DABEARSDABOMB

Luckily Atlanta lost (or at least when I left it looked like they were going to lose). And I still say the Bears can win in the playoffs if they can somehow make it there with Cutler as the QB. Barber and Bell are both quality backups and I'm not overly concerned about the loss of Forte (it hurts but I have a lot of faith in our backups). But I also don't think Forte is done for the year.

Don't be a Hinie...be a Hanie!

Briggs is a freaking stud. Pay the man. Regarding Knox. I have a hard time calling it a great game. He had some good plays but he has some awful plays too. He is way too inconsistent and really needs to put in the work on the practice field and over the off-season to step his game up. His inconsistencies in route-running and catching are unacceptable and lead to too many negative plays.

Jason, despite having the same name, we rarely agree. In this instance, I fully agree with you. In fact, I'll go as far as saying as of now, I'm on board with giving Martz an extension. The key is ensuring that Martz stays within the offense. While the play wasn't effective, the idea was fine and it is the QB's responsibility to throw that ball away or go to a secondary option when the play isn't there (which in this case it wasn't). If you want to gripe, gripe about our play-calling early in the game when we tried to surprise the Raiders by passing. However, I think the idea was good and showed faith in Hanie. It ended up back-firing as Hanie threw some terrible interceptions but the concept was fine. Heck, as a whole, I felt better about our chances after barely losing to Oakland (who is a good team) despite three interceptions, two of which came in areas of the field where we had a good to great chance of scoring (1 was thrown inside the Redzone, the other in Raider territory and of course the 3rd was practically in our own red-zone). Ultimately all three picks led to point swings. The Bears will limit Hanie a bit more this week and that is fine but I expect our QB to grow as a result of his first start. He'll get to have a 2nd full week of practice but more importantly watch the game film to see what he did well and what he didn't and I expect we'll see less terrible passes/picks in time (hopefully soon too cause the Bears obviously have a slim margin and must win this game). Oh and I will say, Martz has called some absolutely beautiful plays at times this year too. The creativity is fantastic but the execution isn't always their and sometimes the creativity isn't needed but as a whole, the offense that has been called the past few weeks has been really good. I also really don't want to keep giving Cutler a new system. Half of the reason he's finally starting to make strides is that he's getting a 2nd year in a system (and he's getting more time). Cutler with a good system and solid line and weapons a top 5 QB in this league. Hell, I know a lot of experts saying he was playing at a top 3 level when he went down. He was that good (despite some severe offensive limitations our squad has).

He was officially brought back. Toub said he liked what he saw from him in preseason and in Toub I trust. Still, Mannelly is the best ever.

Where do you get this info? I haven't read this anywhere. In fact, I saw a whole article in the tribune talking about how the 6 week timetable is too short because when you have displacement and they alluded to the fact that Cutler did, you are talking more of an 8 week recovery (since it takes about 2 to 3 weeks to get your range of motion back).

ESPN has revised the timetable and is reporting that the Bears are expecting Cutler back sooner and that he could play as early as the game against the Vikings. I'm still going to hold my breath and hope that Hanie can do what he needs to first. If we can't win a couple games with Hanie, it will all be a moot point anyway.

I'd be all for it. You can never have too many talented pass rushers. Especially in a cover 2 defense.

Except Tampa did the smart thing and got to practice early. They also beat a Saints team that kicked our butts. People are forgetting Tampa is pretty darn solid and they are improving. Are they superbowl contenders, no, playoff contenders, absolutely. Plus Josh Freeman is a good young QB, whose only getting better, and who has a history of leading some solid comebacks. Our schedule is freaking rough. All of the teams in our next 4 games are pretty good (Tampa leads the division, Chargers lead the division, Eagles will end up winning that division, and the Lions are a playoff team).

Veteran C Olin Kreutz is walking away from the Saints because "he no longer feels passion and doesn't want to just collect paycheck," according to his agent.

He hasn't practiced yet. I think they are shooting for his return to be after the bye-week.

I'm gonna say...Bears win, close game, Cutler delivers a game winning drive with some key receptions made by one Earl Bennett. Following the game, Flea runs onto the field in celebration!!!

Bears. I agree with most of your post, but when you said Minnesota is a dead-dog team that gets into huge 1st half deficits as a result of there crappy pass offense, well, that really isn't true. Up until this game, Minnesota had done nothing but destroy teams in the 1st half of games (they blew a 17 point 1st half lead and 20 or 21 point 1st half lead).

I wouldn't be surprised to see Tice running the whole show in the next couple weeks. Its very evident that he's becoming more instrumental in our play calling and I'm perfectly fine with that. I like Tice a lot.

My bad. I guess I was still high off my Bears coolaid that my reading comprehension skills suffered.

Didn't see this anywhere, but Royal had off-season hip surgery and than tore his groin earlier this year. He's just returning back to practice. My question would be whether he had the same speed/burst.

I don't mind Royal. He's nothing to get excited about, but he's solid. The problem is, isn't he like almost every wide-out we have on the squad (or at least kind of like Hester/Knox)?

Spencer. I think I mentioned as such. I'm definitely not pulling Williams.

What game were people watching when they say Webb sucked? The only sack he gave up was one where Cutler waited too long (it was a coverage sack). Otherwise Allen had no impact on the game. When your LT minimizes a player like Allen, that should show you something. The biggest problem with the oline is the penalties and Frank Omilaye. I assume the Bears could always slide Louis back in where Spencer is with Carimi at RT.

I disagree. Roy played his best game as a Bear. Even on a couple other completed passes, when I watched the replay, Williams was open (Cutler just had another guy more open). He made all of his catches (although there was one that he probably could have had) and was a nice target over the middle of the field, especially early in the game. I still want to see the Bears utilizing him in the redzone.

Webb lined upagainst the NFL leader in sacks and outplayed him. Outside of his false start disasters, Webb has actually done a pretty darn good job and I've seen numerous writers mention the fact. The biggets problem for the Bears oline is the ridiculous number of penalties (Webb has had his problems in that regard) and the fact that the right side was horrible. But some of the problems also had a lot to do with Martz play calling, which was incredibly predictable during the past 3 games (not last night). There was so much more diversity in the game plan against the Vikings.

It is. 6-1 until they lost last night. Lovie does very well in those games. By the way, I'm with Brian. I've always said Hester is overrated and I'd gladly take picks for him. I think our special teams is good because of Toub, not Hester. Hester is great, don't get me wrong, but I think Manning would have had near as many punt returns for TD's if he was the primary return man in his day and I think Knox could be similarly productive as well. I might be an idiot for saying it and I'm sure 99% of Bears fans would disagree with me but I don't think he is as special as others think (Toub and our blocking system is what is special). On offense, wow. I've been saying for years our wideouts suck and I don't think I could have ever been more right. In an era where teams are loaded with offensive weapons, the Bears have Matt Forte and crap. Thats not to say I don't mind Knox, he's fine, but for pete sake, our wideouts wouldn't start on most teams. They'd be about the 6th best wideout on the Saints, Colts or Packers.

The guy has wasted three years of his prime in Chicago. He's gotten zero protection and the Bears have provided him with no weapons, other than Forte, and he could be even better if it weren't for our crappy line. Its really sad and its time that Angelo gets fired for these problems. No, I don't blame Lovie Smith at all for this. Angelo failed. The game Cutler played last night was insane. I really don't think any QB in the league could have done what Jay did. He would have had only 3 incompletes despite having time to set his foot maybe 2 to 3 times all night. Other than that, the other 7 or so passes not caught were drops. Sanz had at least 2, Hester dropped a TD, etc.

I really can't see how anyone could make a case that TIce hasn't done a good job. He's made the most of crap and in fact, we have already seen some solid developments out of Webb and Williams. At times when I watch Webb I see a guy that is a total beast. Problem is he isn't consistent but the problem with our line has nothing to do with Tice. In fact, I think our line, when healthy, is actually a lot better than people think. Our problem is the boob calling plays and the fact that his plays take forever to develop and he doesn't mix-up the playcalling enough. This offense is built to be a power rushing offense. We have two above average backs (Forte & Barber) and a pretty strong offensive line from a run blocking perspective (our line is pretty big and physical when healthy). I might be crazy though, haha.

I just hope everyone can agree that our WR's aren't very good. We have some solid complimentary guys but there is a big difference between a complimentary guy and a legitimate #1 wideout and right now our offense needs that.