balta1701-A

He has to be. You can't give him a contract extension after this year, and you can't have the coach go into the season with a 1 year contract. It's Emery's choice now.

Wow, if that's not "Holding the ball for too long" then I have no idea what is.

Not with him having 1 year left on his contract (and 1 playoff appearance in 6 years). This team had to win to get him an extension. Emery will get to add his own HC and system this offseason.

Look at the bright side, Bears fans... You get a new coach/system next year.

Bears get the ball at the 16...kick the field goal from the 15.5.

LOL, and now you burn a timeout that you could really need later in the game.

My word that was just an awful throw timing/placement.

They could just have decided to taunt the Bears. Figured that even if they botched the play, the Bears could never get 16 yards.

Their last chance is now officially Randall Cobb.

Haha, that's great, be cute Packers.

LOL, Carimi benched.

I bet you Bush would have gotten in on those runs, Forte takes that first hit and that's as far as he goes.

Forte is just a terrible short yardage runner.

That was a very impressive fake fall by Shields.

So the big Q is...how much cap space will the Bears wind up with? Urlacher and Hester are the guys they can clear...Peppers has a big bonus but you don't exactly want to lose him...

It will be incredibly disappointing if this isn't a close game. Don't care how hurt they are.

In the games I've watched, I've consistently wondered why Cutler doesn't scramble more. That was one of the specific things Tice said he wanted to take advantage of with Cutler when he took over as OC; getting him out of the pocket. Instead, I usually feel like I see Cutler trying to stay in the pocket too long when the pocket isn't strong, and holding the ball too long while there (which might be ok with a quality O-line and playcalling, but isn't ok here). Having the defense forced to sometimes chase a QB around out of the pocket is one way of generating protection when you don't have it. They can't rush straight ahead every time if the QB is going to roll out away from them.

Link

That means the Bears were in a no-defense shootout and the Bears couldn't keep up.

I just hope the Bears are pumped enough to back up these words on the field.

I would not say Cutler Sucks. I thought the Bears were trading for one of the best QB's in the league when they traded for Jay Cutler. One of the best QB's in the league, even if 4/5 of his O-line, his RB, and his entire defense were hurt...one of the best QB's in the league would step up and win this game. Unfair? Maybe. But if he can't win this game, then Jay Cutler finally winds up in the "Average" QB category to me. Yeah you can win with an average QB, but you win because of the weapons around him, not that QB. We've waited years now for Jay Cutler to rise to the occasion. To play bigger in a bigger game. To actually own a big game. It's time. This is the same damn team that came out and laughed at him last time out. "Same old Jay". It's time for him to prove something.

Every so often, even the best teams hit stretches where nothing seems to go right. Big name players are hurt, schemes/systems aren't working, you're facing a big time rival, in a must win game. That's the game when you hope you have a big time QB. That's the game where, no matter what else is going wrong, your big time QB steps up, puts the game on his shoulders, and puts you into the playoffs. I don't care about everything else around him, whether he's happy with the system or not, if the line can't block for him, whatever. Cutler needs to step up and win this game. If he can't do that, then he's simply not the kind of QB I thought the Bears were getting when they traded for him.

Don't believe that Mathieu will fall that far.

They also drafted BJ Raji that year with a very high draft pick, IIRC, which filled in an absolutely gaping hole in the middle of their line that was causing them to be killed by teams' running games.

I wonder about the "Wild card, 6th seed, and then first game playoff loss" scenario