Finally had a chance to watch the scrimmage and here are some of my thoughts.
1. I've heard comments about the running game, but to be honest, I didn't even notice since it was hardly used at all. We really took advantage of this scrimmage to air it out. A couple of the running plays were doomed and were never going to amount to anything. The very first offensive play, they had a call where Finley was doing a reach down block on a DE, there was no chance he was going to make the block and the defender was in Grant's face before the line of scrimmage. I have to imagine in a game situation Aaron would have recognized how the defense was lined up and would have checked out of it. Then there was the 3rd and 1 near the goal line where Hawk made a tremendous play and embarrased the half hearted lead block of Kuhn.
2. Speaking of airing it out, the offense had no problems moving the ball through the air. Finley, Nelson and Jones made a bunch of plays and were exciting to watch. Line did well for the most part and Rodgers seemed to be calm and in control in the pocket.
3. Defensively I was surprised and excited by two players in particular. Underwood and Hawk. Underwood seemed to look like he belonged on the field and it is encouraging to see that we might actually have some quality depth at DB. I look forward to see more from him and believe he could be the 3rd CB. The pick 6 was fun, though the sommersault into the end zone was dumb, do the safe celebration and give the crowd what they want, Lambeau Leap baby!! Overall frm what i could actually see he played sound coverage and looked to be verbally communicating well with the rest of the defense. As for Hawk, I thought he was plain fun to watch. They had him shooting gaps all over the place and he was just attacking, I didn't see any hesitation. That play where he blew up Kuhn and made the tackle on Grant was fantastic, and there was also a play where he embarrased Dietrich playing center and had an easy sack.
4. Honorable mentions:
Crosby - I hope that is the norm what we saw, great accuracy and very consistent distance on the kick offs.
Raji - He just ate the middle up and concistently behind the line of scrimmage, can't wait to see the front 3 in full action.
Bush - Yes, that Bush. Most likely this will be the high point of his season, but he didn't look like a complete fool out there and had some good run support and was actually near receivers in coverage.
Shields - I still don't know if he'll make the team when it's all said and done and would be very surprised. The first catch by Jennings i think Shields was trying to use Google Maps to get directions to Greg because he looked lost. But that interception later was fantastic and watching his receiver skills on that return was fun.
All in all I think the scrimmage had a little pep to it and the team looked good in all phases.
On top of every beard grows a man.
"The Bears are shell-shocked... and it's breaking my heart."