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Our defense looked solid but the OL was terrible. Cutler won't last the season until that unit learns how to block.

The Bills defense looked good against the Bears which probably says more about Chicago's weak offensive line.

With the exception of the sacks against Chicago's O-Line it was a lopsided contest statistically. The Bears ran all over the Bills defense for a total of 164 rushing yards vs the Bills 89 yards. The Bears had 21 first downs vs the Bills 13, the Bills did have the better passing stat with 101 yards vs the Bears 94 yards.

It was the first pre-season game and I wouldn't put a lot of emphasis on the pre-season games because it is basically practice and as we have seen several times in the past what happens in pre-season is not always what you get in the regular season. Look more at individual players than team stats that's where the important stats are and with the shortened time coaches have to evaluate rookies where their NFL careers are either started or ended.

I just got Lindy's Pro Football 2011 Preview. I could not believe that they rated the Bears Offensive line at a 6.5 out of 10. Tied with us at 6.5 is Philadelphia,San Fransisco, Seattle, and Kansas City. Worse than us rated at 6.0 are Dallas, Atlanta, Buffalo, PITTSBURGH!!!, and Oakland. The Packers are rated at 7.0. The best at 8.0 are Carolina, New England, NY Jets, Cleveland, Tennessee, and lastly Denver.

The Bears ranked tied for 11th in the NFC and tied for 26th in the NFL.

I guess we aren't as bad as we thought but we still need alot of improvement and the Defensive Backfiled is rated the worst of all our position ratings at a 6.0!!!

Food for thinking hmm. Go BEARS!!!

GSH1 and Boy Roy thank you for the video breakdown of the starters. I had always thought that the QB had 3.0 to 3.5 seconds to get rid of the ball. If not it was the OL's fault. You really hit a homerun on this analysis. This really shows why seperation by the WR's in the first second or two is so important.

Maybe with Cutler having this second year under Martz he can cut the sacks down by 1/2 or more by getting rid of the ball faster since he should know where to go with the ball faster this year. Maybe I'm just dreaming too? Of the sacks with the clock that you showed though, none of them were line sacks and all of them were when the QB held the ball beyond 3.5 seconds. Eye opening and really great to learn about and see that video.

Did you notice that on the second sack on Hannie by Merriman, Carimi pancaked his man? You criticized Carimi for the pressure his man got on the QB but as soon as he jumped Carimi pushed him and knocked him down. It looked to me that it was totally Garza's fault and not Carimi's.

One thing about the last three games or so of last season. It looked to me that the DL ran out of steam and couldn't get pressure on the QB like they had earlier in the season. Hopefully with our new additions on the DL this year the DL pressure will last all season long.

QUOTE(#7):

Originally posted 05:12 PM ET  08.17 by bearsfan6522009

GSH1 and Boy Roy thank you for the video breakdown of the starters. I had always thought that the QB had 3.0 to 3.5 seconds to get rid of the ball. If not it was the OL's fault. You really hit a homerun on this analysis. This really shows why seperation by the WR's in the first second or two is so important. Maybe with Cutler having this second year under Martz he can cut the sacks down by 1/2 or more by getting rid of the ball faster since he should know where to go with the ball faster this year. Maybe I'm just dreaming too? Of the sacks with the clock that you showed though, none of them were line sacks and all of them were when the QB held the ball beyond 3.5 seconds. Eye opening and really great to learn about and see that video. Did you notice that on the second sack on Hannie by Merriman, Carimi pancaked his man? You criticized Carimi for the pressure his man got on the QB but as soon as he jumped Carimi pushed him and knocked him down. It looked to me that it was totally Garza's fault and not Carimi's.One thing about the last three games or so of last season. It looked to me that the DL ran out of steam and couldn't get pressure on the QB like they had earlier in the season. Hopefully with our new additions on the DL this year the DL pressure will last all season long.

I seen on one of the Hanie sacks Kellen Davis was wide open for the dump off pass to at about the 12:00 mark of the video, the Q.B. always has to know where their outlet/checkdown is.

The Bears draft or add OLmen to be run blockers first and then plan on teaching up the pass blocking. The Packers drafted an OT Derek Sherrod after we drafted Carimi who is said to be a pass blocker first and hopefully can develop into a run blocker. Different philosophies for different teams. It takes time, but I have no doubts that the Packers would love to have gotten Carimi who is considered to be a devastating run blocker and coachable pass blocker. With our Defense and overall philosophy running the ball is more important especially right now. The Bears would rather run the ball thus control the game and clock vs passing the ball. Passing is important, but which is the most important? Give them especially Tice time to teach them, and I think we will be fine.

You are so right GSH1, Hanie is our backup for just those reasons of holding the ball too long and not seeing open recievers. I'm really optomistic/hopeful that Jay won't have such problems in his second year under Martz. We will see on the 11th of Sept. against the Falcons in Chicago and I for one can't wait.