Healthy Jennings, Newcomer Jones Should Boost Passing Game

[Merlin]

I couldn't disagree more. It was NOT evident that they were going through the motions. I think you need to watch that game again. We took it to them and it was only after that did they start playing like that. Are you a Packer fan or just another bandwagoner pundit?

I did watch the game. The Bears had nothing to play for...and it showed. Grossman PUBLICALLY ACKNOWLEDGED after the game that he didn't prepare properly for the game. What the hell else do you need to convince you? A signed letter on Bears letterhead? Or are you claiming that YOU know better about how the Bears prepared and played the game than Grossman did?

You can sit here all you want and pretend to believe Green Bay is a better team than Chicago. The fact of the matter is that they are not. Maybe you need to go back and rewatch their first meeting and watch how bad the Bears whipped our ass when they had as much at stake in the game as we did. As I pointed out...this was an EMOTIONAL game for Green Bay with it being on prime time and with the potential for it being Favre's final game. It isn't surprising Green Bay came out far more inspired...and it showed.

It's funny that you take what was said pre-game and what was said post game and then draw a conclusion based on the post game, ignoring the pre-game. Any excuse made after the game by any Bear is just that, an excuse. They stunk the place up and it had nothing to do with "nothing to play for". I admit the Packers played more emotionally but to say that the Bears were a better team heading into the playoffs then the Packers is pure speculation. The Bears defense didn't play all that well in the play offs and their offense was horrendous. Face it, according to your logic "nothing to play for" could apply to those performances as well right?

[The Shadow]

The Bears did not want to lose that game.
No team wants to head into the playoffs with a loss.
Yes, they rested some players, but they were beaten.

[The Leaper]

The Bears did not want to lose that game.
No team wants to head into the playoffs with a loss.
Yes, they rested some players, but they were beaten.

Of course they didn't WANT to lose. No one does.

The point is that they had NO MOTIVATION WHATSOEVER to win. Of course guys are going to say the "right things" before the game. What the hell do you expect them to say when the coach has committed his first string to significant playing time? If they say "we don't care" before the game, Lovie would have been absolutely CRUCIFIED in the press for risking injury to his players for no reason when they didn't care.

I've played sports all my life...and I'm sure most of you have as well. When you are in a position where the game doesn't matter...EVEN IF YOU WANT TO WIN...you still rarely come into the game with the same determination and focus. That is just the way it is. That is clearly what happened with the Bears.

I'm not trying to take all props away from Green Bay for the win. They came out and played how they needed to in order to get the victory. That is to their credit. However, to sit here and suggest that the Bears were 100% focused on victory seems pretty far fetched IMO. As others have pointed out, the NFL is a league where ANYONE can win on a given day...so any loss of focus is significant and should not be poo-pooed as much as some would suggest.

As far as not wanting to lose heading into the postseason...who cares? That especially held true for Chicago, who was getting a bye week anyway. It wasn't like they were going to hold some kind of momentum over a two week period. I don't buy that for one second.

[Bretsky]

The Bears did not want to lose that game.
No team wants to head into the playoffs with a loss.
Yes, they rested some players, but they were beaten.

Of course they didn't WANT to lose. No one does.

The point is that they had NO MOTIVATION WHATSOEVER to win. Of course guys are going to say the "right things" before the game. What the hell do you expect them to say when the coach has committed his first string to significant playing time? If they say "we don't care" before the game, Lovie would have been absolutely CRUCIFIED in the press for risking injury to his players for no reason when they didn't care.

I've played sports all my life...and I'm sure most of you have as well. When you are in a position where the game doesn't matter...EVEN IF YOU WANT TO WIN...you still rarely come into the game with the same determination and focus. That is just the way it is. That is clearly what happened with the Bears.

I'm not trying to take all props away from Green Bay for the win. They came out and played how they needed to in order to get the victory. That is to their credit. However, to sit here and suggest that the Bears were 100% focused on victory seems pretty far fetched IMO. As others have pointed out, the NFL is a league where ANYONE can win on a given day...so any loss of focus is significant and should not be poo-pooed as much as some would suggest.

As far as not wanting to lose heading into the postseason...who cares? That especially held true for Chicago, who was getting a bye week anyway. It wasn't like they were going to hold some kind of momentum over a two week period. I don't buy that for one second.

As you both probably know, most of the time I agree with Leaper and disagree with Shadow with his Turtle appreciative views.

But I'd fall closer to the Shadow's views here.

I don't consider it any great accomplishment to defeat a Bears squad who was clearly overlooking Green Bay, but the Packers do get a good amount of credit for doing so. They still beat a team better than them and we shold not ignore that.

I'm sticking by my view that in a terribly bland NFC, the Packers were an 8-8 team and in the weak NFC the Snapper needs to show improvement on that.