Season 3 - Offseason starting lineup

TEAM OVR: (vs. 86 OVR last year)
Here's a look at Chicago's starting lineup/rotation and notable backups at each position:

QB: Jay Cutler; Greg Braddock (70, C)

HB: Matt Forte, (R) Tim O'Quinn

FB: Evan Rodriguez 

WRs: Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery, (R) Daniel Toombs, Antonio Bryant

TE: Kyle Adams, (R) Zach Boder

LT: Tyler Roberts (2nd Season, 4th round pick)

LG: Chilo Rachal

C: John Greco (2nd season, 3rd round pick)

RG: (2nd season FA acq.) JR Sweezy

RT: Gabe Carimi

DTs: Stephen Paea, (2nd season FA acq.) Kevin Vickerson, Mike Robinson

DEs: Julius Peppers, Shea McClellin

LBs: Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs, Nick Roach, (R) Jake Scullins
CBs: Chris Armstrong (2nd Sea. 1st round pick), Tim Jennings, (Offseason acq.) Kyle Armstrong

FS: Brandon Hardin, Chris Conte

SS: Major Wright

KR: (R) Daniel Toombs

PR: Chris Armstrong

K: Robbie Gould

P: (Offseason acq.) Chris Kluwe

Season 3 - Offseason Free Agency, Draft Recaps

Unlike the offseason precursor to Season 2, where the highlights of the offseason were (aside from the #1 draft pick, outstanding (and now starting) CB Chris Armstrong) the free agent acquisitions, the Bears made little noise in free agency other than the notable losses (WR Devin Hester, CB Charles Tillman, RB Michael Bush, DT Corey Williams, DE Robert Ayers), the Bears resigned CB Tim Jennings, and franchise-tagged the senior anchor of the defense, MLB Brian Urlacher. Rumors are swirling out of Chicago that if Brian doesn't retire after this year, the team he'll play for next year won't be Da Bears. Urlacher and Chicago couldn't come to a deal, so the Bears used the franchise tag on him. The Bears drafted for both sides of the ball, consistently going for the best players on their board when available for most of the draft.

ESPN's recap of the Chicago Bears Season 3 draft shows that Chicago had an excellent draft this year. While it seems unlikely that the draft has yielded the safety help that Chicago's defense needs, the Bears still made some excellent picks. 

• With their first pick (28th overall), they chose running back Tim O'Quinn from Houston. Tim shows above average talent, and has exceptional speed, acceleration, carrying, and catching abilities, but has considerable injury risk as well. It's unlikely he'll start over Forte, but instead be the compliment as Michael Bush was, but with fresher legs and potential to start eventually.
• With their second pick (46th overall), the best player on Chicago's board was Fresno State wide receiver Daniel Toombs. Not necessarily needing another tall WR when having both B. Marshall and now-"Future Star" A. Jeffery in the WR corps, Chicago believes they strongly lucked out on scouting Daniel and finding him at this spot, and Chicago is banking on Daniel's "Deep Threat" role to fill the shoes of Devin Hester in the receiving game and possibly the return game on Special Teams as well. Toombs won't
• With their third round draft choice (74th overall), Chicago was elated to find another very talented player whom they focused their scouting efforts on, still available. They wasted no time in taking MLB Jake Scullins from Portland St. Analysts heavily praised the move, citing Scullin's above average talent, excellent potential, value in the fourth round, and the expected succession of Brian Urlacher as the future leader of the defensive squad. Scullins' speed is lacking, but his hit power and block shedding abilities made this pick a can't-miss for Chicago's drafting team. Experts expect Scullins, given Chicago's 4-3 defense, not to start immediately of course, but instead to rotate into the linebacker spot during games.

Season 2, NFC Conference Championship - Redskins hang on to win and eliminate the reigning Super Bowl champs, 16-13

Although they'd eventually get blown out in a Maryland-DC rivalry by the Baltimore Ravens 21-6 in the Season 2 Super Bowl, there's no "sophomore slump" for RGIII as he leads his team to an NFC Conference Championship over Da Bears (16 to 13) after powering past the Cowboys in the Wildcard round and the Seahawks in the Divisional Round. The Redskins quadruple-headed running attack (Alfred Morris, Roy Helu, Evan Royster, and of course RGIII himself) all made prominent rushes during this game, and led Washington to victory.

The Baltimore Ravens are the new Super Bowl champions.

Season 2, Week 17 - Most epic 4th quarter comeback ever! Bears (barely) land Wildcard Spot!!!

You wouldn't know it from looking at it pre-snap, but in this game-on-the-line, two-minute drill, hurried-up "Shotgun - Empty Y-Flex - Y Stick" play, Green Bay sends 7 rushers! Quickly reading the tremendous blitz pressure, Cutler gets the throw off in time before the free blitzer disrupts the throw. Mapped out, the play (and reads) look like this:

 #1 WR Brandon Marshall's ("B") stopping his streak route, and then quickly developing and sustaining his improvised block on his corner is extremely key here. Cutler hits a wide open #4 WR Earl Bennett ("Y") on Bennett's shallow out route, but this play doesn't even necessarily make it past the first down marker if Marshall doesn't recognize Bennett has received the ball and then throw a clutch block on his covering corner. The Packers' Y-DB has inside leverage on #2 WR Devin Hester's ("X") medium in-breaking route (pictured far left), and the single high safety has both Bears' #3 WR Alshon Jeffery ("LB") and late-season FA acquisition TE Jeremy Shockey ("A") covered, but the single-centered safety can't sprint laterally to the sideline fast enough to catch Bennett, who blows by Marshall's excellent block on his way to give Cutler yet another fourth quarter comeback, and give the reigning Super Bowl champs a Wildcard berth.

Full highlight video:

Season 2, Week 17 - Packers (11-4) at Bears (10-5) - Match-up of the season for Chicago

Week 17 - It all comes down to this. With too many good NFC teams hunting for a Wildcard spot (10-5 Cowboys, Redskins, Falcons) and with the Packers having already clinched a playoff spot, this game is a must-win for Chicago. It's unlikely that GB will rest their starters, however, as they would like nothing more than to ensure NFC North rival Chicago's elimination from the playoffs...

Notable points heading into this game:

• Chicago's only notable injury outs are LB Nick Roach and the standout rookie LT.
• Chicago will be using the previously-unused Mike Shanahan's Washington Redskins offensive playbook.

Other odds and ends in general:

• Noteworthy losses to FA this past season include DLs Israel Adonije and Henry Melton, CB DJ Moore, TE Kellen Davis, and WRs Eric Weems and Johnny Knox. 
• Noteworthy FA acquisitions: DT Corey Williams, TE Tony Scheffler (placed on IR at Week 10), and TE Jeremy Shockey.
• Most outstanding rookie: First round draft pick CB/PR Chris Armstrong.

Sea.2, Week 5 - Winning by the slimmest margin possible vs. Rams (24-23)

Chicago Bears at St. Louis Rams
Nov 4, 2012 1 2 3 4 F CHI (4-0) 0 10 7 7 24 STL (3-2) 10 7 6 0 23 Top Performers PASS: Jay Cutler - RUSH: Steven Jackson - REC: Alshon Jeffery -	Team Stats Comparison CHI STL First Downs 13 12 3rd Down Efficiency 7/11 8/13 4th Down Efficiency 0/0 0/0 Total Yards 469 313 Passing Yards 312 191 Rushing Yards 56 91 Penalties-Penalty Yards 0 0 Turnovers 2 0 Time of Possession 17:04 22:56
Scoring Summary
Chicago Bears PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Jay Cutler (128.8 QB Rating) 20/28 312 3 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Matt Forte 16 49 3.0 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Alshon Jeffery 7 86 12.2 Brandon Marshall 6 70 11.6 1 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD L. Briggs 5 2 0 0 St. Louis Rams PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Sam Bradford (90.4 QB Rating) 14/25 171 1 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Steven Jackson 25 75 3.0 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Lance Kendricks 4 31 7.7 Danny Amendola 3 31 10.3 Steve Smith 3 78 26.0 1 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD J. Dunbar 4 0 1 0

Sea.2, Wk.5 - BYE Week Recap

Week 1 at the Houston Texans (W, 28-14)
 - Chicago was lucky to win this - the score is very misleading. Chicago's Special Teams (Hester with 2 KR TDs) and Defense (Jennings had a pick-6) helped Chicago win the season opener.
 - The Bears' offense was very poor: Cutler's QB rating was 44.8, with 1 TD and 3 INTs; Texans' RB Arian Foster had better rushing ypc average than Forte; and the Texans had FIVE receivers (including Arian Foster) with more receptions than the Bears top WR, Brandon Marshall.

Week 2 hosting the San Francisco 49ers (W, 24-7)
- Cutler bounces back and carries Da Bears, showing just how dangerous this team can be when Cutler's at the top of his game; finishes with 3 TDs, 1 INT, and a 129.9 QB Rating.
- Forte also has a stellar game, rushing for 101 yards on 23 carries.
- Da Bears have 4 receivers with the most receptions, and Bears WR Brandon Marshall caught all 3 TD passes, had the most receptions in that game at 6. WR Devin Hester had the most receiving yards in the game at 82 yds.
- Chicago's defense stayed strong, keeping the 49ers to a meager 20% conversion rate on third down (compared to Chicago's 57%).

Week 3 at the New York Giants (W, 27-13)
- Another game where the score is misleading. The game was 13-10 for most of it until the Giants tied it at 13 early in the fourth quarter. Then, Chicago's offense springs to life: 14 unanswered points, sparked in large part to a huge Forte break-off run. Forte ends the game with 142 yards rushing on only 17 attempts. Backup RB Michael Bush also ran the ball well and had a run for a TD. Cutler (1 TD, 1 INT) and Eli Manning (0 TDs, 1 INT) were very similar at QB Rating (94.2 vs. 91.4); Manning had 346 passing yards (vs. 276 for Cutler).

Week 4 at Minnesota Vikings (simmed)(W, 27-10) 

Week 5 - BYE Week 
- Injuries: like the only other team with no current injuries in the NFL (NFC North rival Packers), the Bears are fortunate to have no injuries so far. 

Start of 2013-2014 Season & Outlook

The reigning Super Bowl champions have lost more talent than they gained during the "Super Bowl hangover" offseason as referenced in the prior post (DLs Israel Adonije & Henry Melton, WR Johnny Knox, and CB DJ Moore). Their 2013 draft class was rated D+ by the critics. Their overall rating went down from an 83 OVR (compare to San Diego's 84 OVR at the time) down to a 78 OVR. In their first pre-season debut, even the first string looked extremely lackluster on both sides of the ball, making Colts QB Andrew Luck look like Aaron Rodgers as he marched Indy down the field for a 7-0 early lead. Chicago's sole notable free agent acquisition, defensive lineman journeyman Corey Williams, was a sole bright spot for the squad, going on a hot streak.