Bears Lose to Washington: Now it's "Officially" Over
The Bears are who we thought they were! I know it's the most overused cliche in the business right now, but it couldn't be more true. We thought they were kinda shitty, and last night they proved it. Actually, both teams looked rusty and unprepared in the first half. They picked it up in the second, but it was still a less-than-stellar evening of NFL football. I'm not sure if these Thursday games work. I mean, I love watching mid-week football, but the play is generally sloppy. Just not enough time to prepare, I guess. Teams seem to go into the games with the same gameplan from the game they finished on Sunday. At least the Bears did, with the hurry up offense on the first drive and then never again.
Speaking of the offense, how about Grossman? Back to his old ways? This is the Grossman we expected to see last year, the perennially injured Grossman. Not "Bad Rex," but "Injured Rex". I suspect he's done for the year. I have no idea what to do with him now. This might improve the team's chances of signing him to a short, one-year contract, but I still don't know if we should. If he played well over these last four games, the decision to bring him back for a 1 or 2 year deal would have been easy. The only problem then would be other teams offering him 3 or 4 year deals, in which I case I would have "sayonara" and let him go. But now other teams will be less likely to offer such a deal, making the Bears decision carry more weight. Mmm, mmm, mmm...what a predicament!
I do know that now would be the perfect time to switch to Orton. He's got 10 days to prepare for the next game, and there's enough games left to give the team a good idea if he's a viable long-term option at QB. I mean, I think Griese's a capable backup. I even think he might be a capable bridge to a young guy, a healthy Chris Chandler if you will mentoring the young Steve McNair. Or Kitna to Palmer, if you will. But aren't you at least curious to find out if Orton is the real deal? Chances are slim, of course, but stranger things have happened. And he did look night-and-day better this year in training camp over the previous year. Give him a look! And not just a week 17 thank you note, like when Shane Matthews got his first opportunity 10 years ago.
As for the rest of the offense, Adrian Peterson is clearly an excellent third-string runningback. He's perfect for the job. Great special teams play, get about two carries every other game, and maybe the occasional spot start when catastrophic injuries take place. He's clearly no better than that. Garrett Wolfe looked pretty good last night. He showed something, at least, which was more than Peterson can say. I still highly doubt that he could be an every down back in the NFL, but he might be a legitimate change-of-pace type of back to take a third of the carries from a workhorse. That's still a big "might", but I feel a whole lot more optimistic about his chances now than I did two weeks ago. He should get at least half the snaps from here on out.
The receivers looked solid last night. Hester was on the field a lot, and making valuable contributions. I'm wondering if it's not a coincidence that Hester played more with Griese on the field. The first three weeks, with Rex, he probably got about 3 snaps per game on O. Then, when Griese was in there, he played more and more. By the second Detroit game, I bet he was in there on 60% of the snaps. Then, when Rex came back, Hester disappeared. Maybe 5-7 snaps per game. Griese comes in last night and all of a sudden he's a factor again. He looked good, especially on that one drive when they were picking on Smoot's backup.
Bernard Berrian looked good last night, too. Not sure if he's worth the top-10 money he's seeking, but he's looked good these last 5 weeks or so.
Over to the defense, they stacked the line and shut down the running game nicely, but they were unbelievably shitty on pass D. I've never seen NFL receivers so open in my life. It's like these guys had 10-yard safety-zones around them. Ridonkulous. They made Todd Fucking Collins look good. Inexplicable. I can't really say much more than that.
I'm not too enamored with the coaching staff right now, either. Babich clearly can't hold Ron Rivera's jock, and Ron Turner is the most unimaginative offensive coordinator in the league.
And that's that.