The Bears Den: September 28, 2012 - Week 4 News and Notes

Competition for playing time helping Bears - Dan Pompei: Newcomers are pushing once-comfortable players to exert greater effort, and it's paying off.

Durkin’s Playbook - Paea's stat line against the Rams - 1 solo, .5 sacks, 1 tackle for loss, 1 QB hit - doesn't accurately convey just how dominant he was. He was powerful, tenacious, relentless, showed tremendous hustle, and owned his gap all game.

“Time” a shaky excuse for so-called new offense - Moon Mullin: The Bears "new" offense doesn't rank in any Top-10 category this season and despite the struggles of the OL, that shouldn't be an excuse.

Matt Bowen does his thing - And by thing, we mean that X's and O's thing that he does so well.

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Bears-Cowboys

Monday night stiff test for both Bears and Cowboys - Brad Biggs: The winners will know they're on their way to being ready for prime time and fulfilling high expectations.

[Video] Laurence Holmes: What to watch for - The Bears got back in the winning column last week against the Rams, but now they return to prime time Monday night in Dallas.

Another monumental challenge for J'Marcus Webb - Vaughn McClure: Has to tangle Monday night with Cowboys' DeMarcus Ware.

Forte limited in practice, but doing 'better' - Resting Peppers two days in a row "the plan all along" according to Lovie, and... hold the presses... Pat Mannelly was sick and missed practice? The Mayans were right.

Bears won’t have full backfield - Moon Mullin: Despite indication that Forte and Bush will play on Monday night, the Bears are expected to be without their leading blocker at fullback, Evan Rodriguez.

Cutler confident in protection vs. Cowboys - Michael C. Wright: It’s an uncertainty as to whether the Bears can effectively neutralize Ware. Besides that, the Bears seem to be struggling with their own issues with 3+ WR sets.

Know thy enemy - Maggie Hendricks previews the Cowboys.

[Video] NFL Live - Who's going to win, Bears or Cowboys?

[Video] 'Madden NFL 13' predicts - Craig Steltz to give up game-winning TD? Dane doesn't rejoice rejoices anyway, it's a Steltz sighting!

Other Bears news

Bears, Cutler having major problems gaining yards on first down - Sean Jensen: The Bears’ 3.32-yard average is five yards fewer than the league-leading Panthers and two full yards fewer than the NFL average.

Bears focused on not being NFL’s worst “starting” team - Moon Mullin: The Bears are last in the NFL with a paltry 3.32 yards per first-down play. That then becomes a serious problem on third downs because Jay Cutler is the NFL’s next-to-worst passer on third downs with a rating of 52.9.

Bears looking to improve on first down - Bob LeGere: When it comes to getting off on the wrong foot, the Bears' offense has every other team in the league beaten, hands down.

Brandon Marshall apologized to Warren Sapp for critical video - Jeff Dickerson: Marshall said Thursday he regrets his decision to respond publicly with two videos online and has apologized to the analyst.

The saga of Brandon Marshall and Warren Sapp - Maggie Hendricks doesn't bring much new to the table other than to remind us that, though Marshall apologised for making his response public, it was Sapp who started it all... but what are you wearing, Brandon? Dude.

Bears glad to have real NFL officials back - Mark Potash: Will benefit by working with officials with whom they’re familiar.

Too much Brandon Marshall? Jay Cutler's not having it - Michael C. Wright: Didn't take kindly to a question about targeting Marshall too often.

Too much Cutler forcing throws toward Marshall? - Moon Mullin: Jay Cutler got pretty defensive on Thursday when a question came up about if he's forcing too many throws in Brandon Marshall's direction. On the season, Cutler has targeted Marshall 31 times.

Brad Biggs on Mully & Hanley - Matt Forte's value to the Bears extends far beyond the running game. More on [Audio].

Dionne Miller's 'Happenings from Halas' - September 27: Dionne needs to learn where the apostrophe goes in the possessive form of replacements (plural) and leagues (singular), right after the fact that they need apostrophes.

Everything else

The fall of the NFL is coming - Steve Silverman: The combination of monstrous greed and hubris is not a winning one.

Know thy enemy - Mike McCarthy's poise will help guide Packers through tough week.

Best of the week 3 cheerleaders - I may have found the future Mrs Spongie!

And I'm gone on the rising tide...