what we learned Phi/Chi

Okay, again worked tonight, didn't get to watch the game; but did follow on it on the nfl.com, and watched some comments from some people here(btw, I like flashchat for the games more.), but like the last time, please let me know how wrong I am.
1st and foremost, good gameplan from our coaches, and it sounds like we outcoached one of the best coaches in the league, that is huge and congrats to Love and co. Also, if we had lost, this would have been about how we cannot afford to have Forte have bad games, and how this O isn't good enough to overcome it; but that was not the case, the O stepped up, the D stepped up and covered for a very poor performance(2 fumbles, when was the last time he fumbled before this one?) by Forte.
Cutler and Bennett and RW looked good. MBIII got a few touches to fill in for Forte as he got his head on straight. Btw, good to see the coaches not bury Forte for the fumbles(it wouldn't have suprised me, and I don't know that I would have complained about it). Seems like Sanz has come back down to earth, heard a stat that he leads the leagues in drops. Hester also sounds like he missed a few catches, all the more reason for Knox/RW/Bennett to spend more time out there. A big thing before the game was how our WR's would do against those shut down corners b/c we would have to keep people back to protect; well apparently they did just fine! I give this group a lot of greif, but they stepped up big.
D side, how was Paea not out there sooner? Kid is a stud and he is showing it. I don't know that AA should have been a healthy scratch b/c of it, if Peppers gets seriously hurt we could have definately used AA, but it worked out and the young kids are stepping up big. Another big point was how Jennings would do against Maclin or Jackson and how we weren't going to be able to hide him tonight. He also seems to have held his own from what little I saw/heard.
Per usual our D has the speed and smarts to neutralize Vick; but color me suprised we shut down McCoy who's been the toast of the town recently; we haven't been great at stopping the run, but we just shut down the hottest rb besides Forte and D Murray in Dallas. Seemed like more then a few times the D didn't show up and that Philly O just moved w/out issue; but give that credit to their coaches and talent; it's hard to stop a team at home w/that kind of talent...and our D did it.
Gould is a stud, a 51, a 38 and chip in, he misses one of those this could be a much different game. Podlesh did a fine job also from the looks of it. Did notice that the last kick off return for Phi was to the 38, gotta tackle those guys better then that; also noticed that it didn't seem like our kick/punt returners were getting big returns, but it didn't hurt us to much this time.

Big road win against a tough opponent; didn't have this as a win, but I'll take it and it's well deserved. Good job boys! :18_1_205:

Hope Hester is ok, gonna need him next week.

Lot of injuries on that Natural grass today. Doesn't sound like Peppers had any long lasting effects, which was/is very helpfull.

Dodged a giant bullet with the fake punt pass by Philly. I don't know what the hell was going on with nobody covering the gunners.

Shoot, forgot to point out congrats to the OL/TE's, I think I heard this was the first game, or 2nd, that Cutler didn't take a sack, since he's been a Bear. Looks like the OL might be shapping into something better then the sum of it's parts.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Riczaj01

Lot of injuries on that Natural grass today. Doesn't sound like Peppers had any long lasting effects, which was/is very helpfull.

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Where can we get two more WR like Bennett that's what I want to know. Man he and Cutler are magical together. Jay will throw to him even into the narrowest of openings and know that he'll catch 99 out of 100 of them.

Ya I was reading comments about the fake punts; everyone said it was a perfect set up, but poorly thrown. We did get lucky w/that one; another bad ST play...but much like Forte, I'll give them a pass b/c they are normally so strong.

Forte's "bad" game, still had him w/100+ yards and again a key piece to making this O run smoothly. Kid is a stud, and contract or not, I'm glad he's going to be here for at least 2 more years.

Rapid Reaction: Bears 30, Eagles 24 - Chicago Bears Blog - ESPN Chicago

Rapid Reaction: Bears 30, Eagles 24

November, 8, 2011 Nov 8
12:09
AM CT

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By Michael C. Wright


PHILADELPHIA -- The Chicago Bears overcame a furious Philadelphia Eagles third-quarter onslaught and a couple of their own mistakes on the road to carve out a 30-24 victory at Lincoln Financial Field on Monday night.

The Bears scored an impressive victory, given the circumstances, to boost their record to 5-3.

Let’s take a deeper look:

http://assets.espn.go.com/i/teamlogo.../trans/phi.gifhttp://assets.espn.go.com/i/teamlogo.../trans/chi.gifWhat it means: If the regular season came to a conclusion today, the Bears would be the second wild card team behind the Detroit Lions in the NFC. So this impressive victory over the Eagles raises the stakes for Sunday’s game against the Lions at Soldier Field.

The Lions, which are coming off a bye week, lead the Bears in the NFC North standings by one game. So a Bears victory ties them with the Lions for second place in the division.

Wright nabs first career pick: Major Wright should send linebacker Lance Briggs a thank-you card for helping the second-year safety pick off the first pass of his NFL career.

Briggs tipped a Michael Vick pass into Wright’s hands, which resulted in a Bears field goal after the safety’s 36-yard return.

Despite the big play, Wright wasn’t able to stay in the lineup full time. Veteran Brandon Meriweather replaced Wright in the second quarter, but Wright was back at his strong-safety position to start the second half.

Bennett returns: Wildcat quarterback, chain mover. Yes, Earl Bennett resumed his role as Chicago’s Swiss-Army knife of offense Monday night after missing nearly six games with a torso injury and he didn’t disappoint, racking up five catches for 95 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown that gave the team a 27-24 lead.

Bennett caught just two balls in the first half for 40 yards, and took one snap as quarterback in the Wildcat formation.

Look for his role to increase as the season continues. Jay Cutler's comfort with the receiver was apparent almost immediately against the Eagles. On Chicago’s first third-down situation, Cutler completed a 14-yard strike to Bennett.

Forte’s first fumble of 2011 a fiasco: Bears running back Matt Forte racked up 79 all-purpose yards in the first half, but made a mistake in the second quarter that nearly caused a major momentum swing. After catching a short dump off from Cutler, the running back looked to make a move on Brian Rolle, who punched the ball loose and scooped up the fumble for a 22-yard touchdown return.

Rolle’s score helped Philadelphia tie the game 10-10 with 1:38 left in the first half.

The fumble was Forte’s first of the season, and interestingly the running back hadn’t put the ball on the ground in 347 touches prior to Monday night. Forte’s second fumble led to another Eagles touchdown, but the running back finished the game with a game-high 133 yards rushing.

Gould booms another bomb: Robbie Gould made his second field goal of the season from 50-plus yards when he banged in a 51 yarder in the second quarter to give the Bears a 10-0 lead.

Gould is 7-of-9 from 50-plus yards over the past three years and 7-of-11 from those distances over his career.

What’s next: The Bears take the day off Tuesday before getting back to work on Wednesday in preparation for their second meeting with Detroit. The Bears trail the Lions by one game in the NFC North standings, and can move into a tie with them for second in the division with a victory.

One other thing I learned. Chris Conte needs to teach Major Wright how to tackle. he had McCoy dead in his sights and we could have held them to a FG on that TD that tied it at 17 but he got faked out of his jockstrap. He needs to hit and not be so tenative. He gets caught flat footed when he does that. Conte on the other hand is one hell of a tackler.

Wonder how safe Major Wrights job is going to be next year....his name is rarely called in a good way. How did Jennings and the rest of the DB's play tonight?