Tuesday, September 23, 2008

One of Chicago's finest

I bet the first people to read Haugh's article today were members of the Chicago Bears. Obviously they would look to the press to get their coaches' thoughts to them because they don't work with them. That's right, D-bag actually believes that the key to the Cubs and White Sox seasons so far is that their managers called the players out in the press. And since we know Lovie doesn't blast his players through the tribune we can pretty much assume that none of them know they fucked up on Sunday.
I really don't know if Haugh has ever played a sport, I assume he has, but from my experience players tend to have a lot of respect for a coach who led them to a title game. And I'm sure Peanut feels worse than any of us about the play because he let his teammates and coaches down. Players play for their team and since they see them everyday I doubt they rely on the media to get them inside information.
Also Haugh notes that Daniel Manning caught like 12 passes in college and maybe the Bears should turn to him at wide receiver, because thats what an innovative coach who actually cared would do.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Screw you, Panthers.

I seriously hate the Panthers. No single team has caused me more grief as a Bears fan over the past few years than the Carolina Panthers. I just never want to admit that they're any good... but then they keep beating my team!

Our offense needs to be better. There were a number of breaks that went the other way in the second half, and some of those holding calls were absolute bullshit, but our offense can't stall that many times with the game on the line. I think it can get there, but we can't afford for it not to.

And now, an attempt at optimism: We've played four halves of football so far this year against two very good teams. Of those four, we've completely dominated three, and got whooped in one. Overall, I'd say that bodes pretty well for the rest of the season. We're going to be better than 8-8.

A few Sunday morning predictions

Just cuz I'm in this kind of a mood:

-Either the Vikings or the Colts are going to be 0-2 in about four or five hours. It's not going to be the Colts.

-The Bears are going to have an easier time rushing than everyone expects. The word around the league has been that Carolina "stopped" LT2 in San Diego last week. They didn't, really. They played well, but San Diego's offense only stumbled when they went to the pass, and they pretty much stopped running in the second half. Which isn't to say that Carolina completely stopped SD's passing game either: just that they never actually had to stop LT2 because SD didn't rely on him. The Bears would do well to try to rush to the outside more against Carolina than they did against Indy, because Carolina looks like it has a slower defense, but the Bears will have some success running wherever they do if they're rushing offense last week was any indication.

-There will be some interceptions in this game. Carolina's CB's are always looking to intercept first, and it's likely that they'll get one off of Orton. Meanwhile, Delhomme, the offensive spark that he is, was wildly off target fairly often against San Diego last week, and likely that'll happen a few times today, and the Bears' opportunistic defense has the speed to take advantage of mistakes like that. I expect the Bears to have the lead in this category, but I'll be really impressed if Orton manages yet another game without an INT.

-I expect this game to be closer than last week's. I'd be surprised--although totally impressed and excited--if the Bears' coaching staff came up with a game plan as effective as the one they had last week against the Colts. They'd been preparing that game plan for months--possibly even as long as since their Super Bowl. So here's hopin'! But I expect Carolina to get a few things across.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Whatever I don't care whatever

Wow. This is quite possibly the most unintentionally hilarious column I've read coming out of the vaunted Chicago sports press. Rick Morrissey defends his dismissal of the Bears by admitting that he doesn't put a whole lot of thought into his columns. What a colossal douche bag. "I just get paid a whole lot of money to write columns about these teams. Why would I actually try to pay attention to what's going on with them and figure out whether they'll be good or not? That would be so stupid! I can just look at what all the other writers at ESPN and stuff are saying!" Seriously, only as a member of the Chicago sports media can you not only admit that you just spout negativity unthinkingly, but you can actually use it as a defense when you're wrong. What a great job!

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Is it a QB? Is it wearing a Bears Jersey? Then it's worse than it's performance!

Here's a quotation from today's Every Play Counts over at ESPN (from the FO guys):

The dominant defensive performance allowed the Bears' offense to play conservatively. The Bears' struggles last season were largely due to the revolving door of mediocre quarterbacks. Kyle Orton played adequately Sunday, but the key was he was never forced to make plays outside his comfort zone.

Forte's big 50-yard touchdown gave the Bears an early lead, and from that point, Orton took very few chances. He worked on underneath throws and completed two big passes to his tight end, providing enough offense to let the Bears coast home with a victory.


It's funny, because there's nothing actually bad about a QB taking very few chances when his team has the lead for basically an entire game. However, when writing this about Orton, it is somehow still a criticism. "The key," dude writes, "was he was never forced to make plays outside his comfort zone." Subtext: Kyle Orton is terrible and if he would have had to actually throw any passes the Bears would've lost by a hundred points. And check out the pointless shot the FO guys take at Orton over in their Quick Reads article, "The next time you hear the words "Kyle Orton" and "game manager" in the same sentence, ask that person how Orton conjured up nine defensive points and a fourth-and-1 stop." That's right, Kyle Orton is not even worthy of the most back-handed compliment you can give a QB. Seriously, the Bears can't even look like one of the best teams in the league on opening day, playing a nearly perfect game, without still being criticized.

I mostly just think it's funny. I fully expect that Orton is going to have a solid season. But he's probably not going to be spectacular, and being spectacular is the only way he's going to escape being considered the default worst QB in the league.

Meanwhile, quoth Ron Jaworski at the beginning of last night's Monday Night Football game between the Vikings and the Packers w/r/t Tarvaris Jackson (paraphrased),
You know the only number that matters with this guy? 8-4: his record as a starter last season.


Tarvaris Jackson should thank his lucky stars that he doesn't take the field every week wearing the Bears' navy blue. (Kyle Orton's current overall record as a starter: 13-6).

DH recognizes his present mistake, but still can't help but feel that his past self was totally on

First, I totally echo your point about a good football day not felt for a really long time. The last time I remember feeling like this was the play before Mike Brown broke his knee while being illegally held on a touchdown. The Bears domination died that play last year and they never looked like a playoff team after that week performance.

This year they do look like a playoff team. The defence is back though I still don't totally trust the safties other than Mike Brown. And Kyle Orton is the kind of QB that this team has been looking for. He's smart and accurate and has a sweet neckbeard. Also, the importance of Matt Forte and Kevin Smith cannot be understated. But, obviously no one could have possibly seen this coming, "To predict anything but a struggling season based on what the Bears showed in August would have been like a doctor looking at an X-ray of a broken bone and telling the patient not to expect pain." But I'll give Haugh credit "The beauty of the NFL is that nights like Sunday happen."

Wait, actually anyone who knows football and put more than an ounce of thought into the Bears shouldn't be too surprised. Peyton and Dungy recognized it. The Bears have moved all the way up to 15 in ESPN's power rankings after dominating what's probably the best team in football. This is why the BCS doesn't work, you can't have a bunch of idiots ranking things and then expect a fair result. The Vikings by the way, have dropped from superbowl contenders to 16 based largely on performing exactly as they could have been expected to.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

[Ululating]!

Not much important to say, but that was a good team we played tonight, and we didn't just steal a win that we need to hurry up and get out of town with; we completely dominated the Colts for basically the entire game. Even when the Colts were up 3-0 it felt to me like we were winning.

Everyone's going to be talking about how surprising it was, but I honestly don't understand how people who were really paying attention to the Bears could be surprised to see them coming out and looking like a very solid team. Not like a Bears victory should've been assured by any means, because that was a very good team out there we were playing against, but we had a defense coming out on the field complete and healthy for the first time since mid-2006, so what reason was there to think they weren't likely to be very good? I didn't expect the offense to really control the game like that. That's about the only real "surprise" that I can see--though even that shouldn't be as surprising as everyone's going to act like it was.

But, whatever. I cannot wait until next week already. Seriously, the Panthers? Without Steve Smith? My only worry is that there could be a bit of a letdown coming off of this huge week when everyone was picking against them, but then again, the defense will be playing against Moose, who apparently built up a certain amount of bad blood against these guys. That may have been a mistake on his part.

For now, I just feel so good. I feel like making exaggeratedly masculine noises at everything in sight. This was a wonderful, wonderful football day. I haven't had one of them in what feels like a really long time.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Grossness

Football doesn't actually start tonight. I don't care that the Giants and Washington are actually playing the first meaningful game of the season--it's not really the start of football. Football doesn't start until Sunday. I might watch some of the game tonight, or I might not... It is seriously difficult for me to stomach East division games (in either conference) because of the exaggerated importance these teams take on in the (mostly East-coast, natch) press. Washington is one of the most boring teams in the league, who've been consistently mediocre since the early nineties. Also their team name is unforgivably racist. Fuck them.

Also, just because I have to complain about this, DH's new Trib article is probably the grossest column written by someone not named Mariotti in Chicago that I can remember. It literally uses the fact that the Colts said nice things about the Bears to both call the Colts either liars or idiots and then to reiterate his tired thing about how the Bears are actually one of the worst teams in the league, full of overpaid stars who can't play anymore. What the shit is wrong with the Chicago sports press? Seriously, the 49ers have been one of the worst teams in the league for long enough now that you could reasonably call it recent memory, but the sports press in this city, while certainly not ignoring that fact, also doesn't go out of its way to crucify the team or the management or the players. Same for the atrocious Giants. Meanwhile, unless the Bears have the best record in the league, ESPN and other parts of the national sports media either ignores them or uses them as a punch line--deserved or (mostly) not--and the Chicago media itself seems to feel like it has to one-up everybody in pointless negativity and grousing. The Bears are one of the most popular teams in the league. Their games consistently sell out in minutes. Why the hell is it so hard to find decent coverage of them?

But, whatever. Three more days until the first game! I'm consistently slipping off into daydreams about that game... I might just decide to go to sleep until Sunday evening...