Thread: Now that the pre-season dust has settled, how do you feel about this year?

Well, with the We didn't gameplan, We ran just vanilla schemes.ect...... Do we really know yet what the team will really be? I hoping for the best.

Actually, I've become a little bit more nervous. With Urlacher having a questionable knee and Paea with his injury (high ankle sprain was it?) nagging him I'm worried that the Bears defense will be taking a significant step backward. Combine this with the O-line questions/problems(I was planning on these) and I'm able to see the potential for disaster... I was figuring that the defense would be able to cover some(or even most) of the offenses' "oops" moments. With the defense banged up like it is the offense has much less of a safety net.

With all that being said, I'm not changing my expectation of 10-6 and a wild card berth. There are still a few weeks for the O-line to improve by getting used to working with each other, the impact of game planning, the fact that the bears offense is way better, and we don't know how much those nagging injuries to various players are going to impact performance. The season hasn't even started yet, it's far to early to be throwing in the towel or even hitting the panic button yet.

But I am making sure that I know where they are.....

Who knows, we could be two Kyle Williams fumbles short of a Superbowl appearance?

I like how Lovie breaks the season into quarters. Kind of like each one is a mini-season. I'm thinking we'll know a lot after our 1st four games:

Colts - Packers - Rams - Cowboys

I agree with the person who said Lovie will play it sneaky and not use all the whistles & bells against the Colts. He'd be stupid to do that. He'll hold back some surprises for the Packers, especially since we've changed our offense scheme and players quite a bit.

We've had so many changes that I expect us to be rough looking at first. But we should be completely settled in and playing our best after completing that 4th game against the Cowboys.

I think it would be great if we were 3-1 at that point. If we have to lose one game though, I hope it isn't against the Packers. The Packers are the measuring stick to our season. Our goal should be to win that game, even though it's at Lambeau. The problem is that we've had so many changes, that we probably won't be hitting on all cylinders that early in the season.

The OLINE:
We really won't know until we see them against opponents in real games. Logically, I tell myself that Tice wouldn't be this positive about this bunch unless there was "something" there that we don't see. And that could very well be the case. That this oline is better than we fear. So I'm for believing in this oline for now. Hoping for the best. I confess that I don't understand why Tice moved the deck chairs around. I don't understand why C.Will was benched and made into a tackle. I don't understand why we moved Spencer to LG. But maybe Tice knows best here. He works with these guys every day. I don't know squat (just an armchair fan).

If this oline is average (not great but not horrible) then I'm still thinking we could get 11 wins this year. At the very least I hope we make the playoffs (and pass Detroit......that was horrid, getting passed by Detroit and dumped to 3rd place in our division last year).

Originally Posted by Riczaj01

This. But w/the caveat that this team will go as far as the lines take us

Yeah I'm with Ric. The key to winning most games is gonna come from how well the Oline can control the other guys, open some holes for Forte and Bush, and pass block well enough to give Cutler time to make use of his new "toys". I'd say by the 5th games we'll know if they've improved much or not.

Defensively everything revolves around the pass rush. The only way that loose zone cover-2 works is by not allowing enough time for WR to get to the null spots in the zone and the QB being able to hook up with him. Gotta put a stop watch on the QB with pressure.

I think I see some real improvements in the Bears thinking along those lines. We've usually had bigger more prototypical DEs who can play the run as well as rush. Now we've started to modernize our thinking and draft or sign pass rush specialists and disruptive players like McClellin and Ozougwu who are very quick and hard to block in space. Both shoed some real ability to do that in the preseason.

If in combination those two can add a dozen or more sacks and bring constant pressure and get some knock downs then we'll have made some progress as far as our pass rush goes. We're also focusing on DTs who can penetrate and rush rather than gap fillers who play the run well but can't rush. It's a trade off and we may give up more yardage on the ground put I'd be willing to trade off a higher YPC average in order to stop 20 yard passes.

What happens with our lines will tell us a lot about how far we're gonna get towards and throughout the playoffs.