My Personal Take on the Bears

you have to do better than 20 points to win games. good defenses can't play 66% of game time at a high level.

+1
After another season I have more questions than answers about the future of the team.  I really hate that.  I expected 3 years of rebuilding, with this being year-2 of the three years.  I didn't expect this to be easy.  But I expected to be significantly better than we are now.  

I don't believe in writing off the season as being a victim of injuries.  And in years past I used to argue with posters who did write off subpar Bears seasons to injury woes.  But at the same time I do believe they are one factor among multiple factors for THIS season's problems.  This is an atypical year for injuries.  

I've tried to look at the season objectively and not blame it on one thing, like just QB woes, or just injuries, or just lack of roster talent, or just coaching or whatever.  I believe all of those factors come into play to varying degrees.  And I am a pragmatic person.  While I am sad/angry over past franchise failures, I understand I can't change the past.  I don't want an early heart attack over some past thing I don't have any control over.  Consequently, I just want to get the team fixed as soon as humanly possible.  End the pain.  Just end the pain.

Realistically, I don't expect any changes from Pace on up to George McCaskey.  Right or wrong, change is probably not in the cards at those levels.  So, my hope for the future comes down to:

1.  Get healthy and hopefully (in my lifetime) never have an epic injury-year like this one.
2.  Have another solid draft.  I don't expect Pace to bat .1000 but at least have another good year like this past one was.
3.  Have a good free agency to patch some of the holes.  Can't fix everything through the draft.
4.  Get the QB position players for the future in place.  Both a starter & a solid backup.  Maybe 1 is already on our roster.  Maybe not. But get it figured out.  Now.
5.  Coaching.  We finally have a decent DC, and I would like to see us keep him.  I really don't care if we upgrade the other coaches, but it needs to be an upgrade.  Not just a new face.  If you fire someone, then bring in someone better.  Is that too much to hope for?  I'm okay if we fire Fox, but it you do, please get it right this time.  

The only thing I disagree w/is a NEED for better OT's. Outside when Cutler plays they have done a good job in run and pass protection. They could USE 2 OT's, but it's not a NEED.

They do need 1 or 2 TE's, I don't care how good Miller is, he's shown he is incapable of staying healthy for 16 games which means he doesn't help much, he's also not that good of a blocker, and if you want to run the ball, you need a 2 way TE, not a glorified WR.

They NEED another 1 or 2 WR's, even if AJ comes back, Royal is likely gone and White just cannot be trusted no matter how good he might be.

They NEED a QB of the future, that's is a want or a wasted pick, the team needs a high ceiling qb to groom

On Def they NEED a 5 Tech, a FS, a CB and probably depth at S and CB.

This draft should mostly be about the Offense which continues to struggle to score points, which ends up putting to much stress on the Def.

QUOTE; "The only thing I disagree w/is a NEED for better OT's. Outside when Cutler plays they have done a good job in run and pass protection. They could USE 2 OT's, but it's not a NEED."

I get that you've somehow convinced yourself of this even after we timed Cutler earlier in the year when he was getting less than 2 seconds to set up and throw and when the blitzes came against a line not yet gelled enough to handle them it was far less than that.

Since the the pass blocking has improved dramatically especially from Massie whose grading out in the 70s and 80s now vs the 40s and 50s during the first few games.  Cutler got plenty of protection in the Minny game and we destroyed a top defense so again the reality doesn't confirm your perceptions and that's all they are. 

You look for reasons to criticize Cutler yet ignore the short comings of most every other passer none of whom beat a defense as good as Minny when we played them.  Ok, enough of that.  You just aren't correct is all.

What I will agree to is that Cutler does not throw early because with his arm his accuracy would be impacted by trying to throw to a spot before the receiver made his break.  Trestman tried that with him and it failed badly.  Gase went back to the old way of letting Cutler do it his way and he had one of his best years.

Cutler isn't a typical drop back passer who does the 1-2-3 throw thing.  If he needs more time he's capable of shifting in the pocket or using his feet to step up and/or escape just like Rodgers but where GB has built there OL blocking and offense around that with the exception of Gase the Bears never have.

What you and others who would criticize fail to see is that asking Cutler do it your way is taking him out of what's most natural to him.  The guy has a gun so he can wait that extra split second and then fit a throw into a window few if any other NFL QBs can do.  At most we're talking a fraction of a second not seconds like you like to believe. 

So if they keep his front porch clear like GB does for Rodgers he can take that extra fraction of a second and step into a throw once he sees that window and complete the pass.  The problem is for far too long they haven't and yet they still want him to play more from the pocket.  I can't throw a baseball or play guitar left handed either so if you ask me to do anything less than in the most natural way for me you won't get the best results either.  If that's all they're gonna do with him then yeah, trade him because it will never work well if that's the case.

If Cutler was getting the type of protection Barkley is getting now the results would be much different but you're stacking up Cutlers sacks when he's played most of the toughest pass rushers we've faced all year vs the other two who have not.  In this case stats won't tell you the whole story so when you use them like you are you're only misleading yourself.

Barkley as done a nice job especially playing with a bunch of backup WRs but let's not forget Cutler threw for almost 4000 yards in 15 games last year throwing to those same guys because he was operating in a system schemed to work for him.  So what happened?  My guess is Gase is gone and now once again we're playing the way a defensive minded HC with little offensive acumen wants his offense played and once again it doesn't fit Cutler like it did last year.

That's the reality of it Ric.  It's not what you seem to think it is.  That's just grabbing a stat out of mid air and extrapolating it into something else.