balta1701-A

The Vikings supposedly offered a 2nd and a 4th for Jackson, and that was not sufficient for the Chargers to deal him.

Yeah, that too. Vincent Jackson isn't a blocker.

Vincent Jackson doesn't solve the Bears' problems. He's not going to play for another couple games, he's going to cost a lot, and he's a free agent at the end of the season who has shown little indication of willingness to get signed. Oh, and he's 1 drug violation away from a season long suspension.

This is a classic Belichick move. Or a classic "unrelated to cameras" Belichick move. Moss was back to being malcontent Moss. He had a press conference after the Pats first win about how unhappy he was with his contract situation that earned him a private meeting with Bill. He's a free agent after this year. Which means...Belichick got rid of a guy who wasn't fitting with Bill's system and who he was likely to lose for nothing and in exchange got a 3rd round pick that he wouldn't have had. Oh, and he got Brady extended beforehand so that it didn't matter if he pissed off the star QB. Classic Belichick move. It may look like it's taking a step back to everyone else but it's the way he operates. If it hurts them slightly at winning the Super Bowl this year, he's ok with that as long as they're still a 10+ win team.

Ok...dude...if there's such a thing as a line...that's gotta be crossing it.

Panthers WR Dwayne Jarrett got picked up for DUI last night. He was previously picked up for DUI in 2008, which means he was already in the league's substance abuse program and a suspension may be coming.

The draft will happened as planned. However, the draft is the last thing covered by the current CBA. The combine will happen, the draft will happen, but that will be it. No OTA's will happen involving draft picks and no draft picks will be signed to contracts. It will be an absolute mess. If nothing else, you want to have a playbook to get to your draftees so that they can do something, because they won't be able to practice or work out with the team.

What are your predictions for Hanie's numbers?

Yes they will. You have to think about the mess the lockout is going to create. The 2011 NFL draft will be governed under the rules of this year's CBA, but nothing else will be. Everything else other than the combine and the draft will stop after the Super Bowl. There will be no free agency period, no signing of draft picks, etc. Without a CBA deal in place, you're almost foolish to replace anyone in the front office, because you don't want to pay 2 people to do 0 people's jobs. Since the draft is still going to happen, even if you're going to fire Angelo, you don't do it until there's some hint of a CBA in place.

If the Bears medical staff didn't keep an eye on Cutler after the beating he was taking and he took multiple jarring headshots after he was already concussed...the whole lot of them should be fired. They could have ruined his season. Or his career.

If he did, he suffered a 2nd on on that 9th sack. His head clearly hit the ground hard. And the Bears training staff should be fired if they sent him out there if he was already having symptoms.

From what I saw, Cutler definitely deserves a portion of the blame for that mess. Give you an example; the play that he went out with the concussion; he had a DB blitzing on his left side and a vacant area behind the DB where Earl Bennett was wide open. Cutler could have hung in there and completed that pass with ease and if he took the hit it would have been a penalty, but he pulled the ball back and took the sack without throwing it. That said...after being hit 8+ times, you're going to start becoming tentative because you don't want to fumble the ball. Finally...whoever is criticizing Cutler for leaving the game with a concussion...that's absolute B.S. The studies they're doing on these guys after 10+ years of playing through concussions is finding their brains turned to jelly after all the impacts. People are suffering lifelong mental problems because of the blows they take as a QB. If a guy even has a weak concussion...get him the F*** out of there. It's not worth suffering through the next 30 injury shortened years of your life to play 1/2 of a game of football.

Only undefeated team in the NFC, on the road at the new Meadowlands, against a struggling Giants team.

Frankly...I think teams are going to really hesitate before giving Martz another HC job. I think most of the league probably agrees he's best in the OC role.

I think I would have kicked the FG in both cases but I thought it was a much worse decision against the Lions than against GB. My big thing though is I liked the playcalling against GB a lot better than the playcalling against detroit. Straight ahead run into a sea of people on a call that has failed 2 out of the previous 3 plays? Dislike. Spreading things out and giving Cutler options...a lot better. Cutler makes a better throw there probably 8/10 times.

We did see it...last year. This team was much weaker on defense in the middle. Not even counting the impact of peppers...this team was much weaker at stopping the run and at making sure guys coming over the middle were tackled when they caught the ball.

Any number = a number less than 5, sure. You could probably find a handful of guys who could be as effective as Urlacher was last night. You're not just finding them off the scrapheap. You're instead talking about pro-bowlers. Maybe HOF caliber players.

That's why you don't waste your challenges on plays that you're obviously not going to win, like that catch at the 1 yard line. The video booth should have told Lovie after 1 viewing that it's somewhat close but it's not going to go the Bears way from anything on video.

You're missing the counterpoint there though. If the Packers didn't get as many holding penalties called against them last night...you know what happens? Aaron Rogers would have been sacked 5 times and probably fumbled once or thrown a pressure INT. That would have changed the game just as much as the penalties.

The Giants look F***ing awful.

Part of that is that the Bears didn't have the ball much. Cutler took a shot or two, but even then, the worst of them were illegal hits. The Bears were pretty regularly able to move the ball either way. They went with the large chunks in this game. The run blocking wasn't horrendous to me, the guys were actually able to get some legit yardage on the ground, although that slowed down in the 2nd half. I think the answer is...the Packers were giving the Bears openings down the field, and Martz isn't the sort to pass them up, because those turn into points very rapidly.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with an underthrown lob if your receiver knows you're going to do that; it gives the receiver the advantage. The defenders think the receiver is streaking towards the end zone, but then the WR pulls up and the defenders run right by. The only thing the defenders can do to prevent a catch if you pull that off is grab onto the WR for dear life. Which is exactly what they did.

It may not be the prettiest scheme ever...but 17 points against a top rated offense that averages 30 points is nothing to sneeze at. Even if you count the field goal block...20 points against that offense is really, really good. An aggressive, attacking defense can work in some games...but you put a QB who knows what he's doing against that D...and he's liable to rip it to shreds. The top QB's want you to blitz them because it opens up single coverage on the mid range routes.

I'll bet that was literally it working perfectly. The Bears wanted the Packers to be unable to run the ball...the Pack couldn't. They wanted to break down their O-line...they did, to the point that the Packers chose to hold to keep guys off of Rogers. The Bears were willing to give up the short completion to move the chains as long as they didn't give up the deep ball, and the Bears knew that if they made the Packers pass enough times, they were going to generate a TO or two because their guys are good at aiming for that.

I would bet you that game went almost to the letter how the Bears game-plan went. 1. Stop the run, put the ball in the air 50+ times. 2. No long completions 3. No big special teams plays 4. If the ball is in the air 50 times on short passes, they're going to connect on a lot of them. Tackle them when they do. No long runs after catch 5. If the Packers throw the ball that often, this defense is going to generate a couple of turnovers. That's just a numbers and coaching game. TO's were going to happen; that wasn't luck, that was number of plays. 6. Get pressure on the QB. Either the Packers have to hold on every play or Rogers is going to get a few sacks. The Packers chose to hold on every play. 7. Don't turn the ball over. The only legit INT Cutler had was the overthrow in the end zone in the first half. The others wouldn't have been on video without the penalties. The only thing that didn't go to plan at all was the damn goal line offense.