selection7

If games were guaranteed based on what teams have on paper, teams wouldn't have to play. Granted, there's a decent chance we could've gone 5-1 down the stretch with Cutler, but to say "easily". Come on. Also, beating those four teams you mentioned would've only made us 11-5. And the Seattle game was not close (though they didn't pull away until the 4th). I'm not saying I don't see your point that Lovie had this team in a good direction...just saying there's no reason to exaggerate.

Hmm, just checked the standings. With the Vikings win, we went from the possibility of a just-out-of-the top 10 pick to the 19th pick of the draft. Ok, that sucks. I guess Arizona got it even worse, they finished with an identical 8-8 record, no playoffs, and still all they get is a #20 pick. Our team and theirs both finished at the top of a suprisingly large pack of medicore teams. 10 teams either went 8-8 or 7-9 (including the entire AFC West --Tebow in the playoffs!! even after our former Bears O of Orton/Thomas Jones/Casey Weigman and co. helped hand Denver a season ending loss).

I'm an Oklahoman and an OKState graduate. Dez Bryant was great for us. And, no surprise to me, he's now one of Dallas' more prominent players in only his second year. (I once saw an OSU game where he was the only guy being thrown to and the D still couldn't stop him). But he would also have occasional game days where he seemed really off, and he's as dumb as a bag of rocks and not always the most mature decision maker. Blackmon is even better. And that seems to be the consensus among scouts, not just me. While he's a little scary looking http://www.cowboysrideforfree.com/photos/p...oes-rides-again lol, he's actually a relatively high character, well-spoken, and hard working fella. His strength is really imressive to watch...stepping and swatting through tackles, yanking contested balls away, run blocking... He has blue chip hands. All recievers drop balls, including Justin. But the best way to put it is watching the games, when Blackmon was open and the ball in the air, it wouldn't even occur to me he'd drop it. That's saying something. Money in the end zone (just sick on those fade routes). Very athletic running after the catch. Not as fast as some would like, yet he was still our best deep threat. And he was just as effective as a go-to short yardage receiver as he was a big play reciever. Anyway, yeah...we're obviously not getting him:( Probably wouldn't have had we lost today either. But, the upside is that we didn't have a losing season! I know others who only think the Super Bowl is all that matters would disagree (or that want Lovie/JA gone), but I think it's important.

With enemies like you, why does Rodgers need friends?

How depressing that Detroit is going to the playoffs and we aren't. At least Minny still sucks it hard.

but maybe with Barber gone, I'll have an easier time forgetting the Denver debacle. That's worth something.

I'll try to defend Bowman on at those goal line plays as well and say that he looked intimidated. He might as well have been closing his eyes and flailing his arms when he should have been breaking those passes up. But it's tough to evaluate a guy who's thrown in at the last minute against maybe the league's best passing offense. At the goal line, if you run your route perfectly and the ball is thrown perfectly, it's almost impossible to stop a 2 yard gain. The reality is we shouldn't have let them get that close to the goal line to begin with.

A runningback's carreer is a short one. If we franchise Forte twice (can franchising still be done twice?) then Forte will be finishing his sixth year. A lot of great runningbaks have started a steep decline right about that time. It's unfortunate for us Forte got hurt. If he hadn't we might be going to the playoffs with Jay about to return. But then what would be worse is if JA had paid Forte like a perennially durable back who does everything and is a great runner (hey, I just described Sweetness!) when that's not the production he gave us. As you said, he'll have to play next week just to get 1000 yards. JA took a risk Forte wouldn't hold up that production all year, whether it be by injury or just a production dip, and it paid off. In fact, both happened. Forte's last 3 games before getting hurt were statistically unimpressive. In the stock market you want to buy low and sell high. JA giving in to Forte at midseason would have been buying very high, considering Forte's career up to this point.

How are we supposed to intimidate opposing WRs with two white bread safeties (+ Url in a Tampa 2)? Maybe if they eye-black a hitler mustache above their lip every week?

My postgame thought: No likee.

We joke to keep from crying.

In fact, Rottengers throws to step-for-step covered recievers all the time. He's basically exploiting that DBs who are scared of getting beat just won't turn around. They call it the back shoulder throw. What they should call it is the "DB with low ball awareness and hope like hell my WR won't allow a pick since he's covered like glue but I'm chunking it up there anyway" pass. It's irritating. If our QB threw that pass to Roy Williams or Devin Hester, even they probably wouldn't turn around.

I think it has merit, even with its obvious flaws, but I also think people in general do know that pro bowls are often based partially on your reputation from last year(s). I don't take it as indication that you were truly one of the 2-6 best in the NFL at your position as much as just that you deserve to be in the debate over it. But I agree that sometimes we get a bit lazy and assign too much value to it. Our own QB is a pro bowler, albeit with only an 86 qb rating in 2008 (15 Qbs finished with a higher rating that year). And sure enough, it drove a lot of hype when he first came here. So was Jay one of the best 6 QBs in 2008? Almost surely not, but he probably did deserve to be in that conversation (based on his quality play not only that season but also during the previous 1.5 seaons...his whole career up to that point). So Jay's appearance was one of the better examples of a stretch, and yet at this point, he's looking like a longterm solution at QB for us. That's some validation for the pro bowl selection process, IMO. So it's not unimportant...it's just that we have to keep it in perspective.

I think the announcer spoke too soon and just chose not to recant. I could kind of hear in his voice that he could tell he called it wrong. Who knows why he didn't own it. Basically I'm defending him because I liked his color commentary most of the rest of the time. He had actual things to say about the game's plays and strategies. So many color commentators sound like they're just doing a mid-week radio show. They've got their topics all thought up and what's happening on the field isn't going to change what they're going to talk about.

Can you imagine how sickening it would have been to not make the playoffs the same year the Packers go undefeated?...with all the media ooing and aahing over them (and Aaron Rottengers). Now, with they way they've been built up, anything less than a SB will feel like failure to their fans and the media. And as bad as I'm feeling about our season's hopes being extinguished, it's pretty sweet that two former Bears (don't forget Thomas Jones!) helped KC to a convincing upset over Green Bay. Congrats to TJ and Orton. Also, props to Orton for overcoming his history of playing like a dud when hurt (separated finger, but got pushed back into action because Palko sucked so bad).

Realistically, Angelo can't be satisfied with only two drafted elite players in almost 10 years. But technically, you're better off getting pro-bowlers in the 7th round where they're cheaper, which maybe leads me to think that it doesn't matter what round you get 'em, as long as you get 'em. The problem with that mentality is that a hypothetical GM who has drafted several late round pro-bowlers has probably just gotten lucky...especially considering that same GM would've had to pass on those same players in earlier rounds (or they wouldn't be late round picks). Anyway, that's just me being ponderous since JA doesn't have any late-round pro-bowlers either, lol.

So which team will be the first to pick him up? Ever look at the statistic for the number of people incarcerated in the US? Hurd could be some NFL team's ambassador to that population. That's a whole demographic just waiting to be milked...for their, uh, ...cigarettes and nudie posters.

In my scanning your post Luciano, I'm not seeing damning stats with respect to drafted starters. The SB winners range from 11-20 and Bear rosters range from 12-17 (might be off one or two). What is a little worrying is the lack of pro bowlers. But consider that winning a SB makes all your players more popular and higher profile, plus SB winners should have more pro bowlers than non-SB winners/non-participants like the Bears. Thanks for all that work scrounging the stats up though.

Marion Barber was coked up last game. Cutler was on the wacky tobacky. That would explain a lot. But of course Julius Peppers is just high on life!

I think your both stoopid. (not really, I just wanted to get in on the fun)

Just announced...Matt Damon is going to play Sam Hurd, the title role, in his next movie about the Chicago drug syndicate. Should be exciting.

Oh. Nevermind, you're right, that's worth a sentence of 'time served' at the very least. You gotta be hard on these guys or they'll think they can get away with anything.

Only a thousand pounds? That's barely enough to get a buzz. Give him a slap on the wrist. Rashaan Salaam can be his 12-step sponser.

Not everyone! I was one of the holdouts back in the day, and at this point much of what I'd warned against has been proven true (I'm not an I told you so type though). It was a trade I have hope may still help us, say...6 years down the road from that trade, but up to this point, looking at the totality of these last 3 seasons, at best, it's not helped.

Unfortunately, without Forte and Cutler, we're being robbed of the opportunity to evaluate Martz these last 6 games. Things were going in the right direction, for what it's worth.