ChicagoSportsBlogs : Non Compete

Happy Halloween everyone! Turns out the trick is on us. The Bears are crap. I'm not alone in sharing this opinion.  The net is littered with commentary on how bad the Bears are after a terrifying loss to the Lions (yea, the Lions) 16-7. It was our second loss to the recently successful Lions and thus completed their sweep of last year's NFC Champs.

You can call it the Superbowl-hangover, unreasonable expectations, a weak division or conference. Whatever. The Bears are just not a good football team. Were the Bears overrated? I think so - after finding some links here, here, and here. (check them out, I'll wait. Its all the preseason rankings)  Oh, and one here where Glazer thinks Lovie Smith is going to be Coach of the Year. (scroll down a bit) Makes sense. Any coach who goes into a season with Benson at running back and Grossman at quarterback should be awarded the freaking medal of honor. Get his yellow coat ready. This particular list of predictions is great. Benson is a question mark, Welker is a dark horse, and Randy Moss is going to be a bust. Wha?! Right.

Speaking of running backs, it seems that a lot of people picked up on Urlacher's comments about how the team misses the services of Thomas Jones. Great. Just what we need, locker room angst. Didn't anyone notice that Benson is a head case? You think that comment is going to help our cause? It's one thing to play hurt (surprise! Urlacher has a bad back) but throwing your starting running back under the bus by publicly pining for your former starter who wanted to be traded is entirely another. What leadership on this team! What character!

Let me jump straight to the grades for this week. They're the type of grades that would have forced your teacher in grade school to send the report card home with you so that your parents could sign it. It's a good thing you spent all your evening practicing how to forge your mom's signature instead of studying for that quiz...

Offense - (F) You really can't do any worse than 7 points at home against the Lions. 4 picks by Griese hurt the offenses cause too. There is a lot of chatter on sports radio that revolves around Griese's inability to complete a pass in the red zone. I agree that Griese looked like crap yesterday, but he isn't alone in this mess. In fact, I still think he is better than Grossman for this team. If you don't agree, then stand aside and let me introduce you to Kyle Orton. We have nothing to lose. Give Orton a chance before it's too late. Finally, the play calling is still terrible (Ron Turner's fault - and Lovie's soon if this doesn't change) and Benson is just the most unimaginative running back I have ever seen. Horrible.

Defense - (D) - The defense is a great disappointment. I understand that people are hurt, but that is no excuse. We were proud of this defense last year for it's depth. What has happened? Is Chico missed that much?! Sacks kept this from being a total F, and frankly the fact they didn't give up 35 points in the 4th quarter also helps a bit. A small bit. Peanut Tillman! Forgive me for talking shit about you for most of your career. You are clearly the best defensive player we have in the secondary. I hope what you've got rubs off on some of these new guys...

Special Teams (B) - Many people have pointed this out: Without Devin Hester, this team's field position, if not total points, would be horrible. Sure, Gould missed a kick and Hester didn't score, he has Prime-Time Deion Sanders type rep. People are changing game plans to avoid Hester completely. This is a clear smack in the face to our offense when teams are willing to give us a short field on every change of possession. The fact remains, the return Hester almost broke is the reason we even scored that first touchdown.

Coaching (F) - Tough grade? I think not. We lost to the freakin Lions!!! At home! Are you kidding me with this? The Ron Turner experiment has me wondering if it's John Schoop up there calling the plays. So let me get this straight. First down, run for 2 yards. Second down, run again, up the middle, another 2 yards. Third down you either throw to Berrian who drops the pass after cutting the route short by 4 yards or just try to dump it to Benson on the check down. Nice. I sit here watching the Denver v. Packers game wishing that we had guys like Stokely catching the ball. (notice I didn't say anything about Cutler or Favre - I'm tired of talking about our QB problems) Lovie - this message is for you buddy: You're going to get run the F out of town if you don't turn this around. Going into the bye with a .500 record would have kept everyone from jumping off the cliff. Now, with a 3-5 record and the Packers and Lions pulling ahead in the division....well, let's just say that the Hawks are starting to look pretty good.

I don't want to start evaluating talent for the draft before reaching the Christmas holiday. Not for a team that was just in the Superbowl a year ago. Right the ship already. And if you don't know how - then I'll tell you how in my next post.

Until then - take a deep breath Bears' fans. It is officially a long season.

BEAR DOWN.

I gave up on the Bears' beating the Vikings today after Griese answered a 35 yard touchdown run by Adrian Peterson with a perfect interception. No joke. Peterson had just finished making the Bears defense look like those clowns on the unicycle you find at the circus. The game was out of reach with the Vikings leading 31 to 17. I needed to get out of the house and away from this football team.

I had enough of Griese. I was cursing him under my breath as Shaj316 drove us down to the nearest Sports Authority. I need a new Bears hat. Now was as good a time as any to go buy it. Crazy, right? Crazier than you may think because as you all know - the Bears came back in the game! Much to my surprise, Griese found Moose for a 33 yard touchdown. It was a nice catch and an even nicer run for Moose. Where has he been all season? Mike points out correctly that this might have been the first time we've seen Moose earn his paycheck this season.

The score was 31-24 and I'm standing in the middle of the golf section at Sports Authority screaming at the TV. The Bears then decide to attempt an onside kick. This was a surprise, but looking at the timing, I could see how the coaching staff thought it may just extend its luck. Why not? We're not able to do much to stop AP at this point in the game, what makes us think we could get a 3 and out on the Vikings' next possession anyway? Well, it turns out that the Vikes did go 3 and out on the next possession giving the Bears one last shot with just under 2 minutes left to play!

That's when the Devin Hester show began. You haven't lived until you have stood inside a shop jumping up and down, screaming at the top of your lungs: "RUN M*THERF***ER, RUN!!!" Hester was finally being used on offense!And I mean, really used as a weapon. None of this bullshit decoy-slant or 3 yard curl we've been forced to stomach. (Thanks Ron Turner) Hester caught a deep ball! A freaking 81 yard touchdown pass from Griese no less! I was going to cry. I couldn't believe the Bears just tied the game 31-31.

I've got to break here and rant a bit on our offensive play calling. Ron Turner is doing a great job of paying his respects to John Schoop. This is no joke. Turner's play calling is the worst I could muster up in my tiny brain until the memories of the Dick Jauron-led Bears popped into my noggin. I hate how conservative this team is. Doesn't Lovie have any say in this matter? If the defense is going to be as horrific (aka banged up, right?) as it is right now, doesn't the offense have to pick up the slack? Shouldn't Olsen and Hester, the only 2 bright spots on offense, get the ball 30-40% of the time?  If it's 3rd and long, why are we running the fake Adrian Peterson up the middle? Worse still, you have to wonder why we can't convert on 3rd downs in general. I think we only had a single 3rd down conversion before the 4th quarter. (I'm still looking for the stats) What does Ron Turner know that we don't know? Is it that Griese isn't as reliable as we think? All those blasted check downs are either proof of his ability to be brainwashed by Turner, or his stupidity for not at least taking a shot once in awhile. While I am at it, if Griese is such a great veteran, why is it that I don't see him reading defenses as he goes under center? He is a robot. Robot's don't audible. Robots take 3 steps back, make 1 read, then another, and then check down. Great.

Benson started the game really well. He was actually gaining more than 3 yards a carry. I thought there was hope of a breakout performance from Benson, but it seemed like he got out of a rhythm and was ineffective for most of the second half. I know there will be a lot written about how Benson runs as if his feet are tied to cement blocks, while the Vikings rookie running back, Adrian Peterson looked like the next LT.

Peterson was amazing. I can't take anything away from him. The post game coverage pointed out how he is now third-all time for all purpose yards in a game. I didn't realize it while standing in front of that hazy TV in Sports Authority, but he was the one returning the Bear's kick off into field goal territory. That was a 53 yard return! Christ. What a buzzkill. It was just a matter of justice being served as Ryan Longwell easily made that final field goal to ruin our late heroics.

I'm afraid that while the Bears are slowly sinking back into the doldrums of the NFC North, the Vikings and their young offensive core (Jackson and Peterson) are going to be a thorn in our sides for many years to come. That's what makes this loss tough to handle. Sure, AP ran up and down on our defense, the Bears had 4 turnovers, and our only true weapon has to wait for someone to kick the ball to him before becoming a threat, but knowing that the Vikings are 2 steps ahead of us in their attempt to put "all the pieces in place" has me nervous. This is going to be a long season.

Tale of two halves?  Maybe.  That's what a lot of people are saying today about the Bears come from behind victory against the Green Bay Packers.  I put this game high on my annoyance meter with a score of 8 out of 10. The defense was such a let down in the first half that I almost started looking for reruns of Eight is Enough on Nick at Nite. Listening to Al Michaels and John Madden fawn over Brett Favre was bad enough, but they brought out the usual talking points for Bears/Packers games. How many did you notice:

• Oldest Rivalry in the NFL! The Bears have played the Packers for 1000 years! Yippee!
• The Bears have had 20+ quarterbacks since Brett Favre came to Green Bay.
• Virginia McKaskey is the daughter of Papa Bear Halas.
• Cedric Benson is a pussy.

What's that? You're surprised by that last one? I'm not. Old man Madden is starting to ride some players he thinks are deserving of no more than the pan drippings of this year's Turducken. Cedric Benson was horrible again in this game and surprisingly, Madden let us know about it. Can you imagine if good-ole John actually took the initiative to throw players under that big bus he drives around in all week? The results would make for TV magic.

The Bears didn't show us much in the first half. I take that back. They showed us that the defense is overrated. We couldn't stop the run. Isn't this the same defense everyone was praising in weeks 1 and 2 because of how they shutdown LT and Larry Johnson? Injuries to Tommie Harris, Briggs, Vasher, Tillman, Archuleta, and Dvoracek in the recent weeks have forced Lovie Smith to rotate something like 18 different players on defense this year. We're banged up, no doubt, but letting a bunch of rookie, no-name running backs stomp on us solidified my worst fear: We're a horrible football team this year!

If the only thing we have to hope for is a Hester kick return for a touchdown, we might as well start scouting college football for replacements on offense. Who and what position I would draft next year as a result of this poor start is something I will discuss in my next post, so stay tuned.

For now we need a reality check. We got lucky against the Packers. Favre made only one critical mistake, a horrible interception that Urlacher held onto eventually giving us the momentum shift we needed to  get the win. (Favre had 2 INTs of the total 5 on the night)  Griese was Griese. He  managed the game exactly how I would have expected for a veteran QB. The one interception he threw while attempting to hit Greg Olsen was a poor throw that was tipped into the hands of a corner caught out of position on the play. Sometimes you get those bounces. (we did!) Speaking of Olsen, he is exactly what this offense needs. He had a great stat line: 4 catches for 57 yards and a touchdown! I would like to see the offense play calling shift towards throwing to the tight ends (both of them) instead of the recent rash of 3rd and Long - run off the left tackle with Benson. That leads me into my final complaint (because I'm running out of steam here)

The main problem I have with the Bears this year is that Ron Turner is still calling the plays. We saw the Packers pull out a very deep play calling strategy. We saw tons of changes in formations from the Pack. Favre threw great slants off of a shortened 2 step drop. We also saw a ton of play action calls, and some great I-Formation run sets. It was a balanced attack. Compare and contrast that with Ron Turner's play calling! 3rd and long, and the Bears decide to "surprise" the Pack by running a draw! Right. You think anyone is surprised by that call Ron? Everyone knows that we're deficient at the quarterback position. Teams plug holes at the line, trapping Benson and his indecisive run-attack, resulting in a platry 3 yards a carry. Benson is #2 on my list of biggest problems on this team, after Turner and his play calling.

I'm running out of steam on this one kids. I'll be back during the week to cover some of these topics:

1. Live Blogging! I have some crazy txt messages to share from the peanut gallery.

2. Bears Grades (no time for that tonight)

3. What the Bears need to do to make the playoffs.

BEAR DOWN! 

Well, well, well! Look what we have here! I have finally upgraded the site to the new version of Community Server. (that's the software we use, for you non-geeks) It wasn't as bad of an upgrade as I anticipated and I think everyone from the writing staff to our few readers are going to be super happy with the speed and performance of the new site. The look is slightly different, but don't get used to it because we are going to be hiring a designer to redesign the entire community before the year is finished. 

You'll notice that we have a new logo. Courtesy of a local artist,  Guillermo Munro. Check his site out here. You'll start seeing the logo in your RSS aggregators too. 

So what's next? I plan on actually getting off my ass and posting a lot more. We're going to start linking a bit more to some of favorite sports blog writers in an effort to get some good conversations going. Like one of the many Packers bloggers who are steamed at their team's amazing loss to the Bears. Amazing? Yea, you read that right. It was probably the worst half of Bears football I have seen in a long while. More on that in a later post...Or go read MJ's write up here.

Oh, and Happy Anniversary to my loyal 3 readers. It's been 4 years of craptacular fun.

BEAR DOWN.

Shit- I almost forgot - I think the site can handle YouTube.com clips now. So here is one courtesy of an earlier post by Sarah!