From a Bears fan

[Willie Gault]

I just wanted to say how nice it was of you to even invite us to FedEx Field.

You were all so right - the Skins are obviously one of the best teams in the NFL and Da Bears (new O co-ordinator, rookie QB, top RB not ready to play, four changes on OL) really needn't have turned up on Sunday. It was embarrassing to watch you run up the score and force fifteen turnovers from Orton before snapping him in two. Please send the little pieces back so we can send him into Lake Michigan and give him a viking funeral.

Seriously:

1 - Briggs' hit was obviously illegal and he'll be writing a nice, big, fat cheque to the United Way any day now. And don't pay too much attention to the handful of idiots who enjoyed it. We're not a Buddy Ryan team and we're not cheap-shot artists. It was a stupid tackle by Briggs but he's not out to injure people.

2 - The offensive pass interference seemed to be a fair call (although Fox inexplicably decided not to show us the end of the play.) The DB stood his ground and Cooley was driving into him before they cut the replay short. See how open he was when he caught it and do the math. That didn't look like a zebra crime.

3 - Portis: same story as last year. We contained early but if you have a great change of pace runner and you're prepared to use our pursuit against us then the yards will come. Da Bears D is a big-play D but it does give up yards to some teams.

4 - Give Orton his due. For a rookie going against a good D in front of 90,000 fans I'm delighted with how he performed. I knew he wasn't about to light you up. The fact that he stayed calm, completed some nice passes & converted some third downs was enough for me to be enthused. He was never going to toast you for 300+ yards but he survived the game.

5 - No TDs. Someone explain to me how happy you are with no TDs. Like I said, the Bears D is a big play D and it shuts people down in the red zone even though we give up yards sometimes. So I'm genuinely interested in how you people think your O looked given the circumstances. Was the O bad or is the Bears D just a tough test?

6 - Worst TV coverage ever. Scott Brunnel had a nice game apparently. Missed some penalties (an early call against the Bears might have been a phantom roughing the passer but we'll never know). Just awful, sloppy coverage.

My take on the Skins is that you'll be there or close in the wild-card race. Not another 5-11 or 6-10.

Anyway, good luck against Dallas. Should be a barn-burner. Try not to get too may people ejected before the game begins........

[Ball Coach]

6 - Worst TV coverage ever. Scott Brunnel had a nice game apparently. Missed some penalties (an early call against the Bears might have been a phantom roughing the passer but we'll never know). Just awful, sloppy coverage.

The coverage wasn't too bad, they did let us know that Commissioner Rozelle was in New Orleans this weekend.

[Saqs]

5 - No TDs. Someone explain to me how happy you are with no TDs. Like I said, the Bears D is a big play D and it shuts people down in the red zone even though we give up yards sometimes. So I'm genuinely interested in how you people think your O looked given the circumstances. Was the O bad or is the Bears D just a tough test?

My feeling on this is kinda mixed. In essence, we beat ourselves by not scoring in the red zone. The Cooley PI was iffy IMO but it was called. The Cooley catch at the 1 was an off target throw from Brunell.

But I have to give credit the Bears D in the end. They for the most part are the reason we had to settle for 9 points.

[E-Dog Night]

Ok, so we didn't tear Orton to peices. We didn't have to. We stopped the run and let Orton do what he could. And that would have been enough for a shutout were it not for Antonio Brown's fumble. But I will say that the rook equated himself pretty well and I think you guys are going to have a tough decision to make when Rex gets healthy.

[Willie Gault]

Yeah - that was another classic. I guess they had a seance and spoke to him from beyond the grave.

The coverage wasn't too bad, they did let us know that Commissioner Rozelle was in New Orleans this weekend.

[zoony]

As a Bears fan I think you should be feeling pretty good about Kyle Orton.

He appears to be a 4th round steal with a ton of upside. poise, maturity, and armstrength... I wonder how he slipped that far.

[MRMADD]

Orton looked great for a rookie QB on the road on opening day. He's got a great upside because he can't be rattled. He's a steal.

[myzhi]

Hate to break it to you, but your D isn't that great.

Overall:

2002: 25th 2003: 14th 2004: 21st

Scoring D:

2002: 25th 2003: 22nd 2004: 13th

[Willie Gault]

Yeah - but that's not what all you Skins experts were saying last week. This guy was going to be lucky if he made it to halftime.

We have a few easier games coming up. If Orton plays well he could have not only positive momentum but more starts than Grossman! That's pure speculation but it could happen. One week doesn't make a player but he could have looked much much worse. The mid-range passing game got going for a while there.

Not that you guys care but I think we're going to dismantle the Lions this week at Solider Field.

Ok, so we didn't tear Orton to peices. We didn't have to. We stopped the run and let Orton do what he could. And that would have been enough for a shutout were it not for Antonio Brown's fumble. But I will say that the rook equated himself pretty well and I think you guys are going to have a tough decision to make when Rex gets healthy.

[Kilmer]

Orton impressed me too. Still a rookie and made rookie mistakes, but he could have beat us. You guys had the opportunities and I think your offensive line is more to blame for the loss than Orton.

I actually am pleased with how the offense played overall. I think if the play calling did not get very conservative after Gibbs realized our D could prevent you from scoring again if we just didn't turnover the ball, we could have put more points on the board. Gibbs chose to not take chances and tried to ram it down your throat and burn clock. It worked with the help of your O-Line. Of course it made all of us bite our nails, but we had to win this game on our turf, so I don't care how we did it.

I am not thrilled with winning 9-7, more like relieved.

I think you may have a winner in Orton. His leadership skills seem to have translated from college to the pros and he has one helluva receiver in Mushin.

[Willie Gault]

Hate to break it to you but you're an idiot.

Overall is based on yardage given up. So with an awful offence any D will look bad because the other team keeps getting the ball. And, as you saw on Sunday, the Bears D is a big play D that tightens up in the red zone. We give up yards but not the points that go with them.

As for last year, go back and look at the injuries. Wale: no camp and played on a bum ankle. Urlacher: Injured. Brown" Injured and out for the year. Tillman: Injured and missed most of the year. I could go on.

Don't be a tool all your life. Anyone can read numbers. It takes some iota of intelligence to make something of them. I'm not saying we're the greatest D in the NFL or that we're flawless but if you don't think we're any good then you're not too smart.

Hate to break it to you, but your D isn't that great.

Overall:

2002: 25th 2003: 14th 2004: 21st

Scoring D:

2002: 25th 2003: 22nd 2004: 13th

[Ricky Ervins]

5 - No TDs. Someone explain to me how happy you are with no TDs. Like I said, the Bears D is a big play D and it shuts people down in the red zone even though we give up yards sometimes. So I'm genuinely interested in how you people think your O looked given the circumstances. Was the O bad or is the Bears D just a tough test?

We put up a decent amount of yardage. While frusterated that we couldnt get into the end zone, I think our biggest problem was our average starting position. We often had to go 90+ yards to score... not an easy feat for a mediocre offensive team.

[myzhi]

Hate to break it to you but you're an idiot.

Overall is based on yardage given up. So with an awful offence any D will look bad because the other team keeps getting the ball. And, as you saw on Sunday, the Bears D is a big play D that tightens up in the red zone. We give up yards but not the points that go with them.

Who was 30th in offense and 3rd in D last year? Finally, look at scoring D, you aren't stopping anyone. Guess, Skins fans aren't the only ones with blinders on. Sorry for waking you up from your dream. Better yet, take the blue pill and enjoy the rest of your season.

[Beaudry]

edit* Yeah, what myzhi said!

WillieGault seems a little defensive, doesn't he? Fine, Willie, we didn't beat you as bad as we thought we would. That make you happy?

[ZkinsFan]

what a nice bears fan.

[CrazyZeb]

Yeah - but that's not what all you Skins experts were saying last week. This guy was going to be lucky if he made it to halftime.

We have a few easier games coming up. If Orton plays well he could have not only positive momentum but more starts than Grossman! That's pure speculation but it could happen. One week doesn't make a player but he could have looked much much worse. The mid-range passing game got going for a while there.

Not that you guys care but I think we're going to dismantle the Lions this week at Solider Field.

It looked to me like Greg Williams took a different approach then we all expected. I can't recall rushing only 3 DL as often as we did Sunday. I think the emphasis was more on coverage than blitzing/rattling Orton. Regardless, it worked.

[McMetal]

I think we'll understand a lot more about this game as the season progresses. I will be curious to see how the Bears' D stacks up against other teams, not to mention their O-line, which was a real surprise (to me). I suspect they're much better than most of the mediots are giving them credit for, but then again, so are we.

[SkinsLover]

I think our offense needs a lot of work yet ( even more so now with the qb switch ), I thought both defenses played tough. You as a Bears fan, should be feeling good about Orton, some of those passes he made, he made with a defender practically laying him on his back. I was really impressed with him, thought he handled the pressure well. I think our teams are pretty similar actually. Best of luck the rest of the season.

[Dirk Diggler]

Hate to break it to you but you're an idiot.

Overall is based on yardage given up. So with an awful offence any D will look bad because the other team keeps getting the ball. And, as you saw on Sunday, the Bears D is a big play D that tightens up in the red zone. We give up yards but not the points that go with them.

I hate to break it to you, but the Skins offense wasn't getting any more chances than usual. In fact, they only got 8 chances if you take away the kneel downs at the end of each half. That's about 4 less than the normal game.

As your own coach mentioned, you couldn't seem to get the Skins offense off the field and that's the main reason why you lost. I respect the hell out of the Bears defense (do a search on my posts the past few weeks) but they have to get better against the run or it's going to be a long season. The good news is that they have 3 QBs in their division who are good at throwing it up for grabs.

Best of luck from here on out.

[Jett]

1 - Briggs' hit was obviously illegal and he'll be writing a nice, big, fat cheque to the United Way any day now. And don't pay too much attention to the handful of idiots who enjoyed it. We're not a Buddy Ryan team and we're not cheap-shot artists. It was a stupid tackle by Briggs but he's not out to injure people.

I think most Bear's fans agree, but it seems that the one's who think the hit was great get more air time. Thanks for balancing it out.

2 - The offensive pass interference seemed to be a fair call (although Fox inexplicably decided not to show us the end of the play.) The DB stood his ground and Cooley was driving into him before they cut the replay short. See how open he was when he caught it and do the math. That didn't look like a zebra crime.

I can't argue

3 - Portis: same story as last year. We contained early but if you have a great change of pace runner and you're prepared to use our pursuit against us then the yards will come. Da Bears D is a big-play D but it does give up yards to some teams.

Our running game looked good

4 - Give Orton his due. For a rookie going against a good D in front of 90,000 fans I'm delighted with how he performed. I knew he wasn't about to light you up. The fact that he stayed calm, completed some nice passes & converted some third downs was enough for me to be enthused. He was never going to toast you for 300+ yards but he survived the game.

I think he is your QB and Grossman (when healthy) will be a backup or on a different team. First start for a rookie against the skin's D in Washington is not an easy assignment. I am glad we had you early and not later in the season. (Although, Orton is still a rookie aand I expect he will struggle this year. You can't always keep 8 back to protect)

5 - No TDs. Someone explain to me how happy you are with no TDs. Like I said, the Bears D is a big play D and it shuts people down in the red zone even though we give up yards sometimes. So I'm genuinely interested in how you people think your O looked given the circumstances. Was the O bad or is the Bears D just a tough test?

When compared to last year, our OL looked better, our running game looked more explosive and we hit some deep passes. Still to many turnovers and penalities. We have to take the next step and score. But, I did see progress.

6 - Worst TV coverage ever. Scott Brunnel had a nice game apparently. Missed some penalties (an early call against the Bears might have been a phantom roughing the passer but we'll never know). Just awful, sloppy coverage.

I watched TV but had the volumn down on the TV. I had the game on the radio.

My take on the Skins is that you'll be there or close in the wild-card race. Not another 5-11 or 6-10.

I do not think that Chicago is the bottom of the NFL. I think they will do well in the central.

Anyway, good luck against Dallas. Should be a barn-burner. Try not to get too may people ejected before the game begins........

Thanks

[Jett]

Sorry WG about the above post. I tried to put my comments in your original post, but I did not mean for it to look as if my comments were a quote by you. Good luck to the Bears this season.

[Butz65]

Good post. Only thing I disagree with is the Orton comment. He folded at the key time of the game b/c the Redskins D had him intimidated. Those false start penalties were in part due to his jerky movements at the line. He pulled the ball out early on one.

I for one am concerned that we didn't score any TD's and think that was due to a combination of poor play by the Skins and strong defensive play by the Bears. The only stat that will matter at the end of the season though is the W. That's why I'm happy.

[Gregpeck99]

Hey Willie ... good analysis. I thought Orton did better than Pat Brunell. It won't take him 4 years to make da bears forget about McMahon.

[jjmck172]

when Urlacher plays, the bears are easily a top 10 defense.

Without Brian, they are middle of the road.

[Willie Gault]

I don't know how much of that false start fiasco was his fault. The whole offence seemed to go into the tank for a few minutes. Which is a shame because we REALLY could have used a FG and the way he was moving the ball.... who knows.

'Folded' is a harsh call. He didn't beat you - and you got the pick & the fumble you needed from him - but it looks like all the talk of him being unflappable has some sort of substance.

Brunell looked night & day better than last year and Portis looked like vintage Portis. You guys should be OK if you can find some stability.

Good post. Only thing I disagree with is the Orton comment. He folded at the key time of the game b/c the Redskins D had him intimidated. Those false start penalties were in part due to his jerky movements at the line. He pulled the ball out early on one.

I for one am concerned that we didn't score any TD's and think that was due to a combination of poor play by the Skins and strong defensive play by the Bears. The only stat that will matter at the end of the season though is the W. That's why I'm happy.