How Bout Dem Bears?

kennyb3

Badabing wrote: »

looking at 9-7 record or at worst 8-8.

Seriously? We scrapped past a Chargers team that have now lost 5 in a row and are devastated with injuries.

We'll likely lose our next 3 and won't win all 5 of the last 5.

Even if we beat the Rams say, which I don't think will happen personally given their defence, we'll need to win 4 of 5 to get to 8-8.

6-10 or less for me, which I'd be happy about.

I don't want the 8- 8 purgatory we've largely had to deal with

Badabing

Just think we'll beat the Lions and Vikings, bucs 49'ers and redskins as well. With Jeffrey fit anything is possible.

I'm maybe being over optimistic and probably fall apart next week but with Jay, Jeffrey and Langford we're going to be competitive in every game.

kennyb3

Wildly, wildly optimistic imho - every nfl team, bar a few each year, is competitive.

We've nothing at CB, no NB, average ILB's, one real pass rusher, a stout Dline but again no pass rush ability. Our oline is beat up (a patch work job) and we're over reliant on one (amazing) receiver. Langford is a rookie who's played one real full game hardly time to anoint him (though he looks v. promising but lets not get ahead of ourselves here).

Overall we lack talent and great coaching is making us competitive. Still though we are very much up and down from week to week and look anything from a terribly poor team completely devoid of talent to highly competitive average (but no better).

The big positive is that given these traits and the way we are keep games close - that's a sign of a quick flip around with a good draft and FA. I'd still rather do worse this year and get better long term talent for that flip around but it is nice to sprinkle in wins for confidence and psychology.

Badabing

Yeah your bang on, i can see some high scoring wins and losses. Wonder if we'll see white this season as well.

Realt Dearg Sec

Yeah not a hope we come out of this with a winning season, or even a .500 one. And the big worry if we DID do that, would be losing one or both of our coordinators. Fangio fell into our laps because of the stupidity and hubris of the 9ers front office and Gase was front runner to be our head coach at one stage. Losing either would be disastrous next year: Fangio has only just begun implementing a new system that we are adjusting all our D personel for, and Gase is the first coordinator who seems to be really getting the best out of Cutler on a consistent basis.

That, to me, is much more of a worry than the draft pick issue (although that's important too, obviously). This is all in contrast to my celebratory mood last night, but as a fan it gets awful tiresome watching us lose all the time. Anyway as I said last night the wins are less important than which players are shining in them. So in that sense I was pretty elated. But we have still not beaten a good team this year and being realistic I don't see us doing so. Looking at the schedule I would see four wins. I think, as it stands, we'll probably lose to the Rams, Broncos, Packers and Vikings, and probably get wins against the 9ers (although they're probably going to be better than we expected), Skins, Bucs and the Lolcats.

But a losing season makes it much less likely that other teams come knocking on our door about taking away Gase or Fangio.

Realt Dearg Sec

Badabing wrote: »

Wonder if we'll see white this season as well.

Does anybody know what the situation is with this? I was under the impression he's out for the season, but not really sure.

SameOleJay

We can’t worry ourselves with what happens Gase. You’ve got to trust that Pace has given him assurances of being Fox’s eventual replacement should he perform or that Fox could replace him if it came to that. Put simply, if he were doing a bad job we’d be suffering; you can’t suffer now that he’s doing well. That’d be one miserable existence as a fan! I’m not concerned about Fangio, he’s doing nothing new here he hasn’t been doing for years. I just don’t think he’ll ever go to a head coaching role.

Happy with last night. Jay moves the offense every week and Alshon is just a monster. Still lacking badly in defensive personnel but signs of progress at least. Looking forward to St.Louis but very surprised if Chicago won. Game there a couple of years ago still gives me fits.

SameOleJay

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Does anybody know what the situation is with this? I was under the impression he's out for the season, but not really sure.

Said he was nowhere close a couple weeks ago.


Be amazed if we saw him this year.

padraig_f

Watched the game this evening, thought it was pretty poor standard all round...felt bad for the neutrals watching, San Diego seemed to be even more banged up than we are.

Langford did pretty well, great diving catch to make up for his drop against the Vikings last week.

I thought on the Cutler interception, the CB got away with a hold on Jeffery, but wasn't sure. Nice call by Gase to go straight down the line on the same CB the very next play, after he tried to cut the route.

Some more strange refereeing....the one where they had a late hit on Cutler, Long sees it, talks to the referee about it, not animated at all, and the ref gives Long an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, knocking the team out of field-goal range. Joke.

With the draft in mind I was kind of rooting for the Chargers at the end

Bears fans at the stadium were great, loved Cutler giving them the signal to quiet down when they were in the red zone.

Realt Dearg Sec

Yeah just on the crowd, it was funny at the time but kind of depressing on retrospect to see the chargers having to go to a silent count in their own stadium. I know we have great support for away games but this arms to be a weekly thing for them. Must be very demoralising.

But yeah I commented at the time on the difference in the way cutler is reffed comparing to other quarterbacks, that was a fairly blatant example given we conceded a roughing penalty on the next drive. On general though I think we're just the victims of bad refereeing rather than biased.

Guffy

Just got an offer for kadem cary in my dynasty league... anyone able to shed light on this? I assumed his best case is as back up to langford next season... at the very best

Realt Dearg Sec

gufc21 wrote: »

Just got an offer for kadem cary in my dynasty league... anyone able to shed light on this? I assumed his best case is as back up to langford next season... at the very best

I'd say that's fairly likely but at the same time I didn't think he looked too bad Monday when he was in. As long as forte is out he'll probably get about thirty per cent of the snaps, but no, not someone I think we'll be seeing a huge amount of

SameOleJay

Must.Read.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/film-room/2015/film-room-pernell-mcphee

kennyb3

Re-watched the first half last night. 3 thoughts:

- Love me some Adrian Amos - after nearly killing Zenner a few weeks ago, he tried to do the same to Danny Woodhead - some hit. He also made a brutal tackle on a receiver over on the sideline. The guy is just mean.

- The pass rush McPhee aside is fairly limited - Willie Young got some pressure too but there is no interior pressure from the NT or DE's. Jenkins can get some push from time to time. It's rare you'll get this from a rookie DE/DT in a 3-4 so this has to be a huge FA priority. I'd prefer Malik Jackson than going all in on Wilkerson.

- The Chargers also ran the ball far too easily - they double teamed Goldman and he got pushed around. Probably his worst game (well fist half) to date. That Matt Unrein guy is plain terrible. Also our ILB's just can't make tackles for losses - even when it looks like we get a 'stop' its after a 3/4 yard game. Anderson is good sideline to sideline and tackling in space but he nor Jones can seem to disguise pressure or beat blockers. Jones 'blew up a play' and it was still like a 3 yard gain. This has been a problem all season. We need to be looking at Demario Davis if he makes it that far or using a 1st or 2nd on an ILB (ILB's tend be be able to highly contribute early as rookies, so not a FA necessity).

padraig_f

kennyb3 wrote: »

Re-watched the first half last night.

Good lord, I found it tough enough viewing the first time

- The pass rush McPhee aside is fairly limited

Yeah, need someone else to step up, teams are realising now they can double McPhee and no-one else is likely to do anything.

Are people rooting for a win this week? I was against the Vikings, and not against the Chargers (so disappointed both times). Not sure if I am, sometimes I don't know til the game is on.

It may not matter, the bookies have the Bears 7.5 point underdogs.

You have to give credit to the o-line coach....I'll look up his name because I don't know it....Dave Magazu, and Gase and Cutler, they've really worked wonders with this patchwork offensive line. However against the Rams d-line this week, I fear it will be too much.

I've seen Todd Gurley on the highlights and heard people raving about him, but haven't watched him live yet, so interested to see that.

kennyb3

They've done a great job putting an Oline together given the players. However I feel they'll be smashed to pieces. Ducasse against Donald & Brokers? Dear god they'll feast on him. I can see a lot of jumbo packages.

Gurley has been brilliant when you consider the terrible Oline he has been running behind. If it was half decent his numbers would be amazing.

Foles has gone rapidly downhill the last few weeks so hopefully that remains the case.

I can't see a win, just can't. Unless our Dline has a really strong outing it could get ugly. If they can run the ball and our dline don't win then we'll be losing on both lines and get well beaten.

SameOleJay

With Ferguson on IR and Ratliff released we’re left in a spot where guys are just getting way too many snaps on the line. Goldman et al could get abused down the stretch and with our inside linebackers they won’t get much support inside.

Except in exceptional cases I never want the team to lose. Last year it made sense when it was clear Trest’s days were numbered. Looking at the footage post-game last week no-one can tell me winning is a bad thing for this team. That said a loss looks inevitable this week. There are just too many mismatches all over.

SameOleJay

Following on from Kenny’s point I see pff have Amos 5th in their DROY rankings.

It seems generous but he’s been very encouraging

Realt Dearg Sec

SameOleJay wrote: »

Must.Read.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/film-room/2015/film-room-pernell-mcphee

That's a great read alright. Our best FA move in years, probably a smarter move than Marshall.

padraig_f

kennyb3 wrote: »

They've done a great job putting an Oline together given the players. However I feel they'll be smashed to pieces. Ducasse against Donald & Brokers? Dear god they'll feast on him. I can see a lot of jumbo packages.

Yeah, I agree, scheming will only get you so far.

SameOleJay wrote: »

Except in exceptional cases I never want the team to lose. Last year it made sense when it was clear Trest’s days were numbered. Looking at the footage post-game last week no-one can tell me winning is a bad thing for this team. That said a loss looks inevitable this week. There are just too many mismatches all over.

Yeah I don't feel great about it. Mostly I'm rooting for good performances, but when the game can go either way in the 4th quarter, and it doesn't really matter except to get a better draft pick, I'll sometimes root for the loss.

kennyb3

Whether we win or lose from here this is a different team to the one humiliated the last time we played in St. Louis

Realt Dearg Sec

kennyb3 wrote: »

Whether we win or lose from here this is a different team to the one humiliated the last time we played in St. Louis

We're really not a bad team at all are we? Another Langford td too. If we hold on to win this it would be our first win against a good team.

Oat23

Not even disappointed we are winning this. Nobody gave us a chance which makes it sweet.

Realt Dearg Sec

Oat23 wrote: »

Not even disappointed we are winning this. Nobody gave us a chance which makes it sweet.

Yeah, again, it's a win for all the right reasons. I didn't give us a chance either, really didn't see it. This is a good team we've made look awful.

Also green bay are losing. Which is always a good day.

padraig_f

Dominant win, just like we called it

Hope the Lions can hold on, missed 2 extra points.

Realt Dearg Sec

Well badabing, maybe your optimism wasn't so misguided after all

Oat23

https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/666019758756782080

padraig_f

Oat23 wrote: »

https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/666019758756782080

That was a beautiful play for Langford's big receiving gain & touchdown, with the blitz in Cutler's face. The play-calling from Gase & execution from Cutler was something else in this game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p315WTL4cw

Badabing

Happy out lads! Didn't see the game but followed it. Loving Jay and loving Adam Gase. Packers losing always helps. Next 2 games will tell a lot.

kennyb3

I's great to be able to be positive for once. I'm not just negative for the sake of it!:)

I really really rate this Rams D, so to put up 37 points is unreal. I'm not sure if anyone noticed but I've said nothing much on cutler this season as I fully expected he'd revert to type - in fact I had last night pencilled in as a 2/3 pick performance that would bring it all down to earth - instead he has a 151 QBR (highest of his career) with 3TD's /0 INT's. Massive credit to Gase and to Cutler himself - getting to the line early seems to be helping him more than anything. That and throwing the ball away are the two major differences.

The coaching staff is just unbelievable - we've no more talent than last time we played here and that was a pure humiliation - we'd a bunch of no names run for huge numbers against us. I expected Foles to be bad but stopping Gurley (first drive aside) was a huge surprise.

Last year was horrrible, horrible, horrible as a fan this year just seems enjoyable - it's like a freebie - no expectations, just sit back and enjoy and try take the positives from it.

Jon Gruden really hit the nail on the head when he said Fox loves working with development players - getting capable starters from Amos, Callahan, Anderson, Charles Leno and even McClellin. That's the biggest positive of this season - forget the results it's that we now have a young core to move forward with.

The attitude is just completely different - never ceases to amaze me how much difference a staff can make.

To put last night in perspective the Rams were 2/7 to win, we beat them by 24 points away from home. McPhee was out and Jeffrey was clearly limited. We are not magically a very good team but it was nice to put it all together and get a decent win and breed confidence for the future.

We are a lot, lot further down the road than I expected at this stage. Cutler is making him being around next year a certainty and then it's up to him to make that last.

Langfords not bad is he? Love watching him play. Love that break away speed.