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

I think it was dead balls on accurate actually.  Jay can look like on of the best QBs in the NFL some games and even run a great game against a tough defense when he isn't expected to do it all himself and then other games you think where in the hell is your head today because it's not on your shoulder like it's supposed to be.

The redeeming factor now is that if Loggains can continue to advance that same offense they put in last year he's getting better.  There's more good Jay and less bad Jay.  He was accurate and decisive on Monday.  Threw some balls away when he needed to.  Showed some great pocket presence avoiding the rush to get throws off and with the exception of the one pass that hit AJ in the helmet nothing was even close to a bad pick.

He needed good games from Miller and AJ and got them and Howard was a big boost for him that he didn't have in the Houston or Philly games.  Given how poorly those games were blocked and with no 2nd half adjustments at all and piss poor play calling it's pretty tough to hang much of the blame for those losses on him and I'm sure as I am sitting here we'd have won both the Indy and the Jax game if he'd have played. 

Being 4-4 with a weaker second half schedule, some starters returning, and our division opponents struggling too would make a huge difference in this season right now.

QUOTE; "I'm still not seeing the posts where we are saying the ship has been righted and the kool-aid is great. Cutler is still Cutler,(How many inches away from multiple picks and on the other side how many inches away from a 2nd AJ TD? If everyone is going to keep harping about the 'almost INTs' I'm going to start counting the 'almost TDs.)"

No shit!

Second guessing or fantasizing phantom picks??  Oh brother.  What's next?  Saying he almost fumbled the snap 60 times too because he and Whitehair were just inches away from that all night too. He was just inches away from 5 or 6 more sacks too.  Do we need to count those as well?

Cleveland almost beat the Cubbies the other night.  All they needed was 7 more lousy runs to do it and all four of my daughters were just one lousy chromosome off from being boys. Imagine how close I came to having an entire foursome of lawn cutters and trash emptiers.  I was just inches away from it......

This ain't horseshoes and hand grenades you "haters".  LOL

Barkley's not a career backup, because he isn't good enough to be a backup. Right now, he's getting on rosters as untapped potential, until they get a good enough look and him to cut him.

Hoyer, based on his play the past few weeks, will have no trouble finding employment as a #2 QB somewhere in the league. Maybe even here. THere's always a place on a team for someone to make it look like the offense if functioning and able to beat bad teams. With Barkley, you'd never beat anyone.

That's a fair assessment of both.  Hoyer is a decent backup but to win he needs far more creative play calling and a willingness to take some risks.  I realize that he's the perfect QB for the John Fox play to not lose offense but that doesn't make Hoyer a good QB.  It just makes Fox a bad HC.  We're still weak in the red zone but much weaker with Hoyer than with Cutler.

Ideally the Bears will be smart enough to keep Cutler until they have their next guy in the fold.  Even more ideally Pace will find a prospect to draft and along with a healthy again Connor Shaw one of them will push Hoyer out the door and grab the #2 chair for now and maybe the #1 eventually.  But we also can't count on the first time being the charm and luckily we don't have to because Cutler is under contract for the rest of the decade and better than any FA pickup or anyone we'd likely get without spending even more top picks to get just as we did with him.

So many media types and fans like to say how easy it is to get rid of Cutler now when I see it just the opposite.  He's getting cheaper each year for the next two while others are getting costlier and he can still be traded whenever the next man up can handle the job so why move on when you don't have to and have no one to replace him.  Unless we make a major trade that just isn't now and I can't see it being in 2017 either unless Shaw is the next Russell Wilson or something.  It's actually a perfect setup to bring a younger guy into much like GB did with Rodgers while they still had Favre.

The Bears can still win more often than they lose with him at QB and undeniably the offense is getting better talent around him as far as the both the skill positions and the OL and the defense is much improved as it needs to be.  If Fox will just keep his nose out of the offense I'd like to at least see what Jay and Loggains can cook up over the next 8 games because for a first go around since his return that was a much slicker looking offense the other night than anything we've seen so far this year.

I'm convinced that no matter where we draft we aren't gonna find a "sure thing" QB in this draft so the 2017 draft is still a crap shoot for a QB prospect right now just like it was in 2016.  Like Gruden said in his interview you don't just want any QB you want the right QB.  I think Prescott would have been that guy and I thought that going into the draft as well so after taking Kwiatkoski (a good pick) I was shocked they passed on him when he was still there for a kid like Bush (a bad pick).  So this year we really do have to roll the dice and start the process of looking for a younger passer to groom.