Soul

That is the coverage you would like to run in that situation? The situation Lovie, is that if you keep them in bounds the game is over. It doesn't matter where they are in bounds, game over you win. They could be in bounds @ midfield, at the 30, or at the 1 yard line. It doesn't matter, the game is over. The only thing that beats you is a sideline pass were the receiver can get out of bounds. So you guard the sticking sideline..bracket the damn reciever! Is this guy for real? I cannot believe the stupidiy of this coaching staff, specfically Lovie. Not that the TO would have been called in time, but technically Atlanta had 2 timeouts left. Theoretically they could have passed inbounds and gotten the TO. I don't think that this is possible. Running out of bounds is an automatic clock stoppage. A pass play for 30 yards downfield has officials all over the place. After the catch, there needs to be a tackle or a touch, and then an official would need to see a player calling for a TO. That is much more slowly developing than an automatic clock stoppage by going out of bounds. Probably. But you don't know the exact timing going into the play. I think it's fair to say that the Bears couldn't totally abandon all coverage of the inside route. But biting on the short route -- that one I still cannot understand. On that play, the Bears should have had all 11 guys in protective coverage. They should have had 3 linebackers up at the line and then on the snap drop back into pass coverage. Everybody else should have been guarding the lines and protecting against the Hail Mary. Guys I would consider to put into protective coverage are Wolfe and Hester. I know. If you just put your DBs back and ignore the short routes, it's over. This one's really hanging with me. I'm having trouble getting over it.

That is the coverage you would like to run in that situation? The situation Lovie, is that if you keep them in bounds the game is over. It doesn't matter where they are in bounds, game over you win. They could be in bounds @ midfield, at the 30, or at the 1 yard line. It doesn't matter, the game is over. The only thing that beats you is a sideline pass were the receiver can get out of bounds. So you guard the sticking sideline..bracket the damn reciever! Is this guy for real? I cannot believe the stupidiy of this coaching staff, specfically Lovie. Not that the TO would have been called in time, but technically Atlanta had 2 timeouts left. Theoretically they could have passed inbounds and gotten the TO. I don't think that this is possible. Running out of bounds is an automatic clock stoppage. A pass play for 30 yards downfield has officials all over the place. After the catch, there needs to be a tackle or a touch, and then an official would need to see a player calling for a TO. That is much more slowly developing than an automatic clock stoppage by going out of bounds. Probably. But you don't know the exact timing going into the play. I think it's fair to say that the Bears couldn't totally abandon all coverage of the inside route. But biting on the short route -- that one I still cannot understand.

It's horrible. They basically say Dempster was a fluke and Harden will collapse. Don't buy it. What about Marmol? His ERA wasn't over 4 was it?

The cover-2 has pretty much been solved by the league. To me it's a situational-only defense now, not a primary defensive set. In my mind Lovie's continued support of this as a primary defense shows his stubborness and lack of imagination.

I refuse to believe all our pitchers are going to balloon up to those ERA numbers. It'll have to actually happen before I will accept it.

The pass defense has been better than it was last year although I'm not sure why. The pass rush hasn't been much better and we're still without Madieu Williams (and have a rookie in his place) so Sharper is having to do too much and is in the twilight. Winfield is having maybe his best year ever and Griffin has been improved at the other corner. They're 6th in the NFC in passing yards allowed and have faced Rodgers, Manning, Brees and Delhomme. In 6 games they've allowed only 4 passing touchdowns to 4 interceptions. Only Brees and Manning went over 200 yards. This defense won't be as good against the run as they have been because Allen isn't as good as Udeze at stopping the run at DE and E.J. Henderson is a huge loss against the run at MLB. The defense has been outstanding considering the schedule and some of the spots they've been put in with an inconsistent offense and terrible coverage units on special teams. They'll either have to kick out of bounds all day or Hester will have at least one touchdown. I think the defense will be fine but am most worried about special teams, our o-line and continued red zone inefficiency and turnovers at the most inopportune times. They're 15th overall, which is about middle of the pack in pass defense. But look closer -- they're only 18th in ypc (6.97). Unfortunately for us, the Bears can't defend the pass -- we're way at the bottom of the league. But even so, the Bears ypc is better than Minny's. In run D, Minny is stellar, 4th in the league and only 3.0 ypc. I'm sticking with the pass game being our better opportunity.

THE GIVEAWAYS! :banghead:

Baseball player wins something: he can do no wrong.

Hawks, when I said win the opener I meant actually win. What the heck was that giveaway at the end of the PP. COME ON.

I only read the "happy how it turned out" part, and voted no.

Actually, while Minnesota is stout against the run, I don't think this Bears offense needs to rely on the run to move the ball. And from what I've seen Minny's pass defense is suspect.

One particular fan who was excited about his team winning caught flak from at first a moderator when others piled up on him. His comments were innocuous in a game thread talking about a game that his team had won. He was correct when he was saying that he was cheering because his team won, NOT because the Bears lost. It seemed like the perpetrators of that issue with wading through garbage posts come from the Bears fans (and as I said, a moderator on this board got it started, and I have a ton of respect for Raisin). That said, I never received a response to my inquiry in the other thread about what "proper etiquette" would be in a Bears/Packers game thread considering there are a few handfuls of big Packers fans on this board. They were pretty innocuous. For the record, I'm sorry I said "+1" to it now as VI's behavior in that thread wasn't close to trolling or smacktalking. I was just......EXTREMELY....frustrated at that game. Yeah, I've got a thinner skin. That shouldn't be a secret around here by now. Sorry Vanilla. Now I hope we can talk about how the Bears are going to blow this next game. There are a thousand ways, pick one.

Cool.

Win the opener and all is well. Do it.

See Soul. Now you've got Raisin spending his valuable time looking up former Bears QB's in a thing we call "Where are they now?". I hope you're happy. I won't be truly happy until it surfaces that he tried to park in a handicapped spot and got towed.

Careful now. I think most Bears fans are tired of the carousel of QB's, not that they want Kyle. They'll take anyone who has the capacity to be good, a team leader and will consistently get this team to the playoffs. Granted, Matt Ryan is just a rookie with only a small handful of games under his belt, but he showed some great composure and he found his receivers when he wanted and needed to. That's what I want in a QB. I've only been waiting for that for 35 years. They say they don't want a carousel, then boo at the first sign of struggles.

Marmol would hurt, but I'd put him in a proposal for Beltran.

Or Jim Miller, Steve Walsh, Erik Kramer, Shane Matthews, et. al. I'm definitely waiting for the other shoe to drop. I think soul is just picturing the distant possibility that Kyle has a prolonged career with the Bears. I still don't think its possible with our fan base. Also, we all just pause and think of how awesome Erik Kramer was in 1995. That was one year where the other shoe never dropped. I personally will be happy if Orton goes 16 games 16 starts, since its sadly an impressive milestone for this organization. I need more than a 1 year wonder from Kyle. We don't need another Kramer. We need an actual longer term starter. The fans CAN'T turn on Kyle. They booed Rex into submission precisely because they wanted Kyle. They at least must give him the normal amount of support QBs would receive in other towns.

Or Jim Miller, Steve Walsh, Erik Kramer, Shane Matthews, et. al. I'm definitely waiting for the other shoe to drop. I didn't say he's definitely the answer. But his possible development as a good NFL starter is fast becoming the most interesting thing to watch this season.

I'll take finding the first real QB we've had since McMahon even if it means we've got other issues that need to be addressed. A QB that can play is such a huge piece. We've dragged ourselves along for too many years without one. Defenses can be fixed. STs......can be fixed. Finding that QB? That's hard. Give me Kyle Orton as a legitimate NFL starter and you can have your defensive breakdowns and ST gaffes. We'll be right there next year, and this time teams won't be able to count on a QB meltdown to save them. I'm about one more heart-breaking loss from making this season 100% about Kyle.

What were your expectations? I expected much worse. Now I expect 9 wins, and am hoping for 10. I expected offensive ineptitude and have been surprised by relatively decent play. They do need to get better line play though. Initially 7-9. How can you expect 9 wins, maybe 10 when the team blows a lead almost every time out? Especially now with the obligatory defensive injuries showing up?

Any playoff spot at all would be amazing considering the expectations coming in to the season. I'm not going to revise my expectations for this team. Yes they've played better in some areas, but there are still grave concerns and injuries are once again beginning to eat away at our effectiveness. There isn't a game this team can't win. But there also isn't a game where I have confidence they'll be able to hold a lead, or avoid game-destroying mistakes, or what have you. The team is almost totally a crapshoot from week to week. We could beat a top NFC team one week, and lose to a crappy team the next. There's no way to predict anything with this bunch. It's pretty much like that around the entire league.

I know. It's really hard to be on the wrong end of one of those. I almost wish Kyle hadn't done what he did to give me hope before being blown away. Almost.

the game wasn't on here so i had to follow on-line, but this was a big point made on the post-game show on comcast. they seemed to imply that the offense was much better when Kyle was calling plays at the line and certainly implied, without outright saying, that he called better plays than Turner. of course this wouldn't surprise me, but i'd like to hear everyone's opinion on that. My initial opinion is that Turner sucks and should be replaced. Just being honest. But......to try to be fair, Turner doesn't know what the defensive alignment will be when he calls the play from the sidelines, and he's also at least partially responsible for training Kyle to be able to make those calls at the line. So, I guess it's good preparation as well. I'm just glad to finally have a QB who is making these play calls. I would have to go back to the tape to confirm it, but I really don't think Rex was doing it (or at the very least, not doing it very well), and I don't recall many of our other QBs faring well with audibles either.

Agreed. It only took 6 players for Cabrera AND Willis, and they both had pretty friendly contracts. Beltran's contract being off the books would free up the money for the Mets to fill some of their other holes. He's good enough where the Mets shouldn't have to eat any of his contract, but both of those factors mean the Mets will not get full value for Beltran. I think they would be satisfied by filling a couple of their holes cheaply. I'd probably give up a goodly amount to get Beltran.