BearFan2000

totally agree both offensively and defensively. We finally have big targets in the passing game guys who can go up and get the ball, guys who can use their body to create space. Another thing that I like about Marshall and its not something that's always noticed is that he has the presence of mind that if he can't make that catch he will make sure no one can. I've seen it in preseason and I saw it today where a ball that could have been picked he bats it down to make sure it's an incomplete and not an INT. I loved watching him and cutler work and just when you focus on Marshall, he hits Hester, Bennet, Jeffery or Forte. I think Jay hit like 8 different guys today. That pass to Jeffery for the TD was absolutely beautiful. Give Jay time to throw and he will make plays that make your jaw drop. That pass alone, was right on the money, it hit Jeffery in the hands on stride and over the DB's. This I think is the year the Leage finds out just how good Cutler can be. I liked our balance today we used the run effectively and what a difference this passing attack will have on the run game teams won't be stacking the box daring us to throw on them. I liked how we used both Forte and Bush Defensively, this was by far Jennings best day and I hope Tillman's injury isn't too severe and that it was more precautionary that he didn't return. When you say the slants that is one of GB's bread and butter plays and one that has been this teams achilles heel, teams that have had success against us have often slanted and screened us to death. Next week we are going to need to continue to improve our pressure from the middle but it will be critical to play smart on the edge and keep contain. I think we can get pressure on Rodgers. And we saw today what happens when you keep pressure on. GB's line is not that great, and their run game is non existent (has been for years). If we can get pressure with our front four I think we can hold GB's offense down. They'll make plays and they'll score but I think we hold them in check and we now have an offense that will give our D a rest, and the weight of keeping the team in the game will not rest fully on the D as it has in years past. It's a whole new ball game and we have the makings of a very potent offense that teams will have to contend with.

That's right the Packers are in last place in the NFC North after week 1. LOL Gotta enjoy that while it lasts, SF is a tough team though. Who'da thunk the Bears, Lions, and Vikings all are 1-0 and the Packers are 0-1. If we can take one from GB that will be huge and give us a virtual 3 game lead on the media darling Packers. Big game coming up for the Bears and nothing would make me happier than to see the the Bears stomp all over the Packers in their house and give them an 0-2 start and give them their second straight home loss this year!.

I agree with the sentiment about not keeping the gas down. With us going into that prevent (you from winning) defense giving the colts easy drives, one of which came up empty with the missed chip shot FG. They score a TD on that drive it's a closer game with momentum coming out at the second half. You cannot shut it down and go into autopilot in the 3rd Quarter unless you are up by an insurmountable amount. You run a huge risk because if you do this that early and let them back in the game you have gear it up again and you've played yourself out of that rhythm you had to build that lead. up 20+ half way through the 4th maybe but against good teams this year this kinda philosophy could lose us games we had in the bag. When you are up on someone stomp on them and make sure when you put it in auto pilot you better be sure you have it in the bag baring a miracle comeback. I absolutely hate the prevent... do what you did to put the opponent in the hole.

what's the status on Podlesh? I don't see us letting Quigley go till Podlesh is back

Couldn't agree more we've had too many "projects" at the safety position which is why we change them like we change undewear. I wish we'd stop just throwing crap at the wall to see what sticks. Let's draft some true studs who are at this position naturally. Te'o is a friggin beast at LB as an Irish fan I've be been able to see this kid play year after year. Who knows if he'll be on the board when we pick but I'd love this guy in a Bears uni. I've only seen the ND vs Navy game (nice to see them win big against a team they should beat. going to be a tough schedule though especially for those inexperienced CB's.) Will be fun watching Saturdays to see who might be playing on Sundays for our beloved Bears.

Sure does seem like a theme. the pool of good RB's this season seems shallower than it has in past years. Even in our league more teams are thin at RB than there have been. I've thought about packaging a couple players and trying to trade for an upgrade. I don't hate my RB's but I don't love them either. WR depth in the draft was far better than RB. We might be looking at it harshly at this point. Who knows by mid season I'm sure the picture will be clearer but now it sure looks murky at the RB. I was thinking maybe our league going from 10 teams to 12 teams this year plus the shallowing of the RB pool. I think it also has to do with the move by so many teams to RB by committee rather than a true feature back. Those guys are the tier one and that tier seems smaller this year. Guys like Foster, Rice, McCoy are the safest ones outside that you have guys with question marks whether it's injury with McFadden, Matthews, Mendenhall, AP, Charles, wells. Contract issues with MJD. Rookies like Martin.Forte kinda fits in that tier 1 1/2 he's just outside that conversation with the top guys. But all in all there just don't seem to be as many guys you can say this is the main man and plug him in. Do you think I have good trade bait to go after a better #2 RB (not in love with Shonn Green but he was the best RB on the board when my pick came) If you had my team who woul you package for a trade?

How's mine look? QB1 Aaron Rodgers (felt filthy making this pic) QB2 Josh Freeman RB1 Fred Jackson RB2 Shonn Greene RB3 Stevan Ridley RB4 Jonathan Stewart RB5 Ben Tate WR1 Jordy Nelson (again felt dirty about this one) WR2 Victor Cruz WR3 Malcom Floyd WR4 Dexter McCluster TE1 Brandon Pettigrew TE2 Lance Kendricks K- Matt Bryant Def Bengals

Has Davis caught anything thrown his way yet this preseason? If he has I don't recall it lol I don't see him sticking. All in all I agree with the points made in this post as well. Going into the game I though this would be a test to see if this line can hold up against a good D-Line and the Giants have one of the best and the line looked awful at best. And the G-Men were even missing a big part in Piere Paul. When we ran if it wasn't an outside run against their 1's Forte was getting hit as soon as he got the ball. There were no lanes or holes for the RB's till the Giants started subbing in their backups and then scrubs. Cutler rarely had time to set up. And when he did he wasn't on the same page with his WR's and the ball was either dropped, or off target on the throw. Cutler's accuracy just looked off, the whole team looked off. I've not been impressed by our special teams outside of our returns. Our coverage teams have been horrible. Tackling both on ST and D still seems to be an issue. Far too many plays that should have been short gains or returns that became bigger runs and returns because of poor tackling. Their rookie RB looked like an all pro friday. I want to say this was just an off night but first preseason game looked just as bad and out of sync as tonight did. The best preseason performance was against the skins. Next week will just be the backups playing for roster spots so we won't get to see how this team plays again till we play Indy. Totally agree on the replacement refs..... half the time I don't know what their looking at or if they've even read the rule books. It's not just in Bears games it's been rampant in the preseason. Missing obvious calls, making other iffy calls, picking up flags when they were correct to throw the flag. I thought the real refs were bad... these guys are awful. Peanut sure seems to be getting his share of bogus calls. The Pass interference was crap the ball wasn't even catchable, same as last week when both he and the receiver were out of bounds before the ball got there, and there shouldn't have been a foul. The forced fumble in Fridays game made me mad because they blew the whistle awful quick that would have been returned for a TD. He was still fighting for yards. I kinda question why they are getting these guys from division 2 and 3 schools, why are they not using division 1 refs, the best the college ranks has? All I can say is I hope we get the regular ones back soon. I get the sense the stage is too big for these guys.

Nice start to the second half good return by Booker. All in all this is now the backups but I was pleased with that first half. As ugly as last week was offensively this offense looked sharp for the most part. Close to 300 total yards on offense in the first half and 20 first half points. That is exciting. We finally have a dangerous group of WR's who do you guard, double Marshall you have Jeffery to contend with, and if it's not Jeffery, it's Hester or Bennet. I really hope Summers sticks I really like him. Same big body very good hands. It's both funny and sad that it took us this long to realize the benefit of big body receivers. I love how Marshall and Marshall Jr. use their bodies to shield the ball. This is why a big body WR is huge, DBs won't be able to play through them to get to the ball like they have our small WR's in the past. What a huge addition by bringing in Marshall and moving up to pick Jeffery who is big and has similar skill set. I also love watching our receivers running off the DB run them hard stop and create space. It is nice to have an offense that takes advantage of strengths and minimizes it's weaknesses. No more 7 step drops, no more inability to check out of a disastrous play. Like the one where Cambell checks to a quick throw to weems recognizing the blitz and being able to do something about it. This was awful last few years under Marzt Cutler could know the play was doomed but had to run it anyway. I'm sure defenses loved it when they knew they had them and didn't have to worry about the offense checking out of it. Along with that it was predictable. We knew what plays were coming. I'm getting excited for the season to start!!!

perhaps we need a picture of the "Jump to conclusions" mat from the movie Office Space. While this is unusual and not much is being said latest is it's for personal reasons. While I'd much rather have him out there practicing and dressed for our preseason opener, I'm not going to hit the panic button till I know exactly what's going on. Personal reasons doesn't automatically mean surgery or some other season ending issue. I could mean a lot of things, could be family situation, could be something he's dealing with personally, etc. Truth is we don't know. Where knowledge is absent rumors abound. people make things up to fill in the blanks. Let's not panic and freak out till we know what's going on. One thing we do know is that Brian is and never has been an overly public kinda person he tends to play things close to the vest.

Agree with this, Bennet's not the flashy guy but he just does his job.

I'd prefer it be a clean but hard hit. Spearing a QB in the back is an illegal hit. While it may send a message, I'd rather not see Peppers get fined and/or suspended for a dirty play and lose him for any time.

What a welcomed change it would be if Jeffery turns out to be a real beast. How many WR's have we picked that have busted, or failed to pan out here, how many have actually become impact payers. Bennet is a dependable receiver but he is more of a possession receiver, Knox was a decent pic for a 5th rounder. Not bringing Hester into this as he wasn't drafted as a WR. We have drafted a lot of duds especially high up in the early rounds. Wouldn't it be a nice change if Jeffery gives us an impact presence opposite Marshall, allowing Bennet and Hester to round out the group. When was the last time we had a serious dual threat at WR along with a Franchise QB. If Jeffery pans out It will be nice to see a Bears team with a great tandem of Cutler, Marshall, Jeffery, Bennet, and Hester through the air, and oh by the way you still need to be concerned about a Forte & Bush backfield. I"m not going to assume anything about Jeffery till he proves it when the games count, but just thinking how nice that would be, after all these years of having a joke of a WR corp to boasting one that has two big threats.

I also don't see Forte having a breakout type of year either. One of the things in the past that fueled the "pay the man" battle cry was the large percentage of our overall offense that Forte represented. In a lot of ways he was our best offensive weapon. While that speaks well of Forte it also speaks poorly of our other offensive weapons or lack of. WR was a weakness, when your RB is one of your best pass catchers, that says more about your WR than your RB. To his credit Forte is as dangerous, if not more dangerous through the air as he is on the ground. He was a high percentage of the offense because he was possibly our best weapon. I had Forte on my fantasy team last year along with Ray Rice as my starting backfield and they were gold for me most weeks. Although with Forte, there was Barber to vulture TD's which became annoying but, that is one of Forte's weaknesses short yardage, and goal line. Matt's a finesse runner who does better when he can use space, and set up blocks, but bulldozing is not one of his strengths. I think Forte will have a good season, but I don't foresee him being as high a percentage of the offense. We added more weapons both through the air and on the ground. Marshall I think will be Marshall, I think Jeffery will be ok, he has a good situation being opposite Marshall. As the other WR's will benefit from the attention defenses have to pay to Marshall. And Bush I see getting more work than Barber did. I love the combination you have two backs who can break the long one one that is dangerous in the run game and pass game, one who is a bruiser that compliments Forte. I think we'll have enough firepower on offense outside of Forte that he won't have to carry the large percentage of the offense like he has in past seasons. I do think he's a good fantasy back to have especially in a PPR league. I think the Bears will have more of the RB by committee than they have in the past too. That has movement in the league has made it tougher in fantasy at the RB position seems to be less and less feature backs or one back systems. More and more teams may have a primary back but a TD vulture on the roster who takes TD's away from the other guy.

.... next week on reinventing the wheel we take a closer look at the definition of insanity. In other new water is wet

So what I gleen from that article is nothing new is being tried therefore, the beat goes on and we'll continue to do what we've always done. And when you do what you've always done you generally will get what you always get. Worst turf in the NFL Sod But True

Nicely done Emery, we can go into training camp without that drama hanging over the team. So far pretty pleased with Emery's first off-season. Now we just need to see what happens with the O-Line and whether this group can step up and keep Jay upright. Accomplish that and our offense will be explosive. Forte/Bush/Bell backfield Marshall, upgraded WR corp, and a solid backup QB so should Jay go down for a game or two it's not an oh crap situation. A vastly upgraded offense I think goes a long way to helping out an aging D and puts less pressure on them to keep us in games. Could be a fun season gents.

That sounds crazy enough that it just might work!

another thing to consider is if the offense is scoring points, the D won't have the added burden of keeping the team in games till the offense comes around. If the offense is putting up points regularly, then the D can afford a bad defensive possession here and there . The pressure will not be as great. We've had to play almost perfect football on D in the past.

Good to hear things like this and that Hester's being a positive influence in Johnny's life, I can only imagine what he's going through day to day. I've never had to rehab anything let lone an injury like that. I too hope they get to play together again someday, but mainly that Knox gets back to a normal life, if he never plays again but will be able to walk and run again and fully enjoy life, that in it's self is a miracle. That injury was beyond gruesome. Get well Knox!!!

NFL.com article According to this article police haven't found evidence of wrong doing and likely no charges against Marshall and goes on to say that a one game suspension is highly unlikely but a fine of some kind is likely. Which IMO that too is crap, if he did nothing wrong, the league should not punish Marshall at all. Beyond that all the media and people declaring him guilty simply because of his past which has been clean of incident for the last few years. That said given his past and how the media and many people are just ready to jump all over him at the first hint of anything bad, It's not the best judgement in his case to be at a night club in the early hours of the morning. I should use better situational awareness. Bad things can happen in a place like that at those hours. But if he didn't do anything wrong, there should be no punishment.

why waste the money, time, effort into bringing him to camp when he's not motivated or interested in playing football??? What gain is there in this move? if he's not motivated to play he's not likely going to take it seriously or put in the effort to even try and will be among the first wave of cuts. I would bet half or more than half the fan base would be more motivated to try out for the team if given the chance. I'd rather sign a guy who would bust his but trying to make the team even if he only had an outside chance of accomplishing it. But this guy will get chance and he likely couldn't give a crap if he makes it or not. Not the type of player I'd invite to camp.

Waited all day to find out who we would get..... Guys I liked still on the board. Excited and then deflated with an Angelo quality pick...... what a total waste!!! I am not impressed at all we just pissed away our pick with a reach of a pick....

Denver where QB's go to die lol. The young ones they ship out of town

I hadn't yet seen the twitter comments made by Matt, and that one about nice guys finishing last did rub me as a fan the wrong way. I knew he'd been offered contracts and that he'd turned them down. If the numbers I see here are accurate I'm starting to lose respect for Matt here. It seems he wants it both ways he wants big time money and has been offered fair contracts that would give him the security he claims to want and would pay him well. But he want's to act like the Bears are disrespecting him as if they aren't trying. I would love to see both Forte and Bush in the backfield. In this league you need two good backs you need depth at key positions. The Bush signing was a great move. Reality is the Bears haven't just low balled and left Forte out to dry. And the franchise tag is something that was bargained for in the CBA these players that are whining about being tagged, you signed that CBA including the current iteration of the tag. The Bears are using what is available to them to try and put the best team on the field they can to win. If he want's a contract in the Foster range or a CJ2k, etch then go ahead and walk. Play for Clevelend and enjoy spending your money while playing for a team that has no shot at winning. He is a good back but he is not in the top tier group. Signing bush is not a shot at him, or an attempt to replace him it makes the team better, and it helps extend his career. The Bears are working to put together a team that can push for a super bowl. I hope he realizes that signing here is a good situation for him and that winning is more important than a few more mil on the contract. If he's going to keep whining and force his way out then in a way it'd serve him right to leave the Bears only to see them win a SB. But I'd like to see him shut up, sign a fair deal, play football and help this team win a championship. If history says anything about Bears fans it's that if you win a championship you will be immortalized here. Bears fans are starving for a winner and if you help that happen you will be a hero.