lemonej

Exactly and this is why I wish they would do some tackling in camp just so they can be acclimated to it when the games start.

In the past this team has not forced high draft picks on the field under this regime. This may be more about Hester's contract if you think JA is involved. IMO Hester should have gotten his contract for how valuable he was to changing field position not for his potential as a WR because they had not seen him in that capacity. They just out thought themselves as usual.

Lucky L I agree with your assessments of the linemen except for Beekman who looked terrible but when I was at TC he was working exclusively at OG. The way he looked in the game was almost as if he had never played the position before. I'm not making excuses for him but if they want him to be ready to spell Kruetz then scrap his duty at OG and work him at center only.

Wright was the most sure handed tackler on the field period. I may go as far to say that he is the best young guy I have seen tackling for the Bears in years. Why do I say this ? Simply because I like the fact that he wraps his arms around a ball carriers legs which IMO is text book tackling.

Last night while he was on the field Mark Anderson drew quite a few false start penalties which might be overstating what he really did since he seemed to be the one pointing out the offenders. Regardless of what he did production-wise if he can be disruptive to the timing of the O-line that is a positive. I can't tell you of any other plays that he made so his contribution last night were 2 or 3 false start penalties by the Chargers.

B-twig I'm right there with you and I also thought it was a litlle unusual for a team to blitz so frequently in a first preseason game. I don't know if Chico was trying to send a message or if that is how they plan to play this year but sending DBs on blitzes when you play a 3-4 was over doing it a bit. I'm not to mad about that since the Bears have some 3-4 teams on the schedule and need to see game action when everything is thrown at them.

When you mentioned the name Davis I automatically thought you were talking about Rashied but I re-read your post and realize you were talking about Kellen. Since I brought up Rashied who I wanted gone 2 years ago he is having an outstanding camp and actually had a decent game last night.

I have no Idea what else DA can do to prove that he should be on the field from the first snap of the game to the end. He and Knox clearly are the Bears best 2 WRs and both should be starting. After seeing Hanie get clobbered on more than one play I can truly say that the one truth about Martz's offense is the QBs get hit a lot and with that being said I am worried about not only Hanie's injury but also if Cutler gets hurt because it was obvious last night that Hanie and LaFevour don't have a firm grasp of this offense and looked shaky at times.

Last night out of all the Bears running attempts only one was a toss to the outside to Bell the rest of the attempts were between the tackles. Maybe thats why we averaged 2.3 yards per run. This is what I saw at TC and that is what they did last night. I don't understand this type of thinking especially when they bring a reciever split wide in motion back towards the o-linemen essentially bringing another defender into the box. Last night the blitz pickup was horrible and it needs to improve dramatically or the QBs are going to get killed. When the Bears were passing a LB was coming off the edge on almost every play unblocked. This team features a 3-4 and there are a few teams on the schedule who play that scheme most notably gb and NE.You have to figure whenever the Bears go empty backfield the opponents are going to blitz. While the Bears are trying to spin this game in a positive way, I'm not because I didn't see enough of the starting unit on O to really gage anything. Maybe I'm crazy but I just think 8 snaps isn't enough.

This is not a surprise since he did appear to be out of shape and was an undergrad forced out of BYU for rules violations(Premarital sex). This upcoming season would have been his senior season where he could have been able to add to his All-time leading rusher stats at BYU. This is good for him and he gets to make a nice amount of money in the process to help support his young child.

With the Bears bringing in Martz's former reciever Issac Bruce to teach the WRs the nuances of the new offense being installed, what the Hell is Darryl Drake doing? I for one have always maintained that he was not really helping these guys develop and feel he should have been dismissed along with the other offensive coaches this past offseason. I just watched a video on the 5pm news that had Martz on the practice field with Bruce standing right behind him.

Just a thought who was the DC when Johson was here? That may explain why he is also gone.

My take on this whole notion of losing before you get to the SB to save some kind of humilation is opposite of those who think thats okay. I for one think that it sucks to lose the NFC Championship game which is why it felts so good to win the SB the following year. I can remember the feeling me and my cousin had after they lost and we were crushed. We had made it to the championship game with 4 different Qbs plus Payton playing QB and we had just one our first playoff game since 1963 and I was alive back then. The previous 2 playoff appearances ended in a blowout lost to Dallas and a controversial lost to Philly. If you were watching back then you can understand why some of us who have been able to watch every SB enjoy the fact that our team has been able to participate in 2 out of 40 plus contests. Why? Because by my account that constitues a rare occassion and many times you have heard players say that enjoy the moment because you never know when you will get back there again. Just ask Dan Marino.

Nfo my comments were based on the Trib article that reported the shift of Garza to LG and Louis to RG its on their web site and I have said time and time again that I'm not savy enough to post the links but if you read the article it states that the Bears drafted him as a TE to make it seem to undrafted FAs that they would have a better chance to join the squad but a week later rescinded that assessment and called him an OL and BTW he played TE in college at San Diego State early on in his collegiate career. This is why the Bears thought they were able to sell their draft scenario along with Martz's penchant for liking big blocking TEs, no one would question if the Bears were trying to shift his position or not since that has been a normal thing this franchise has done for decades.

Mad L for me I couldn't just watch that video I had to watch Sweetness running the "Wildcat" back in the day and if you notice any gimmicks that Ditka had in the playbook he would spring on the packers especially when Forrest Gregg was their coach. so thanks for posting the link.

The tribune is reporting that the Bears have moved starting RG Robeto Garza to LG and for the last few practices have had Lance Louis running at RG. IMO Louis at TC when I was there looked very athletic even doing sommersaults as he hit the blocking dummies but I think this is based on his agressiveness because as I described in my TC post there was a skirmish between an OL and DL and he was the OL in the middle of it. All of this sounds like Bear speak but, if I can remember some of the guys Tice coached in Minny a lot of them started out unheralded and Louis fits the bill. If he could some how crack the starting line up it would be pure luck for JA as he was originally drafted as a TE then later projected as a OL.

Nfo my recollection of Halas was about his last years as a coach but I do know that one of his records for a 98 yard fumble receovery was broken by the late Jack Tatum of the Raiders who picked up a McArthur Lane fumble in the endzone and returned it 102 yards for a touchdown against the packers(no caps). Later the NFL review the play and considered the fumble a "muff" and restored the record to Halas. To this day I'm not sure if he still holds the record but to think a record from the early NFL lasted into the late 70's is comparable to Babe Ruth's homerun record lasting until Hank Aaron broke it in 1975. It is also documented that Halas had a short professional baseball career as an outfielder with the Yankees.

That one rubbed me wrong also this guy started the Bears so he should automatically be number one IMO.

I take issue with Olin Kreutz being listed and not Mike Pyle a HOF center.

Can someone go on the suntimes web site and post a link to the 50 greatest Bears? I'm not savy enough to do this myself. Its some interesting names on there and one terrible ommission.

One formation I saw LT was an empty backfield one with the RB lined up right next to Olsen in the slot and they threw a couple of screen plays off of this look also one going to the TE one going to the RB and one going to a WR. IMO the key to the success of this offense is going to be when Cutler realizes that nothing is there and checks down to either Taylor or Forte. I believe both of these guys are going to catch a lot of passes this year.

I noticed a few false starts on Tuesday myself and it seems there is a little tension going on on the O-line that may be based on the competition factor. BTW Garza looked in mid season form grabbing D-linemen's jerseys.

What it appeared to me was that the D-line looked more talented than our O-line. IMO Cutler was having a not so sharp day.At one point he looked as if he was cramping up in his calf some.The O-lines struggles were scheme related on pass plays but on the run plays they were opening some holes.

The formation featured DA,Knox and Hester at WR and Olsen at TE. Hester was in the slot some and motioned out. There was WRs going in motion a lot even when it was simple passing drills with just WRs and DBs. As for the WRs jumping to make the catch, yes it was necessary because Cutler was releasing the ball high and these timing routes that they are running has the ball coming at WRs before they make their breaks. One other note that was interesting was I saw the Bears run some crossing routes which look like they were intended to rub or pick DBs off a receiver.

This happened near the end of practice and it wasn't in 11 on 11 drills and was when the offens was running the passing plays where the QB had 4 seconds to get rid of the ball. IMO he didn't have a particularly stellar day and a lot of the catches made by the WRs were tough as he was trying to fit the ball in tight spots.