Nastradamus wrote:
The offense looked a lot better but I would have liked to see them get the ball in the endzone.
Offense:
1) Grossman's taking allot of heat. But really he wasn't too bad.
His timing has improved every game. He was generally accurate with a few exceptions.
2) Like Grossman, the WRs are taking allot of heat. I'm not a big fan of the unit as a whole but, personally, I was satisfied this time.
There will always be one or two dropped passes and generally they caught what was catchable.
3) Muhammad looked really good. Not withstanding my comment above, anyone wondering what a good WR is supposed to catch should replay the second pass to him where he stretched full out on a dive.
4) The OL gave both QBs good protection.
5) The Bears got very lucky on the interception that was reversed.
The DB had read the slant to Berrian perfectly and he was right in front of him in a position to catch the ball and take it up field had the ball not been tipped.
6) Justin Gage may be in big trouble. Once again, he didn't show up in the game when it counted. He may be the odd man out on a WR unit that was underachieving to begin with.
Defense:
1) Its always frustrating to watch the defense. Its bend but don't break and I know that they're going to give up a lot of yardage. But it seems like they're out there forever.
2) If his attitude after it happened wasn't enough, the report on Alex Brown's injury reminded me of one hard rule. When the initial report is "sprain" inevitably it means "separation" or "tear".
3) The defense looked tired at times. I wonder if it's a result of the easy training camp. They're bound to spend allot of time on the field again this year. This may be a problem to keep an eye on.
4) The unit of the game was the Arizona OL that generally gave very good protection to the Arizona QBs (with two exceptions). It generally wasn't fancy but the Bears were blitzing.
5) I was surprised to see Leinart so soon. I was even more surprised at how well he played. Again, unlike Alex Smith with the 49ers, he played against a Bear defense that, while not exactly fancy, wasn't bland, either.
6) Chris Harris missed another tackle badly along the sideline resulting in an extra 5 yards before Boone made the tackle (and got hurt).
7) I always liked JJ Arrington. The Cardinals are in good shape at RB.
Did my eyes deceive me or did the Bears occasionally show a 3 man front?
Miscellaneous:
1) Robbie Gould's kickoffs were impressive. Assuming he's kicking in the direction the coaches want him to, he's looks great.
2) How disappointing that, after the first two good games, the team made up for it by committing so many penalties. Notably the second team offense stopped committing them and scored.
3) The two biggest questions for Arizona were answered positively (for now). The OL played very well. Their defense was fast to the ball.
Though the DL didn't do a particularly good job of getting pressure on Grossman they were generally pretty bland in their schemes.
Tom S.
Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of witnesses.
-- Margaret Millar