Some Comments on the Comments:
1. Marshall's story is a great one, and I can't over respect what he's accomplished. He's also one damned fine receiver
2. Cutler might be a first class Ahole, but he's also and extremely tough and talented QB. I mean the guy is Bledsoe tough, so you have to respect that.
3. I saw an amazing stat Unfortunately the details have escaped me. But the jist was, over his career, when Cutler doesn't turn the ball over his teams were something like 58-6, when he does turn the ball over his teams are like 8-37 Those are most certainly not the correct numbers, but the kind of spreads they represent are right.
The problem is that TO's can't be predicted. Even TO machines like Geno and Cutler have games where they don't turn it over, just look at the Jets game.. Bottom line: if we don't win the TO battle this game will be a high scoring dog fight. If we are +2 or better, we will win by 2 TD's or more.
4. This game is a perfect example of why Browner and Revis were brought in. If what has been reported here is true, I think you have to put Revis on Jeffery because he looks to be the deep threat and have Browner on Marshall who seems to be runing the short routes. But for this game, I'd go away from the press man a bit. For this game I'd take a page from the Seattle play book and play a tough, physical match up zone with help over the top as my base.
Cutler actually does better against man teams its easier for him to read the coverages. Where Cutler gets into trouble is when he misreads coverage and ends up throwing into traffic. For this game man is fine, but only in small doses. I think the goal in THIS game is to look like man at snap, but actually be in a match up zone,.
Also while Cutler isn't a run threat like Geno and Tannyhill, he does move well in the pocket. He's not a statue like Orton was.
5. As far as the passing game goes, I think we'll do fine on Jeffery and Marshall. They'll get their catches but I think it will add up to under 130 yds combined. The big question is how well we defend Forte and Bennett. The Pats lead the league in average passing ypg at just over 200/game. 9If they are anything close to that they will win the game going away.
6. As far as the run defense goes, it just better be a lot better.......and I think it will. No one handles extra time better than this staff. It won't be perfect, and Forte will have his moments., but it will be a lot better. Anything up to 100yds will be OK.
7. Like every team the Bears are banged up. Losing Fuller is going to hurt their secondary. However their OL is getting healthy at the wrong time for us. Fortunately, even healthy it isn't as good as the Jets OL, but I could be better than ours (depending on who plays) Keep that in mind vs the pass rush and run.
8.Summary: I will be very disappointed if the Offense doesn't score over 30 points on their own. I will be disappoint EVERY week they don't score 30, but there is no excuse this week. Defensively I have no ideal what to expect. I have high hopes for significant improvement, but I've been wrong before. 34-17 SHOULD be what the final score looks like, but.........