Notes, Scribbles, and Things Jotted Down: Steelers Game
by Dane Noble on Sep 21, 2009 12:39 PM CDT
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PrintThere are a lot of different ways to look at last night's win against the defending Super Bowl champions, but the bottom line is that we won the game. There weren't too many folks who thought we had a chance to win, especially considering we had two backup linebackers in the starting lineup. But, Lovie Smith and company fought their tails off, and had Soldier Field rocking last night.
- The defensive line is firing off of the football very quickly, especially the DEs. That was one of the biggest thing that Coach Marinelli preached in the offseason, and you can really see it on the field.
- Missed tackles have had me banging my head against the wall for years and years, and, while last night there were fewer than the week before, it is still happening too much.
- The OL did a stellar job of protecting Jay Cutler, considering who they were blocking (the Steelers racked up 51 sacks last year, 2nd best in the NFL). Cutler only got sacked once.
- Charles Tillman was out of position a number of times last night, and even fell down while in coverage once. He made a couple of nice plays, but last night was not a good game for him. Big Ben seemed to target him on a few drives. Glad to see his INT.
- Devin Hester, the Good: Seems to be gaining more and more confidence at the WR position. Drew a lot of double teams, and ran good routes. The Bad: has a problem trying to judge when to let a punt go, and when to fair catch it. Second week he has pinned us back on our own goal line because he let a ball go that he should have caught.
- Cutler has happy feet. Granted, the Pitt pass rush was great, and Cutler didn't have a lot of time last night, but it seems like every drop back, he is shuffling his feet too much, and constantly throwing while off-balance. It would be great to see him sit still and set his feet when throwing those lasers.
- Cutler plus Knox equals :)
- Maybe I missed something (I couldn't hear the commentary), but why in the world was Adrian Peterson getting so many touches late in the second quarter?
- Ben Roethlisberger found holes in Lovie's Tampa-2 defense all night. Most of his passes were from 3 step drops, and there were always people in the soft spots to throw the ball to.
- Lance Briggs and Alex Brown are good. Really good. Hunter Hillenmeyer got handled last night. Made a few good plays, but did not shed blocks very well.
- Too many penalties! While only getting three flags a week ago in Green Bay, the Bears registered 80 yards in penalties last night. Can't let that keep happening.
- Looking at the upcoming schedule (Seahawks, Lions, Bye, Falcons, Bengals, Browns, Cards, Niners, Eagles), it would not be far-fetched to think we could be 7-3 headed into the game in Minnesota Nov. 29th. That will be a huge game for the NFC North.
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A few notes
- i dont think the bears offensive line was good at all. The time cuttler got to make a decision and the time the Hamburgler got to make a decision was pretty great. I think cuttler only got sacked once more because of his ability to read that he had no protection and throwing a random pass where it couldnt be picked
-Did anyone notice how pretty much the entire play (except near the last possession i think) the bears Ran in the second down? IT was cracking me up, and then by the end of the game when they decided not to run in the second down the steelers were a bit caught off guard. still very odd
On Behalf of Sue, Wjb, majoyenrac, Bullshooter and all the other Hinrich fans...Ill keep the Hinrich Hope coming...There will be light!
couldn't disagree more
Couple stupid penalties, but our pass protection was incredible in the face of one of the best pass rushes in the game.
But a lot of it was scheme to. Turner had Cutler getting rid of the ball quickly and taking the underneath stuff. How many attempts did Cutler have over 15 yards? Three?
It was good stuff all around.
cutler doesn't take sacks
ever. he will throw the ball into coverage and give up a pick before he’ll eat it and take a sack. this can be good and bad, obviously you don’t want your quarterback getting laid out all the time, but you also don’t want him so scared to take a hit that he’ll just throw the ball up to the other team to avoid it.
except for yesterday
when he didn’t throw into coverage and was tackled for a loss.
re: Cutler doesn't take sacks
In addition to throwing picks he’ll get flagged for grounding; that happened last night.
Yeah but
Cutler had two seperate situations in the red zone where he threw the ball out of bounds rather than force something. First time I’ve seen him be the least bit patient all year.
He did lob that one ball up in the flat (think it was the third quarter; right before the grounding call) that had pick-six written all over it. But it wasn’t, so even though it was a bad decision no harm done.
HH
played as well as anyone covering for Urlacher, everyone needs to let up on him. He did fine, and even deflected a key pass from BB
"I'm sorry Josh, I'm with Chicago now, you need to stop calling me" -JerBear50 as Jay Cutler
by BearNecessities on Sep 21, 2009 12:55 PM CDT reply actions
I agree
Why doesn’t anyone blame our DTs when a G has a free shot at HH? On those particular plays Urlacher wouldn’t have faired any better.
"Repetition is only good when you've been winning." - Valet
Credited with 8 tackles (3 solo)
after grading out.
Thats a pretty good game.
Jerry’s been so distant lately and Lovie barely calls.- Just Dave
Huh?
HH only had 4 tackles, according to espn stats.
Be nice. Flag comments that you think are offensive. Use the "reply" button. Drink plenty of water. Compliment others. Rec (wreck) comments and posts you like. Don't call people names. If you don't like someone's comment, attack the comment and not the commentor. Learn the difference in your/you're, then/than, to/too. Exercise. Relax. Stretch often. Find good in the world.
From Biggs:
Briggs with a team-high 9 tackles on sunday after coaches review. 7 solos. Rookie al afalava with 6.
And
Hillenmeyer credited with 8 tackles (3 solos) after coaches reviewed game film.
Jerry’s been so distant lately and Lovie barely calls.- Just Dave
Nice work Allie.
I wonder at what point databases catch up to these kinds of corrections.
Be nice. Flag comments that you think are offensive. Use the "reply" button. Drink plenty of water. Compliment others. Rec (wreck) comments and posts you like. Don't call people names. If you don't like someone's comment, attack the comment and not the commentor. Learn the difference in your/you're, then/than, to/too. Exercise. Relax. Stretch often. Find good in the world.
Doubt they do
thats why tackles aren’t an official stat.
Jerry’s been so distant lately and Lovie barely calls.- Just Dave
tackles are unoffical
dont read into nfl espn cbs
listen to the coaches the watch the film MANY times they know who has what
and double h did well could have been better but showed some leadership
well still miss the LACH
by Bear Lovin 21 on Sep 21, 2009 10:48 PM CDT up reply actions
football games are like women
where some see beauty others see flaws. i guess my biggest concerns were lack of pressure from the DE’s and and a still shaky o-line. of course cutler had happy feet, he never had a chance to set up in the pocket. he’s very nimble back there kind of like a boxer bobbing and weaving.
disagree
That was the No. 1 defense in the NFL last year. And we handled our business up front.
When does everyone think we will see
a little “no huddle” action? glimpses of it on the final drive yesterday, but we maybe we should be tossing a little in to wear down the defense and get the run game going? We should mix it up a little bit..
Anyone seen any photos online of Jeff Reed near tears at the end of the game?
I’m wanting to make that the new avatar for my fantasy team but can’t find it.
We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look.
Ronald Reagan
does this tickle your fancy
"It doesn't matter what country someone's from, or what they look like, or the color of their skin. It doesn't matter what they smell like, or that they spell words slightly differently some would say more correctly. I'm a person. Bret's a person. You're a person. That person over there is a person. And each person deserves to be treated like a person. "
by Rhymenocerous on Sep 21, 2009 9:54 PM CDT up reply actions
omg
tickles so many other things also lol
by Bear Lovin 21 on Sep 21, 2009 10:48 PM CDT up reply actions
Two things that I'd like to mention
1. Agree completely with your assessment of Hester and his ability to field punts. I think that if you’re going to put him on a return team, it should be Kickoff Returns because he not only doesn’t do a good job in deciding when to field a punt, but he still has more of a tendancy to run East/West on those plays. On Kickoffs he has more room to run North/South and beat the angles with his speed. I’ve said it before, he is not a good broken field runner (like Sayers, Sanders,etc.) his strong point is using his speed to hit the openings rather than make people miss. It also takes the “fielding the ball decisions” away from him.
2. Still too many dropped passes by our receivers, I counted 5 yesterday that were pretty much right on target by Cutler. His QB rating would have been through the roof if they made those catches.
Im happy that we finished this tough 2 game strech 1-1
now we got our easy part of the schedule coming up so its looking good
Packers choked
they lost to the Bengals n well we beat the Steelers we now have a game against the Bengals pending while the Packers have a game against the Steelers pending n Polomalu will be back for that game
I don't know that they choked, I don't think they're that good, period.
We played about as bad a game as you could possibly play against them and still had a chance to win at the end.
My point is, you can’t take anyone in the NFL for granted. There is no “easy game” and I hope the Bears don’t ever fall into that trap.
i agree
that theres no easy games once players start thinking that then its when they play horrible.
the packers didnt choke because the bengals are actually that good
theyre a high powered offense with carson palmer and ochocinco
but their defense is actually legit. last year they finished 12th in overall def (the bears were 21st)
the bengals are a team that deserves respect. they’ll be much better than 4-11-1 this year
couldn't agree more
I am high on the Bungles as a solid ATS team this year. Picked up cash on them Sunday.
Their offense definitely is not “high powered” though. Their offensive line is terrible. In Week 1 if they took anything more than a 3-step it was a sack or a rushed incompletion. Much better yesterday, but they have the 3-4 schemed because they see it so much.
It was just like with the Bears yesterday – we were much better than the 3-4 because we had seen it. Cincy was better at attacking it than GB was at playing it.
Defense
I like the play of our Dline and even our LBs(mostly back-ups). On a lot of the Steelers big plays, there were blatant holds by their Oline. I don’t dislike the secondary, I dislike the way we use them. The Tampa 2 needs to go! Big Ben threw to wide open WRs way too many times. Hopefully our pass rush picks up even more to compensate for Lovie’s stubbornness.
I agree
The Tampa 2 defense is not working for us. We are giving up 1st down on 3rd n long plays and that shouldn’t be happening
Ok
If you want to see a worse defensive performance, then let’s start chanting for the conversion to a 3-4 or a 2-gap 4-3.
As far as I know, the Bears defense has only given up 21 points in two games. I’m not counting the three gimme scores by the Packers cause of Jay’s bad Ints.
"Repetition is only good when you've been winning." - Valet
But its devastating as a fan
when its a 3rd n 12 n the Bears D gives it up for a 1st down. if we stop them the O gets the ball n the D gets some rest instead of letting the opponents continue marching down the field
I believe the word you're looking for is "and"
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." - Bertrand Russell
"F*** everybody outside of Halas Hall. BEARDOWN" - WavyGravy
Frustrating
they are, especially when a WR is wide open in the middle of the field. No matter how good the coverage is, a NFL QB needs to be pressured. If not, most of them will find the open WR just about every time.
"Repetition is only good when you've been winning." - Valet
I don't really hate the scheme,
I would definitely like to see our corners jamming WR’s at the line of scrimmage. It is mind boggling to me that on 3rd down and less than 5 yds, our corners are lined up more than 8 yds back and make no contact with the man that they are covering.
This is why we are constantly getting killed by the quick slant.
Gaaah, I saw that, too
The coaches seem to be gambling that we can get turnovers before they dink and dunk it into our endzone. Except on 3rd and long that is, when we seem entirely too soft on the pass.
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." - Bertrand Russell
"F*** everybody outside of Halas Hall. BEARDOWN" - WavyGravy
It was murder on us
all last year, too—teams pretty much get the slant at will.
I guess the coaching staff doesn’t have enough faith in the CBs to recover if they get beat off that jam—but STIILL, why a freaking 8-10 yard cushion?!?!?
I wonder if it’s playing to the strengths of the CBs? As in, Tillman’s good at hitting the receiver just after the ball’s arrived, to strip it away (and a few seasons ago, Vasher must’ve been doing something right to get all those picks)… cover-2 CBs aren’t so good at man-to-man, I believe.
Still, frustrating to see the soft underside of the D being exploited like that. Suppose the bigger picture is that we’re not giving up too many big plays.
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." - Bertrand Russell
"F*** everybody outside of Halas Hall. BEARDOWN" - WavyGravy
Over 2 games
It has gone fairly well. Hasn’t always been pretty, but we aren’t giving up that many points and we started out playing two good teams.
I thought
that especially in the cover-2 that the corners can play physical with the WR’s because they know that they have two safeties over the top if they end up getting beat.
I know the way that Lovie runs it, he is trying to get everything channelled into the middle of the field. Constantly watching the Bears get killed by those quick slants for 1st downs is painful.
The Field Almost won!!!
I think the field’s grass almost beat the Bears and the Steelers. The field i think stole some of the “win” and the headlines from the bears. Thank god Olson did not get hurt in the endzone when he slipped. Players looked like they were playing on football on ice slipping and sliding everywhere.
I keep hearing that
the Bears should build a new stadium with turf instead of grass. So that they can take advantage of their speed
I didn’t think the O-line played all that great. They can’t run block for shit. If that was any other QB the Bears have had for the last 10 years in there, they’d have been sacked half a dozen times, at least. Cutler does a great job eluding the rush. Happy feet? Maybe, but he mostly was able to step up and away from pressure to buy a few more seconds. Yeah, he refuses to take the sack sometimes and he had that one off-balance throw that could have been trouble, but for the most part he was terrific in the pocket side stepping blitzes and delivering on target. If not for the drops, he might have been 32/38. This is the Cutler we paid for!
I thought I was on the fo'c'sle of a TRAMP STEAMER! --John Drummond
by fo'c'sle of a tramp steamer on Sep 21, 2009 1:54 PM CDT reply actions
agree 100%
Cutler made it happen with his feet. There was always someone in his face. And where is Forte and our rushing attack. Benson busted out 140+ yards. Don’t know if all the blame lays with the o-line or not but Forte looked like he never had a chance.
by Ryan21 on Sep 21, 2009 2:18 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
The O-line Benson had...
is not the same one the Bears have now.
yeah but they ran all over the Packers
We couldn’t. I don’t like Benson but I hate to see him excel when we can’t run at all. Maybe its our system n coaches or the players but our yards per attempt have been horrible the last few years.
by Ryan21 on Sep 21, 2009 7:03 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Most likely
it was the fact that the Bears game provided a blueprint for the Bengals to exploit the Packers weakenesses.
"Repetition is only good when you've been winning." - Valet
Last night
I was harder on the o-line than I think they deserved, especially Kruetz and Omiyale. After re-watching some of this game, I think those two did pretty well. The only block that I saw Kruetz miss was when both the inside LB’s for the Steelers blitzed up the middle and the ends were both on Garza and Omiyale respectfully. Nothing Kruetz could do about it, one of the LB’s got through.
Chris Williams and Pace were having a hard time all night, highest ranked defense in the NFL and their ends are good.
I think that one of the reasons that Adrian Peterson was in during the 2nd quarter is because, hands down, he is better at picking up blitzes than Forte, Olsen, McKie, or Wolfe. He looked real good last night. I really would like to see the Bears try him at FB. Peterson is a hard charging in your face football player.
Most of the missed tackles that I saw were by Manning. A FS needs to hit and wrap up better than that. I thought that Afalava, Tillman, Briggs, Hunter, and Brown all did a good job of wrapping up on their tackles. Afalava wraps up picture perfect.
Great win against the Champs. Hopefully we will get the running game going against Seattle.
Wouldnt mind seeing AP at FB
Cut butterfingered Mckie. Knox looked a little bit like Eddie Royal did last year. I hope Knox n Cutler continue to light em up. Hester looked good too even though he didn’t have a lot of yards or catches. He came up big when needed.
by Ryan21 on Sep 21, 2009 2:26 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
sounds good to me
now somebody tell us why it can’t be done.
Tampa 2
Bend but don’t break philosophy. It accomplished pretty much that yesterday. The scheme seems to be ok. If we had better personnel, though…
And I’m not sure I’d categorize AB as “really good”. Really good game, sure.
Scheme worked
When we had great players. I agree with you.
Our secondary is just pathetic.
And Santonio Holmes makes the Christmas Card List. Four drops – two of them just embarrassing and one cost them a TD.
Our secondary has just looked so bad over the first two games but teams aren’t taking advantage. (Weather and our slop-field were big helps on Sunday against Pitt). That’s the Tampa-2 to the fullest (ask Indy; their defense was a joke on MNF but they still got the ‘W’.)
brown apparently ok
After two games:
Eddie Royal – 5 catches 38 yards 0 TD
Brandon Marshall – 7 catches 61 yards 0 TD
Johnny Knox – 8 catches 152 yards 1 TD
Our general pre-season predictions are on target.
Royal and Marshall become average WRs without Jay Cutler, and someone on the Bears becomes a star with Jay Cutler.
"You win because of the quarterback. We have to get that position stabilized. We're fixated on that." -- Jerry Angelo (12.30.2008)
Jerry Angelo trades for Jay Cutler! (4.2.2009)
.
Yours and mine
Although, Marshall should be better once he gets more reps in the offense. I think this trade will only continue to side in favor of the Bears as time goes on.
"Repetition is only good when you've been winning." - Valet
haha
I won’t say you have no idea what you are talking about, but I will say that in this instance (of the wideouts) you are completely off base.
the QB makes the receivers
no doubt about it. i think johnny knox has a chance to be eddie royal, part 2. he ran good routes, made some really tough catches, and obviously has blazing speed. and though his numbers don’t show it, hester played well yesterday. ran good routes, just had double teams…part of why knox did so well.
you take
Hester and Knox. I’ll take Marshall and Royal. And my team will beat you an awful lot.
Yes.
- Missed tackles have had me banging my head against the wall for years and years, and, while last night there were fewer than the week before, it is still happening too much.
Amen! I yell during games ALL the time about that… lol.
"A lot of fans were drawn to me because they knew that whatever the score was, I was going to run as hard as I could on every play. You don't have that now, you have guys waiting for next week or even next year." - Walter Payton
Ron Turner
He still sucks. Anyone else notice why Forte hasn’t done shit this year?? He is calling way too many passing plays and when he decides to throw a run in there it’s totally predictable. I understand we’ve played two great defenses but still need to run the ball more.
Open your eyes.
Green Bay dominated the line of scrimmage defensively. Pittsburgh has an elite defense, and even without Polamalu it’s a very good unit. Forte will get his, it’s just that the best way to attack a team who’s missing it’s best player, who coincidentally is a free safety, is to go to the air, especially when you have a very good QB.
Above all, Forte has had 38 carries so far this year, an average of 19 per. How many carries did he get per game last year? 19.75. He’s getting the ball, you just must not be seeing it.
Forte ran the ball 25 times in Green Bay
What more do you want?
"You win because of the quarterback. We have to get that position stabilized. We're fixated on that." -- Jerry Angelo (12.30.2008)
Jerry Angelo trades for Jay Cutler! (4.2.2009)
.
Power O runs right up the gut.
Instead of sweeps that direct our runners to the outsides where the linebackers roam.
If you can't laugh at yourself you must not be very funny.
Forte hurting your FF team?
Because the bigger picture is that we just beat the defending SB champs, and showed that we can hang with anybody in the league.
So what if a particular player doesn’t have impressive stats… our team is improving and is gonna win a lot of ball games this year. And wins > stats.
Be nice. Flag comments that you think are offensive. Use the "reply" button. Drink plenty of water. Compliment others. Rec (wreck) comments and posts you like. Don't call people names. If you don't like someone's comment, attack the comment and not the commentor. Learn the difference in your/you're, then/than, to/too. Exercise. Relax. Stretch often. Find good in the world.
I'm not gonna lie
Forte and Olsen are on my FF team… believe me i’m thankful for Drew Brees
"I'm sorry Josh, I'm with Chicago now, you need to stop calling me" -JerBear50 as Jay Cutler
by BearNecessities on Sep 22, 2009 3:09 AM CDT up reply actions
i dont know if its been mentioned but credit the offense in taking advantage
of big plays after the tillman pick bears went 17pts to pitts 7pts. the pick jump started the offense who had been going three and out like there no tomorrow. then jeff reed went on a shanking spree lol but the bears scored after each of those misses i feel like last year those drives woud end in punts or maybe a field goal
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