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OK...so no one's anticipating anything but nevertheless less.....

EMPEROR JONES PREDICTS......The Bears will go at least 10-6

Why you ask? What a Homer idiot you say?

Top 8 Reasons why the Bears will "Shock the World"


8. The Schedule - Every year, people look back over the year before and say wow this schedule's easy or this schedule's so tough. We tend to live in a vacuum when we do this. We assume that the good teams from a year before are just going to get better and we see the bad teams adding FAs & high draft picks. But I predict that this will be a seriously down year for the NFC East and we play the NFC East - Dallas will take a big step back. They have serious OL problems and that's going to turn Romo into a Cutler like target. Their offense will break down during the coarse of the seasons once teams figure out how to attack - & without good tackles, Peppers will go nuts against them in week 2. The Skins are a bad TEAM yes that add McNabb, but that's not going to get them there. The Giants are a competitive team that one one more game than the Bears last year and I think they will win the East but with a 10-6 record. Philly will be around .500.

Add to that that I thin Minnesota is going to have a 9-7 season (look at that 11-5 record last year and realize they had several miraculous wins - that doesn't happen 2 years in a row) Their D-Line & O-Lines have taken a step back. They have tons of injuries and its going to take several weeks for them to click.

7. The Receiving Core - You will see the Birth of a star this year. Jonny Knox is going back to the Pro-Bowl, but as a WR. Martz will move Hester around enough to cause enough concern to keep defenses watching him and Knox will reap the benefits. Aromashodu is going to be our go to guy while Knox will be the big play star. This WR corp with Mad Martz is going to "SHOCK THE WORLD"

6. The Line Backers - Are going to be healthy and are going to be the best LB unit in the league. We now have elite players on both the DL and the LB units. This is extremely important. Peppers, Briggs, Urlacher and IF Harris gets it going this year - Look Out!

5. The Running Backs - Forte looks solid again. and we have a very solid tandem FINALLY with Chester Taylor.

4. The Safeties - Yes you read that right - THE SAFETIES! While everyone else considered the Bears were stupid to bring C Harris in here and then switch him to FS when he's a SS, I think that was done because the Bears really feel that Major Wright is going to be a stud FS. When he gets there (EJ predicts 2nd half of game 1). Harris switches back to SS backed up by Manning unless Manning beats him out. This gives the Bears a solid & athletic safety core.

3. The Offensive Line - Cutting Beekman was a surprise move. But also a move that shows that Mike Tice believes in what he has. From the start he looked at the line with Fresh eyes. This was a great thing and got the best talent on the field when he moved Garza to LG. FO will settle in at RT and Martz will give CW the help he needs against the elite speed rushers we face. I think the line play will pick up where it left off at the end of last year and Cutler will learn to trust them and not have that alarm clock sounding in his head after 1.5 seconds. Equaling better decisions and fewer picks.

2. The Defensive Line - The defensive line will bring the pressure. Julius Peppers is a BEAST and when teams gameplan to stop him its going to free up SOMEONE to cause havoc. Whether that be Harris, or a blitzing LB/S its one less guy to pick up for our D. This is what we wanted & needed all along. Realize that last year we had a starting DE (Adawale) that isn't even in the league this year. The defensive line is where we always say it starts & the Bears have solved this problem.

1. Cutler - Cutler will not have a repeat performance from last year. The pressure to do everything will not be on him. Last year in games it was obvious that he did not feel that the OC was competent. This year, he knows that Martz knows what he's doing. The results will be less forcing and more balanced play from Cutler, particularly as he gets used to steady play from Tice's offensive line.



This is the basis of my 10-6 prediction. I actually think they could go 11-5 but I don't feel like losing my sig to Chewie again if he decides to come back to this board

You're drunk. But I expect nothing but optimism from you.

Understood about the schedule, but still, we don't have many easy games. Seattle looked like an easy game but they just put a whooping on San Francisco. The Packers look like a powerhouse.

Maybe we sneak up on some teams and Cliff Levingston thinks we'll definitely be improved over last year, but that doesn't mean we can go 10-6. It's possible we play well and lose to better teams like the Packers, Jets, Patriots, etc. Cliff Levingston is expecting 7-9.

WEFFPIM wrote:You're drunk. But I expect nothing but optimism from you.

I actually was buzzed when I wrote that (not the spelling errors) but the funny thing is....because I was buzzed I went with 10-6 instead of my planned 11-5.

WEFFPIM wrote:You're drunk. But I expect nothing but optimism from you.

Any thoughts WEFFPIM? or you still just gonna defer to me being drunK?

I still feel you're drunk.

But the direction this team has started heading down has me certainly more interested in this team than earlier.

WEFFPIM wrote:I still feel you're drunk.

But the direction this team has started heading down has me certainly more interested in this team than earlier.

hope you're ready to join me?

I'm nearing. Not there yet...but nearing.

I'm as big of a Bears fan as anyone, but am disappointed we haven't won convincingly yet. I like this start, but I'm not ready to bet on it.

Still can't believe we're the only undefeated NFC team. That's crazy.

C3 wrote:I'm as big of a Bears fan as anyone, but am disappointed we haven't won convincingly yet. I like this start, but I'm not ready to bet on it.

The Cowboys game wasn't convincing enough? Only a 7 point margin of victory, but the defense only allowed 13 points against one of the most talented offensive teams in the league while our offense pretty much smoked their defense in the last 3 quarters.

Before that, we dominated the Lions for the most part, just killed ourselves with a couple red zone turnovers and a failed goal line scoring attempt. If you take the otherwise minimum of 9 points from those, the game isn't even close.

We didn't play our best game last night, but give a lot of credit to the Packers for that; they're a really good team on both sides of the ball. Nonetheless, we had a few nice drives, the defense played great overall and we hung in and got the win. For cripes' sake, we've got wins against two of the NFC's superbowl favorites against one on the road and against the other at home without playing our best game. That' nucking futs!

The arrow is really pointing up for this team, and it's crazy to think that after starting 3-0. Martz' offense takes notoriously long to learn and you can still see at least a few mis-communications per game as a result. We also started the season with only one offensive lineman in the same spot as last year, not to mention the lack of talent there. To compound that, our starting left tackle got hurt and we had a 7th round rookie in at RT last night for a while. As bad as the offensive line has been at times, they could be much worse. You've got to believe that that unit along with the offense as a whole can only get better as they get more experience and more time to learn the offense.

This defense really doesn't have room to improve unless Major Wright can come in and make an impact when he's healthy again. However, there's no reason they can't maintain this high level of play provided they avoid critical injuries.

Hester looked a bit like the old Hester last night. If he can reclaim a bit of that old magic and force punters to kick away from him, we've got an offense now that can make them pay for it. That's pretty awesome.

We absolutely dominated the field position game last night. That's how we won in 2006. We didn't have the most potent offense but we would always have good field position to take yards off drives. If Devin returns to 2006 form, we're going to the playoffs this year.

Anyone else on board with 10-11 victories? I see us going at least 4-3 with wins against Miami, Philly, Detroit and a Vikings team that should be ready for Christmas vacation in 4 more weeks. I also think the Patriots are overrated on offense and defense. Thats a tough one to call though.

The Redskins loss really hurt. But overall, the defense has kept us in every game. The Giants game felt like a blowout but they only scored 17.

With the O-Line rounding into shape since the off week, I have the arrow pointing up. So happy we have Webb at RT!

@ Miami
Philadelphia
@ Detroit
New England
@ Minnesota
New York
@ Green Bay

Miami, Minnesota, and New England are all losses. They will have 10 days to prepare for Philly, so I think they get that one. I have a feeling they will squeak out a victory over the Jets at home. So going into Green Bay for the finale, I have them at 9-6. They probably lose that one, and end the season at 9-7, which will most likely not be good enough to make the playoffs.

Which means a new coach, and new GM, finally. I like Lovie Smith, I actually wouldn't mind if he stayed. Its just that there are better coaches out there, like Cowher, Gruden, Dungy. But Angelo definitely has to go.

9 wins will win the Wild Card. We have a pretty good conference record of 5-3 which would be the tiebreaker in that case. Need to win at least 9.

charity stripe wrote:Miami, Minnesota, and New England are all losses.

Why is Miami an auto loss in your mind?

Not sure how Minnesota is an auto loss at this point. That team isn't very good. I know we struggle in Minnesota but that should be a win at this point. Will New England and New York even be playing for anything when we play them? Our schedule looks tougher than it is I think. Still not sold on this Bears team but it's looking more and more like playoffs.

emperorjones wrote:

charity stripe wrote:Miami, Minnesota, and New England are all losses.

Why is Miami an auto loss in your mind?

Jay Cutler is just horrid in night games. I know against Minnesota last year he was ok, but that was the exception. He's played 14 night games in his career, and tossed 17 INTs. I expect a 3 turnover game on Thursday to lead to a loss.

Minnesota is still a very tough place to play, and all 3 of the Vikings wins are at home so far.

VS Eagles
@ Detroit
VS Patriots
@ Vikings
VS Jets
@ Packers

3 wins there?

That schedule is really not as hard as its seems if you look behind the headlines.

1. Very excited to play the Eagles. They look awesome on offense and are 2nd in interceptions I believe. Bad weather wont help us as Vick could go crazy running. Great test of where our defense really is.

2. Detroit? - I see a win

3. Patriots? - Tough team, but not the same Patriots as years before. Their defense is ranked 18th against the run & 30th against the pass. I have the Bears but would not feel strongly about it as I feel the teams are evenly matched. Brady is tough to go against when you need a win

4. In 3 weeks the Vikings will be eliminated. TJ will likely be running around in the backfield throwing picks. The coach will be a lame duck and the players will be packed and ready to go home. Win

5. You realize the Jets have only beaten one team with a winning record? (Patriots Wk 2) and needed OT to beat Detroit AND CLeveland in the last couple weeks? They are the biggest example of NY media bias. Win.

6. Greenbay? Hate to say it but if it comes down to this game, even though Lovie plays them tough up there, I'm not taking us in Greenbay with what will most likely be crap weather......Loss....HOMER UPDATE!!!!! Bears Win 472 to -6.

So really I do see 3 wins at Detroit at Minn and the Jets and 3 very tough games. Hopefully we pull out 1 of the tough games.

10-6

Oh...and please note...I did not "Bump" this thread.