It's really unbelievable how quickly the narrative regarding the Bears offense has turned around.

Emery/Trestman starting to build up some credit in my mind. Obviously his first draft is still a huge question mark (other than Alshon who just might be just short of elite), but free agent signings/2nd draft etc looking rock solid.

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Team Cutler.

They reinvented the offensive line. Everything good that has happened has sprung from their ability to at least pass block since game 1 (run blocking is still a work in progress).

The progress of Alshon has also been remarkable. He is on the cusp of being elite in my opinion. One more season and he is going to make Marshall expendable.

Bennett, even not being elite, has made a huge difference.

I'm at the point with this team that even with all the offensive holes, I say put the pedal down and keep drafting offense. QB, speed WR and 3 down TE would be nice.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Right. McCown has played fine. Made some very good throws. I was impressed. But 22-41 isn't exacly lighting it up. No picks was great. But we also need to remember that both the Packers and Redskins are bottom 5 in pass defense.

The offensive line has also been great the last 2 games.

22-41 with at least 4-5 catch-able dropped passes. Not that it makes it that much better, but still.

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I like that McCown's modest success gives the Bears a bit of leverage with Cutler. Not serious leverage, but a bit. Enough so that drafting a QB in the first round and starting the year with McCown at least sounds like a reasonable option.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

No one is arguing McCown has more talent than Cutler. Clearly Cutler is more talented. The offense has looked a lot better under McCown though. His decision making is superior. While he can't make all the throws that Cutler can he played within himself and didn't force any unnecessary passes into double and triple coverage. He took what was there. That allowed the offense to sustain multiple long drives (How many long drives has Cutler had this year or last year?) and that kept a injury riddled defense off the field. Kyle Orton style of football may be best for this Bears team.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

True. Like I said, very good game.

I like McCowen. He's certainly better than most backups in the NFL.

Just saying Cutler is better and plays once he's fully healthy. Let's not act like Cutler wasn't playing well. He was.

That only works with a good defense, which the Bears do not have.

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If you looked at his stats they would say Cutler was playing at a very high level. If you actually watched the games then the eye test would tell you it's the same Cutler.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

I'm going to disagree. I think the long drives give the defense a lot of time to rest. In short spurts they can still be really good but when you ask them to stay on the field for a very long time because the offense continues to go 3 and out then they are going to get exposed. If the Bears win the time of possession battle I believe this defense is still good enough to win with.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

The Bears have allowed the following amount of points this season;

24, 31, 23, 32, 26, 21, 45, and 20. The Bears defense is not good. It can be good enough to win a couple of games here and there when they can get off the field on 3rd down and force punts like they did last nite, but it is nowhere near good enough to run a "kyle orton style" of offense and still win ~11 games and make the playoffs. That might work against a bad Baltimore team and against the Rams, but it won't work against the Lions, Cowboys, Eagles, or Packers again.

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I gave you my reasoning for it. You selectively edited my post. We will probably find out on Sunday. I imagine the offenses long drives allowed the defense to have enough in the tank to get off of the field last night.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

I think calling it Orton style football is a disservice to both the QB and Trestman. No way Orton engineers five scoring drives, four of which went 60 yards or more, and one of which went 93 yards. Trestman made the QB better this game; in the Orton days, you hoped to give him a short field so he could help you kick a FG or score a TD. That wasn't the style of ball played last night, as evidenced by multiple long scoring drives.

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Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Ortman/McCown, I don't really see much difference.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I always considered the Orton style of football to be taking what is there and not forcing anything. Making the safe play/call instead of going for a homerun. You have to get good production from your RB for that to work and Forte has gotten it done. He loves the Lions defense too so I expect that to continue.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

As I said last night, not starting McCown against the Lions would be criminal. Cutler is not a doctor and therefore should not be telling anyone when he is coming back, which is only for the sake of his own ego and potential for a big payday.

The turf at Soldier Field is a pile of shit, and someone with an iffy groin should not be testing it on a surface like that.

McCown doesn't have the arm strength of Cutler, but I will take a QB that makes good decisions and can run an offense to a T like last night. No INT's and just good decision making was shown last night along with some great play-calling from Trestman. He doesn't need to light it up, look at Russel Wilson's numbers from last week and although they won he was pedestrian.

Run McCown out there for as long as you can, then bring in Pouty McPouterson when he is medically cleared.

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RFDC thinks I'm retarded.

Josh Mccown looks to me like his arm is strong enough. He had some almost perfect tosses in the EZ against the Ravens that were caught but the receivers feet didn't land in bounds,too. Also Marshall dropped a 1st down right in his hands. Josh has been playing at a very high level!

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

Mc Cown has probably added 2-3 years to his career because of Trestman. This guy was as done as anyone a couple of years ago.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

You just have to love this guy!

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