I might as well create a macro for: “The Packers win again. Aaron Rodgers has an outstanding game, the pass defense looks questionable, but still manage to get the turnovers to win, and the O Line needs a bit of work.” Seems like most every game goes by that script.
Still, a nice win on the road in San Diego. The opportunistic defense helped counterbalance their penchant for giving up big plays.
And I would be remiss to mention the Packers and not mention just how damn good Aaron Rodgers is. This weekend, I realized I could be watching the early part of the career of the best quarterback to ever play the game. He’s 28.5 rating points ahead of the next highest rated QB this year. He’s got the leagues highest completion percentage (72.5), the league’s most TD’s (24), and the second fewest interceptions (3, Alex Smith has 2). He’s playing amazing football. And he’s a Packer.
Tonight we get Bears v. Eagles. No matter the result, I’ll be happy. And sad. C’est la vie.
Not sure about “early part of the career”. This is his seventh season in the league, and I don’t think he’ll play at quite this level for the next 7 seasons because his legs will go before that.
I did notice that he’s on pace for 48 touchdowns, though.
That Packer game did not leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Those defensive breakdowns in the secondary were atrocious. Jackson was WIDE open on a couple of those touchdowns and they better fix that shit. But in general they weren’t doing a very good job on coverage. This team is not going 16-0 and I get nervous just hearing the talk. I don’t care about that at all. If they happen to do it on the way to a Super Bowl, huzzah, otherwise, who cares.
Also, Starks is showing himself to clearly be the better runner than Grant. Grant is tentative and lack s power for some reason. Starks appears to hit the holes better and is also able to shed tacklers. It was nice seeing Finley really get involved more.
I agree. Starks is clearly more powerful, but I don’t see him breaking the big runs or making players miss that Grant used to (before surgery) be able to do. Maybe he’ll get better at that, but Starks seems more like a bruiser running through guys. With Alex Green on IR, and Brandon Saine being an unproven rookie and kinda soft, I’m hoping one of the other of them get better in the passing game. It would be nice to have a guy coming out of the backfield who can catch the ball and make people miss.
He is averaging 4.6 Yds/Carry, Grant is at 4.0, which is the worst in the NFC with at least 50 carries.. I like Grant, but he just isn’t the guy he used to be.
Of course, with Rodgers we don’t need a big home run guy at running back, we need a bruiser who picks up 5 yards a pop so the play action is in play and we can let ARod get the big plays. Grant still needs to be in there, I am not saying throw him completely to the side, just that I think Starks needs to be featured.
Where did you get “worst in the NFC with at least 50 carries” number from? Mark Ingram, Tim Hightower and Brandon Jacobs all have well over 50 carries and a sub-4.0 average.
If you watch V-Jax carefully you’ll see that he’s always wide open on his touchdown catches. I don’t know if it’s his route running, or Rivers moving safeties with his eyes, or what, but I’ve never seen any receiver who spends so much time running around endzones by himself.
Too me it was obvious that the pack secondary blew it. Have to see it again but it looked like they were looking at each other like “I thought you had him.”
I have faith in Dom to come up with something to fix this.
I’m inclined to agree. We’re seeing lots of yardage and points on big plays that come from blown assignments, which is fixable. I’m not seeing guys just flat get beat. Once the personnel settles down a little bit and they work on communication they might be OK.
In January the only things that matter are win-loss record, and how well you’re playing in January. I’m a little concerned and I’m glad to see the team snipping about it a little, but I’m not in panic mode yet.
There’s a couple of new reports about the Bears ongoing negotiations with Forte.
First, according to Angelo (who may or may not be credible) Forte turned down an offer this preseason for more than $32.5MM over 5 years. The exact numbers weren’t revealed but they said it was greater than what Jamaal Charles signed for and the above amount is his deal. That’s a far cry from the 4-year, $53MM extension CJ2K signed after his hold out (though as an extension, is more like a 6-year, $56.5MM deal) and DeAngelo Williams’ 5-year $43MM deal. However, based on how those two have played I’m not sure you can make a good case for using them as benchmarks.
In related news, the Bears extended Roberto Garza for 2 years at $6.55MM, and will pay him close to $3.1MM a year through 2013. So, at least someone on the Bears is getting paid.
I’d love to see Forte get signed and he definitely deserves a deal, but if he and his agent are pushing for an insane deal like CJ2K signed I am going to have to side with the Bears and say they should just franchise him for the next 2 seasons. I think a number between the Charles deal and the Williams deal are appropriate, say 4 years at $30MM or 5 years at $36MM with some performance bonuses and injury/decline protection.
Accordinng to Sagarin’s ratings it isn’t even close, the NFC North is the best Division in football with GB ranked #1, Detroit #3, Da Bears, #4, and the Vikings at #22. And we all know that these ratings are FLAWLESS.
What’s “insane” about 4 years at $12 million per? Running back is arguably the second most important position on a football team, and indisputably comes with the shortest shelf life. Not just that, but Forte is clearly the Bears’ most valuable player on offense.
When you factor in that his rookie deal is worth a total of $4 million over 4 years - which has contributed hugely to the Bears’ ability to sign other players - it’s hard to see why he shouldn’t be among the five highest paid players at his position. That’s even less than CJ2K made.
For what it’s worth, I’ve never thought he was one of the 10 best tailbacks in the league- or at least I didn’t until this season.
