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Im guessing that Forte doesnt play against Jacksonville on Sunday. While he had a decent game, he was definitely favoring his ankle after that first run of the game.

 

Marshall is a damn beast, he was absolutely manhandling Brandon Carr all night long. And the defense was "bend dont break" all night last night, the turnovers were huge.

 

Oh, and LOL Dez Bryant. Dude is way too caught up in his own hype.

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I'm glad the refs that came back ended that pass interference fest that was the first 3 weeks.

 

I agree that regular refs make bad calls, but it's just nice to see the game move quickly and decisions made fast.

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QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 08:43 AM)
I'm glad the refs that came back ended that pass interference fest that was the first 3 weeks.

 

I agree that regular refs make bad calls, but it's just nice to see the game move quickly and decisions made fast.

The NFL is such an incredibly difficult game to administer...there are 22 players on the field at a time, flying all over the place, hitting one another as hard as possible, and there are countless rules and interpretations of those rules.

 

I think it was pretty clear just how fantastic a job the professionals do week in and week out.

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QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 09:51 AM)
The NFL is such an incredibly difficult game to administer...there are 22 players on the field at a time, flying all over the place, hitting one another as hard as possible, and there are countless rules and interpretations of those rules.

 

I think it was pretty clear just how fantastic a job the professionals do week in and week out.

 

Any sport is really tough to officiate. I'd say the NFL and NHL would have to be the hardest.

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QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 05:54 AM)
Im guessing that Forte doesnt play against Jacksonville on Sunday. While he had a decent game, he was definitely favoring his ankle after that first run of the game.

 

Marshall is a damn beast, he was absolutely manhandling Brandon Carr all night long. And the defense was "bend dont break" all night last night, the turnovers were huge.

 

Oh, and LOL Dez Bryant. Dude is way too caught up in his own hype.

He will play and he had some really nice looking runs during the 1st half. 2nd half the Cowboys played with an extra man in the box which slowed him down a bit but it opened up the passing lanes.

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A look into what goes through Ed Hochuli's head before every play.

 

Ed Hochuli works 50 hours a week at the Phoenix law firm of Jones, Skelton & Hochuli and an equivalent amount in his job as an NFL referee, an exceedingly difficult occupation that is also, for the 22-year veteran, a preoccupation. On Wednesday, while I was reporting a feature on referees that you can read in next week's Sports Illustrated, he described a single random play.

 

"If it's a right-handed quarterback I'm on the right side, a left-handed quarterback I'm on the left side," Hochuli said. "My position is two or three yards wider than the offensive tackle and 13 to 14 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Then I will watch when the [offensive] team huddles to make sure there's not 12 men in the huddle. People ask me, 'Do you listen in on what the play is?' [He scoffs.] If people knew: It's like you're listening to Greek. I mean it's impossible to understand what the play is if you're listening in. So no: I don't listen in. Besides, they might audible at the line and now I'm anticipating something wrong. Anyway, I've counted the huddle, and as they break the huddle, I will recount.

 

I interrupt to ask Hochuli: "Why recount as the huddle breaks? Has anyone ever magically materialized in the huddle while you weren't looking?"

 

"Nooo," Hochuli says slowly, with the patience of a man accustomed to head coaches and other hecklers. "It's in case you counted wrong in the huddle. We are paranoid about counting. I am anal about counting. We all signal each other. Three guys are counting the defense and four guys are counting the offense and we give signals to confirm with each other that the numbers are right. So as they approach the line I recount and as I'm doing that, now I've also seen the formation, and the formation is going to affect who is covering who. It makes a difference, for example, if there is a trip to this side versus a trip to that side. So anyway, I signal to my counterparts that I've got 11 [men on offense]. Then as I get set and the quarterback gets under center or sets the shotgun, that's when I will say to myself -- out loud -- 'Left hash, lock and load.'"

 

"Lock and load" is a mantra Hochuli repeats, out loud, every single time the quarterback goes under center. He is a movie and baseball buff, and he recalls the film For Love of the Game, in which Kevin Costner played an aging Detroit Tigers pitcher who blocks out hostile crowd noise with an audible mantra of his own: "Clear the mechanism." Hochuli's mantra then, before every snap, is: "Lock and load."

 

"Educators will tell you that by saying it out loud you remember it better than if you just say it to yourself," he continued. "I need to remember that that ball was snapped from the left hash mark because that's gonna tell me where the pocket is, tackle to tackle. And once the play develops, I still have to have in mind, 'Where is that pocket?' It matters for a lot of reasons. So I've locked that into my mind where the ball was snapped. I'm watching the center and the quarterback primarily to see that the ball is snapped and there's no false start, but out of the corner of my eye I've got both of the backs in vision, too, because if they false start that's also my responsibility. So I've got to see if there's any sudden movement by them.

 

"Once the ball is snapped we go into what our different responsibilities are depending on where the play goes [and whether that play is a run, pass, play-action, etc.]. At the end of the play, more often than not, I'm the one that spots the ball, so I also have to know which hash mark it was. If it was an incomplete pass I need to know which hash mark we're going back to."

 

Fortunately," left hash, lock and load" is still ringing in his ears in that instant. All of this transpires, remember, in a few scant seconds, and may be made infinitely more complicated by a penalty or turnover or other anomaly, after which it's time to lock and load again -- and again and again -- 150 to 160 times a game.

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What the Bears' defense has lost in athleticism it's obviously gained in veteran leadership and experience. The Big 4: Peppers, Urlacher, Tillman and Briggs are just one step ahead all the time. All those guys are well into their 30's and (aside from Urlacher) still look like they're in the prime of their careers.

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Scores of the 2011-12 games started by Cutler:

 

34-18

23-06

10-23

41-21

31-20

37-13

30-24

24-18

39-10

13-24

34-29

17-27

13-30

30-12

 

Average points scored: 26.9

Average points allowed: 19.6

 

Home record: 7-1

Road record: 3-3

 

Is this a perfect team? No. How many teams would I rank above the Bears right now? Maybe 6: Houston, Atlanta, New England, San Francisco, Green Bay, Arizona, and those last few are iffy. This is an awfully good team.

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The Bears definitely didn't play a perfect game, Dez Bryant playing with his head in his ass and some overthrows by Romo helped a lot, but it is hard to complain about the type of 2nd half performance they put on. Offense, even in first half with only 3 points they looked better than week 2/3. I think Hester end arounds etc. are useless because defenses are expecting it with him, just get him some outside routes where he can use his quickness to make a move a few times a game and that works with his skill set.

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The bears should definitely try to schedule the easy part of their schedules early in the season. Why? Because it appears inevitable that it takes 6 games for our Oline to work out the kinks and coaches to figure out the best protection schemes. The bears haven't played incredible football their first 4 games, but they are 3-1. In my estimation, they will get better as the season goes along.

 

Unfortunately, it's also possible they get ravaged by injuries again.

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The bears should definitely try to schedule the easy part of their schedules early in the season.

 

Teams don't get to make their own schedules, other than being able to list a few weekends when their stadium would be unavailable for a home game.

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The "hiccups" BS should be alleviated soon since we're hoping to finally have continuity at the OC position and perhaps more importantly a "normal" offensive system that folks can actually learn and run effectively.

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It's usually this time of year the Bears get hot and go on a streak. I know you take nothing for granted but they have 4 relatively soft games coming up before having 2 really rough games vs. Houston and @SF. 7-1 is realistic.

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QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 08:23 PM)
Teams don't get to make their own schedules, other than being able to list a few weekends when their stadium would be unavailable for a home game.

 

I know, the point is that the bears offensive line usually starts off absolutely woeful. So it helps to start off with an easy schedule, like we have. This team will start to look better as our team gets its act together upfront. Tice did a much better job getting help on the outside this game.

 

Frankly, with Marshall, we can now basically run passing routes with 2 receivers and a bunch of protection and trust Cutler to find him and Marshall to get open. We just have to get that combo time and it will payoff.

 

Also: Henry Melton is awesome.

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