brinoch

You're calling for running the ball, possession football and lamenting too many passes and at the same time a conservative game plan. No, I'm calling for him to not be simultaneously conservative and stupid. It's fine to play conservative and run the ball when you are leading, have a good running game, and know you can take a large-ish amount of the remaining time off the clock. Throwing short sideline passes which run some risk of a DB jumping the route, have a chance at stopping the clock due to an incompletion, and are easy to stop for little gain in any event are stupid play calls. Running the ball -- which the Bears do well -- combined with a little play action would have been superior. At the five minute mark, passing the ball (as the Bears did twice) for an incompletion and an interception was really dumb. Well I don't think they designed it to be incomplete then intercepted. That would be dumb. But there is nothing wrong with passing in those situations. You can't just run/run/run. They mixed it up, and they won. The only reason it was close was because of Rashied Davis and Olin Kreutz. Everybody can talk about stupid playcalling after the fact. New Orleans running a sweep on 4th down was probably the dumbest play of the month. Well, there's no argument on that score. That was a seriously dumb playcall. As I said earlier, I thought the defense played very well. Sure there were miscues, but I really think the problem is the inability of the offense to sustain long clock-eating drives.

You're calling for running the ball, possession football and lamenting too many passes and at the same time a conservative game plan. No, I'm calling for him to not be simultaneously conservative and stupid. It's fine to play conservative and run the ball when you are leading, have a good running game, and know you can take a large-ish amount of the remaining time off the clock. Throwing short sideline passes which run some risk of a DB jumping the route, have a chance at stopping the clock due to an incompletion, and are easy to stop for little gain in any event are stupid play calls. Running the ball -- which the Bears do well -- combined with a little play action would have been superior. At the five minute mark, passing the ball (as the Bears did twice) for an incompletion and an interception was really dumb.

We really need to re-tool the D-line.

Actually, we're all correct with our analysis. As Goony says, the Bears were pretty good on defense. Soul's right, too -- the Bears weren't great at stopping drives when they held them at third and long. I think if you take away the awful fumble by Kreutz and the gimme interception caused by Davis's drop, the defense really looked stellar. The Saints did move the ball -- to an extent -- but the Bears D didn't give them a whole heck of a lot. They need to stop those drives on third down, but the simple fact is that the poor pass rush is enormously costly. As for the reason why the Bears defense fades in the second half... I really think the onus is on the offense. The offense, you say? Well, the simple fact is the offense needs to hold the ball longer and develop more sustained drives. The longer an offense sees a defense, particularly the Bears defense, the more they pick up on their tendencies and they begin to wear them down. And a huge part of this is Turner. He really needs to stop going conservative and, simultaneously stupid, with his play-calling. An couple examples were the final two drives by the Bears... 5 passes, a failed fake punt, and an interception. The last "drive" was particularly egregious. There were five minutes left in the game, and you're leading by 4. Run the ball, control possession. Instead, we get the usual crap...

Bears win a close one they should have won by a bunch.

Seriously, that was terrawful.

HOW IS THAT NOT INTERFERENCE!!!!!

They should just down it on first and second down.

Awful.

Ummm.... yeah. Why two passing plays with five minutes left?

Is Turner calling plays for the Saints?

It's the right call, but that rule is terrible.

Yep. That's a catch.

Hahaha.... terrible.

Vonage apparently believes that Missouri and Arkansas are the same state... 49, baby!!

But first, the ten millionth commercial break.

Kickers like to celebrate, too.

Hey look, we still can't cover the running back up the middle! For five years...

Sigh.

Don't forget Olin.

Hmmm. And there's frustration best not expressed.

Wow. Just wow, Rashied.

John St. Clair, however, isn't. Get Williams in there.

I just want to say that Beekman's playing well.

Hey look. Not a full-back hand off.