Ten Thoughts on the NFL: Chicago Bears and beyond

1) The Seattle Seahawks looked real good on Thursday night, but I have to question the scheme by Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy. You have the best quarterback in the game and a pro bowl wide receiver, yet you ignore one half of the field? I'm not even buying the lameass excuse McCarthy was spewing on Friday.

Aaron Rodgers is smart enough to be careful when throwing at Richard Sherman. Let your players play.

2) When I saw that the Detroit Lions hired the calm and collected Jim Caldwel as head coach and former New Orleans assistant Joe Lombardi as offensive coordinator, I feared they would get that team on the right path. An opening week that saw them put up over 400 yards and 35 points is a good start.

3) J.J. Watt is such a fun player to watch. He's highly skilled, he has a non-stop motor and he's a guy that gets it.

"I Googled "What do rich people buy?'" Watt said. "Because I don't feel like a rich person, and I don't really try to act like a rich person, so I don't know what they buy. I didn't really like the stuff I saw, so I'm gonna stick with my humble lifestyle and just keep working out."

4) Cordarrelle Patterson is going to have a fantastic season.

5) I'm not sure why anyone would applaud the Baltimore Ravens for cutting Ray Rice, that decision should have been made long ago. They knew what happened in that elevator before seeing the video of the actual punch.

6) And speaking of the video, TMZ is reporting that the NFL never asked for a copy. Whether that's true or not, seeing the video of the knockout shouldn't have made a difference to the NFL. The first leaked tape showed him dragging an unconscious body out of the elevator. The initial two game slap on the wrist was a mistake by Roger Goodell.

It was a mistake that he at least tried to rectify by changing the punishment for domestic violence to a six game ban for first time offenders, and a lifetime ban for the 2nd offense.

Which actually makes me wonder why he hit Rice with the lifetime ban after the 2nd video leaked of the same incident. Goodell and his policies are very inconsistent.

7) I hope you heard about the awesome move made by the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Bengals re-signed defensive tackle Devon Still to their practice squad Sunday to help him pay for his 4-year-old daughter's cancer treatments.

Children with cancer is just wrong.

A big reason Still was originally cut was he wasn't able to dedicate himself fully to football after his daughter's diagnosis. The Bengals aren't just giving Still a second chance, they are donating all the proceeds of his #75 jersey sales to pediatric cancer research.

8) Former Chicago Bears and current Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Josh McCown was 22 of 35, for 183 yards, with 2 TDs and 2 Ints. He was sacked 3 times and he fumbled twice.

He actually had a fumble and interception on the same glorious play.

9) After the crushing loss on Sunday, I think it's safe to assume the Chicago Bears dropped like a rock in all the various NFL power rankings. I didn't take my usual tour around the power rankings today, but I was very curious on one power ranking in particular. I just had to see if our sister site, the Denver Broncos' Mile High Report, was still going to take their weekly shot at Jay Cutler.

Oh Jay Cutler. I had forgotten how you love playing up or down to the competition. Thank you for demanding that trade all those years ago and now you are the Chicago Bears fans problem. I loved that backfoot interception you threw too - I could almost picture Brandon Marshall in a Denver Broncos uniform at that moment. I can see that the Bears will just miss the playoffs again in 2014.

Really? With the way they obsess over him, I find it hard to believe they forgot anything about their ex-QB Cutler.

10) And speaking of Cutler, I don't get the constant stubborn arguments over him. He has as good an arm as anyone, he can make incredible throws, he's done fairly well in late game situations, his mechanics get sloppy on occasion and he's also prone to a dumb play or three or four each game. He's not a top QB in the NFL and he never will be. He's very capable of running an NFL offense and sometimes he trusts his arm and his receivers to a fault.

Sunday's loss wasn't solely on Jay. He definitely contributed to it, but Martellus Bennett already took the blame on the 1st interception. Brandon Marshall also turned the ball over. And I can not believe some of the comments I've read here on WCG that is completely absolving the defense of any blame on the loss. They allowed E.J. Manuel to have a career day and they gave up almost 200 yards rushing.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>For the fans that put blame on one guy or another - we win as a team and we lose as a team. Keep your unintelligent thoughts to yourself.</p>&mdash; Kyle Long (@Ky1eLong) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ky1eLong/status/508736715629285376">September 7, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Football is a team game. Cutler didn't lose the game no more than Chris Conte, Shea McClellin, Micheal Spurlock, the flea flicker playcall or Lance Briggs lost the game. On Sunday the Buffalo Bills were the better team.