The Final Analysis
Positives from today's game:
1-OL play. J'Marcus Webb silenced all of the negative Nancies by actually playing well. Yeah, can ya believe it? The WORST LT IN THE HISTORY OF THE COSMOS actually played well..0 sacks given up, 0 false start penalties, etc.
2-What a draft class! Rodriguez lead-blocking for Forte like a madman. Even Gumbel and Dierdorf gave Evan a shout out. Alshon playing like a MAN and contributing to the passing game immediately. Even though he didn't register a sack, Shea brought the heat a number of times. Dude does have the spin move down.
3-Cutler (when he wasn't playing poorly). After the horrific start, Cutler played like the guy we all HOPE he is. Led our high-powered offense on a number of impressive scoring drives.
4-Marshall...apparently, he is still a BEAST. Apparently we have found a GM, fellas. Marshall, Bush, Alshon, Shea, Rodriguez, et. al. It seems to me that Emery knows a thing or two about a thing or two.
Negatives
1-Jay. Dude still makes throws which he has no business making. Even during his "hot streak", he still made 2-3 passes which could have/should have/would have been intercepted. He's lucky that he wasn't picked 3 times in this game. He would unleash 7-8 beautiful passes in a row and then he would toss a turd which a Colts LB or DB would drop. Say what you want, but guys like Rodgers and Brady don't randomly toss turds throughout a game.
2-Defense. Yeah, yeah I know that they FINALLY started to get to Luck in the 4th quarter, but there was sporadic pressure (at best) in the first 3 quarters. Sporadic pressure ain't gonna cut it against Rodgers and the Pack.
3-Kellen Davis. Dude whiffed on a block that got Cutler sacked and didn't do anything positive which I saw.
4-Lovie's uber-conservative, "do it by the book, as written by Tubby Raymond" worldview. The Cover-2 is an inherently cowardly scheme which relies upon the opposing to "eventually screw up." If you have the DL which features guys like Mean Joe, Ernie Holmes, L.C. Greenwood, Warren Sapp, Simeon Rice, et. al. you are set. If you don't, elite opposing qbs (you know guys like Brady, and Rodgers) will sit back there, find the openings in the zone and tear you to shreds. These guys are more than happy to dink and dunk their way down the field. They are patient and intelligent and don't make mistakes. Sitting back waiting for them to "screw up" isn't an effective strategy. They are more than capable of tossing 40+ passes without throwing a single INT. Unless we build a DL like the NY football Giants, we are never winning a Super Bowl with Lovie's cowardly scheme.