DABEARSDABOMB

I think the fact that elite QB's don't make mistakes is a bit overblown too. However, I do agree as a whole the top QB's throw fewer picks. That said, Brady made plenty of mistakes this past week as did Rodgers. Bottom line, it is a team game and we had an uphill battle given both the turnovers and overall field position battle. It was week 1 though and I expect our unit will get better and to be frank we have to. Defense better find ways to generate turnovers or a pass rush, otherwise we will be in trouble. At least some of the time we were able to stop them on 3rd down, something we couldn't do at all in the preseason.

I think Cutler is getting a lot of blame when he actually played pretty well. I counted 1 real bad throw out of him and a lot of good throws and great command against a good defense. The pick to Bennett was pretty clear to me a situation where Bennett didn't settle where Cutler expected him to. You could see it instantly in the way Bennett reacted. He knew he was in the wrong. Jay kept his composure and everything like that was nice. Play calling needs to be better and execution has to be improve but its week one, you don't expect to fire on all cylinders. Things can be cleaned up but with our receivers on the field, we win that game, imo. That said, no excuse to lose at home to a team like the Bills. We got destroyed in the field position battle and our turnovers put us in a real tough spot. I couldn't get enough of a gauge against that defense and really that offense was an awful match-up for us, given they were #2 in the league in rushing a year ago. Put them in a situation where they have the lead and good field position and we really got put in a tough spot. Our punting unit was utterly disgusting. Compare our special teams with the Bills...wow, what a difference.

As a whole, I felt that the game got away from us because we spent too much time flinging the football and didn't focus enough on the run. Including in that 3rd and one situation. Defense actually surprised me a bit, however, we still gave up a bazillion rushing yards. Offense didn't do the defense any favors. We got absolutely destroyed on field position all day long. Really pathetic.

Absolutely fascinating, imo. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...ory.html#page=3

The sad thing to me is that Shea looked like he had better LB instincts then Bostic, who has played there his whole career. It would be great if at least one of our young LB's pans out as that at least means we aren't looking for 3 next year, since Briggs is getting close to the end.

Yeah...I have that scary feeling too. The only saving grace I keep going back to is we should be able to generate a pass rush...if we can do that...it has to make our defense better then a year ago. I also am excited about Fuller and what he brings, but as a whole, we have a very slow defensive unit, imo. It may not even be combine slow, at some points, its also age slow and football instincts slow (see most of our LB corps...neither Bostic or Shea have the instincts yet and DJ Williams is mediocre at best). All this said, I think our dline has a chance to be one of the better units in the league and that is the best concealer a defense can have and can really mask some of our other issues. I do think Fuller will make some strides and give us a young player to be excited for. I actually like Shea the most out of our young linebackers, which says enough in and of itself, haha. We all know I think Bostic, while athletic, has zero football ability, but hopefully with new coaches we can see something. I actually don't mind Conte, just needs to stay healthy. I think with the right coaching, this could be an average d, however, I don't know if we have the right coaching or not. TBD.

It seems to me that they are more hedging their bets in case Conte isn't in game shape. It clearly sounds as if Conte is the starter, just a matter of him getting enough reps to be in good enough game shape, given he had an abbreviated training camp and preseason.

He was a leader on the practice field. While out injured he was coaching up and spending significant time with our guys instead of taking a back seat. I could care less whether he talks to the media. A good leader doesn't have to talk to the media. As much as I couldn't stand him, Urlacher was a good leader and he too was rarely talkative with the media and usually when he did he put his foot in the mouth. Doesn't take away from the fact that he was a heck of a leader (that I won't discredit Urlacher for).

Right now my optimism is pretty low. I really don't know if Trestman is the right personality as a HC and I certainly think Emery has a lot of open questionmarks. His first draft was a bad one (although we did hit Jeffrey's but that still doesn't make up for how many guys we missed on). We could easily be saying the same thing about a year ago's draft with Long as the one hit (we'll see what happens with Mills) but I have little faith in Bostic doing anything worth a darn.

Dude has always brought it when the season started. I have no concerns with this and think it is a lot to do about nothing. I think if Briggs isn't very good, it will be because of his age. Once the regular season starts, he's also been the consummate pro. Just look at how he handled himself last year when he was injured. He really established himself as a leader and role model.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11431868...cinnati-bengals Tough runner who might be a good fit given our overall lack of depth behind Forte. Karey came on strong and is looking good but I would think BJG would be an upgrade over everyone else and in reality a pretty nice compliment when compared to the backs we have on our roster. He has roughly 1700 rushing yards the past 2 years.

Plus we have a very difficult schedule (and a brutal start to the schedule). I think we have a very very tough path to the postseason, however, do believe we have the talent. That is presuming health and well that the ST unit isn't a sieve for negative plays and our defense can generate a pass rush and stop the run (which I think will happen). That said, as I've said all off-season, our lb core has a chance to be scary bad.

Stafford has played outstanding though. Detroit has to be a more disciplined team now with a new coach as well. I think the North is as tough of a division in football with Chicago, Detroit, and Green Bay. Vikings are probably one of the better projected to finish last place teams in the league.

QB's don't have the ability to succeed on special teams. Given the number of slow fat man and QB's on a roster, you pretty much have to have a few starters on ST's and usually you'll have back-up wideouts who are athletes and solid gunners and of course members of your defense, since they are usually good tacklers. It is just the way it is. This is the case across the entire NFL league. ST's is also a pretty big area where games can be lost so if you want to not play some of your better tacklers / special teams players, you are risking some potential very negative plays that can cost you ball games. It is why I have been so adamant in how big of a disaster Joey D is.

Give me a break. This is just complaining to complain. Look around the league, most defensive players that are early picks are on ST unit and a lot of starters end up on ST units as well. And for those saying, just don't do it in the preseason game, well...what happens then..just let the mistakes happen during a regular season game? You have to get some practice. The whole 4 preseason games is insane anyway, should just be 2 in which the starters play more, but that is beside the point.

Has anything came out yet? Was away all weekend?

Congrats!!!

Like the move but we have to see if he has any burst to create space and get open. Hopefully playing with two of the games best wide-outs in a good offense will help motivate him cause we could really use a 3rd wideout until Wilson comes back.

Agreed. Hard working guy just couldn't do enough to get open. I really hope Wilson isn't out for an extended period of time cause I have very little faith for our back-up wideouts.

Ditto. Health health and more health!

He is absolutely awful. I could understand why Tucker wasn't (injuries were really bad and that was an awful dline), however, Joey D had zero excuses and is terrible. Special teams may not win you a lot of games (unless you were the Bears under Lovie) but it can cost you a lot (see Chargers a few years ago) and I just have very bad feelings about our unit. And it isn't because of the personnel.

Starting dline was one of the most impressive things I saw during the game. They were forcing penalties and in the backfield consistently. Led to turnovers and a near turnover that Briggs almost had. Agree with the other comments.

I know some will look at this as a bad thing but I look at this as a good thing. He's got a lot of physical talent, played well in his 2nd year, first full year as a starter, and then fell apart in a year where our other safety was also terrible and our entire defensive front was brutal (and worst in the league against the run). He had no chance to play well a year ago and I hope he can prove that he's learned something from last year.

The other huge thing is no serious injuries, which is always the biggest thing coming out of a preseason game. Starting Dline had a big push. Oline looked pretty poor by all accounts.

IIRC, he was pretty talented dude who has had a lot of injury problems and seems to finally be healthy and have had a full off-season of health. Could be a very nice pickup and it would be nice to have a quality back-up TE.