Gaines Adams? Pisa? Briggs? Urlacher, whose best asset is speed, Then you have a couple of really good backups in Roach and Williams, who have been getting better while they got real playing time.

Lack of size on the DL?

Maybe a 3-4 D is a better fit for this team?

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Who is going to be the NG?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-4_defense


The Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins are the only NFL teams which have never used the 3-4 as their base defense. Conversely, the Steelers have used the 3-4 as their base since 1982, the season after Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle Mean Joe Greene and end L.C. Greenwood retired.

The 3-4 defense was originally devised by Bud Wilkinson at the University of Oklahoma in the 1940s. Chuck Fairbanks learned the defense from Wilkinson and is credited with importing it to the NFL.[2] The 1972 Miami Dolphins were the first team to win a Super Bowl with the 3-4 defense, going undefeated and using number 53, Bob Mathison as a down lineman or rushing linebacker. When the Raiders defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV, it marked the first Super Bowl in which both teams used the 3-4 as their base defense. Also notable, the 1986 New York Giants won Super Bowl XXI with a 3-4 defense and all-time great Lawrence Taylor as outside linebacker. By the mid-1990s, only a few teams used a 3-4 defense, most notably the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers.[3]

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

You have no 3-4 OLBs, and you have no nose tackle. That's pretty much the heart of the defense. You probably don't have any 3-4 DEs either, although maybe Tommy Harris could play that. It's doubtful though, considering the failed Warren Sapp experiement in Oakland.

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Fire Phil Emery

They have no NT for the Cover 2 as well, the DE's in the cover 2 suck as well.
Lance Briggs could easily play OLB in a 3-4
I actually like the idea, but it would never happen because Lovie would never leave his cover 2 crap. This is his signature defense, the guy would quit before doing this.

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""I am now done at the Score."
Mike North, June 24, 2008

Good thing they don't play the Cover 2 much then, isn't it? Besides, the nose tackle in the cover 2 is relatively unimportant, compared to the rest of the line. But you knew that.


No he couldn't. Briggs would have to be in the middle in a 3-4. He's not a pass-rusher.


They haven't been playing the cover 2 primarily for two years now. But don't let facts get in the way.

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Fire Phil Emery

many used the square peg critique of the packers transition and they are significantly improved from last year

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

The Bears might as well continue what they are doing until the next regime takes over.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

They play the Cover 2 as much as they can, but not as much as they want... meaning, since they don't get a pass rush with the 4 DL, they have to blitz and can't play the cover 2 their way. But I'm pretty sure it's their intention to run it a majority of the time.

On a separate but related note, I think it's funny when the Bears talk about how they hardly ever run the cover 2... and then they say their defensive secondary players are specificly chosen because they fit the cover 2 style of defensive back. Which is it? Probably both... that's why they suck

The Bears have treated their cornerbacks a lot like Kiffin used his in Tampa Bay -- i.e., they are in man more than half the time. There are no Jason David type players that are utterly lost when not playing zone coverage. This was true even going back to 2005-2006. The safeties are pretty much the same regardless of what defense you are running.

As for wanting to run more Cover 2 or whatever: sure that's probably true, in the sense that all coaches have their schemes that they like to run when they have the personnel to do it. Lovie doesn't, and the scheme they've played is drastically removed from the Cover 2 (actually, it's a lot like a 3-4 zone-blitzing system, just played in a 4-3 orientation).


The packers also committed an entire draft to retrofitting the defense. If the question is "will the Bears switch to the 3-4 at any time in the next five years", then, who knows. But clearly that's not an option this year or next year, given that you're not going to be drafting a Terrance Cody-type player at the nose, and you're probably not going to be drafting an OLB that can rush the edge like Matthews. The Packers invested significant resources in the transition, resources which -- because of the Cutler trade -- the Bears do not have.

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Fire Phil Emery