adam

Through Week 8: Jay Cutler - 2,518 completions (39th, 15 from 38th and Rich Gannon) - 29,191 yards (47th, 62 from 46th and Jake Plummer) - 191 TD (48th, 1 from 46th/47th and Bob Griese and Matt Ryan) Matt Forte - 8,252 Rushing Yards (41st, 9 from 40th and Earnest Byner) - 12,198 Yards from Scrimmage (55th, 88 from 54th and Jimmy Smith) Robbie Gould - 1,140 Points (41st, 24 pts from 40th and Neil Rackers) - 260 FG Made (T37th, 4 from 35/36th and Lou Groza/Neil Rackers) - 360 XP Made (51st, 5 from 50th and Bobby Walston) Alshon Jeffery (Bears All-time Receiving Numbers): - 221 receptions (14th, 5 from 13th and Harlon Hill) - 3262 yards (12th, 262 from 11th and Brandon Marshall) - 22 TD (12th, 1 from 11th and Jim Keane)

SoS will be computed after this week, so these are using last week's SoS, so we may pass Dallas for 8th after the games are computed: 1. DET 1-7 (7) 2. TEN 1-6 (30) 3. CLE 2-6 (14) 4. SD 2-6 (12) 5. BAL 2-6 (4) 6. SF 2-6 (1) 7. JAX 2-5 (19) 8. DAL 2-5 (6) 9. CHI 2-5 (5) 10. HOU 3-5 (23) 11. KC 3-5 (2) We play 3 teams on this list (SD, SF, and DET), 2 bad teams (TB, WAS), 2 great teams (GB, DEN), and 2 good, but beatable teams (MIN, STL). What is crazy is we could still technically win 7 of those 9 games and no one would question those wins, and we could also only win 3 of them and no one would question the losses. Such an odd season. Crazy how 2 losses makes a 4 game swing (going from 4-3 to 2-5, 1 game over .500 to 3 games under)

What sucks is we wasted another solid, mistake-free game from Cutler. He threw a TD and ran for another, didn't fumble or throw an INT. I just wish we were a little better on 3rd down. He only has 1 INT in last 127 attempts (which has to be nearing a career long) Minnesota was coming in as a top 5 scoring defense and top 10 in yards against. We scored 20 and had over 300 yards on offense. The offense did enough to win and the defense was about 3 plays from winning. The Special Teams failed us again with that kick return. I would rather have O'Donnell kick every one out of bounds with a net of 40 yards. McManis is horrible and I have no idea what Rolle was doing when he let up that big play. Defense needs a lot of help this offseason.

I don't think so, the highest they would get in a comp pick is a late 3rd, so an early 3rd (since we are almost assured of a top 10 pick) might be enough. In regards to our guys, you have to figure after a 2-5 start, we are going to try and move some of the high salary guys (Bushrod, Forte, Houston, Young, and possibly Bennett).

Crazy how one play changes the outlook. If he makes that catch, we probably win the game, and he plays a big part down the stretch. He drops it and we lose and he sucks. He ran pretty good unless he was hit in the backfield. Once he can hit those deep cutbacks when the defense is overpursuing, he is going to be very dangerous.

Kickers miss, too many variables, especially at Soldier Field. Gould is still a great kicker and his miss didn't decide the game. Our defense's inability to stop Minnesota late, the Punt Return TD, and Langford's drop were bigger factors in the loss.

Sure but you have to read the entire rule. See below: SUPPLEMENTAL NOTES (1) Avoiding the kicker is a primary responsibility of defensive players if they do not touch the kick. (2) Any contact with the kicker by a single defensive player who has not touched the kick is running into the kicker. #2 clearly states any contact with the kicker without touching the ball is at least the 5 yard variety, there is no wiggle room or interpretation there. O'Donnell still had his leg up in the air.

Not that it matters now, but O'Donnell got run into and there was no call. There is no incidental contact on punts or kicks, should've been the 5 yard variety. Besides some bad play, we have not gotten any favors from the refs. We had the punt in Seattle that "didn't" hit the Seattle player, and the Tate TD against Detroit (amongst other non-calls). To me that has to be factored in, because we are not good enough to overcome bad play AND bad officiating.

Wow this defense is bad. After letting up the huge pass, we then let AP get 9 more to make it a chip shot? Ugh

We just need one stop now.

Cutler just ran over Harrison Smith lol.

Complete garbage call against Acho on Bridgewater's embellishment, then Griffen can tee off on Cutler after the ball was clearly out and no call. wtf

I hope it is for at least a 4th. Here was the compensation for FA's based on APY: 3rd/4th: $8,198,308 APY 4th/5th: $5,703,872 APY 5th/6th: $4,300,752 APY So I assume Forte would sign for between $4-5 million next year, so we would more than likely get a late 5th in terms of compensation. The crazy part is the team that we trade him to would essentially get the comp pick instead of us (if they don't re-sign him), so we are trading Forte and the comp pick (more than likely a 5th) for whatever we get. So I would hope it is at least a 4th.

Very true, he is definitely on the decline. I would like to see more of Langford going forward.

Yeah, I think Forte's situation and the amount he is offered from the Bears will be in direct relation to how confident they are in Langford going forward. Forte went from 4.6 to 3.9 YPC from 2013 to 2014 and is right at 4.0 this year. So the first dip already occurred. If he takes another dip and drops under 3.9 by the end of the year, then yeah, we can't pay him $5mil a year because the trend will more than likely continue. We only have one more game before the trading deadline (Nov 3rd) and if we were not planning to re-sign Forte, I would rather trade him to a needy contender for more value than he will get as a comp pick. Same goes for Young, Houston, and Bushrod.

Yeah, I basically agree. I think the difference will be in how the team prioritizes the needs going into FA and then the draft. QB - I don't think this is a team weakness or a need for at least the next couple of years. Cutler is only 32 and signed thru 2020. He seems really comfortable in this offense and will only get better. There is also low cap risk after 2016, so I don't think we target a QB in 2016 draft. RB - Forte is going to be the big question mark going into 2016. I tried to look for RB's who entered Free Agency at 30 or 32 to see what type of deals they got: AP - 30, 3-$42mil Gore - 32, 3-$12mil Sproles - 31, 3-$10.5mil Forsett - 30, 3-$9mil Williams - 32, 2-$4mil So AP is the anomaly, especially since he was out of football a year (so you could technically say he got his at 29), but either way, if Forte's camp wants something closer to AP than Gore, there is no way. Forte averaged $7.6 over 4 years, but I can't see him getting that going forward. I would be open to a 2-3 year deal in the $5mil range though (it would be a pay cut), I just don't know if Forte would accept that. My question is, with Forte being such a huge percentage of the offense, can we afford to just cut sling without seeing what Langford can do? My biggest concern on Forte: http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/i...ff-after-age-27 WR - As long as we can sign Alshon to a long term deal and White comes back and produces like a first rounder, I think we are good for the next 5-6 years at that position. TE - Bennett is signed thru 2016 (age 29 season), and is currently the 6th highest cap hit on the team. I don't know if he is worth that much money. He has flashes but has been somewhat inconsistent this year. Also, as everyone knows, a lot of Cutler's INTs have gone Bennett's way. This is not something we need to address this offseason, but could potentially be something we look before 2017. OL - I like the team's mix of vets and young players. I think we need to either draft a stud OT, or another OG and go with Leno and Long at the bookends. Definitely need to draft in the first couple of rounds though. DL - With the shift to 3-4, we have less DLinemen but each one of them is that much more critical to team success. I like Goldman and Jenkins, but it looks like we need to get an impact 3-4 DE as one of our top priorities this offseason. LB - I actually like our OLB's and think the combination of McPhee, Acho, Houston, and Young is good but we need to get younger here. So I expect we draft an Edge Rusher/OLB early. The ILB's are questionable and I haven't seen enough consistency one way or another to form a solid opinion of them. Jones looks good one play and totally lost in another. SMC looked solid but not great before the injury. I still think we need an impact ILB to anchor the front-7. DB - I am just going to lump all DB's into the same category as we seem to play with 5 DB's a lot. To me, the league is moving in this direction and you really need 5 strong DB's. I think Amos and Porter are the only keepers out of that group right now and we will need to pick up another Safety and 2x Cover Corners this next offseason. Returner - I know we were spoiled with Hester, but having a primary returner who is an emergency backup at WR or CB is a need. I feel like we have neglected this phase of the game ever since we allowed Hester to walk and the kickoff were changed. However, we probably don't have the luxury (like Seattle) to draft like this. So for TLDR: 2016 offseason acquisitions: 1x OL, 1x DL, 2x LB, 3x DB as the priorities. So those are 7 priority needs, if we can get 3-4 of them addressed in free agency, then we would have a chance to go BPA in the draft.

What happened? Goldman developed faster than expected? Has to be off-field related somehow. Surprised they couldn't work out a trade or anything. Very odd.

Yeah, if we got 5 starters in one draft, that would be awesome. Potential to have a completely new core in 2 years if you add guys like Long, Alshon, Fuller, SMC, Jones to the younger core conversation. If we can be that successful in next year's draft, we will finally start to see sustained success. What I like is that we have the financial freedom to bring in a couple more key FA's (like McPhee), lock up some of our own to long term deals (Long, Alshon), and pay some guys who have produced on one-year deals (Jenkins, Acho).

I forgot about him as well, could be a good guy for kickoffs.

Since I was counting backwards from worst to first, here are the remaining qualified QBs, which is the top 10: Derek Carr 1.85% Eli Manning 1.70% Russell Wilson 1.67% Josh McCown 1.60% Brian Hoyer 1.53% Drew Brees 1.44% Alex Smith 1.43% Aaron Rodgers 1.10% Andy Dalton 1.04% Tom Brady 0.52% That puts Cutler 12th. This is the amount of interceptions thrown per attempt, which is the best ratio when using INTs.

Cutler is currently 19th with a 2.30% with 4 INTs out of 174 pass attempts. That equates to 1 INT every 43.5 attempts or 1 INT for every 26.5 completions. Winston 4.61% Manning 4.22% Luck 4.22% Fitzpatrick 4.09% Stafford 3.80% (should have one more) Foles 3.55% Cousins 3.51% Tannehill 3.50% Bradford 3.33% Mariota 3.11% Taylor 2.92% Bortles 2.89% Flacco 2.83% Kaepernick 2.81% Bridgewater 2.74% Mallett 2.72% Palmer 2.59% Newton 2.55% Cutler 2.30% Rivers 1.98%

Gould continues to move up the charts, now in 37th all-time for FG's made with 258, with 7 more he will pass Lou Groza and Neil Racker, and tie Kevin Butler for 34th. Robbie is now 51st all-time in XP made with 358. With his 14 point game, Robbie passed Ray Wersching, Kris Brown, and Gino Cappelletti for 41st all-time. Depending on how long he plays, he has a shot to break into the top 10 before he retires. With 8,211 rushing yards Forte passed MJD, Priest Holmes, Gerald Riggs, and Roger Craig against Detroit and is now 42nd all-time. He will pass Hershel Walker with 15 more yards and Earnest Byner with 51. His 12,129 yards from scrimmage puts him in 56th all-time and he will pass Charlier Joiner with 40 more yards. Cutler is now 39th all-time in completions, passing Jake Plummer (go figure) and needs 38 more to pass Rich Gannon for 38th all-time. Cutler is still 47th all-time with 190 TDs and needs 2 more to tie Bob Griese for 46th. With 28,980 passing yards, Jay passed Len Dawson and Rich Gannon to move into 48th all-time, next up Brad Johnson (74 more yards).

My problem is with the "complete control" statement. Fuller clearly has his hand on the ball when only one foot is on the ground and before the end zone, so Tate would have to run out of the tackle or go to the ground with full control to make it a TD catch. He did neither. Obviously the frame by frame can't capture the movement, but control is not maintained until he would be defined as a runner at frame #6. Two feet doesn't equal runner, otherwise Royal's catch and fumble would have stood as a catch and fumble.

NFL Rule on player possession: ARTICLE 7. PLAYER POSSESSION Item 1. Player in Possession. A player is in possession when he is inbounds and has a firm grip and control of the ball with his hands or arms. Item 2. Possession of Loose Ball. To gain possession of a loose ball that has been caught, intercepted, or recovered, a player must have complete control of the ball and have both feet or any other part of his body, other than his hands, completely on the ground inbounds, and then maintain control of the ball until he has clearly become a runner. A player becomes a runner when he is capable of avoiding or warding off impending contact of an opponent. If the player loses the ball while simultaneously touching both feet or any other part of his body to the ground, there is no possession. This rule applies in the field of play and in the end zone. Someone please tell me how they could overturn that play with this wording of the rule? Tate only had one foot on the ground and was not across the plane of the end zone when Fuller had his hand on the ball (not COMPLETE CONTROL). Then as you can see in the 4th frame the ball is already coming out, and becomes even more clearly visible from frames 5-8. So at what point could Tate avoid or ward off impending contact? Also, the same rule applies in the field of play and end zone (which I did not know). That actually makes it even worse. If this happens in the field of play it is an INT, but because they say the play stopped once Tate had 2 feet down is complete garbage. Check out the pic below (massive picture alert):

Not a single official called it a TD, just look at the views that both officials on the sideline had: That guy has a clear view of the play right down the goal line and never signals a TD. There is another official with the same view from the close side of the field.