Are You Ready for Some Football

[SlowwHand]

And so much for some people's theory that you build your team with OL taken in Top 10 picks.

5. ARIZONA CARDINALS
JAMAAL ANDERSON DE | Arkansas | Scouting Report

The biggest slam-dunk of the entire draft would be Joe Thomas to the Cards if he were still available but at this point that looks highly unlikely at best. If Thomas is indeed off the board when they're on the clock then Arizona will be in a very tough position because there just isn't any other offensive lineman worthy of this pick so they could opt to trade down.

[-Jrabbit]

I read a report out of Detroit that Martz and Millen are fighting. Reportedly, Martz wants Joe Thomas and Millen wants Brady Quinn.

Millen is such a tool.

[snoopy369]

Someone should fire Millen ... err ... yeah ...

[Donegeal]

Why? That's two free wins a season!!!

[-Jrabbit]

The Bears need better competition. Granted, with their schedule in 2007, a couple slam-dunks will be welcome.

In addition to the usual suspects in the North, the Bears will play:
NFC East (NYG, Dal, Phil, Wash)
AFC West (SD, Den, KC, Oak)
Seattle
New Orleans

No dissing their schedule next year. Oakland's the only pigeon outside their division opponents.

[SlowwHand]

Thats a good, challenging schedule. If the Bears win and go to the playoffs after that year, then they'll have my vote. That's been my only complaint about them, and that's just the way the cards fell. It's certainly not always a weak division.

[-Jrabbit]

Judging off this year's teams and assuming both decent health and no more than one divisional loss, 11 wins would be a good result from that schedule. 12 would be an outstanding year.

[Ned]

Two things bothered me about the game:

First, Grossman. I hope he does not return. Reminds me a lot of Bledsoe in Dallas. Can't stop making the critical turnovers.

Second, the defensive coordinator for the Bears. The defense started well against the Colts. They adjusted, though. Went to the run and the short passing game. The Bears, however, never adjusted to the Colts adjustment. Urlacher at one point was waving in anger at the sidelines urging them to do something about the defensive scheme. Nothing changed and the Colts continued to move the ball at will.

Where is the 46 defense when you need it? That defense would have stopped the Colts, IMHO.

Grossman and Rivera have to go. It would be better if they just cut Grossman or traded him before next season. They should fire Rivera.

[snoopy369]

Nediverse sighting ...

The defense did in my opinion remarkably well to hold the best offense in the NFL (most talented, certainly) to only 22 points (not counting the turnover score) ... Of course Urlacher isn't going to be happy, he's not happy if they don't throw a shutout. That's the kind of competitor he is. I'm sure they could've done better, but I hardly think Rivera is the guy to blame here. We were playing with two pretty mediocre safeties, which is a position we MUST have one solid, smart, veteran guy at (Mikey... ) and with a backup DT (though not a half bad backup). Throw in Brown and Harris and we might have won despite Sir Rex ...

Honestly by the end of the game I was wondering if it was Rex or the OC. Ron Turner I hold mostly at fault for the collapse at the end. Admittedly Rex threw that first interception pretty much on his own, but in the second drive, when it was still doable, he was marching down the field throwing ... the sort of passes he should've been throwing all game. And then what does Ron ask him to do? Throw deep, right into the Indy defense, just like they'd wanted him to do. Why he didn't just keep dinking and dunking I cannot understand ... it was working beautifully, and then BAM. Dump Ron Turner if you have to dump a coordinator.

I do think we need to dump Rex, though, even if he may turn out to not be so bad. He may just need a change of scenery ...

[Donegeal]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
The Bears need better competition. Granted, with their schedule in 2007, a couple slam-dunks will be welcome.

In addition to the usual suspects in the North, the Bears will play:
NFC East (NYG, Dal, Phil, Wash)
AFC West (SD, Den, KC, Oak)
Seattle
New Orleans

No dissing their schedule next year. Oakland's the only pigeon outside their division opponents.

And last year at this time we were saying the same thing of the schedule the Bears had just played.

Seatle, NE, St.Louis, NYG, TB and Miami were all susposed to be SB contenders this past year. Minnesota was also susposed to compete for a playoff spot. I don't remember what was expected of the Jets, but I don't think they were expected to make the playoffs.

And talking about the playoffs, NO was expected to have maybe 3-4 wins. At this point in the season, it's a crap shoot to determine whose good and bad.

[Ned]

snoopy, I don't think Turner called for Rex to make bad throws or to throw when the receivers are covered. A QB is supposed to check off to an open receiver, or to a back, or to just throw it away. Rex instead throws interceptions, just like Bledsoe.

He also looked terrible when rushed.

He has his good games and good moments in bad games. But his mistakes are just killers. If he returns next year, he has got to stop making them.

I remember McMahon was prone to making mistakes his first year or two. Then he stopped trying to force the ball and suddenly the Bears offense was good. That was in '84. In '85, the defense stepped it up a few notches and the rest is history.

The Bears will have a very good team next year even without the draft. But we have to have a new QB, either a new Rex or someone not named Grossman. Maybe it is time to try Orton once more.

[Donegeal]

No, Turner didn't tell Rex to throw bad, but he did tell him to drop back and throw deep on 2-1 from just inside the other side of the 50. That is what Turner does. He does it all the time. I know it. Most of poly knows it and the Colts knew it. Turner called the deep ball on the play when everyone knew it was coming. What happened? Sack. Now it's 3-12 and a passing situation. Sack. RUN THE DAMN BALL TURNER!!!!

[-Jrabbit]

Turner and Grossman are easy targets, but hardly the root cause of the loss. A couple points:

1. Much like the Carolina debacle last year, the game plan was far too conservative, keyed on stopping the big play and getting pressure from a 4-man rush. Result: After the early INT, Peyton got smart and just picked them apart, 5-8 yds at a time. Rivera called only a couple blitzes all day.
2. The number of offensive plays was the key stat in this game. When the Bears went nearly a half without a first down, it kept the defense on the field WAY too long.
3. ...which leads to exhaustion. Which leads to poor tackling. Which leads to 200 yds rushing.
4. A big disappointment for me was the vanilla defense. Manning sees the Tampa-2 in about half his games and knows how to carve it up. Rivera rarely blitzed, playing a passive game against a team that knows how to execute and a QB with the patience to move the sticks. Played right into Indy's strengths.

Seems like most Bears apologists are conveniently overlooking the fact that Indy could easily have scored more. They missed a short FG, and mysteriously declined to kick a FG late in the 4th qtr. (Apparently, Dungy had the under.)

The Bears were whipped on both sides of the line of scrimmage. They scored 3 points in the last 50+ minutes against a middling defense.

Indy deserved the win.

[Lord Avalon]

It's not merely a matter of calling more blitzes. If Peyton knows you're blitzing, he'll burn you. You need to disguise your defenses, look like you're blitzing when you're not, look like you're dropping into coverage then blitz, look like you're blitzing from one side, and come from the other, etc.

[-Jrabbit]

Well, duh.

The point was about overly conservative game planning, not about how to disguise blitzes.