AZ54

Agreed, we are not going to stop runs up the middle with a 270lb DT (Wootton). It is only going to get worse with our starting LBs (Williams and Anderson both injured). Briggs was questionable for this game too. Fortunately we have 10 days to get healthier for the Redskins and then a very welcome bye week to continue getting healthier. I will say this, Bostic fills holes a lot better than DJ Williams, he just needs to learn which gap to get into but he'll be good long term. I do worry if we have to go with Greene over Anderson because we will suffer in pass coverage. This is going to be a bend but don't break D for the rest of the season and we will have to rely on turnovers from players like Briggs, Tillman, and Jennings. I've already made the mental adjustment by tipping the beer can more often when the D is on the field whereas in years past it was when the O was on the field.

Agree on the special teams. The big return we gave up Weems followed McMannis into the same gap. If Weems holds his lane there is no big return. I see him as cap space in January. Hester hasn't done anything much lately to make his cap space worth it either but teams still punt away from him. He killed one of his return opportunities by going offsides on an extra point.

Can you name our starting DTs? I don't know of any teams that can standup to losing their top 3 DTs and still be stout stopping the run up the middle, or rushing the passer. In fact if you go back to training camp we've lost our top 5 DTs counting Sedrick Ellis and Turk McBride. Paea will be back but we managed to win a game without him and Tillman. I'll take it. If you really want to criticize someone go after Julius Peppers. A few games back he played well but not great against the Steelers and I felt he would be back to his old game. In the last three games what has he done? I'd copy his stat line from the game but his name doesn't even appear in the box score because he did nothing. On at least a couple run plays he failed to contain the edge and pursue the runner as he ran off tackle. That's not typical of what we've seen from him in years past. Perhaps most telling is that we have put the smaller and weaker Cory Wootton inside and kept Peppers at end. Maybe Peppers spent some time inside but I didn't notice it. I don't know what is going on but Peppers is not playing like himself and he certainly is not playing like a guy deserving of anything close to $14 million/yr.

Shea's arms are too short to be an effective DE and while he's quick, he does not have the elite quickness he needs to overcome the tackles who consistently get into his body. Short arms keep him from getting off blocks to make tackles. Yes, I'd trade him for a good DT right now as that would get Wootton back at DE and I think Bass has shown enough to replace Shea.

(13:26) 22-M.Forte left guard to NYG 5 for 5 yards (26-A.Rolle). (12:43) 22-M.Forte right guard to NYG 4 for 1 yard (52-J.Beason). (:48) (Shotgun) 22-M.Forte right guard to NYG 12 for -1 yards (90-J.Pierre-Paul). 15:00) #62 E. Britton reports eligible. 22-M.Forte right guard to NYG 10 for 2 yards (21-R.Mundy). 10:31) 22-M.Forte right guard to CHI 27 for 7 yards (52-J.Beason). 6:06) 22-M.Forte right guard to NYG 3 for 2 yards (97-L.Joseph). end of half runs to get 1st down... 1:59) #62 E. Britton reports eligible. 22-M.Forte left guard to NYG 43 for no gain (91-J.Tuck). 3-1-NYG 43 3rd quarter... 14:11) 22-M.Forte right guard to CHI 42 for 1 yard (52-J.Beason). 7:35) 22-M.Forte left guard to CHI 44 for no gain (52-J.Beason). 14:06) 22-M.Forte left guard to CHI 38 for 5 yards (93-M.Patterson). 22yds on 10 inside runs. Not good at all but I don't think we can eliminate this from our playbook or we will have more issues running to the outside.

I have not forgotten the whooping the Giants put on us a couple years ago. I doubt Jay Cutler has forgotten either. Now is the prime time game to go out and get revenge. Hit these guys hard early and let them know it's going to be a long flight home and never let off the throttle. I like this from Kromer. We know he is a man of high expectations for execution of assignments. Our players come in to work the day after a big loss and get right back to work even giving themselves homework. We all know the offense has not put together a complete but from my vantage point I believe we have the talent and character in the locker room to reach that goal. http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...fc-5148f06c51da ------------------------------------------------------------------------- "This team came in the day after the game and the entire offense was in lifting, working out together, watching the tape together, because it was a short week," Kromer said Wednesday as the Bears continued to prepare for Thursday night's game against the New York Giants. "We weren't able to show the entire tape like we normally do to them. They watched it all on their own, gave us the reports of this is what should have happened, this is what we should have done, we see this here, this is what we did well. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BEAR DOWN!

Someone to play the NT position. I doubt he'll be active this game but if he can just stand there and hold his ground he'll be doing great IMO as that will allow other players to make the tackles. Anything else is icing on the cake.

Nice to see a GM chat with fans for an hour. I think he put to rest any further discussion of us transitioning to a 3-4 D, at least for the upcoming offseason. http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...93-4aa1a6a8225d

We're going to see more of this and that's one reason why, just 5 games into a new regime, I like our coaches. We haven't yet put together a complete game but I see signs throughout the games we can adjust to what is happening and put players in a position to win the down. Here Tucker is changing up how we use Shea to take advantage of the skills he offers versus a typical DE. Although it's not in the video linked below, we don't have to go into a 3-4 D to utilitize some of the concepts that defense often employs such as zone blitzes. http://www.chicagobears.com/multimedia/vid...6f-f45efefa2a70

Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are running offenses that they have run for many many years. Jay Cutler and the rest of the Bears offense are running an offense they've run for 5 weeks. In time they will get there but 5 games in? Maybe I'm the only one who sees players asking where to line up when we go no huddle late in games.

I felt Detroit was the trap game. I doubted we were capable of matching up with the Saints but had hopes that disappeared quickly with Forte's fumble on the first snap. We are still a team capable of making the playoffs, we are at home on a short week against a winless team. To consider the Giants happy about flying out here after we've lost two in row, I think they'd say they expect to run into a team ready to put up a big fight to get back on track winning. They just lost their best RB and will rely on a mid-season signing Brandon Jacobs to handle the run game. Just execute the little things correctly and we win.

I prefer to just draft a speed WR this offseason. Before we make that decision I also want to see how the WR corps is with Wilson on the field. He is quicker and faster than Earl Bennett and that might be enough to fill the gap we need (a WR who can get deep faster).

I'm not happy we lost, never am. I know everyone on this board takes losses hard too, that's why we're here. However I'm not as down as others are after this game. On D we do not have the pass rush we need but we also don't have our starting DTs out there either. Huge drop off and then we lost Collins so we had guys out there that were sitting on their sofa watching games in week 1. Yet the D still improved as the game went on...learning curve? We just won't be a shutdown D anymore and will have to rely on turnovers and the bend but don't break mentality. Again, we had one forced fumble but the ball went their way. Once we settled into the game Tucker had the D setup to force the Saints into longer drives (with the exception of one drive) keeping Brees into shorter check downs which gives our turnover machine more opportunities to force an error. I think with our talent that was good coaching. On offense we started horribly and their D had some great schemes our new line was not ready for and it was stuff they have not shown yet in this season. Once we had seen it a few times we adjusted, shut it down and then they went away from it. Cutler still has his issues with ball protection when he runs but in terms of passing he protected the ball much better and even threw away the ball several times when plays weren't there. Martellus will get healthy and be a bigger part of our offense. Earl Bennett catches a game changing TD one week and drops a game changing 3rd and 2 pass another week. At some point we need more speed on the field at WR I think we need to get Wilson more involved and we'll be adding some speed at WR this offseason. Can't take away a record day from Jeffrey who played great. Team will now have to consider if they let him beat them or Marshall. It's the fact in the last two games we have had bad starts and yet in both games I see coaching adjustments and/or improved play. Players still have to execute so Briggs giving up a first down on a stupid encroachment penalty is inexcusable and he knows it. Yet that is why I'm optimistic long term. Our offense will become more consistent as they learn it and IMO Trestman has shown he can figure out what a defense is doing and adapt. I feel Tucker has shown the same characteristic. Coming into this season I never had expectations we'd be a contender to go deep in the playoffs but felt we might make it into the playoffs. We haven't done anything to make me change that prediction yet. Right now with all the changes in Oline, rookies starting there, new offense, new coaching on D too that we are where I hoped we'd be at 3-2. I'll admit the 3-0 start got my hopes up a bit. Now let's just settle down and focus on execution this Thursday night and we will come out of that game 4-2.

We have played against some good to very good defenses IMO. I include the winless Steelers in that assessment. Offense OTOH have been good (Bengals), bad (vikings), bad (Steelers), good (Lions). Considering that I think the Oline has done very well especially considering we have 4 new starters and two are rookies. The Dline is an issue for and even more so now that we lost Melton. Yet Peppers has recovered and now looks like the player we all love to watch. This will help a lot moving forward. Wotton has been solid. I think Paea and Collins can be solid but we need to see it. The problem is there is nobody behind the DT starters and really SMC hasn't done much either to backup the DE's. If this continues we'll struggle all season long. LBs have also had issues with DJ Williams returning from missing almost all of preseason. He's looked better lately but has plenty of room to improve.

I tend to believe this a lot more: http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/be...ed-players.html Consider the comment in there that the Dline believes they may have been tipping off the stunts by their alignment or where they were looking before the snap. Something changed in the second half because they played much better and Izzy was still "reading" their signals.

Yes, miss Toub. We were better disciplined in staying in our lanes under Toub than we have been so far this season.

I think Wooten is doing fine as a DE. Trying to play him at DT for a lot of reps won't work but for a few 3rd and long situations during a game I think it's a good idea. Again, I don't see Emery making this trade or even contemplating it as we need all the depth we can get on our Dline right now.

With the Chargers in serious need of outside LB help, and the Bears in serious lack of pass rush ability from McClellin I'm curious how many here would consider trading SMC to the Chargers if they inquired? And if so what would you want in return? The Chargers have Melvin Ingram and Freeney out. Freeney is a stop gap on their roster so they could view SMC as a long term solution for them opposite Ingram. For our part the Bears are already getting Washington reps which IMO indicates they know they aren't getting enough out of SMC so they are hoping they can speed up Washington's development. Washington needs a lot of development so for him to be on the field when we have our top 3 DEs healthy says a lot IMO. With it being so early in the season and with such a promising start I think Phil will be very hesitant to make a deal. I don't think he'd consider it for less than a 2nd Rd pick at this point. That's where I'm at right now too because even though he's underperforming there isn't even as a good an option behind him. If Washington starts to show something against the Saints well then let's talk.

One might think he is qualified to know what a thug is since he lives in Detroit. That he employs a player voted by the NFL players as the dirtiest in the league should also give him a clue. Perhaps because he sees thugs all around him he assumes the Bears have the same type of players.

Finally Unga is cut and gone.

Totally disagree here. Kromer worked with Payton for years, even before they worked together at New Orleans, building game plans to defeat defenses. He was chosen to run the team in Payton's absence specifically because he understood best what Payton would do with the offense. Perhaps he's not as polished as a play caller but game time decisions are different than setting up a strategy. There is no way after all those years working together he does not know how Payton will want to attack our defense. While many focused on the Saints record in the first part of the season, Kromer's specialty, the offense, scored 32, 27, 24, 27, 31, and 35 pts in the first six games. This season the Saints have scored: 23, 16, 31, and 38. There are valid reasons to believe Kromer has an excellent understanding of what the Saints will try to do. Sean Payton will know this and may try to do something different here and there to see if he can catch us off-guard but in general attacking a defense is done by defining where you have an advantage. I believe Payton will stick to that until we prove we can stop it. Knowing what they do does not mean we can stop it. Can we really cover Graham with a LB? Can we get a good pass rush on Brees to force shorter throws? Who can keep up with Sproles on passes out of the backfield? I don't know if we can do those things based on what we just saw in Detroit but we should know they are coming at us.

This is needed. We can't keep giving up short fields due to lack of either distance on punts or lack of hang time giving returners time to avoid our coverage. Again, Emery is focused on execution and if you are not performing he starts looking.

Regarding the offense and other teams adapting to what we are doing, I agree they are sitting on the short routes. In terms of looking for the diversity of plays I think it is still headed our way. I still some direction of players on where to line up as they come out of the huddle. We've just had two away games one against our first 3-4 defense...really the standard when it comes to the 3-4 in terms of mixing up coverages and blitzes. The second away game was against a team with the best DT combo in the game and was in a loud dome. We still have two rookies on the line as well as four new players on the line in a new scheme. Those were not the games to be adding a lot of new twists to our offense. We split our road games, now we return home and it's time to add to the mix.

Their LT can't stop Peppers. They will have to do something to help him which will only impact their passing game by keeping someone out of a route. I expect much better play from our DTs this game as well. i agree with the assessment of our offense...run.

Horrible game by Cutler and he went back to his bad mechanics as the game wore on. He was inconsistent all game long and I have to wonder now if that hit at the end of the Steelers game gave him some soreness that affected his motion, or a hit during the game. Regardless, that has nothing to do with getting rid of the ball on time and protecting the ball when pressure arrives. We are 4 games into the season. Teams have enough film now to know our offense and Detroit often went 8 and sometimes 9 in the box to take away all the underneath stuff and bet on their pass rush to get their before we could exploit the deep routes. They were right for most of the game and they got into Jay's head because he didn't step up on his throws.