Bears/Eagles post game.

[CBS7]

It was ugly, but the important thing... we got a W.

[chitownsports4ever]

It was ugly, but the important thing... we got a W.

and both the offense and defense faced adversity and came through in the 4th finally .

[CBS7]

Orton was great in the first half... made great throws and got us the lead. Held the ball too long and threw a bad interception in the second half. We have yet to see a good complete game from Orton.

Forte was good. 43 yards on 19 carries may not seem good but it was against the #1 rush defense in the NFL, and he made big plays.

The defense was solid. Gave up yardage but produced when it mattered the most.

[CBS7]

Next week we finally get to play a bad team, the 0-3 Lions, after starting the year vs the Colts, Panthers, Buccaneers, and Eagles. We shouldn't underestimate them, but I really hope we blow them out, as Orton throws for 200+ yards and 2 TDs, and Forte gains 150+ yards on the ground.

They are bad offensively (26th in the league), and worse defensively. Are last in the league in rushing defense, giving up 207.7 yards a game, and last in the league in overall defense, giving up 430.3 yards a game.

[Posey H8er]

The Lions always give the Bears trouble in Detroit. The Bears need to put pressure on Kitna because the Lions have Calvin Johnson and Roy Williams as a good 1-2 punch, and Tillman may be out.

[Chewie]

I've got to say that was a fun game to watch. Brief quick hits as my bed calls me :

- A tale of two halves as Orton was cruising in the first half and we just managed to hold on in the second as we simply had no answer for their blitz. BTW, remind me to pick up Philly's defense for my fantasy team. Impressive stuff.
- Briggs is having his best season thus far - some of his hits have been the stuff of highlight reels.
- While Payne came away with an INT, it was thrown right to him and I've got to say he was the weak link in the secondary though he wasn't exactly alone.
- DeSean Jackson on the Eagles reminds me of Hester. He's going to do some exciting things in the game but you're going to have to live with the boneheaded plays as well. I've got to say DeSean was a big reason for our success tonight.
- Urlacher has been getting 'caught up in the muck' as they say. Unable to shed linemen blocking him as the plays whizzes by him. I've never seen so many games in a row in which Urlacher's name just isn't mentioned. He may be the poster boy to get viewers to tune in but he's been an afterthought lately.
- AWESOME goal line stand in the end. Couldn't believe Philly didn't try something different and have McNabb rollout for an option. Just ANYTHING besides running up the gut yet again. Alex Brown was the man on that play.
- Look forward to more blitzes in the coming weeks until Orton (and our line) can deal with it.

And that's all I have to say about that....

[Howling Mad]

Some tidbits...

Something to note in this game is how much the coaching staff is trusting Orton. When they realized Forte was the main focus they leaned more of the offense on Orton and he delivered.

The Eagles adjusted their blitz packages in the second half and sent one less guy in on most plays. The few plays Forte had to make a play he came through.

Orton had a terrible 2nd half, but all the success he had in the first half payed off.

On both of the crucial 3rd down plays at the end of the game the linebackers cheated. The first time on Forte's run (close to our goal line), and the second on the audibled(hooray Orton) screen pass.

On Forte's run they cheated back to help out the safeties which gave Forte the chance to only have to beat one guy. By the time the second man came in, Forte had the first. On the screen pass, they cheated towards the sidelines to the TE. Looks like the two big touchdowns to the TE in the first half payed off as well.

Good hit by Brown early in the game, sending a message.

The Chicago gameplan was great, they attacked Philly's linebackers, which I think is their weakest link on D.

We tried to attack early with the run, then realized our O line coudln't stop their D line blitzing so we just let them come in, on purpose, on several screen plays. We also made their LB cover our TE and we came up big with two TDs to the TEs.

Healthy Idonije > Injured Tommie Harris.

I like how the D was able to make adjustment and tighten up in the second half, much credit for that. Our defensive adjustments were just as good, better, than Philly's offensive adjustments.

McNabb was able to go inside on us through the air, but in the second half we protected the inside and gave Philly the sidelines. The difference is McNabb was picking up 7-12 yards, then when we started to give him the sidelines, they decreased their yards per play. I credit that to the linebacking core.

We started to give Philly that screen play, but a tthe same time anticipated it, so the gains were minimal on most of them.

St Clair, I asked you to step up on Cole, thanks for not showing up.

All of us now owe something to (insert your God of choice here), for not having Westbrook play.

[The Sheik]

Anyone else upset at the fact that we should be 4-0?

Orton seems like the lower risk version of Rex. He can make or break our games, he has amazing plays and bonehead ones and regardless of how terrible he played we won. This is Ortons "the bears are who we thought they were" game.

Im in love with Kevin Payne and would like to purchase his jersey.

[dougthonus]

Orton had a really nice first half when the Eagles absolutely stacked everyone in the box and forced Orton to beat them. It's nice that he was able to do it. On the contrary, the Eagles offense was more or less moving the ball and scoring well on us too in the first half.

In the second half, Orton was an absolute train wreck accounting for three TOs in 6 possessions and absolutely putting our defense in horrid, horrid position. It's really amazing how well the defense played in the second half to only give up 6 points under the circumstances and to make 2 separate goal line stands from first and goal inside the 5.

Overall, I'm not sure what to think of Orton in this game. The first half was easily the best we've seen him as a QB, the second half was as bad as anything you've ever seen Rex Grossman do. Three TOs while trying to protect a lead in his first 6 possessions. It's kind of similar to last week except with the halves reversed.

Neither side of the ball played a complete game, but cummulatively, Orton did enough for us to win in the 1st half and the defense did enough to protect the lead in the second half.

Quality wins against the Eagles and Colts really make you feel bad that we couldn't have pulled out at least one of the two losses which we should have had in hand. Forte looked much better than his numbers, and performed well when they really needed him picking up several key 1st downs in the second half when we had 3rd and change to go.

We sure as hell got lucky on that one spot where we got the first by inches on a Forte screen pass, I looked at the replay, and if it was challenged it would have been overturned as the spot was at least 3-5 feet ahead of where it should have been and we had the first by inches.

[AAU Teammate]

Anyone else upset at the fact that we should be 4-0?

We could also be 1-3. Last week the Bears were unable to get a first down to keep the D off the field, this week, not so.


With NFL you cant go back and revise really, because we could play these games ten times and split em w/ each opponent.

[Chewie]

We sure as hell got lucky on that one spot where we got the first by inches on a Forte screen pass, I looked at the replay, and if it was challenged it would have been overturned as the spot was at least 3-5 feet ahead of where it should have been and we had the first by inches.

Yep. I commented on that spot in the in-game thread.

Fortuitous spot to say the least. Refs clearly felt bad about the Tillman call vs the Bucs. It all evens out in the end, right ?

[Chewie]

Im in love with Kevin Payne and would like to purchase his jersey.

I'm not feeling it with Payne - takes bad angles and is slow to catch up in coverage. Plays smaller than his listed size, too. Too often he seems to be hanging on for dear life and just going for a ride while making the tackle until the ball carrier goes down. The INT last night was a gift courtesy of DeSean Jackson.

[dougthonus]

Yep. I commented on that spot in the in-game thread.

Fortuitous spot to say the least. Refs clearly felt bad about the Tillman call vs the Bucs. It all evens out in the end, right ?

I remember when watching the game screaming at the TV when Orton was calling an audible "JUST HIKE THE BALL BEFORE THEY CHALLENGE YOU $!!@#$%". The spot was bad, but it was mind blowing that Philly didn't challenge it given how obvious it was that the spot was bad.

[Chewie]

Yep. I commented on that spot in the in-game thread.

Fortuitous spot to say the least. Refs clearly felt bad about the Tillman call vs the Bucs. It all evens out in the end, right ?

I remember when watching the game screaming at the TV when Orton was calling an audible "JUST HIKE THE BALL BEFORE THEY CHALLENGE YOU $!!@#$%". The spot was bad, but it was mind blowing that Philly didn't challenge it given how obvious it was that the spot was bad.

Clearly not a first down and while replays can be spotty at best to determine exact field location at the time a guy's knee went down, suffice to say the ball would've been moved back enough to make a difference. That being said....I'll take it !

EDIT: I have a theory that Andy Reid can't fit his hand in his pocket in order to get the red flag out.

[CBS7]

Payne isn't awesome, but he's 8 times as good as Archuleta.

[Chewie]

Payne isn't awesome, but he's 8 times as good as Archuleta.

Well, heck, if we're talking relative to Archuleta, put me in Payne's official fan club - sure !

[batman_crip14]

i have been reading a lot of posts and it just bothers me with a lot of double standards that have been going on. I don't want to put a whole list out but some are "i don't care how KO plays, as long as we get a win" "he threw 3tds in the first half!!!", "KO only got sacked because he O-Line didn't pick up the blitz". "rex's first 4 games last year/kyles first 4 this year" ((this one i dont think makes sense. it makes more common sense to compare the best potential offense past vs then best potential offense now which would be rex 06 vs kyle 08))

there is more and i know you guys have all seen them. i know also that most hate rex grossman/hate kyle orton; but in all realness, how soon will it be when every one who uses those "rexcuses/ortexcuses" for orton, will start turning on orton as everyone did with rex.

[CBS7]

People say Orton was awful. If this is Orton's awful, I'll take it. Grossman's awful is usually 3-4 picks, no TDs, several overthrown passes, a fumble, and a few sacks. My point, Grossman has had far, far worse games then any Orton has had this year.

[dougthonus]

People say Orton was awful. If this is Orton's awful, I'll take it. Grossman's awful is usually 3-4 picks, no TDs, several overthrown passes, a fumble, and a few sacks. My point, Grossman has had far, far worse games then any Orton has had this year.

Grossman has had FAR better games than any Orton has had this year too. That point isn't saying a whole lot.

Orton had 4 TOs last game, and 2 the week before, so the idea that he's a caretaker and Rex is all wild doesn't seem to be too accurate to me at this point. You also have to realize that teams initially played Grossman like they are now playing Orton with everyone in the box and forcing him to beat them. At that point, Grossman destroyed defenses then he began to struggle more as they spent more effort on stopping him instead of focusing 100% on the run.

You can see the same thing with Orton now. At first defenses didn't think we'd be able to do anything and played straight up a bit, Forte then destroyed them and they switch to focus on stopping them.

[batman_crip14]

People say Orton was awful. If this is Orton's awful, I'll take it. Grossman's awful is usually 3-4 picks, no TDs, several overthrown passes, a fumble, and a few sacks. My point, Grossman has had far, far worse games then any Orton has had this year.

that is another thing that boggles my mind is when they compare Orton's worst with Grossman's worst. There is a huge difference between a gunslinger/playmaker than worry-mistake-free/manager. You are going to get mistakes from Grossman, you are going to get mistakes from any QB in that matter. But instead of bringing Grossman's worst 24/7, he has had more good/great games than he has bad. Sure his bad were really bad but it ain't like Orton has good/great games yet. If you were to call his game against the Eagles good, than Grossman's good games were great and his great were Pro Bowl like.
If you are only going to focus on the bad, you won't get anywhere but i am not saying you personally CBS7, but you say "Grossman has had far worse games than Orton this year" you really trying to compare RGs career to KOs 4 games this season, you better include Orton's career too then ahah. Not saying we have a great QB on the bench, they both are inconsistent and everyone can see that, but i think Lovie was right from the gecko in 06 stating that RG gives us the best chance to win with a running game that works and defense/st that is on too. 2007 was a horrible year for everyone on that team that "comes off the bus running" especially when benson/peterson couldn't even run off the bus even if they saw the door leading out.

All in all, if you are going to bring up bad vs bad, bring up good vs good and/or great vs great if you are trying to be unbiased.