Thread: After this 1st game, how do you feel about this 2012 team?

A few thoughts.

Marshall looks great, but his problems are the same as were stated by Dolphins fans the past couple of years, drops in the red zone.

Forte is a beast and Bush is good enough to start in any system. If the O-line can consistently be competent the field should be wide open for Cutler to throw once the two-headed running attack has had a chance to gash for some big runs.

Jeffery is fast, tall, long and can catch. He and Marshall stretching the field will do wonders for the slot guys and RB's underneath.

If the Bears can work the tight ends into the passing game this offense could be better than the Pack and Lions being that they have a real running game.

Jennings looks like a competent starting corner, not many people can stop Wayne from getting his.

The D-line was getting plenty of pressure, Luck is very shifty. If he was less mobile the Bears would have doubled their sack total.

Urlacher is a must in the line up if they are going to have any success in the playoffs. Keep him healthy during the regular season please.

As long as Cutler gets some confidence behind him he can make any throw, long, short, inside, outside, back foot, on the run, he has an amazing arm. Some sort of protection and some great decisions bodes well for this team.

The safeties are going to have a lot of opportunities to pick off some bad passes, the pressure from the interior D-line made me extremely happy. The doubles on the outside help immensely.

Overall right now I am sticking with my pre-season prediction of 12 wins this year. Basically I expected this game to play out this way and nothing in my mind has changed.

The receivers did better than I thought they would, the whole core impressed. I was worried more about the secondary before the game also, but I thought Jennings played well. He was getting praise out of camp, but glad to see it on the field. Hayden also.

Overall, I feel better about the team after the first game.

I was not really watching the linebacker play, but my impression is that if anything the defensive play there was not as strong as you would like. Brian Urlacher might be upset he was held out so much, but I don't blame the coaches. Winning is the point, and I'm interested in knowing if anything other than his justified ego was aggravated after the first game.

Oline was better at mental mistakes, and that is a plus. I could care less whether we "scheme" to keep Cutler upright, as long as it works. There were a couple of costly holding calls on good runs (shocker.....that's how they were good runs). I was a bit disappointed in the run blocking, and the running at times. That will be fine.

Passing seems to be setting up the run, instead of the other way. As long as we don't become predictable... We could use more TE targets though.

Defensive line got good push. Secondary was better than expected. LB's were invisible, and to play that well without them being the focal point was impressive. All the LB's needed to tackle better, including Urlacher. I was impressed with Major Wright and Conte (to a lesser extent). Kinda cool, and unusual to have a good defense & not hear about LB's all day.

I'm a little concerned about the S/T tackling on coverage. Good work on returns though (I could live without Hester trying to reverse the field w/ 5 people in his face).

Podlesh seemed to be about 75%.

Cutler is Cutler. A little too risky, but strong/good enough to get away with it.

Everyone settled in nicely though. I still say that we should run a camp where players hit. It takes us a couple of games to get the fundamentals of tackling down.

After how we started against the Falcons last year(and the 2-3 games afterwards), I'm not gonna jump for joy, other than the fact we won a game. Not being pessimistic, just wanting a few more games before any real judgments are made. With that said, Sanzenbacher's contribution in coaching and the helmet to knee injury he gave to Dwight Freeney were very impressive. (I feel like Charlotte trying to protect Wilbur up in this bitch)

I feel that we have the potential to be SB champs, but still have issues to work out. It will take a few more games to see how well we can play against a good team with our OL and defensive injuries (Lach and tillman). Its too early to tell how the season will unfold, but we are on the right track and have the potential to win it all this year.

My gut feeling is that this season is going to come down to health. Injuries are a reality of the game, but let's face it, some seasons are better than others (injury-wise). If our key players can stay healthy, then we're going to be in the thick of things for the playoffs. Anything (good) can happen then.

If we do have serious injuries I hope it's where we have "decent" talent depth.

To answer your question 99, I have to reply "Better than expected". The first couple of games in the season are always a little sloppy, however, in this case, it was the first couple of offensive series, not games. I thought the offense played very well, and we all know the Colts are not a real test yet, but it was the first game for both teams and the Bears showed well. The O-Line did better than I expected, but I was expecting pretty bad. They still had their problems, but the rest of the offense helped overcome them, and yes, the O-Line as a unit got better as the game went on.

I thought the Defense played well also and I came away pleased. Yea, they got gashed a few times, but young Mr. Luck is going to be special and there is no two ways about it. Yea, injuries for the season will be key, just like it always is, but for the first game of the season, ya gotta be happy with what we saw. Overall; better than I expected.