Three Takeaways From Bears Win................

Comments invited and I'll start with mine.

Cutler; I don't think anyone could have said it better than Bryan Perez did here in his title.  Cutler is all anyone could hope for now when he's playing like "Good Jay" and last night coming off a 5 week absence with little practice he was about as good as he'll ever get against a very good defense.

Anyone who can't see a clear difference in how the offense can play with him at QB and how an opponent has to adjust defensively when he's at QB is either blind or won't be convinced no matter what Cutler does.  We saw a lot of the same last year but some forget and preferred using 1 1/2 games this year to judge him by.  Can we stop that now?


Howard; He's not gonna win many 100 yard dashes against DBs but for half that he has a burst and power we haven't seen in any Bears RB in recent memory.  Lameford may have more speed in the open field but he lacks Howards' vision and decisiveness and he can't even come close to matching his power.  Like Carey you can hear him when he runs.

How Fox somehow decided that Lameford should start over Howard or even Carey is beyond me.  Both can make something out of nothing at times with simple straight ahead quickness and power so they're actually gaining yardage while Lameford is still thinking about it.


Floyd;  For the past two games his speed and athleticism have been showing up but he's also showing some power and an ability to defeat blocks he wasn't showing before.  They've seem to have finally settled in to using him less and I think it's helped.  Here again I blame Fox for asking too much too soon.

He still needs to add some weight but it's finally looking like he can play with the big boys if he can keep about 250lbs on his lanky frame.  Is he worth where he was picked?  Not yet but it's beginning to look like he at least has a shot at getting to that level sooner than later.


So the bottom line is all three of these guys have now begun to contribute as expected but what can we say about Fox's decisions regarding them?  Cutler isn't really impacted by it.  He used to this stuff and I though his answer about Fox trusting him as perfect.  Even though he watered it down to "he doesn't have a choice" my response would have been "when you have him by the balls his heart and mind will follow" and he did have him by the balls no doubt about that.

Howard can carry the load 20 times or more per game and Carey should now be the first off the bench to replace him.  He's just a slight smaller version of Carey.  Whoever said Lameford was the better pass blocker of the three?  He got run over by a blitzing LB last night.  They need to come up with some pass packages for him to get him in space.  That's where he's more like Forte and can pull off some big plays but as an every down back....nope.

All I could think of at times last night his how much we miss Houston.  Rolling with him, McPhee, Floyd and Young as a pass rush rotation would have been sweet.  McPhee looks 20lbs lighter than he played last year and I take it back.  He's looking like he did before the knee issue.

I do think Hoyer is a premier back up QB. The problem is yards are not points. For the over excitement about his passing yard, we need points to win. I am seeing a better game out of Loggins. A lot of football left to figure these guys out. Maybe the future is not so bleak, maybe.

So ... we see 'Good Jay' ... against a banged up injury depleted team , that currently has NO offense ... because they have no running game , and crappy 0-tackles ... and we beat them , and all is right with the world ?

Where have we seen a crappy , injury depleted team , with no 0-tackles , that gets beat ... team before ? Oh that's right ... US .

Sorry , but if you think this was a 'big win ' - then ur really drinking the kool-aid .

And maybe we all oughtta take stock in how important 'health' is to the 'win/loss' record for any team ( us included ) ? and how a QB actually USUALLY plays against teams that are operating at normal strength ?

This 'win' was like beating the other car in a drag race when that car was only firing on 2 cylinders .

I did too Mike which led to my comments about the handcuffs coming off the game plans and the play calling.  I felt they got a little to stodgy for a series or two but that was about it.  They mixed the play selection up well with 30 passes and about 30 runs. 

The biggest indication of this to me came late in the game when we were just trying to move the chains, keep the ball in bounds, and eat up the clock.  We had a 3rd and long and Cutler rolled right with his RB out in front to take a short toss but he was well covered and would have been stopped short of a first down.  If Hoyer is at QB he makes that throw but what did Cutler do?  He wheels and throws back door to a wide open Zach Miller who gets the first and we keep the ball.  Hoyer would never have made that throw.

So that's just one example of how more aggressive scheming by an OC and decision making by his QB help to win a game and yet THAT play hasn't even been mentioned even though it was one of the most important first downs of the game.  Minny had gained momentum by scoring and that one took the wind out of their sails and gave us another two minutes with of badly needed ball control.  This is just one example of some of the little differences I saw last night that made it a much better game.