****Official 2014 Chicago Bears Thread **** (2 Viewers)

[twistd]

Pro Football Focus, after week four, has Cutler ranked as the 25th QB in the league. Russell Wilson is rated 26th. But Alex Smith, Austin Davis, Ryan Tannehill, Andy Dalton, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Kirk Cousins, Joe Flacco, Brian Hoyer, Mike Glennon, and Drew Stanton are all rated above Cutler. That is sad.

Last year Cutler finished ranked at #10, McCown was ranked #9.

 

[RBM]

I'd take Smith and Flacco over Cutler in a heartbeat.

Can't see Cutler ever having performances like those guys have had in the playoffs.

 

[DoubleG]

That's actually ironic, as I just heard local radio (the Score) talking about Cutler - and how he is basically Joe Flacco. A guy who is always underachieving and yet is capable of playing well for stretches. The discussion on the radio was basically "Can Cutler play well for a long enough stretch to get the Bears to a Superbowl?" - and actually, they agreed that he could.

 

[RBM]

That's actually ironic, as I just heard local radio (the Score) talking about Cutler - and how he is basically Joe Flacco. A guy who is always underachieving and yet is capable of playing well for stretches. The discussion on the radio was basically "Can Cutler play well for a long enough stretch to get the Bears to a Superbowl?" - and actually, they agreed that he could.

Ha WTF are they basing that on? I have absolutely no confidence in him in any big spot.

 

[sho nuff]

Lol at Cutler being Cutler. So tired of seeing dumb decisions and inaccurate throws wind up in the other team's hands. There's no doubt he's gone after the 2016 season. The only question is, can Emery/Trestman survive that long? IMO the jury is still out on Trestman but I think Emery has done a great job.

As for the rest of this season I've officially reset my expectations from "playoff team with a chance to go all the way" to "bad team who can lose to anyone". It's easier to watch the games expecting a loss than it is expecting a win and getting steamrolled every Sunday.

You're one of the more even keeled guys on here, obviously more optimistic than myself but also realistic.We're average at this point. Playoffs chances are very remote. As some others on here have said, probably another 8-8 season. So disappointing.

Offense should be so much better than it is.

Defensively...already had weaknesses, injuries have destroyed the secondary and they are relying on the rookie too much almost (seems to me).

They almost need to just get in shootouts and put up a lot of points early and hope the other team makes mistakes pressing later in games.

Problem is...the Bears have been the ones making the mistakes later in games.

Shouldn't be many weeks where you all don't score about 30 points though...with all the weapons (OL is hurting right now too with injuries though isn't it?)

This argument about injuries destroying the secondary is an interesting one to me. I feel Tillman has been playing on reputation for a couple of years now. (If you noticed, before the Bears resigned Tillman there was almost no interest from other teams to signing him. Which shows you what other teams thought of him.) As long as Tillman was healthy I believe they would have left Tillman at the starting corner spot and Fuller would have played the nickel. Fuller is worlds better than Tillman at this point. So having Tillman get injured made the secondary better by moving Fuller in as a starter. You could argue that they would be better with Tillman at the nickel instead of Frey, but I don't believe it would have played out that way. Tillman would have continued blocking Fuller from starting as long as Tillman was healthy. Fuller is the only above average player the Bears have in the secondary, and despite being a rookie, he looks terrific at times. Jennings is ranked 40th by Pro Football Focus.

The Bears have a whole group of below average safeties. This is the rankings, by PFF, of the Bears safeties after week four:

Brock Vereen 40

Ahmad Dixon 64

McCray 83

Mundy 99

Conte 127

When you look at only the players who have played at least 25% of the snaps, Vereen and Dixon disappear. So the two guys who have played the best aren't playing. And the worst of the bunch, Conte, is the guy that people point to as one of the guys who missed some time as what 'decimated' their secondary. (This is interesting, Major Wright who was rated as one of the worst safeties in the league last year with the Bears, is rated better than anyone on the Bears except Vereen. Maybe that points to coaching.)

The point of this is that the Bears secondary isn't 'decimated' by injuries. They lost Tillman but it allowed Fuller to move in as a full time starter, which makes them better. And at the safety spot you can mix and match these guys. None of them are very good. Vereen has the potential to get better because he is a rookie. And he isn't even playing much. But to make the argument that the secondary is weaker because Mundy or Conte aren't playing is just not accurate. There isn't much difference between Conte and McCray, or Mundy and Vereen. So the secondary isn't bad because of injuries. The secondary is bad because they lack talent.

Fair enough...and yeah, the safeties are pretty lackluster.

 

[flapgreen]

The defense isn't good but it's played well enough for us to win if the offense had done what it was supposed to this season. Never thought I'd say that. The ST is a lost cause, though.

 

[twistd]

Lol at Cutler being Cutler. So tired of seeing dumb decisions and inaccurate throws wind up in the other team's hands. There's no doubt he's gone after the 2016 season. The only question is, can Emery/Trestman survive that long? IMO the jury is still out on Trestman but I think Emery has done a great job.

As for the rest of this season I've officially reset my expectations from "playoff team with a chance to go all the way" to "bad team who can lose to anyone". It's easier to watch the games expecting a loss than it is expecting a win and getting steamrolled every Sunday.

You're one of the more even keeled guys on here, obviously more optimistic than myself but also realistic.We're average at this point. Playoffs chances are very remote. As some others on here have said, probably another 8-8 season. So disappointing.

Offense should be so much better than it is.

Defensively...already had weaknesses, injuries have destroyed the secondary and they are relying on the rookie too much almost (seems to me).

They almost need to just get in shootouts and put up a lot of points early and hope the other team makes mistakes pressing later in games.

Problem is...the Bears have been the ones making the mistakes later in games.

Shouldn't be many weeks where you all don't score about 30 points though...with all the weapons (OL is hurting right now too with injuries though isn't it?)

This argument about injuries destroying the secondary is an interesting one to me. I feel Tillman has been playing on reputation for a couple of years now. (If you noticed, before the Bears resigned Tillman there was almost no interest from other teams to signing him. Which shows you what other teams thought of him.) As long as Tillman was healthy I believe they would have left Tillman at the starting corner spot and Fuller would have played the nickel. Fuller is worlds better than Tillman at this point. So having Tillman get injured made the secondary better by moving Fuller in as a starter. You could argue that they would be better with Tillman at the nickel instead of Frey, but I don't believe it would have played out that way. Tillman would have continued blocking Fuller from starting as long as Tillman was healthy. Fuller is the only above average player the Bears have in the secondary, and despite being a rookie, he looks terrific at times. Jennings is ranked 40th by Pro Football Focus.

The Bears have a whole group of below average safeties. This is the rankings, by PFF, of the Bears safeties after week four:

Brock Vereen 40

Ahmad Dixon 64

McCray 83

Mundy 99

Conte 127

When you look at only the players who have played at least 25% of the snaps, Vereen and Dixon disappear. So the two guys who have played the best aren't playing. And the worst of the bunch, Conte, is the guy that people point to as one of the guys who missed some time as what 'decimated' their secondary. (This is interesting, Major Wright who was rated as one of the worst safeties in the league last year with the Bears, is rated better than anyone on the Bears except Vereen. Maybe that points to coaching.)

The point of this is that the Bears secondary isn't 'decimated' by injuries. They lost Tillman but it allowed Fuller to move in as a full time starter, which makes them better. And at the safety spot you can mix and match these guys. None of them are very good. Vereen has the potential to get better because he is a rookie. And he isn't even playing much. But to make the argument that the secondary is weaker because Mundy or Conte aren't playing is just not accurate. There isn't much difference between Conte and McCray, or Mundy and Vereen. So the secondary isn't bad because of injuries. The secondary is bad because they lack talent.

Fair enough...and yeah, the safeties are pretty lackluster.

You aren't the only one to say that. I have heard every announcer of a Bears game refer to their 'decimated' secondary. It always irritates me when they say it because to a degree it lets the Bears braintrust off the hook. It is an excuse they use to explain their poor play in the secondary. If you blame injuries then you can claim it is something you have no control over. Truth is they have done a really poor job of stocking the secondary with talent.

 

[twistd]

That's actually ironic, as I just heard local radio (the Score) talking about Cutler - and how he is basically Joe Flacco. A guy who is always underachieving and yet is capable of playing well for stretches. The discussion on the radio was basically "Can Cutler play well for a long enough stretch to get the Bears to a Superbowl?" - and actually, they agreed that he could.

Ha WTF are they basing that on? I have absolutely no confidence in him in any big spot.

If Cutler could play a long stretch at a Pro Bowl level, then the Bears would have a chance to go to a Super Bowl. But I don't think that Cutler has ever played a full season without reverting to 'Bad Jay' at some point. Jay is what he is. He may have a number of games where he plays well, and you start to think he has put 'Bad Jay' in the rearview mirror. Then 'Bad Jay' pops up again and you realize that he was simply waiting until you believed he was gone to re-emerge.

 

[Power Monster]

On a positive note, it's shaping up to be a pretty good 2014 draft class, so there's that.

And only one division loss. But my optimism is quickly shattered when I think that we have seen some horse manure already but something tells me that we have not truly seen the stink yet. That usually comes with maybe another big upset win. Ya know the one that just makes everyone crawl back and start thinking maybe just maybe. Then the bow of the ship hits the iceberg. I say that a win at Green Bay and a split with the Lions and a sweep of the Vikings will keep things plodding along until they unveil a true clinker like no other....

 

[3nOut]

Even with all the forced throws Cutler makes, he also makes some excellent plays. I think a lot of the blame has to go to the O and D coordinators. The play calling this weekend was atrocious. The offense wasn't balance and they relied on Forte way too much. And on the defensive side, there's no way that he middle can be CONSTANTLY that open. How can you let Olsen pick you apart like that? There seems to be no urgency and intensity on D. On the final TD, Olsen was never even touched on the goal line. Don't they teach them they have 5 yards to try disrupt the route of their best offensive threat? And on the returned punt for aTD for Carolina, no one on the Bears even tried to get to the loose ball. Happened last year too. Ridiculous and inexcusable.

I blame coaching more than anything. Get rid of Tucker.

 

[The Tick]

Sounds like Frey was cut. God he has looked bad... Who else do we have to play nickel?

 

[flapgreen]

Sounds like Frey was cut. God he has looked bad... Who else do we have to play nickel?

I don't even know right now. We burned the bridge with Hayden I think.

 

[mbuehner]

Sounds like Frey was cut. God he has looked bad... Who else do we have to play nickel?

I don't even know right now. We burned the bridge with Hayden I think.

Shea.

 

[DaveL]

Hurst must be ready, can't wait to see him

 

[The Tick]

Sounds like Frey was cut. God he has looked bad... Who else do we have to play nickel?

I don't even know right now. We burned the bridge with Hayden I think.

Shea.

Do you mean Sherrick McManis, thought he was still injured? Shae's just barely learning to play LB, hate to see him have to step in at nickel also

 

[DaveL]

Sounds like Frey was cut. God he has looked bad... Who else do we have to play nickel?

I don't even know right now. We burned the bridge with Hayden I think.

Shea.

Do you mean Sherrick McManis, thought he was still injured? Shae's just barely learning to play LB, hate to see him have to step in at nickel also

McManis was out in Carolina...but must be ready to go? Still have one roster spot left though I think (released Frey/Bass, signed Al L-J)

 

[The Tick]

Hurst must be ready, can't wait to see him

What's his deal, don't know anything about the guy, looks like he came undrafted last year? Was he on the practice squad for us? Don't think I've ever heard the guys name mentioned before.

 

[DaveL]

Hurst must be ready, can't wait to see him

What's his deal, don't know anything about the guy, looks like he came undrafted last year? Was he on the practice squad for us? Don't think I've ever heard the guys name mentioned before.

Active vs the Bills then back to practice squad then signed mid month. Got suckered into watching some Oklahoma games last year and he impressed me some

 

[-X-]

I was at the game Sunday.

The Panthers' quick TD drive at the end of the first half (after Gould's missed chip shot) turned the momentum for sure. Tired of seeing cover-2 & soft zones where opposing receivers are running wide open in huge pockets of empty space down the seams (not just this game, but every game). We need to start playing up and knock receivers off their routes when we get a lead like that.

As soon as Olsen caught the winning TD, I bolted for the exit; I had seen enough and knew we wouldn't score.

This team has no killer instinct and cannot put teams away. Always playing to the level of their competition and letting teams back into games far too easily. Pitiful.

 

[RBM]

I was at the game Sunday.

The Panthers' quick TD drive at the end of the first half (after Gould's missed chip shot) turned the momentum for sure. Tired of seeing cover-2 & soft zones where opposing receivers are running wide open in huge pockets of empty space down the seams (not just this game, but every game). We need to start playing up and knock receivers off their routes when we get a lead like that.

As soon as Olsen caught the winning TD, I bolted for the exit; I had seen enough and knew we wouldn't score.

This team has no killer instinct and cannot put teams away. Always playing to the level of their competition and letting teams back into games far too easily. Pitiful.

I understand your frustration but if they do what you're suggesting you're going to get burned on big plays more often than not.

 

[flapgreen]

Houston looks like the biggest waste of money the Bears have spent in years. Dude is invisible. Wasn't he good in Oakland? Allen disappears for long periods of time as well. No way these guys started sucking that fast. Wtf

 

[DaveL]

Houston looks like the biggest waste of money the Bears have spent in years. Dude is invisible. Wasn't he good in Oakland? Allen disappears for long periods of time as well. No way these guys started sucking that fast. Wtf

And Willie Young is playing better than he ever has before in his career, but why bring up any positives...right?

 

[RBM]

Houston looks like the biggest waste of money the Bears have spent in years. Dude is invisible. Wasn't he good in Oakland? Allen disappears for long periods of time as well. No way these guys started sucking that fast. Wtf

And Willie Young is playing better than he ever has before in his career, but why bring up any positives...right?

Eh...He's on and off. He was completely invisible in the Jets and Packers games. He had definitely been our best pass rusher.

 

[flapgreen]

Houston looks like the biggest waste of money the Bears have spent in years. Dude is invisible. Wasn't he good in Oakland? Allen disappears for long periods of time as well. No way these guys started sucking that fast. Wtf

And Willie Young is playing better than he ever has before in his career, but why bring up any positives...right?

Look at my post at the top of the page before spouting off. I always bring up both.

 

[flapgreen]

Hester on #Bears: "It bothers you knowing when your contract is up and the team don't even come and offer you anything."

Basically, Emery is a liar, kind of what Urlacher insinuated as well.

 

[Limp Ditka]

Hester on #Bears: "It bothers you knowing when your contract is up and the team don't even come and offer you anything."

Basically, Emery is a liar, kind of what Urlacher insinuated as well.

Who will think of the poor millionaires?

 

[Limp Ditka]

Houston looks like the biggest waste of money the Bears have spent in years. Dude is invisible. Wasn't he good in Oakland? Allen disappears for long periods of time as well. No way these guys started sucking that fast. Wtf

And Willie Young is playing better than he ever has before in his career, but why bring up any positives...right?

Look at my post at the top of the page before spouting off. I always bring up both.

 

[DaveL]

Hester on #Bears: "It bothers you knowing when your contract is up and the team don't even come and offer you anything."

Basically, Emery is a liar, kind of what Urlacher insinuated as well.

What'd Emery say?

 

[flapgreen]

Sorry, that was a little rude of me, Dave.

 

[Vector]

Hester on #Bears: "It bothers you knowing when your contract is up and the team don't even come and offer you anything."

Basically, Emery is a liar, kind of what Urlacher insinuated as well.

What'd Emery say?

He didn't say anything apparently. This constitutes a lie of omission.

 

[flapgreen]

Said multiple times they couldn't give him what he wanted.

 

[flapgreen]

Anxious to see how Fuller handles Julio. Shut down Benjamin.

 

[Limp Ditka]

Can't wait to see Hester go off this week. Hopefully it will be enough to make flap pick another team to root for.

 

[flapgreen]

Briggs and Bushrod both out. Sucks

 

[DaveL]

Guessing we'll be in nickel base most the game anyway. Are the falcons still at their 9th offensive lineman? Could make it a little easier to swallow.

edit: read that wrong, thought shea was back

 

[flapgreen]

Guessing we'll be in nickel base most the game anyway. Are the falcons still at their 9th offensive lineman? Could make it a little easier to swallow.

edit: read that wrong, thought shea was back

We should be good at DL. Shea, Briggs, Conte all out at a minimum. Will be a long day for secondary. I like how Bostic has started to play a little better but no Briggs is killer.

 

[Vector]

Guessing we'll be in nickel base most the game anyway. Are the falcons still at their 9th offensive lineman? Could make it a little easier to swallow.

edit: read that wrong, thought shea was back

We should be good at DL. Shea, Briggs, Conte all out at a minimum. Will be a long day for secondary. I like how Bostic has started to play a little better but no Briggs is killer.

Briggs has played like crap all season. He is fat, slow and unmotivated.

 

[flapgreen]

Guessing we'll be in nickel base most the game anyway. Are the falcons still at their 9th offensive lineman? Could make it a little easier to swallow.

edit: read that wrong, thought shea was back

We should be good at DL. Shea, Briggs, Conte all out at a minimum. Will be a long day for secondary. I like how Bostic has started to play a little better but no Briggs is killer.

Briggs has played like crap all season. He is fat, slow and unmotivated.

Just like Urlacher. Need to get rid of Briggs. Him being hurt won't affect us. Just bring in the next stud waiting in the wings to take his place. Peanut going down didn't hurt either.

 

[DoubleG]

Guessing we'll be in nickel base most the game anyway. Are the falcons still at their 9th offensive lineman? Could make it a little easier to swallow.

edit: read that wrong, thought shea was back

We should be good at DL. Shea, Briggs, Conte all out at a minimum. Will be a long day for secondary. I like how Bostic has started to play a little better but no Briggs is killer.

Briggs has played like crap all season. He is fat, slow and unmotivated.

Just like Urlacher. Need to get rid of Briggs. Him being hurt won't affect us. Just bring in the next stud waiting in the wings to take his place. Peanut going down didn't hurt either.

I'm with Vector on this one. Briggs being out isn't the end of the world. He's blown assignments, missed tackles, been out of position, etc. a number of times this season. His best days are in the rear-view mirror and he's just cashing a check.

The issue with the defense is Mel Tucker and his vanilla schemes that make every QB they play look like Joe Montana. Tucker is in WAY over his head - he is clueless about what an NFL defense needs to do. The same goes for their special teams coach. Tresty better get some assistants in place that know how to coach at the NFL level or he wont be either.

 

[RBM]

Here we go....a head coach that specializes in one side and can't hire a coach for the other side. Sounds familiar.

 

[Limp Ditka]

Here we go again on the Urlacher crap.

Pains me to this day to see him rack up all of those tackles for the team that signed him after he left the Bears.

 

[RBM]

Here we go again on the Urlacher crap.

Pains me to this day to see him rack up all of those tackles for the team that signed him after he left the Bears.

You were one of the idiots that said it would be easy to fill his spot weren't you?

 

[flapgreen]

DJ downgraded so 3 lbs likely out. :(

 

[flapgreen]

Here we go again on the Urlacher crap.

Pains me to this day to see him rack up all of those tackles for the team that signed him after he left the Bears.

You were one of the idiots that said it would be easy to fill his spot weren't you?

lol

 

[flapgreen]

Offense did what they were supposed to. Defense played great with the top 4 lbs out. Credit where credit's due. Nice job, Tucker. Fuller is awesome.

 

[flapgreen]

Other thoughts: Mills has not been very good and cost the team yards. The ST still sucks and continues to commit penalties. Wins tend to make people forget about the problems but this ST is still terrible, which will limit the entire team.

 

[KCitons]

The NFL is too unpredictable to guess what a team is going to do from week to week. Just sit back and enjoy the game.

 

[Sweetness_34]

I said it after the game against GB....not having Allen and Ratliff is huge for this DL....did anyone see the difference today? Yes, the Falcons OL is terrible due to injuries, but still, if we had played without Allen and Ratliff, I doubt we would see this kind of pass rush where we had 4 sacks and 7 QB hits.

 

[IheartGuinness]

The bears won't go down easily. I still think they win the super bowl this season.

 

[DaveL]

Glad we had so many fans there, after the last two weeks it's good to know we can still support through thick and thin.