Bears News and Notes - 11/20/2008

by WCG on Nov 20, 2008 11:41 AM CST Comment 11 comments

*** Matt Forte is accounting for 33.9 percent of the Bears yardage. That is fourth in the league, behind Clinton Portis, Adrian Peterson and Frank Gore who are tied at 34.4.

*** Kyle Orton is on record pace for throwing no interceptions.

...Orton has not thrown an interception in 156 pass attempts dating back to Week 4. Orton threw a pick at Green Bay, but it was erased by off-setting penalties. His streak is the fourth-longest in team history. Erik Kramer holds the team record with 174 attempts in 1995.

*** The Bears would need some late scratches to get players into the Pro Bowl this year. Traditionally they do well with the fan vote, but are behind this year.

Return man Devin Hester is second behind Washington's Rock Cartwright by 2,681 votes and middle linebacker Brian Urlacher ranks second behind the Redskins' London Fletcher. Urlacher led in fan voting last year, but wasn't in the top five at his position after being snubbed by coaches and fellow players.

Olin Kreutz, a six-time Pro Bowl selection, is third at his position among fans voting; punter Brad Maynard is fourth; and tight end Greg Olsen and special teamer Corey Graham are fifth.

Linebacker Lance Briggs and defensive tackle Tommie Harris were not among the top five players at their respective positions

*** To further show the neccessity of a healthy Kyle Orton:

In the last two games, the Bears' offense has converted just five of 26 third-down opportunities (19.2 percent) after converting 42.4 percent of their third downs in the first eight games.

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"*** To further show the neccessity of a healthy Kyle Orton:"

or further proof that the Bears offense and Orton aren’t very good…

two good defenses, two bad offensive outings, this shouldn’t be surprising

Bears will score this week versus the Rams no matter who is QB’ing

Visit The Cub Reporter (thecubreporter.com)

by thecubreporter on Nov 20, 2008 1:32 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

sure, just keep handing off to Forte.

Being Who You Thought We Were Since 2005!

by WCG on Nov 20, 2008 3:59 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

i think alot of it

has to do with there being more game tape on our offense now. i think early in the season with a new qb, rb, recievers and changing our base formation to a two te set, a lot of teams were thrown off guard.

there are always ebs and flows with offensive production with any team, but the idea is to have a good defense that will always show up and help win games.

i think orton and crew are a good unit but do need defense/special teams to be helping in field position throughout the game in order to accentuate ortons short field passing strength.

by rahulsriram on Nov 20, 2008 6:37 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

put a healthy tom brady on this team

and see what happens.

i think people underestimate just how pathetic this receiving corps is.

by mike b on Nov 20, 2008 7:16 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

honestly

we are probably right where we are right now considering our shortcomings are on defense and not offense. the offense has done more than enough to win most of these games, sure they aren’t the “greatest show on turf” like the rams were in 04 but they are still a good offensive unit, the defense has just been putrid this year.

and besides, look what tom brady did in…hmm…06’…the year before they went undefeated. who was the top receiver on that team, i bet you can’t guess off the top of your head because they all sucked and that was still a superbowl team.

by lopey986 on Nov 21, 2008 4:04 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

probably branch

if i had to guess.

the comment was made in the post game that not a single receiver could get off blocks the entire game.

by mike b on Nov 21, 2008 8:58 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

nope

reche caldwell. and that was a 12-4 team. hell, in 2004 when they won the super bowl their leading receiver was david givens.

some receivers make the qb, but tom brady can definitely make a mediocre receiver look damn good.

by lopey986 on Nov 21, 2008 1:57 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

either way

they have to get open. tom brady or…gasp..rex grossman won’t make that happen

when berrian stopped being able to get open deep the deep ball went away.

by mike b on Nov 21, 2008 3:04 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

the definition of "open"

is different for tom brady than it is for rex grossman. grossman thinks everyone is open at all times, hence his penchant for forcing the ball into double and sometimes even triple coverage; brady doesn’t make those mistakes because he is smarter and he knows where to put the ball so only his receiver can make the play.

by lopey986 on Nov 22, 2008 12:57 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

He also

has 25 seconds to through the ball.

by McRipper on Nov 22, 2008 8:01 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

i know

it is a collective of things that make a good offensive unit. just having 1 good player and 10 shitty players won’t work, i don’t care if tom brady is your qb or LT is your running back, everyone has to work well together. i don’t think anyone on our offense will ever be labeled as “great” or “incredible” (i think olsen and forte have the talent, but we’ll see) but all the guys were working pretty well together when orton was 100% (albeit against not the greatest defenses ever, but still) and i think we can have a good offense with what we have in place.

it is our defense that is killing us.

by lopey986 on Nov 22, 2008 2:21 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs