• The Bears have two wins because they have a good coach and a good quarterback. You were told that they would win some games for that reason, I know you were because I’m the one who told you. (Pats self on back).

• Through five games in 2014, Matt Forte had 118 touches. Through five games in 2015, he has 120. I don’t know when we should start worrying about over-usage, but he looks damn good right now. He isn’t the only one getting the ball a lot, the Bears backup running backs have combined for 26 touches after totaling 42 last year. Fox wasn’t kidding when he said he wanted to run the ball, the Bears are 12th in attempts after finishing 30th last year.

• Coming into the game, there was a debate about which team had the better quarterback. That debate is dead. You saw on Sunday why turnovers aren’t the end all, be all when it comes to quarterback play. The guy still has to be able to make plays. Smith can’t. Cutler can.

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(1) Saw no issues w/upper body strength. To contrary he planted defenders into the ground several times. Love how he finishes blocks.

(2) All his mistakes – including Cutler sack/TD – were assignment errors, not physical errors. He AND Slauson both confused on sack.

(3)

Grasu 3. His athleticism is obvious. Tom Thayer did a nice job breaking down how impactful it is in this video: http://t.co/HrqBofWbjY

— DaBearsBlog (@dabearsblog) October 13, 2015

(4) His comfort level and confidence increased every quarter. He was a stone wall on the Bears two touchdown drives.

(5) It is only one game but this kid can play. If this game was an example of his growing pains, the Bears found a good one.

WANT SOME STATS?

• Offense is currently ranked 27th in the league (yardage) and 28th in the league (points). If you remove the Seattle game, they go to 14th (yardage) and 20th (points). They get even better if you remove the James Clausen bits of the Cardinals game but I think you get the point. The offense has been solid when Jay Cutler has played quarterback.
• Bears have the third best pass defense in the NFL through five weeks. With the players in their secondary, just sit back and applaud this coaching staff.
• Bears have the league’s leading rusher. They are 15th in total rushing yards. When is the last time that happened?

TEN THOUGHTS FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE

• Nick Foles is horrible. When Aaron Rodgers is turning the ball over to your defense at Lambeau Field, you can’t respond by giving the ball right back. Fisher has a team that can contend. He has a quarterback that cannot.
• Seahawks were terrible against the Bears, should have been beaten by Detroit and blew a big lead to Cincinnati. Been saying for weeks this Seattle team isn’t any good.
• I’m not sure the league will be in rush to give Marc Trestman another job. #OrganizationalPoison
• Sean Payton to Miami rumors have begun. You know why? Because Sean Payton’s agent is leaking those rumors to anyone with the ability to text.
• Detroit just manages to be so Lionsy all the time. No team with Super Bowl aspirations goes so predictably winless.  (Will have more on Jim Caldwell in Friday’s game preview.)
• Never thought I’d say this but Peyton Manning’s offense is unwatchable.
• Pats are just rolling through the NFL with ease. Next meaningful game they play will be at Foxboro in the AFC title game.
• Oh wow, Brandon Weeden sucks? How would anyone have known that?
• Stockpiling crappy Tom Brady backups is not an offensive philosophy, Bill O’Brien.
• Guess Bradley / Bortles isn’t going to light the league on fire.

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This is the moment Cutler released the game-winning touchdown.

Jay Cutler never asked for approval.

He never attempted to win over the Lovie lobby when arriving in Chicago as Jerry Angelo’s big ticket toy. He didn’t give a shit that Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs were the big men on campus. He wasn’t going to kiss the fingers where the two keep their imaginary championship rings.

Cutler has never served up the mindless platitudes others do (especially the fella up in Seattle) in a desperate attempt to be media and fan friendly while raking in endorsement money. Cutler doesn’t care what the media and fans think of him. If he wanted to be liked he could spew things like:

My thing is, and I’ve always been this way – to get to know as many people as I possibly can on a personal level, so that way, when you get on the football field, you’ve got your buddy right beside you, and you’re ready to go. – Russell Wilson

When he shoved an offensive lineman for lack of effort or cursed off an offensive coordinator hell bent on getting him killed, he was too emotional. (He’s a brat! That’s not a leader!) When he didn’t scream and yell and throw his helmet after every interception, he wasn’t emotional enough. (He doesn’t care! That’s not a leader!)

I sat in The Billy Goat Tavern with Reverend Dave last December and watched Dave be drank, gargled and spit out by a gentleman bussing tables because Dave had the nerve merely suggest he DID NOT HATE Cutler. The forty minutes that followed revealed to me that in Chicago’s bloodstream lived a disease. If this disease was gonorrhea, hating Cutler was the burning during urination.

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Where do we start? Oh yeah, the quarterback.

• There can’t be more outlets – mainstream media or internet – who’ve been more strident in their belief that Jay Cutler can be a winning quarterback than right here. The last two weeks he’s shown why. If the Bears are in the game, if their defense does not allow 300 points, if Cutler is put in a position to win…he can go out and beat any team in the league.
• Cutler’s touchdown pass to Marquess Wilson was the prettiest throw I’ve ever seen from a Bears quarterback.
• Cutler dropping the snap, picking it up and finding Forte with defenders at his feet TO WIN THE GAME was no less impressive.
• Jay still makes mechanical mistakes on a lot of throws, especially when there’s pressure coming from his blind side. Just needs to step into his throws and deliver the ball.
• Matt Forte might just deserve a two-year extension. I don’t care how old he is. He’s playing like a 25 year-old.

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Buy Chicago Bears Tickets

BLOCK EM AND BEAT EM!

If the Chiefs, with nine sacks on the season, don’t get to the opposing quarterback, it’s over. That might be true for many teams but it’s particularly true for a team with Justin Houston, Tamba Hali and Allen Bailey. Houston has three sacks and per Gil Brandt leads the league in total pressures with 19. He’s a magnificent player. What are the solutions? Well Hue Jackson, Andy Dalton and Bengals provided them…

• Quick passing game that’s been effective under Cutler through two and a half games. (See the single play breakdown below) The Chiefs secondary is awful so Cutler has to get the ball into the hands of his receivers and give them a chance to make plays.
• Read option looks. Dalton is not a running quarterback but the Bengals showed enough read option, specifically to Houston’s side, to keep the rush on its heels. Can Cutler’s hamstring be healed enough to even hint at the possibility of a run threat?
• Power run game up the middle. This should be a week where the Bears pound Forte up the gut and allow Kyle Long to release off the line of scrimmage after Houston. Houston is an excellent pass rusher but he’s a bit lost in run support. Long should be able to muscle him off the line.

THE GAME POEM

On the head of an arrow

lay a drop of blood

Darker than red

thicker than mud

To feel it

is to remember life

The sharpened blade

of this tribal knife

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That’s more like it. The Dolphins crashed and burned. The Bears were never going to be beaten by more than a field goal. Detroit was every bit the equal of Seahawks in Seattle. 3-0, over the hump and back in the saddle again.

Chicago Bears +10 over Kansas City

Didn’t understand the line when it was released. Don’t understand it now. Usually that means I’m lost but I just don’t see this game as particularly lopsided and that’s an awful lot of points. More to come tomorrow…

PACKERS UNDER 27.5 PTS HOME TO ST. LOUIS

Packers always score a boatload of points at home. But I like them at 27 or below for two reasons:

• This Rams defensive front can be hell for Aaron Rodgers to deal with for four quarters, especially Aaron Donald in the middle. Rodgers won’t have any time to look down the field for big strike, quick point plays. No big plays means points will take longer to score.
• Todd Gurley. That was a “wow” performance from Gurley a week ago and I expect him to get better week-to-week. Want to keep Rodgers off the field? Feed Gurley.

NEW YORK GIANTS -7 VS. SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS

Niners are dead. They are the worst team in football. They have the worst quarterback in football. And they are going to play the eventual Super Bowl champion in primetime? No chance.

Record: 6-5-1 (+$40)

Four Tweets after studying Fuller (and only Fuller) on the coaches tape.

• He played a flawless first half, blanketing four or five different players. Never targeted. Not once.
• Lost Crabtree on key play in the Q3 & responded two plays later by dislodging a huge 3rd down pass at goal line. Saved TD.
• Showed terrific closing speed for tackles all afternoon. And was aggressive with contact. Didn’t miss a tackle.
• Unbelievable to think this was same guy who looked like he couldn’t play a few weeks ago. Played like top corner Sunday.

• Sitting in the Kapow Terrace in the north end zone, my favorite part of watching the game in person was watching Cutler go through his reads and the way he moved in the pocket. The touchdown pass to Martellus Bennett was 100 percent Cutler. The way he manipulated the defense was brilliant. That’s why the fourth quarter interception didn’t make sense. He was one step ahead all game and all he needed to do was go to his next read and he would have found Eddie Royal all by himself, likely for a touchdown. He had done it all game, why not on that play?

• All three of Cutler’s interceptions this year have been on passes attempted to Bennett. Is that coincidence? Bennett’s lackadaisical attitude on passes headed his way has to drive the coaching staff nuts.

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