Game Balls anyone?

[Wounded Bear]

There are so many to hand out. Super impressive win against a team which I have no clue to how good or bad they actually are.....but even so, a very impressive win.

Game balls - Offense:

The offense - these talented dudes finally put together a full game. The offensive line, the wideouts, Forte, Bennett...super great game.

Jay Cutler - Wow! More impressive than the yardage that he put up is the fact that he finally put together a full game and played with the discipline that the Marc Trestman system requires. He threw the ball away EVERY TIME (except once) when there the receivers were covered up. The only bad throw he had was a deep throw into Falcons' territory, which was pretty forgivable since it was deep in Falcon's territory. He showed true field awareness that we all knew he had. Kudos to Jay.

Cutler threw for more yards than anyone in week 6 with 381 yards and had a QB rating of 109.5....only Tom Brady had a higher QB rating with a 139.6 (Brady threw for 4 TD's).

Beeeautiful game from Jay.


Jeffery and Marshall game balls - see Jay's numbers above.

Martellus Bennet - For those of you who covet the speed of Greg Olsen, understand that MB gets the tough yards and can get a physical blocker as well.

-------------------------------------------------
Game balls - Defense:

One ball goes to Mel Tucker and the Rag-tag defense....

Daryl Sharpton? I wanted to hate this guy because his name sounded too much like Darren Sharper....Simply THE BEST Middle Linebacker play of the season. Had to look up his number at the beginning of the game because I did not know who number 53 was. DJ Williams had better recognize.

Stephen Paea....or as that dipshit, David Diehl, likes to call him, "Paella," really impressive game. This guy has taken a year, but he seems to be slowly creeping in and becoming a consistent playmaker.

Willie Young.....wow, I bet you Detroit is kicking themselves in the crotch right now. Not only is he talented at miming successful Anglers, he also leads the league in sacks with 7.

Jared Allen...after I, Wounded Bear, start a thread to get the pitchforks out, this guy who is probably still weak from pneumonia, put together a nice game.

The entire no-name linebacking corps....Daryl Sharpton, Christian Jones.....and even Khaseen Greene looked like he actually knew what he was doing out there. Atlanta tried to exploit the middle and these newcomers said, "EFF OFF!"

Our two corners....yes, yes, Kyle Fuller is super impressive, but the diminutive Tim Jennings who was dwarfed by Atlanta's gigantic receivers shut them down by playing like an annoying "dog pecker" gnat. That dude didn't let them get into a groove to get the Atlanta's offense going...Love that little dude.

A ball goes to poor Chris Conte.....I don't know how much longer he is for the game, but he is putting his body on the line. I don't know how many times Sunday he was right there putting his helmet on the ball right after an Atlanta receiver attempted to catch the ball. He knocked out a few balls out of the receivers' hands on Sunday.

---------------------------------

Special Teams - Game Balls:

Coverage teams, both Kickoff and Punt coverage - didn't give that lame dick, Hester, any bragging rights over boys in Blue and Orange. Nice work.

Don't get me wrong, DeCamillas still sucks....



Anyone else?

 

[wood20ks]

Cutler......About time he puts something impressive together.Im not easily impressed,but gotta admit I was. The defense played outstanding.I was waiting for a melt down,but they played awesome as the game went on.Nice job wee Willie Young.lol. And yes we did a decent job on Hester.......

 

[richig07]

Ugh… still can't go a full game without a special team gaffe.

At the time, I thought that blocked PAT could potentially come back and REALLY bite us in the ass. Luckily, the D did their job, shutting them out the rest of the way. And Cutler, Forte, and the rest of the offense went down on another TD drive. Converting on the two point conversion.

Although, for special teams, still a very admirable job on coverage. They made Hester a non-factor.

The D-line was great, and got consistent pressure. I was kind of surprised to read that PFF had the Falcons ranked 7th in protection coming in, despite the fact that they've been consistently talked about as being a team banged up on the O-line.

I believe that the game is won up front, but when your 5th, 6th, and 7th LB's on the theoretical depth chart give you performances like we saw from them yesterday. I think the game-ball may have to be shared with the LB corp as well. The first time Sharpton blitzed and got in the backfield, I said out loud "WHO THE HELL IS THAT?". He played fast and hard. He looked good.

And how about Khaseem Greene? The guy looked light years improved from last season. He was playing at about twice the speed we saw him play at last year. I think now that he's getting the hang of the defensive system, and getting a feel for the league in his second season. Perhaps he's not thinking as much. It makes a huge difference, reacting vs thinking out there.

Jones played very respectably too. All of these guys earned some more snaps/series in upcoming games, and I really wouldn't mind them considering Sharpton to start at MLB vs Miami even if Williams is healthy.

A few young DB's stepped in and performed as well. Hurst with the INT, etc...

And yes… poor Conte. I actually think the guy is having a very respectable year when he's been out there. He's playing very hard. He looked great launching himself at the ball yesterday and knocking a few out, but he already has a bad shoulder and has suffered two concussions this year. That can't be great for him. I hope he sits at least this next one out.

The offense had a great showing, and yes… kudos to Jay. Hopefully he can turn that into a trend now. The bar has been set for him.

Matt Forte did a great job on the ground, and also continues to do a great job in the screen game. A true bright spot for this offense. Marshall finally looked healthy! Awesome to see! Jeffery continues to be a stud. Martellus was rather quieter than usual, but had a couple nice catch and runs.

And hey… not their best day, but the O-line blocked well and took care of business for the most part. Mills REALLY struggled.

And how about some props to Ka'Deem Carey for busting off his first long run as a pro. I believe it was a 20 yarder in the 4th quarter. He's coming on as a nice change of pace back for Forte. I'm gladding we're giving Forte some series off.

 

[DaSuperfan]

I think you nailed it WB.

rich - I think Carey should be getting more touches every week. We can't burn Forte out, he's been carrying too much of the load.

 

[richig07]

I think you nailed it WB.

rich - I think Carey should be getting more touches every week. We can't burn Forte out, he's been carrying too much of the load.

Yeah, I agree. It will become more and more important to keep Forte as fresh as possible as we get towards the stretch run of the season, and hopefully… the playoffs. We'll see about that, but yes. We should definitely keep Carey involved.

 

[beardown07]

Offense: Cutty


Defense: Kyle Fuller**


**The LB corps. and the front four deserve a lot of credit, but the kid is playing like a Pro Bowl lock down corner right now, and he did it again Sunday. Kid's fo real

 

[JoeyTourettes]

Nice write up WB. Agree with all. I know Rich mentioned him- but Forte indeed needs a game ball too. Nice job fella's.

 

[antone112]

Virginia and Mike. As always

 

[Mikefive]

I agree with every single comment in this thread. I just can't get over what LBs 5, 6 and 7 did. They weren't fantastic. But they contributed to the best Bears defensive performance of the year when everybody knew they were going to get picked on. And they responded.

I LOVE Kyle Fuller. He's arguably playing Pro Bowl level ball right now. And Chris Conte has been just fine when he's been able to stay on the field.

Willie Young has been great. Not only did Jared Allen get his first sack, he did it against Jake Matthews, no slouch. And Paea with 4 sacks... Are you kidding me???

A lot to like in that game. I'd give the game ball to the LBs.

 

[blh7068]

Yeah, I agree. It will become more and more important to keep Forte as fresh as possible as we get towards the stretch run of the season, and hopefully… the playoffs. We'll see about that, but yes. We should definitely keep Carey involved.

Kadeem has looked more comfortable running the ball with each game. Id say this has worked out pretty well so far. Forte is averaging 16-17 touches per game to this point. Hes been extremely active in the passing game. He already has 46 receptions, and his career high is 74 which came last year. Obviously, hes very much on pace to exceed that.

 

[NCChiFan]

This last draft is looking real good, the rookies inside the D line are stout and not looking out of place, Fuller has been outstanding, Vareen's name hasn't been called much, which is good for a Safety (in other words he's doing ok). Kadeem is doing well, about time we get a nice back up for Forte instead of washed up Vets. We have an undrafted rookie who did ok at LB last week. O'Donnel is kicking alright. Nice to see a draft where we are using a lot of the players drafted and they're doing ok.

 

[thunderspirit]

Props to WB's list; can't argue with much there (to be pedantic: Diehl is technically correct about pronouncing Paea pie-ai-uh if you're talking about the city in French Polynesia, though yeah, #92 pronounces it pie-uh).

Mel Tucker deserves credit. I've been hard on the guy cos I'm pretty sure he's in over his head, but the dude clearly coached his ass off this week.

 

[beardown07]

Bears home page has Thayer breaking down the LB play from Atlanta's game. Good stuff.


I don't know wtf Sharpton came from??? Had never heard of him till the game, but he looked great.

 

[NCChiFan]

I don't know wtf Sharpton came from??? Had never heard of him till the game, but he looked great.

He was with the Texan's, when Cushing went out a year ago, he stepped in off the bench and lead the Texans in tackles for the season. Then Washington made a play for him in the off season, but he got an ankle sprain in preseason, so Washington gave him an injury settlement and let him walk. Our LB Coach, I believe, worked with him in Texas. If he had not sprained his ankle, I believe he would be starting for Washington and we have been SoL. He was calling all of the Defensive plays as well. DJ who?

 

[thunderspirit]

Sharpton in action...
http://vine.co/v/OqeIZ5dqQY2

 

[richig07]

He was with the Texan's, when Cushing went out a year ago, he stepped in off the bench and lead the Texans in tackles for the season. Then Washington made a play for him in the off season, but he got an ankle sprain in preseason, so Washington gave him an injury settlement and let him walk. Our LB Coach, I believe, worked with him in Texas. If he had not sprained his ankle, I believe he would be starting for Washington and we have been SoL. He was calling all of the Defensive plays as well. DJ who?

The guy was certainly impressive, and stood out from the first defensive series. He played super fast, and looked completely comfortable out there. It's weird and almost a tad worrisome to me that Houston didn't keep him on, but if he continues to excel, I guess we got a steal.

 

[toooverbearing]

At first blush, it looks like Christian Jones lagged the other LBs here... but when you consider snapcounts that is a different story. Jones made his 6 tackles in 20 snaps (1 per 3.33 snaps). Greene made 11 in 54 snaps (1 per 4.91 snaps). And Sharpton made 10 in 55 snaps (1 per 5.5 snaps).

Brad Biggs @BradBiggs · 24h 24 hours ago
#Bears coaches review of film has 3 LBs as leading tacklers: Khaseem Greene 11, Darryl Sharpton 10, Christian Jones 6.

Snapcounts: Snap count analysis from Chicago Bears vs. Atlanta Falcons | ChicagoFootball.com

 

[Wounded Bear]

At first blush, it looks like Christian Jones lagged the other LBs here... but when you consider snapcounts that is a different story. Jones made his 6 tackles in 20 snaps (1 per 3.33 snaps). Greene made 11 in 54 snaps (1 per 4.91 snaps). And Sharpton made 10 in 55 snaps (1 per 5.5 snaps).

Brad Biggs @BradBiggs · 24h 24 hours ago
#Bears coaches review of film has 3 LBs as leading tacklers: Khaseem Greene 11, Darryl Sharpton 10, Christian Jones 6.

Snapcounts: Snap count analysis from Chicago Bears vs. Atlanta Falcons | ChicagoFootball.com

Wow, excellent find, TOB. Real apples to apples stuff here.

I would have never guessed the ratios you presented (actually was under the impression of the exact opposite), but I did notice that Christian Jones was getting much more comfortable out there. I think with his height and his athleticism, we're looking at the new starting SAM whether Shea Mac is healthy or not.

 

[toooverbearing]

Wow, excellent find, TOB. Real apples to apples stuff here.

I would have never guessed the ratios you presented (actually was under the impression of the exact opposite), but I did notice that Christian Jones was getting much more comfortable out there. I think with his height and his athleticism, we're looking at the new starting SAM whether Shea Mac is healthy or not.

I thought the same thing. #53 seemed to be everywhere so I expected him to have 37 tackles or something. Jones wasn't in the nickle package so that cut into his snap count a lot. But it was great seeing him making the most out of those snaps... very efficient.

 

[thunderspirit]

I've been rough on Khaseem Greene too, as anyone who was on KFFL can attest. Million-dollar ability with no idea what to do with it.

If the light bulb has actually come on for him, though, that's got the potential to be freaking huge.