Jake

Bear in mind also that Eben Britton lined up alongside Mills about 1/5 of the time, which shows you what they think of him/our line. I hope we get to a point where we don't line up an extra OL all the time. Worth mentioning that offensive tackles are in a position where it's very easy to accumulate negative grades given how they can easily influence every play by not doing their job. The distribution of grades for offensive tackles is really wide, maybe wider than any other position. As you might expect, the center grades are fairly narrow since they are often teaming up on a DT and have a hard time f***ing up or really excelling on any given play.

Not much left for Davidson to prove in AAA. You can't just trade ADA for nothing, but Dayan's development is paramount here. The "bad" version of him is really a quite useful player and he doesn't have to reach his ceiling to be great.

Fun fact as I browsed PFF: no OL missed a single snap until Mills left yesterday's game early. Remarkable. Our best cumulative overall PFF grades over the season: Brandon Marshall, by a large margin Alshon Jeffery/Matt Slauson (tie) Josh McCown Our worst players, from worst to less bad: Jordan Mills Shea McClellin Major Wright The next tier of bad players is quite far from that trio, who are all fairly close in terms of their grade. FWIW, Mills's negative is almost entirely clustered in his pass blocking, though his run blocking is negative as well. The one thing Mills did well was avoid penalties, taking just two all year. Compare that to Bushrod's 7, which is still better than average. Marshall finishes with the team's best run blocking grade, but it should be emphasized that WRs have many more opportunities to get positive grades than negative grades, which is not true of linemen who are always in prime position to f*** up a play. Other interesting notes: McCown finishes with 5th best cumulative grade among QBs despite low amount of snaps. Cutler 10th, also fewer snaps than most. Forte dead last out of 55 eligible RB in pass blocking. McClellin 51/52 among 4-3 DE, dead last in run defense and 46/52 in pass rushing. Jon Bostic and AJ Hawk are essentially the same gradewise, both overall and in terms of doing well against pass and poorly against run. Major is dead last out 86 safeties, Conte is 83/86. Major's negative grade was almost twice that of Conte's however, with Wright f***ing up pass coverage much more than Conte while both did terribly in run defense. Podlesh had a late rally to become last-ranked punter. Hester ranks 6th among all returners, in a virtual tie for third after Cordarelle Patterson and Golden Tate, each of whom were in a league of their own at the top.

One of the things about Bostic -- he rated fine in pass coverage on PFF and generally looked quite capable there, which is what I thought he might struggle with. Our defense asks a ton from the MLB in terms of pass coverage, so the fact that he has done a very good job in that regard is very encouraging in that regard. Experience, a better line and linebacking corps, and perhaps coaching can take care of his lack of discipline in the run game. I'm fairly optimistic about him and it's insane to call him a bust or a miss at this point, especially considering the entire cast around him...at some point, it's hard to tell which guys really, really suck and which are the products of a bad supporting cast.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Dec 30, 2013 -> 11:21 AM) The unnecessary roughness call was fine. If you think that you can just pile on a QB after the play is over, in this modern NFL, you haven't been paying attention. The NFL protects QB's to the max and I am fine with that. No one wants to watch a league full of Jason Campbell and Matt Flynn. Mike Pereira tweeted out immediately that it was a bad call.

Japanese pitchers tend to pitch every 7th day FWIW. Whether pitching every fifth day and throwing 105 pitches/start and every seventh day with 115/start are equivalent, it would be difficult to say. I'd say with relative certainty that it is better that they get longer rest when they throw more pitches, but I cannot say how much better it is.

Weaknesses in our lineup: taking pitches, left-handed bats, walks Guys we are trying hardest to dump: Adam Dunn (3rd in the league in P/PA, 13th in BB%, LHH) and Alejandro De Aza (15th in P/PA, 7.4 BB% was second among Sox regulars, LHH). Also it appears Conor Gillaspie could be on the way out - was second on the team in BB% among regulars, though his P/PA was below our team average

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Dec 30, 2013 -> 11:00 AM) It doesn't matter, but on that Rodgers touchdown to Cobb, a cornerback for the Bears just flat out tackles Jordy Nelson about 12 yards down field. It would have been interesting had Cobb dropped that pass. I don't know if tackle is the word, but he definitely dropped him. That was Major Wright, the other safety. They both worked hard to f*** up that play.

Would you rather Lovie get hired in Detroit or Minnesota, in the hypothetical world where he has to get picked by one of them? As much as I'm sick of Lovie and glad he's gone, I really think he's a fine coach. It wouldn't surprise me to see him get a ring one day.

I wish I could have a Samsung Galaxy Note that was the size of their S series

You a contractor or is your employer taking the hit on this one? Hoping for the latter, obviously, lol

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 29, 2013 -> 09:03 PM) A lot of those excuses weren't excuses though. They all had some truth to them. The offensive line, before this year, was awful. Before Marshall got here, his best receiver was Earl freaking Bennett. And how can you argue that the defense is not bad this year? The coordinators thing was an excuse IMO, but Cutler never had a complete offense with the right system around him until this year. And of course, he did improve. A 90 QB rating isn't bad by any means and I think it's the highest of his career. That being said, Josh McCown had a 110 QB rating with the same offense. Although a few of those games were against some of the worst defenses in football, it's still mighty impressive and says a lot about Cutler. All of those excuses were true -- that's why they were/are convincing excuses. The lines were pretty bad, the coaching was questionable, and this year's defense is really f***ing bad. It devolved into a thing that may be one of the worst defenses in recent NFL history. There indeed was a time where Earl Bennett was a breath of fresh air as our best WR, which was emblematic of the crap we ran out there at that position. Unfortunately, Jay has never played past those things. This has easily been Jay's best year as a Bear, as it should have been with literally everything going for him. He has the best WR tandem in football, an easy top 5 RB, a revamped line, a true weapon at TE, and a brilliant offensive coordinator. We usually lose because of the defense. McCown was important this year. He showed how simply being semi-accurate, tough, and on top of the mental side of the offense was enough to guide such a talented team to some great offensive production. Maybe it wouldn't overcome the defense, but what do you expect with a journeyman QB? Cutler can do all kinds of stuff that McCown can't and often does those things, but the mental side of Cutler's game looks like a rookie's up against McCown's with all this talent around. If I'm going to go with the expensive QB, I want it to be the guy that at least sometimes will overcome this adversity. Any ol' McCown off the street can win the games the opposing team gives to you. If we're going to go for the big name, big paycheck guy, what I want is a guy who has some history of being so good that he often overcomes all the other bulls***. Today's game could easily, in a vacuum, look like an accumulation of luck for Aaron Rodgers. Over time, though, it seems rather expectable that things would go the way of Aaron Rodgers because he is great and it just doesn't matter that his defenses and offensive lines usually suck.

I think the strikeouts seem to be the problem because the real problem is a lack of plate discipline. Strikeouts are one of the results of bad plate discipline, so strikeouts confirm our notion that our team lacks plate discipline. What was really sapping our offense were the other aspects of bad plate discipline, namely taking walks and hitting situationally.

Let's put it this way: it seems like the team could win if it had a really great QB and a barely passable defense, something that's just a little better than one of the worst rushing defenses in history. It could also win with a Cutler-y, average or above-average depending on the circumstances QB, and a decent but not top 10 defense. I fear that we're getting "good enough to win with a decent defense" QB play while putting in ourselves in a position where it will be difficult to make that defense average. The worst of both worlds.

You know how people felt like that weird fumble play is something that just never happened with Lovie Smith at the helm? I think Jenks and I think winning is something that just never happens with Cutler around. He's become a middle of the road QB and he consistently quarterbacks middle of the road teams. He has had a variety of different circumstances that can explain that -- s***ty defense now, bad lines before, iffy supporting skill players before, changes in coordinators. If you're the Bears, though, is it crazy to think that maybe we've spent enough time, money, and energy on him? How many people have to lose their jobs because Cutler hasn't played up to expectations? Jerry Angelo, Lovie Smith, Mike Martz, Ron Turner, Mike Tice...not exactly an all-star cast, but you have to wonder at what point you quit trying to make him fit when it never seems to work out.

Another thing I don't see talked about: Cutler injuries. If you think McCown is no good, that means we have punted three seasons because of Cutler injuries. This one, 2011, and the infamous "knee" game against GB. This isn't a "Cutler is a p****" thing, since I think he is actually an extremely tough SOB. But he hasn't been super durable by any stretch, missing 12 entire games over the past three seasons. This doesn't include his early exit from the Houston game last year (we lost by 7, did he make us lose that game and thus the playoffs?) or the Washington and Detroit games this season. Does anyone feel like his injury history is a bit too worrisome to commit a bunch of money to him? I bet Lovie Smith is sitting somewhere feeling pretty pissed off about those injuries

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 29, 2013 -> 07:37 PM) Weren't jenks and Jake making a bunch of excuses for when mccown only put up 20 against a terrible Vikings team? I was driving across the country when that game was played, so I wasn't around either way. I have been in favor of playing Jay when he's healthy. You want as many snaps as you can to make a decision here. I'm happy to have had another look, because it has confirmed to me that Jay is a sub-$10 million QB and, in that case, Chicago is probably best suited to move on. I've been a huge Cutler supporter throughout his time here, but IMO we've seen enough. If we had an excellent defense in place, I'd probably feel differently. Since we easily need to replace half or more of the players on defense and cannot possibly afford to do so while resigning the current crew, I'm inclined to move on and try to get the most valuable thing in the NFL: a good-to-great QB on his rookie contract

You folks should have watched postgame press conference as Jay detailed exactly how he deserves as much or blame as anybody for why the Jeffery pass wasn't caught. He said outright that he threw it in the wrong place and made it much harder than it should have been. People act like I'm crazy for expecting excellence from a Chicago QB but we're eager to assume Jeffery makes an unbelievable catch like that would have been.

I think Illini need to go .500 in conference play and I'm not sure whether we can do it. Should be a fun and frustrating ride as always.

IMO it is a far, far more absurd argument to say that Lovie Smith would prevent that freak play than it is to say that Cutler could have/should have played better today

Jim Miller said it best - "Jay Cutler didn't play badly. But was it great? No it wasn't." There is a matter of expectations here. Jenks and I are expecting greatness. We traded two first round draft picks for greatness. We've been paying him 10 million dollars per year for greatness. We are apparently considering giving him a 50% raise for greatness. It isn't what we're getting. We're getting the same old inconsistency. Too many possessions just given away by poor throws and decisions. In the game and drive where it mattered most, we came up empty. On non-QB matters, this is something to think about: it wouldn't be difficult to flip into a 3-4 scheme in this offseason. Think about the players under contract/we would want to bring back: all 3 corners (not that all three will come back, but that we would want them all), Briggs under contract, and then you have McClellin and Bostic as key cogs on rookie contracts, and then Ratliff/Wootton as some DL we'd probably like to bring back. All of these guys fit in 3-4. I would love Bostic-Briggs as the ILB. You have McClellin as rushing OLB. Corners are good to go. You need new safeties regardless. Ratliff made his name in the middle of a 3-4 line and Wootton is that perfect mixture of DT/DE to fit as a down lineman in a 3-4. Heck, even our 6th round pick Cornelius Washington would look a lot better as a rushing OLB (look at that guy's combine stats, good gracious). Also, Mel Tucker is a rare breed that has coordinated both 4-3 and 3-4 in the NFL. Our scheme today featured McClellin standing up almost the entire time BTW. With the amount of turnover we expect on D and the personnel that are going to stay, this would be the time to change if Emery and/or Trestman really want to do it.

I'm talking about who our QB should be next season. I have no arguments about how good our D is. It sucks. It's the worst. I want to have some money available to spend on it.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 29, 2013 -> 06:48 PM) I recall Cutler hitting Jeffrey in the hands on the 20 yard line that would have likely sealed the game, but I guess Jeffery would have caught that pass if it was thrown by someone else? I wanted Jeffery to make that play, but it was by no means easy and shouldn't have been a back shoulder throw. It also is far from a guarantee of a victory, since we were still quite far from a TD even with that catch. Nobody is saying this is all on Cutler or anything like this. Riddle me this: if GB and CHI swapped QBs today, who wins? I'm being told that Cutler outplayed Rodgers, so I suppose GB wins by even more?

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Dec 29, 2013 -> 06:43 PM) He hit Jeffreys in the hands down near the 20. He dropped it. Do you want him to run down there and catch it as well. Logic embrace it. Relax people. I don't know how you could say that Cutler played an amazing game today. The only reason we were in it on offense was one of Forte's best games of his life. Cutler played a fine game, he managed it well and made several very good plays, but I want to roll the dice on finding a guy that never loses games like this. I just don't want to pay Cutler to play better than he ever has before again. I guarantee, regardless of what he thinks about Cutler, Trestman will say the offense didn't do what it needed to today. This is a very, very bad GB defense. We have a very, very bad defense. You had to get more points than we did. Plain and simple. I think QB is responsible for a great deal of the scoring that we do. Nobody expected our defense to play well, but we have expected Cutler to play as well as the Aaron Rodgerses of the world for 5 seasons and it never even comes close.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Dec 29, 2013 -> 06:40 PM) You watched that game and think it was Cutlers fault. Really. I didn't say that. I'd like a defense that allows 14 points too. But since we're thinking about committing this quite remarkably good core of offensive skill players to Cutler for the next 4+ years, this is one of many different experiences that leads me to believe that he is just not the guy. And of course, keeping this QB will hamstring our ability to add veterans to the defense in the near term