Final Thoughts on Chicago Sports

Benson gets last laugh as Cincy demolishes Chicago

There's not a whole lot to talk about with today's game.  The Bears were completely outclassed in every phase of the game.  Offense, Defense, Special Teams.  The D-Line was abused, the Linebackers were running on their heels all day, and the secondary was flat-out horrible.  The completely manhandled and overmatched offensive line was beyond atrocious, and I'd have to say they rank among the worst in football.  Cutler made some bad decisions in an attempt to make plays.  The WRs were worthless, and Forte continues to show that his rookie year was a fluke.  The coaching was bad, the playcalling was bad.  This was the most unprepared I've seen the Bears in the Lovie Smith era.  This was like one of those Bears-Packers on MNF games where they lose 33-6.  Or an 80s-era 49er game where they lose 41-0.  Just an embarassment for all involved, and I'd really rather not talk about them anymore.  So I'm going to talk about Cedric Benson. 

Cedric Benson is leading the freaking league in rushing.  He looked AWESOME out there today, and he has looked awesome since the 2nd half of last season.  An absolute stud running with the rock.  He breaks tackles, he runs downhill with authority all day.  He's fast.  This is NOT the back we saw in Chicago. 

With the Bears, he wasn't half the RB he is now.  His first two years, he showed some flashes but was relegated to mostly backup duty as Thomas Jones got the bulk of the carries.  Cedric was solid, he was just outplayed by the veteran (and to this day still viable) Jones.  After Jones was traded, Benson got his shot.  He did absolutely nothing with it.  He ran like Keith Traylor.  He never broke tackles and always went down after first contact.  He had no burst and he was generally worthless that whole season.  He was a lousy teammate.  Quiet, sulking, and his starting linebackers liked to use him as a tackling dummy every chance they got.  Then he got busted with Sun Chips on a boat.  And while awaiting word on that, he got busted again one night at 3am as a DUI suspect.  The Bears had already drafted Matt Forte, so at this point they decided to cut the cord.  (Benson was eventually cleared of all charges).  When Benson wasn't even on a team the first four games of last season, and Matt Forte shined with the Bears, it looks as if the Bears were justified in cutting the 5th overall pick from 2005.  Then Cincy took a flyer on him. 

Being without a team for training camp must have been scared him straight because now he's a superstud.  If we knew then what we know now, obviously the Bears might have done things differently.  But at the time it all made sense.  After the Tank Johnson PR nightmare, the Bears didn't want a repeat.  The Bears supported Tank as he repeatedly made them look like a fool.  Two strikes on Ced and he was out.  Plus, and this is key...he sucked.  He was outplayed by Adrian Freaking Peterson, and not the good one.  If he hadn't gotten busted, he might have gotten one more shot.  But really, at the time, I couldn't agree more with cutting him.  He couldn't hit the hole to save his life. 

Oh, and he said he was blackballed by the Bears after he was cut.  Uh, I don't think so.  He was terrible.  If somebody knew he was secretly this good, he would have been signed the day after he was released.  You think Jerry Jones wouldn't have signed him because the McCaskeys told him not to?  Right.

Now he's all smiles as he rubbed the Bears noses in it.  Good for him, I guess.  It just pisses me off. 

I have nothing more to say. 

Bears take care of Lions

The Bears beat the Lions 48-24 in a victory that wasn't quite as dominating as the score would indicate.  Some quick notes, in outline fashion:

• Special Teams were the stars of the day:
• Johnny Knox returned a kick 102 yards for a TD (though he did almost pull a Desean Jackson at the end of the play).  Hester, Bennett, and Manning all had nice returns as well.  Why have the Bears been so blessed in finding such great return men the last few years?  I'm now convinced its the system.  Dave Toub is the man.  It seems everyone he plugs in there can drop a 50-yard return any time he wants.  If it was just Hester or Manning or Knox, I'd be like, OK, they found a great return man.  But to have every one of those guys look like a dynamo?  It's gotta be the system.
• Brad Maynard was about as studly as a Punter could be today.  Every punt landed inside the 20, a couple even inside the 5.  Huge.
• Robbie Gould finally made a 50-yard field goal today (52, actually).  I'm probably more excited about this than anything else I saw today.  Why?  Because I never again will have to hear about how Gould can't make the long kicks.  While I certainly won't call Gould an "excellent long range kicker," I can say that in watching him through the years I was confident that he had plenty of leg to get the job done, if needed.  He routinely boots 46-yarders as much as ten yards beyond the crossbar.  It's just Lovie's grand plan to never surrender the field position as the primary reason for Gould getting so few opportunities to go deep.  Good for you, Robbie.  If I'm annoyed by the talk, you've got to completely fed up.
•  Offense:
• Jay Cutler was solid.  Great helicopter running TD, solid game management.  Two TD passes, no picks.  Efficient.  Orton-like.  Ho-hum.  I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but where's the gun, man?  Eight measly yards per completion?  I don't want you to pull a Grossman, but you gotta go deep once in a while!
• Speaking of, I think we all owe Rex a bit of an apology.  Cutler has now fumbled like 3 snaps in 4 games, all of which were thankfully recovered.  But Orton dropped a few, Griese dropped a few.  Rex dropped a bunch.  Maybe the problem has been Kreutz all along.  I remember Jim Miller talking about Olin on the radio a few years back, on how he's really low to the ground and doesn't always place the ball in the QB's hands efficiently.  Maybe our 7-time Pro Bowl Center is just a shitty snapper, though that does seem like a bit of an oxymoron.
• Matt Forte busted out today, though to say his problems are over would be disingenuous.  He had a 120 yards and a TD, but 100 of those yards came on 2 runs.  He averaged only 2.0 ypc the rest of the game.  Am I complaining?  Maybe a little.  I'd just like to see some more consistency.
• WRs did all right, though they got banged up some.  Both Hester and Knox had to leave the game early, resulting in a Rashied Davis sighting.  Hopefully they'll both be fine after the bye.  I'm really starting to dig Knox.  He's not a "number one" like Megatron or anything, but he's made at least one huge play in all four games of his career.  Great draft pick.
•  Defense:
• Absolute garbage in the first half.  Stafford, a rookie, consistently converted huge 3rd downs.  Yes, Calvin Johnson is a man among boys, but still.  Can't you effectively double him? 
• The D did show up in the second half, thankfully.  Lance Briggs was all over the place.  Alex Brown, Adewale Ogunleye...even Tommie Harris had a huge pick.  And speaking of Ogunleye, they seriously ought to consider signing him to a series of one-year deals.  If he played every year like it was a contract year, he'd be a hall of famer.

That's about it.  BEAR DOWN.