It's a bad day to be Jay Cutler or a Bears fan

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Originally Posted by Jimmors

Im merely pointing out that there is more to defining a team then "good" or "bad." You seem to be under the impression that if a defense isnt at the top, then its "bad." But there are plenty of shades in between, which is where most of those defenses weve played fall...middle of the pack, not good, not bad, just average.

But jeez, thanks for posting that table:
Out of the top 6 teams in ponts allowed, we get to play 4 of them, and the Bears are #1. The only one in the top 6 we DONT play is Miami. good gawd, this 2nd half of the season is going to be brutal.

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Again, Jimmors, you missed my point. I wasn't talking about who we will be playing down the line. I'm talking about who we've played already. We've gone up against some defenses that have given up a pretty hefty amount of points, and we've struggled mightily despite that. The Titans might be awful on defense, but knowing our offense, we'll find a way to fuck up a golden opportunity to pad our stats. I'm just being a pure empiricist about this.

I'm not under the impression that all defenses are bad if they aren't at the top. I'm fully aware of the fact that there are shades of gray as with everything. But there is a difference between great, good, average, mediocre, and awful. You seem to have pegged me as something that I am not, and I'm a little disappointed in you for doing so.

It was a great day to be a Chicago Bears fan. I was never more proud of a Chicago Bears team than today. The simply refused to lose.

Great teams find a way to win - even when they have a tough day.

It was gut check time to the max. The Bears came up bigtime to seal the deal. Two touchdowns in an 8 second span.

Then they drove down for the win.

2 seconds on the clock. The fans were screaming ROBBIE, ROBBIE, ROBBIE, ROBBIE, when it came down to that last field goal with 2 seconds left on the clock. The wind was REALLY gusting all day on the field, so the FG was anything BUT a sure thing.

Robbie slammed it home for the win anyway.

Soldier Field went into orbit singing "Bear Down Chicago Bears" and the fans were dancing & SF was rocking.

Oh, man. It was a great moment to be a Chicago Bears fan. This team has heart. I hope the Chicago Bears fans have it too. This is a great year to be a Chicago Bears fan. Anyone who wants to jump off the band wagon at this point, hey, go right ahead.

I'm ridin' up front and enjoying the view - from the top of the NFC-N.

http://www.purlem.com/blog/wp-conten...andwagon2.jpeg

p.s. That old geezer with the horn is me. Enjoying the band wagon ride through this 2012 Chicago Bears season :smile:

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Originally Posted by Dagan81

Again, Jimmors, you missed my point. I wasn't talking about who we will be playing down the line. I'm talking about who we've played already. We've gone up against some defenses that have given up a pretty hefty amount of points, and we've struggled mightily despite that. The Titans might be awful on defense, but knowing our offense, we'll find a way to fuck up a golden opportunity to pad our stats. I'm just being a pure empiricist about this.

I'm not under the impression that all defenses are bad if they aren't at the top. I'm fully aware of the fact that there are shades of gray as with everything. But there is a difference between great, good, average, mediocre, and awful. You seem to have pegged me as something that I am not, and I'm a little disappointed in you for doing so.

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No, i understood exactly what you were referring to. But i am trying to dissect your generalizations.

You said the defenses we played were "bad." I counter by saying they were decent/mediocre, the only real "bad" defense was Jax.

You posted the list of teams based on Points allowed, then added the qualifier of teams that "give up more then 19 points a game."

First of all..iirc, the historical average of all NFL teams, is about 21 points per game. So any team that gives up around 21 points should be considered Average. Secondly, on that list, only the top SEVEN teams have given up less then 19 PPG, and seeing as how the Bears are #1, then its actually only 6 other teams (seeing as how this is in reference to teams the Bears have or may face, and they cant face themselves).

So, again..i am quantifiying your definition of "bad." I do not consider simply being one of the bottom 25 teams out of 32 as being "bad."
And to use that list:
GB is 13th, Dallas is 18th, STL is 19th, Carolina is 21st, Indy 22nd, Detroit 23rd, Jax 27th. Alot of Average to slightly below average defenses there, with Jax being the worst (as i said).

Lions beat the Seahawks today... That doesn't excuse how much trouble we had with them. However, before their (lions) bye week, they weren't tackling. During the Lions vs Vikes game, Harvin scored 2 TD's on returns, he was hit 1-2x on the first, 3-4x on the second. The Lions coverage team never even TRIED to wrap up. Those problems were also present on the Lions defense. The lions used their bye week to improve their tackling. They are now a better them than their record would indicate.

The bears almost seem to be a team that uses a rope-a-dope strategy, an excellent defense allows them to hang around until the offense gets itself worked out, and then gets going late. It would drive me crazy if I weren't there already....

As for Cutler, I'm wondering what happened to him on that second series of the first half. Something caused him to stumble away from the huddle. The bears went to the run for a while, seemed to work well, but the panthers shut that down for a long time. Finally, sometime during the 3rd, the bears stopped trying to get the 1st down all at once, and went to a short (4-6) yard throw concept that worked well once the reliable receivers (bennett) were put on the field.

Props to Tice for altering his offensive play calling to something that would give Jay a chance to get into a rhythm and regain some confidence. Also, Props to Jay for pulling his head outta his ass and getting it back into the game. Did anyone else notice Jay telling Bennett to get off the field when he was hurt? A lot of respect for Bennett having the intestinal fortitude to get back up and get off the field under his own power, doing that saved the Bears their only remaining timeout. That timeout was used to bring the Field Goal unit onto the field and kick the winning points. 17 of the 23 points scored in this game were scored by the offense, (Yes, I would like that number to be higher as well.) The Bears needed their offense to step up and win this game, and the offense did.

Hopefully, the injury report wont be too ugly....

This was an ugly win, but still a win, hopefully the Bears will use this as a learning experience and be better prepared going forward.

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Originally Posted by XaosGorilla

Lions beat the Seahawks today... That doesn't excuse how much trouble we had with them. However, before their (lions) bye week, they weren't tackling. During the Lions vs Vikes game, Harvin scored 2 TD's on returns, he was hit 1-2x on the first, 3-4x on the second. The Lions coverage team never even TRIED to wrap up. Those problems were also present on the Lions defense. The lions used their bye week to improve their tackling. They are now a better them than their record would indicate.

The bears almost seem to be a team that uses a rope-a-dope strategy, an excellent defense allows them to hang around until the offense gets itself worked out, and then gets going late. It would drive me crazy if I weren't there already....

As for Cutler, I'm wondering what happened to him on that second series of the first half. Something caused him to stumble away from the huddle. The bears went to the run for a while, seemed to work well, but the panthers shut that down for a long time. Finally, sometime during the 3rd, the bears stopped trying to get the 1st down all at once, and went to a short (4-6) yard throw concept that worked well once the reliable receivers (bennett) were put on the field.

Props to Tice for altering his offensive play calling to something that would give Jay a chance to get into a rhythm and regain some confidence. Also, Props to Jay for pulling his head outta his ass and getting it back into the game. Did anyone else notice Jay telling Bennett to get off the field when he was hurt? A lot of respect for Bennett having the intestinal fortitude to get back up and get off the field under his own power, doing that saved the Bears their only remaining timeout. That timeout was used to bring the Field Goal unit onto the field and kick the winning points. 17 of the 23 points scored in this game were scored by the offense, (Yes, I would like that number to be higher as well.) The Bears needed their offense to step up and win this game, and the offense did.

Hopefully, the injury report wont be too ugly....

This was an ugly win, but still a win, hopefully the Bears will use this as a learning experience and be better prepared going forward.

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Good post. I just don't understand why we don't start out with that short passing game. Putting Marshal in motion & running short crossing routes has been very effective. We seem to start out thinking our Oline can block for 5 & 7 step drops & they prove every week they can't. We probably could later in the game when the opposing DL in tired & frustrated due to the ball getting out so quick along with pounding them with the running game. Three times this year we started the game with a play action pass & got sacked 3 times. I'm no OC but don't you have to establish the run 1st or be in obvious run situations for play action to work? Especially if you are trying to throw down the field

Also good pickup on Cutler telling Bennet to get off the field XG. I noticed that as well.

Just sayin' come from behind victories are hardly ever pretty...

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Originally Posted by Henry Burris

Just sayin' come from behind victories are hardly ever pretty...

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http://images2.fanpop.com/images/ans...20_400_289.jpg

Finally got a chance to see the first half last night. You guys are right. That was some ugly play. It seemed like other than the defensive unit, we were back to pre-season caliber play.

Looking forward to seeing the second half tonight.

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Originally Posted by Jimmors

No, i understood exactly what you were referring to. But i am trying to dissect your generalizations.

You said the defenses we played were "bad." I counter by saying they were decent/mediocre, the only real "bad" defense was Jax.

You posted the list of teams based on Points allowed, then added the qualifier of teams that "give up more then 19 points a game."

First of all..iirc, the historical average of all NFL teams, is about 21 points per game. So any team that gives up around 21 points should be considered Average. Secondly, on that list, only the top SEVEN teams have given up less then 19 PPG, and seeing as how the Bears are #1, then its actually only 6 other teams (seeing as how this is in reference to teams the Bears have or may face, and they cant face themselves).

So, again..i am quantifiying your definition of "bad." I do not consider simply being one of the bottom 25 teams out of 32 as being "bad."
And to use that list:
GB is 13th, Dallas is 18th, STL is 19th, Carolina is 21st, Indy 22nd, Detroit 23rd, Jax 27th. Alot of Average to slightly below average defenses there, with Jax being the worst (as i said).

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I have just one thing to say to you, Jimmors. Bad does not equal average, average does not equal good. To me, if you are "average", you are not "good." You may not be "bad", but there are no degrees of goodness about you. The Bears are very good defensively and it's yet to have been seen as to whether they will be great or not. We have played a bunch of middle of the pack and lower teams on defense, with the Packers being the best of the whole lot thus far in the early going, and they are approximately around the middle of the pack, slightly above the middle. We have not played a great defense this year, so your generalization that you are trying to pin on me, Jimmors, is completely unfounded and false. Will we see some great defenses this year? Yes, San Francisco, Houston, Arizona, Minnesota, Seattle, and then the two defensive lines that gave us so many fits: the Packers and the Lions again. But so far, and this is all I'm talking about is what we have seen thus far this year, but so far, we have gone up against a bunch of average to bad defenses and have struggled.

It was an ugly game, houston. But like the thread JABF99 started yesterday after he got home from the game, at least we won. I guess somewhere in there is a blurring of the line of logic that states that it's better to be lucky than good sometimes (or does that quote go the other way around?)