BigSlick

:roll:

I saw that too. It is getting absurd. The one that was flagged on the Bengals was the most egregious. I mean...he SACKED THE QUARTERBACK. He brought him down the ground...how can it be late, and he brought him down slightly on his shoulder...not even with that much force. I feel bad for defensive linemen.

The reason is simple. This defense could play much more physical football----and indeed WANTS to play much more physical football. So they get many more phantom roughing penalties, more of those stupid horsecollars (Bears have 2 of those I believe, and while I'm sure others have gotten them too I haven't seen it), more offsides (including several by Tommie Harris which clearly were not offsides). The Bears defense wants to play like the defenses of yore. But the league's new rules and enforcement won't allow it. the phantom roughing penalties are indeed what is going on from what I have seen. I think the Bears have been called for blows to the QBs head about 8-10 times this year where they either didn't hit the head at all or the blow to the head was an incidental brush by the arm. there have been several downfield plays where the refs call would have been more accurate had he said "personal foul, hitting too hard." back to what you were saying about holding, can't say I agree with your assessment. while holding may be down around the league, I haven't seen defensive lineman routinely tackled from behind by O-lineman without drawing the hanky in any non-Bears game. said scenerio literally happens about 3-4 times per game. in the meantime, the past few weeks I have seen several instances of the Bears offense being called for holding and then even the broadcasters say "not sure where the hold was in that" after the replay. and whoever made the point about the Patriots game was right on. there were 3-4 non calls on PA in the first half that completely changed the game (and that's just the sort of thing that can get into a young QBs head), and the tackles from behind by O-lineman that I just discussed happened on just about every pass play the Patriots ran the whole game. can't block em? just grab an ankle as they pass by. the stripes are cool with that. Bumping this up because it hasn't gotten enough love. If i see more BS from the reffs in the playoffs I'll be destroying parts of my home. Its rough being blue and orange. Every team has been a victim of the roughing the passer BS this year. The NFL isn't just out to get the Bears. It must be so rough being 13-2. Its satisfying seeing your defense ranked in the top 5 after being the victim of just inexplicable stuff. I've kept quiet all year because I know our team will pull it off, but don't act like the NFL isn't getting ridiculous on teams' defenses, and that hurts the Bears more than most teams because thats what they rely on. (BTW who mentioned roughing the passer ? We were talking about hits in the secondary and horse collars, which the Bears have been hit for a lot more than they should be) Why am I even responding to this? I only need to say one thing: "Personal foul: Punishing the Quarterback with his weight." Thats enough to make me even CONSIDER the NFL is rigged. I'm agreeing with you that the QB thing is pure BS. They mind as well have the QB with a red shirt on his jersey as well to make sure he doesn't get hit. We've been on both sides of the penalty this year. We were on the "good" side of the call against the Queens as Favre was touched after he threw the ball and somehow he was roughed. But a couple of weeks earlier, Cullen Jenkins was the victim of an extremely crappy roughing the passer call from a "blow to the head" when what really happened was just Hasselbeck moving his head to protect himself when he fell to the ground. That play was on a 3rd down and that would've made it 4th down, but the penalty gave the Seahawks 15 yards and they marched down the field to score a TD. This has to be one of the main priorities that the rules committee talks about in the offseason. I know for a fact that I've seen more RTP calls this year than in any other year that I can remember. I'm pessimistic about it. They obviously can't change things in the rules because that would be like taking away seatbelts in cars. It might end up being the correct thing to do, but they just can't do it. Which is lame. Hopefully they'll change the way they call things. I hope they change the way reffs call games in general. I don't like seeing games hinged on an illegal contact penalty on the other side of the field in the last 5 minutes of the game or something. In general, I'd prefer if the reffs "let the boys play" more often.

The reason is simple. This defense could play much more physical football----and indeed WANTS to play much more physical football. So they get many more phantom roughing penalties, more of those stupid horsecollars (Bears have 2 of those I believe, and while I'm sure others have gotten them too I haven't seen it), more offsides (including several by Tommie Harris which clearly were not offsides). The Bears defense wants to play like the defenses of yore. But the league's new rules and enforcement won't allow it. the phantom roughing penalties are indeed what is going on from what I have seen. I think the Bears have been called for blows to the QBs head about 8-10 times this year where they either didn't hit the head at all or the blow to the head was an incidental brush by the arm. there have been several downfield plays where the refs call would have been more accurate had he said "personal foul, hitting too hard." back to what you were saying about holding, can't say I agree with your assessment. while holding may be down around the league, I haven't seen defensive lineman routinely tackled from behind by O-lineman without drawing the hanky in any non-Bears game. said scenerio literally happens about 3-4 times per game. in the meantime, the past few weeks I have seen several instances of the Bears offense being called for holding and then even the broadcasters say "not sure where the hold was in that" after the replay. and whoever made the point about the Patriots game was right on. there were 3-4 non calls on PA in the first half that completely changed the game (and that's just the sort of thing that can get into a young QBs head), and the tackles from behind by O-lineman that I just discussed happened on just about every pass play the Patriots ran the whole game. can't block em? just grab an ankle as they pass by. the stripes are cool with that. Bumping this up because it hasn't gotten enough love. If i see more BS from the reffs in the playoffs I'll be destroying parts of my home. Its rough being blue and orange. Every team has been a victim of the roughing the passer BS this year. The NFL isn't just out to get the Bears. It must be so rough being 13-2. Its satisfying seeing your defense ranked in the top 5 after being the victim of just inexplicable stuff. I've kept quiet all year because I know our team will pull it off, but don't act like the NFL isn't getting ridiculous on teams' defenses, and that hurts the Bears more than most teams because thats what they rely on. (BTW who mentioned roughing the passer ? We were talking about hits in the secondary and horse collars, which the Bears have been hit for a lot more than they should be) Why am I even responding to this? I only need to say one thing: "Personal foul: Punishing the Quarterback with his weight." Thats enough to make me even CONSIDER the NFL is rigged.

The reason is simple. This defense could play much more physical football----and indeed WANTS to play much more physical football. So they get many more phantom roughing penalties, more of those stupid horsecollars (Bears have 2 of those I believe, and while I'm sure others have gotten them too I haven't seen it), more offsides (including several by Tommie Harris which clearly were not offsides). The Bears defense wants to play like the defenses of yore. But the league's new rules and enforcement won't allow it. the phantom roughing penalties are indeed what is going on from what I have seen. I think the Bears have been called for blows to the QBs head about 8-10 times this year where they either didn't hit the head at all or the blow to the head was an incidental brush by the arm. there have been several downfield plays where the refs call would have been more accurate had he said "personal foul, hitting too hard." back to what you were saying about holding, can't say I agree with your assessment. while holding may be down around the league, I haven't seen defensive lineman routinely tackled from behind by O-lineman without drawing the hanky in any non-Bears game. said scenerio literally happens about 3-4 times per game. in the meantime, the past few weeks I have seen several instances of the Bears offense being called for holding and then even the broadcasters say "not sure where the hold was in that" after the replay. and whoever made the point about the Patriots game was right on. there were 3-4 non calls on PA in the first half that completely changed the game (and that's just the sort of thing that can get into a young QBs head), and the tackles from behind by O-lineman that I just discussed happened on just about every pass play the Patriots ran the whole game. can't block em? just grab an ankle as they pass by. the stripes are cool with that. Bumping this up because it hasn't gotten enough love. If i see more BS from the reffs in the playoffs I'll be destroying parts of my home. Its rough being blue and orange.

To be fair, the lack of holding calls on our defensive ends have frustrated me a bit this season. (Almost as bad as the non-calls that Berrian should have got in the Patriots game, all the controversy about Grossman and the Bears might have been completely forgotten if the reffs threw 2 flags after Berrian was practically molested, but thats for a different post) Still, our pass rush needs to be there or our cover 2 will just be picked apart in the playoffs. Since the Patriots game quarterbacks have had all day to find an open receiver. I'm not opposed to blitzing either...but seeing Lance Briggs launch himself at a guard isn't going to get the job done either.

I haven't really read all of this thread so I don't know if this has been addressed yet, but many harcore nerd stat guys second putting your best hitter at 2. Mainly for one reason, he gets more plate appearances that way.

No worse than the MLB guys who, ONCE THE PLAYOFF FIELD HAD ALREADY BEEN DECIDED, had zero analysts predict a STL vs. DET World Series. None. Lots of "Colts vs. Panthers" picks out there, which, in the preseason, seemed like a pretty safe choice. None of us saw Carolina sucking it up like this Safe? What was the indication that the Colts were going to spin out of their playoff funk? Which reminds me of a thought I had. The last 3-4 years the Colts have looked impressive in the regular season and then explode terrbly in the playoffs. Which means...the Colts are going to the Super Bowl this year. When I originally thought about it, it didn't add up. Their run defense is TERRIBLE. But then I looked at their current match up. They are playing the Jets...who have a fairly anemic run offense. They wouldn't be able to take advantage of the Colts weakness, and probably wouldn't be wise enough to just run it up the gut every down. (I still don't understand why the Bengals didnt do this. fools) So, game one down. Then all they have to do is upset the Chargers/Ravens (not far fetched at all, honestly, the Ravens scare no one on offense, and we know Peyton will move the ball on any defense) And then just another game against either team or the depleted Patriots squad of 2004. Not too hard. I hate the Colts with all my heart, but that is exactly the reason I can see them making a Cardinals-esque postseason run. Because God hates me.

Bears fans talking about beating winning teams?? The only two winning teams the Bears have beaten are the Seahawks and the Jets. Anyways, this game means absolutely nothing to the Bears, while it could potentially mean everything for the Packers (or it could mean nothing, depending on how the earlier games turn out). The Bears don't need this game. Please just let the Packers win. Yeah, and we played 3 winning teams total, to round out a 66% winning percentage against winning teams. Whatever, thats not that bad. BUT we also took care of bidness against every other team cept the Dolphins. Tear down the Packers and rip out every cheese fan's heart. :twisted: It warms my dark dark heart to see tears fill their eyes as Favre's last year ends in dissapointment. Its the least we deserve after years of misery at his hands, after all.

Could bare the fact that you were a Sox fan, but a Packers fan too? That's 2 strikes....I'll be watching closely for the third ;) I hear he's a Knicks fan ;) He also likes the Illini. What an evil trio. Come on Packer fans...you guys haven't beaten a winning team all year, do you really want to go the playoffs? Lame. Yeah, of course I do. None of the 7-8 teams "really" deserve it, but I could not care less. You're telling me that the Giants deserve it? They have been one of the worst teams in the league the last month or so. The Falcons? Once again, another underachiever. The Panthers? That team should've been a Super Bowl contender before injuries caught up with them, and now they have Chris WEINKE as QB. The Rams? They let Noah Herron rush for over 100 yards when we played them. Enough said about them. Of course we don't necessarily deserve to make the playoffs. We were 1-4 and 4-8 in different parts of the season. But if we were able to make it, you would find no complaining from me :wink: Please please please make it to the second round so the Bears can smack Favre around for the 3rd time in the year...that would be special. :) EDIT: Nevermind, you'd have to beat the Bears to get in, and I just can't root for that. I don't want to see it anyway. Knowing how our luck is, we'd sack Favre 15 times and get 15 personal foul penalties for "punishing the quarterback with your weight" wtf? If i see a single roughing call like that I'm going to throw a sh*tfit this sunday. the League HAS GOT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THEM.

no one is getting real excited about the National Championship game, and I'm not too surprised. While its a justified match up, not that explosive or anything. Ohio State will probably win comfortably, but not in a blow out. Bleh. Go Buckeyes.

How did you determine who is road and who is home? I wonder this too.

Prepare to eat your foot. SD isn't that great, and the rest of the AFC ain't that shabby. Consider this, the Ravens have already beaten the Chargers.

Could bare the fact that you were a Sox fan, but a Packers fan too? That's 2 strikes....I'll be watching closely for the third ;) I hear he's a Knicks fan ;) He also likes the Illini. What an evil trio. HEY NOW! Come on Packer fans...you guys haven't beaten a winning team all year, do you really want to go the playoffs? Lame. If our Bears really cared I wouldn't really worry about this game, but the way the defense is playing so lackadasically who knows what could happen. Lets hope the Bears hang 40 on them and its a long night of Madden jerking off to Favre. *sigh*

Crap. Looks like we have GOT to tie things up this year. Next year will be a BITCH. 10-6 is something to shoot for. Anything better and i'll feel reaaaaaaaal positive about the postseason. Hopefully our helpless division rivals wont make any huge strides and we'll still be able to take the division down easy.

Vasher on Mike Williams ain't going to work, they should have known that from the beginning. Where did Tillman go? I don't want to see Hester on defense ever again. Please, god, no.

Its the worst article about the Bears i've ever read. It basically says expect the Bears to be upset in the first round because they are a bunch of overrated wimps.

Dont tell anyone but those are spread pools.

Calvin Johnson deserves 3 minutes alone (with a bat) in a room with Reggie Ball to pay back what Reggie did to his college career.

They might not play at all. I'd rathernot risk a longterm injury in a game like this. But I do want to see everyone that is healthy go 100% until at least half time.

I have to be honest here, if I was a Lions fan I would be fuming right now. Why does Millen still have a job? Has anybody had worse drafts than this guy? He is just plain terrible. Yeah I don't see why this is a bad thing. Sure they've got your money already, but that's not going to change. I'd be looking to do anything that shows anyone who cares enough to notice that I'm unhappy as a fan. That team and franchise has been so bad for so long. I can imagine the fans are just sick of it. empty seats at a NFL game for the entire game is a lot more effective But if you already bought season tickets there isn't much you can do about it....

It's been made to be. A team retiring a players number is second only to a HOF induction in terms of the size of the honor. To issue the number of a former player who happened to be your franchise player and a sure-fire HOF'er to a mediocre pitcher is a slap in the face. Sometimes moreso. There are plenty of players in the HOF that have numbers that weren't retired by their team. (And vice versa, obviously.) Its becoming an issue for the Bears, because they are running out of linebacker numbers. :lol:

Sheesh. The only thing worse than that Thurs. matchup is the guy who will be doing the play-by-play. That, and all the commercials for this match up. Wow, last Lambeau leap for Favre? Yea, this year also happens to have the FIRST Lambeau Leap for Favre. Really not something he did too often.

Does it really matter? I'd like to see us finish 14-2, but everything is pretty moot from here on out. (I'd like to see our offense and defense do well, but the outcome doesn't really matter to me. Much like a preseason game.) Except that Packers game.

I'll take SF. I win, you lose. :wink: Alex Smith's quietly becoming a half-decent NFL QB. Aww, shucks, I was hoping he'd be a terrible bust.