I don't know if this has been addressed or not by you guys in the past 48 hours, but Iwanted to bring up the bears coaching staff and their strategy for SB 41 is anybody is willing to talk about it (If not, understand). To me, SB 41 was a repeat performance of Ron Rivera/Lovie Smith's philosophy in that Carolina Panthers playoff loss in that they don't need to change their defense, they don't need to make any adjustments, and that the players and the system will always prevail for them. I do not get this. They, for the most part, play your basic cover 2 defense; rush four, sit back 7 and don't try to disguise or mix up anything. That was probably the most easy-to-read defense Peyton Manning has had to face in a long time. Not too mention that this is, for the most part, the same defense Peyton has seen from defensive teammates his own guys all year long. Peyton made the correct play call almost everytime during the game because all he had to do was look at what the defense was giving him beore the snap and sure enough the run was there on this play, the pass was there on that play. If it wasn't for the outstanding effort of guys like Brian Urlacher I think this could have been a disastrous loss for the Bears. My question to Bears fans, how pissed are you at the coaching staff after this game. Forget Rex for a minute....

I meantioned that in the Playoff Game 3/3 thread

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May 1, 2007 - CSFMB Civil War
“Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it.”

I agree in large part. While they did occasionally blitz, OB & Doug mentioned that there were no line stunts and the blitzing itself was predictable.

How can a defense coached by Ron Rivera, disciple of both Buddy Ryan and Jimmie Johnson, be so bad at blitzing?

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Ryan, I disagree with you. Marvin Harrison didn't beat them. Reggie Wayne didn't beat them (save for blown coverage by one dope on one play). Dallas Clark didn't beat them. They won by dinking and dunking to Dominic Rhodes and Joseph Addai and controlling the clock. If you would have told me that the Bears were going to shut down the three leading receivers, I would have told you the Bears won the game. They forced THREE turnovers! That should have been enough. The offense was anemic. I have no problem with the defensive game plan. They did get beat on the blitz a couple of times (Wayne's touchdown, Harrison on a crossing route for about 30 yards). PEYTON earned that MVP by not forcing anything and taking what was there. Every defense will have a hole somewhere. Peyton found it.

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"Tubby? Oh yes, Tubby."

If we throw out the Wayne play, then the only play Manning tried to throw down field was a floater picked off by Harris. At that point, Lovie or Rivera should have realized that Manning will not be throwing down field either because of his thumb or because of the down pour. They should have attacked the Colts like they did the Saints; not sit back in cover 2. I think Cover 2 meant only cover Harrison and Wayne.

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May 1, 2007 - CSFMB Civil War
“Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it.”

No disagreement Bulldog. Problem is Lovie/Rivera didn't blitz Manning enough or disguise what they were doing. It was obvious to Manning the entire game. Which is why Urlacher had to run around like an ass monkey. He was always back and then would have to run up when Addai or Rhodes would come up with a catch. The Bears defensive schemes inthe game were never creative nor did they do anything to stop what the Colts were doing in the game. I still believe it was a bad coaching job by the Bears on defense. If you watched the game Urlacher was doing everything in his power he could. You can't give Manning that much time.

throw out the Wayne TD and the fumbles by Rex, Reid, and Benson and it's a different game....

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@audioidkid

Can I throw out the 3 Colts turnovers then too and the Devin Hester TD? Haha!

It wasn't perfect, but it was effective. Other than the Wayne TD (which I realize still counts), they had one offensive touchdown. For the most part, the D tightened up in the red zone.
What killed the Bears was two INTs Rex threw on First Downs when they had the running game going.

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"Tubby? Oh yes, Tubby."

Scott, I'm not saying Rex isn't to blame either, but you are really going to tell me that giving up 191 yards rushing is effective?

sure...you can. Bears would've won then.

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@audioidkid

riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

Can I throw out the Stevie Nicks pregame show? Lost her fastball....in 1986....

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You know me like that.

"If it wasn't for two or three big plays, we would have won the game," Wanny.

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You cannot make me care about the WNBA.

if the Bears would've played the Patriots....if Drew Brees was our QB....
If ifs and buts were candy and nutz.

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@audioidkid

I'm saying that if you have to pick your poison, I'd rather have them try and beat you with Addai and Rhodes than Goober throwing laser rockets to Harrison, Wayne and Clark.

It's kinda like in basketball when you say you're going to focus on shutting down the star and make the role players beat you. Sometimes those guys have career days.

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"Tubby? Oh yes, Tubby."

Bulldog Scott, if you're not getting any pressure by your front four and if its pouring rain, shouldn't you try to make Manning beat you deep with his bad thumb and with a wet football. I don't think he could have done it. At the very least, try it for a series. I would have liked to seen them abandon the cover 2, put ricky manning Jr in the game more, and blitz corners, safties, Urlacher, or Briggs.

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May 1, 2007 - CSFMB Civil War
“Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it.”

It's not like they weren't blitzing at all. And, like I mentioned earlier, they got beat a couple of times when they blitzed.

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"Tubby? Oh yes, Tubby."

and if they do blitz and get beat deep, then everybody is in here saying "they have the best 1-2 WRs in the league and the best QB of all time and we're playing man". They gave themselves the best chance to win, and they could have won playing how they did. The offense fucked them.

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"Tubby? Oh yes, Tubby."

They blitzed the linebackers. They are easy to pick up when the same people blitz from the same formation everytime. I agree that our linebackers are not the best at blitzing, but throw in a corner blitz or a safety blitz. They "faked" blitzed more than actually blitzed which puts you out of position either way.

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May 1, 2007 - CSFMB Civil War
“Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it.”

They sent Ricky Manning Jr at least once and I think twice and he didn't get to Peyton.

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"Tubby? Oh yes, Tubby."

Well, we can second guess all day. I was just saying from a Colts fan perspective that I was shocked to see them play defense the way where I don't think I've ever seen the Manning-led Colts lose. You've got to mix it up. You've got to play into Manning's head. You can't just say here we are, now let's see if you can beat us because he will. He knew when to call runs and when to call passes all day.

Well we will agree to disagree on defense, but I hope you would agree that on offense they should have put Devin hester about 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage and just snapped it directly to him like a punter every single play.

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May 1, 2007 - CSFMB Civil War
“Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it.”

Well I guess we will agree to disagree. But can we all agree that on offense they should have lined up Devin Hester about 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage, direct snap it to him and let him run around like a chicken with his head cut off every time they had the ball.

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May 1, 2007 - CSFMB Civil War
“Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it.”

sorry for the same post my computer froze

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May 1, 2007 - CSFMB Civil War
“Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it.”

Can it be one of my Superbowl XLI Champion pencils Coach?

I'm not trying to say that the Defense played great or the game plan was perfect. The defense played ok and the game plan was unimaginative yet effective enough to hold the best offense over the past 5-6 years to two touchdowns and put them in a postion to take the lead late in the game.

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"Tubby? Oh yes, Tubby."

Can't disagree with that Scott.

only if you sharpen it first Ryan....

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@audioidkid