Chisoxfn

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 27, 2014 -> 06:16 AM) I think you might be selling USC a little bit short, they are such a hard time to figure out. Wins @ AZ & vs. Stanford, but then they were manhandled by a not good Boston College team. Then they had ASU and Utah beat for 57 minutes, but completely choked those away. They have the talent to hang with ND, but I don't think the coaching is there right now. Not only have the players not bought into the new head coach yet, I don't think Sarakisian believes in himself yet either. I agree, especially since the game is at the Coliseum and those fans will be pumped up. USC is not elite but they are a good team and on the road that will be a very tough game.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 27, 2014 -> 07:56 AM) I totally get what you're saying, but I do want to stress that benching Cutler and trying a "young QB" is a recipe for 2 years of losing, even if they pull off a high enough draft pick to find their ideal QB this year. It may not show up on the offense but it'll show up somewhere, depth/injuries, weakness on the defensive starters, etc. You're getting a smaller version of that this year based on having Cutler's payroll on the roster AND having $10 million in dead space from finishing Peppers. Teams that lose that large of a fraction of their cap are just doomed. At this point, the way I see it, you either have a young QB and have cap room to spend it on other spots or you don't. In this case, we would have a young QB but not near the cap room because our old QB is still getting paid. The problem I have is, if I don't think Jay is the QB, then I either start finding that QB now or I wait another 2 years while trying to somehow build a team around Jay and therefor don't get started on the QB hunt until 3 years from now (technically after 2 more full seasons). At that point, I could have swung an missed on one QB and be on to my 2nd QB (knowing the Bears it might be the 4th or 5th). I'm a big Jay apologist and one of his bigger fans. I am not saying this is all his fault but the reality is this culture and what has happened here hasn't worked and if it continues, we need to look elsewhere. It is why franchising Jay probably made the most sense this past off-season as in hindsight (20/20) we would be in a far superior position. I still think you can win with Jay as your QB but it is more a kin to being able to win with Orton or Dilfer or other guys than it is to win because of Jay. That means we need to invest in our defense, play good special teams, control the time of possession, etc. If it were me, I'm going all in for Harbaugh. I know people don't like him but the guy has a winning track record and brings a winning personality to the fire and he will not stand losing. I prefer not to have a coach that is a GM but at this point, I'd rather try it if that is what it took for Harbaugh then not. If Jim wants Jay then fine but I let that decision rest in new blood.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 27, 2014 -> 07:48 AM) You cannot stick an $18 million QB on the bench and expect to win in this league without a miracle. That's just too high a fraction of your cap room to overcome getting nothing out of it. Margin for error is thin but you also can't continue to let your lockeroom be stuck with this loser. You just can't. You have to hope you can find a cheap, good young QB through the draft and make way. No one said it would be easy but we better start moving forward vs. staying stagnant and pathetic. They have the rest of the season to convince me otherwise.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 26, 2014 -> 02:09 PM) I don't know, the former NFLers in Jiggetts, Miller, Buffone and OB, thought the scheme for Gronk was awful. In fact, Buffone said TE have been killing the Bears all season, and they don't seem to be mixing it up to try and change it. I am just relaying what they said. I am certainly not a football technician. Yeah. I can say we have personell issues, which we do at LB, but that doesn't ignore the fact that we continue to get outcoached. We are even getting crushed at Trestman's specialty which is why he has to be a fall guy too. All three phases...below average, two of which are as far as I'm concerned, bottom 5 in this league.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 26, 2014 -> 12:06 PM) You can start to see he may become a problem. He is a problem. Cutler and Marshall are freaking losers. Nuff said. I can't believe I was duped by it. Get them away from this franchise and fast. I don't want them tainting Jeffrey who we appear to have forgotten is a very good player. I can't even speak about how pathetic of shape this franchise is in.

QUOTE (Jake @ Oct 26, 2014 -> 11:31 AM) The bummer is that Trestman will lose his job before Cutler. I think Trestman et al. should feel some heat, but if I were the coach I'd feel pissed that I couldn't change my most important position to save my career. His job is in Cutler's hands and those are some uncertain hands. He could but he apparently was on board with the long extension. I am sorry but Jay should not be a Bear next year.

QUOTE (Jake @ Oct 26, 2014 -> 10:57 AM) Supposing you want to dump Trestman at season's end, what top offensive mind will want to come deal with Cutler at this point? It doesn't matter. You let whomever comes her cut Jay or just stick him as a backup and you let them know that he is not our QB. If we lost because of our defense fine, but he is part of the problem. Emery and Trestman have made a complete and utter mess.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Oct 26, 2014 -> 10:57 AM) Briggs has done nothing in 2 years................Tillman was a shell the excuse does not fly with me. They all stink. Kromer is the only one decent cause I still give him credit as an oline coach.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 26, 2014 -> 10:39 AM) Overdue, Williams is just not starting caliber at this moment Its about a month too late. After that Atlanta game there was zero reason Williams should have gotten his job back (unless Sharpton got hurt or stunk).

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 26, 2014 -> 10:32 AM) Remember when we were opening up the playbook this year? I feel like we run 10 plays total. It is becoming more an more evident that with some film, Trestman isn't very smart. We run an extremely vanilla offense and every team in the league knows what is coming.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 26, 2014 -> 10:16 AM) I think it is time Phil Emery gets looked at. This defense is pathetic. And his line that Cutler was elite because of his winning percentage......Rex Grossman has the same career winning percentage. I am with you. At this point, I think an entire change in culture is necessary in Chicago and it starts and ends with Jim Harbaugh.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 26, 2014 -> 10:12 AM) Williams is horrible. I have said it for a few weeks but I can't fathom who is making the decision to start him. He is brutal but the whole team is. At this point, what is best for the Bears is a total collapse and its sad that I say that because what would have been acceptable / okay with a losing record would have been a great offense with a bad defense (at least you can try to address that). But we have a lot of guys making big bucks on the offensive side of the ball that aren't producing. Special teams is just a joke too. At this point, if the season ended today, I would be beyond upset if Trestman kept his job. He has time to save it but it is going to take a lot and it starts this Sunday @ Green Bay.

I didn't even know we waived Sierra.

Madden is a better get then Friedman, imo, for whomever gets him. He is that good of a manager.

QUOTE (staxx @ Oct 24, 2014 -> 09:33 AM) I smell Cubs It will be the Dodgers.

What I find sad is that there is a vaccine for the #2 item on that list. There is also one for the #3 item although from what I recall when I traveled to some places that recommended the medication, it really isn't the types of vaccine that most people think of. Lots of potential side effects and efficacy isn't very good nor does it last long-term. I believe it is more just pills that you take. Unless I'm confusing the vaccines. In reality, the fear regarding the last one would be if it were to spread wide stream we could have a pretty serious problem given that in terms of how it is spread (while not like a cold), it is more contagious then the other contagious disease on that list where there isn't a vaccine of any sort.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 22, 2014 -> 12:14 PM) KC Johnson tweeted that Noah is going to wear a knee brace all season. Apparently his recovery is not going as expected. Is that because of his recovery not going as expected or more just a precautionary matter?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 22, 2014 -> 10:21 AM) San Fran is solid for public transit. LA is a car based city where you can sometimes get places on the bus/rail if you plan for it before you move there. But in reality, the public transportation in Southern California isn't that reliable, accessible nor is it as safe as mass transit in some of the other big cities, imo. I have no statistics to back this up, just my personal perception of the situation.

Not sure if anyone saw the business insider but it talked a lot about how the Bears offense is extremely predictable. Packers players indicated when we line up in certain sets, we always go to same area and same play and that led to a pick. The other issue brought up by Miami was the fact that Jay is staring down wideouts is a more concerning issue from the Jay Cutler perspective as he isn't a young player in this league and at that point it is totally unacceptable. I do think he's done a nice job going to other options and made some nice throws on secondary and third reads, however, we clearly haven't seen many guys outside of our top playmakers make plays have catches. Productivity below those guys has been so minimal vs. when you look at a Rodgers or Manning who spread the ball all over the place. Some of Cutler's peripheral stats, however, indicate improvement. His 67.3 completion percentage through seven games this year is better than any of his previous single-season marks. His 2.7 interception percentage beats all but one of his previous single-season clips, and his 14 touchdowns have him on pace for a career-high.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Oct 21, 2014 -> 09:45 AM) Agreed; Bottom line is, if you look at the good start vs. bad start component and in general your season long statistics are more negatively weighed by bad starts and in general you had much more good starts, then over the course of the season you gave your team a much better chance to win. And in theory, each individual start has its own components that go into it so when you are going bad, often times it stays bad and that isn't necessarily an indication of future starts (you could be feeling off, have a mechanical hitch that can be corrected, etc). It is still a good season stat and telling stat but if a pitcher historically had some mechanical yips that would occasionally show up and cause bad starts, offsite by quick corrections and significant good starts, you could almost correlate that as a trend and identify a player with good value who you could pencil in a few losses and maybe not as good of an ERA (as it will be more largely skewed by the bad games) but in reality a guy who gave you much better overall win probabilities. The key in all of this is that people buy into the fact that when you are going bad you tend to be much worse then when you are going good to average and thus your bad will significantly outweigh the good, which means you need to have shown indications that in reality you tend to be a pretty high upside guy more often then not. One season could very well be an anomaly but over multiple seasons you can see there are guys that tend to be more I'll either give up 3 runs or less and do it majority of time but occasionally I'll give up 7 vs. the guy that will consistently give up 4 with a very rare 1 run game but also more rare 6 run games. By the way, I should also point out we probably should be looking into a lot of other variables in those starts as well, to try to skim through lucky starts, etc. I think you'd want to see what his OPP BAA was, LD%'s, K to BB in those games, etc to see whether he truly was pitching good or are we talking about him getting lucky in a few more starts, etc. Just looking solely at the ERA of those starts isn't enough.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Oct 21, 2014 -> 09:39 AM) I know what you mean but basically Danks averaged one s***ty start per month over a six month season and outside of that one s***ty start, he was pretty good. I'll take that. I believe this is what scs787 is saying, and I agree. Maybe I just prefer rainbows and unicorns, leave me alone you hippo. Agreed; Bottom line is, if you look at the good start vs. bad start component and in general your season long statistics are more negatively weighed by bad starts and in general you had much more good starts, then over the course of the season you gave your team a much better chance to win. And in theory, each individual start has its own components that go into it so when you are going bad, often times it stays bad and that isn't necessarily an indication of future starts (you could be feeling off, have a mechanical hitch that can be corrected, etc). It is still a good season stat and telling stat but if a pitcher historically had some mechanical yips that would occasionally show up and cause bad starts, offsite by quick corrections and significant good starts, you could almost correlate that as a trend and identify a player with good value who you could pencil in a few losses and maybe not as good of an ERA (as it will be more largely skewed by the bad games) but in reality a guy who gave you much better overall win probabilities. The key in all of this is that people buy into the fact that when you are going bad you tend to be much worse then when you are going good to average and thus your bad will significantly outweigh the good, which means you need to have shown indications that in reality you tend to be a pretty high upside guy more often then not. One season could very well be an anomaly but over multiple seasons you can see there are guys that tend to be more I'll either give up 3 runs or less and do it majority of time but occasionally I'll give up 7 vs. the guy that will consistently give up 4 with a very rare 1 run game but also more rare 6 run games.

QUOTE (Downtown518 @ Oct 21, 2014 -> 06:13 AM) Is Matt Davidson Destined to be a Bust? Thanks for sharing. Continues to reiterate that he should not be on anyone's big board. In fact, the deeper point is in the more historical analysis which would indicate if you did the statistical analysis focused by comps based upon his minor league numbers, he often times didn't have good comps. That said its limited data and just one data set as well. Either way, no point in trading him (zero value) but at same time, no one should be expecting anything out of him. If somehow he makes some changes and rebounds and turns into something, great, but It would be a stunning surprise vs. an expectation.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Oct 21, 2014 -> 09:10 AM) It's pretty easy to look good defensively when you're not playing against NBA talent the majority of the time though. I'm still not sold on him defensively. Defense is much more about attitude then skill. If you want to play D, with his athleticism, he should be a great player. Yes, you need some athleticism but a lot of being a good defender has to do with focusing on it and bringing the energy and intensity necessary on the other end of the court. Lebron is going to bring the best out of the Cavs defense. Plus he's just an insanely talented defensive player. A generational defender (let alone his offensive game). Dude is just incredible and to be frank, I can't help but root for him despite my immediate disdain after the decision.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Oct 21, 2014 -> 09:14 AM) Favre threw a lot of TD's as well. Which this year, by and large, Jay has done. Jay has gotten ripped too many times when he didn't deserve it that when he does deserve it, which he did for the Dolphins game, that I'm sure it appears worse. It never ceases to amaze me how bad and reactionary some Bear fans are. Oh well, tis sports. Either way, I like hearing what Trestman did in the 2nd half but is that the same excuse from the games earlier this year where there was no running game? Was Jay really the one deciding not to throw deep balls the first 4 to 5 weeks of the season? I think there are more issues to go around and I also wonder if we'll start to see Trestman get a little more involved in the play calling again. Remember, last year Tresty called the plays and this year it is Kromer.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Oct 21, 2014 -> 08:59 AM) He made Kyrie look foolish. There's a few things Kyrie Irving is good at, defense is not one of them. The Cavs are going to have some struggles at the start. The Big 3 in Miami had 3 solid defensive players in LeBron, Bosh, and Wade. Love and Irving have yet to prove themselves as defensive assets. In fact, they're more likely to be defensive holes than assets at this point. It'll be interesting to say the least. Kryie actually played pretty good defense this summer in the tournament. I think a lot of people are underselling Kryie and the strides he seems to have made to his game. His big thing is staying healthy (similar to Rose although Kryie is clearly the better guy to bet on in terms of good health).