stole it out from elton brand's hands, and then was found for a 14 footer like 3 times in a row i really hope we dont get a double dose of kurt thomas for the next few weeks though, he's...quite bad

this is the cool part of the season when we get saturday games, and they give us dallas at arizona? lame.

it's a cross between 2001 and 2006, with the exception being we now have a franchise qb to pin our hopes on. i was watching a rex grossman highlight tape (such a thing exists, i know right!) and the biggest thing that stood out for me was the protection he got at the beginning of 2006 was phenomenal. we got john tait at the zenith of his career, we squeezed one last good year out of fred miller, olin was still more than serviceable, garza was a battler, we had a pretty nitty gritty oline that could block well. in fact it was pretty easy to see grossman crumble to pieces as the oline sorta fall apart a bit as the year progressed. that and most of the highlight reel was grossman bombs to berrian. what i would do to just have an oline of that quality again.

knox still has some issues, he had a couple plays he probably doesn't strictly have to make but if he wants to at least imitate a number one receiver, he should. a lot of cutler's problems aren't just oline related, but receiver related, and this is getting ignored by the punditry

pretty satisfying game, really got nervous at the beginning there but the defense came to play for the first time in almost 3 weeks and locked it down. (i'll consider the lions game an 'eh') will be interesting to see how people judge cutler's play on the radio tomorrow. he had pretty much the quintessential 'cutler' game, he threw some amazing laser throws, had awful footwork, and had one absolutely mindbogglingly bad throw, but overall had a very solid game. running game also looked strong...with forte. chester either can't buy a block when he's in, or doesn't really have the burst to bust open a long run when he does get some blocking. some up and down play by the pass blocking and the receivers, such is life. congrats to devin hester. he is at his rightful place, as the king of all kick returners. he'll likely add to this record, and he's had quite a year for himself. well done dude, i'm happy for you. happy for the defense to have a nice bounce back fun game. they got at em, hit em, got some turnovers, and played solid. wished they coulda bottled up gerhart better at the beginning but they locked it down and took care of business. there was an atrocious PI penalty that should have been offensive PI if anything, but what can you do, that gifted them some points, and the broken contain on the play. its gonna be a nice relaxing few weeks, now that we don't have the world on our shoulders. we still have a lot to gain if we can lock up a bye, but at least i wont be biting through my nails in each and every game because its not life or death. i still get the feeling this is a bit of a 2001 type season, that our magic might be spent after this year if we dont do something special with it, so i'm gonna enjoy it while i can. i predicted an 8-8 season and possible 10-6 wild card hopes if everything broke the right way, we've definitely outplayed that. good job guys. bear [expletive] down