Alaskan Grizzly

Isn't the bye week coming up? Perhaps coincides with that? Cutler does have a history with leg injuries mostly in the groin area so hard to say if there were any concerns of it affecting that. After hearing what the injury was and seeing another replay you can see him grab the back of his leg briefly after getting up.

If you'd read my past posts you'd see I don't. What I am is tired of his inability to play at the level he supposed...nay...expected to play at.

Right. When we have to say things like "he gives us our best chance to win" that says plenty. That means, given the sample we've seen these last 9 years, we're ok with a player who plays to his potential then almost predictably and inevitably fails us at the most inopportune time. Even last year when he arguabley had one of his best statistical years the footnote that we almost always see "...but led the league in 18(?) turnovers". That's what I've had enough of. Oh how I wish Tennessee would've been dumb enough to pull off that trade for Cutler now.

What's laughable is how you claim to know the game as an official but you are willing to dismiss what just about every other "expert" observers see as a heavy flaw in Cutler. The same message was repeated yesterday by one of the announcers that this is the 'fifth coordinator' he's played for since coming to Chicago and still manages to f#ck it up. History repeats itself yet you ignore it. Insisting that if he only had a line of first round draft picks he'd have more time, thus not throw interceptions. Well he had all the time in the world yesterday and the week before when he threw those INTs. And since you're a fan of revisions, I'm actually going to say they should consider starting Fales instead of Clausen but either way as long as it's not Cutler I'm good.

I don't know that you can qualify that as a "sit down" that Bennett made. He stuttered more than anything and Cutler fired about a half second later. I'm going to bet that he was watching Marty nearly the whole way allowing Jefferson (like Matthews like last week) to jump in and INT. something Jay might have noticed if he actually went through his progressions her'd have seen Royals defender fell down on the right and Bellamy was open for a nice come back just behind Martellus. Would've probably gotten the 1sr down too.

Besides that one int he threw at the beginning and some other early game plays he wasn't all that bad. He was successfully driving the team a few times until daunted by the cascade of penalties. Hard to succeed when you have nearly 200 yards in penalties.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Clausen does really well next week. Probably won't win but do a lot better than all of us expect. After practicing with the 1st string all week he'll turn in a good game in Seattle. Having Tim Tebow would be a circus that our team does not need. Although I know Fox has experience with him.

I think the penalties alone were nearly the defining reason this game was lost. So many positive gains were nullified by STUPID and repetitive penalties. And the lack of corner play.

Not that it's a fair comparison but wasn't it about this time last year when Aaron Rodgers said "R-E-L-A-X"? They were 1-2 at the point... Way to early to completely give up. And like you said Adam, these first three were going to be tough no matter what. It doesn't help that large pieces of your offense are out from injuries.

...and Ball. If not for their flippin PIs the D would be doing much better. IMHO

I've lost mass faith in Fuller. He really needs to pull his head out.

BELLAMY MY MAN!!!!

Im hoping Bellamy starts (or at least plays) and will have a big game.

They still have Williams on the PS right? Would've preferred he get the promotion but oh well.

I'm actually looking forward to Omahmeh (or Edamame?) play.

Just want to say I am very glad the Bears passed on this guy. After seeing him get blown up in just about every play last night and allowing one of the 2-3 sacks of Payton last night...no thanks!!!

Yep with Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Jay Novacek and Emmit Smith. He was also the HC for the Chargers with Phillip Rivers and LaDanian Tomlinson.

Well for what it's worth Norv Turner is their O coordinator. He's pretty good in his craft. Guess time will tell.

I think what we saw with Bridgewater was more Sophomoric slump than anything. And it was only one game. Heck after one game we'd all thought Luck was a bust based on his performance last week. I can't believe for a minute that a team fielded by Coach Zimmer would be a mess for very long. We can't overlook them.

Not to overthink this but I don't think speed is the cure-all for an effective return man. A lot of factors go into doing well. Although Hester was fast he was also elusive and could see the holes that he needed to hit in order to get that good return. Or was it the scheme? Toub was able to get Hester, Knox and Manning to effectively return under his system. And none of those three had the same skill set as the other. As another poster pointed out, Mariani has been to the Pro Bowl as a returner before and that seems like a legitimate pre-requisite for someone we'd want as the returner. (By the by, he set to Pro Bowl return records the year he went - 2011. One for number of returns and the other for total yards *source Wikipedia). Before breaking his leg in 2012 he had a 4.48 40 which to me is pretty fast. I'm pretty sure most of us couldn't do that.

Absolutely. This is the root of coaching. And for a team that is as young as it is, this is definitely a necessity. I was thinking over a few near misses; Cutler's near miss on the 4th down play where Long admits he messed up, the Wilson miss on the INT to blonde bimbo and Forte's drop for a sure TD. Each of these successfully executed could of tipped the game in our team's favor. That 4th down throw that Cutler haphazardly tossed in the endzone was actually closer than it looked. Had Cutler been able to get one more step and fire that ball down and out or even just a bit lower, Royal was in perfect position to make that play. All these things and the way the team came out last week makes me think better things are on the horizon. This year not next. As I said in an earlier post, despite Cutler's INT it wasn't nearly as devastating as some of his others in the past. The Bears were in this game from start to finish. And considering who they were matched up against, that's pretty admirable.

Maybe they're just 'kicking the tires' as they know what they have in Willaims, Dunn and Ratliff? If they like what they see we'll see him playing soon. If not, no harm no foul.

My money's on Williams.... Or do you think they'll look outside? Probably not with Ratliff due to return in a few weeks(?)

As long as he doesn't fumble and if he returns it on KOs he makes it at least past the 20....who cares?

Nicely encapsulated. I would agree with everything you wrote. The one thing I would have liked to have seen was not only more constant pressure on Rodgers but at least one turnover by our D. Whether it be a fumble, interception or whatever I think that really could have changed the course of the game. Even after Cutler threw that pick our team didn't seem to lose steam. With it being at home and with the intensity some of the players were showing out there, it would have been like casting blood in shark infested waters. As far as intensity goes, have to really hand it to Fox and crew. I saw a bunch of photos taken from the sideline during the game and in several of them Fox is over chatting away with various players. In the pics he looks pretty amped up and I remember several times during the course of the game after the team did something contrary, whether it be the INT or '3 and out' Fox was right there cheering the team on. I read that he kept the practices really lively and it showed in how the players responded to him on Sunday. This is absolutely fantastic in my book. As big a fan as I was of Lovie's there is no comparison to Fox's level of enthusiasm and coaching prowess. Remember he once coached the relatively brand new Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl. The guy knows what he's doing.