Bears Show Improvement - Beat Giants 17-3

Love the D line presence, the swarming defense, and the way to offense spread out the field to make plays. Two concerns – I think Hester needs to make that play, or at least have a better sense for cutler’s long throws. Granted, Hester has the ability to create that opportunity in the first place – but he has to finish. Second concern is Tommy Harris – he’s still limping around and I don’t think he made his presence known like he would if healthy. However, there’s lots of time. Good game, Bears.

but right now I’m just kind of giddy to see a legitmate offense AND defense all wearing Chicago Bear navy and orange.

What a fun game that was to watch. :-)

for preseason I was pretty impressed. Our D held the first team to 3 points, and the offense look to be balanced. I thought the O line did a good job with giving Cutler time. I thought Jay made a few throws that he shouldn’t but he did check down, run, and throw it away. To me it looked like he wasn’t as nervous, not trying to force anything and letting the game come to him. I also loved the TD to Clark, the way the play was set up in the two tight set was just great. you could see the Giants selling out for the run. D got some pressure had a few sacks. Urlacher got owned a few times by Brandon Jacobs, but Jacobs tends to do that to people.

I thought the offense and defense both looked much improved. Devin Hester should have caught that deep pass though. I have no idea why he slowed down for that pass. Everyone else looked great. Forte,Cutler,Olsen and Bennet looked very good imo. Great catch by the other Devin too.

Cutler looked great spreading the ball around.
Hanie looked like a solid #2.
The receivers got separation and made some nice catches.
Both D.A. and Rideau helped their chances tonight.
Our DLine really worked hard and played well.
Urlacher had a couple iffy moments up front, but bounced back and had a good game.
Pisa is good.
The D, overall, were attacking the ball. Very nice to see.
Dave Toub is my new man crush and I’m not afraid to admit it! The Bears ST comes to play year in and year out.

Last week it was the Bears going 4-12 now the Bears are going 14-2?

lol just messing around….Have no idea how they played as I have to wait for the NFLN but everything sounded good….cant wait…did see the under throw though…looked like Hester was expecting an under thrown ball and stopped…Dont think he thought Cutlers arm was that strong….ah well….

Highlights already up on NFL.com

Hanie looks good. I think we can count on him. Kinda hoping they just release Basanez and roll with 2 QBs on the roster.

I liked Cutler’s long drives. No purely Rex Grossman-esque big miracle play for a TD. Good stuff to see them march downfield.

Kevin Jones ran hard, also liked how AP looked. Garret Wolfe looked good, but the fumble hurts him.

Overall much, much happier this week. I can’t wait for the game in Denver, and I’m marking off the days til the regular season.

…these were drives where they mixed it up and controlled the ball…I hate to have a John Madden moment, but if you control the ball, and keep their defense on the field more than yours, then you win games…yeah, yeah, I know…I told you all it was a Madden moment…lol

Jason Davis tweets:
Game over we came out healthy. Good win Bear Down!

Ross Tucker:
Kyle Orton just threw a horrendous left-handed pass in the end zone that got picked. Denver media will have a field day but it was 4th down.

Vaugh McClure:
Tyler Reed out for the season after microfracture surgery Friday

Show up like this in Denver next Sunday night with the spotlight on everything culminating from the offseason, and handle the Broncos with possibly over 2 quarters of the starters & I will be happy.

Tonight’s game was a great all around effort, & I think Kramer said it best: “The Bears seem to only have stopped on drives because of self-inflicted mistakes.” I think if they fix those, the sky’s the limit on where this offense can go.

Stat of the night:

THIRD DOWN EFFICIENCY 6/14 – 42% (4/6 in the 1st half)

Marcus Harrison banged up did not finish the game, Corey Graham a leg injury, and Dusty with a “knee injury” according to the Score….

The two first team sacks were against starters

Four starters out on Giant’s D

Jacobs plain ran our guys over…showed the Urlacher runover a few too many times for me.

On a personal note, when Cutler threw that deep pass to DA, how awesome did he look, standing there all cool…love it!

Orton threw that interception left handed, I was thinking why?, good thing we have Cutler now

to this:

Jay Cutler still tried to make a few throws he shouldn’t, but with a big gun, you have to expect big things.

Devin Hester turned towards the coverage instead of away from it, and then he stopped running expecting a pass to be underthrown. Plain and simple, the fact that Hester has not been a WR for very long at a high level shows big time!

Cutler looked fine. Olsen dropped a pass, and Hester probably should have caught two more than he did.

I only gotta see the highlights, but that Bennett catch was pretty sweet, as well as the diving catch that Aromatherapy (sp?) guy made.. im pretty happy offensively..

Dusty dvoracek knee injury. No word yet on the severity. He did walk off field under his own power.

Overall a positive night…..but it’s still the preseason.

Bring on the broncos hype. Next week should be wild.

Craig Steltz had 3 tackles. How did he look? Did he stay at FS the whole time? Who can give me a rundown?

liked the orton touchdown, and the blocking downfield. o line looked so solid,pisa looks huge

It’s still only the preseason but it’s nice to get a taste of what’s possible when all the weapons in our offense are clicking. Bennett looks like he’s getting more and more comfortable with Cutler and Hester looks like he’s finally getting the WR position. Kramer pointed out his great dowfield blocking, and Cutler will find him in open space enough times a game to work his magic. Olsen is gonna be a beast. I see no less than a 70/800/8 season from him. And we can’t forget Forte. The guy has looked like a seasoned veteran since he first stepped foot on the field in a Bears jersey. The defense looked great. Pisa made a strong bid to keep his starting job. Payne made some nice plays in the secondary from the FS position, which is nice if Afalava earns more playing time. All in all, a great game, but it’s still only practice. Let’s see if we can put it all back together when it counts in Green Bay.

But I was pleased with many things tonight. They looked kinda rusty on tackling but kinda cleaned it up. I thought it was funny watching Urlacher get run over. The offense looked sharp. I’m starting to buy into the Marinelli hype. But again it’s just preseason. Packers look tough.

No one remembers that the play directly before before the notorious ‘underthrown’ Hester interception last week, Devin Hester did the same thing as this week… slow down on a perfectly thrown ball. I think Cutler’s a big man to not mention it, but I believe that’s what caused the INT last week. Hester again with the slowing down when he looks for the ball on the fly route.

Hester’s hands seem to be slightly more sure this year, but his route running still needs work. He has always seemed to be bad at the Fly route, and when you have a player like Hester, that’s a pretty important route. Especially considering whenever he runs it, he has 20 feet of separation. If you take away the deep bomb from the Hester/Cutler combo, why even try to work Hester into the offense? Keep him on special teams where he makes the opponent kick the ball out of bounds on kickoffs.

If they get him better at running straight up the field, and not angling/slowing down when looking for the ball, he will get Touchdowns every time. Soon we would have be versing 10 man defenses with 1 purely playing prevent.

At first, I thought that the missed bomb to Hester was Devin’s fault, as he slowed when he looked back as Jay rolled out. But a WR’s job is to get open, and it’s the QB’s job to get him the ball. When a WR is that wide open, the QB only needs to get it there. If Grossman or Orton had missed on that opportunity, they’d be getting ripped in here. But Devin isn’t used to having to run faster & farther for passes, either. Hester needs to learn the art of the WR, when to come back for the ball, when to put the gas on.

But it doesn’t matter, it’s why they have the preseason. Sure, Devin has never played with a talent like Jay at QB before. But Jay Cutler has never played with anyone like Devin Hester, either. Brandon Marshall & Eddie Royal are good, but they’re entirely different. Cutler could potentially have a Steve Smith/Tim Brown/Deion Sanders type talent in Hester. It’s incredible to think about the youth at the offensive skill positions that Jerry Angelo has acquired – Cutler, Matt Forte, Hester, and Greg Olsen.

Which brings me to Ron Turner. I’ll go on record that I don’t like him. I’m a U of I grad, enough said. But I also think that Ron Turner helped lose the Super Bowl, the simplified version being – why is Rex throwing downfield in a close game in the rain? Why are we calling dropback passes on short yardage at midfield, when we want to control the clock to keep Peyton on the sidelines?

One of my favorite reasons for acquiring Cutler is that Ron Turner will finally have no excuses. You have a Pro QB. Now do something on offense. That being said (written) – I thought Turner called a great game last night. Despite what some folks think about Cutler joining a ‘running team’ like the Bears, I thought several plays in particular showed the potential of Turner’s Bear offense.

The goal-line TD to Desmond Clark was power-formation work of art. A three-TE formation, Clark on the left, Davis on the right, and Olsen goes into motion into the backfield. All of a sudden it’s a 3-back set with Olsen, McKie, and Forte! It could be a run or pitch to the right, Davis sealing the line, Olsen & Mckie leading. It could be a power run up the middle. Or a run to the right. Or a pass to Olsen or Forte out of the backfield. Nope – Clark wide open!

Next week I want to see Cutler & Hester connect on a long pass; continued production from the young WRs; no turnovers, especially by the first team; and continued good pass protection. And no injuries to either team.

Our bookend tackles are going to be wonderful this year. Chris Williams really looking good, and Pace is Pace.

Our game thread had 735 comments
The Giants blog game thread had 65.

tried to watch a few things at the game and here is what I saw:

Cutler looked sharp and in control. A couple of forced passes but that is going to happen all year. I thought the playcalling was much less vanilla this week and am pleased with the limited stuff we put out there. As stated the tackle looked very good. I think Omilaye has struggled and is the obvious weak link in the line. WR continue to improve and I think we will be fine. Forte looked awesome and there is a huge gap between him and Kevin Jones.

Defense:
Dline looked solid, better pressure than the previous week. Lb missed some tackles, our defense of Jacobs running the ball left something to be desired. I did notice Vasher playing some tighter coverage and he actually showed improvement. Steltz can"t cover anyone and we should cut him loose instead of taking up a roster spot. I have not been a Payne supporter but he looked very good and was in position for most of the night. Very encouraging. We have to find a way to get Corey Graham in the game, he is always around the ball.

you Hanie supporters out there?? He is not yet at 2nd string level. He struggled last night, too slow on his reads, holds the ball too long, etc. He missed a ton of wide open guys last night (Is he pissed at Kellen Davis??) He has a decent arm but I am very worried about our back up QB situation. He is still a 3rd string guy in this league and still has a lot too learn so we still have no 2nd string qb. Jay, stay healthy sizzle…

WRs running after the catch…

Cutler delivers the ball with so much more velocity and accuracy than our old QBs… that alone actually creates more separation for the WRs. It should give our WRs many more opportunities to run after the catch than last year.

I haven’t had a chance to see the game yet. It’s airing this afternoon. But I did see the highlights and I’m a little excited to see the game. Don’t put to much into preseason all I look for is the offense and defense to perform better then the week before.

I am only concerned that this team keeps improving – during the preseason. Take the next step in the evolution of what this team becomes. Talent is there, defense was ok, Cutler certainly improved. All good signs for the Bears. Oh, and Matt Forte means a lot to this team :)

But I like what I’m seeing from Cutler and Forte. The BEars are going to be tough to beat this year, and Favre looking as out of shape as he did the other night will help too.

The good thing is if it was any other back the defense would of looked much better

…cuz I work on Saturdays. The botom line is that I felt the first team put on a display on both sides of the ball. Cautler was awesome. O-line was on the attack giving Forte massive holes. Recievers and ends looked great, other than a bad drop by Olsen (I think it was him), and Hester slowing up on that rocket that Cutler launched. Our D-line was stout. I liked the adjustments from Urlacher and thought he and Briggs played well, in general. What really stood out for me on D was the play of Tinoisamoa and Payne. Payne with the great pass defense and a really strong open field tackle. Tinoisamoa looked like he was all over the place, making plays and getting in there to assist…This game was fantastic!

The offense overall looked very solid…still some kinks to work out but that will come with time…hopefully Cutler and Hester will be on the same page by the GB game…those fly routes must start connecting b/c we all know Cutler can throw it that far and Hester has the speed to get it…once they get that down this offense can get scary real fast for any opposing defense…

He’s a really good special teams player. In fact I think thats the only think keeping him on the team besides his draft status. I think he’s saved a few kick returns if I’m not mistaken.

So did Aromashadu, Tinoisamoa, and their first team db’s. Defensive line did a great jorb through the whole game. All in all, looking forward to some great football. I don’t think we need to bring in a veteran WR, like what we have already. Garrett Wolfe was very impressive. He needs to hold on to the ball a little better, but I am definitely a fan.