Didn’t see a thread, but the first game of the week is tonight, Bears vs. Dolphins, so I thought I would get one started. Let the commentary begin.
The Bears catch yet another break by getting a team on a short week that had some injuries this past Sunday. Losing their #1 and #2 QB’s, the Dolphins are down to #3 Tyler Thigpen. Starting LT Jake Long injured his shoulder. Starting C Berger is out. Vernon Carey, starting RT, has an injured knee. Their starting FS Clemons is out as well, so they have to go with a rookie at that position, and with all these injuries and their short week, their special teams starters will be iffy.
The Bears injury report: Pino Tinoisamoa is out.
Sometimes that ball just bounces your way. I expect the Bears to go into Miami and be able to get great field position, throw against a weakened secondary, stop the run, and make the Dolphins’ #3 QB cough up the ball alot. I am shocked that Miami is actually giving points. But, then again, they are the Bears.
What do you mean “yet another break”? In what way have the Bears gotten help from the scheduling gods?
I’m actually worried about this game. I’m a big fan of Tyler Thigpen and I think he scares me more than either Henne or Pennington. If he performs as well as he did in relief last week their offense might actually get a shot in the arm. If anything I suspect Brandon Marshall to get a big boost with him at the helm and stud WRs tend to give the Bears fits. I wouldn’t be shocked to see a Steve Smith circa 2005 type game from him against us. The injury to Jake Long, and I suspect that he’ll be out, could be our saving grace. Peppers and Izzy need to finally have an absolutely dominant game. Also the Wildcat might make a big resurgence tonight with Thigpen getting an extra-short prep time and the Bears are one of the few teams that have never really been tested by it. Hopefully their run defense and linebackers are able to command it, but we’ll see.
Tinoisamoa has been really good this year so he’ll be missed.
I expect the Bears to win but I see a lot to be worried about from the Dolphins offense. Defensively, I think Cutler will cut them apart though so long as that balanced play calling holds up. They lack a strong pass rush so the offensive line might continue playing well.
The six teams the Bears have beaten have had a combined record of 15-39. The Bears have 3 whole players on IR, none of which are starters. They played an “away” game in Buffalo where there were a majority of Bears fans. They got the Packers without Ryan Grant when the Packers all but beat themselves. When Cutler did get injured, it was in a game against the pathetic Panthers (playing their rookie QB Clausen), who got 4 turnovers and still couldn’t win. And now they get a weakened team on a short week with a new QB with little prep time, while being all but healthy themselves.
Those things could apply to just about every team out there and many, like the Giants, have gotten far better luck.
The Bears have faced pretty much everyone at full strength, we got a break with the Packers and Grant. You might say the Bears got a break by going to Toronto, but they also played Ryan Fitzpatrick who’s about a million times better than their opening day starter. The Packers caught a break facing the Eagles in week one against Kolb as the starter. The Bears faced the Cowboys when Romo was still starting and they hadn’t completely imploded yet, unlike the Packers.
We played the Lions at full strength with a healthy Megatron, Best and Stafford unlike just about everyone else in the league. Naturally we got a break on the non-TD call at the end, but the were a much better team when we played them than when you did. The Panthers do suck but we faced them when all their running backs were healthy, something that’s happened all of once since week 1.
The Bears aren’t getting an inordinate amount of breaks.
Injuries alone are huge. This year, there has been 34 more players on IR than at this time last year. Yet the Bears have a whopping 3 guys, they’ve lost, including a 4th string RB, a backup LB, and a 5th string DT, 2/3 of which are rookies. The Colts have 20.
But I did chuckle when you mentioned the Lions, who were 2-14 last year, being healthy in the first game of the season as some kind of victory.
Do you disagree that based on what we know about the Lions now that they were a better team in Week 1 than in Week 4 or today?
They were healthier. It was WEEK ONE. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that teams now are less healthy than they were in week one. Shocking assertion, I know. Saying that your team isn’t lucky because the team they faced in week one was healthy is, to me, kinda silly. But feel free to ignore the rest of my post to go after this minor point.
The Bears are healthier than most teams. That’s a given and that’s a big deal. But that’s not the point of contention.
Your first post was whining about the Bears somehow getting gifts from the scheduling gods. I’m pointing out that there are a lot of teams with injury issues and their opponents have all benefited, including the Packers. 2 of the teams going the rest of their season without their starting QB were the Bears opening 2 opponents. If you’re gonna mock the Bears for playing the Dolphins and Panthers backup QBs, I’m going to point out that the Packers faced the Cowboys and Lions backup QBs while the Bears faced their starters.
That was pretty clear, if anyone’s dodging a point I think you are. What the Lions were last season means diddly squat.
Hey Bears, share some of those gifts with the Bengals!
It’s not? Then who are you arguing with, because it ain’t me. The Bears are lucky facing an injury depleted team this week. They’ve been lucky with a lack of injuries to themselves this year. If that’s not lucky, well I guess we can differ on that.
I mostly weigh in on Hamlet with this one. The Bears aren’t nearly as good as their record and that’s usually the result of a weak schedule and some luck.
And Brandon Marshall just left the game…
The Dolphins also lost their backup center, so they’ve juggled around their O Line.
Thigpen and his dumb INT and 78 yards total passing certainly make him look like a third string QB.
I was going to say the Bears would be dangerous if they could score a TD and then Forte got one after the offense sucked up most of the 3rd quarter.
I DVRed the game tonight in hopes of watching it after work. I made it through a quarter and a half before I couldn’t take it anymore. Are we sure Jay Cutler is good? He looked awful in the action I saw and the Bears offense (notably the playcalling) looked even worse. I feel bad for the Dolphins for all the injuries they’ve suffered, but they were brutal. That was one of the worst games I’ve ever seen. I’m really glad I quit on it.
There’s a lot of good games coming up this weekend. Many more interesting ones than last week. I’ll try and do a writeup tomorrow night.
I don’t think the question is whether Jay Cutler is good. Clearly, he isn’t. The question now is how the hell does a guy you gave up two first round picks and Kyle Orton for become a liability?
ETA: Bucs rookie of the year candidate Mike Williams was arrested this morning for DUI. He blew… a 0.06, which is below the legal limit in Florida. 
I think you have to give the Bears defense some of the credit as well, while their offense is probably lower end of the spectrum their defense is clearly very good and what has contributed a good measure to their success.
Agreed. They’re now fourth in overall defense and first in scoring defense.
They are similar to the '85 Bears in that a strong defense is overcoming a weak offense to make them look better overall then they really are.
Their defense is well above average, likely a top 5 defense in the league. They lead the league in turnovers, 2nd in stopping the run, and top 12 against the pass.
Last night, they stopped the run against Miami, and put the game in Tyler Thigpens completely incapable hands. There’s a reason he’s a third stringer.
The Bears have a big game next week against the Eagles. That will tell me much more about this team than a game against a banged up Miami.
As for the rest of this weekend’s games, I think only the lateand night games are going to be interesting. Colts v. NE is always fun, and the Giants Eagles game will tell us a lot about those teams. And the Denver San Diego game is like that one crazy chick you met at a bar who you can never be sure if she’s actually kinda hot and cool, or just flat out insane.
But, of course, there is Packers/ Vikings. I keep expecting the Vikings to wake up, because they’ve got the talent to win, but they just keep losing. I will admit, though, I am enjoying watching Favre have a bad year, it’s just so … fun. But I hate games like this. The Packers are favored on the road against a rivalry team; it has all the makings of potentially disappointment. But coming off the bye week and on a nice little winning streak, I think the Packers can pull it off.