I tend to agree with Omni that while it was nice (for Bears fans) that McClellin got three sacks, I wouldn’t be ready to proclaim him a good starter yet. His first sack was basically a coverage sack where Rodgers held the ball too long, and then the Packers’ starting right guard went out with a concussion, which set Shea up against a backup RT who was no great shakes last year at LT. Congrats to him for having a good game, but I don’t think he’s anything more than a speedy pass rush specialist.
Somewhere along the line I got confused. I thought I’d heard that Cutler’s groin injury was a tear and that he would likely miss several weeks. Well, that’s good news for the Bears.
Unfortunately for the Packers, my NFL mobile app just chimed in with news that Aaron Rodgers has a small fracture in his collarbone and will likely miss a few weeks himself. Damn, there’s a lot of quarterback carnage this season.
Awesome win for the Bears, but that was the worst LB corps play I’ve ever seen. I saw play after play where all 3 LB’s ran to somewhere other than where the ball was going. We never saw this when Briggs and Urlacher were on the field.
Yeah, I’m not ready to crown their asses yet but a win is a win and the line looked pretty decent on passing downs. Hopefully they can take this and build on it.
You mean all the missed gaps, whiffed tackles, blown coverages, and bad angles? Unfortunately, I did see them.
I think the real takeaway from last night is that McCown might keep the starting job when Cutler is healthy.
No, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they make Cutler sit an extra week to fully heal. That said, McCown and Trestman apparently have a nice little rapport and McCown seemed to work through his progressions quickly and took what the defense gave him. It’s only one game against a opponent who had very little game tape to study, but things seemed to come pretty easy to McCown.
Cutler tended to force more balls into coverage early in the season, not sure if this is his stubbornness or just the result of a gameplan that just had the Packers number.
He looked pretty good against Washington, too, remember. And he might actually be worth the contract the Bears offer him, whereas Cutler is going to be horribly overpaid.
Nnamdi Asomugha cut by the 49ers.
I’ve always wondered about that guy. Was he ever really that good or did he just look good because the Raiders were terrible and played a last-place schedule every year? Did age just catch up to him?
I think he was a good cover corner once, and had an established reputation as such and since most of the rest of the Raiders defense was so awful when he played there, it was just easier to gain yards and points throwing the ball away from him.
Washington’s defense can make just about anyone look good, though. 
During the TV broadcast they mentioned that the Browns defense is leading the league in opponent yards per play, which is probably the single best statistic for defensive efficiency, and yet they’ve played the most snaps of any defense. That has to be extremely unusual, I wonder if that’s ever happened before.
The defense has been on the field for the 3rd most plays, their % of 3rd down stops is 2nd worst in the league, and they’re only 23rd in turnovers caused. They’re the 3rd most passed on team, but they allow the lowest passing yards per attempt and are 2nd in sacks (Mingo leads with 4, but 15 players have at least 1 sack). Average plays per drive against them is 7th highest, but average yards per drive is 2nd lowest.
So they give up yards on underneath passing, but they tend not to get beaten deep, they’re tough to run on, and they get big sacks on 3rd down when the opponent is in their territory, forcing punts or long field goal attempts.
Incognito story just keeps getting weirder. The suggestion is that it may actually have been a sort of coach-approved hazing, intended to “toughen up” Martin.
“Did you order the code red?”
“I want the truth!”
“We’re going to give 60 minutes of effort, play hard in all three phases, and stick to our game plan. We are focused on this opponent because we can’t afford to look ahead. We need to win the turnover battle. The quarterback needs to take better care of the ball.”
You want me on that line! You need me on that line!
Moving away from the Icognito-Martin clusterfuck:
If the season ended today, a 7-1 team would be playing Wild Card weekend on the road!
… having lost the division to a team that has played two first string quarterbacks in eight games (three if you count Blaine Gabbert.)