gammabears

Thank goodness for the bye week. I for one didn't like it was an early one when I first glanced at the schedule. I think the Bears are blessed with the early bye week. It's a time to heal up, a lot of banged up players including the starting strong linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa. He went down in game one, I really hope he doesn't get too shy when it comes to contact after that injury. Bears need all the ferocity on defense they can get. Ever since Mike Brown left, it just doesn't seem the same anymore. Probably didn't help that Urlacher is done for the season. But so far the Bears have been undefeated since he was put on the IR. Nick Roach has been doing an excellent job filling in those big shoes. It's tough to replace a legend like Urlacher... That's right. I said LEGEND. What does that make Butkus and Singletary? UBER LEGENDS, lol. Anyways, back to the topic at hand. The depth at the LB position has shocked me to be honest. I thought the Bears were done for when Urlacher and Pisa went out in the first game. I really hope the LB Corps continue to produce and really put a hurting on the Packers, Vikings and the Lions.

Guess I'll get down to breaking down the offense, defense and special teams.

Offense - Despite Jay Cutler having a horrid outing against the Packers in his first regular season games as a Chicago Bear, he has put up some great numbers since. After throwing 1 TD and 4 interceptions, he threw 7 TDs and 1 interception. I'd like to call that a great improvement. I am very impressed with his ability to throw on the run and throw the long ball. After doing some research, the longest he's thrown as a Bear was 68 yards. Not bad eh? I would have to say he's better on the run than he is in the pocket sometimes. Which is something he has to do a lot because the line doesn't usually hold up a lot. I'm not knocking the o-line guys, they've done their job. I would prefer that Jay would have a little more in the pocket before scrambling. Another thing I'm really impressed about is Jay's ability is producing game winning drives. The Pittsburgh and Seattle games were nail biters to the end. I have this new feeling whenever the Bears are down in the 4th quarter. It's hope for Jay to produce a drive to win the game. I don't think I've ever had it before. I do wish he is able to score right off the bat on the Bears opening drives. I really hope the offense gets the ball rolling quickly because the Bears just can't live on 4th quarter comebacks. The stress alone for Bear fans would make doctors cringe! Lol. I have a feeling they will start to dominate on the offense very very soon after the bye week. Anyways, here's Jay Cutlers stats.

First game
GB - 17/36 for 277 yards, 1 TD, 4 INT, 43.2 QB Rating

Last three games
PIT - 27/38 for 236 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INT 104.7 QB Rating
SEA - 21/27 for 247 yards, 3 TDS, 1 INT 126.4 QB Rating
DET - 18/28 for 141 yards, 2 TDS, 0 INT 100.4 QB Rating (Also had a rushing TD)

So after 4 games 8 TDS, 5 INT, 901 Yards and a rating of 89.3 . I have a feeling Jay will continue to improve overall.

Alright down to the WR and RB's. Coming into the season, about damn near every "sports analyst" said the Bears have one of the worst WR cores in the NFL. Well look at the Bears now! at least 5 WRs have 10 catches or more. Devin Hester is becoming a good WR, making some clutch catches. The rookies certainly have stepped up haven't they. The emergence of Johnny Knox has surprised about dang near everybody. From his touchdown catch in the Steelers game to the 102 yard KO Return for a TD against the Lions. The dude is fast and has some great hands, can't wait to see him later in the season making more great plays. Speaking of making great plays, Kellen Davis, the emerging TE. So far he has caught two touchdowns and I expect a lot more out of him down the road. I just wish Greg Olsen would have bigger numbers right now. I hope he will improve his game after the bye week. Really need it badly.

Now to the RB Core.... Matt Forte sure has been struggling this season. I think it's partly to due to an injury and the o-line not creating enough holes for him to break a big one like he did against the lions. Plus he's not getting the ball as often like he did last year. He was grinding the defense into the ground last year because of all his carries throughout the game. It's going to be really tough for him this year. I think he'll pull through and improve his game. So far he has 71 carries for 271 yards and 1 TD for a 3.8 average. I think without the Lions game his average and yards would be a lot lower. The bye week will be good to him, lots of rest and the o-line to practice creating holes for a truck to run through. Since AP is expected to miss a few weeks and Kevin Jones done for the season, the just leaves Garrett Wolfe as the 2nd string running back. I think the area he needs to work on is pass blocking. Really hard for a 5ft 7 running back to block 6ft+ defensive tackles, linebackers and db's. Especially the one that literally hurdled over Wolfe. Just can't happen. Other than that, he's done his job. I am very very happy he finally got a touchdown. It was the first one of his career and it was a beauty. His stats for 09 currently is 11 carries for 45 yards, 1 TD with a 4.1 average. Keep it up man, keep it up. Bears need your help. I would like for the Bears search for a 3rd string running back this season. I just don't know if that's going to happen though. Well.. for the first four games of the season. I give the Bears Offense a B+. It's not an A because of the lack of scoring in the first quarter and opening drives and because of the slow start to the running game.

Alright, down to defense. There have been many injuries to the defense. Urlacher done for the season, Pisa played once and hasn't played since, Hunter Hillenmeyer has injured ribs and didn't play against Detroit. Israel Idonije had arthroscopic knee surgery on Monday. Pisa and Idonije should be ready to play against Atlanta after the bye week. Bears D really needed this break to heal and work on their game. I for one wish they would just start to dominate in the first quarter. After seeing them give up all those points to the Lions was a little depressing. Lovie and the D always seem to make halftime adjustments though. Which was something they didn't do last year. Another thing they didn't do last year was sack the QB often. Which is what they are doing this year with the help of Hot Rod (Rod Marinelli)! I for one was giddy with excitement when they demoted Babich and hired Rod. After reading up on what Rod did in Tampa , I wished the season would start so I can finally see some dominance on the d-line. Here are the sack numbers for the d-line for last year.

Ranked 22 - 28 sacks for the year. I think that's really bad with all that talent on the line. Right now the Bears are Ranked 3! I didn't make an error.. I said 3! With 14 sacks going into the bye week. I would have to say that's a major improvement! Really hope they keep it up. Need to pressure that QB to force plays and make mistakes. I will give Babich and the D credit last year for being great in the run defense. They were ranked 5 in the league. Pretty darn good when you can't even get to the QB. I don't even want to talk about the secondary play from last year... it was horrid to be honest. Watching QB's throw the ball that much with so much ease made me sick to my stomach every game. They need to step it up this year. I think the addition of rookie Al Afalava starting on defense helped out. He's a fierce player, I can't wait till he get's a pick 6. So just to sum up what I think about this years defense. They deserve a B+. I think they have improved greatly on the d-line, improved a bit in the secondary, but there's room for improvement. I would like to see some hard hitting out there that will make receivers, running backs, and QB's crap their pants.

To the special teams now. Four weeks into the season, I will give them an A. Special teams play is key to winning games. As we have seen in the past with Devin Hester, Daniel Manning and now Johnny Knox. It was a beautiful KO return by Knox, he was untouched all the way. Probably helps when he's fast as Manning and Hester... could be faster imo. Also helps when everyone is blocking their guy and creating a nice gap for Knox to run through. I could go on all day about Knox, but I think a lot of credit is also due to Robbie Gould and Brad Maynard. Robbie Gould has been excellent so far this year, except that stupid choice made by the Coaching staff to make him kick 50+ yards out in Seattle. Brad Maynard has also been excellent this season. 18 punts with an average of 43.9 yards, including a long boom of a kick for 66 yards. He also has 9 punts that have landed inside the 20 yard line. That was key in that Lions game. Pinning an opponent back to the wall is key to winning the game.

So overall I will give the Bears as a team a B+. There's a lot to improve on, which they will. I expect the Bears to go big this season. So till next time,

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