Soul

I didn't post it so much for the missed call as for letting you guys know there will likely be a major fine coming and possible suspension. They can cut him for all I care. Frankly, outside of Tommie when he feels like playing, and Alex Brown on the 2 or 3 days a year where he decides to show up, I wouldn't mind seeing brand new faces as soon as possible up & down that line.

Is Pitt's D good or is ND just bad?

It's just one more example of how mindless they are out there. It's no wonder they can't figure out how to look like a pro team. They're too busy being frustrated and angry and then they lash out at someone.

Yeah they coasted for awhile but the last penalty kill was good, and the D looked solid in the final minutes to seal it. That'll work. Points at home.

He does some incredible things. That wasn't even fair.

If he does need to work on anything, I'm not sure he'll receive the coaching support that he might need.

Of course not. That's the way it always goes, doesn't it?

Everybody always freaks out about how this city is going to treat a player. I get the issue, but it's really not an issue. Cutler isn't some in over his head nobody trying to make it big. He's an established quarterback who recently signed a substantial extension and will be the QB. There is no QB battle. Even if people freak out about him, nobody is going to build up a lot of support for needing a new one. Even his most vocal critics admit the problems mostly lie elsewhere. Everybody thought the Bears were great except for Grossman, nobody thinks this Bears team is just an upgrade from Cutler away from domination. I do understand what you mean. I guess I just let it bother me more than I should.

This wasn't the NFC championship game for a team with one last chance to win it all. The 2009 season was virtually over before they even kicked off last night. What is there to forgive him for? The city isn't going to eat him alive and spit him out. People say that's what happened with Grossman but his problem was he wasn't particularly good. He had a handful of quality games on his resume, but nothing else. He didn't leave big drives on his own, and he was actually on this team the last time they had a quality offensive line. Cutler moved the offense all by himself last night. His jackass offensive coordinator decided to run two doomed to fail dive plays and a freaking play action pass when the defense knew they had to pass and yet they had no receivers on the field. Why was Kellen Davis featured so prominently last night and why was Olsen on the sideline on goal line? Sure the last pass was also bad, but again, every play during that drive he was scrambling for his life and/or dealing with his teammates drawing penalties that kept negating gains. He got knocked around all game but stayed on his feet and in the game. I hardly doubt the venom of the city is going to destroy him. If they ever put a decent team around him, they'll be good and he will flourish. Cutler has job security. Lovie and Angelo have some, but not nearly as much as Jay. They will be spat out long before Cutler is. I'm with you on the analysis, but I just don't have faith in this city to understand all that.

The thing I'm hating about Cutler is that his two big mistakes were interceptions right down by the goal line. You have Hester falling down, an uncalled PI.......fine. But he continues to throw bad INTs by the goal line. We can say what we want about it, but here's the bottom line: he will not be forgiven for those. Rightly or wrongly, or whatever way we want to say it -- those INTs will be hung around his neck like an albatross. If he doesn't stop throwing goal-line INTs this city will eat him alive and spit him out, and then we'll be left with another Moses Moreno. So it must be fixed. Period.

You call giving up 104 yards on 25 carries including a touchdown to Frank Gore stopping the run? Yeah, pretty much. Compared to 180+ yards to Benson, and getting absolutely destroyed against more than one team up front, they did their job for the most part. 104 yards to Gore doesn't make me think they didn't stop the run, when compared with what I expected.

Lovie did not build the Bears from scratch. By the time he was brought on in 2004, Urlacher, Brown, Brown, Briggs and Tillman were all on the team. The only core piece brought in under Lovie was Tommie Harris, and he's a basket case who cannot be trusted. You can give him credit for putting it together, but the Bears had the makings of a dominant defense before Lovie was brought in. Yep...and before that it was as recently as 2002 that we had Washington and Traylor in the middle, and everyone was talking about was that Bears D as good as the 85 Bears as we made a playoff run (and promptly got squished by Philly). Everytime the D is good, that comparison happens and I hate it. EDIT: Omg...Olin was on the 2001 team? He's been with the Bears since 98? I didn't realize...wow. His best years are definitely in the rear view. Yes. He's been there forever. He's clearly not anywhere near the player he was. And for Olin to be skidding the ball along the ground on *ANY* shotgun snap is absolutely unacceptable. That's to say nothing about the fact that he gets owned on nearly every running play.

They did stop the run though. The 49ers are supposed to be able to run the ball, and for the most part the Bears had that covered. So I give them credit for putting forth a halfway decent effort on D last night. But in true bad team fashion, when one thing goes well, another thing will suck to keep you down.

Yeah, Lovie was good at building his program from scratch. I give him full marks for that. But now that we're heading down the other side of the hill, he's got no idea how to stop the slide. The really sad thing is, there are likely players on this club who could be decent players. But I'm not seeing the coaching. We're going to wind up wasting what little talent we have, and Cutler will likely struggle mightily trying to make up for it, and also he could use a little good coaching and advice right now too. He's not going to get it with this staff. What a sad state of affairs this team is. And it will likely continue next year.

I'm not really seeing the hope because the teams that are ahead of the Bears are simply better than they are. Lovie said last night "we're 4-5, we're a better team than that." Seriously, no they aren't. They are probably worse than 4-5, but early in the season teams weren't quite sure what the Bears were going to do. Now that the injuries have piled up and teams know exactly what we are going to run, we're probably more like a 3-6 team.

How fitting. Let the Cutler assassination begin.

Why in the [expletive] hell would you DO THAT?!?!?! Help me to understand. God!

Oh my god I'm gonna kill these guys!!!!!

At least we don't have to see this nightmarish catastrophe for 10 days.

There's been four or five times tonight where it looks like he's going to make a move through a hole and bust one and he gets tackled. He's got to hit the holes better (on the few plays a game where there is one. I suggest we accept that he's not more than a mediocre runner. He's a good pass catching RB, and average as a runner. I guess I just don't know what happened. I mean the line last year was better, but it was still awful. He looked great last year. I'm still hesitant to call it a fluke. Actually his overall YPC weren't all that special. We tend to ignore that.

Ah, there it is. The common refrain of the bad team. I can't believe I'm blowing my evening on this crap.

There's been four or five times tonight where it looks like he's going to make a move through a hole and bust one and he gets tackled. He's got to hit the holes better (on the few plays a game where there is one. I suggest we accept that he's not more than a mediocre runner. He's a good pass catching RB, and average as a runner.

Very nice hold by the Bears D there. Can't really be upset with that side of the ball tonight.

That's pass interference. No question at all.

Couldn't ask for a better opportunity to score. Seriously. Any team with an ounce of pride would do something here.