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No one made even that argument. So apparently you're missing the OP's point. Most people in fact still think he's a great returner, just not as great as previously hyped, and what's more interesting is the issue of credit. So don't change the subject to defend an argument nobody's making. Back when he was successfull it was all about Hester, but now that he's not, it's "Hey, I'm just one of 11 guys". Of course the latter was true the whole time, but I still want to know if anyone ever remembers Hester giving credit to his blockers back then. If he kept his mouth shut when he was doing well, then he should keep his mouth shut now too.

Orton 19-29, 223 yards, 1 TD, 2 sacks, 2 passes batted down, 3 rushing yards, no fumbles, 7.37 yards per pass Forte 19 carries, 73 yards, 2 TD's, 5 catches, 25 yards, 1 illegal motion penalty Gould- 2/2 on FG, 43.3 punt net, 4.56s avg. hang time, kickoffs to avg. depth of 3yd line Hester- Takes it all the way to the 39yd line, fumbles, then Idonijie recovers and advances for another 6 yards Bears 31-25 (OT) BEAR DOWN!

C'mon guys. Everybody deserves an 11th chance.

To be fair, it'd be tough not to start believing some of the hype around you if people went on and on about how great you are for so long like they did to Hester. But yes, I thought of that too (about how NOW he's just one of 11 guys). But does anyone remember if he used to often complement his blockers (the way RB's usually do)? I don't want to put words in his mouth and I don't remember Hester self-aggrandizing back then in the way that say, a Deon Sanders surely would have.

I say we give Virginia McCasckey her walking papers. She just doesn't inspire confidence or scintillate. Plus, she's lazy. Daniel Snyder puts in 14 hour work days...and that's why the Skins are so good. On a side note, yet another perfect game from Pat Mannely. Ever wonder how he feels after a loss like this past one to Green Bay? Is he supposed to feel bad? Is he like "I'm part of a team that did bad today and Coach Smith says in this situation we just have to look in the mirror first if we wanna turn things around. So next game I resolve to be even more flawless than I usually am!". I would love to hear that press conference.

One play proves nothing, but just as an observation, on that Packers goal line TD run, Alex Brown was the only one on the line to shed his man and shuffle down the line of scrimmage to get into positon to bring the RB down with no gain. Unfortunately, the entire rest of the line got destroyed and the RB was easily able to run somewhere else to get in for a TD, so it didn't matter.

We've got a QB. I'll take another great one, but we have other needs these days...many. As the other post mentioned there is no reason to have a guy on our radar if the only way we could get him is to trade up, as if we were desperate, which we certainly are not anymore. We still need a backup if Rex doesn't want to come back, but we might be better off with a veteran in the #2 spot unless we ditch Hanie. On a side note, at one point in the post-game interview Orton said "I played almost, errr, just as bad as everyone else and blah, blah, blah..." I just thought that was funny. As bad as he played, most other players played worse, especially considering he had no proper practice reps in the preceding week and was still injured. In short, no one is getting a free ride today. But unlike Tommie and Vasher and Hester and Babich, etc., Orton didn't come into this game having to prove himself, so rightfully so, those other guys are getting more scrutiny.

There was a point in the game where I started wondering how the Packers kept piling up the rushing yards, so I began watching the line play closely. After about three plays I sort of said out loud to myself "No wonder, by the time Ryan Grant takes the handoff and gets up to the line of scrimmage, nobody is there anymore...because the Packers O-line has pushed our D-line backwards 6 feet. All game long, we lost the battle at the line of scrimmage, on both sides of the ball.

A more fair article criticizing Urlacher than the types I usually see. It's not unreasonable to ask more of him than we've been getting. A lot more, really. I thought the timing of his tantrum this past offseason for more money was strange, as he was coming off a down year where he was diagnosed with a sereious chronic back problem. Part of me wondered whether Urlacher knew he'd never be the same and wanted to strike while the iron was still hot. I still question it.

I wouldn't mind someone posting something like this every week...so I don't forget to check it out. I like how he calls the other teams players "the talented RB" "the talented offensive lineman". I guess he either wants to sincerely show respect for these guys playing at the most elite level, or he doesn't want to motivate them for next time if it gets back to them that their play is being sliced and diced by media on the opposing team's official website.

Some good responses... I thought I'd add a little to this one though. #1 Did you notice that when that ball came down, had Hester extended his hands it would have missed by about 4 feet? 80% speed was an exaggeration, but to even drop to 88% speed for a fourth of the route is enough to end up 4 feet short. #2 As someone who's always loved football and spent much of my youth at it, I developed the attitude that as a receiver, any overthrown pass that was anywhere near me was my fault if I wasn't going 100%. That carried over to my (attempts at) playing QB. Don't let me overthrow you. Go get it (unless you're slow of course). As I watched Devin Hester I saw 2 things, he slowed down when he made the cut and turned to look (which I always HATED as a QB and always was first to admit back at the huddle if I was the WR), and when he figured out he needed the afterburners, he freaked out and sort of stumbled forward for the ball. When fast people turn on the afterburners, they get more fluid in movement, not less. I believe Rex threw the ball where Hester should have been able to get to it. So we can agree to disagree, but based on my perspectives I've just outlined, at least you can see where I'm coming from. That doesn't mean that a QB should aim for the spot that requires every last drop of speed from his WR, that's cutting it too close and you have to assume that the CB won't be draped all over your WR's back. About 3 ft shorter than where it went is where Rex should have ideally put it. It's not my motive to suggest the pass was perfect. I just thought that the WR was more to blame. #3 You guys realize that deep Hester pass was 45 yards in the air? I've not personally known too many people (none, actually) that could regularly put a ball right in a reciever's hands (in terms of distance thrown) on a 45 yard pass after reading a defense and having 300lb guys trying to knock your head off. Now, this is the NFL, so we expect much more, but how much more? IMO, some of the value in the deep ball is the threat, to show that you'll do it if their D doesn't respect it, but you should expect to not complete it 2/3rds of the time (even less if you don't catch them by surprise). By my guess, a good third of the time you should expect that a too short/long pass outright ruins the play, with passes landing right on the mark only about 25% of the time. It seems from the commentary I've seen from fans and the media that not everyone shares my perspective. No one has really been taking it to Rex for his deep pass miss last Sunday, so I'm not referencing that one episode as much as just a general trend I've noticed in terms of reaction from the peanut gallery. I don't feak out about a missed deep pass unless it's happening a lot, it's just the cost of doing business, so-to-speak.

Great write up Noots.

That got your attention! But in fact, I'm not here to defend Grossman, even with his lack of reps and playing a great D we should expect well more from him than we got. He sucked today. But that topic is pretty cut and dry so why bother. What I instead want to bring up is our WR's continually not adjusting. Possibly the worst case was the Devin Hester bomb, beat his man, turned around to look for the ball, and promptly slowed down to 80% speed while watching Rex's ball land where he should have been. Man, if your name is Devin "freaking" Hester, slowing down on a post route cut is absolutely inexcusable. Even with Rex stinking it up, that one silly play would have put the Bears up to 21-21 in the 4th quarter. But I'll give him a break since he's not been a WR for long. How about Mary Booker? Rex throws a poor pass (too short) about 15 yards downfield to the right sideline and Booker literally...just...stands...there. "Dude, wake up! You're on a football field. React! That ball belongs to you, so go get it!" I don't actually expect him to catch that of course, but he got lucky it wasn't a pick...that play so reminded me of Moose in the Superbowl. Then twice (a medium distance in-route and a short out) Rex throws passes off the mark and the receiver doesn't adjust. OK. So the reciever had his momentum at full speed and couldn't adjust right?? NOPE. Both times...just jogging...and yet could not be bothered to go all out to the spot where the ball was headed to try and make the catch. On that short out the receiver couldn't even bring himself to pick his speed up from a medium jog. If I'm a WR coach, that kind of cluelessness/laziness would drive me nuts. It appeared they weren't getting open a lot of the time too, since Rex sometimes had plenty of pocket time yet couldn't find an open receiver, but I maybe that was just Rex. On the TV they don't show the secondary so it's hard to tell. Anyway, I'm pleased with our WR's overall this season, so hopefully once we get Lloyd and Orton back we'll be in better form. It was a boring game overall (I've been spoiled by some great ones so far this year), but at least we were in it until the end thanks to the rush defene.

That was 2005 that Mike Brown said "It's like we suck or something", inspiring his team to win like 8 straight games and 10 of their next 11. Not 2001.

Hmmmm. An offensive line ultimatum? "Stop booing Rex or we'll let him run the TD in every chance we get instead of Forte". You think that could work?

That's a good point about the subterfuge. But also, if Kyle does have a kryptonite (as defenses finally figured out Rex's in 2006), we certainly don't need the excellent Titans defense to point it out for the rest of the league.

I'll have to remember to check it out each week. How long's he been analyst for WBBM's radio games? I love listening to him. He tends to give observations about OL players that you rarely get from other announcers.

Awesome news. On the other hand, let's be realistic. After all, nothing like sitting around all week to prepare you for the toughest game of the year right? Especially if you consider it's a non-division game and Orton would be playing with pain and decreased mobility. Maybe if he started studying for Green Bay right now he'd be put to better use (assuming he could even make it back for that one).

Why do people incessantly defend the "right" for fans to boo? Whoop-dee-do. You've successfully presented the argument that they have the "right". So? There are a lot of things we have the right to do in this world. With few exceptions, you can't make it illegal to be mean. In this case, those fans absolutely have the right to be hurtful, counterproductive, poor examples, and of low character. I'm not sure why so many people seem to be so satisfied with stating the obvious. And it's only the 10000th time I've heard that silly argument. That said...and here's a more reasonable argument...I actually believe there is a time and place for the booing in pro (getting paid for it) sports. Let the players know you don't accept half-effort if that's clearly the case. Let them know you are passionate, that their fourth straight three-and-out sucks and give them the negative reenforcement to want to win you over. These players are fans of the game too, so they understand. But they also know this isn't the WWE (american wrestling). If you think about it, it's pretty silly to suggest it's OK to boo no matter what the circumstance (granted it may be their right). That's not a hard argument to make. What's more interesting is where do you draw that line? Some fans refuse to draw a line, because they have no standards. I have no respect for that, which is my right. As I've said in the past, some fans use these those things I mentioned earlier as excuses not to be decent human beings. If you want to learn how to be a better person, pay close attention to and ask yourself "What are the qualities of the people I admire?". On this one, I know where I stand. I guess I don't realistically expect to sway much of anyone, so feel free to keep on defending fans with low standards without my further input...I've said my peace. But you can bet what I'm thinking.

Also, anyone realise the Bears have won 4 out their last 5 games, and their only loss was by 2 points with 6 seconds left? The problems with this team are many, but as Lovie says "Every team has the same salary cap" and somehow we keep winning anyway.

Cool. That was classy and it brushes off drama over the Rex-Kyle competition that went down, which would only be distracting for Rex right now. We need a couple of wins in the next 4 weeks. 7-5 wouldn't be bad at all considering the remaining schedule it very doable.

No, I agree. Notice I said "if", but conveniently didn't add that I doubt it would make a difference. But acknowledging blocking isn't as much fun for many. I do think he's capable of better than he's been though.

Any D thoughts on the difference between halves Noots? I've seen some collapses, but excluding game-changing injuries, I'm not sure I've ever seen our D go from totally useless to shutout perfect in the course of one halftime.

I understand if you don't like his play. But what's the arm waving have to do with that? They are separate issues. What is related is how Urlacher responds to the fan negativity, and it appears it's to reassure them that he's not giving up and he still needs their help, so don't give up on him. That's why I said it's odd for you to complain about that reaction. Unless you just wanted the satisfaction of seeing him look shamed for a moment, which is understandable though still a bit silly, but he doesn't owe you that, so don't call him a jerk for it. That kind of makes you the jerk.

One month is basically the best possible outcome (reasonable one anyway) considering how it looked and how he looked afterwards. We have a strong chance of losing to the Titans anyway and a strong chance of beating St. Louis either way, so really only the GB and Minn games are affected, in a sense. It's also 4 less games that Orton will have a chance to have a season ending injury during and right now we are pretty well off record-wise. I'm not too bothered. What's more important is whether we see today's 1st half defense or 2nd half defense in the future. If the 1st half defense comes back, it won't matter who's at QB.