Notes, Scribbles, and Things Jotted Down: Redskins Edition

You and I tend to agree here for the most part. I, like others, have to call out Knox and Hester for their utter lack of effort in trying to make the offense work. I respect that Knox will hustle in to block on running plays and breakaway runs/passes. But for heck’s sake, can he just concentrate on his primary job of catching the football. Yes, he has some decent stats, but if he goes after a few more less than perfect throws or doesn’t quit on HIS route, maybe Cutler doesn’t throw 4 picks. If Hester isn’t going to do more than catch the ball and drop to the ground (a la Isaac Bruce), then why have these guys as the primary WRs? Why not start Bennett and DA and put Knox and Hester in the slot or the weak side? I get that Hester and Knox have speed and that’s what Martz likes, but I still have doubts as to the overall quality of this WR corps. BTW, where the hell is Olsen if Dez is inactive?

We’re 4-3, still atop the North, but the Packers have tied our record and are getting guys healthy. We’ve lost 3 games now to NFC opponents: Giants, Seahawks and Redskins are all teams who we may be fighting against for a wild-card spot and they have the tie-breakers against us. We have to win 6 of the remaining 9 games to possibly win our division or even to grab a wild-card spot and our schedule is entering into the difficult portion. This team should be 6-1 right now yet we’re barely holding on to our 1st place ranking in the division and still have no idea what we’re going to get from this offense each week. We’re in trouble and we’re losing ground. Things are not looking up anymore.

but Cutler is looking more and more like Grossman just not as scared. Still holds the ball too long. He avoids sacks just to run into one anyway. Knox did give up on the route on one play but for the most part Cutler is started to look like a bad investment. The one silver lining, at least it all seals Lovie’s fate.

not unhappy he’s here, just more willing to hold him accountable than most fans who never want to blame him for anything that goes wrong. He played poorly on only about 3 plays yesterday, which can kill you as a QB, but he also did some good things. There are two instances where I completely disagree with the critics/reporters. First, after watching several replays, I don’t think there was any way that Hester could have done anything to break up that one interception. Aikman has everyone claiming that he should have come back for the ball but after watching the play a few times, Hall had already made his break before Devin completed his route and it would have been physically impossible for him to “come back” at that point. Second, even though he’s taking heat for his comments after the game, I thought Jay really manned up and took the blame for the poor plays. I also kind of liked what he had to say about Hall. I want my players, especially my QB, to have an attitude. It reminded me of the Bear teams of the ‘80s who would never give an opponent credit after a loss. McMahon would always piss off someone with his comments no matter how outrageous and that’s what I saw in Jay’s post game session.

On the other side of the coin, I have never been a fan of Cutler’s accuracy as a passer. Since he’s become a Bear, his passes are rarely right on the money. Even his completions have the receivers having to stop, jump, or come back for the ball. We heard that his accuracy on deep balls was one of his best attributes, but other than the Aromashadu drop in the first game, I can’t think of another deep pass that has been on the money. One of the hallmarks of the Martz offense is to hit your receivers in stride and let them make a play but Jay always has our guys having to stop, reach back, or jump to make the catch. I know most people will blame that on the poor O-line and that’s true in some instances, but look at his performance over the last two seasons and even with time he rarely is on the money with his throws. There was one pass to Hester on an underneath route that would have been a first down yesterday where he missed him completely.

I am not optimistic about the rest of the schedule and, as Dane said, Lovie having 2 weeks to prepare for a team isn’t necessarily a good thing so even the Bills’ game isn’t a lock.

If Lovie Smith challenges the Cutler sneak play, we get 7 points there and as bad as the ’Skins were playing, we probably win that game.

Lovie Smith has to go. Either he’s incompetent, or else the staff he has surrounded himself with is incompetent. If the stupid TV people had enough time to replay that play and see that Cutler had broken the plane of the goal line, how in the world does the Bears coaching staff not see the same thing and throw the challenge flag?

That was the ballgame right there.

We never got to play with anyone that was as good as julius peppers.

I think he would have flourished or atleast been as good as Izzy

the approach of hey if they win great cool beans….If they lose that means one step closer to ousting the current regime…..

Without those 2 wins this offense has zero confidence and momentum and this team is staring down the barrel of a 6-10 season. They are gonna need some serious luck to even win 4 of their last 9 games and I just can’t see anyway they win 6 or 7 to win the division.

And the best team in the NFC is pretty clearly Atlanta. They lost in ot to pittsburgh and lost on the road to Philly which are both tough losses but they should win 10-12 games and land the 1 seed in the NFC.

on what Lovie Dobbie says in the upcoming newswires:

“We’re still 4-3, not many teams have a good record like that”
“Jay is our quarterback”
“Our O-line was great”
“Martz is still a genius”
“Mike McCasky likes me and he will keep me”
“Ive got two more years on my contract and I’ll be getting an extension”
“Haters gonna hate”

The offensive line that everyone complains about played very well in the second half, and on pretty much all his INTs he had plenty of time to make the right decisions. I’m sorry, but Jay is not the answer at QB, and the sooner they realize this the better. He’s one of the worst at checking down and taking what the defense gives him.

The four interceptions were all on him. Please don’t give this crap about the WRs cutting off their routes, or they should fight for the ball. It’s an old argument, and holds no water because those passes to Hester and Knox were thrown even before the WRs had a chance to make a move. Both times Hall jumped the routes; not much a WR can do, except expect their QB to go elsewhere with the ball.

I truly believed Martz would bring the best out of him, but it’s painfully obvious that no one can straighten him out. Maybe he’ll “get it” when he’s in his 30s and on another team.

After a 3-0 September, we have gone 1-3. Now we need a 3-1 November just to stay alive because December is quite brutal still. I don’t know what to say that hasn’t already been said. I think the Martz experiment might be working out as well as the Shea experiment. I thought everyone had decided from last year and ‘08 that Cutler needed a running game to succeed? I’d be happy if we went to a 60/40 pass/run split b/c right now we’re doing like 70/30. Ideally I’d like Martz to be at like 55/45.

Did Lovie not challenge cause he was scared about losing another timeout? Little did he know the Bears wouldn’t score a single point all second half despite getting a crapload of yards. I think I just saw Jay force another ball into tight coverage.

Is it a coincidence that he started playing poorly when he got here? In Denver he was protected by a good O-Line, had better receivers, had better coaching, fit in Shanahan’s system and was a Pro Bowler. Every year he played more he improved. It’s here that he became the QB that throws a billion INT’s. Here he has average receivers and a horrific O-Line. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Jay’s decision-making has become a product of his lack of trust in the guys protecting him. Even Troy Aikman said he saw that. And while he was guilty of some bad throws in Denver it was NEVER at this scale. Also his decision-making has worsened because no one is willing to tell him. That is the problem. I can bet Shanahan and Bates were all over Jay whenever he made a dumb mistake. Since he’s been here I haven’t seen that. I think they should threaten Cutler with demotion because it will set him straight. The coaches have been caught up in the whole “Jay is our savior thing” and that’s not just bad for them but for the growth of Jay as well. This is his 3rd new system in 3 years and at this rate he will be learning his 4th next year. It’s very easy to criticize him for some of the stuff he does and a lot of it is valid. But people have to look at the total picture. Orton wasn’t a Pro Bowl caliber QB here. And judging by the last 2 weeks, he might not be this year either. The O-Line Rex played behind was pretty decent. The year he was a full starter the Bears had a great running game and he did have a good amount of time to throw. The line wasn’t great but it was serviceable. Rex made those dumb decisions all on his own. With Jay it’s a mix of everything. I will stand behind Jay until he proves he can’t play behind a serviceable line and good receivers and I don’t care what the meatheads say because it is very typical of us Bears fans to overreact in a monumental fashion. I love my fellow Bears fans but I can respectfully disagree with a some of your assessments of Jay. Bear down boys!

Ig it wasn’t for turnoveritis, our offense would be doing really well, and our Defense is pretty dominant. With a bye week to heal up some injuries and game-plan, hopefully we come out strong.

But I do think having Brown here would be nice.