Out Of Retirement

It’s been a while.  Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in.

Well, since I’ve last scribbled much has happened.

ND went to the College Football championship and got their ass kicked.  ND MLB T’eo was found to have a fake girlfriend so he got his ass kicked by the oh so righteous and ethical sports media.

The Cubs signed some free agents…zzzzzzzzzzz.  What was I saying?  I shouldn’t be so negative though.  If Nate Schierholtz doesn’t spell championship, I don’t know what does.

Lance Armstrong kind of, sort of admitting to doping and the world was NOT surprised.

And, finally, the Chicago Bears ended the not so offensive reign of one Lovie Smith.

The new coach IS….drum roll….Marc Trestman.  Silence.  Tumbleweed rolling across the floor.  Confused looks on the fans faces.

Actually the hire wasn’t all that bad.  Plenty of offensive experience in college and pro football.  Oh, and hey, he has head coaching experience up in Canada which has about as much credibility as a competitive rec league.  Seriously though, the guy is the QB guru.  And I mean THE QB guru.  I don’t know what it is but he has a knack for getting the most out of his thrower.  He also calls a good game and his offenses are ALWAYS at the top of any league.  This IS what the Bears need.

The remaining questions are…  Will Cutler buy into it?  I think so.  Will the aging, talented defense have one more good season under an offensive minded head coach?  Your guess is as good as mine.  Not sure if the guy from Jacksonville has the chops but we’ll all find out.  Will Emery open up the Bears tightly fastened coin purse and get several (meaning more than 2) offensive linemen on the free agent market?  That would surprise me but that is exactly what is needed to keep Cutler on his feet and throwing TDs.

Oh, and I don’t want fans demanding the Bears waste a 1st Round pick on lineman because we need one.  Stop it.  NFL teams almost always take the best guy on the board no matter what his position is.  Besides, drafting offensive linemen that are immediate contributors on an NFL offensive line is like finding a winning lottery ticket in the garbage.

Well, glad to be back writing.  I’m sure it will be an interesting off-season in the NFL.  There will be lots to talk about in the world of baseball.  The Bulls continue to do well without D. Rose or the Bench Mob.  The NHL is back in action and…well, so what.  I think the fans should boycott for the season.  Make Bettman sweat a little.

I might also start spewing about pro wrestling.  I have been a fan since, well, since I’ve watched TV.  I don’t watch with as much interest or passion as I did 20 years ago, but I still enjoy it.  It’s the male soap opera and plenty of us guys are hooked.  LOL

Oh, and in closing, plenty of fine BPD ladies of sports to come.  😉

 

Losing Not an Option

Tonight is a big night Chicago Bears fans.  The “undefeated” Lions host the 2-2 Chicago Bears in what shapes up to be the Bears biggest game of the season.

Win and the Bears are right back in the thick of things in the NFC Central Division.  Lose the the Chicago Bears are 3 games behind 2 teams in the division.  Losing simply isn’t an option for a coaching staff that seems to be on the hot seat almost every single season.

A loss put the Bears in a huge hole.  It is incredibly difficult to make up 2 games let alone 3.  A 3 game hole, even this early in the season, is almost impossible to recover from.  Making matters worse, after tonight the Bears already have a game against both Detroit and Green Bay in the books.  3 games in the hole with only 2 games left against the teams above you certainly puts the odds against the Bears making the post-season.

There has to be a sense of urgency to everything the Bears do tonight.  The defense must improve.  The D-Line needs to put consistent pressure on Lions QB Matt Stafford or he will throw for over 300 yards and several TDs.  They need to control the clock and move the ball methodically down the field.  Forte and Marion Barber need to combine for at least 150 yards on the ground to win.  Winning through the air isn’t going to happen for the Bears.  To win the O-Line needs to keep Cutler upright.  The game plan is simple.  They need to throw quick slants, outs and screens along with the power running game.  They also need to limit turnovers.  If they can do all of these things, they control the clock.  They control the clock they control the game.

If they get into a game plan where Cutler throws 40 times and gets picked 2 or 3 times than we know where this game is headed.  The O-Line isn’t good enough to hold off the Lions rush for the 4 or 5 seconds Cutler will need to get the vertical game going.

So, for the first time EVER, the Bears v. Lions actually means something.  The Lions are young and hungry.  The Bears talented but getting old.  It should be interesting to see where this goes but Bears fans know, losing is NOT an option tonight.

System of a Downer

The Chicago Bears are half way through the 2010-11 season and it certainly has been a roller coaster ride.  One minute the Monsters of the Midway are 4-1 and at the top of the NFC North and the next minute they are a jumbled mess on the verge of collapse.

I don’t think there is anything more frustrating than being a Chicago Bears fan right now.  You have seen this play over and over again.  You had hoped with the addition of Martz, Peppers and Chester T. that maybe the worst was behind us and we could compete for a playoff spot.  That hope has been dashed.  To come up with two crappy performances in a row against Seattle and Washington is pathetic.  These were games they had to win and they didn’t.  If they go into the half at 7-1 with a three game lead over nemesis Green Bay the chances are really good that they are going to win the division.  However, they pull up lame against two mediocre NFC opponents and that speaks volumes of not only the players, but the organization.

Some people slam on the offensive line and others enjoy roasting Jay Cutler.  Some even blame it on Lovie Smith alone while some will go as far as to blame management and ownership.  I have to say they are all right.  The offensive line is the worst I have seen in my 30 some odd years of being a Bears fan.  Jay Cutler, who I like, needs to calm down.  Take a sack and don’t force the play.  It is hard for him to do that  because he is a competitor and he has already taken a seasons worth of sacks, but he has to try.

The organization certainly has the biggest bullseye.  Let’s not kid ourselves, the Bears of 2006 won in spite of Lovie.  He has done very little as a head coach.  He doesn’t inspire confidence, his mid-game adjustments suck and he can’t throw a RED FLAG to save his life.  Most of his coordinators are God awful too, although I’ll give a pass to Marinelli and Taub at this time.

Finally Jerry Angelo has to be the worst GM in the NFL on the first day of the Draft.  We have a terrible record with 1st and 2nd Round picks.  He is great finding gems in the middle rounds and maneuvering to acquire more picks however, to be a great team and compete for Superbowls you have to find those future NFL stars on  Day 1 of the NFL Draft.

I’d go on and on about how inept President Ted Phillips and the McCaskey clan are but I’ve covered that many times. And, let’s face it, they aren’t selling any time soon.

I hope that a huge win over Buffalo in 2 weeks can catapult this team to a 3 or 4 game streak.  That would be fantastic.  I don’t wish this team any ill will for I am a HUGE fan.  However, if they should happen to finish the season with only 7 or 8 wins like I suspect then it is time for the firing squad.  Paging Coach Cowher!  Coach Cowher needed at Soldier Field STAT!

Bears In Hibernation

The names of many professional sports teams have often puzzled me.  Jazz in Utah?  The only Wizards I know of live in fiction books not Washington D.C  And, do to popular belief, Arenas was not petitioning for the team to change back to their old name.

Detroit Lions?  Kittens maybe but not Lions.  Wouldn’t the Lakers be better off as the Oceaners?  I mean there in LA, not Minnesota.

Well, in Chicago the NFL squads name fits them perfectly.  No, not because they are angry, ferocious woodland predators.  More so for what Bears do in late fall and into winter.  Let’s examine, shall we?

Definition per Wiki – Hibernation is a state of inactivity and metabolic depression in animals, characterized by lower body temperature, slower breathing, and lower metabolic rate. Hibernating animals conserve food, especially during winter when food is short, tapping energy reserves, body fat, at a slow rate. It is the animal’s slowed metabolic rate which leads to a reduction in body temperature and not the other way around.

Many Bears hibernate and most from late fall through the winter.  Food is scarce so they store up, find a comfy cave and pass out for several months.

Enter the Chicago Bears.  Some may argue they hibernate from the season opener on but that really isn’t the case.  They usually fall asleep in October sometime and rarely come out of their slumber.  This slumber, the one that causes them to miss the post-season more than make it, effects the staff upstairs as well.

You decide you need to make change so you fire a coordinator and some coaches.  You say how you are going to bring the best guys in to coach both the offense and defense and then ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Jerry!  Lovie!  Wake up!  Oh crap, that’s right, it is very dangerous to wake up a sleeping bear.  Wait, have people seen these bears?  They don’t seem very dangerous.  Oh well.

In the meantime coaches are dissing the Bears.  They are going to other teams, not showing up for interviews and don’t want to play for a lame duck administration.  Can you blame them?

So, for now, we watch and wait and hope the big, bad Bear wakes up from its slumber.  After all the NFL Draft is in April and, oh, never mind.  I forgot we don’t have any picks in the first two rounds.  I guess they were planning on sleeping in this off-season.

I’m Mad as Hell…

and I’m not going to take it any more!  I know that isn’t original but how many people dare take a line from Network and incorporate into a blog about Lovie Smith and the Bears.  Oh yes, I dare to walk that line.

Early in the 3rd quarter of yesterday’s Chicago Bears v. Green Bay Packers game I had hope.  Mind you it was a sliver of hope but any sort of hope involving this year’s Chicago Bears is a good thing.

Jay Cutler drove the offense right down the field and all of a sudden the Bears had a 1 point lead.  With the Bears playing very good defense I thought the Bears were in line for a victory over the Packers.  Well, soon after grabbing that lead my hopes were dashed.  I mean, what was I thinking?  Have hope in this team.

Lovie calls a time out and then throws a red flag for a review he wasn’t going to win.  The dynamic, young Johnny Knox not knowing where he is supposed to go…in Week 13!  The Bears collect over 100 yards in penalties.  WR Devin Aromashodu gets major PT and it pays off for the passing game.  What’s wrong with that you might ask?  Cutler said he had quite the connection with this young, big receiver.  When did he say that?  PRE-Frickin-SEASON!  Apparently the coaches don’t give a shit what their franchise QB has to say.  Instead we suffer through 13 weeks of Bennett drops, Knox running the wrong way and Hester’s lack of height.

I know I have been harping on this for weeks and weeks but the coaches have to go.  I might keep special team guru Dave Toub but they have to go.  I don’t care if the franchise has to pay them millions.  It was their mistake and they need to correct.  Lovie is a terrible head coach and should go back to being a defensive coordinator.  Ron Turner should go back to college.  But Ron, please leave Illinois out of it.  This state has had enough of your ineptness for one lifetime.

I won’t even name the rest of the coaches because they aren’t worth naming.  OK, I lied.  How can you not bring up QB “guru” Pep Hamilton.  Good ol’ Pep has not had a positive impact on the Chicago Bears team.  The only thing he has managed to do is watch Kyle Orton get better after he left.  Jay Cutler was awesome until he got here.  This guy is the angel of death to QBs.  Cut him loose.

Finally I will go just a little bit higher and say Jerry Angelo should go too.  I’ve supported Jerry in the past for his ability to find those “diamonds in the rough” in the mid-rounds.  However, Jerry has been an absolute failure on Day 1 of the NFL Draft.  Day 1 is when you are supposed to find the future NFL studs.  It is one thing to find guys to fill roster spots in the middle rounds but you need to come up with difference makers on Day 1.  Jerry has failed to do that.

2003 – DE Michael Haynes (out of NFL), QB Rex Grossman (3rd string on Houston) and CB Charles Tillman (good pick).  LB Lance Briggs was selected in the next round which was great but the next 8 picks all washed out.

2004 – DTs Tommie Harris (constantly injured) and Tank Johnson (criminal now on Cincy).  In the following rounds Jerry found Nate Vasher (fading veteran) and Bernard Berrian (Minnesota Vikings star).

2005 – RB Cedric Benson (pain in the ass cancer on the Bears, top AFC rusher for Cincy) and WR Mark Bradley (rarely saw the field, play fairly well for KC).  Oh, 4th Rounder was Kyle Orton who will be leading the Broncos offensive attack in the 2010 playoffs.

2006 – DB Danieal Manning (small school find, fair player probably considered a bust) and WR/KR Devin Hester (good pick for what he accomplished on special teams).

2007 – TE Greg Olsen (so far this is a bust.  he should be putting up Dallas Clark numbers) and DE Dan Bazuin (terrible pick.  never played).  Beekman, Payne and Graham later on in the draft were fine.  But we know Jerry can draft in the middle rounds.

2008 – OT Chris Williams (suspect health questions and has not looked good early on) and RB Matt Forte (Good pick but we won’t know if Matt is more the player of 2008 or 2009 yet).  WR Earl Bennett is pick next and has potential.  Too many drops for my liking.

2009 – We didn’t have a Day 1 pick because of the Jay Cutler trade (not working so far).  3rd Round brought us DT/DE Jarron Gilbert (hasn’t seen the field with the Bears crappy line.  Speaks volumes) and WR Juaquin Iglesias (bad WR corps and he can’t see the field.).  WR Knox and DB Afalava are the only contributors from this group.

Here is another fun game to show people what a Day 1 disaster Angelo is.  Here are the players, year-by-year, that were taken shortly after the Bears picks.

2009 – After Bears take Gilbert…SF takes RB Glen Coffee (solid #2 behind Gore) and the pick right after Iglesias was by NYG and they took TE Travis Beckum.  4 picks later CLE takes LB Kaluka Maiva who has been solid.

2008 – After the Bears take OT Chris Williams the following players come off of the board.  DB Rodgers-Cromartie by Arizona, QB Joe Flacco by Baltimore and OT Jeff Otah by Carolina.  RB Matt Forte was an OK pick, so far, but WR DeSean Jackson did come off of the board 5 picks later and RB Ray Rice to Baltimore 11 picks later.

2007 – Bears take TE Greg Olsen who wasn’t a bad pick here but Indy did nab a quality #2 WR in Anthony Gonzalez with the next pick.  In the 2nd Round they take Bazuin and Green Bay a little bit later takes Brandon Jackson, a solid #2,#3 RB.

2006 – Finally we traded out of Round 1 and had 2 2nd Round picks.  We took Danieal Manning instead of a DB Roman Harper, RB LenDale White or WR Greg Jennings.  Hester was a pretty good pick with the 2nd one but one may argue Jacksonville got a better pick a few picks later with Maurice Jones-Drew.

What I am getting at is this Bears team looks vastly different If the Bears pick WR Greg Jennings, WR Anthony Gonzalez, QB Joe Flacco, TE Travis Beckum and RB Maurice Jones-Drew.  Sure that is a lot to expect that your GM picks perfectly every single time but you can’t miss on Day 1 and expect to remain competitive in the NFL.

Finally, those players need to go.  We have too many guys collecting a paycheck and not contributing.  Some of the guys that need to go are C Olin Kreutz, OT Orlando Pace, WR Earl Bennett, WR Rashied Davis, FB Jason McKie, RB Garrett Wolfe, RB Adrian Petersen, DE Mark Anderson, LB Brian Urlacher, LB Hunter Hillenmeyer, every safety on the roster except Al Afalava and CB Nate Vasher.  These guys are underperforming and/or just plain sucking.  I know including Urlacher may shock some but the only contribution he has made lately is with his mouth.  He needs to shut the hell up and take care of his own business and hopefully he’ll do that with a different team.

In conclusion Lovie, other coaches, some players and GM Angelo should be gone.  What is out there?  Maybe Cowher, Dungy, Billick or Shanahan.  Maybe an unknown talent from college.  All I know is the GM should be progressive and not have a Tampa Cover-2 hard on and the head coach should have head coaching experience.

The only positive we can take out of this season is that every day closer to the end of it is the beginning of a new one.

No Lovie for Weis

The Weis era is over.  Coach Stay Puft was released of his duties yesterday.  The search is now on for his successor.  Do they pony up the dough to lure Stoops away from Oklahoma?  Do they take a chance on a young coach like Cincy’s Brian Kelly?  Whatever they decided to do we know one thing is certain, the results are almost guaranteed to be better.  Notre Dame was quick to act and winning a championship is always the top priority.

The Chicago Bears however could learn a lot from the Notre Dame administration.  The Bears lured Cutler to Chicago with dreams of a Division title.  Instead the season has been a disaster with the Bears sitting at 4-7.  Now, the Bears have had major injuries but so have a lot of other teams.  Talented teams have depth and great coaches get the most out of those part-time bench players.  Lovie doesn’t.  In that respect he is a lot like Weis who didn’t get much out of his spare Irishmen either.

Lovie, the time is coming and the Bears are preparing to eat your deal.  There certainly was no more lovie for Weis in South Bend and I am quite sure the lovie of Lovie is running out up at Halas Hall.  Do the right thing Bears!  Follow the lead of the Fighting Irish.  Do not hesitate.  Dispatch Lovie and Co. ASAP!  Grab the phone and call Dungy, Cowher,  or Shanahan!  Once again, like ND, the results are almost guaranteed to be better.

Em-BEAR-assed

Disappointing is a good word.  Upset is another good word.  Embarrassing is probably the best word.  But surprised, not necessarily. 

This was coming.  I saw it.  I am sure others saw it coming.  Most Chicago Bears fans though, not so much.  They bleed blue and orange and believe.  And why not believe.  You get Jay Cut and Pace and the offense is ready to go.  The defensive players love Marinelli.  Things look good, right?

Not so much.  A combination of injuries, bad play calling, and poor coaching has led this team from the rosey path to a dark, dead-end street.  The die hards with their rose colored glasses must be beside themselves.  This past Sunday must have been their Shock and Awe.

The season is far from over.  It is very possible they could go 6-2 in the 2nd half of the season and still get a wildcard.  Realistically they will be lucky to go 4-4 and finish .500 on the season.  And how embarrassing is that? 

I don’t care that they have had some injuries.  All teams do.  Great coaches get the most out of what they have and what Lovie had was a playoff quality team.  He gathered that defense to rile them up, motivate them after going down 21-7.  So how did that defense respond?  They gave up another 20 points.

I’ve seen some bad Chicago Bears teams.  I can remember games dating back to the mid 70s and at no time have I seen a team let down their fan base as much as the 2009 Chicago Bears.  This team had potential to win 11 or 12 games.

There were also bad coaches like Abe Gibron, Neil Armstrong, Dick Jauron and Dave Wannstedt.  However Lovie fires a Superbowl coordinator and tells fans to trust him that he knows what he is doing.  Since the big game the Bears have gotten worse each season.  Now Lovie has taken over the D-Coordinator position, in addition to his full-time job and is sucking big time.

I am embarrassed to be a Bears fan right now.  I am sure most Bears fans are.  The most disappointing thing is that there isn’t much you can do.  What are you going to do?  You can’t fire Lovie in the middle of the season.  Who becomes head coach, Toub, Marinelli or ‘gulp’ Turner?  Ahhhhh, Jane, stop this crazy thing.  You could fire the GM but he has guaranteed money on the table.  He isn’t going anywhere.  The only guys I could see being sacrificial lambs might be O-Line Coach Harry Heinstand, DB Coach John Hoke and possibly LB Coach Bob Babich. 

However, if the Gods are smiling down upon Beardom the Bears Organization with give the old heave ho to Lovie, Turner, Angelo and the rest of the coaches at the end of 2009.

Random Thoughts

OK, Deep Thoughts Jack Handy I’m not but I haven’t posted anything of substance in a while and I feel a rant coming on.

It has been 9 seasons since the Yankees last won a world championship.  In monetary terms that is about $1.4 billion in player salary over the course of those 9 seasons.  The payroll of the 2009 Yankees alone…

When you are $63 million better than the #2 team in baseball you ought to win the championship.  Hell, my 10 year old son could manage a team with a $208 million payroll.  The Yankees argument is “we pay the luxury tax and spread our wealth to all of the other teams”.  GREAT, what has it got those teams.  It helps Kansas City do what?  Rehab the stadium?  Nope, that was mostly public and other private funds.  Get better players to challenge in their sad ass division?  Nope.  They pretty much still suck. 

The economics of baseball don’t work and it is certainly a sign of the times.  The Yankees and their over priced Roid’ boys won.  We can’t take anything away from them.  I actually like Jeter and Matsui so I am happy for them.  But I’m not happy with the situation.  Baseball is soon to be the way of the many extinct sports leagues if they don’t wise up and find a better way to level the playing field.  Wouldn’t it be nice if teams like K.C., Seattle and Oakland actually had a snowballs chance in hell once in a while.

Enough about baseball.  What is going on with the Chicago Bears?  They get Jay Cutler and the offense goes…BACKWARDS.  OK, I didn’t think the offense would be league’s best but I thought we would improve coming off of last season.  No, they look like shit.  Jay Cut runs for his life half of the time and really has no reliable receiver to look at when things get rough.  Olsen regressed, Hester is always banged up and Forte can’t run.  The offensive line went from fair to suck in one season.  You add a healthy Orlando Pace and go from fair to suck?  I don’t get it. 

My guess is the coaching and player development SUCK!  Cedric leaves and gets better.  But not just better, we’re talking best in the AFC better.  Orton leaves and get better.  Not just a little better, we’re talking top QB rating in the NFL better.  And, from a coaching perspective, it is a terrible group.

Ever since Rivera left the D-Coordinators position after the SuperBowl in 2006 the defense has gotten worse.  The offense is consistently poor.  Turner is a terrible coordinator.  Lovie who is both the head coach and D-Coordinator is unable to wear both hats.  This experiment isn’t working and they are watching the season get flushed down the toilet.

I really hope they can turn things around but a small part of me hopes they do only win 7 or 8 games and Lovie and the whole lot of them get launched in favor of a Dungy or Cowher.  We can only hope

 

Lovie’s Bears: Cute and Cuddly or Monsters of the Midway?

The Chicago Bears have parted way with several defensive position coaches and the strength and conditioning coaches this week.  Sounding like a Barack Obama doll GM Jerry Angelo chants “Change, Change, Change” while Lovie says Orton is our QB.  Hmmmm?  Interesting.

The change Angelo is talking about includes bringing in Rod Marinelli.  Yeah, that guy.  The guy who coached the 0-16 Detoit Lions.  The guy who came from, wait for it…wait for it…the Tampa Bay Bucs.  The same place Angelo and Lovie came from.  Doesn’t sound like change.  It sounds like more of the same.

Ron Rivera was fired as the defensive coordinator 2 years ago because he didn’t “gel” with Lovie’s system.  The Chicago Bears had the #5 defense in the NFL and made it to the Superbowl.  Now the Bears have been in the bottom 1/3 in defense the past 2 seasons and haven’t made the playoffs either season.  Now common sense might say Lovie and/or Bob Babich might be on the chopping block.  That didn’t happen.

What happens is the PR men tell the Angelo to preach change.  This is what he does and to a lesser extent Lovie does the same.  They execute the foot soldiers and not the superior officers.  To me this seems ridiculous.  What is really going to change when the system remains the same?   The few stars they do have remaining on defense are now all another year older and certainly not wiser.

The Bears have become a soft team.  Cuddly in fact.  The defense doesn’t scare anyone.  Teams come in and rush for 100 yards almost every time.  The opposing team’s pass offense knows you can destroy the Bears bend don’t break philosophy with quick slants and receivers up the seam.  All teams need to do is run a slot receiver under the coverage and then an outside reciever on a hook and go.  Ask Donald Driver or Bernard Berrian how that worked out for them.

They are far from the Monsters of the Midway.  Even back in the 70s and 80s when they had some very mediocre teams the Bears managed to have a Top 10 defense.  They would slap you in the face and your team knew, and felt when they played the Chicago Bears.  Those days are long gone. 

Angelo needs to get kudos for finding guys like Forte, Corey Graham, Hester, Nick Roach, Beekman, Briggs and Alex Brown.  However, Angelo is terrible in Rounds 1 and 2 and that is where you need to find your NFL starters.  Forte,  Olsen, Peanut and  were good picks, no doubt.  However, Angelo has also had these dandies in Rounds 1 and 2; Michael Haynes, Rex Grossman, Tank Johnson, Cedric Benson, Mark Bradley, Danieal Manning, Dan Bazuin and Chris Williams.  Now Manning might be starting to come into his own but up until his recent special teams success, he’s been a brutal safety.  See what I’m getting at folks.  These problems are a little higher up the totem pole. 

Despite some of these blown 1st and 2nd Rounders we had enough talent to get to the Superbowl.  Then, like magic, we are mediocre again.  Most of that talent is still in place 2 consecutive BLAH seasons later. 

I’ll tell you what gives.  We lost our defensive coordinator and Lovie has all his guys in place.  Well, at least he did until he let a bunch go.  Lovie is the problem.  His half time adjustments are horseshit and sticking to the script is not how you win a championship.  It is conservative, cuddly, fluffy football.  No one is scared of playing the Bears.  NO ONE!  His conservative approach has cost us games.  Most recently the Alanta and Tampa Bay games which, if won, would have put the Bears into the playoffs.  Playing not to lose versus playing to win sucks.  Not too mention you rarely seem him display any sort of emotion on the sidelines.  I’m sorry, I played a little football and it is a very emotional game.  There are times a coach needs to be reserved and a time he needs to kick you in the pants.  Lovis Bear just seems to be reserved. 

So the 2008 version was pretty cuddly.  Lovie Bear and Angelo still have jobs and will keep them for a while.  They fired the assistants and will appoint new guys to do the same thing.  Bears fans, get used to your kind and cuddly Chicago Teddy Bears.  They are here to stay.

Shock and Awe

Those are the best words I can use to describe my experience watching last nights Chicago Bears v. Minnesota Vikings game.  The Bears are up 7-3 and on the door, First and Goal at the 1 yard line.  The Bears had been containing the Vikings fairly well up to this point and would have gone into the halftime with a 14-3 lead.  I think any Bears fan would have been happy with that.  The offense, while a bit sluggish, was getting the job done.  The defense looked like the defense of old.  But something happened.  You know, one of those unexplained things that kind of freeze you in your tracks and make you question what you just saw.  An event like a plane crashing in your backyard or your friend being suddenly mauled by a cougar.  HOW THE HELL DID BEARS 14-3 TURN INTO VIKINGS 17-7 IN A MATTER OF A COUPLE OF MINUTES?

It was kind of a perfect storm of sorts.  You have 4 tries at the one yard line and fail to score a touchdown, a cornerback breaks off his man-to-man coverage and then you let AP bounce outside for yet another 50+ yard run.  That was the Bears recipe for disaster last night.

But this shouldn’t be.  Every team suffers from lapses.  Every team blows a lead or lets a couple of mishaps get them in a hole.  But some teams, the good teams, don’t let that defeat them.  The coaches make the necessary adjustments.  The best players on the team will make good things happen and help change the momentum.  But just now, after 12 games, I realized they are not a good team.  Orton is serviceable, Forte is an above average back and a few decent pieces remain on the defense but let’s not kid ourselves, they are not that good.

The players are either overrated, like Tommie Harris, Mark Anderson, Peanut or Devin Hester, or they just aren’t that good, like Roach, St. Clair, Davis and Payne.  But even with this collection of stiffs the Bears should be better than any other team in the NFC WEAK Division.  Furthermore, how do the Bears let this MUST WIN game slip away?  

It was mostly the players.  I mean if I had a $1 for every dropped ball I’d be on my way to Sizzler.  However, the coaches had a major contribution as well.  You have to start with head coach Lovie Smith whose game plans, mid-game adjustments and motivation tactics leave a lot to be desired.  Lovie is a coordinator, not a head coach.  You can tell in his mannerisms and how he handles crisis situations.  He rarely comes off scripts and places players under the bus for losses way too much.  How dare he even criticize Turner’s BRAIN DEAD offensive game plans or Bob “Lovie’s Cabana Boy” Babich? 

To be a defensive coordinator in the NFL today you need to be fierce and aggressive.  You need to be a risk taker and motivator and I don’t see that in the Cabana Boy.  You need to have better game plans and be able to break off of them when things aren’t working.  You need to instruct your younger players how to play the game properly.  Watching Peanut break off of a man-to-man thinking it was the Cover 2 led me to believe the players are confused because the coaches are confused.  

The Bears Three Stooges don’t have the capability to lead, instruct or strategize.  They will make their montone statements to the press about what a tough loss it was and that they have to play better.   BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!  More f*cking excuses!

Finally GM Angelo is also to blame.  Sure I have lauded him for his mid and late round finds but he has been just as much of a hinder as a help.  This is Jerry’s second head coach so he can’t blast him too harshly.  Not many GM’s (unless you’re Matt Millen) survive multiple coach firings.  Jerry continues to support Lovie and doesn’t apply needed pressure.  And why would he?  The Bears aren’t firing anyone.  They don’t dismiss people with multiple years on a contract.  They will run this course until everyone’s deals are done.  

Jerry Angelo CAN’T DRAFT in the 1st and 2nd Rounds.  Most, if not all, under his leadership haven’t panned out and these are the picks that build franchises.  This is where you find the superstars.  Up until Matt Forte of this year most of them are bench warmers, on other teams or out of the league.  He also can’t evaluate talent already on the team.  WR Mike Haas sit on and off our development squad because he can catch the ball?  That is all that kid does.  He isn’t blazing fast but either is Camarillo (Mia), Welker (NE) or Curtis (Phi).  Teams want guys that can run routes, get open and catch.  No matter what “experts” or combine freaks tell you, FOOTBALL IS A 10-YARD GAME!  You take time off of the clock, move the ball, get first downs and score. 

It is obvious the Bears, from the players to the coaches to management, have no idea how to win.  I didn’t say ‘play the game of football’, I said win.  Their is a big difference and we are looking at several more years of mediocrity in the space dish that used to be Soldier Field.  I suppose the most frustrating thing is in 2005 and 2006 it looked as if this franchise understood what it took to win.  The players made the right moves and the coaches made the right decisions and the Bears were playoff bound.  But to keep most of the same cast of characters and de-evolve into this mess is majorly disappointing.

I guess the best way to describe this de-evolution is by using an old saying.  “I’D RATHER BE LUCKY THAN GOOD!”  And, unfortunately for the Bears, it appears their luck has run out.