Final Thoughts on Chicago Sports

Peppers!

MikeJ — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:12:00 GMT

Since I started using twitter, all my random Bears thoughts have been collected there. But with Julius Peppers signing, thought I'd dust off the old blog.

I love the Bears' signing of Peppers. A good pass rush makes everyone else on D look better. Overpay? Absolutely. But you have to overpay or you don't get him. They may well have improved their D ranking from 27th overall to 17th overall just by the one single move. Throw in a healthy Urlacher and an overachieving Safety and they might be up to 10th or 12th.

I like the Chester Taylor signing a lot. They needed another runningback bad, as Peterson/Wolfe/Jones all stunk and Forte's sophomore campaign suggested he may not be all that great. In fact, I know he's not great. He's a good player, but maybe only top 15-20 in the NFL at best. Taylor's probably the best available guy, and possibly even better than Forte. At $7 mil guaranteed - not a bad of a signing at all.

They still need O-line help and probably another WR. Really, the Bears were only set at Special Teams, QB, and LB. Every other position needed help. The single acquisition that could help most is Peppers. Now, would they be better served spreading that 50 million around at 2-3 less impactful guys? Maybe. We'll never know. Pro-Football-Talk is suggesting the Bears can get out of this deal after one year and only $22 million. If true, it's not nearly the potential albatross (cough, Soriano) and I love this deal even more!

The O-Line was probably my number one priority until the last few games of the season. But Chris Williams showed me enough in stopping Jared Allen to lead me to believe its not out of the question that he will be the answer for the next 5-7 years. Shaeffer looked St. Clair-ish, which is to say barely competant. Garza is still solid enough. You can score points on O with them up front. There is still 2 more guys on the line, unfortunately. Kreutz is old, though coming off some surgery he might rebound a bit. If not, I think Beekman might be able to switch over to Center. Otherwise he's competing at Guard with Omiyale and honestly neither might be the answer there. So they still need help, though its not as dire as it seemed when Pace was in the lineup and Baby Huey was on the right.

Manumaleuna? Nice signing. He supposedly blocks like a tackle but can run some pass routes to keep LBs honest. Maybe our O-line help comes from him? That's the intention at least.

Now, do these moves make the Bears a "contender"? Hardly. They're still the favorite to finish 3rd in the division next year, and if you put a gun to my head I'd go with 8-8 and no playoffs yet again. But the Bears are closer. There's just one less major "IF" for this team. IF the Bears can get a pass rush...well, that problem should be solved now, right? Peppers should get 8-12 sacks and perhaps free up Tommie Harris and Alex Brown to get another 8-10 themselves. The linebackers can then drop back into coverage more and help the safeties and all of a sudden your team defense is ten times better that last year. Now its not inconceivable for some good luck with team health, a few lucky bounces, a few less Cutler turnovers, and a few bad breaks for the Vikings and hey - we're 11-5. It happens every year. Team goes from crap to first. (Usually they go back the next year, but still.) We're closer. That much is for sure.

I'm not sure what it does to Greg Olsen. Maybe he goes in the slot? He's a fast tight end but probably just an average (at best) slot receiver. Lots of people want to trade him. I don't know. Part of me says he might not be living up to expectations but he's still decent (60 catches, 8 TDs) and his value will only go down with Martz so get what you can now for him. The other part of me says the team will probably miss the playoffs and everyone will get canned after this season anyways, at which point Olsen's value will (likely) go back up. If they can get a mid-2nd round or higher pick, I'd probably trade him. For nothing less than that, though.

So AFTER these signings, here's my priority list for the team. Cut some dead weight focus on those positions in the draft, and scour the waiver wire for under-appreciated talent. My list:

Free Safety
O-Line
O-Line again
Strong Safety
WR
CB
O-line again
Backup QB
LB

Sound good? That's what I'm thinking.

Bears Win Finale; Still Need Overhaul

MikeJ — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 05:11:00 GMT

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed today's Bears win over the Lions. It wasn't like season's past where they'd be out of the playoffs, and you'd mostly be rooting for a loss in a meaningless game to improve the team's draft position. With the first and second round picks gone, there ain't no draft status to root for. I enjoyed watching the win, and I enjoyed watching Cutler bring his season TD total to 27, one more than his INT total of 26. I loved seeing Aromashodu make big plays, and I thought it was cool seeing Tim Shaw be a commando on special teams. (Give him a shot at LB!) What I'd like to do is talk about something I heard on the postgame shows. Specifically:

Ron Turner should be back in 2010.

What? That's what Dan Jiggetts and Jim Miller on Comcast think. Now that Cutler has had success and they've built some momentum, now is not the time to change offensive coordinators and bring in a new system.

Poppycock. While Turner is the least of the reasons for the 2009 debacle, he still needs to go. It took him 14 games to realize Cutler is best when he rolls out. It took him 14 games to give Aromashodu (probably the best wideout on the team) an expanded role in the offense. It took him 10 games to get Chris Williams on the Left (his natural position) and Shaeffer in the lineup on the Right (where he's been somewhat adequate) and Pace on the bench (where he should have been after the disastrous preseason). Williams finally started looking competant against Jared Allen in, whaddya know, his 4th game back at his natural position. (Lovie Smith might have had something to do with this last decision -- not Turner.)

Turner needs to go because he's sticking to the classic goal of "balance". We get off the bus running. You run to set up the pass. Really? Not in today's NFL. This is the 2010's, bro. Look at the Saints. The Patriots. The Colts. The Cardinals. The Steelers. The Cowboys. The Eagles. Top teams. You pass, pass, pass, your way to success. You've gotta be able to run the ball in short yardage and goal line situations, and you need to mix it up sometimes, but really. You've got a high-powered QB. Use him.

Lovie still needs to go as well. The Bears started 3-1. They finished 2-0. It's the ten games in the middle, where they went 2-8, that can't be ignored. They were a complete disaster this season, even during that 3-1 start. Here's the complete list of all times the Bears looked prepared to play this year:

The fourth quarter against Pittsburgh (with an assist from Jeff Reed)
The second half of the first Detroit game
The first half and overtime of the second Minnesota game
The second Detroit game

That's it. The Browns and Rams (and Lions, for that matter) beat themselves. Garbage teams that barely belong in the NFL. (And I tell you what, the Bears would have a hard time beating Cleveland these days...I guarantee it.)

Why should Lovie be off the hook for this giant disaster because he surprised a limping Vikings team and beat a horrible Lions team when his team had nothing but pride to play for? Win when it counts and you get to keep your job.

Especially when you're calling the plays on defense. When did the defense look good? The first half of the second Vikings game? The San Fran game? Against Derek Anderson and Kyle Boller? Bleh.

Everything I said about Angelo in my last post still applies. Horrible horrible drafts the past three years. Zero-impact free agents. Yada yada yada.

Here's my chopping block, in order:

Ted Phillips
Angelo
Lovie
Turner
Everyone else with a clipboard and ballcap not named Dave Toub.

Yeah, I'm cleaning house. Unfortunately, I'd put their odds at keeping their jobs as follows:

Phillips - 99% - The McCaskeys love him.
Angelo - 95% - He's under contract til 2013. He did a nice job in building the 2006 Super Bowl team. I'd truly be shocked if he was fired.
Smith - 75% - He's under contract til 2011 and he just won two meaningless games. I had him less than 50% just 7 days ago.
Turner - 25% - Cutler looking good in his last two games just might save Turner.
Pep Hamilton - 5% - Worthless QB Coach, easiest guy to drop.

The bad news about just firing Turner is you're going to get a crappy guy to replace him. Who wants to come to coordinate in Chicago with a lame duck head coach? That's why Smith needs to go, too.

Ugh, the Bears won two in a row and I'm pissed again. Bear down.

Top Music of 2009

MikeJ — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:46:00 GMT

It's time for my top albums of 2009. I didn't have a whole lot of time to listen to full albums this year, so my second half of this post will be dedicated to singles I like. It's not how I would prefer to listen to music but hey, it's an iTunes world and we're all just living in it.

Albums that will stay in the rotation

I'll still be listening to these albums in 10 years, so without further ado, alphabetically...

Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue - Jerry Cantrell and company have done the unthinkable, pay worthy tribute without cheapening the legacy of the old days. It's not their best work, but it's about as good as their self-titled 1995 album (with the three-legged dog on the cover) if you took off that album's best two songs. Nobody thought anything near that quality could come from Alice in Chains in 2009, that's for sure.

Band of Skulls - Baby Darling Doll Face Honey; Cage the Elephant - Cage the Elephant - These two bands sound somewhat similar, so I'll group them together. At first blush, they both have a "White Stripes" vibe (which, of course, is the quickest way to my heart.) But after digging deeper into both albums, you discover a whole lot more.

The Dead Weather - Horehound - Jack White's side band to his side band. They've got a really rough sound, and this album takes a few spins before you really get it. Once you do, though, you're hooked. I saw them live this summer at the Riv -- amazing show.

Franz Ferdinand - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand - better than their second album (which I liked a lot), but still not as good as their first (which I loved.) They've largely abandoned their "rock edge" and have settled on full-on dance music.

Mastodon - Crack the Skye - The only full-on metal to make my list this year. The riffage and musicianship on this album are as good as anything I've heard in years, so much so that I prefer the instrumentals of each track (which come on the deluxe version of the album).

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular - What is this, 2007? Yes, this album has been out roughly 23 months (and some of the songs are from an EP even older than that), but 2009 is the year they became ubiquitous on my radio (not unlike Kings of Leon for the rest of the world). It's also the year I came to absolutely love this album. I'm kicking myself for not stopping to watch them at Lollapalooza 2008.

Muse - The Resistance - As of now, I still prefer their last album (Black Holes & Revelations) and I sadly haven't given this one it's full due yet. But already I know its one of my 10 favorite full albums of the year.

Silversun Pickups - Swoon - One of my new favorite bands. Yes, the singer sounds like a chick but he's an awfully good songwriter and an excellent guitarist. I also "discovered" their 2006 effort Carnavas this year (with the track "Lazy Eye") which is just as good.

Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures - Supergroup featuring Dave Grohl, John Paul Jones, and Josh Homme. With Homme on vocals and the master riff writer, it sounds an awful lot like Queens of the Stone Age (but with 25% more Zeppelin!). It doesn't qualify as the "best" of any of its parts, but it's at least as good as a lesser QOTSA album, which is good enough in my book.

Albums that are good but might not last

These all have their high points, but for whatever reason I haven't been compelled to go back to them all that much.

Green day - 21st Century Breakdown - I was severely disappointed in the followup to American Idiot (my favorite Green Day album). It's got 8 or 9 good songs, but the 21 tracks have just gone too far down concept album lane for my tastes. Some of the connector filler is downright annoying, and/or too sappy for even Nickelback. I mean, come on. Still, the songs that are good really are good. I look forward them heading back to the garage to craft 3-minute pop songs again, which is supposedly what they'll be doing with their next effort.

Pearl Jam - Backspacer - This one's got about 5 good-to-great songs on it but the rest is pure filler. I like their last album better, and it of course doesn't hold a candle to their first three. It is better than Binaural and Riot Act, which isn't saying much.

Weezer - Raditude - I've only listened to it once and I have to admit my first impressions were damn good. The first 6-7 tracks are simply gold. But its nothing you haven't heard from Weezer before (and better) on Blue, Pinkerton, and Green.

Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg - I loved their first album. After a mere two spins, my first impressions of this one are merely lukewarm. Love the first single, though, so I'll give it a few more listens.

The Singles

Some of these singles have prompted me to nab the full albums, but I honestly haven't given any of them any sort of in-depth treatment as of yet. I should, because its these songs that were the soundtrack for my life in 2009. Also, a good number of these tracks were technically on albums from 2008, I just didn't get to them till this year. Sue me.

Arctic Monkeys - Dangerous Animals - I dug their 2006 release (Whatever people say I am, that's what I'm not) quite a bit, and I really enjoy their new sound. This track has this cool Cake-esque hollow body guitar that's the butter for my bread.

Carolina Liar - Show me What I'm Looking For - Kind of Coldplay-ish, if not even less cool. "I'm Not Over", from the same album, was secretly one of my 10 fav tracks from 2008.

Coconut Records - Microphone - Something my Dad would call Beatles-esque. Headdress, by Amazing Babies owes a debt to John Lennon as well.

Cold War Kids - Hang me up to dry; These guys kind of belong with Band of Skulls and Cage the Elephant in the "bands that kind of sound like the White Stripes" bin, but really, they have their own sound and deserve their own attention.

Company of Thieves - Oscar Wilde - Good Chicago band, not unlike a rockier version of Feist.

Florence + The Machine - Kiss With a Fist - Prototypical garage rock with a punk-rock-chick singer. Owes Joan Jett a debt of gratitude.

Metric - Help I'm Alive - Kind of like Blondie but with a Nirvana-esque happy chorus. (Accoustic, too!)

New Moon Soundtrack - Ok, hear me out. Death Cab, Muse, Thom Yorke, Band of Skulls, Killers, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Ok Go...what am I supposed to do, ignore all that because Twilight is for teenage girls?

Phoenix - 1901; Santigold - Lights Out - two songs that invaded your brain via TV commercials. It worked. Lots of people put Phoenix's album on their best of 2009 list. I haven't gotten around to downloading it yet.

Passion Pit - The Reeling - Love this track. Kind of like a more danceable version of MGMT. Just got this album today and I eagerly await diving in.

Rinocerose - Cubicle - Catchy hard-edged dance rock, not available on iTunes for some reason. Curse them.

Stereophonics - My Own Worst Enemy - I thought this was Stone Temple Pilots (or Velvet Revolver) at first. Turns out its Stereophonics, who have been around a while (but never really sounded like this before).

Switches - Drama Queen; The Takeover UK - Ah La La; The Thermals - Now We Can See - Three big pop-rock songs with hook-laden choruses. Funny enough, The Thermals guy sounds kind of like Weird Al, which would be perfect if those guys ever took off.

White Lies - To Lose My Life; She Wants Revenge - Tear You Apart - A little bit of goth has poked through to the mainstream in 2009, the latter being a more extreme example (while actually from 2007). To Lose My Life is great, though, and I definitely have to check out the full White Lies album. Kind of like a darker version of the Killers or a lighter version of Joy Division.

White Rabbits - Percussion Gun - cool drums and riff, which reminds me of Radiohead while sounding absolutely nothing like Radiohead. A lot more accessible. Maybe a little like the 90s band "Live".

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads will Roll - Another danceable rock song with a female vocalist. They've changed their sound quite a bit in the last few years. Dig it, though.

And that's about it. There's a number of other tracks I liked this year, but I couldn't get my Shazam out in time to catch the name. Till next year...or if I feel compelled to write a best of the 2000s list, which is currently en vogue. Later.

Cubs Trade Bradley!

MikeJ — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:51:00 GMT

Sorry, wishful thinking. They haven't traded Milton Bradley yet. But they will.

In the meantime, let's take a look at the Cubs. The last time we saw them, they were crushed under the weight of their high expectations and missed the 2009 playoffs by 8.5 games. (That's it? They seemed a lot worse than that.)

So what went wrong?

1. Key players slumped. Alfonso Soriano and Geovany Soto were flat out horrible. No excuses for either one of them. They just plain sucked. To a lesser extent, Mike Fontenot and Carlos Zambrano were significantly worse than everybody expected them to be last season as well. Most thought Fontenot would give them at least 80% of what Mark DeRosa gave them, and from the left side to boot. Dud. Ryan Dempster had a bit of a dropoff from his career season as well, though overall he was still pretty solid (like Big Z, to be truthful).

2. Every acquisition failed. Every move Hendry made before the 2009 season failed. Let's see, he traded DeRosa, Signed Milton Bradley, let Kerry Wood go, signed Kevin Gregg, let Blanco walk, didn't sign an adequate backup third basemen, signed Aaron Miles, gave the starting 2nd base job to Fontenot, and turned over the entire bullpen (save Marmol). Fail, Fail, Fail, Fail, Fail. Bradley, in particular, was a bust. He had a solid June-July, and overall he got on base at a decent clip, but everything else about him was absolutely miserable. I really don't want to talk about him much, because I can't stand the guy. But suffice it to say, when your team gives the GM a standing ovation when you're suspended for the remainder of the season, it's not a good sign.

3. Aramis got hurt. The Cubs best hitter missed 80 games to injury last year. He raked when he played, but third base was a black hole for over two months.

4. Lou Piniella started losing it. I think he might have early Alzheimer's setting in. He's a good manager, in fact, probably the best Cubs manager of my lifetime. But he had many brainfarts last season, and I'm hoping the subtraction of Bradley will help Lou focus next year.

Anything go right?

Derrek Lee and Randy Wells. Derrek Lee got some MVP votes and had his second best season ever. Randy Wells came from nowhere to get some rookie of the year consideration. Fukudome proved to be adequate, and that was more than anyone had expected after his largely disastrous rookie year. That's about it.

So what should Hendry do for 2010?

I'm glad you asked. I don't think the team needs a complete overhaul, and honestly with the contract situation I don't even think its possible. The core of this team won 97 games in 2008. A few tweaks here and there, and a few guys return (at least partially) to form and they should be in contention again in the Central. To break it down:

1. Cut the dead weight. He already dumped Heilman and Miles, two major disappointments from last offseason. Bradley, of course, is next. Ideally, the Cubs would acquire some other team's problem that would unexpectedly blossom on the north side. (Think Eric Karros and Mark Grudzielanek in return for Todd Hundley. I did say I was being optimistic.) So let's say the Cubs pick up a Pat Burrell or Luis Castillo. Not unreasonable for either of those guys to be rejuvinated on the Cubs. I think Vernon Wells might be a good fit but his contract is positively Soriano-esque, so the Cubs should take a pass on him. Be creative, Jim.

2. Pray that Soriano and Soto have major rebounds. While not close to the 40-40 the Cubs thought they were getting, I don't think its unreasonable for Soriano to put up 2008 numbers. .280...29 HRs. It might not be worth $18 million, but it'd certainly be acceptable. Soto just needs to put down the doobies are start slugging again. I think he could very easily put up a .270/.350/.480 line or so. Big Z needs a bounce back season as well, while Lee can't fall too far back to earth.

3. Look at CF and 2B for positions to upgrade. Maybe SS. I think Theriot's fine, but they could definitely use an upgrade at Short. After CF and 2B are taken care of, of course. I don't like the rumors I'm hearing about Rick Ankiel, I'll just say that right now. I could live with Mike Cameron for a year, if you can get him cheap. I think in-house option Jeff Baker might actually be a decent stopgap at 2nd, though you know who's available. Yeah, DeRosa. Want to kiss and make up?

4. Arms. Everybody needs arms. Get as many as you can for the pen and may the best ones stick. (Grabow is already in the fold) Maybe pick up a more reliable 5th starter type, as I don't have a whole lot of confidence in Gorzelanny, Marshall, or Samardzija. Harden just signed a one-year deal for $7.5 mil with the Rangers. I'd have taken a flyer on him for that, though it seemed the Cubs were somewhat sick of his injury woes by the end of last season.

And really, that's about it. Just some tweaks, and this team could win another 93-95 games.

Good night!

Bears read last rites by Minnesota

MikeJ — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:22:00 GMT

The Bears were depantsed by Brett Favre and the Vikings today, and the season is "officially" over. Just a brutal, brutal game. Almost 600 yards of offense for the Vikings while the Bears were held well less than 200 (and only two - two yards! - in the second half). Favre had wonderful protection all day and his kick-ass receivers made the Bears pay. I swear, I don't know how he completed some of those passes. It was the old Brett, attempting throws he had no business making but this time the Receivers just made plays. Harvin, Rice, Berrian...kicked the Bears asses in. I just don't get it. Cutler, on those rare occasions that he has more than 1.5 seconds, throws a pass like that and it gets picked or batted down.

It's been awfully quiet around this blog lately, but for what its worth I gave up on this regime after the San Fran game. There was still a slim chance at the playoffs this year, of course, but after the Philly game even that was gone (no way they finish 6-0). Today was merely confirmation. This team is done. Over. Finit.

Never thought I'd see this day in November 2009. Now, I didn't think the Bears were going to cruise to the Super Bowl this year; in fact I had them pegged at 10-6 as a Wild Card candidate. They had some flaws, but I just thought that with the acquisition of Cutler and a revamped offensive line, they had to be AT LEAST as good on offense as last year. And I thought the defense would be slightly improved as well with a healthy and motivated Urlacher. Of course they lost Urlacher at halftime of game one (and they lost a few fringe guys like Tinoisamoa and a few games here and there from other people), but still. This team isn't THAT injured. They just suck.

They suck at tackling, they suck at running, they suck at throwing, they suck at catching, they suck at blocking, they suck at rushing the passer. On the other hand, their kicking game is top notch. So there's that.

My solution is to clean house. Angelo, Smith, Turner...gone, gone, gone. Other than Special Teams coach Dave Toub, every other coach isn't getting the job done. So fire them all.

I blame Turner least of all for these problems - other than Cutler he's got jack shit to work with - but knowing the Bears he'll probably be the one guy to fall. Because of Lovie's contract (he's owed $11 million after this season), most people are speculating that Turner will go and Lovie will get another chance. I'll debunk that in a moment but let's just say for giggles that's what they do. They see what Cincinnati has done this year, 9-2 so far, after sticking with Marv Lewis. Talk to any Bengals fan - they're out of the woodwork now that they're good again - they'll tell you Marv had to go the last two years. Terrible football. But this year, with a healthy Carson Palmer and rejuvinated Cedric Benson, they're on top of the world. The Bears will probably play their cards like this. They'll hire a Mike Martz, they'll sign a couple of free agent linemen, and whaddya know they'll go maybe 7-9. Yippee. All of 2010 they have to listen to the "fire Lovie" and "fire Angelo" talk. They have to deal with irate fans with expensive PSLs and no draft picks. So after all that they'll end up firing him anyways.

One year down the drain. $11 million gone whether they fire him or not. So fire him. And really, he needs to fire himself. The defense is worse than the offense. 600 yards? Scores on seven straight possessions. Come on.

Further - we have no draft picks! I still agree with the Cutler trade. He's been awfully subpar lately, but I still think he has the skills that you can't teach. He's got the pocket presence, he's got the gun. He's just got nothing to work with. The line is AWFUL. Orlando Pace is horrid. Chris Williams is a dud. Cutler almost never has more than a second-and-a-half to throw. (And yes, when he does throw, he sometimes makes poor decisions. At least 20 of them, by my count. He's far from blameless in this whole ordeal.) Then the receivers. The Bears have three "number 3s" and a bunch of practice squad fodder. I think Hester, Knox and Bennett could all look decent on the other side of a number one, or maybe in the slot. The Bears just don't have anyone remotely like a number one. Just look at these guys. Short, fast, ok hands (at best). Weak route-runners, hardly any play-making ability. Nary a "go up and get it" among them.

There was a little experiment going on around here this year and the Bears are losing. Some people think the experiment was "Cutler vs. Orton." Not true. They were merely the control samples in the experiment. Orton is obviously outplaying Cutler this year. But the experiment was "can the Bears ever develop a franchise QB." I think the answer is no, at least not with this group in charge. When Cutler came here, he was probably 80% of a franchise QB. 25 years old, a pro bowl season under his belt. Some flaws, but as close to a sure thing as you could pick up in any offseason. So how's he doing with crappy coaching, a crap O-line, and a group of barely professional receivers? Terrible. How's Orton doing with a studly O-line, top notch receivers and an offensive guru coaching him? Not too shabby. He still floats some passes and can rarely hit the long ball, but I've watched Denver at least six times and believe me, he's the same old Kyle. He just has a juggernaut around him. He's got ALL DAY to throw. They'd be at least 7-4 with Cutler if not better. Remember, last year the Bronco's offense was setting records (and their D was among the worst ever assembled).

So anyways - Bears are cancer to QBs. And as we say in the business - FACT. It has been confirmed.

So back to the "fire Lovie" bit. $11 million. Really? You're going to let that stand in the way of a new head coach? Same old, same old for one more year so you can "save" $11 million? The money's gone, dude. Gone. Look at it this way, you don't have that (high) number one draft pick next year to pay $20+ million to. Dump Lovie and you're still up 9 mil. I just don't see how they can look at this season and see any hope for the future.

And Angelo...I haven't even gotten to Angelo yet! He's probably the A-number-one reason for this disaster. Three years in a row of bad drafts have done him in. His first several years, I thought he did a decent job. Yeah, he kind of whiffed on the top picks, but the middle rounds yielded some fine players. Alex Brown, Lance Briggs, Peanut Tillman, Nathan Vasher, Tommie Harris, Bernard Berrian, Devin Hester. A whole host of Pro-Bowlers on Defense. Plus he built a solid o-line out of free agency (Tait, Brown, Garza, Miller) and hell, he built a team that won two playoff games and went to the Super Bowl. But the last few years have been HORRIBLE. I look at these last 3 drafts and I see a few OK guys (Knox, Forte, Payne, Olsen) and then a whole lot of nothing. Guys that were cut or guys that are still here but don't even dress. I look at his last few big free agents (Pace, Omiyale, Archuleta) and I see disasters. I look at next year's draft and I see no number one (fine) and no number two. Ugh, Gaines Adams - horrible! Do we even have scouts? Fire them, too. Seriously.

This team needs an overhaul. Start at the top. Cut off the head.

I'm out.

Bears Whipped by Arizona. Time to Clean House?

MikeJ — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:32:00 GMT

Today, the Bears were embarassed for the second time in three weeks, as they lost to Arizona 41-21. Quick recap:

Can't tackle. Can't cover. Can't rush the passer. Top to bottom, horrible performance by the D.
Offense was OK, but still kept making stupid drive-killing penalties. Offensive line is still horrible as Cutler was again under pressure all day.
Tommie Harris has officially fallen off the deep end. Straight up crazy. It's a shame. He was awesome his first few years, and was seriously looking to be on a hall of fame career path. But then this deeply religious man had a kid out of wedlock and he's gone crazier than Cedric Benson on Draft Day. Hell, he's Alonzo Spellman crazy. He should talk to Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher about how to effectively deal with baby mamas.
Jay Cutler is fine. The Receivers are fine, too.
Is the missing Brian Urlacher the impetus for this whole fiasco? Seems everybody's whipping boy, the most overrated player in football, was the glue that kept this unit respectable last year. Not sure if he's the only reason but he's clearly a big reason for this debacle.
I'm not convinced that Lovie's defensive playcalling is the reason for this mess. Throughout the whole first half, players were in position to make plays - they just didn't. Tim Hightower and Beanie Wells were making Bears tacklers look like kindergarteners. Then Larry Fitzgerald was Larry Fitzgerald, though you can blame Lovie that he wasn't doubled. And Warner delivered a big FU.
That said, Lovie's not off the hook for this mess. It starts with the head coach, and they were completely unprepared for the second time in three weeks. In fact, they've been horrible in pretty much every first half this season, save the Cleveland game where even a high school team would have looked good. I don't get it. Lovie's supposed to be bad at halftime adjustments. He's supposed to own first halfs.
I don't think Ron Turner's doing a very good job this year. Yes, the line sucks. But there's nothing creative about his playbook, and they're underutilizing Cutler's talent. Every time Ron tries a trick play it backfires immediately and kills drives. Stop it.

I've always liked and defended Lovie Smith. No, he wasn't the best coach in the league. But he kept them in games, and he rarely had complete brain farts that cost his team the game (like Jauron and Wannstedt). He kept them in games, too. Before this year, he had only been blown out and embarassed 2 or 3 times total in his tenure. You can live with one crap game per year. His only real in-game faults were clock management and poor timing with the replay flag. His choice of assistants weren't always the best either. (Bob Babich? Terry Shea?) All in all, I'd say he was a top 12-15 coach. Again, not great, but probably good enough to win a championship given the right players. Could the Bears do better than Lovie? Yes, but they could do a whole lot worse.

This year, however, this team is in shambles. Complete meltdowns every week. The team not ready at the opening gun for really any game this season. Terrible.

And I didn't even talk about Angelo. This year's draft is, thus far, a disaster. Yes, Johnny Knox is great and Alfalava looks like he might be a keeper. But the rest of the draft class has contributed precisely dick. They don't even dress on Sundays. Yes, we got Cutler. He was our number one. Great. But what about their 2nd-7th round picks? Iglesias, Melton, Gilbert, Moore - all worthless thus far. I'm not going to write them off, because they're still here. But I thought Red Shirts were only in college. The 2008 draft got us Forte and a number of other decent contributors, but zero potential stars. The '07 draft was a complete disaster. Solid if droppy Olsen and a whole bunch of nothing. (Nice breakout game today notwithstanding).

So do I want them gone? No. Not yet. It depends on how the rest of this season goes. I was saying last week, the last two NFC representatives in the Super Bowl had horrible regular seasons. The Cards won a crappy division at 9-7 (with multiple blowouts among those seven losses), and the Giants snuck in with a fugly 10-6 after every fan had completely given up hope (and they ended up winning the SB). Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the Bears are on their way to the Super Bowl. The toilet bowl is more like it. I'm just saying at 4-4, they've done nothing to preclude them from making the postseason just yet. They just suck really bad, and at present I wouldn't rank them in the league's top 20. Horrible. Putrid. Hot garbage. But if they can turn the ship around, get hot, and somehow win 9 or 10 games, I'll be much more willing to give this regime one more shot at glory.

And really, I only want to clean house if the Bears are 100% willing to throw massive amounts of cash at one of the Super Bowl winning coaches currently on the sidelines. If they get some crappy retread or unknown assistant, I think I'd rather keep rolling the dice with Lovie.

Benson gets last laugh as Cincy demolishes Chicago

MikeJ — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:25:00 GMT

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

MikeJ — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:34:00 GMT

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.

Bears Upset Steelers

MikeJ — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:22:00 GMT

The Bears beat the Steelers today 17-14 on a game-winning kick by Robbie Gould. I was checking out twitter after the game, and Steelers fans are taking it none too well. First off, everyone pretty much agrees that the Bears suck, and its pathetic to lose to them. Second, they mostly pinned the blame solely on kicker Jeff Reed, because otherwise they "dominated" today. I don't really know about that. I mean, yeah, Reed missed two makeable kicks, and at times the Steelers looked strong. But really the final stats for both teams weren't all that different. Time of possession was even, Pittsburgh had 4 more first downs and 30 more yards. They did have significantly more rushing yards, but the Bears passed more. Bears won the critical turnover battle as well, two to zip. It's hard to win when you lose the turnover battle, look at the Bears last week. Sure, on a neutral field the Steelers are favored by seven...but the Bears aren't exactly the Lions here.

Anyways, enough overanalyzing the defending Super Bowl champs' fans. Lets talk about the Bears.

Cutler was very solid today, and he made some throws that only a handful of guys in this league could have made. He was in control, and professional. I also liked how he handled the elements. When the heavy rains hit, Pittsburgh pretty much stopped throwing downfield. Not our Jay. Strong work.
Johnny Knox was pretty great, as were Greg Olsen and Kellen Davis. Hester and Bennett were afterthoughts in the offense, and while you'd like to see more from your starting wideouts, I'm cool with what I saw. Even without Polamalu, the Steelers defense is among the best in football, and they were concentrating on shutting down Hester. Perfect time for rookie Knox to step up and make plays. Is he our clear-cut #3 at this point? He's gotta be. He might even be our #2. Or #1. Only time will tell.
I don't know what's wrong with Forte, maybe it was just the defense he was facing. All I know is, Cedric Benson ran for 140 yards today against Green Bay, after Forte barely mustered 50. And today he was completely worthless in the running game (though he did make a few catches out of the backfield.) Perry's calling it early: Sophomore Slump. I'm going to give him another week before I go that far. Like I said, Steeler's D rocks.
Alex Brown was a motivated man, today. Motivated to get to the quarterback so he could showat off his new Gator chop. I gotta ask -- why now? Did you just remember that you went to Florida? I don't recall him ever doing that before this year. Perhaps the recent dominance of his alma mater has got him feeling frisky. In any case, he got hurt late and was unable to finish the game. Let's hope his news is better than Urlacher's.
The rest of the defense was pretty shaky. Mendenhall had his best day as a Pro, and only a slippery ball kept Roethlisberger's targets from making plays.
I thought Hillenmeyer started out rather shaky, as Pittsburgh was going right at him and making plays downfield. He ended up getting the job done and was a solid if unspectacular replacement for Urlacher.
As for the other new starters...eh. Bowman didn't get beaten as bad as Vasher, but he did give up some plays on his side of the field. Manning looked a little shaky as well, though no more or less than Payne last week. Roach was his usual invisible self.

Good day for the Bears. Really, my only concerns at this point are Forte and team health. This team stays healthy, they should be in the mix at the end of the year. And that's about it.

Bear down.

Bears Lose Opener; Somehow Still in Playoff Race

MikeJ — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:02:00 GMT

The Bears lost an ugly game to the Packers. Let's quickly summarize.

Cutler was awful in the first half. 3 picks, could have been 5. Grossman all over again. Jake DelCutler. I felt like throwing up.
Cutler looked like a new man in the second half. A few great drives, some beautiful throws. Great pocket presence. Bad pick at the end, though, and even then one might attribute it to Johnny Knox. One of the 1st half picks could have been blamed on the crappy play of the WRs as well.
Earl Bennet and Devin Hester both looked pretty good, but neither is the next Brandon Marshall (2008 football field version). I'm reallly wishing Jerry could have gotten that Boldin deal done.
The running game was OK. Forte had some decent runs, but he was stuffed a lot as well. He only came out for one drive, and the backups did little.
Except for one play, the defense was great. Ogunleye just abused Barbre. Clifton was beaten like a drum. The Safeties made big hits. And other than the one play, the D practically pitched a shutout. The first 3 points were scored off starting at the Bears 35, the first TD was a result of one of the picks putting the Packers at the Bears one yard line. And the next field goal was a result of Mannelly's gallactically stupid snap. Really, even without Urlacher and Tinoisamoa, the defense shut down the supposed mighty Packers offense all night.
But oh, that one play...man was Vasher caught with his pants down. That's about as bad as you can get beaten in the pro game. I think Zack Bowman or Corey Graham should start at CB next week. Vasher may have always been a little overrated, but now he is a shell of his former self.
Injuries. Lots of guys hurt in this one. Urlacher has a dislocated wrist, Tinoisamoa has a sprained knee, Desmond Clark was wheeled out on a stretcher. Omiyale was tossed around like a rag doll. Hopefully Urlacher will be back soon, said Captain Obvious.
I thought the coaching was uneven. In the first half, they looked completely out of sorts. They seemingly forgot Forte for about 20 plays. But in the 2nd, they nicely mixed it up. Lovie made some odd challenges. On the flipside, I can't complain about the playcalling on D at all. Like I said, they practically pitched a shutout. And Ron Turner made some good adjustments at halftime.

I'm not down on the season, and I'm certainly not down on the Cutler trade. The Bears held their own, on the road, against a tough division opponent. Some of you, namely Perry, might start calling this Rick Mirer all over again. No way. Mirer wasn't even remotely good in Seattle. If Vasher wasn't ripped apart, the Bears probably win this one. If Cutler and his receivers don't run around with their head up their ass the whole first half, they win this one easily. Really, the Bears lost because they lost the turnover battle, plain and simple. One fairly bad game by Cutler does not a bad trade make. I tell you what, though. The whole town of Denver's gotta love it.

2009 Bears: Who should stay and who should go

MikeJ — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 04:30:00 GMT

The Backup Bears beat the Backup Browns tonight in the season finale. Jay Cutler played one series and didn't even attempt a pass. I so wish I had spent $75 on a ticket to THAT game!

Anyways, it's cutdown time for the Bears. Lets look at the closest races:

WR - Hester and Bennett are the only true locks on the team. Of the remaining WRs, Juaquin Iglesias, Rashied Davis, Devin Aromashodu, Johnny Knox, Brandon Rideau are five guys gunning for (presumably) four spots. As a third rounder, you would think Juaquin Iglesias is a lock, but he just didn't perform at all this summer so cutting him is not out of the question. Davis is great on special teams, and solid if with a low ceiling at WR. Aromashodu and Rideau are veterans of the practice squad who have repeatedly shined all camp. Knox is a fifth rounder who put on a show tonight and absolutely should not be cut. If the world were fair, Iglesias would get the heave, but I'm guessing Davis or Rideau get bumped.

RB - With Kevin Jones carted off tonight, Adrian Peterson has got a new life on the Chicago Bears. That said, I'm not at all wild about Wolfe and Peterson backing up Forte, but it looks like that will be the reality for at least a few weeks. Jerry should start scouring the waiver wire.

TE - 2nd year man Kellen Davis or Michael Gaines? Davis, like his namesake Rashied, is also a stud on special teams but with more athleticism than Gaines. Gaines is a former high pick of the Lions who's a decent big body but probably out because the Bears are so loaded at the position.

OL - The starters are entrenched, and I gotta say Chris Williams has been great. By 2010 he moves to the left, and he's a fixture for the next 8 years. I think Beekman, Shaffer, and either Beunning or Balogh take the last spot. (or both if they keep 9 on the line).

LB - Bears are loaded, with Urlacher, Briggs, and Tinoisamoa the starters; and Hillenmeyer, Roach, Jamar Williams, Marcus Freeman (draft pick), and ST ace McClover vying for three, maybe four spots. I also really like Rutgers' Kevin Malast. He looks young and hungry, and I wouldn't be shocked to see him starting somewhere by 2010. I bet they keep 7 with veteran Hillenmeyer and Malast getting waived. I like Hunter, and he's probably better than half the guys they'd be keeping. The other guys are younger though with a smidge more upside, though. (And I personally would go with Malast over McClover, but they didn't just bring in the latter to waive him).

DL - Lots of decent guys here. They've got six DTs and six DEs on the roster, and at least four of those guys must go (with some guy named Joe Clermond being the most obvious cut). Out of the other 11 guys, Jarron Gilbert has done the least, but I can't imagine the Bears would cut their first pick of 2009 (though in the 3rd round.) Another high pick, Henry Melton, will probably be put on IR and given a redshirt year (a plan I suggest for Iglesias, I might add). Baldwin and Toeaina will probably be the other cuts, though both have shown flashes at times.

CB - Zach Bowman tweaked his hammy tonight and I don't feel good about him at all. He supposedly had first round talent, but his college career was littered with injuries so he fell to the fifth and he was limited to only one (albeit memorable) game last year. This year looks like its already more of the same. Play one, miss four. Its a shame, because he looks really good when he plays. Tillman (their best CB) can't seem to get on the field either, though, leaving some serious question marks. Vasher HAS to make the team, though I suspect if Tillman/Bowman were fully healthy that wouldn't be nearly so much of a lock. I guess Hood makes the team, too, with Graham, Moore, and McBride. (the latter of whom will be cut whenever Tillman/Bowman get back.)

S - Manning, Payne, and Alfalava are locks. Both Steltz and Bullocks will probably make the team, too, if for no other reason than there's nobody else. Jerry needs to hit up the waiver wire for safeties, too.

And that's that. I'm so glad the regular season is upon us. Only 10 more days.

BEAR DOWN

Jack's First Cubs Game

MikeJ — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:17:00 GMT

Ok, so the season is for all practical purposes over, and I've got the mother of all rants brewing. But I'm going to skip all that for now, and talk about my son's first Cubs game.

Talk about a breath of fresh air. Jack is a crazy Cubs fan, and he legitimately likes every player on the team. Even Milton Bradley. His favorite player is Soriano. And Derrek Lee. And Big Z. And Fukudome. And Sam Fuld. And...<he'll keep listing names until he names every Cubs player>. He knows every player, their number, and their position. If someone's playing in a different position or not in the lineup, he immediately recognizes the oddity (such as the DH during interleague play a few months ago). He puts on his glove and pitches when the Cubs pitch. He swings a bat when the Cubs bat. They can do no wrong in his eyes.

So anyways, I had 2 tickets to Friday's game against the Mets, and I figured it was the perfect opportunity to pull him out of kindergarten and take him to his first game. (Don't tell Ed Rooney.) Every day he asks if he can go today, even if a) they already played earlier in the day, and b) they're on a road trip. When we told him he was going Friday morning, he shrieked with excitement. He wants to go see Soriano, and he wants to get a finger. That is, a giant foam "We're #1" finger.

He really didn't know what he was in for. On the way down, he's asking questions like, "Are Len Kasper and Bob Brenly going to be really loud?" "Are we going to see the pre-game show?" "Are we going to see the commercials?" and on and on. I think he thought we were going to still be watching the game on TV. We aren't going to the new Texas Stadium, son.

So we get down to the Wrigley at about the time the gates opened, showed him my brick and got the requisite pictures by the Harry Caray statue and under the front marquee. We walk in, walk up the steps, and he's all smiles. He soaks it all in. He's seemingly shocked at how far the Cubs are hitting the ball. We mosey down to the wall to watch batting practice. He gets excited to see...everyone. There's Fukudome! There's Jake Fox! Look, Dad, there's Koyie Hill! People were turning and looking...who IS this kid?!

After the Cubs were done, they ran into the dug out. Jack is standing next to an even younger kid, and Rich Harden turns and runs directly towards us. Jack gets a little shy and turns away a second, as does the other kid. Harden has his hand out to give either kid the ball, but both kids have their back to him. He leaves the ball on the ledge, turns and heads to the dugout. The other kid finally turns around and takes the ball. So close...

We grab a dog, a finger, and head to our seats. Nothing beats a hot dog at the ballpark. We were seated in the upperdeck, right under Len & Bob. This is probably my favorite spot to sit in the stadium, by the way (outside of the 100 level, of course). Just a great view of the game up there. Total foul ball territory, too.

Cubs jump out to an early lead and Jack's ecstatic. Jumping up and down, shaking his hat at triple deuces, and it doesn't even phase him when Soriano drops a popup in the 3rd (an inning after Bradley lets one drop off his shoe). Did you see that, I ask? "Yeah, he dropped it." It doesn't slow down his fun, though, as he's still smiling ear to ear. Lilly starts mowing 'em down.

Seventh inning, Bradley catches the most routine of popups and gets an enormous standing ovation. I can only shake my head. Have I got a rant about that guy. Jack doesn't care, though. I ask him if he likes Bradley, and he says, "yeah - he always gets on base!" Jack doesn't listen to sports radio.

During the 7th inning stretch, Jack sings a little but spends most of the time working on his batting stroke. Whatever, he's having fun.

Lilly gets into a jam in the 8th, and Kevin Gregg comes in. "Mom says Gregg doesn't know how to pitch. Did he forget?" Mom's not just another pretty face, apparently. Gregg gets one out but gives up one inherited run on a line drive to the wall, just off Soriano's glove. (Nice effort, at least, but I bet Fuld would have snared it.) Runner thrown out at the plate, bottom 8, Cubs down 2-1.

Bradley double, long Lee flyout to advance the runner, Aramis RBI single, tie game. Really, I was watching the game through his eyes and I couldn't help get excited. Two on, two out for Soriano. This horrible season turning meaningless, and I wanted nothing more for Soriano to get the game-winning hit. Jack loves Soriano. Ever Cubs fan of age can't stand him, but he's my son's hero. Why? Best I can gather its his hot April. He hit a fair number of leadoff HRs last year (when Jack first started paying attention), and he had a blistering hot April (like .340 with 12 or 14 HRs) this year when Jack started becoming obsessed with the team. Does Jack care Sori's hitting about .160 in August with zero HRs? Nope. I ask him what's going to happen. "He's going to hit a HR." (To be far, he said that about Aramis and Jeff Baker, too, along with every other Cub I asked about.)

Sori goes down 0-2 with a weak swing and the catcher walks out to the mound. I can only imagine the catcher saying, "if this next ball is within 3 feet of the plate, I'm going to kick you in the jimmy." At that point, I put the odds of Sori getting a hit around one in a thousand. Instead, meatball over the heart of the plate - gone. I couldn't believe it. Jack is jumping up and down like crazy. His first Cubs game, his first home run. Cubs lead, 5-2.

Marmol walks one but otherwise zips through the ninth. Strike 3 on Gary Sheffield (one of the few Major Leaguers to actually bat for the Mets that day - man, are they banged up) and Cubs win. Go Cubs Go! Dancing in the aisles. Unbelievable.

I still can't believe Soriano hit that homer. Its like Jack's good karma made it happen. Or the pitcher on the Mets had a complete brain fart. One or the other.

On the way home, listening to sports radio, and yet another set of unflattering quotes from Bradley hit the airwaves. Jack pays no mind. He's just happy the Cubs won and his hero hit a homer. He asked me what place they're in, and I say 2nd. Who's in first? The Cardinals. Long pause. "Is Rock Obama Albert Pujols' dad? He gave him a high five that day." That would be the All-Star game 6 weeks ago, if you're paying attention. Kids remember the weirdest stuff. He then fell asleep and slept hard for the next hour, while I navigated traffic.

Bears Look Good in Second Tuneup

MikeJ — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:04:00 GMT

The Bears starters looked really good in beating the Giants 17-3 on Saturday night at Soldier Field. The Bears starters gave a pretty dominating performance, and that's really all you could ask for.

Jay Cutler looked very good in his three drives, all of which led to Bears scores. What you saw from Cutler was, IMO, Kyle Orton's ceiling. In other words, while Cutler wasn't exactly Joe Montana out there, he easily looked at least as good as Orton has ever looked (when not facing Detroit). And the fact that this is just his second preseason game with the club gives me the warm fuzzies. He's gonna be a good one.

Matt Forte was excellent in his 2009 debut, and looked as fast as I've ever seen him. He should be well worth that 3rd overall pick in fantasy this year, and he's going to make a lot of people happy. Kevin Jones and Garrett Wolfe also looked solid, at least when the latter wasn't fumbling in the end zone.

Greg Olsen, Earl Bennett, and Devin Aromashadu all made really nice plays with the first team. Brandon Rideau and Juaquin Iglesias made plays for Hanie (who himself looked quite solid). And then there's Hester.

Hester had two catches, neither of which really amounted to much. But he was WIDE OPEN on one play in the 2nd, about as open as you can get in the NFL. Cutler scrambled out of the pocket and absolutely whipped the ball downfield. Hester stuttered a step, seemingly thinking that he might have outrun the ball, only to see the ball land about 2 yards in front of him. I'm convinced that without that stutter he catches the ball perfectly in stride for a 90 yard TD. Amazing throw. Should have been a great catch. Oh well. I'm not going to say, at this point, that "Hester as legit number one" is going to fail, but I will say that it doesn't look overly promising at this point.

I should point out that the starting O-line has been playing well. Pace, Williams, Omiayale, Kreutz and Garza. They look like they've been playing together for years, even though 3 of those guys just got here.

As for the defense, the Bears did a nice solid job overall. Outside of when Brandon Jacobs touched the ball, they tackled well, tipped passes, and got to the QB. (Eli was pretty lousy.) Urlacher continues to look reborn, as does Mark Anderson, and I like what I've been seeing in the secondary. The secondary is by far the biggest concern going into this season, and thus far everyone but Vasher has been holding his own. How about that Al Afalava? Looks like he could be another patented great late-round pick for Jerry Angelo.

All in all, a good showing. No concerns at this point. Just have to stay healthy. I'm ready for the regular season.

BEAR DOWN

Bears Training Camp, 2009

MikeJ — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 03:16:00 GMT

Went to Bourbonnais today to take in my first few glimpses of Jay Cutler and the 2009 Bears. I gotta say, I was very impressed. Cutler's throws cut through the air unlike any Bears QB I've ever seen. SO impressive. He makes Orton and Grossman look like, well, Orton and Grossman. It's going to be a treat to watch him lead the Bears for the next 10-12 seasons. And saying that always leads us to the following question, which is, "who's he going to throw to?"

The most impressive of the receivers today, by far, was Brandon Rideau. Hester sat out, so Rideau made the most of his opportunity with the first team and he got his money's worth. He was tall, he was fast, he has good hands, and he made huge plays. I don't see how he's any less than the 3rd receiver on this team come September. (Oh, and apparently his name is pronounced "REE-doh", not the "ri-DOH" everyone called him last season. Who knew?)

As for the other receivers, Bennett and Davis made some catches today, none of which were particularly flashy. Olsen was a big target, and he rewarded Jay with some nice diving catches. Rookie Johnny Knox also looked awfully good in shaking Nathan Vasher out of his shoes and scoring a nice, fast TD. He's a lock to make the team as well.

If today was any indication -- Hester, Bennett, Rideau, Davis and Knox will be your five receivers this season, with Iglesias (who I didn't even notice today) as a redshirt inactive most weeks but on the roster if only because of his draft pedigree. Look for Aromashodu on the practice squad again.

Got an opportunity to watch Rod Marinelli work his magic on the D-Line. They were particularly spirited in the time I watched them, far more action than I ever saw from anyone on the defense the last two times I went to camp. I'm drinking the kool-aid on the Marinelli signing. Mr. 0-16 looks like he'll be able to whip those underachievers into gear.

Apparently Mark Anderson got in a dustup with Chris Williams at the end of practice today, but I missed it because we were packing up and heading out. (There were scattered showers and a light drizzle soaking us all day, and after 2 hours it was time to leave. Besides, Hanie was coming in.) I like how these camp fights get reported. They are literally NOTHING and nearly everyone acknowledges them as such. Yet every news organization proceeds to beat each one of them into the ground like a dead horse.

Speaking of Hanie, he looked pretty decent. At least as good as Orton looked two years ago, which is all you can ask from a backup.

Oh yeah, and I almost got hit by Urlacher and Briggs' golf cart. I was walking around the corner of the north end of the field just as 54 and 55 were showing up for practice. I froze for a second, moved out their way and let their caddie drive their bored-looking butts to the field. I mustered up a mild "hey" as they stopped and were idling a mere four feet from me, and Urlacher kind of half-raised his eyebrows as an acknowledgement. I don't know if I'd call that a brush with fame or a brush-off with fame, but whatever. It was what it was and I was satisfied with the brief interaction.

All in all, a nice day at camp. Got to see me some Cutler, some Marinelli, and loved me some Rideau. I'm ready for the first preseason game.

BEAR DOWN.

Cubs Thoughts: Closing Time

MikeJ — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:41:00 GMT

Ok, Kevin Gregg isn't very good. That 600-foot home run that Dan Uggla hit on Sunday, as part of back-to-back blown saves, is pretty much all the evidence you need. But you know what? I'm not worried about the Cubs at this point. I've pretty much given up hope.

I have absolutely zero confidence that this team can both a) outlast the Cardinals, and b) win 11 games in the postseason. Well, I think they can outlast the Cardinals without relying on cosmic forces, but I'm still of the firm belief that the postseason is all luck. And at this point I have no more or no less confidence in the team's potential October success than I had for the team that won 97 games last season. Would I rather have a better, DOMINANT closer with grade-A nasty stuff? Sure, who wouldn't? But having that wouldn't improve their odds of winning in the postseason all that much. It just matters who's hot. And Gregg can get hot. Is he as likely to be hot as, say, Mariano Rivera circa 1999? No, probably not. But he can surely string together a a dozen good appearances over the course of a month. In fact, he had a seven-week stretch in June/July where he more or less dominated. If that happens in October, along with another 5-7 Cubs playing about as well as they typically play in the regular season: Cubs win.

So there's no sense fretting over the closer at this point. They don't have a better option on the roster. Marmol might be better, but he's allergic to throwing strikes. Guzman's a better pitcher, but he's been pretty shaky during the few times he's been asked to finish up games. And there's nobody out there in free agency or available via waiver-trade either that's any better. The only guy that may have been available is Heath Bell, but as of last Friday its too late for that. So no sense wasting energy on that. It's Gregg or bust in 2009. Worry about the closer for next season, if you must.

Speaking of acquiring players, let's talk about Jim Hendry a minute. Yes, he had a pretty horrible offseason. But I'm cutting him some slack. Up until last November, a significant percentage of his moves for the Cubs have worked out well. And it's really hard to argue with three division titles in six years, in addition to contending this year. Yeah, the Bradley and Gregg deals haven't exactly worked out, and neither has the subtraction of DeRosa. Miles blows, Gathright was an abomination, and even Hank White has been missed these last few weeks. Would he like a few do-overs? Sure, but who cares about hypotheticals. Live in the now. If he has any real weakness at all, it has been the in the draft. The Cubs have probably the worst draft record of any team over the past 25 years. But the farm system has come around a bit and produced a few keepers the last few years, so that's something.

I don't know, I guess I just want to stop worrying about it and enjoy the games for what they are. Small victories. So I'm going to do what the famous bleacher t-shirt suggests: shut up and drink my beer.