BearFan2000

I agree, if Benson has shown anything it's that he's not a self motivated player unfortunately to the extent where I question his desire to play football. Having the tools is one thing, knowing how to use them or being motivated to use them is an entirely different thing. Bringing in a guy you drafted second round #44 overall tells me that they envision him being more than just another warm body at RB but to push for the job. This is the only situation where Benson has looked good with any constancy. When Jones was brought in he pushed Benson. Overall I'm happy with the picks Williams strength at this point is his pass protection and he needs to work on his run blocking. That is the only concern I have with him. My memory may be cloudy about last year (possibly trying to block - no pun intended - it out) but we seemed to give up sacks with an alarming frequency last season regardless of who was back there at QB. Drafting Williams allows us to move Tait back to his natural RT spot, while Williams takes over LT, we pick up a guard and possibly another OL on day two. I think it was a need pick and one of the best OT was available and we grabbed him. Having Mendy there at 14 would have made for an interesting pick and a part of me wanted them to pull the trigger and take him but I'm happy with this choice. Round 2, I like what I've seen of Forte so I'm pleased with that pick as well. It brings competition to the RB table and will either push Benson to play to his potential or push him out of town (I'd prefer the latter, I'm tired of Seabass) Round three will be interesting. Do we take a QB. We currently have two QB's on one year deals so between the two it will be QB survivor Chicago style. The current situation concerns me a little. Both QB's have shown promise both have shown failure. Yet those are our only QB's on the roster and neither is signed long term. If one of the two pans out they get extended, the other walks at the end of the season. If neither look good do we let them both walk and pin our hopes on yet another young guy? And who's to back him up? There are typically 3 spots on the roster for QB. I realize that who ever they draft or bring in before the start of the season will likely be given the starting clip holder position and the winner between Rex and Kyle will be the starter and the runner up the backup. That's how it will be planned to shake out this season. What about the future? This is a let's hope one of these guys steps up and can be that future and we'll build depth later. It's just that thought that if neither Rex or Kyle work out we possibly enter the offseason with two guys we have no intension of resigning, leaving us with the clip board holder to compete with two other new guys. Giving us a selection of QB's of which only one may have seen some actual game time. This is the situation we are dealing with at that position. Question is is this something we address early in the third. We have 2 third rounders right?

Agree I don't think anything will happen contract wise with Hester till the season is underway or after the season. Once we've had more opportunity to see what he has as a WR. At this point what little we've seen of him at WR he's been spotty at best. Not always knowing where to line up (and this is considering he's only been in for handful of plays a game which means he's only likely worked in practice on a few plays/patterns) which should be a pretty basic thing. At this point we only know what he brings as a return man and as it's been pointed out earlier in this thread that a degree of his success can be attributed to top notch special teams coached by dave taub (sp?) As a WR the jury's still out. Which is exactly why a deal will not get done till during the season (I'd guess mid season at the soonest) or after the season. In some respects I could see him becoming a WR in the mold of a Willie Gault type. A burner who is your deep home run threat but beyond the speed is an average receiver. Not to knock Gault but he was more a situational receiver. I'm also not saying that's where Hester is but that is the role I think he could fit into. As long as Turner realizes maybe we should exploit his speed instead of running trick plays that require him to almost instantly beat several guys before he even finds open field. By the way Ron, you need to set up trick plays for them to work.

Interesting that they have now decided to include FG and Extra Points as reviewable plays. I wish they would consider making penalties reviewable, as much as a missed call on things that are reviewable now, a critical blown penalty call or non call can be huge. Not sure how you could implement something like that but It would be nice if penalties could be challenged. I'm iffy on the push out rule. But I think what they are getting at is eliminating the guess made by a Ref if the WR would have come down in bounds which is often hard to tell at best. I agree that it's probably going to lead to more DB's planting and driving. I think it's going to have big impact on red zone offenses. We'll know better when we one day get one. With the Face mask penalty now being only the 15 yard variety. My question is are they eliminating the 5 yard minor face mask as in letting those go or are they simply saying any face mask incidental or major will be flagged for 15 yards. Which in my mind isn't going to decrease the frequency of it being called, it's just that now instead of a minor infraction (where you briefly grab and let go without pulling) will now not be 5 but 15 yards. For quite a while now I've thought that the roughing the passer penalty should have a two tier penalty system like the face mask. There are times where the hit on the QB is very minor but still technically hitting him after the ball is released. Then there are the hits that are completely intentional.

I was browsing through some videos on Youtube and came across this one. I came very close to spitting up my pop when saw it. Enjoy Funny Grossman Madden Video

I've been watching the videos of Mendenhall on Youtube. Things I like. Good body control and balance. Uses blockers well Has the ability to run it inside and push for yardage. Has good speed and agility in space anticipates well. Has a good attitude a team guy Has good hands as a receiver. He does run with the ball in one hand a lot. even up the middle, he needs to be more carefull about putting two hands on the ball in a crowd. NFL Defenders are more adept at stripping the ball than college defensive players. Some of the holes I saw in the videos you could drive a truck through. But on the clips where the holes were much smaller and he was running between the tackles he does a good job of keeping his legs moving and keeps a forward body lean. I would not be disappointed if we grab him at 14.

That's one of the funniest comments I've read on this board in some time. Not only funny but relevant too. I've also had it with Benson. And can't remember a player I've disliked more as a Bear than Benson in a long time. Some of the guys in my dislike list include David Terrell, Cade McClown, Rick Mirer (however it's spelled), Brian "personal foul" Cox, Curtis Enis, Rashan Salami, Kordella... Of those the ones in Benson's class are Cade, Terrell, and Cox. The others on the list just sucked. These guys are in a class by themselves they not only sucked but did it with a bad attitude. I personally am done with Benson. We had a co-worker with an attitude and poor work ethic like Benson and that person was fired this month. Our team is now stronger even though we're one less person. The baggage, strain, and drag that person had on our team is more apparent now than it ever was. I for one want to see Benson gone. I've had it with him.

At this point it's hard for me to pick a side on which I'd rather be. Picking Mendenhall at 14 or grabbing an OL. I'm of the belief also that everything starts in the trenches. If your line is horrible every other problem on offense is either created by or magnified by it. It's tough to be RB and expect to be successful when often your first contact is in the backfield. For QB you can't have a lot of confidence to drop back and start your progressions when you often don't have the time to do so. When the QB is rushed the Receivers don't have the time to run their routes and get open before the QB is under duress. The offensive line makes an impact on every phase of the offensive game so it starts at the line. While a good OL doesn't guarantee success (see Atlanta) it does give you the best chance of success. With that in mind I'm tempted to think about drafting OL even if a guy like Mendenhall drops to 14. Which I don't think is a bad idea. The thing with drafting offensive line especially at 14 is you are counting on this guy to step right in or soon take over as a starter. Rookies can take some time to develop even the good ones. Sure there are those over the years who have just stepped right in and played. It can be a little convenient to think that we draft OL at 14 and maybe pick up another lineman or two later. That suddenly our Line will be fixed. Good offensive lines take time to gel. Even when you add free agents. The more the line plays together the stronger they will get. In no way am I saying it's a bad idea to look to shore up the drive by drafting OL at 14. I think we need to be realistic. It won't instantly solve the issues. But its a good long term need since our line is getting old fast. It's also possible that the line gels during the season and we're able to keep the ship afloat long enough for that to happen and make some noise this coming season. If we admit this is a rebuilding year then I think we need to focus on getting our line younger. We will need to do this at some point. This draft would be a good one to accomplish that and also add some RB talent. At the same time we have a running back Line up of Benson (rehabbing), AP, and Wolfe. One big back, one small, back and one tiny back. I was never on board with Benson when we drafted him, the hold out didn't endear him to me either. He showed little promise. The Super Bowl team had a solid line and Jones, Benson, and AP all had success behind that group. Last year I could say that none of our backs did much to write home about. For AP I think it was the worst he's looked as a Bear. Of the current group he's been here the longest so in some respect he's the best measuring stick for the running game. You could always count on AP to be plugged in for a game or two and have solid performances. Last year he had a hard time doing anything. I'm not saying AP is a great back or a true #1 guy but his struggling this season tells me it's not just the backs. That said I've been more often unimpressed with Benson than I have been impressed with him. Every once in a while he does something nice but for every decent run there's a dozen or more cloud of dust and a 1 yard gain. Benson looked as good as he ever did during that super bowl run. Which tells me if he's motivated he has the tools to be a decent back but I just don't think he has the desire and inner drive needed to find any consistent success in the NFL After three seasons his pass blocking is still suspect. Wolfe is more a situational back. So looking at our line up I would not be opposed to upgrading the RB position at 14 either if you can get a good value at RB without reaching. The way this draft looks it's going to depend on who's there at 14 when we pick. If one of the top tier linemen drops to 14 it would be awful hard to pass up considering our blatant need in that area. At the same time I don't want to reach for an OL at 14 when you can draft a similar guy later in the draft. If we get to 14 and we'd be reaching on an offensive lineman and Mendenhall is there. I think it would be awful tough not to take him and then pick a more value OL later. If we get to 14 and both a top tier OL and Mendenhall are there, that would be a difficult choice. There are quality backs that will be available later in the draft. There are also good options later in the draft for OL. Unless we do something crazy at 14 I'll be able to live with which ever way Angelo goes. Whether we want to officially call next year a rebuilding year or not that is what it will be. The two quarterbacks on our roster at the moment are on 1 year deals. It's quite likely we will draft a QB and ironically he'll have longer term deal than our starter. WRs.... what wide receivers. Yes we picked up Booker and I've always liked him. He is getting older and I see him in the role that we brought Moose in to play the veteran mentor. We have Bradley who is often injured, we have Davis who's nothing special, we have Hester the wannabe WR, Hass, Lloyd, and Rideau. The only proven starter is Booker. At TE we have Clark, Olsen, and Fontel. At OL we'll have a patchwork line of some sort. Realistically the offense is in full rebuilding mode and the Defense has it's own needs but not as many as the offense. I honestly don't know what to expect this coming season. I would not be at all surprised to see another up and down season. But it's also possible we may hang in there and things will come together over the course of the year and we make the playoffs. I'm preparing myself for a down year but however we go in the draft and other roster moves between now and the start of the season. Most likely these moves will be more for long term solutions. A high drafted RB may not see the field much early on as I'm sure Benson will be given every opportunity to succeed before we hand the reigns over to a Rookie.

In all honesty I have more respect for Favre than any other non Bear in the league. As a packer he was the enemy and I treated him as such. But he epitomized the way the game should be played. In so many ways he was a throw back. The type of player who would play as long as his legs and arms were functioning. He played for the love of the game though I do tend to think chasing records had something to do with it. Every time you thought surely he won't play next week, low and behold he's out there playing. You have to love the game to play through the injuries and problems he's had over the years. The type of guy you would have loved to have on your team but hated him on another team add to that it was the Packers. What I am looking for is now that Packers will have to deal with finding a QB the way the other teams in the league have. Only now will they realize just how spoiled and unusual their situation has been. They're going to find out that in the real world QB's don't have a starting streak that spans a large part of a 17 season career. Favre is the exception and now I'm glad the Packers will have to adjust to the rule.

Been listening to the debate on the Score. The whole Loyd angle about did he or did he not get told that Rex was the starter and simply wasn't supposed to let that slip. Was it an assumption and it is in fact an open competition. And if it isn't a competition what is there to gain by publicly stating that is when it isn't. If I were Kyle I'd be pretty peeved if I signed because I was told it would be an open competition. We'll see how this plays out. It almost wouldn't be surprising if it is a competition per say but Rex will start out as the fav. Which IMHO if that is the case say that. Let Kyle know that if he can beat Rex out in training camp than he has a chance at the starting job. Logically it could make sense to say it's Rex's job to loose (never liked that term) since he is technically the incumbent starter. Where I have an issue is that if everyone's being told it is a competition and Kyle doesn't have a realistic shot. IMHO throughout his whole time here with the Bears Kyle has handled the situation fairly well. Rex goes down in 2005 and he comes in and manages the games then the Atlanta game he leaves the field as the starter comes out after the half as the backup. From that point on he doesn't sniff the field till the end of last season when the season was over anyway. He performed pretty well in his opportunities last season. IMHO he's earned a right to a true open competition. As for Rex he started off horribly last year and got benched. Greise came in and struggled as well. After the Benching Rex looked much better in his return to the starting spot. Then he suffered a minor injury, enter Kyle Orton. I honestly believe that Orton would have started the following week anyway. With Rex he has the stretches where you see potential and you see a level of play that is as good as any QB in the league. At other times he can have stretches where he look like he is completely lost and has no clue what he's doing. After his benching he looked like it did him good as he looked more under control and kept the mistakes to a minimum. The question is, is that a sign that he's past the Bad Rex and looks to return to the pre Arizona game Rex that we saw in the 2006 season. With Orton he's done everything that has been asked of him he came in and preformed pretty well for a rookie in not loosing games for a Bears team that was predominantly lead by the Defense. He has sat quietly behind Rex and Griese over most of the past 2 seasons. You have to wonder what he was thinking while he watched Rex and then Brian stink it up out on the field and wonder what do I have to do to get a shot. I can't possibly do any worse than this. When he did get his chance he made the most of it and looked pretty good. Much better than I had even expected. I do like Rex but I also like Orton and sort of leaning his way as I think he deserves a legit shot at winning that job. I don't see him signing a 1 year extension to be a backup for another year. This year will be a winner takes all as far as the starting spot whichever of them wins the starting spot will ultimately get a longer extension and the other is likely looking for a new home on someone else's roster. I voted for Orton but I'm definitely on the fence. If Rex can play up to the level of the first several games of 2006 and the last few that he played after his benching that Orton's got his work cut out for him. What is working in Orton's favor is he hasn't embarrassed himself in the way Rex has in the past. Sure the Cincy game in 2005 was ugly but that was one game.

Though it's not out of the realm of possibility that he stays healthy and plays a full season. The reality of the situation is you can't count on that, experience has taught us otherwise. Which is why we need to have a solid plan that works with or without him. If he stays healthy all the better but we have to count on him not staying healthy. That is sad, what he brings to the Defense when he's on the field can't be measured just in stats. He brings attitude, smarts, energy, along with his skills. In many ways it's like having a coach out on the field the guy has a great mind for the game. I think he would make a great secondary coach when he does hang em up. Much like Grossman he's had problems staying on the field. Now grant that Grossman hadn't established himself as a stud at his perspective position prior to the injuries as did Brown. But one thing that would be nice if they both had in common would be that Brown would finally stay healthy as Rex did in 2006 and most of 2007 (the injury wasn't nearly as serious and the season was lost anyway). As for changing one piece of the Bears, it's hard to say after last year. There were so many problems and breakdowns last year after returning nearly all of the starters from the Super Bowl team. You have to think that the team was better than it showed on the field. 2007 was a season that never got off the ground. Fact is I found my self upset with most any player on the team at some point last year. But if I had to pick our weakest link I would have to say someone in the secondary.

Put me down in the Ray Rice in the 3rd round and address bigger needs in round one. Last year our Line was not only bad but is old. We need to infuse some youth. We do have Beakman who didn't get a lot of action last year. We cut Fred "False Start" Miller. Ruben Brown should be back and healthy, you've got Kruetz, Garza, Tait, and I can't think who else off the top of my head but Josh is the only young lineman we have. I would like to see us draft a couple offensive linemen, one early and one later on. As uncool as it sounds I'd like to see us use the 14th pick on an offensive lineman. Possibly grab Flacco in round 2 and grab Rice in Round 3. Being and ND Fan I wouldn't mind seeing Zibakowski.

You know you have a problem with your RB when you have to bring in someone else to push him or light a fire under him. With the Depth at RB in this years draft I think it's a good bet Jerry will spend a pick on a RB at some point and I would venture a guess would be in the early rounds. There just isn't anyone left in FA that I'm all that interested in. But then again maybe we get lucky like Green Bay and find someone out of no where. I would almost bet that Jerry is regretting the Jones deal. The position has to be addressed. I've seen enough to know that I'm ready to see Benson gone. Could Benson hold any trade value at all? I've not spent a lot of time this offseason looking reports and mock drafts to formulate any opinions who would be a good target in the draft. Jerry is under pressure to get the running game fixed and improved from last year. That means addressing the line and the RB position. But as far as Benson goes the only time he looked like he had potential was when Thomas Jones was here and he was fighting for playing time. You hand him the job and he fails. Right or wrong at some point you had to see what he could give you as the starter and it's been less than impressive. Just as one of the scouting reports on him prior to the draft mentioned concerns over commitment, work ethic, and attitude. Could Benson end up being part of a draft day trade or even traded prior to? Or do you keep him for depth and bring in a FA/Draft pick to compete for the starting Job. However this goes, I will be upset if we enter next season and Seabass is just handed the starting spot again.

I just got High Speed Internet today and went to check www.nfl.com and I get an Embarq (service provider) page stating it couldn't find the site.

My only high speed is at work. Amazon's unbox deal isn't Mac compatible, so that's out too. The episodes are sold on iTunes but you're still stuck watching them on the computer due the DRM protections. I know a few people who might have recorded them, and maybe someone on here has. I'm definitly hooked. I wasn't sure what to expect with the show, since it's not Linda Hamilton, Arnie, or even Furlong. The actress playing Sarah is growing on me. I still wish they'd have here dye her hair brown. Although the nature of the show it would make sense for her to not want to maintain appearances. I actaully like the actor playing John better than Furlong. I'm not sold on Summer Glau. At times she doesn't seem to fit the part. A terminator wouldn't just stand around looking stupid while trying to think of something appropriate to say. All in all I'm certainly enjoying this show and hope it lasts.

Hoping for some freak event in which they can both loose. Then moments later the remaining members of the '72 Dolphins are swallowed up by the earth, abducted by aliens, or rendered speachless (would us the term dumb, but with that group I figured it was a given), or any combination of the these. In all honesty I could care less. I hate the Pats, but I don't care for the Giants either. I can't stand the east coast bias, and I'm sick and tired of hearing about how the Pats are all that and a bag of chips. In a sick twisted way I long for the days when the Pats are reduced to doormats of the NFL and the Bears take their place among the elite by winning multiple championships..... I'm still waiting. Here's hoping that starts next year

By any chance has anyone happened to record the first three episodes of this show? After I hit stop while recording the 3rd Eppisode last night the disc had an error now the disc won't read at all. I figure it's an outside shot but worth a go.

If we enter next season with the same trio of back (Benson, AP, and Wolfe) I will be greatly dissapointed. Benson has yet to prove he can be durable and effective with any consistancy. AP is more the jack of all trades back, does well in many areas but excelles at none. Wolfe is the quickest of the three but also the smallest of the three. He does well in space and is elusive but just doen't have the stature to be a between the tackles kind of runner. I think they should bring in a FA back whever that might be and have a competition. The odd man out gets cut. It was mentioned earlier in this thread about predictability. Mone of the more maddening things about our backs and how we used them is that when Benson was in the play was likely a running play. When Peterson was in the play was more likely to be a pass play. You could litterally predict the play based on the player groupings. This goes beyond the backs but look back to last season. Jones wasn't taken out based on pass or run. This leads me to believe Benson either isn't picking up the pass protection and has yet to earn the coaches trust in those situation. IMHO a 4th overall pick should have by now taken over the position and made it possible for him to be on the field reguardless of the play call. If at this point he still hasn't made the necessary improvements in his game to stay on the field then I question whether he ever will. If you bring in a guy like Turner then my guess is that the odd man out would be Benson. Lovie has said many times that AP will always have a spot on this team as long as he coaches here. Wolfe is in his first season so he's likely safe. Why not have Wolfe and Hester back deep on kicks or have Wolf be the short man on the return game. If they're going to kick it short have someone there that can make things happen. But that's off topic. I don't know what the hit would be for cutting Benson or if there's much of any trade value for him. I get the impression he's not well thought of by the coaching staff or the front office. What I don't want to see happen is us enter the season with the same backs we started this season with. I want to see an open competition this offseason to improve the production from this unit. Improving the line will help a lot but all areas must be looked at.

Or install big ars fans in one side of the stadium to simulate at 40 MP sustained wind.

Does he ever? When was the last time we had a coach who would answer questions directly and give you the sense that you knew more than you did before he was asked the question? Our coaches tend to make you feel less informed having listened to them talk. (ie. the more they talk the less we know). The one thing about Chicago is there is always a thick layer of secrecy. They're trying to avoid feeding rumors but what happens is their lack of honest and complete answers is only fuel for rumors. I haven't bothered listening to the coaches press conferences for a while now. Reading between the lines and guessing what they actually mean seems like a waste of time. For once it would be nice if our coaching staff were straight forward. Obviously, some things cannot be devulged and some things are stricktly said to the team only. Reporters don't always help because they tend to ask the same stupid questions over and over. Could be why they get the answers they do. As far as Turner and their decision to keep him. One thing to concider is that last season our offense was decent, not great, but decent. Turner did a good job last year as coordinator on a whole. Some key changes happened from last year to this year: Jones gone - Jones was a leader in the huddle and in the locker room. He was a workout freak and worked very hard at all times. If nothing else he lead by example and that kind of leadership was a key. Offensive Line - a year older, a step slower. I'm going to venture that there was more to the decline of the O-Line than just age. They didn't seem in sync at all. Collectively they were having a bad season. I'm old school in that everything begins in the trenches. If you don't control the line of scrimmage you'll have trouble in the other phases of the game. The past few weeks the O-Line has looked more cohesive. Each and everyone on that line needs to be evaluated and they need to figure out how much of the solution may be on the current roster and what can be fixed in the draft and or FA. Fix the O-Line and I have a feeling things improve rather quickly. Timing and execution of a play is key. With out that it really doesn't matter what play is called. Recievers need to run their routes, Qb needs to make his progressions, and blockers need to make their blocks, backs need holes to run through. None of these things can happen properly if the Line doesn't do it's job. Sometimes it's easy to point fingers at the skill players, not that they are without fault, but we often instinctively say, change the QB, change the RB, Change the WRs. it takes all 11 to execute a play and if the line doesn't do it's job the skill players will have a difficult time doing theirs. Consequently they look bad, and often times worse than they really are. Overall effort, this year when things started to go south the team seemed to give up there just wasn't the same fire they had last year. They struggled to find an identity and find some continuity. This is the first year in a long time where a lot of the games were hard to watch because the effort didn't seem to be there. Some of that could be let down from the Super Bowl loss carrying over to this year. The defensive players even admited that having watched some of the practice film from last season there was a remarkable difference in the intensity. The defense got complacent. The offense struggled to find it's rythem. With 3 games remaining the team was starting to show signs of regaining that rythem and intensity. The last two games were the most complete games of the season. I saw a team that came out firing and played hard. They looked like last years team. I'm not real sure it would have mattered who the OC was this season. That doesn't mean that I approve of the game plans he's put together this season. But, I can see why it would be difficult to put together a good game plan when execution is inconsistant and at any one point you don't know what you'll actually get out of your players. A rash of drops by the WR, lack of success in the run game, would make it tough for any Coordinator to be successful. You could have the most brilliant OC but if the players dont' execute it doesn't matter.

And if I recall right didn't it take Brian Mitchell something like 14 seasons or so to accomplish that? That's what makes this so unreal. Hester's on pace to set records will be near impossible to touch. He's only played in 32 reg season games. You look at his stats and they are sick. The thing about the "experts" is they don't take into account that Hester can also improve and the Toub can counter adjust by looking for ways to get the ball to Hester anyway. One thing to help would be if the offense would make teams pay for giving up field position. It sure has made NFC special teams coaches look more seriously at their coverage teams. Yet teams still kick to him LOL.. Payton sure looked ticked at his kicker and special teams coach today

I got to thinking he'd have to have a shot to be on the cover. He's a game breaker and makes an impact on the game by just being there. Do you believe in the Madden Curse?

Hester should have also gotten that PI on the first throw to him. The Defender never looked back. Later we get flagged for two questionable PI calls. Hester is a freak. That punt return was a thing of beauty. The way the ball hung up there you could tell he was sizing it up. Then the hesitation and sudden burst similar to the FG return against the Giants. Deven can lull you to sleep and then blow by you like a certain #23 who used to play for the Bulls. The guy is just going to get more dangerous as he continues to play. Special teams coaches all over the league are racking their brains and chewing out their kickers trying to contain him. Now if they continue to integrate him into the offense it won't be just the special teams coach who'll be sweating. He's racked up a lot of points in his young career. I have to wonder at some point this coming season do they extend him and try and keep him here for a long time. The sooner they do it the more bang for the buck they'll get but he's already going to command a decent extension.

I too was thinking that the calls were awful one sided and also found it irritating that the announcers had their full homer outfit on. They never once directly mentioned the Giants could win the game. When they brought up how much time was left they'd say it's so many minutes away from perfect season. They made it sound as though the Giants shouldn't even attempted to compete and were stunned that they did and held their own. I was rooting for the Giants (first time I've ever rooted for them) I cannot stand the Pats, they have become an arrogent collection of snobs. There were a lot of instances where the zebras lent a hand where needed. It was convenient that they were allowed to hold in the pocket, wr's pushing off, ect. There was even a late hit out of bounds on Jacobs and they called Toomer for a 15 yard penalty when it was clear the pats player hit late. It was also nice how towards the end of the game the officials weren't paying attention to getting the ball ready for play and were pretty leanient on letting the Giants be held down to keep the clock moving. There really should be an * next to their perfect record. They should have had to forfeit the win that they were caught cheating in. Their punishment was to loose draft pics dependant upon their final record. I forget the details but If I remember right the punishment was set up to favor them whether they ended up with a good record or a bad one. As it turns out they didn't have to forfeit and they were able to count that win on their way to 16-0. Yet they will still pick in the top 10. That wasn't even a slap on the wrist my friends.

While I agree about the timing of the voting. I also agree that Urlacher's play over the last couple games has been more at the level of prow bowler. The voting on the season as a whole. Urlacher just hasn't had the impact this season as he's had in past years as a whole. While I'd like to see him voted in again I can understand why he didn't get the nod this year. I also agree that he may not participate anyway. His focus needs to be on getting back to 100% and having more of an impact on games like he has the last couple. Teams records do play a part in the pro bowl voting also, even if it's just a mental role. The players on teams that are winning will have more promininent exposure and have the spotlight. Look at guys like the RB for the Jaguars (can't think of his name at the moment) finally getting a pro bowl nod after many years of deserving it. It is a popularity contest more than a tallent contest.

Exactly, the rest of the staff should take the cue from Toub. Every game is going to be different an more times than not it won't follow your script. At any given point you have to be willing to abandon the plan and improvise. Here's where I think our coaching staff is weak. They seem to game plan and but either lack the willingness or the experience/knowlege/confidence to improvise and make the right calls as the game progresses. Our coaches seem to have a set script of plays in their heads and don't want to deviate from that. Makes me question whether they have enough of a grasp what their players are capable of executing or the plays available and therefore lack the confidence to do something different. If this is the case then It makes me also wonder if this "script" is the only plays they work on in practice that week, which would make them less confident in their players to execute plays they didn't practice durring the week. There are people I know who if the situation changes and they have to do something different they feel completely lost and have a hard time adapting when things don't go the way they are used to. It's amazing what some people will do to stay in their comfort zone. In the NFL that won't fly. Every game develops it's own flow and the key is adapting to what's happening on the field. You need to build lots of contingencies into your "plan" in case things don't go your way. The other point about Taub's calls in that game is that he found something that was working and kept doing it. He was going to force Green Bay to come up with an answer and couter act what he was calling. Green Bay never did solve the problem. Toub was more than happy to keep the foot on the excellerator. Point is don't assume that since something worked that they're going to figure out a way to stop it any way so lets stop doing it. That does so many negative things in one move. You show that you have no killer instinct. When you've got a team on the ropes go for the knockout blow. There is nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal. It makes absolutely no sense to let them off the hook to regroup when you have a chance to put them away. We have lost games this year because we didnt' go for the kill and were content to sit on a lead. If you have the chance to score 21+ unanswered and burry your opponent alive... DO IT. Letting them hang around is only asking for them to come back and beat you. A lot of our sucess last season was jumping up on top of our opponents and forcing them play catch up against our defense. With a large lead our Defense got more and more agressive. Another negative is that it is a self indicting move. It shows that you are well aware that other teams know what an adjustment is and are capable of doing it. While at the same time your own staff seems to shun such radical concepts. I've said it before, and I'll say it again it is a looser's mentality. "I'm going to fail, so why try?" "Yeah it worked this time, but they're going to stop me eventually, so let's stop doing that" Winning teams force you to adjust to them, not the other way around. Dave Toub for Bears Coach of the Year!!!