NFL week 9: The Best Offense is a Good Quarterback

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

So cutler would be a 18m dead money hit in 2015 -but only a 3m dead money in 2016.

So in other words expect to enjoy at least one more season of Cutlermania, Bear's fans.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

Yeah, JJ Watt -- you're a grown-ass man who decided you should wear a goddamn letterman jacket to a professional football game to tell the world you were ready to be considered an elite team, and your whole team got flattened and hasn't been taken seriously since. Get over yourself.

JJ Watt likes to kill fun. He's like the Anti-Gronk (despite them both being large freaskishly athletic white guys who kinda look alike). He's the white Russell Wilson.

[Whiskeyjack]

Cutler isn't the perfect QB. Not even close. But is he the real problem with the Bears? I don't think so. Would still rather have him than 50% of the other starting QBs in the NFL.

The issue remains the defense. They let it get old, and then they tried to patch it up - both with the draft and with free agent signings. Some of those are working, but others are failures. It's going to take some time to fix.

Personally, I'm in favor of keeping Emery and Trestman, and giving them at least another 1-2 years.

All that said, a funny story about Cutler from one of my co-workers. This is third-hand, but pretty believable.

His friend was out at a bar, went to the bathroom and saw Cutler at a urinal. He's a bit drunk and says "Jay! Dude, you're my favorite player!" Cutler leans back his head and loudly responds with "DOOOOOOONNNNNN'T CAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRE!!!!"

On the one hand, I think people who get excited about meeting athletes are idiots. But on the other hand.....that's pretty much exactly what I expect from Cutler, so it made me laugh. :lol:

[sperry]

Cutler isn't the perfect QB. Not even close. But is he the real problem with the Bears? I don't think so. Would still rather have him than 50% of the other starting QBs in the NFL.

The issue remains the defense. They let it get old, and then they tried to patch it up - both with the draft and with free agent signings. Some of those are working, but others are failures. It's going to take some time to fix.

Personally, I'm in favor of keeping Emery and Trestman, and giving them at least another 1-2 years.

All that said, a funny story about Cutler from one of my co-workers. This is third-hand, but pretty believable.

His friend was out at a bar, went to the bathroom and saw Cutler at a urinal. He's a bit drunk and says "Jay! Dude, you're my favorite player!" Cutler leans back his head and loudly responds with "DOOOOOOONNNNNN'T CAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRE!!!!"

On the one hand, I think people who get excited about meeting athletes are idiots. But on the other hand.....that's pretty much exactly what I expect from Cutler, so it made me laugh. :lol:

I was at Vandy when Cutler was the starting quarterback. During rush, the SAEs were telling us about Cutler being at a party at their house and trying to pick up a couple of girls. At the end of the night, he asked them if they were coming home with him. They said no. He asked if they knew who he was. They said yes :lol:

In fairness, that was early in his career. I'm sure that once he was the big time NFL prospect he wouldn't be summarily rejected.

[Maithanet]

In fairness, that was early in his career. I'm sure that once he was the big time NFL prospect he wouldn't be summarily rejected.

I've never met the guy, but somehow it seems totally believable that Cutler would be bad at picking up girls.

[Red Tiger]

I've never met the guy, but somehow it seems totally believable that Cutler would be bad at picking up girls.

I can imagine him sitting in the corner of a bar, brooding about the woman in his past who betrayed him.

[DanteGabriel]

I can imagine him sitting in the corner of a bar, brooding about the woman in his past who betrayed him.

And then developing a deep and burning passion for ethics in game journalism?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[awesome possum]

Which brings me to where I'm not on the fence. Phil Emory. Therein less the problem.

I dunno, Emery has done a pretty good job for the most part. He's stumbled on defense. Shea McClellin is a bust and a stupid one at that. Word is that Emery only targeted him because the Packers wanted him a few spots later which is a horrible reason to draft a player that doesn't fit your defense. And then Lamarr Houston who has just been godawful this season but to balance that is Willie Young who has been a stud and the two rookie DTs look like they'll be fixtures for years to come and Kyle Fuller looks amazing. Jared Allen was a good signing even if the stats sheet does't agree.

And the offense, well, we know what the offense should be able to do.

In fairness to Cutler, he's a decent NFL starting quarterback, not great, but WAY above replacement level. And in a time where there are 32 teams, and only about 20 or so QBs you could describe as decent or better, you're going to have to pony up to get one.

I don't think Cutler is the problem in Chicago. He's part of the problem but he's not the only one to blame. This team has a lot of blame to go around.

Cutler isn't the perfect QB. Not even close. But is he the real problem with the Bears? I don't think so. Would still rather have him than 50% of the other starting QBs in the NFL.

The issue remains the defense. They let it get old, and then they tried to patch it up - both with the draft and with free agent signings. Some of those are working, but others are failures. It's going to take some time to fix.

Personally, I'm in favor of keeping Emery and Trestman, and giving them at least another 1-2 years.

I'd absolutely rather have Cutler than most other QBs. I have just come to the conclusion that he is going to be what he is and has been. He's not going to suddenly "get it" and start showing good mechanics or footwork or stop throwing off his back foot or staring his receivers down. He's always going to be the Jay Cutler he has been and that Jay Cutler was enough to help the Bears to the NFC Championship Game one year and into playoff contention for a couple others (before falling out of it when he got injured). He is absolutely not the problem.

The problem seems to be that Marc Trestman can't adjust his plays to defenses that have had a year of film on his offense and that he can't adjust his playbook to fit Cutler's strengths.

The defense is absolutely a huge problem, any team that has 51 hung up on them is probably not going to win, but the Bears offense that was #2 in scoring last year after Denver is #20 through half a season this year. The defense isn't doing the team any favors, but most people knew the defense wasn't going to be good this year. Average was the best to hope for, but the offense was going to keep them in games. Or supposed to at least.

I do agree that Trestman should have at least one more year, and I want to see how Emery keeps building the team.

[Jaime L]

McCoy wasn't even all that accurate for a lot of that game though. There were like 2-3 passes to Jackson and one to Niles Paul that if he threw better would have been touchdowns. Not that I'm trashing McCoy, he had a great game, but I thought the thing that really stood out was his poise and elusiveness, both of which were WAY better than I had expected.

For the game as a whole, that was a lot of fun. Our young CBs Breeland (2014 4th round pick) and Amerson (2013 2nd round pick) have looked better and better since DHall's injury. Most of the problems in the secondary have been that our safety play is still terrible, and after those two, the drop in talent at CB is dramatic. And speaking of the safeties, Merriweather had two sacks, two forced fumbles, and no personal fouls? That's like a minor miracle. Hasslett called a great game, and he was able to keep the Cowboys O off balance in spite of getting no pressure with a 4 man rush. I think that is the best game he's called for us.

If you'd told me that Romo would have no turns and Murray would have over 200 all purpose yards, I wouldn't have given us a ghost of a chance. But aside from Murray and Witten, the rest of the Cowboys offense just didn't show up. And that ^overtime series for Dallas was a Murray 8 yard run, then three incompletions. That reminds me of the 2013 Redskins - good/great running game, but for some reason coach keeps dialing up passing plays. I don't know if Garrett was getting pressure not to wear out Murray, but the guys behind him were noticeably less effective, and the passing game (aside from Witten) was never clicking. If that overtime series had been a long series of handoffs to Murray, I think we'd be talking about a gritty Cowboys win this morning.

Yeah McCoy definitely missed some throws. Even some of his completions would have gone for huge yardage had they been better thrown balls. I wonder how much of that was sheer nerves. Felt like it took 'til halftime for him to start looking confident out there. I do still think short game accuracy is his greatest strength. With an easy next two games, it'll be interesting to see what he can do with this set of receivers definitely capable of YAC.

Completely agreed on Meriweather. Was a minor miracle to see him blitz and deliver repeated hard, but completely legal hits. And Breeland had the most impressive game of anyone. For him to win a single battle with Dez Bryant would have been impressive to me. To win multiple, it's shocking. And for him and Amerson to be solid enough in coverage (and making open field tackles) to allow Haslett to dial up all those cover-0 blitzes without getting too badly burned was the single most surprising thing I've seen from this team all season I credit Haslett for fooling Romo on the last two plays but not sure how different his overall scheme was from any other week. The main difference from what I can tell seemed to a ) be how well the secondary executed and b ) big stubbornness by the Cowboys offense not to leave in extra blockers to buy Romo the extra half second he needed.

[Jaxom 1974]

So essentially we all agree that it isn't unmanageable in Chicago, we're all just a little different on the eventual solution/culprit?

8 and 8 forever!

[Maithanet]

Yeah McCoy definitely missed some throws. Even some of his completions would have gone for huge yardage had they been better thrown balls. I wonder how much of that was sheer nerves. Felt like it took 'til halftime for him to start looking confident out there. I do still think short game accuracy is his greatest strength. With an easy next two games, it'll be interesting to see what he can do with this set of receivers definitely capable of YAC.

Woah there killer. When you're a 3-5 team, there are no easy games. We aren't even favored @ Minnesota this week.

Completely agreed on Meriweather. Was a minor miracle to see him blitz and deliver repeated hard, but completely legal hits. And Breeland had the most impressive game of anyone. For him to win a single battle with Dez Bryant would have been impressive to me. To win multiple, it's shocking. And for him and Amerson to be solid enough in coverage (and making open field tackles) to allow Haslett to dial up all those cover-0 blitzes without getting too badly burned was the single most surprising thing I've seen from this team all season I credit Haslett for fooling Romo on the last two plays but not sure how different his overall scheme was from any other week. The main difference from what I can tell seemed to a ) be how well the secondary executed and b ) big stubbornness by the Cowboys offense not to leave in extra blockers to buy Romo the extra half second he needed.

It was surprising that the Cowboys didn't protect better. The Redskins could do nothing when they rush four, and yet their blitzes were getting home again and again (5 sacks plus an intentional grounding). Part of that was good blitz design, but part of it was a complete failure on the part of the Cowboys to adjust.

Breeland and Amerson were the best thing that happened last night, because those guys are still getting better, and should be on the team long term. McCoy winning games is great, but he's still just keeping Griffin's seat warm until he can come back. But if we might have two above average cornerbacks, that would make improving the defense through the draft and free agency a LOT easier.

And have you noticed that our special teams are actually looking like a competent unit the past couple of weeks? When they play like an average squad, capable of occasionally flipping field position, suddenly the offense and defense both look A LOT better. I can only hope (really really hope) that continues.

[Jaime L]

And have you noticed that our special teams are actually looking like a competent unit the past couple of weeks? When they play like an average squad, capable of occasionally flipping field position, suddenly the offense and defense both look A LOT better. I can only hope (really really hope) that continues.

Totally. A punt downed inside the 5, a big punt return by Andre Roberts, Kai Forbath made all his kicks and even had a touchback or two. Is this what's it like for other teams? Having a special teams capable of performing its most basic duties consistently? Maybe someday we can even dream of more advanced stuff like blocked punts and onside kicks. But, hey, to not actively be hurting us is like a quantum leap.

It's like teaching our CBs how to cover...are our players capable of learning? Are our coaches capable of teaching? If so, that opens an astounding world of possibility!

[Jaime L]

Wow, Rams add to their endless ranks of defensive first round picks by trading 4th and 6th rounders for safety Mark Barron. Dude was the #7 overall pick only 2 years ago.

As for the Bucs, Lovie continues to purge their secondary of guys too talented to play the Cover 2. First Revis, now Barron, for pennies on the dollar it cost to acquire each....

[Maithanet]

Wow, Rams add to their endless ranks of defensive first round picks by trading 4th and 6th rounders for safety Mark Barron. Dude was the #7 overall pick only 2 years ago.

As for the Bucs, Lovie continues to purge their secondary of guys too talented to play the Cover 2. First Revis, now Barron, for pennies on the dollar it cost to acquire each....

Kinda disappointing the Redskins couldn't match that offer. I thought Barron was looking decent, maybe a little overdrafted, but overall promising. But it's not like I follow the Bucs, maybe I'm just thinking of someone else.

[sperry]

Kinda disappointing the Redskins couldn't match that offer. I thought Barron was looking decent, maybe a little overdrafted, but overall promising. But it's not like I follow the Bucs, maybe I'm just thinking of someone else.

That trade gets even better for the Rams when you factor in how shitty they are at evaluating talent in the draft. I bet they're stoked to have a Greg Robinson instead of Sammy Watkins right now.

[Maithanet]

That trade gets even better for the Rams when you factor in how shitty they are at evaluating talent in the draft. I bet they're stoked to have a Greg Robinson instead of Sammy Watkins right now.

The degree to which the Rams failed to get real impact players with the bounty of draft picks the Redskins sent them is pretty astounding. Obviously it'll be another year or two to really see how all those picks work out, but the early returns at this point are not good at all - the Rams still seem to have glaring holes at many positions, particularly quarterback.

[sperry]

The degree to which the Rams failed to get real impact players with the bounty of draft picks the Redskins sent them is pretty astounding. Obviously it'll be another year or two to really see how all those picks work out, but the early returns at this point are not good at all - the Rams still seem to have glaring holes at many positions, particularly quarterback.

Both of their star players who had torn ACLs re-tore the same ACL this season, something you rarely see occur. Either they're the unluckiest franchise in history, or their training staff botched a bunch of stuff.

[Jaime L]

The degree to which the Rams failed to get real impact players with the bounty of draft picks the Redskins sent them is pretty astounding. Obviously it'll be another year or two to really see how all those picks work out, but the early returns at this point are not good at all - the Rams still seem to have glaring holes at many positions, particularly quarterback.

They've spent a bunch of draft picks on skill position talent. First rounder on Tavon Austin, Second rounders on Brian Quick, Isaiah Pead and Lance Kendricks. Third Rounders on Stedman Bailey, Austin Pettis and Tre Mason. Not sure they have a difference maker among them.

In the last 5 years, they've twice tried to use the 2nd overall pick in the draft to address LT and had one of the great all time busts, the first go around, and now with Greg Robinson, he's still yet to actually play tackle. This over Sammy Watkins, Khalil Mack, Jake Matthews, Anthony Barr etc. etc.

At least their D-line looks like a beast. All that took was using 4 first round picks over 6 years. Course they only have 6 sacks in 7 games. At best, it's only because those 2 2nd round CBs, 2 3rd round DBs and 1 1st round LB can't hold up in coverage. That's at best.

Seriously, what an insane waste of an almost unprecedented amount of draft capital. Even with injuries, this team should not be getting blown out by 20+ like it does routinely. They gotta clean house before this team moves to LA, right?

[sperry]

They've spent a bunch of draft picks on skill position talent. First rounder on Tavon Austin, Second rounders on Brian Quick, Isaiah Pead and Lance Kendricks. Third Rounders on Stedman Bailey, Austin Pettis and Tre Mason. Not sure they have a difference maker among them.

In the last 5 years, they've twice tried to use the 2nd overall pick in the draft to address LT and had one of the great all time busts, the first go around, and now with Greg Robinson, he's still yet to actually play tackle. This over Sammy Watkins, Khalil Mack, Jake Matthews, Anthony Barr etc. etc.

At least their D-line looks like a beast. All that took was using 4 first round picks over 6 years. Course they only have 6 sacks in 7 games. At best, it's only because those 2 2nd round CBs, 2 3rd round DBs and 1 1st round LB can't hold up in coverage. That's at best.

Seriously, what an insane waste of an almost unprecedented amount of draft capital. Even with injuries, this team should not be getting blown out by 20+ like it does routinely. They gotta clean house before this team moves to LA, right?

Their overall roster talent is horrific. They've just lit multiple high draft picks on fire. The only place they've had decent success is along the d-line, where they've acquired some nice talent.

[Jace, Extat]

Wow, Rams add to their endless ranks of defensive first round picks by trading 4th and 6th rounders for safety Mark Barron. Dude was the #7 overall pick only 2 years ago.

As for the Bucs, Lovie continues to purge their secondary of guys too talented to play the Cover 2. First Revis, now Barron, for pennies on the dollar it cost to acquire each....

Now I'm disappointed the Colts didn't get in on that action. But everyone knows that no one has ever scored on the Cover 2.