selection7

I agree. But if Goodell is just taking suggestions, here's another idea. Leave one guy with the kicker, and everyone else gets to go to the other team's 40. Then that other one guy does just like normal when the kicker kicks the ball. But here's the deal. All the other guys can't go further downfield until that one guy makes it to where they are at the 40, so only that one guy works up a head of steam. BUT...that one guy can't go past the 25 yard line. And so basically, all the other guys don't have time to work up speed so they're safer...and remember they've got return team blockers only 10 yards in front of them still. And the one guy who is working up speed is only really a safety; he'll have to slow down because the returner will never make it to the 25 yl before he does.. That solves all the problems without changing the basic nature of the kickoff. Oh, and move the kick location back to the 25 like it used to be. No need to have every third kick a touchback if they implement my rule. I don't know how to fix the whole "everyone just tries to knock everyone else out and whoever is left standing picks the football up" sort of onsides we've got these days.

I have to admit. My first reaction was a good 'cause we don't need any contract headaches! but then I started to wonder why someone who hasn't had a QB rating over 86.3 in the last half decade would even bother saying that. The league is filled with young QB talent and I think with him pushing 30 years old now that most around the league have stopped obsessing about his ceiling and are just accepting that he is what he is.

Lovie did say in the conference that his choice to go for it was a bad one and that put some significant blame on him, so he's being honest at least. I know sometimes coaches just say that stuff insincerely because leadership dictates they take some of the blame, but the way he said it..it just sounded like he had decided, for the same reasons that have been stated in this thread, that it wasn't a smart risk and he was mad at himself.

We haven't had Cutler for the last 1.5 games. Granted, Cutler was having a bad game anyway when he got knockd out, but Cutler is an up and down sort of QB. Before this game we had the second best D in the NFL...only the niners had allowed less points...and we had the most forced turnovers and points off turnovers. Even in last week's loss, the D was dominant, so this week was an aberration for them. Lovie and co. are doing soemthing right. But the niners kicked our ass. They were well coached and we didn't do anything different on D than what they planned for (according to their sophomore QB). All day, Campbell was hamstrung by 3rd and longs because Forte/the Oline weren't picking up any run yardage. When he did pass, he looked mediocre (I'm giving him credit for being under serious pressure). Aldon Smith was as dominant as I've seen a DE against the Bears. However, we've put ourselves into the position to be able to lose a few and still make the playoffs. Yesterday was just one of those.

I'm not the GM. To some degree, the Bears are the players, not just the insignia or the owner. I'm alright with the Bears being slightly less competitive with Url here than without due to his contract, but only if there's no other way. So Url needs to stay a Bear. Plus, historically our record without him has been terrible. Basically, I don't want to be a fan a team that ships off their franchise players when they hit their last couple of years of ball...again, unless we have to.

That was Jerry Angelo's philosophy. Of course it's part of what got him fired. But I tend to agree with it as well. I remember him outright saying (before Cutler's injury) that almost no team is going to compete for a championship with their 2nd string QB, so the value in them is overhyped. He put it more delicately than that of course.

They didn't show the game where I live...only the last 2 minutes, which was of course the best part. But it is indeed funny to read the posts from beginning to end in retrospect. ...from "we can't do anything right we're the worst, right down to our core players" to "we've got a special group of guys here". Granted, the pessimists and the optimists probably are different people; how the game is going just dictates who feels more like posting.

I think some people are just taking the analyst's perspective, but I ultimately agree that if you can't enjoy the wins you're wasting your time. As for that sack, I was definitely wondering if Suh didn't drive his full body weight into Cutler, which isn't legal, but I thought maybe the refs cut him some slack, thinking that the awkwardness of the tackle caused it to turn out the way it did rather than Suh doing something intentionally.

Did anyone catch Gruden calling Urlacher 35? He won't be 35 until almost next summer. I know I've brought this up before but it's just a pet peeve of mine...especially since people do it so consistenty with Urlacher. I don't get it.

you mean cornerback?

Although there were a couple of good points (like pointing out the incongruity in Cutler caring about support from those fans at the grocery store but not caring about the lack of support from others...either you care or you don't right?), the comment about him choosing a re-do on that pass to Brandon over any of his picks is nonsense. Of course he'd rather have a TD added than a pick removed. You can't score any more than 1 TD on a drive, so adding a TD is the best possible play that can happen in a football game...unless the interception went for a pick-six, and that didn't happen this week.

Wow. That's hard to believe.

The thing is, we've seen Cutler play well under pressure before. We know he can do it. He sure didn't last night against Green Bay. It's also worth mentioning that Cutler played better than his stats would seem to indicate until the 4th quarter when he seemed to flake out.

Jay's never been about saying the politically correct thing. That's just the way he is and it becomes a bigger deal when things aren't going well. From what I saw of the press conference, his comments and demeanor were reasonable. Maybe he should have been using more "I"s when admitting mistakes, but he did use some "we"s at least.

I don't think up by 20 in the middle of the third would be running up the score if the Bears were to score again. In fact, I know it wouldn't. That's still a losable game. I'm glad we rested Urlacher though. EDIT: jason and I both replied at about the same time...saying about the same thing. It was a good day. I was trying to not let my expectations get too high on our WRs so that I wouldn't be too dissapointed if things didn't work out, but today was everything we could have wanted.

Julius Peppers isn't exactly the average DE, and most of the great ones are not what he is physically (6'7 287lbs). Shea's success will be determined by his skill, not being an inch shorter than the average DE and needing to gain 10 pounds as a rookie (assuming he really is 6'3" 260lbs). ...especially since he's apparently quite athletic. I've also gotten the impression that he wasn't all that developed of a DE coming out of college, further leading me to worry more about skill than some pretty slight shortcomings on measurables. Really, even Julius Peppers hasn't lit the world on fire these past two years, though I think I'm satsified with his play (he's obviously played well. Just not sure he's lived up to his $92 million dollar contract?) DE in he NFL is a tough job, no doubt.

It's funny because Url is perfect for Lovie's scheme. He's almost like another safety on pass plays, and with the speed of today's TE's, it requires someone freakishly fast like him. Yet, Urlacher is so special that he's also perfect for Jauron's scheme, where his size and mobility are important, probably even more so than in Lovie's scheme, I agree.

I liked that. Except I watched it and realized immediately afterwards I dont' know what it was an ad for...other than Bears clothes in general.

Looks like we got rid of Alex at the right time, at least. Before the 2010 season. His last two years with us he had 12 sacks combined. That's almost as many sacks over a two year period as he had in his entire career. The only better set of two seasons was 2005 & 2006 when he had 13 combined sacks. But the year after we let him go, he had 2 sacks with the Saints, and a year after that he was out of the NFL. http://www.nfl.com/player/alexbrown/2505098/careerstats The main thing that will stand out to me about Alex's play with us was the way he would intelligently read screen plays, dropping off the rush to tip the thrown pass, if not pick it, or make the tackle for only a short reception.

I'm pleasantly surprised. He only played for us for 8 years and it's not like he had a Hall of Fame career with us. That it was still important for him to end things as a Bear says that to him, being a Bear really meant something.

Urlacher won't get more expensive if we wait a year. Cutler might. If we believe in both guys, we should extend Cutler and let Urlacher play his out. Of course, those two should want the exact opposite, for the same reasons but on the opposite side of the coin, so we'll see. It's looking like neither of them will push to get a new deal.

Oh, but I also agree that there's a possibility, at least, that Urlacher isn't too concerned with the money at this point in his career. Maybe he's more concerned about a Super Bowl...before he has to hang it up.

No he won't. Why is it that year after year people, from fans to media, get Urlacher's age wrong...always making him 1 year older than he is? Urlacher was born May 25, 1978. He just turned 34 a month and a half ago, and he won't be 35 until well after next year's rookie draft. Maybe it's something about a May birtday that makes people do the math wrong, but in the case of the news writers, I always wondered if they didn't do it on purpose to make their "oh no, Urlacher's getting old" article more dramatic. Granted, I'll agree he is old now. But he did get to take a whole year off just to rest his wrist, and I wouldn't be surprised if that adds more than the year he lost back on to his career.

I can't believe its already Urlacher's turn again. It feels like his last extension wasn't that long ago. Jay doesn't want to negotiate an extension before the season I'm sure. He stands to raise his stock a lot if this offense can play up to everyones' hopes this season. Urlacher probably should want to get a deal done now, but then, he's made his money and then some. I don't know what he's thinking. The Bears don't have anyone ready to replace either player, which makes both of their positions stronger.

http://www.talkbears.com/forums/index.php?...16&hl=forte Note Bears4Ever_34's post 9 posts down. This is just the quickest way to show that Forte was, in fact, getting all malconent on us (through the press) well before his contract was up (and before he was injured even).