lostfan

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 26, 2009 -> 12:35 PM) The lines have been at least decent for as long as I can remember. This is just terrible. I don't think the defensive line is anywhere near as bad as the offensive line though. This is probably the worst it's ever been since I've been a Bears fan.

Has the Bears' line ever been this bad? I can't recall it being worse than this during this decade or even for the s*** teams in the 90s.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Oct 26, 2009 -> 09:48 AM) That's got more to do with injuries than anything else I'd argue. They rely so much on Jamal Williams, and he's out for the season, while Merriman's a shadow of what he used to be. You lose that kind of production in your front seven, it's going to hurt your whole defense obviously. They're pretty much the same as the Bears defensively this season though FWIW. Same thing that happened in Chicago. My point being that he had probably the best D-line in the NFL at the time, an All-Pro MLB and WLB, and a decent secondary with one of the best safeties in the NFL. Anybody could look good running that scheme with those players, and the players made him look good. When he lost those players (Harris hurting his knee/hamstring, Urlacher's play declining because of the back/neck, Brown having the worst luck ever) he made no adjustments worth mentioning. Babich was not any good obviously, but he inherited the same problems. Rivera benefited from good fortune and his success wasn't from his "genius" at game-planning either (see Carolina in the playoffs 2005, see Super Bowl 41).

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Oct 26, 2009 -> 09:17 AM) My response to this would be how would you expect to fill all of those holes that you've mentioned in 1 off-season? From an outsider's point of view, when the Bears were a real succesful team, it was because of their defense and especially the strength of their defensive line. I think the Bears D-Line is still probably in the upper echelon in the NFL especially when you compare it to other teams, but they haven't lived up to potential so far. That says more about the coaching IMO. I still think they really miss Ron Rivera for all of the heat that he got in the end, because they certainly haven't been the same since Babich took over. Rivera is nothing special in San Diego, either.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Oct 26, 2009 -> 09:18 AM) Are there any top notch lineman hitting FA this off-season FWIW? No, but none of the OLs the Bears had were top-notch either (Ruben Brown used to be, but not when he was with the Bears). Basically, don't sign FAs like Frank Omiyale.

Norton just blocked an "intrusion attempt" from my own computer while it was trying to do something I just told it to do. Solid.

There's still free agency for the OL. The last good line the Bears had (2006) was made mostly of free agents. It's less than ideal because it's expensive, but it's not at all impossible to fix an offensive line in a relatively short amount of time. Just replacing Omiyale and Kreutz (yes, Kreutz sucks now) with average talent is a big improvement.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Oct 26, 2009 -> 12:44 AM) I agree with those who think Lovie Smith's message might be starting to fall flat with this team and thus a new coach could be in order soon, but why isn't Jerry Angelo taking more heat? Yes he brought in Jay Cutler, but he didn't fix a single hole on this team other than QB this offseason. Both the offensive and defensive lines are trash, the lack of LB depth is being exposed since there are injuries there, the secondary is a joke, the WR's are a pile of crap that Cutler makes look decent at times, Forte is starting to look like Anthony Thomas 2.0. This team has a major talent deficiency problem, and even though the Cutler move was OBVIOUSLY the right move and maybe Gaines Adams will work out as Adewale's replacement, a team that doesn't draft well at the top of the draft as is and has a lot of holes to fill is missing quite a few draft picks. There aren't enough picks to fix all the holes on this team, and we know not to expect a spending spree in free agency (and those don't always work either). It's a mess right now, the hardest thing to find is a QB and the Bears have a good one, but besides that, so much needs to be fixed. The schedule is favorable for the Bears to put up a decent record, but it's going to be very hard to finish ahead of Green Bay and even harder to catch Minnesota. I don't know how you could call Forte Thomas Jones 2.0 after you just pointed out how bad the O-line is, especially after seeing the former suckfest that was Cedric Benson destroy the Bears D behind good run blocking he didn't have in Chicago.

QUOTE (Brian @ Oct 25, 2009 -> 06:43 PM) Hanie should definitely be out there. No need to risk injury. I got friends on facebook, 3 of them, that are saying we shouldn't of traded all those picks for Cutler. Sometimes I hate Chicago fans even though I am one. I've seen a few comments in various places on the internet to that effect, that we traded picks and got rid of a better QB in Orton etc., comments from people that don't have a clue about football outside of the W-L record and the QB's stat line. What could Orton have possibly done today? He'd have probably been sacked 8 or 9 times. And there would still be no running game.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Oct 25, 2009 -> 06:44 PM) I completely agree, but is there a more overrated player than Greg Olsen? It might fall on Turner's shoulders, but he's making way less of an impact then I thought he would this year. I don't think Olsen has ever really been "rated" since being in the NFL. He's never done anything that worthy of praise, really.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Oct 25, 2009 -> 06:02 PM) Ya don't say? I couldn't tell if you were being serious or if you were just daydreaming.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Oct 25, 2009 -> 06:00 PM) Is there a worse starting OL in the NFL than Omiyale? I believe he is legitimately the worst starter in the NFL. I think he would actually be more effective if he just fell over on every play.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Oct 25, 2009 -> 05:59 PM) Bears could have an All-Star coaching staff with FAs... HC: Shanahan OC: Gruden DC: Crenell Hire Herman Edwards as DB Coach and replace everyone else but Marinelli and Toub. Not a chance.

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Oct 25, 2009 -> 05:39 PM) Shanahan, Holmgren, Chuckie, Cowher I'd take any of them. Shanahan please. No Cowher

The playcalling on offense has been horrible, as usual. This is about the worst I've seen this defense play in years.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 25, 2009 -> 10:37 AM) Remember, Bay left the major facepalming moments for part 2. Sommers doesnt exactly have the best resume when it comes to continuity and believability either. G.I. Joe requires a complete and total suspension of disbelief, there is nothing realistic about it whatsoever. You realize this about 5 minutes into the movie. I was fine with that.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 25, 2009 -> 10:07 AM) um.... its G.I. Joe. You are seriously picking apart the writing? Actually no, that wasn't what I was trying to say, it'd be silly to be too picky on that kind of movie too much. The action was awesome, big dumb summer blockbuster fun. I just thought it was really lame for them to go so far as to and then say nothing, absolutely nothing about it for the rest of the movie. It's not like it was a "Luke, I am your father" bombshell either because you already knew it happened, if you're not going to bother to address it why mention it at all? They may as well have run a trailer for "G.I. Joe 2, coming summer 2010!" Oh another minor annoyance in the movie was when they showed a flashback scene for Duke where he's wearing his dress uniform and he has on major rank. In the movie's present, Duke is a captain in the Army. Whoops. Being a veteran totally ruins these things, I can't help but to notice and they stick out like a sore thumb. Having said that I would take G.I. Joe over Transformers 2 any day. There were no obvious facepalming "why the f*** did they put this in the movie" moments like with Transformers 2.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 25, 2009 -> 08:39 AM) He had a lot of swagger and hype coming out of college, and I think that made people like me and you(who were between 7 and 11 at the time) think that he was much better than he was. I know exactly how you feel, I remember hearing all about him how he was gonna be the future, and you look back and see he wasnt much of anything. He did have a few pretty good seasons with the Colts IIRC He had a respectable career, I wouldn't say he was terrible but definitely nothing to write home about. I was just surprised to see how few yards he threw for. He could run, though.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Oct 25, 2009 -> 02:19 AM) Thanks for the remembrance of Craig Krenzel and Jonathon Quinn and the like. You threw up in your mouth too? I remember liking Harbaugh like most Bears fans did, but I went back and looked at his stats and he was really mediocre. Maybe that's just because throwing for 3000 yards is more common in today's NFL or maybe it was just because he played on some s*** teams, but he was not very good.

I got 23/28. Forgot about a couple because I can only remember so far back due to age, and a couple of these guys I've never even heard of. http://www.sporcle.com/games/chicagobearsqbs.php

I just watched G.I. Joe on Blu-Ray (it doesn't come out until the 4th... heh... there's ways) and while the action in the movie was pretty awesome they left a pretty MAJOR plot point unaddressed at the end, and pretty blatantly. I understand they were setting up for a sequel, but damn. At least TRY to advance that plotline a bit.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Oct 24, 2009 -> 05:17 PM) I was surprised with Four Brothers. Much better than I expected. Even Mark Walhberg was tolerable. I don't know if my opinion is in the minority, but I think Wahlberg is a really good actor.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Oct 24, 2009 -> 12:26 PM) He was still ten runs better then Chris Getz. He was shaky at SS, because he'd never played there before. Getz is the more worthy utility man, becasue Nix is the drastically better 2b. You're being awfully generous - he was brutal at SS. Enough to make me feel stupid for suggesting he see extended time at SS earlier in the year.

His defense wasn't flawless by any means at all, it was flashes of brilliance at times, and extremely erratic at others.

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Oct 24, 2009 -> 07:14 AM) Not really because at worst we'd have a defensive specialist at a very weak offensive position. Everyone always complains about how we don't play any defense and then when we do get a great defender who is also at least as good offensively as the next best option, you all just want to cast him aside. Makes sense to me too. I'll spot you Brian Anderson and Juan Uribe, both of whom were terrible offensive players. Name me another defensive specialist Sox fans wanted to cast aside whose offensive ability wasn't embarrassing at least?