Cream of the Flop

What happened? I was at a fantasy draft, I missed the game. Oh. 0-4 huh?

Well, looking at the box, there's some good and some bad. For starters Brady Quinn looked a little more on track. I'd call 7 of 9 a pretty productive day, and the Bears first team defense is never a slouch (Urlacher, Briggs, Vasher and Tillman all played). And you know, complain as you will, Quinn actually held his own this preseason.

I can't understand where all the griping about Brady is coming in. He looks more ready than most quarterbacks who've never started a game. In the last three games of the preseason, he went 28 of 45 on his passing attempts, which my desktop calculator tells me is %62. Sure it's not Pro-Bowl caliber, but it's productive. And in weeks two and three, Quinn went for over 100 yards. IAll we should really ask is that he put the ball in the end zone a little more, but that shouldn't be much of a problem with a healthy Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow.

But healthy is such a relative term. 

The better news, and maybe the most important thing the stat line shows is that turnovers, as well as penalties, were down significantly. In the last three games of the preseason, the Orange and Brown managed to keep the ball off the turf. TWO turnovers in three games. And penalties, the hanky's weren't dropping as much either. In game four particularly, the Browns held it to five flags for 45 yards. Of course, any coach could and should ask for better than that even, but it's a far cry from the 10 for 128 yards in caution flags we got against the Giants.

Oh yeah, and the first team defense got a pick against Chicago. Though to be fair, it can't be that hard, Da Bears are probably one of two teams in the league that can rechange the name of the playcaller to eighthback.

Bad on all counts, I know.

If there's one thing to take from the preseason, it's don't take anything from the preseason. Except what you have to.

Like injuries, and ugly orange pants. 

 I'll get back to you on Monday, as we start counting down the til it counts.