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They should name it after him like libraries do with presidents...The Deven Hester Pro Football Hall of Fame.

You know, I wonder if Olin's lack of passion came from not being a Bear anymore. After 13 years it had to be hard being the new guy. And how invested can you be in a team when you know you've only got maybe 1 more year after this one in you anyway? You know you're just there to wind your career down. I'm still surprised that he didn't stay long enough to see if he could get a SB ring out of them though.

Also apparently the play was the draw play Martz called, presumably to play it safe and protect Cutler rather than try for another 3rd and long pass or something. So he wasn't even complaining about Martz hanging him out to dry, but the exact opposite. He wanted a chance to pass for a first down. Possibly Jay felt Martz was playing it overly safe as a sort of passive aggressive move, like "Oh, Cutler and the media all want me to call plays that keep the pressure off Jay?! How 'bout this handoff draw? Is that safe enough for you Jay or do you need me to tuck you in at night too?" lol If that's the way Jay took it then I can see him wanting to cuss Martz.

Look on the bright side, we've been without Jay Marriotti's columns for years now and Rosenbloom is usually tolerable.

You guys are so hard on him. I like that though. My take... It's a business. The McCaskeys/JA will either pay you what you want or they won't...and if not you'll see what some other team will pay. Whining won't change a thing. EDIT: this was general advice to any player on their contract year, not Briggs. I kind of transitioned from Briggs to Forte without saying so. Forte's problem is that what he wants is high enough that the Bears have little to lose by waiting. RBs have become one of the poorer paid positions. That's just the way it is. Then there's the real chance he won't even make it through this season healthy. If Forte himself wasn't concernred about stuff like that or being able to keep up this level of productivity all season, he woudn't be pusing (EDIT: err, "pushing". Freudian Slip?) so hard. So yeah, there's risk involved, and why would the Bears want to take on that risk responsibility for nothing in return if they can wait and get him with nearly the same contract he's asking for later? If you couldn't tell, I don't think the Bears will franchise him. He'll get paid if he keeps things going like they've been. Marion Barber will factor in too, but so far he's only being used for short yardage...that's hardly a replacement for Forte.

My thought or two... I was hoping earlier this season we'd get a couple of TD returns from Hester and that'd have our opponents shanking punts to keep it from Hester. I think we're there. Also, it's fun to root for Dane as the underdog, and he's not letting us down, but his weekly single drop is getting predictable and old (though the pass was a bit behind him I guess). On D, it was good to see us getting after QB, but Ponder's elusiveness and seeming calm was irritating. He'd better not turn out to be any good any time soon. I'm still finding it hard to acknowledge green bay has another good qb for the forseeable future (while everyone else is ready to enshrine Rottengers, I like to remind myself that he's only had two seasons now where he played well AND won...that's hardly a career. Hell, if our team hadn't screwed ourselves in last year's GB matchups Romo would be the more proven talent.)

I gotta say, when I watch these Bears games I think to myself I know when I see a week where Jay was harassed incessantly, and I know when he wasn't, because when he is it's so bad and a clear difference. Yet with some of you, your memory in retrospect is that its every week. You may think you're just being tough and everyone else is a softie, but what you're really doing is diminishing the ones that are real stinkers by lumping them in all together. I have a problem with anything that feels false and a pet peeve that if you're right, you don't need to exaggerate to prove it. Anything less than the truth is at best misguided. If other Ds throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Jay in terms of pass rush means we allow one sack and rack up 200+ yds rushing...I'll take that happily every week. It wasn't my intention to make it seem numbers guide my opinion. My opinion is always guided primarily with what I see on the field. I just thought (since you're not likely to re-watch the game) that it might give you pause to think if it were presented to you how unlikely it is that 1 sack allowed a game by a single numbnutz could compare to 6 sacks in a half and the like. The difference is significant. In my opinion, a coach who can't tell the difference won't last very long. Also I don't get that bit about rationalizing. I've heard it before and I always think 'yes, thank you. being rational is kind of the point.'

Oh man, #1 about Omiyale gave me a good lol

horatio.loveland.smith@netzero.net Be sure to put "SUBJECT: Cougar Town fanfiction" in the subject line if you actually want your message read.

In retrospect, what was the OL free agency move we should've made? I asked this question at about this time last year too, but it's because I don't scout out other teams and junk (I only know about the Bears) so I'm curious what others think and now we have some benefit of hindsight to make more educated suggestions.

Pass protection maybe still not 'good', yeah, but they only allowed 1 sack (and Frank got pulled for it) and dominated the run game. It'd be crazy unfair not to call it good overall...I think Noots gave 'em a B+. And they were not to blame for Cutler's poor game that week. Obviously that doesn't make cutler bad or our oline secretly good, nor was it my point, it just means I think I supported my argument well when I said not to judge this team purely by a snapshot of Monday night. EDIT: I want to add that I wouldn't give JA or Lovie better than a C+ grade over the years myself (you have to consider the record and a SB appearance...but also that they inherited Urlacher/Briggs/Tillman and made the SB in a weak year...and lost to the Pack twice last year, simultaneously losing us another SB appearance and giving the Pack a SB). I just think there's enough blame to throw around without hyperbole fueled by last Monday night. And I think its hard to win in the NFL. For every winner there's a loser. That's a lot of losers.

Emotions are running high after Monday's loss, to say the least. Jay had a great night, but let's not forget it was just the week before that he sucked. The same but opposite could be said for the offensive line. This isn't a consistent team and any one week's snapshot just isn't going to be representative, and that includes the D not allowing any real points except due to big plays. With respect to the D, there was plenty of bend AND break going on last night but then I've seen the bend but don't break work exactly as planned too...it's how we beat the Falcons. I went over the Falcons forums and saw their fans lamenting putting up yards but just no points.

Yeah, lots of things to consider. Too many. The only thing I know is no one gets an attaboy for not being terrible. And remember that Tice got a lot of credit for the line's decent performance in the last third of 2010, so I don't think fans are all geared up just to be unfairly demanding. Anyway, last week was a good performance. I don't think Cutler's 8 incomplete passes and 1 sack say too much about the Oline save for Frank, and we know about the run game's success, so let's see if they can keep it up.

And I'm confused what you're talking about. Tice not so subtly trashing Frank is a big deal...in a good way. That the Oline has big troubles is probably what BearsFan1974 meant about Tice needing to earn his pay too. Obviously it's hard to judge Tice because what he's been tasked with is so difficult, but it's there's nothing confusing about people not being sold on him until his line gets it together consistently. That's pretty much it. I'm not sure about any wrong way rubbings.

I can't believe Tice actually said that out loud.

Great stuff. My favorite parts. Watching Cutler get pumped up about a critical Forte run to pick up a first down and stay in bounds to run out the clock. And when an amused Jay tells Url "I haven't done anything yet" presumably well into the 2nd quarter and Url just responds "Well keep it up because we're kicking their asses".

Honestly, par for the course in the NFL. Doesn't the average NFL game have about 2-3 clipping penalties per game? It's kind of embarrassing knowing he came from here actually just because, as good as Toub is, his squads aren't significantly any different on that count. Every NFL team needs an actual drill seargant to assistant coach special teams. Those guys would learn eventually, even if takes the hard way.

OK I'm gonna have to do something about that. Here's my bold prediction: Chicago Bears gonna go 16-0 this season! Yikes, someone wants to start a fight, lol (I'll just watch from the sidelines, thank you).

I'd never thought about that but you could be right. ...the idea that not having the highest draft pick slots meant JA knew the only way he was going to end up with a marquee end was to pay up. You know JA would've rather drafted a cheaper version of Peppers (and be convinced he'd be able to identify and draft such a guy) than pay for the real one. I'm not so sure myself but that's quite an indictment of JA for anyone who believes it. Did you change your avatar about a year ago Balta? You're an admin with more posts than me, been on this forum almost two years longer than me, yet I remember thinking "Where'd that guy come from?" when I noticed you sometime not long ago.

It says his marraige didn't work out and also he got addicted to painkillers and also he suffered from depression (concussion issues?). The article throws around "womanizer" but doesn't specifically say how so. It sounds like he and Connie were separated. Is that it? It doesn't even sound all that salacious, yet somehow the media covering it manage to make it that way. And, you know, Barry Sanders had an out of wedlock kid. Real life troubles round out these guys' enigmatic personas, but it doesn't make them dirtbags, or even mean they weren't, on the whole, some of the highest character guys you'd find in the sport.

Hard to have forseen the kick return changed rules too. If Hester can put up a couple of TD returns, he'll be right back to adding at least 5 yards to every Bears possesion because of how teams will kick away from him. He's a better WR than I ever thought he'd be. Is our average 1st round pick better than Hester? Nah. Of course we badly needed 1st round picks after trading them all away, so that has to be considered too.

It worked too. Thinking about pop tarts like JLo owning and having a say in the Bears...it made me a little queasy. Even if there are better owners out there, I can appreciate having a Halas still after all these years.

It makes me sick that such a well executed trick play didn't count though. Pointless blocking penalties on returns count as one of the major wonders of the modern world I'd say. You'd think coaches would've beat it out of the players by now in the form of wind sprints or demotions, but nope, still incredibly, incredibly, incredibly common. And I'll have to accept it won't change.

According to many pundits before the season started, we're in the best division in football. Detroit is 3-0 and Chicago and GB both battled it out for NFC champion last year. I remember thinking I thought I'd never hear that. Before the season I think people had some respect for the Vikings too, though now that Minny is 0-3 they might adjust their opinions. The problem is that its ok to struggle in a poor division (see last year's Seahawks); we don't get that luxury. And maybe that's what you were getting at.

Are you kidding? Jay almost just won Mr. Olympia. I imagine Suh will just bounce right off him. http://sports.gather.com/viewArticle.actio...281474980358493 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Cutler_(bodybuilder)