AZ54

Horrible trade for the Seahawks. They were hailed as geniuses when they traded for him. Now they are hailed as wise business men cutting their losses early and taking a dead money cap hit of $7mil next year. I have no idea what the Jets are thinking trading for him. If he can't find his way in Seattle's offense after 18months he's not going to help Geno this season, and he's not going to help Rex keep his job either. Not to say Rex is definitely losing his job rather that, whatever will happen, Harvin won't influence it either way. The Jets got rid of a malcontent in Santonio Holmes so why would Rex want to pick up another one? Feels more like a GM getting desperate to me because taking on that contract is not good for the future although it seems they can cut their losses this offseason if they choose too. If that happens the GM looks bad for making the deal. So either Rex or the GM is positioning themselves to save their job with this trade. Whoever it is it won't work. Get ready for more fireworks in New York.

I agree. If I skip back and watch a play, or just isolate on these guys during a replay I'm usually thinking why don't you run? They make the tackle more often than not but it seems that instead of taking 3 or 4 steps to get into position they take 2 to 3 and then wait for the ball carrier. Your good players are making tackles while moving forward and it was a trademark of Urlacher and Briggs in their prime. It's often the other way around where the veterans appear to be faster because they make quicker reads and know where to go while the young guys arrive late and chase the play. This is actually a very good sign that we have good young talent on the roster. They still take mis-steps but that is happening less and less often. We tend to forget this is an all new scheme these guys are learning. Something good is happening because this does not happen by mistake: http://www.csnchicago.com/bears/bears-defe...hits-are-coming "The Bears, injury riddled and 32nd against the run last year, rank tenth in rushing yardage allowed – this after being shredded in game one by the Buffalo Bills (193 rushing yards)."

Hopefully we get to see more from Vereen. I assume we'll start SMC, D.J. Williams, and Bostic at WLB but I'm curious who will lineup with Bositc when we're in our nickel defense.

The news everyone has been waiting to hear. I may be alone in this but I'm glad to have him back on the field. I expect he'll be a bit rusty but he may also have had some time to sit back and learn the position better. I will summarize why I'm optimistic this way: Reggie Herring is being praised for his work with the backups this past week against Atlanta, and rightfully so. Reggie is the same guy who continues to praise SMC, his skill set and the improvement he showed before the injury. If Reggie is looking forward to having SMC back as a starter, and says he is close to showing us that he can be a playmaker, then I'm glad too.

This is a tough transition for him. The first thing he has to do is learn how to hold the ball correctly. I think he is right to start off as a kick returner, keeps him in open space where he's accustomed to running while he learns the game. Since he's played rugby he should know how to tackle too which works for special teams coverage. However, playing RB is a whole new ballgame and learning how to run between the tackles, well let's just say it took Reggie Bush 5-6 years in the NFL to learn how to do that. This guy is already 26, 27 by the time he'd be ready next season. Hayne can catch a rugby ball moving at 10mph but if he can catch a fast ball from Cutler I'd like to see him used more in the Percy Harvin type of role as a slot WR. He has elite quickness and with his size he'd be a very tough matchup, plus I'd think he could be an effective blocker too. That keeps him in the open field where he's comfortable and you don't have to teach him many routes to get him to be effective as he grows his skill set. What did Wes Welker run in New England? Go up 5 yds turn left. Go up 5 yds turn right.

Meet the man responsible for the LB performance: http://www.chicagobears.com/multimedia/vid...6a-9ca9880ab086

I agree on Fuller, maybe not a superstar yet, but he's going to be a very good player for a long time. When we played the Packers we had the CBs sit back in a soft zone and it killed us. Fast forward to Atlanta and we allow Jennings and Fuller to man up on the corners while bringing pressure up the middle. It worked because Fuller is capable of staying with the 2nd best WR in the game. I suspect he's capable of staying with Calvin Johnson too. This great result went quietly un-noticed by almost everyone in the media. It won't stay that way for long.

The more important question could be will those "starters" get their jobs back? If healthy next week I'd say of course but if their injury issues drag out for a few weeks I don't know. Bostic of course will get back on the field as he is the future and his back spasms should be healed after a weekend off. SMC should be back soon but will likely be out at least another week. I didn't get to see the game so I can't really say how well guys like Greene played but it seems clear what he did this game was better than anything he did last year.

Yes, I'm optimistic about the future of this team. We are finally seeing signs of real depth all over the roster from DL (Ratliff missed 3 games, Allen missed 1), LB (top 4 out today), Oline (Bushrod out today, Garza, Slausson earlier). Secondary with Fuller filling in for Tillman with no drop off. We still need to add depth at WR, S, and some more speed at DE.

Game ball to Reggie Herring. I had to look up who Sharpton was and so Reggie's got his bottom 3 LBs out there the entire game and they give up 13pts. After week 1 there was a lot of people on this board who wanted to bring in Ray Lewis to coach or motivate our LBs. I see no reason to think Reggie needs any help. Mel Tucker deserves credit too. Six games into the season he has his defense ranked 17th in yards given up per game, not so good on pts/game @ 24th. Yet it's a total rebuilding effort and he's relying on rookies and 2nd year players at DT, LB, CB, and now FS and there is some progress each week, usually in different areas. This appears to be the most complete game they've played as a defense this season. Free safety continues to be the achilles heel. I noticed Vereen was out there today and hopefully he played well enough to stay on the field next week. We need some continuity there.

Naturally I missed the game. Looks like our young LBs played well, as did the Dline. Jay throwing for 381yds didn't hurt either.

I like Jones so far but he's only reacting to the plays and is nowhere close to understanding how to read things. His athleticism stands out anytime he's on the field. He's part of the future…Bostic, Shea, and Jones and if they put it together these three could be really good. I am willing to take the growing pains with Briggs not on the field (he's not playing that well anyway) because I'd rather see these young guys develop as quickly as possible.

…and which LB is right behind Houston and Young? Briggs. That's why this is his last season with the Bears.

McCray is horrible in coverage and while I don't think Vereen is going to be any better to start with, I'd rather live with the rookie mistakes and see if he can learn. Fixing the safety position is going to be a big part of our offseason and I think we should give Vereen enough game experience to know where he fits in those plans. I don't see McCray being in our plans for next season.

I noticed Christian Jones playing in the 2nd half but never saw any report on Bostic. I see now he injured his back. Hopefully this isn't a long term issue because he was starting to play well. http://voices.suntimes.com/sports/bears-li...ss-to-panthers/

Wow, 21 games into the Trestman era and we're ready to dump the entire offensive scheme because we only put up 24pts (with a missed chip shot FG from our Pro Bowl kicker). All that done with a backup rookie playing LT for the first time, and our backup C. That backup LT forced Martellus Bennett to stay in and block much of the game. After 1.25 seasons, if this is the bottom of the barrel performance for Trestman and Cutler it's far better than anything we had the decade prior, especially with two backups on the Oline. It's not that I'm happy with the 2nd half performance of the offense but it is worth noting how rapidly expectations have skyrocketed. The second INT was a clear pass interference on the LB who shoved Holmes off his route well beyond 5 yards downfield. At a minimum it's illegal contact and an automatic 1st down. Take that contact away and the ball hits Holmes on target. The first INT also had a LB (same one?) shoving Marshall backward before the ball arrived but I still don't think Cutler should have made that throw. Compare either to the PI call against Fuller and both involved far more contact. None of that excuses the poor run blocking in the 2nd half, among other poor play. Holmes, for all his speed, cannot get open. I don't know if it's because he's still learning the offense thus cannot make route adjustments that Marshall, Bennett, or Jeffrey might make. Or will he stay jammed at the LOS the rest of the year? 21 games into the Trestman/Emery era and I've seen one of the leagues worst offenses (ranked 28th in total yards in 2012) turned around to a top 10 caliber offense. Injuries and some poor play have affected things early this season but I'm not going to walk away from that improvement after suffering through John Shoop, Ron Turner, Mike Martz, and Mike Tice. After fielding the leagues worst defense, or second worst (must give Dallas their credit), Emery, Trestman, and Tucker have improved it to one that sits around 21st-22nd depending on what stat we're looking at. I see no reason to think the young players that are making significant contributions (Bostic, Fuller, SMC, Ego, Sutton) won't continue to improve. OTOH I see no reason to think that older players like Briggs will ever play like he used and expect he'll continue to miss tackles like he did today. I still think we'll end up ranked around 20th on defense this year, that's with the same Tillman injury that happened last year. This year if we lose Briggs to injury the D might actually get better. I never thought we'd go from worst to a top 5, or even top 10, defense in one offseason. So far they are doing enough to keep us in most games (Packers being the exception). Seattle built their Superbowl winning team over 4 seasons. I'm likely alone in this but I feel what we've done the last two off seasons to rebuild both sides of the ball has put us on the right path and I think jumping off the ship at this point in the journey is the wrong move.

I think the two key players needed are a true fast pass rush DE and a Safety. Bostic improves each week, still some ups and downs, and I see no reason that won't continue. SMC was doing alright before the injury and he'll be back and should continue to improve as well. I like Christian Jones in there with them for the future and Greene has done some good things as well. For now I think we need to be patient and allow the young players to learn and evaluate where we are at the end of the season. At DE Allen is clearly slowing down but will be effective for us this year and next but we need someone to groom into that role.

Our D was not all bad against Green Bay. We shutdown the run, Lacy had nowhere to go. We typically had good (not to be confused with great) zone coverage on their passing downs for the first few seconds. What we didn't have is a pass rush and you can see on plays where guys don't know what to do or where to go in coverage after the initial route was run. More than once I saw Fuller look at the safety or LB inside of him with his hands up (as if asking is he your man or mine?) as a guy broke inside on a makeshift route. None of them knew, they all just stood at their landmarks like they had cement shoes on. Rodgers and most QBs in the NFL are going to pick apart any team that plays a zone scheme with no pass rush. Find two Dlineman that can get pressure on Rodgers and the game becomes more manageable. Not that we'd shut them out but enough stops would have happened for the offense to keep pace in the scoring column. I lay the blame more at the feet of the coaches than the players because I think it was the scheme that led to consistent long drives being given up. I would have liked to see us play more man coverage on occasion, at least on the outside. It also appears going into the game the main focus was on stopping Lacy because he ran all over us last year. We were so obsessed with stopping Lacy that we forgot they have one of the best QBs in the league. Why we didn't adjust what we were doing on D I have no idea. Maybe in part because we have so many young players out there, including Bostic playing a new spot that they felt better sticking with what they practiced all week. We'll see if we change up in the next game.

That guy is an idiot. At the beginning he hammers Cutler for the mis-read to Bennett then later in the same article he says Jay needs to stop waiting to see that guys are open and trust the timing of the throws. I don't know who was right or wrong on that route but to anyone watching the game it was blatantly obvious that if Bennett hooks up the route he's wide open. It's even obvious in the 3rd screenshot he puts in the article, yet Cossell says he had no clarity in the coverage.

We could lose because we'd cut one of these young guys that we recently signed to our DB ranks and who have solidified our kick coverage. Somebody has to go if we bring in Champ. Now if we end up with someone on IR among our safeties that's a different story.

We went out and got this guy pretty quickly after he got cut and he's been coached by Reggie Herring before. Must be something there we really like. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...0924-story.html I checked around some draft profiles. From a physical and athletic standpoint he's not a diamond in the rough like Christian Jones may become but he sounds as if he's pretty quick for a LB but on the smaller side. He's been around long enough that we want him for special teams now or as a backup player moving forward (as in next year) or both. I suppose this could be related to Shea breaking his hand but there has been nothing out there indicating that is a long term issue so I don't think so.

He has never been a safety. Plus you're talking about a backup who is not going to play special teams.

While there was nothing spectacular on our KRs I did like the speed and vision Rashad Ross showed later in the game. He's in a tough spot after only joining the team on Sep 1st and just a few weeks later he's out there auditioning for a full-time role. I couldn't find much on him in terms of draft profile and I don't remember him as a standout at ASU. Looks like he ran a 4.34 forty at his pro day http://www.houseofsparky.com/2013/4/26/425...rashad-ross-asu "The fastest players on the day were wide receivers Rashad Ross and Jamal Miles, who ran 4.34 and 4.44 in the 40, respectively." I don't know if he's the answer but he appears to offer a bit more than Senorise Perry did on kick returns.

I think part of the reason was also the attempt to "continue" with Lovie's scheme, Lovie's terminology, etc. I don't think that decision was Tucker's and I didn't disagree with it at the time. More than that though I think the biggest difference is we have better position coaches on D this year. Despite the new scheme guys like SMC, Bostic, and even our rookie DTs are playing well.

Tremendous win for the Bears. We're 2-1 after going on long road trips to both coasts in back to back weeks. We've done this with a depleted offense missing two Oline starters against the best front 3 in the NFL (Jets), and against one of the better Dlines (SF) and the WR injuries we all know about. We still had good pass protection most of the game but had a few missed assignments throughout the game. Against that front and the myriad of looks Rex Ryan threw at them I was pleased but I'm saying this because we had Ola and DLP there. 3 weeks ago if you told me we'd have a former CFL OG starting against the Jets Dline I'd have expected much worse. Maybe I'm the odd one out on this but I compare this game to what we had a year ago against Rob Ryan and the Saints when they did the same sort of tricks and our Oline, with all 5 starters out there, fell apart. I see progress in getting quality depth on the roster here. Run blocking is just bad. DLP was let go by New Orleans because he's not a good run blocker and Ola is a rookie learning on the job. Getting Garza and Slausson back should help here, so will playing the Packers dine next week. However, Forte had some good runs late in the game including some right up the middle. Cutler played a very good game. On the road, lots of pressure from the Dline and all the various looks he got yet he remained composed throughout. He stood in the pocket on a couple occasions with clear missed blocking assignments and made the throw just before he got hit. There was nothing great here but in years past this is the exact type of game he'd have struggled with, especially with his favorite target hobbled by a bad ankle. I continue to see progress on our defense. Many here don't like Tucker but seeing how far this D has come since last year I like what we have going on. Jets gained 114 yds on the ground against us, compared to 212 and 146 (against Peppers!) in their first two games. The ESPN bobble heads on the pre-game show all expected us to give up 200 yds rushing. This isn't a shutdown D, far from it but I said earlier I felt we could get average performance from this unit and I still think that. Toss in that we did this with Sutton and Ferguson playing a lot of snaps against the best rushing team in the NFL, along with Bostic at a new position, and the arrow is pointing up. Jared Allen was invisible in the first half. He showed up in the second half with several pressures and tackles on runs. I still like Willie Young a lot. He uses his long arms very well and several times kept his assignment and avoided the play fake to pursue Smith on a rollout. One of those pursuits led to Smith running out of bounds which is a sack so he has 4 on the season. While I don't like the penalty Houston got for talking disrespectfully to a ref I absolutely love that our guys where out there mixing it up with the Jets Oline. All the Dline and LBs in there defending each other, it was great to see the front seven playing with some passion afterward. Sometimes you need that moment, even that penalty, to light the fire and come together as a unit. Can't wait get Ratliff back out there next week. I'll mark this as the first game where I started seeing LBs making plays at and behind the LOS. It's not all good and I agree that Briggs is nowhere close to the player he used to be but his experience against Green Bay's offense will be valuable next week. Bostic played well enough that we won't be rushing SMC back onto the field anytime soon. The only thing that needs to be said about Kyle Fuller is that all football fans now know his name. 7 tackles, 2 FF, 1 INT and he's using the Peanut Punch! Jennings wasn't as good as he's been but we've been moving him around a lot, now he goes back to just focusing on his outside position and I think he'll start to play better over the next few games. I have no clue who plays at safety next week. Seeing Vereen helping the new guy (Ahmad Dixon) line up on that last drive had to make every Bear fan nervous. Maybe now the Bears can update Dixon's player bio with a photo of him in a Bears uniform instead of the Cowboys. (Except Holmes is still shown in Jets jersey). Special teams kick coverage was very good this week, huge improvement over the first game. Punting is better but we almost got another one blocked. I feel as if O'Donnell is being asked to go for hang time over distance and he's having to think too much on his form when punting, as in "don't out-kick your coverage". His motion as he punts looks deliberate, mechanical, and a little slow. Not the relaxed way you'd expect. If true, in time as he gets more comfortable with this approach he should get more consistent. The Bears stuck with Gould and his short kickoffs early in his career and it paid off long term.