Thread: Cutler must shake off doubters, carry Bears

Originally Posted by 4th and 26

I agree with gene on this one.

True statement but a healthy team and getting the breaks are what can make the difference between 8-8 and 11-5. Last year worked for us in that regard and I agree that we can't depend on that every year but even if we'd played the three starting QB's of those teams I believe we still would have won the games. I'm not gonna downgrade the defense over just that.

Originally Posted by The Benjamin

Would you call staying pretty much healthy and getting the breaks lucky?

I suppose you could use that term some of the time but not always. Some teams just seem to get more breaks more often than others. Some teams suffer more injuries more frequently than others. Are those injuries just bad luck or are they result of poor conditioning, bad blocking, etc.? Is consistently having a positive turnover ratio just luck or is it because a team plays for turnovers and gets them.

To me lucky breaks are things that happen occassionally but often at very crucial times or in crucial situations. The refs blow an obvious holding call on an opponents TD or throw a flag on your DE for roughing on a key 3rd down stop. A ball glances of your WRs hands right to their CB who has a clear path for a TD. A gust of wind blows the winning FG a foot to the right of the goal posts. Breaks are things that don't happen consistently and not because of some super human play or effort. The ball just bounces right, or wrong and often the results of the game turn on just that.

I think we got some breaks last year but then again those breaks went against us in the Championship Game. Raji picks off a pass and rumbles in from 15 yards out when if it were a longer run he would have been tackled. Urlacher picks one off with 90 yards to score and a shoe string tackle by Rodgers saves a TD. Reverse those two plays and we might be the Super Bowl Champs instead of GB. Those were lucky breaks for them and unlucky ones for us.

That's how I define it, what about you?

We can play the "What if" card all day and night. The point is, we won the division title last year. Players on some teams get injured more than others, as soul said, for a variety of different reasons. We have a wonderful strength and conditioning coach in Jim Arthur who apparently is doing a good job, else we would probably have more hamstring pulls, groin strains, pulled muscles, etc. The NFC Championship Game was just plum bad luck on a large scale, though we did our share of not playing well to boot.

Look. I'm going to be an optimist and cheer for my team no matter what. What you opine about is your prerogative. However, I do get tired of reading the same old tired negative crap about how the Bears got lucky to win every one of those 11 games last season; I swear to God, some of you actually believe this to be true. How did we beat Mark Sanchez? Tony Romo? Aaron Rodgers? Even Brett Favre was a starting quarterback, albeit clearly past his prime, and we recovered from that bomb he threw against us in the first game nicely. What about Favre in the second game, when he drove the length of the field, scored a touchdown, and then a couple of series' later, we broke him like a twig with a Corey Wootten sack? I know you are going to laugh at this, but we had opportunities to intercept Tom Brady on three different occasions in the first half of the game against the Patriots. Huh? What would have happened had we picked him off three times? Would we have lost by as much, or even lost at all? New England would have had to have adjusted their game plan accordingly to not throw down the heart of the field so much, and they would have had to have taken shots down field right into the strength of our secondary - our two safeties. The game against Miami? I don't think Chad Henne could have scored on the defense the way the DL was penetrating the 'Phins OL that night. Against the Lions, we knocked Matthew Stafford out in the first game. Lastly, there was Michael Vick. We basically shut down the Eagles offense until they were scoring garbage time touchdowns against our defense.

What am I trying to say here? We defeated some pretty damn good quarterbacks this past year. We adjusted as the season progressed in all phases of the game. I consider the last games against the Packers moral victories for the defense because let's face it, nobody else at that later stage of time could figure out how to stop Aaron Rodgers. We were the first defense to stop Michael Vick. We stopped Tony Romo. We effectively ended Favre's and Stafford's seasons and, quite possibly, their careers for them. Even Tom Brady nearly slipped up against us, though the final box score doesn't indicate it. The fact is that the Bears were a much better team than any of you are willing to give them credit for being. Will that all translate out to future success? Most likely, yes, but we have to improve our team in various phases in order to upgrade our level of play. It's not a guarantee, but I can guarantee you that the goal for this offseason's moves, whenever they commence, is to get the players on the offensive line and in our wide receiving corp it will take to return us to a championship level again. Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo aren't the best at what they do, but they've had success before and I'm sure that they will do whatever it takes to return to form.

Originally Posted by The Benjamin

Romo
Rodgers (once in three meetings)
Vick

Three pretty damn good QBs. Favre is not a good QB ANYMORE.

Of course not. He's retired...........I think!

Originally Posted by The Benjamin

smartass

LAST YEAR he was not a good QB

Sorry but you left a pretty big opening so I couldn't resist.