How Bout Dem Bears?

Long, but good read from the Broncos GM that drafted Cutler, Ted Sundquist. The pre-draft scouting reports were pretty accurate.

Why I Drafted Jay Cutler, and What Happened from There

Good story as well about Josh McDaniels arriving in Denver, what a ****ing knobhead:

Owner Pat Bowlen felt change was necessary, and Mike Shanahan was fired after 14 seasons as the team's head coach and executive vice president.

Shanahan, Heimerdinger and myself—the three people most instrumental in bringing Cutler to Denver and the three people who had the most vested interest in developing him—were now all gone.

Cutler was openly critical of Shanahan's dismissal and equally upset over the potential loss of his position coach, Jeremy Bates, who would eventually leave during the offseason to take a job at USC. Bates had a young and fiery personality that seemed to resonate with Cutler. His way of communicating with his young quarterback struck a chord, and many of the weaknesses we'd seen at Vanderbilt were slowly being chipped away: improved footwork, avoiding the sack, progression through routes, finding the outlet.

Now Cutler had to convince a 32-year-old first-time head coach he was worthy of the position.


Shortly after Josh McDaniels moved into his office at Dove Valley, he called in Cutler and his agent, Bus Cook, for a closed-door meeting. The story goes that McDaniels began with a 20-minute dissertation of his resume, how he'd worked his way up the ranks in New England to become Bill Belichick's right-hand man with the offense and how the team would have been nowhere the year before without his tutelage of backup Matt Cassel. He continued on with justification of his hiring by Bowlen.

After the perplexing recitation of accomplishments, McDaniels suddenly shifted gears.

He began to bash and berate Cutler and his game to the tune of a verbal flogging neither had ever witnessed. The expletive-laden diatribe went on for a few minutes, after which Cook stood up and told Cutler they were leaving. As they walked down the long hallway past Bowlen's office, Cutler turned to Bus and said, "Get me out of here. I don't care how you do it."

Oat23 wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y1uINZoDZE

Ugh. If McDonald's didn't already make you sick...

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Anyone giving us a chance against the Vikings?

I'm more optimistic...posted a few thoughts in the betting thread:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=97554515&postcount=215

I was listening to Zach Zaidman yesterday, and he had an encouraging piece of info....Marc Mariani had the same injury as Kevin White and told him "you come back fine, just the rehab takes a long time".

Humiliating loss.

Part of me wants to be mad about the fact we didn't get a first for the hit on the kicker, which by rule should have been a foul. But our special teams had set up the situation where it came down to that, and then bottom line, we didn't get it done when opportunities were there. I honestly thought when we were level that we'd just go up the field and get the field goal. We got a mighty lesson in how badly we need forte when Langford dropped the short pass.

Anyway we sucked, and the players can't blame the play calling, some key guys ****ed up some key plays. It was embarrassing, we clearly have a better team than either the lions or the Vikings, but the pattern is clear, that we need more balls to win in the crucial situations that we inevitably find ourselves in, because we're certainly not good enough to kill the game.

My kingdom for a d that can defend the run. I don't care who their rb is, we haven't stopped any running back going up the middle all year.

Anyway...sickening, no redeeming points for me precisely because we're clearly good enough to win, plenty of great potential there but so, so much difference between being great and almost being great. We suck. I'm hitting the sauce, have a good one.

kennyb3 wrote: »

They returned 3 punts for 77yards we returned 2 for 3 yards.:(

How we lost that game I ll never know. He did rolle not see Johnson?

Great to see Jeffrey straight bAck to being sensational.

Defence still our major problem. Lack of pressure up front and scarecrows at corner and nickelback.

Yeah special teams was an unmitigated nightmare and there needs to be someone fired, just shocking to give up yet another td, and TWO ****ing muffed punts.

The D is terrible but to me at least it's a personnel issue that can be rectified long term. But special teams is a coaching thing.

All that said though, did someone in the bears ride goodells wife or something? The refs just ride us like it's cool. Bridgewater gets touched, on a technicality, fair enough, penalty. Cutler? Ah **** him. O Donnell gets hit long after the ball goes? Ah **** him. It's every week at this stage. Hopefully Jeffery starts to be recognised for the talent he is and starts getting the soft pi calls that come with that.

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Huh? So you've insinuated you were the better team today, and clearly better team overall. Wrong on the first and laughably wrong on the second. Vikings outgained the Bears, and that's even taking out the special teams play which would add a tonne of yards. The game only really became a close contest when Teddy threw a stupid interception at the end of the first half.

Anyway, how are the Bears clearly a better team? Worse record last season. Worse record this season. Couldn't beat the Vikings, off a bye, and at home. It's not even close. Judging by the markets in todays game, the Vikings would be a 4-5 pt favourite on a nuetral venue, and that was even before todays victory

Ah seriously, **** off, not tonight buddy.

Edit: that sounded pretty rude, i retract the **** off comment, but I said it on our thread. I'm not in the mood for a debate, enjoy your win but I don't fancy debating it, that loss sucked.

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Cos you're wrong, as are the ref insinuations. Greenway gets done for helmet to helmet on cutler when his head was nowhere near. McPhee dives like Suarez and gets holding calls. I genuinely would rather if ye did get rode, would make up for a some of the BS calls in this fixture in the last few years

Edited my post.

Your still wrong, but I'm too drunk and pissed off to talk to a Vikings fan tbh.

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Huh? So you've insinuated you were the better team today, and clearly better team overall. Wrong on the first and laughably wrong on the second. Vikings outgained the Bears, and that's even taking out the special teams play which would add a tonne of yards. The game only really became a close contest when Teddy threw a stupid interception at the end of the first half.

Anyway, how are the Bears clearly a better team? Worse record last season. Worse record this season. Couldn't beat the Vikings, off a bye, and at home. It's not even close. Judging by the markets in todays game, the Vikings would be a 4-5 pt favourite on a nuetral venue, and that was even before todays victory

I don't know about being the better team overall, necessarily. For one thing, results are how these things are decided, and our results don't stack up. But looking at our performances in the last two games, I think it's hard to argue that we aren't very unlucky (or very stupid) not to currently be 4-3, instead of 2-5.

If you read back, you'll see that I was predicting a Vikings win this week, so it's not like I'm some kind of cheerleader for the Bears or anything. It's just that, at our best yesterday, we were a more impressive team than the Vikings. There's people on the Vikings thread honestly arguing that Bridgewater had a good game, which he most certainly did not. Adrian Peterson, on the other hand, carved us up, and we still have such glaring problems in our secondary that sooner or later we are always going to suffer.

Our offensive playcalling was very anemic in the first half, until the drive at the end where Cutler lit it up. The second half showed what we're actually capable of, and whatever about overall, we have far better skill players on offense than you guys (Peterson aside, although Forte is hardly a massive downgrade).

When it came down to it, our performance yesterday was a mix of being a serious offensive threat, and a competent defense, and then the usual boneheaded bull****, especially on ST, that has been costing us all season.

Whether all of that means that we are better overall than the Vikings, I don't know, probably that was an exaggeration. I wouldn't be at all surprised if ye kicked on and got to the playoffs now. What I do know is that the difference between us being a good and a bad team is very, very small, and we have most certainly lost two games on the trot that we should ahve put away.

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Cos you're wrong, as are the ref insinuations. Greenway gets done for helmet to helmet on cutler when his head was nowhere near. McPhee dives like Suarez and gets holding calls. I genuinely would rather if ye did get rode, would make up for a some of the BS calls in this fixture in the last few years

Wouldn't agree with that in the least. McPhee was being held all day, so I have no idea where that is coming from. Would need to see the Cutler/Greenway incident again. But if you can't see that Bridgewater and Cutler were being reffed differently I dunno what to say. And the hit on O'Donnell...whatever about the Vikings, if that was the Packers or the Patriots or god help us the Seahawks, it's a first down every time. That decision alone would have been enough to send the game to overtime. To some extent me moaning about the refs has more to do with how the Bears have been reffed all season, particularly against Seattle and the Lions.

Anyway all of that is a sideshow because like I said, we lost that ourselves, not through the refs. None of which was meant to be an insinuation about the Vikings. For one thing, I didn't go onto the Vikings thread to have a go (nor would I if we won).

But more importantly I was still drunk and angry, which is, in my opinion, the only legitimate way to watch football.

Anyway on mature reflection the Vikings on balance deserved the win, and congratulations to ye on that (would be more than happy if ye went on and did the impossible and beat out the Packers to the division title, obviously). But that doesn't mean we didn't throw it away ourselves, when the opportunity to win it was there. There's still a lot of learning to do for the Bears.

The natural reaction to losing like we have been the past two games is anger. This is the first proper rebuild the Bears have had in a long time. We are all used to being p*ssed off after losing because our team has been entering almost every season for the past decade+ with a competitive team and a goal. I keep losing sight of the fact that in August I really didn't care what happened this year for the first time ever, as long as some players on the roster showed something and we didn't finish 0-16 I was not bothered.

I woke up this morning and I wasn't even worried about the loss anymore. There have been more positives in the first 7 games than I expected in all 16. We are being competitive and some players are showing some real talent which gives us hope for the future, but we are also losing which gives us a better draft pick. This is a great season despite us being 2-5.

The only big long term negative of last night was losing the possibility of trading forte.

The positive being they can make a call on Langford now and decide whether they'll make any attempt to re-sign Forte.

I'd disagree with some of that Realt, albeit a fair post. I'd say we're comparable at the skill positions, with you only having the edge at WR1 (massively) and TE. Vikings we're poor yesterday, defence took a step back and TB was indeed terrible. Yet we still got the win in tough windy stadium against a team off a bye, and did it by outgaining in normal play. So I do genuinely think we're a reasonable margin better. That's not belittling the Bears, god knows you've been better than the Vikings for long enough and there's enough young talent there to make me worried. I'd much prefer to see you go 8-8 now and not get a high draft pick and potentially a new QB. I'd shudder to think of what Fox would do with all that cap space once Cutlers gone, provided he's given free reign.

On that point, you have an excellent coach there. A fire sale of assets, plus key injuries, and he's still made them competitive and very tough to beat. It also takes balls to fully accept you're in rebuilding mode. If there's one thing ive realised since Zim and Norv came in, and replaced the dross before them, it's the impact of good coaching. He'll have you back in the playoff's sooner rather than later. I assume that young GM is clever too. The league needs to accept an influx of young logical decision makers. When you see stuff like Lovie Smith last week, kicking a late field goal up 3 on the opponents 1 yard line, it hits home how archaic some NFL coaches are

Apparently our schedule to close out is like 2nd easiest or something like that. With Jay playing pretty well we’ll likely win a handful more and push ourselves out of position.

Looking forward, the offense looks pretty set to me. I would keep Forte, provided it’s somewhat reasonable, keep Bennett because of the dearth of tight-ends around and obviously pay Alshon who is the team’s best player. Take one lineman in FA and one in the draft, have White return and things look promising here. Obviously the ideal would be a nice QB project to sit behind Jay but who knows if that will materialise. If Gase goes I trust Fox can replace him ably.

The D is in the process of a full scale rebuild. There are players seeing snaps who shouldn’t be anywhere near the league. Pace will be aggressive in FA with the treasure chest available and I’m sure stock up in the draft too. Every level of the D needs talent but a number one corner and primary pass-rusher are absolute musts. And, for the love of god, enough of the sticky plasters at safety. They need to find a premium talent to go alongside Amos, who does look promising.

Finally, and it can’t be ignored anymore, is special teams. They’ve been reprehensible for as long as I can remember. Toub leaving left them in total disarray. It’s clearly shorn of talent and coaching. Gould and POD are two nice pieces but the return game on both ends is deplorable.

Badabing wrote: »

Have a question for the regular posters here, is Matt Forte in his last year with the Bears and lf so how much would it cost to keep him and should we keep him? Sorry it's just I'm a bit baffled by the draft and how much every team has to spend every year etc..

He's in the final year of his contract and becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent next year. He has a cap hit this year of something like 9 million. He will probably be looking for big money next year, but given that he's also 30 next year and knowing how that goes with running backs, I'm not sure how willing the Bears will be to stump up. His injury now means that trading him won't happen but, depending on how he comes back from it, it will probably reduce his value.

Should we keep him? Matter of opinion I guess. My hope would be that he goes in for a club-friendly deal but I dunno, he might want to go somewhere and get a real shot at a ring too. I certainly wouldn't like to see us spend big on him, at all. He's a savage player but we're supposed to be in rebuild, so paying him big doesn't make sense for us. But at the right price he could be a great leader on offense, with reduced snaps he can keep getting it done (hopefully) while Langford or someone else comes in to replace him. My best guess is, though, that he's gone next year.

Badabing wrote: »

Early days but Packers there for the taking. Weather we're good enough is a another story.

37 points against the Packers, very rare

Great fun to watch tonight, especially seeing peanut do his thing. But the panthers are a far better team than we are, don't see us doing anything other than keeping it respectable against them this year. That said, even if we are basically just playing for a draft pick at this point (and we very much are), the packers game is the exception. Am o correct on saying that they overtake us on wins in the overall rivalry history if they win at lambeau this year?