FanPost

Notes from Chicago-Atlanta

More or less verbatim, and I noticed they generally followed the comments on here, though with somewhat less handwringing:

Atlanta, or at least the bits you see on the train on game day, is crowded and raucous. Stadium has wifi, which is handy. Wonder what the bandwidth use is like.

Atlanta has Samuel L. Jackson during their pregame video. Not fair.

Bad penalty to start, let's see. Something good.

...which wasn't that. Aight.

Sober for this game. Wishing I wasn't after that run.

Good hit by Conte. Kept it from being 1st and 10. 3 points isn't as bad as 7. Falcon O-line looking bad in pass protection. Ryan barely got some of those passes off.

Didn't have a choice about taking that out.

Geez, Cutler worked magic on that 3rd down.

1st quarter zipping compared to last week.

Lots of swinging on both sides, very little connection. [This was in reference to flailing offenses.]

Where's the hands to the face against Atlanta?

Bears very slowly coming to life on offense.

I don't know what the Hell that last penalty was all about. Thought there'd be more points by now.

Think that last one was tipped at the line.

Less than an hour for the first quarter. How is it that the first always takes the longest? [Almost always]

Why couldn't Hester do that when he played for us?

Bad punt. Paea has looked good today.

Neither team looking consistently good yet. Forte looking good, though.

So the thing about offensive holding is to not do it right in front of the ref and the play.

Hey, guess what? Throwing it to Marshall is a good idea!

Whole bunch of blocks in the back going uncalled. Now a bullshit call against Chicago...but I guess they picked it up. [Falcon fans were really not happy about that one - this was the flag on Mundy.]

I think "let them play" is going on here, though more penalties are being called against the Bears.

Game's flying, though I'm sure they'll find a way to stretch it. Offense looking ok as a group. Let's avoid another 2nd half collapse.

Bennett is a really big dude. Carried three Falcons for a few yards.

It feels like the Bears should have more rush yards than they do.

That one hit the ref. Don't see that very much. Also, clearly Atlanta can tackle Bennett before he gets the ball with no fear. Still, 10 points are better than 7 for a lead. No more 2nd half collapses.

Section 345 and the immediate environs look like Soldier Field South.

At least the Bears got 3 to end the half. Especially because Atlanta gets the ball to start this half.

Still not fair that they get Samuel L. Jackson. But I notice they don't have an animal noise like Seattle or Carolina. Doesn't Cincy have an animal sound?

Goddamnit, Conte looks concussed again.

There have been a lot of near misses by the Bears Dline today.

Defense didn't look good after Conte went out. Vereen needs to hit harder. Bears need to answer with 7 and some authority. Can't keep playing soft.

Lots of empty seats. Will never understand the people who pay for these tickets and don't show.

Williams taking that one out...I dunno.

3 and out was the opposite of what we needed. At least Hester went and lost yardage on the return.

Refs giving Atlanta a lot of help. No fucking way do the Bears get favorable calls on those ghost fumbles.

Holy shit. 85-yard catch or whatever, blocked PAT. I hope we'll be up by enough to not need that later.

On the other hand...Forte scoring on the ground should mean good things for us.

Kyle Fuller is awesome.

Meanwhile, the sketchy reffing continues. Where are all the illegal blocks against the Falcons?

Need a long drive finished with Chicago points here.

What a bullshit call.

Forte with power running and Bennett with the 2-point conversion! Where has this been all year?!

I don't know what that penalty was, but Mundy made a rock solid play on the ball.

Ryan was lucky that wasn't picked off. He had a lot of air under that.

Atlanta is starting to look sloppy. Good punts, though. Chicago gambled that the 2nd would be worse - didn't seem like it. Hindsight 20/20, but I would have taken the yards. [This was in reference to that Atlanta penalty on a punt that the Bears elected to have them rekick.]

Forte slow to get up. Scheisse. Carey follows with a solid run! Wunderbar!

Little too much air under that squib.

They turned off that 3rd down loudspeaker. [Atlanta has this annoying crowd-pumping noise they play when the visitors are on 3rd down.]

INTERCEPTION! Call the undertaker, this coffin has its last nail in! [Ok, a little optimistic.]

Seats are emptying. Fuck that, I want to see the Bears win. Just keep it grinding and don't have a huge fuckup.

I think that may have been a strategic sack. This way O'Donnell may be able to pin them inside the 20 instead of on it.

Atlanta has no time outs left. Just the 2 minute warning. Keep the heat on, don't let them get anything...LIKE THAT. Why the fuck did Detroit let this guy go?

Sitting in the car, waiting for the lot to empty out a bit more. So that's what it's like to [see a game played against] an Oline patched by Mike Tice and Gabe Carimi. Atlanta's defense was arguably better at first, but the Bears were able to keep Atlanta's defense on the field and wear them out over the duration of the game.

Good Jay showed up along with most of the rest of the offense for once. Now let's see them keep it up next week against Miami.

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At this point I kind of want the Bears to play 11 more 4 PM-or-later road games. Not realistic, but hey.

Atlanta's lines are terrible - both of them. They're going to be awful again this year - how did this team go 13-3 or 15-1 multiple times a few years ago?

The Bears have room for improvement, despite the fact that the offense looked awesome when it got going. There were still too many 3-and-outs, and pass protection was sketchy early. It got better, probably after a variety of plays occurred to stretch out the Falcons and force them to lay off the Bears' O-line.

Defense actually looked good today for the most part - the blown play right after Conte got hurt being the big exception. It should go without saying that the entire defense, from Tucker on down, need to keep putting the hurt on opposing teams - and having a pass rush is a mandate, not a nice option, especially against teams like New England and the cheese.

This was the last Bears game I'm going to get to see in person for a while, so it's good that it was a win.

This Fanpost was written by a Windy City Gridiron member and does not necessarily reflect the ideas or opinions of its staff or community.