Cardinals Game: View From A Season Ticket Holder

First off let's get real. Most prognosticators did not pick the Bears to be a playoff team, consensus was they would have a losing record this year. Granted, that was before Mack, but still.

Nagy is a rookie coach finding his way and Mitch, well Mitch is very rough, wasn't polished coming out of college and is now into a new system with a lot of new players and YES he had a very bad game. As did Nagy. But in the end the only thing that matters is a win or a loss and the Bears got the win yesterday and that is the most important aspect of the game.

One thing we do is the Bears defense is a force to be reckoned with looking like a top three defense this year. Mack is working his way into the lineup, Smith looks like a great draft choice with a big upside and Floyd made a huge leap getting out of the cast and will only improve as his hand continues to heal. The Bears are hitting folks hard in their tackles and that makes a huge difference in the manner in which receivers go for balls. They have proven they can shut down a running game -- the loss of 4 yards on 2nd and 1 was the play of the game for me and that was a bench substitute (fresh) making that play -- and they have also proven they can bring pressure without blitzing. Those two aspects are the keys to any great defense. We have in my mind a pro bowl safety the first since Mike Brown and a defensive coach who will now finally get his chance as a head coach if the team has the kind of success they are lined up for right now.

That's a pretty positive picture for this Season Ticket Holder who has endured seven seasons without making the playoffs.

So let's allow the most important growth necessary -- Nagy -- and as that happens we will see Mitch will be fine. Nagy showed his rookie issues, no coach should burn timeouts due to indecision on whether to kick or go for it. Really pretty inexcusable. And with the ball near the goal line and if you are going to go for it on fourth no excuse for not running it on third. And the red zone was putrid really, you have a mobile QB roll him out, etc.

Nagy also needs to recognize at this point that Mitch is a tad slow on game speed, doesn't react well to blitzes and should be protected more as a game manager than playmaker, especially considering two things, that you have a shut down defense grabbing turnovers and a running game that should be formidable. I think after yesterday Nagy knows that those aspects won this game and he will tend to rely on them more going forward. Get the run game established and then Mitch can go downfield with time and lanes.

And clearly Mitch has to get better on his turnover to TD ratio.

I believe these things will happen over time.

The bright spot is that the defense is a finished product at this point, that we have hugely upgraded the receiver position and that there is a ton of room for growth by both Nagy and Mitch.

And note carefully, with the warts and issues over the first three games we have a first place team in a division where the other three teams have a lot of issues.

So let's look for improvement and not bash as if there's not room to grow.

First F'ing Place boys!