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IMHO, Benson thought he had "arrived" when he was signed by the Bears. He had "made it". He though his hard work had finally paid off...and was over. He was immature and self-centered. He's grown up a lot since then - and much of it (I would guess) had to do with him not wanting to be remembered as a "could-have-been" prima donna who never did anything in the NFL. I think the NFL game was much harder than he thought back when he played for the Bears - physically, and mentally.Kudos to Ced for growing up and learning to be a productive NFL RB.'Raider Nation said:
Finally an intelligent Raiders fan~~Good luck tomorrow, fellas. Not that you'll need it... your team is looking unbeatable. We're honored just to be on the same field as the Bears, and if we stay within four TDs it will be a moral victory.
I'm thinking it would be more honorable to just forfeit the game entirely rather than embarrass ourselves.Finally an intelligent Raiders fan~~Good luck tomorrow, fellas. Not that you'll need it... your team is looking unbeatable. We're honored just to be on the same field as the Bears, and if we stay within four TDs it will be a moral victory.
I hope the final is 3-0 bears so we can make jokes about the White Sox beating the A's!I'm thinking it would be more honorable to just forfeit the game entirely rather than embarrass ourselves.Finally an intelligent Raiders fan~~Good luck tomorrow, fellas. Not that you'll need it... your team is looking unbeatable. We're honored just to be on the same field as the Bears, and if we stay within four TDs it will be a moral victory.
How many of these people actually exist?'Raider Nation said:
Regardless of who the backup QB is, the lack of surrounding talent on offense is a bigger priority moving forward IMO. Now that Cutler and Forte are both out, and in the absence of Greg Olsen (previously the Bears' most reliable receiver), we are seeing Knox and Roy Williams become liabilities and practically giving DBs the ball at times. There is a reason why the vast majority of Cutler's interceptions since joining the Bears have come on throws in Knox's direction...Until the oline and receiving talent improves, this offense is impotent without both Cutler and Forte to provide legit threats/problems for opposing defenses.
I would add that another issue with the "Caleb Hanie" experience is Mike Martz. Shortly after yesterday's loss, I heard local radio folks (J. H., for one) saying "Martz deserves zero blame - sometimes your players need to make plays" - basically trying to "nip in the bud" the blaming of Martz and suggest that Hanie didn't play well. Of course he didn't - HE'S A BACKUP QB.There is little doubt in my mind (although still some) that the game plans Martz had devised for the last two games would have worked - had Jay Cutler been at the helm. But he is not. And Martz's continual refusal to adapt a game plan for the talent he has (or doesn't have) is getting to the point of absurdity. My 6 year old stood up at one point during yesterday's game and said "Why aren't they handing off more? They were doing it good before." In fact following the missed FG (which was set up, btw, by 4 rushes for 34 yards and 1 pass for 17 yards - then missed in part by losing 16 yards on consecutive sacks) - the Bears had 4 drives after that missed FG. 3 of the 4 drives they never had a rushing attempt. Not one. Basically the Bears had 4 drives in the 4th quarter (not coujnting the last play as a drive) - and attempted 2 rushes compared to 12 incomplete passes, 4 sacks an INT and a fumble (Hanie). In summary, despite rushing the ball 4 times for a total of 34 yards in the third quarter, Martz thought it better to have his backup QB drop back 16 times and try to win the game - even though the Bears never trailed by more than 7. That is not bad play calling - that is idiotic play calling. Yes, Hanie and the WRs played poorly - but Hanie IS a backup. Martz has to realize that when calling plays and drawing up a game plan - and he doesn't.When I heard news that Martz may be leaving for Arizona next year to take a college job, my reaction was "Why wait? - Go now...please."Yes, players need to make plays - and clearly Hannie has not. But after Forte left the game, the rest of the RBs went for 78 yards on 18 carries (4.3 YPC) - which isn't world-beating, but hardly not worth running the ball - ESPECIALLY when you have a QB who is making their 2nd NFL start. The Bears can bring in McNabb if they want - but until Mike Martz is gone, the play calling will still be bad, with no thought given to the strengths and weaknesses of the players trying to implement the plays called. Mike martz thinks he's playing a video game - if he calls the right play against the defense called, he'll win. He's wrong - because he refuses to understand that the ability to make the play work is dependant on the men on the field trying to execute it. John Fox and the OC in Denver are not asking Tebow to be Peyton Manning or Tom Brady - but Martz asked Cutler to be Warner until Lovie had the "sit down" with him. Now Martz expects Hanie to be Cutler. Martz may be able to design great offensive plays - but his refusal to modify those plays based on the talent at hand is stubborn to the point of idiocy. Mike Martz should be fired...today.
If Martz does call the game like this (especially against Von Miller and Dumerville) - he should be fired by halftime. If not, it'll be fine anyway, because if Martz asks the O-line to pretty much do nothing but pass block for 8-12 straight plays against that defense, on the road, Tice will strangle Martz by halftime. It's win/win.
He won't get fired for that.Lovie It was fun while it lasted.
I really hate to defend the bears after how.bad they have looked, but how many teams in the league would play decent without their starting qb and starting rb, especially when those two are.your best offensive players? The line looks worse for a few.reasons, but one is that hanie's pocket presence is really bad. The kid needs.to get rid.of the ball. Thats about all the defense I have for them.I have heard a lot of people defend the defense last night. They looked horrible in the 4th quarter (and not good in ot, either). I know teabow is only good in the 4th quarter, but geez...the defense looked slow and lost the whole 4th quarter. Barber had.a.pretty good game until he virtually lost it for them, then looked good in ot, until he lost it for them again...i felt bad after he ran out of bounds because he does run hard and was trying to make a play, but wow, hold.on to the ball man..
You are right about the Bears looking bad because of the absence of Cutler. To a lesser degree you could compare the Bears to the Colts. Without Manning the Colts looks like the worst team in the league. And that is with much of the same personnel they had last year. Cutler was playing the best football of his career, at least his career as a Bear. But the other side of it is the Texans. They are playing their third string guy and they are solid. The three best offensive players on the Texans have been on the field together for two quarters of football. They are overcoming the injuries. The Packers were decimated by injuries last year and continued to play well. When the Patriots lost Brady, they didn't fold their tents, the back ups stepped up and played well. Overall, good organizations overcome injuries, bad organizations don't. If the Bears were a good organization Hanie would at least play respectably. And the rest of the team would rally to pick up the slack. Instead all we hear are excuses. Angelo has to take responsibility for the two Cowboys he brought in that have actually helped the team lose the last two weeks. We can expect to hear excuses for the rest of the year.
I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head. Their play on offense is an indictment on the organization - specifically Angelo. Angelo repeatedly seems to ignore many of the teams pressing needs and has done a bad job drafting players in certain positions during his tenure. It is now clear that Cutler was doing a good job of masking their deficiencies on the line and at WR. I hope the rumors are true and he retires after this season but I am also nervous that they are going to promote Ruskell and not search for the best available candidate. BTW - I actually thought bringing in Barber as a backup was a good move. I can forgive the fumble a little although it didn't appear that he was protecting the ball as much as he should have. However going out of bounds was inexcusable! He also didn't line up correctly against the Chefs and cost them a TD in that game as well. Would they have been in a position to win that game with Bell as a starter?
Just more ammo to blow the whole thing up from Angelo on down.Oh geez.
The 2011 Chicago Bears are about to become the NFL's version of the 1987 Phoenix Suns and 1983 Kansas City Royals all rolled into one.
It all went downhill fast with this team. Gotta hand to Jumping Jerry- he really knows how to make some golden moves but then again Limp- you know how I like to rip on GMs in this town!
Go onnnnnnnnnnnnnn!
Ditto. I predicted this would be his last stop in the NFL.It's no conicidence that his resume starts with 'I leave a path of destruction behind me'. THis should be the end of Martz suckage in the NFL. Good ####### riddance and I don't even have a Bear on my team. Biggest over-rated hack OC ever. All he ever did was ride one of the greatest assemblies of skill players ever and get QBs killed.
At this point, all but the biggest Bears homers will have to relent. This team has huge holes all over the place. I pointed all of them out months ago but no one wanted to hear it and I was bashed by Jerry's kids for it. Have at it.
I was in your corner and I maintain that this organization is hapless and pathetic at drafting players and it now has shown up in the offense and the defensive secondary in a big way. There is absolutely nothing behind Forte and Cutler and without these players the offense has been exposed. You cannot go into the NFL without a stud QB, a solid backup, 3 productive RBs, a stud WR and a stud TE. Forget about these key pieces if you do not even have a solid OL. The best thing that can happen now is if Angelo just resigned.
I was glad to see the Bears draft Carimi. The Bears have insisted that they could build an offensive line from late round picks and the cast offs of other teams. They have insisted that Tice was a miracle worker. I believe that the Bears need to focus on the line, and finally get some sort of a stud receiver. I'd like to see the Bears really give Cutler some weapons. I've finally given up on these receivers. Bennett is decent. Hester is a great returner and a poor wide receiver. The rest are not very good and not going to get better. I don't think they can find answers in free agency. I think they have to draft receivers. And they may have the worst TEs in the league. Too bad they don't have Greg Olsen. But they will be starting from scratch at both positions. My fear is that we will hear that they can develop both their pitiful offensive line men, and the pathetic receivers and TEs they have. If they don't recognize the seriousness of the problems then they will continue with the half measures they have shown in the past.
'twistd said:
Please retire Angelo!Flapgreen - You seem to be a pessimist by nature and overreact over every little thing which is why it is sometimes hard to have serious discussions with you. You have pointed out definite weaknesses that nobody disputed but there is almost no doubt in my mind that this team would have been in the playoffs and everyone would have been safe had it not been for the injuries to Cutler and Forte. This years team was starting to look really good before Cutler went down because he masked their deficiencies. The last few weeks have exposed the Bears as a 2nd rate organization in terms of their talent evaluation. Arguably the best offensive player (Cutler) and defensive player (Peppers)on the team weren't drafted by Angelo and Urlacher wasn't drafted by him either. Granted the Bears haven't had too many top picks in the Angelo era but they haven't done well when they had them (Benson and traded down for Grossman and the Penn State lineman that sucked whose name I am blanking on) and they have missed more often than not in the early and later rounds at getting good players for depth - especially at WR and on the offensive line as has been talked about ad naseum in this thread.
What are they thinking!?! A professional team isn't scouring the shark pool to see what advice an overeactive fan is offering!Seriously, the team looks horrible the last few weeks. That doesn't change that the team looked pretty good before cutler got hurt. Injuries to key players such as cutler (who obviously has taken a larger leadership role) can really change the dynamics of a team. As I've said all year, the team has warts and needs to improve, but they also aren't as bad as they have been the past month. It's like they lost all confidence after cutler got hurt. angelo is a below average gm, no doubt, but he didn't make the team fall apart the past month. Neither did martz, though I'm not sure he had much to do with their success earlier in the season.When there are so many things that need to be fixed, yet they are barely if at all addressed, yes I'm very pessimistic. Once Martz is out the door, we're going to have to implement an entire new system with the players from his offense. Pessimist or not, I don't think the Bears make the playoffs for the next two more years because of all of the holes. I hope they do, but I don't see it.
I take it you have the GB defense in all your FF leagues?
If Angelo had any type of contingency in place for the critical positions the team would not have been horse whipped the past three games not to mention the beating and more shame they will be getting from the Packers. The defense will have to save them now otherwise it will be more humiliation at the hands of the Packers. The Bears are not going to get over the hump with Angelo in there. The defense is getting old, The OL is a joke. The top draft picks are on IR. The best offensive player just had his knee blown up and the franchise QB suffered yet another injury and without Cutler and Forte this team is done but then again they had Cutler and Forte in there for the past three seasons and they still cannot get over the hump because dumb dumb has no clue when it comes to building a modern day football team in the NFL. He drools all over himself with the Cutler move but he gives him a Sally OL and a bunch of little smurfs at WR. Then he goes out and gets an unproven backup at QB as a contingency for the franchise QB who has been sacked more than any other QB in the past 3 seasons. Toss in the great Dallas Cowboy rejects he signed this year and you see what GM Jerry is all about. Year after year with his lame moves. For every good moves this guy makes he will make 20 lame moves. He needs to retire and hit the links.What are they thinking!?! A professional team isn't scouring the shark pool to see what advice an overeactive fan is offering!Seriously, the team looks horrible the last few weeks. That doesn't change that the team looked pretty good before cutler got hurt. Injuries to key players such as cutler (who obviously has taken a larger leadership role) can really change the dynamics of a team. As I've said all year, the team has warts and needs to improve, but they also aren't as bad as they have been the past month. It's like they lost all confidence after cutler got hurt. angelo is a below average gm, no doubt, but he didn't make the team fall apart the past month. Neither did martz, though I'm not sure he had much to do with their success earlier in the season.When there are so many things that need to be fixed, yet they are barely if at all addressed, yes I'm very pessimistic. Once Martz is out the door, we're going to have to implement an entire new system with the players from his offense. Pessimist or not, I don't think the Bears make the playoffs for the next two more years because of all of the holes. I hope they do, but I don't see it.
