Ten F bombs for those Keeping Score.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

I wouldn't mind wide receivers. I see too many passes hit these guys in-between the numbers, or go right through their hands to blanket-blame Orton. Sure, Orton is in the Jim Miller mold, but there's only so much I can blame on him. Said another way, John Elway can't make Booker catch passes.

I'm happy we're using the tight end as of offensive weapon, but this overuse of Forte in several roles does not bode well. He'll get hurt, and that'll be that.

The D? Urgh. They aren't who they used to be.

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Middle Aged Crazy, like Uncle Terry

i dont think it was a pitiful season. they did pretty well with what they had. one stupid play cost them though - squibbing that kick at the end of the atlanta game. stupid call and lousy execution.

Yeah, but the problem then becomes that their blitz and stunt schemes are pretty ineffective. It seems like their blitzes are almost always picked up by the offense.

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There's no denying that. But they don't play much cover two even when they're not blitzing. I'm not arguing the defense is optimal; if I were to shitcan one coach, it'd be Babich (and NOT for Ron Rivera). But it seems like blaming the cover-two has become the 2008 version of move Zorich to Linebacker. If you think the Bears are the same or even similar tampa-2 defense they were in 2005 or 2006, you either haven't been watching or can't read a defense.

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Fire Phil Emery

When you play the same defense every single game, other teams are going to pick up on it. Simple as that, right? I mean... my younger cousins can pick up on the same blitzes I through at them in a game of Madden for crying out loud.

you fix it by getting one good WR and one decent WR.

the defense has one more good year left in them...

the OL should be better with Chris back next year and St. Clair moving...

They're just fine at QB, unlike what eveyone else thinks...

they're OK at RB now...

and special teams have still been pretty decent overall.

So two WR's and put Devin in for special teams and maybe a couple gimmick plays on offense.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

We should have mixed emotions about this year. We should be happy that the Bears far outpaced expectations, that we may have found our QB and RB's of the future, that at the end of the season, both Greg Olsen and Devin Hester had shown dramatically improved play, and that we may have found a KR man to replace Devin Hester. We should be upset about the fact that we had a shot to make the playoffs and we couldn't do it, which likely means we would've got smoked on the road by a real playoff team. We should also be upset that our Defense far underperformed from their pay grade and from their overall perceived talent level. We should be upset that Bob Babich seems lost when it comes to strategy to combat NFL teams, that we have zero pass rush, that Tommie Harris' knee may never get better meaning his explosion that made him so good could be gone forever, that 1/2 our LB's have regressed, and that our secondary is suffering from both below average play and no pass rush help meaning they are being asked to cover NFL receivers for 4-5 seconds, which is basically impossible.

The Bears will have to address the pass rush. To have such a dominant run defense, but an average to below average defense due to an inability to get after the QB is a disgrace. Ogunleye and Tommie Harris disappeared. Mark Anderson was clearly a one year wonder. The Bears need help up front to get after the QB and help in the LB corp in terms of better gameplanning and blitz design. I don't believe we can adequately judge our secondary this year because there isn't a secondary in the league that can consistently cover NFL caliber WR's for 4-5 seconds without someone coming open. No pressure on the QB will lead to an open receiver eventually every time. If you see an NFL QB standing back there with all day to throw, whether its a Bears game or any other game, in the NFL you'll probably see a completion 95% of the time barring a drop. NFL QB's are typically too good to be given that kind of time to complete a pass. The trick to negate that talent level is to shorten their window to make a decision. We didn't do that.

I'm not going to get into the Berrian argument. I think its ridiculous. Trying to draw a negative correlation from not giving a sub 1,000 yard receiver a $42 million contract, making him one of the 5 highest paid WR's in the NFL, on a team that actually took a very large step forward, is ridiculous. The Vikings made a big mistake in giving this guy $42 million dollars. In a season where Green Bay collapsed, I doubt the Vikings thought they would have much competition for this Division. They improved just as much as the Bears improved (2 games better) despite signing Jared Allen and Bernard Berrian to massive contracts as huge additions to their team. We added nobody and improved just as much.

Tillman made a critical mental mistake this year in Tampa that we couldn't have. He also turned more big plays in terms of forcing turnovers that probably won us or kept us in 1/3 of our victories this season. Does that make the Tampa play OK? Absolutely not, but he's not a bad CB because of that. I didn't see Tillman get burned that much this year. The Bears play a lot of zone, so Tillman isn't often asked to man up on anybody, so I'm not sure how he's getting burned "on a regular basis". Seems like an exaggeration. How many "burned" plays are really safeties who are not getting over the top in time, while Tillman is trailing in the hip pocket like he's supposed to in the zone? Tillman is fine. His play is dramatically underrated and I believe he's still an elite Cover 2 CB in the NFL.

How do you forsee them getting these WRs?

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

Not sure what happened to Vasher this season. Clearly he is playing for his life. If he loses his job to Corey Graham this offseason, I believe the Bears will cut or trade him because they will be reluctant to keep a guy with a $4 million a year contract as a bench warmer.

Mike Brown is an outstanding FS/SS in the NFL. He simply cannot stay healthy. That has to have something to do with his size. He's barely 200 lbs. and he's a heavy hitter, so his body takes a beating. That being said, Brown will probably be given another 1 year deal. If he accepts, the Bears will need to make sure we have a better insurance policy on the roster than we currently have. Steltz did not show that he's ready for that job next year and Danieal Manning a quality Nickel. Brown could also get a multi year offer from someone else and take it, in which case the Bears need his replacement. Either way, we need to add a Safety.

Manning played fine in the Nickel role. That seems to be all he is capable of playing. He struggled as a Safety and as a CB, but in his defense, the guy never gets a chance to settle into any one position. They are constantly moving him all over the place. Its no wonder that he's often out of position. He's got to be confused as hell. We know he's an outstanding athlete, so I believe they need to turn him into Jerry Azumah and that appears to be what they've got in mind.

Kevin Payne. We disagree here. Of all of the things to knock this guy about, I'm shocked that you spent the whole time bashing his tackling ability. The guy is in the hole stuffing ball carriers on a regular basis. Because you saw one missed tackle or two, bashing him is a little ridiculous. His struggles are in coverage. Payne is simply not that fast. He's a run stuffing Safety. The Bears are playing him high quite a bit and then wondering why the guy is not getting to his assigned position on the field before Andre Johnson or Calvin Johnson. He's not that fast. Its not rocket science. This guy needs to swap positions with Mike Brown and be the Safety in the box. He's among the league leaders in INT's and Tackles for SS in the NFL. That doesn't happen by accident. He led the Bears in INT's and was a league leader in INT average return yards at nearly 36.5 yards per return, which is outstanding. Not bad for what was basically his rookie year after getting placed on IR last year for a broken forearm. We have other issues. This isn't one of them.

I didn't say they could do it...but there's no point in improving anywhere else if they come back next year with the same group of recievers. Lloyd's the best of the bunch and he's a third reciever at best on a good team. Hester is a joke as a wide reciever. The rest of the corps is so bad, he looks good by comparison. He's not a good WR. Period. On any good playoff bound team he'd be a 4th WR.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

The lack of ability to make any kind of adjustments during the game stands out to me...so I guess that would be Lovey and the rest of the coaching staff.

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Seriously?

We are looking at this from two different point of views, which doesn't surprise me. I picked this team to be 9-7, they were 9-7. I believe the primary blame for our flaws on Defense, which I believe was our major problem, go to Bob Babich. So should Lovie and Angelo catch some heat for that? Absolutely. But if you picked this team at 6-10/5-11, they had 2-3 more wins that those types of predictionsl. So they performed much better than you anticipated and the first thing you are looking to do is trying to hand out blame for things? I think that says a lot. How about some credit for finding Orton and Forte? If a team outpaces expectations, they deserve credit. If they miss the playoffs, let's find our weaknesses and address them, but come on.

Just because they blitz more doesn't mean its not the Cover 2. Cover 2 is when the Mike LB drops back into coverage and the DB's back off the WRs. Most teams jam the WRs to get them out of sync. The Cover 2 allows the WRs to run free until they find the holes in the defense.

Yeah they blitzed a lot this year, because they had too. The Front four weren't getting enough pressure. CB and Safeties are still playing Cover 2. It might not be the "text book" Cover 2 but it is still the Cover 2.

Expectations change during the season. I picked this team to have 5 wins tops, but they showed they were better than that, the division overall was not good, and a playoff berth was there for the taking. Thus, failing to make the playoffs makes this season pitiful.

Same with the Cubs and Sox this past year. I did not expect they Sox to win more than 83 games or so, but by mid-season it was clear that Detroit and Cleveland were going nowhere, and I fully expected the Sox to win the division- they did. The Cubs blitzed everybody and had thier eyes set on a much bigger goal than what they actually acheived.

Angelo and Lovie also have to take blame in thier talent evaluations. Mark Bradley, Dan Bauzin, Dvorcheck, Jamar Williams, etc etc etc were big misses. Now, either that falls on Angelo for drafting them, Lovie for not evaluating thier talent correctly, or both of them for talent evaluation and miscommuniation between the coaching staff and GM.

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Angelo. Year after year of bad drafting? Not fair. What are the NFL Draft success rates per round on average? I'd guess they look something like this:

1st round: 70%
2nd round: 50%
3rd round: 35%
4th round: 25%
5th round: 17%
6th round: 10%
7th round: 5%

Undrafted: 2%

If those are accurate, and I think they are pretty close, then if you take 7 draft picks as a whole, the average GM would have about a 30% overall success rate per draft. Reduce that figure to about 20-25% due to the fact that the average GM has multiple supplemental picks which tend to weight their overall draft to the later rounds (for instance, the Bears had five 7th round picks last year. With a 5% success rate, the odds were against them that any of them would make it in the NFL. On the whole, that means that the average NFL team should pull about 3 long term players per Draft (with supplemental picks, the average team has more than just 7 picks). The best teams would pull 4 consistently. An outstanding Draft would pull 5 players, which is still 50% or so failing. Bad Drafts would have 1-2 picks per Draft contribute.

Some like to judge by impact players, for example, saying over the past 5 years, the Bears have 4 "impact" players...Let's review the New England Patriots during the same time frame:

2008 - New England Patriots
Rd Sel #PlayerPositionSchool
1 10 Jerod Mayo OLB Tennessee
2 62 Terrence Wheatley CB Colorado
3 78 Shawn Crable OLB Michigan
3 94 Kevin O'Connell QB San Diego State
4 129 Jonathan Wilhite CB Auburn
5 153 Matt Slater WR UCLA
6 197 Bo Ruud LB Nebraska

In the 2008 Draft, they had 0 impact players. Mayo was a starter, but he had
0 sacks, 1 FF, and 0 INT's, which probably doesn't qualify him as an impact
guy, or you need to count Kevin Payne for the Bears. Other than Mayo, their
entire draft is garbage so far.

2007 - New England Patriots
Rd Sel # Player Position School
1 24 Brandon Meriweather DB Miami (Fla.)
4 127 Kareem Brown DT Miami (Fla.)
5 171 Clint Oldenburg T Colorado State
6 180 Justin Rogers LB Southern Methodist
6 202 Mike Richardson DB Notre Dame
6 208 Justise Hairston RB Central Connecticut State
6 209 Corey Hilliard OT Oklahoma State
7 211 Oscar Lua LB USC
7 247 Mike Elgin G Iowa

In 2007, Meriweather is an impact guy. He's a playmaker and a quality starter.
The rest of this draft is garbage.

2006 - New England Patriots
Rd Sel # Player Position School
1 21 Laurence Maroney RB Minnesota
2 36 Chad Jackson WR Florida
3 86 David Thomas TE Texas
4 106 Garrett Mills RB Tulsa
4 118 Stephen Gostkowski K Memphis
5 136 Ryan O'Callaghan T California
6 191 Jeremy Mincey LB Florida
6 205 Dan Stevenson G Notre Dame
6 206 Le Kevin Smith DT Nebraska
7 229 Willie Andrews CB Baylor

In 2006, the Patriots only impact guy is a 4th round Kicker. Maroney is yet
to have a season with over 900 yards or 7 TD's and is constantly injured. Chad
Jackson is a bust and the rest of this draft is garbage.

2005 - New England Patriots
Rd Sel # Player Position School
1 32 Logan Mankins G Fresno State
3 84 Ellis Hobbs CB Iowa State
3 100 Nick Kaczur T Toledo
4 133 James Sanders S AFFresno State
5 170 Ryan Claridge LB Nevada-Las Vegas
7 230 Matt Cassel QB USC
7 255 Andy Stokes TE William Penn

Basically the Patriots best Draft of the group. Mankins and Kaczur are both
starters, Hobbs is a quality player, and Matt Cassel has proved his worth. Overall
a good group. That being said, nearly 40% of this Draft is garbage with guys like
James Sanders, Ryan Claridge, and Andy Stokes.

2004 - New England Patriots
Rd Sel # Player Position School
1 21 Vince Wilfork NT Miami (Fla.)
1 32 Benjamin Watson TE Georgia
2 63 Marquise Hill DE Louisiana State
3 95 Guss Scott S Florida
4 113 Dexter Reid S North Carolina
4 128 Cedric Cobbs RB Arkansas
5 164 P.K. Sam WR Florida State
7 233 Christian Morton CB Illinois

Last Draft to be reviewed. Wilfork and Watson are good. The rest is garbage in this
group. Let's review their overall bust rate and then the number of quality players during
this time.

Bust Rate: Of the 41 players drafted, 9 guys panned out, one of which is a kicker and
another is a backup QB. That equates to an overall Draft bust rate of 78%. In other words,
about 22%, or 1/4 of the Patriots total draft picks actually pan out. I think we would all agree that
the Patriots front office is pretty solid. Are they just horrible drafters? No. This is the nature of the
NFL Draft.

Impact Players: They have four impact guys, one of which is a backup QB.

For the Bears, here are the guys drafted in the same timeframe that have started for the Chicago Bears for meaningful minutes:

I won't count Craig Krenzel or Cedric Benson, because starter or not, they were junk.

From there, you have Nathan Vasher, Bernard Berrian, Tank Johnson, Tommie Harris, Chris Harris, Kyle Orton, Mark Anderson, Dusty Dvoracek, Devin Hester, Danieal Manning, Trumaine McBride, Corey Graham, Kevin Payne, Josh Beekman, Greg Olsen, and Matt Forte. And we all know that Chris Williams will be a starter next year and was probably the starter this year barring injury.

Compare that to the Patriots Draft over the same period. I think when people say that Angelo cannot Draft, they don't really have a good understanding how the NFL Draft works or a realistic perspective of what a good Draft looks like.

Your being too kind to the Weatherman Jerry Angelo...how bout
Ced Benson
Rex Grossman and Dr Haynes DVM instead of Terrell (24 sacks my sr. year) Suggs
Mrs. Garrett (wolfe) two rounds too early at least in rd 3, and the failed checked box.

Also one of the few Offensive draft picks that did work out...He let go to a division rival who enjoyed his 99yd touchdown to take the division lead and his 50 yarder to win it.

Blame Jerry

Well just have to find out about snow some other way

Those seem way high especially the first rounders. 70%? Are u kidding me?
Show me the first round where 21 of them live up to expectations.
Theres just no defending angelos drafting of offensive players

I agree they need 2 new WRs, I just don't see it happening. I know people like to think they will trade for Boldin, but let's be real, it won't happen.

They could draft a guy in the first round, but the likelihood of that being a bust are pretty high and do we really want Angelo drafting a WR in the first round?

Not too much exciting in the FA pool unless Whosyourmomma from Cincy excites you, and he doesn't me.

I just have this bad feeling we have a similar set up at WR next year.

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

This is true. You could honestly say that Reggie Bush is a bust based on his expectations out of USC. Not only was he the greatest thing to come into the NFL since the facemask, he was also pegged to save an entire city.

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And everyone thought Mario Williams was the new Sam Bowie. Turns out Williams is Alonzo Mourning and Reggie Bush is Christian Laettner

they can't just bring back the same crew, can they? There have to be better practice squad players out there...I still think Bennett is the best reciever they have, and he barely sees the field.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

I didnt catch alot of Bears this season but I still dont think Lovie is a good coach. I understand record-wise he is one of the more successful coaches they have had, but he seems pretty bad at coming up with game plans and making in-game adjustments.

They also badly need a pass rusher. Like some others have said, their blitzing schemes are terrible, something that needs to fall on Babich, who is an awful coordinator from what Ive seen, and Lovie for bringing him in when he was clearly unqualified. If there is an elite pass rusher available in the draft I think thats where they should go, but obviously they have more needs. I think Orton will be an average NFL QB. You can win with him with the right pieces in place.

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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

HEY! Lay off Laettner!

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.