NFC Championship Game

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Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

I can't remember a time when there were this many GREAT teams in the NFC.

Heck, we still have to claw our way out of 3rd place in the NFC-N. Nobody wants to hear it, but I'm telling you the Vikings, under Leslie Frazier, are for real & getting better. The Packers own us, and have owned us. I am so very glad we have Emery & Trestman. With Angelo and Lovie we were regressing.

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I agree we are light years away from the elite NFC teams offensively. If we had been reasonably close (not even equal) we might have been playing today instead of watching. Our D is way way better than that of Atlanta and Green Bay. Yes, Emery & Trestman have some serious work to do.

But I don't get this melancholy you have about Minnesota. I agree that Frazier has done a nice job and they're definitely improved (from terrible) but the Vikes aren't nearly as dangerous as you make them out to be. Ponder? He's a dink-and-dunk QB with serious limitations. Ill start believing in him when i see him consistently throw passes for more than 15 yards that don't quack like ducks. Their WR corps sucks. Minny's D is definitely improved but it still lags ours by a substantial margin. And I don't think expecting AP to carry the team and run for 2000 every year is realistic at all.

Wouldn't surprise me at all if they're an 8-8 team next year. Heck, with any kind of half-decent offense, we would have and should have beaten them twice this year.

Trestman has a rep for turning a situation around very quickly and he has most of the offensive weapons he needs to do it already in place. He'll improve the TE situation immediately and along with Kromer and Emery they'll find they players and scheme we need to give Cutler better protection.

I think we can also count on him using an offense that's styled more in a WCO fashion than anything we've been running and that alone should reduce some of the pressures and sacks. I think he'll clean up a lot of Jay's issues with his mechanics and he'll teach him how to make decisions quicker and get rid of the ball faster. We still had quite a few sacks that were on him this past year.

It's all about the scheme these days. Martz has the wrong one for the Bears and Tice had none at all. Even his players couldn't figure out what they needed to be doing half the time. That's gonna change by 180 degrees now. Trestman is a perfectionist and you're gonna do it right the first time of you're not gonna play for him so guys who don't execute play after play after play will be gone.

If didn't take Harbaugh long to turn that offense in SF around and I don't think we'll have a long wait here either. Plus we have a similar advantage to what Harbaugh has. A total lack of familiarity of Trestman's style and play calling tendencies. It may take a few games for the Bears to get in sync offensively but it will take even longer than that for teams to figure out what we're doing.

Soul, looks like the Harbaugh brothers will go at it in the SB. Who do ya like?

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Originally Posted by BearJim

Soul, looks like the Harbaugh brothers will go at it in the SB. Who do ya like?

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Tough one Jim but I guess I'll support that NFC and a former Bears QB all the way no matter who wins this AFC title game. Looks like it will be the Ravens though.

Edit: FWIW this game shows just how vulnerable a 3-4 can be against a good inside running game. That's one area Tice really screwed up by not using Bush more against teams like the Packer and other hard rushing 3-4 teams.

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Originally Posted by soulman

Tough one Jim but I guess I'll support that NFC and a former Bears QB all the way no matter who wins this AFC title game. Looks like it will be the Ravens though.

Edit: FWIW this game shows just how vulnerable a 3-4 can be against a good inside running game. That's one area Tice really screwed up by not using Bush more against teams like the Packer and other hard rushing 3-4 teams.

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One of many. lol
I'm pulling for Jim as well. I really just hope it's a good game.

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Originally Posted by MPBears68

I agree we are light years away from the elite NFC teams offensively. If we had been reasonably close (not even equal) we might have been playing today instead of watching. Our D is way way better than that of Atlanta and Green Bay. Yes, Emery & Trestman have some serious work to do.

But I don't get this melancholy you have about Minnesota. I agree that Frazier has done a nice job and they're definitely improved (from terrible) but the Vikes aren't nearly as dangerous as you make them out to be. Ponder? He's a dink-and-dunk QB with serious limitations. Ill start believing in him when i see him consistently throw passes for more than 15 yards that don't quack like ducks. Their WR corps sucks. Minny's D is definitely improved but it still lags ours by a substantial margin. And I don't think expecting AP to carry the team and run for 2000 every year is realistic at all.

Wouldn't surprise me at all if they're an 8-8 team next year. Heck, with any kind of half-decent offense, we would have and should have beaten them twice this year.

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I believe we can pass both Green Bay and the Vikings this coming season. Green Bay is beatable if we can fix the obvious weaknesses we have. Regarding the Vikings, I have a respect for what Leslie Frazier has done there in a short span of time. He is a really good coach IMHO. Yes he (like us) has things left to fix. But it's a team on the way up. They made the playoffs this year. We didn't. That 2nd game where they whipped the Packers, just like they whipped our butts the 2nd game - they looked like a much better team than they were earlier in the season. The Packers are the better team, but the Vikes are closing the gap.


Hey, we can overtake the Vikings. But at the moment they are the better team.

I do kinda feel bad for the Falcons almost lost last week after being ahead by a good margin, and now they lost after dominating first qurater and being up by 17 points.. Look like Matty Ice melted.

But then again I'd be feeling bad for the 49'ers if they lost two NFC Championship games in a row.

But at the end of the day it was a really great game, and Keapernick (Spell? O.o) showed that he has great potential.

Can we please get an oline in offseason? Just imagine, Cutler with loads of time in the pocket, he can run OR he can throw the ball to either Jeffery or Marshall.

By the way do you think we can change Davis' with the 49'ers?

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I can't remember a time when there were this many GREAT teams in the NFC.

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Agreed.

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Heck, we still have to claw our way out of 3rd place in the NFC-N. Nobody wants to hear it, but I'm telling you the Vikings, under Leslie Frazier, are for real & getting better.

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I agree totally if Podner can improve, AP stay healthy and Harvin returns I really think they could pass up Green Bay to win the NFC North Championship

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The Packers own us, and have owned us. I am so very glad we have Emery & Trestman. With Angelo and Lovie we were regressing.

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No Kidding!

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Originally Posted by BearJim

Very questionable call on that 3rd down catch by Dougless. Harbaugh went nuts & I don't blame him. It looked like the ball hit the ground to me.

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The argument was that his hand was touching the ball the whole time. atlanta had a bunch of plays go their way like the goal line fumble and the missed FG off the upright but it wasn't enough. go ravens!