what we learned

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

We (Bears fans) went into this season believing the addition of Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery, would result in a great year - and a great offense. Our expectations for this season were as high as I can remember in recent years. People were talking Super Bowl.

Then reality hit us all.

No offensive line = failed season.
No decent offensive coordinator = failed season.

Our season was over before it began. We failed to understand that skill players cannot overcome an offensive line as bad as ours (not just a bad oline, but a horrifically bad oline). It's like we expected "magic" to happen. But there is no magic in the NFL. You have to have an offensive line that is better than ours, in order to play with the big boys.

Then on top of this, we have an OC who is also an epic fail. Just one more failed OC in a long line of failed OC's for the Bears. We never could pick coaches. Even Ditka, IMHO, was a great guy (I love the guy) but not much of a coach.

Now we have people thinking the Bears will magically pick a great coach for next year. I hope there really is pixie dust and magic. But I'll believe it when I see it. I've seen and experienced SO much disappointment and heartache over the past half century or so, of being a Cubs and Bears fan. Yet we always say "just wait until NEXT year" and "the new coach will be better"..... but the years fly by, and we still have crap Cubs & Bears teams.

Oh, well. Just wait until NEXT year...

---

:alright:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Riczaj01

Something I missed/forgot to mention. I know the Ol is bad, I know there aren't a ton of holes, but Forte has to find a way into the endzone on 2nd and 5. And if the OL is not getting push or opening wholes, then try and jump over or bounce out. And if that isn't good enough, why aren't we trying to qb sneak; or a quick jump ball?

That redzone is mostly on the OL, the rest mostly goes to Forte and the playcalling.


Also, maybe I'll have to turn my opinion on Hester, I think he's passable as a 4th WR option, but Aikman thinks that a passing game is only as good as the 3rd, possibly 4th wr b/c of how D's are playing. If that is the case, then no Hester is not good enough, and Bennett is probably only good as a 4th.

---

When Cutler threw for 300 and Bush pounded in 2 goal line TDs on opening day, I thought we had entered a new era of Bears offensive football. Wrong on both counts. We still struggle mightily in short yardage runs. The OL sucks, Bush has been either hurt or less effective than he should be, and the play calling is appallingly bad. I love Matt Forte' s receiving/screen ability and his edge rushing can be awesome to watch. But he is largely INEFFECTIVE BETWEEN THE TACKLES and yet the team continues to use him in ways he is likely to fail.

How many up-the-middle runs did Forte have yesterday than gained less than 2 or were TFL'd? There had to be close to 10. Amazing how many times Tice went back to the same dry well...one that will remain dry until this OL is much much improved.

Secondly, and yet another example of the same bang-your-head-against-a-brick-wall-and-never-learn-anything mentality, repeat after me:

Devin Hester is not a wide receiver.
The "number" doesn't matter.

Devin Hester is not a wide receiver. Period. End of story.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

We (Bears fans) went into this season believing the addition of Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery, would result in a great year - and a great offense. Our expectations for this season were as high as I can remember in recent years. People were talking Super Bowl.

---

99, logically, it should have been. The OL is no worse than it was last year and we added a top 3 WR and a really good rookie WR to the team. The WR corps had always been holding us back. With this fixed, logically we should have done better than last year. The tools were there to be much better. Without the OL fixed, the tools were never there for a SB run, no matter what we thought. I know many of us felt that Tice could make it solid and with the WR fixed we could have a SB run.

Well, Tice never got the line solid and he never could muster an explosive offense. Unless it's explosive in the same sense of a bad run of diahrea can be explosive.

And Lovie watched over all of it, making no changes even though it was obvious that things were not working. So, yes, I think we were justified in having higher hopes than last year. They should have materialized, but did not.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MPBears68

When Cutler threw for 300 and Bush pounded in 2 goal line TDs on opening day, I thought we had entered a new era of Bears offensive football. Wrong on both counts. We still struggle mightily in short yardage runs. The OL sucks, Bush has been either hurt or less effective than he should be, and the play calling is appallingly bad. I love Matt Forte' s receiving/screen ability and his edge rushing can be awesome to watch. But he is largely INEFFECTIVE BETWEEN THE TACKLES and yet the team continues to use him in ways he is likely to fail.

How many up-the-middle runs did Forte have yesterday than gained less than 2 or were TFL'd? There had to be close to 10. Amazing how many times Tice went back to the same dry well...one that will remain dry until this OL is much much improved.

Secondly, and yet another example of the same bang-your-head-against-a-brick-wall-and-never-learn-anything mentality, repeat after me:

Devin Hester is not a wide receiver.
The "number" doesn't matter.

Devin Hester is not a wide receiver. Period. End of story.

---

Devin Hester hurts our team when he's on offense. I'm not going by statistics. I'm going by what I see. We can do so much better, even in a #4 receiver. Hester is just a lost pup out there as a WR. I'm almost embarrassed for him.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bearsinhouston

99, logically, it should have been. The OL is no worse than it was last year and we added a top 3 WR and a really good rookie WR to the team. The WR corps had always been holding us back. With this fixed, logically we should have done better than last year. The tools were there to be much better. Without the OL fixed, the tools were never there for a SB run, no matter what we thought. I know many of us felt that Tice could make it solid and with the WR fixed we could have a SB run.

Well, Tice never got the line solid and he never could muster an explosive offense. Unless it's explosive in the same sense of a bad run of diahrea can be explosive.

And Lovie watched over all of it, making no changes even though it was obvious that things were not working. So, yes, I think we were justified in having higher hopes than last year. They should have materialized, but did not.

---

The offensive line was #32 last year. Last I checked at Football Outsiders, we're about the same THIS year. I feel like screaming from the roof of my home - YOU CANNOT WIN GAMES WITH AN OFFENSIVE LINE THAT BAD. Not gonna happen if you have 10 Brandon Marshalls. Not happening.

Fix the oline. Get a "real" offensive coordinator. Then watch the good things happen. Until then, what is that old time saying? "People who fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it"

That is the problem with the Bears and their fans. There is no magic, no pixie dust, no overcoming a lack of an offensive line. This is reality. Us fans seem to live in a fantasy world. Brandon Marshall and Alshon are not going to off-set the oline problems. Not possible.

99, guess we will have to disagree here. The OL was bad last year. It's bad this year. We added A LOT of offensive firepower. The record should have been better this year. Without a OL, you don't win a SB, but we should have won more games with our offensive additions. If you don't agree, that's ok with me, but that's how I feel.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

The offensive line was #32 last year. Last I checked at Football Outsiders, we're about the same THIS year. I feel like screaming from the roof of my home - YOU CANNOT WIN GAMES WITH AN OFFENSIVE LINE THAT BAD. Not gonna happen if you have 10 Brandon Marshalls. Not happening.

Fix the oline. Get a "real" offensive coordinator. Then watch the good things happen. Until then, what is that old time saying? "People who fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it"

That is the problem with the Bears and their fans. There is no magic, no pixie dust, no overcoming a lack of an offensive line. This is reality. Us fans seem to live in a fantasy world. Brandon Marshall and Alshon are not going to off-set the oline problems. Not possible.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bearsinhouston

99, guess we will have to disagree here. The OL was bad last year. It's bad this year. We added A LOT of offensive firepower. The record should have been better this year. Without a OL, you don't win a SB, but we should have won more games with our offensive additions. If you don't agree, that's ok with me, but that's how I feel.

---

But don't you see? It doesn't matter how much "firepower" you add - if you fail to improve the worst oline in the NFL. It's like math. Any number multiplied by zero will equal zero. Our oline is the "zero" that negates all the skill players in the world coming here.

SKILL PLAYERS X ZERO OLINE = FAILED SEASON

It's like Sir Isaac Newton's scientific laws of motion. This is the "Chicago Bears law of epic & repeated failure"

And if we fail to fix the oline next year, guess what? We will have another failed season. It's like "death and taxes" :smile:

After a cooling period, here is what I learned.

Cutler craps his pants in big games. Especially against Green Bay

Matt Forte absolutely sucks on goal line carries.

Our offensive line continues to suck

No one, and I mean NO ONE gives a shit about mentoring Jeffrey. After his first OPI I can see not telling him to cut it out. After the second, someone should have pulled him aside and told him to stop extending his arm. After doing it a third time, he should have been benched. Granted all three could have gone either way, but he was flagged or the same move each time.

The finger pointing time has begun for some people. Hester came close to throwing Jay under the bus for the bad throw, Lovie did throw him under the bus. Marshall is pointing at the offense saying all should be held accountable, even if it means jobs. Most assume he meant Tice, but could he have been as emotional as he was because he might have been alluding to Jay? He loves Jay, and might be hurting because he feels that is a change that needs to be made.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The Benjamin

After a cooling period, here is what I learned.

Cutler craps his pants in big games. Especially against Green Bay

Matt Forte absolutely sucks on goal line carries.

Our offensive line continues to suck

No one, and I mean NO ONE gives a shit about mentoring Jeffrey. After his first OPI I can see not telling him to cut it out. After the second, someone should have pulled him aside and told him to stop extending his arm. After doing it a third time, he should have been benched. Granted all three could have gone either way, but he was flagged or the same move each time.

The finger pointing time has begun for some people. Hester came close to throwing Jay under the bus for the bad throw, Lovie did throw him under the bus. Marshall is pointing at the offense saying all should be held accountable, even if it means jobs. Most assume he meant Tice, but could he have been as emotional as he was because he might have been alluding to Jay? He loves Jay, and might be hurting because he feels that is a change that needs to be made.

---

If you watch the video from the very beginning, you'll see that Jay was standing there at the foot of the stage/podium when Marshall went up to speak. Jay actually ushered him on stage almost, probably knowing already what was about to be said. Brandon's comments weren't about Jay one bit IMO. They were a direct indictment of pretty much everyone else on this offense besides Cutler and Forte. He was calling out the OL, the coaching staff, and the other receivers.

Lets face it, besides those 3, no one played/coached like they game a damn on O.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MPBears68

If you watch the video from the very beginning, you'll see that Jay was standing there at the foot of the stage/podium when Marshall went up to speak. Jay actually ushered him on stage almost, probably knowing already what was about to be said. Brandon's comments weren't about Jay one bit IMO. They were a direct indictment of pretty much everyone else on this offense besides Cutler and Forte. He was calling out the OL, the coaching staff, and the other receivers.

Lets face it, besides those 3, no one played/coached like they game a damn on O.

---

Cutler sucked a fat one again.... He sucks against green bay