CheezWizHed

Next you'll tell me that a 1/4 lb burger is smaller than a 1/3 lb burger! My 1 in 1000 was hyperbole.

Which is bigger at this point? Rodger's chip from being slighted by the 49ers during the draft or his desire to play for the hometown team? We all know the Rodger's ego part is going to be the biggest of all...

I don't seek Walker being nearly as expensive as Tom. If Walker did leave, moving Tom to LT should be an obvious move.

Yeah, I knew my 1 in 1000 was hyperbolic. 4 out of 100 still isn't great.

I was saying that I believe the Bears can beat anyone in the playoffs. It isn't about can they beat the teams, but how likely it will be. It might take the Bears 1000x before that 1 time occurs. Even if our odds are better, it is probably 1 in a 1000 that we beat all three consecutively to merely get to the SB.

The slot value of the pick was lost when he didn't sign. But since they saved money on other picks to sign Levonas to an over-slot value, all that over-slot money was available to sign other picks.

Sure, they can beat anyone they draw, but at what odds? The Bears can beat anyone they draw too. Without Alexander and Williams, our odds are pretty low, IMO. Especially when you have to string together three straight games of beating the odds just to get TO the Superbowl.

Yeah, I was just thinking about the narrative of "we don't need a #1 WR" and how that has played out this year. I'm scratching my head on what happened to Reed this year. He's been a ghost. Doubs is a good possession receiver but mostly a good #2. Watson made some nice strides this year and has become more than the deep threat, but injuries stall his progress. Wicks has some upside, but he hasn't made any moves toward improving this year at all. I've actually started wondering if we need a better WR coach or a WR vet to help teach the kids. Perhaps Davante would help in that role. Other team needs: CB: Probably only Valentine and Nixon survive this year. Alexander is trending badly and Stokes will probably look elsewhere. This might be a FA target, however. Or a FA/Draft double dip? C: Myers is probably gone and Monk hasn't been active at all. DE: This needs to be a FA. I can't imagine another #1 draft pick here. So much draft capitol wasted. DT: Clark has been better with his toe healed. Wyatt has been good at pass rush, but not run. Slaton has been ok against the run, but nothing otherwise. Brooks has flashes, but isn't a complete player. Wooden is JAG. Solid depth, but no playmakers here at all. T: Depends on Morgan. Is he a G/T or just a G? Need some depth here. Probably another G/T in the 4th round. Gutekunst gets flack for having draft errors (especially DEs in the 1st round). While that is true, there isn't anyone with a perfect draft record either. Where he has done better than TT is that he covers his draft errors with smart FA pickups. I'd expect to see two FAs at the CB, DE, or perhaps C positions.

I was at my in-laws so I ended up watching that whole game (I wouldn't bother at home). First game I've seen of Colorados', and they certainly weren't impressive. Lots of talk about Sanders being a top draft pick, but he looked massively confused out there. He is going to drop or need a lot of development to be ready to read NFL defenses if that one game is an indicator. Interestingly, the BYU coach said that they would put out coverages that he hasn't seen in previous games, too. Hunter looked much better at WR than DB, but pretty meh at both. Granted, a WR needs to have his QB help him to look good too. Pretty shocking to see two top 10 NFL picks (and one being the Heisman winner) do absolutely nothing out there.

I guess you'd question the 49ers also since they couldn't coach Campbell either? Or what about Z Smith? He hasn't lasted anywhere for very long (despite actually producing). Sometimes people just aren't team players. I tend to think some of this is a Joe Berry hangover too. But if Alexander doesn't play again this year, he shouldn't be back. He seems to have a low tolerance of "don't want to play against JJ or St. Brown and embarrass myself".

Love is still very young in his ability to read D, adjust, and make plays happen. He is a very good QB when things are there for him.... I don't see much in the way of adjustments, and he has very poor situational awareness. The result is very sporadic offense. Sometimes he plays like he is on fire, but when he is being challenged, he doesn't change coverages, look for a quick "out", or hurt the blitzer's area. Yes, with a very, very good defense, you can win a SB with him. But I think his chances are low until he can play "smarter" football. You are going to have games where everything goes your way (Dallas last year), but then you have other games where it goes badly and I don't see a QB that can "will" his way to a win. Hopefully he will get there, but until he does, I think he has a very low chance of being a SB winning QB. (Hopefully I'll eat those words).

Other observations: Cooper is a player. He just looks different out there. Reed disappeared after the bye. He was averaging 69 yd/gm before the bye and 27 yds/game after; including 6 against the Vikings, 0 against Detroit, and 23 against Chicago. We spent a lot of money and draft picks on our pass rush for it to be this bad. Gary just isn't going to be that stud pass rusher. No one else looks like it either. Time for a FA I guess. Bullard looks lost at safety. Not bad at nickel, but surprisingly bad at safety. The OL was a sieve in pass block mode. I tend to believe this was mainly bad communication at picking up blitzes. We need more plays where TE/RB are the primary target. I don't know if our reads are deep to shallow so that Love never gets there or what... but we have great success when he does target TEs and RBs. We just don't do that much. I think MLF made the right calls on 4th down, even though the one conversion didn't work (that was a terrible play call though on 4th). The other 4th down was a pretty long conversion, and the FG made more sense there. Our defense should've seen the last play to Ham coming... He was WIDE open the first time they called it. MN made it hard on themselves, but that should've been easy money.

Love is a good quarterback, but this season has shown that he has a long way to go to be a great one. His situational awareness is terrible. The Vikings getting the FG at the end of the 1st half (despite the horrible offsides flag) is mainly on his shoulders. 1:30 to go in the half, 3rd and 5, and you throw a 30-yard bomb to a double covered WR that wasn't at all open. He makes these decisions SO often. His strength - deep shots - is also his weakness. He goes to it far too often. And kills drives by doubling up on low percentage plays back-to-back. The Vikings defense shows exactly where Love struggles. Early in the game, they pressure, play man, and close to the LOS. Love can't seem to identify the blitz or at least change the coverage to protect himself. Nor does he change routes to give himself a quick out? Brady had some good comments about how the checkdown sometimes needs to be your first read. I don't think Love gets this at all. Late in the game, they drop into a prevent defense and Love is able to find room to make completions. There he moves the ball and finds WR open.... because the defense is giving it to them. He can't seem to "create" the plays based on a strong defense. I'll say the second half points he scored against the Vikings are a paper tiger. If you can only score when their D is in prevent, then that doesn't say much for you as a QB. Love has a lot of great physical qualities as a QB, but he needs to become MUCH smarter at QB to really be a SB champion.

I really hope this isn't true. JA has been frustrating these past two years, but he is still a great CB. I figured last year was a bad case of the Joe Barrys, but if he still has attitude problems while playing on this team with a new DC that puts him in good places to succeed... well goodbye. He can go play with De'vondre Campbell.

Beating the Vikings will give them a great psychological advantage come the playoffs. And this week the Packers are both my first and second (whoever plays the Vikings) favorite teams.

I don't care about seed... Let's beat MN now! Beyond my perfectly rational hatred of all things purple, there is an element of beating a good team. We have a good and talented team - as much talent as anyone. But we still need to learn the art of winning. That is especially true of Love... The team needs to know how to make clutch plays, when to take a shot and when to check down, how to adjust to someone beating them 1on1, etc... Love is improving, but that 3-and-out by taking multiple big shots after the fumble yesterday was an indicator of poor judgment when ball control and clock-killing should've been the focus. (He did the smart thing when he had a shot later for Watson, but took the easy 1st down with Kraft underneath).

And we get the shut-out to top it also.

Nice. An Oladapo sighting.

Nice to have a closer in football.

MLF/Love continues to burn timeouts because we can't get plays run on time (well that one was earlier).

Nice catch Reed. Now who else can I complain about?

I'd guess if it was close, that he'd be out there. I'm reminded how bad Troy and Joe are as announcers...

That was inZayne! (there you can complain about my puns)

I'm surprised at how Reed just disappeared in the passing game these last 8-10 games... (except those handoff "passes). And remember when we worried about missing FGs? Goodness McManus has been good.

The new 20 year old fad?