Another Week, Another Rabbit, One Less Hat To Pull From?

Forgive my tardiness in posting as my holiday travel plans delayed my normal game day routine yesterday. You will also have to forgive me if I missed anything since I was unable to view the game in it's entirety. Remind me to fire my travelling secretary for booking my flight during the game...

There was plenty to like, plenty to dislike, and plenty to be just plain old confused about in the Bears 38-34 victory over the New York Jets. In a game that was supposed to feature two of the league's preeminent defenses, we instead witnessed an offensive shootout.  As surprising as the back-and-forth flow of the game was, the most important thing is the Bears walked away with a win and are now in position to lock up the #2 seed next week-if not sooner assuming the Eagles don't collapse against the Vikings on Tuesday. Even more amazingly since the Saints beat the Falcons Monday Night, the Bears (gulp) have an outside chance of home field throughout the playoffs.

I'll get into that later, but with the Bears continuing to rack up wins, they also have put themselves in this advantageous position by once again staying freakishly healthy as a roster. Here's how I saw it:

Offense : You can't accidentally put up 38 points against the 5th ranked defense right? Especially when you put up 40 points the week before? A short week at that, might I add? Well that's exactly what the Bears did on Sunday, and it could have been 41 if Robbie Gould didn't miss a field goal late in the third quarter.

As for the forensics, the main star of the game was Matt Forte. Forte played exceptionally by gaining 113 rushing yards for a 5.9 yards per carry, 56 yards receiving and rushing touchdown on the day. Jay Cutler did his usual Cutler Act of doing something stupid and then making up for it in a major way by throwing a Pick 6 to Dwight Lowery in the second quarter to put the Jets up 14-10, and then rallying to throw 3 touchdown passes on the day while rushing for another TD as well. Cutler's TD passes weren't exactly on 1st and goal either. These were long TD strikes of 40 yards to Johnny Knox, 25 yards to Devin Hester, and another 25 yard TD pass to Knox in the fourth quarter. All of Cutler and Forte's success couldn't happen without the continued improve play of the Offensive Line. I asked them to keep it up last week, and they did so, by allowing Forte to run wild and giving Cutler the time to chuck it deep and take the chances Cutler needs to take in order for defenses to know the Bears are not a one trick pony offensively.

Something that I've noticed the past couple of games is that the Bears seem to be going back to more of the traditional Mike Martz looks. This is mainly evident by the pre-snap shifts that are happening with more frequency. These shifts are designed to help Cutler determine what the coverage is and/or force a favorable match-up the Bears can take advantage of i.e. Forte being covered by Jason Taylor and beating him for a deep pass late in the second quarter. These shifts were largely absent for most of the season as it was painfully obvious the Bears weren't ready to run Martz's playbook. Looks to me that the Bears are getting more comfortable with the Martz system and will hopefully catch teams by surprise with it come playoff time.

Defense : Don't be fooled by Chris Harris' fumble recovery and interception late in the fourth quarter. For as nice of a game as Chris had, this game was a big reason why I can't stand the Tampa 2. When the Bears face a team with a good offensive line and a quarterback that knows what he's doing in Mark Sanchez, they will get beat up and down the field like they did. The Tampa 2 is vulnerable to quick slants, play action fakes, and Seam Routes. Always has been, always will be. Don't believe me? Go ask Tom Brady. The numbers back it up too as Sanchez was 24-37 (13-15 in the first half!)  for 269 yards and a TD as the Bears had no pass rush and did not generate the turnovers necessary to justify the scheme.

Unfortunately as the Bears enter the playoffs, they will run into more quarterbacks that know what they're doing, and it's too late to change things up defensively now.

Special Teams : Overall a good game by this unit despite a couple of hiccups. Even though they are full of crap by saying they "made the play" (Brad Smith dropped a very catchable ball) on the bizarre fourth down fake the Jets ran in the second half, they still did some nice things. Maynard punted the ball well, and Hester when given the chance almost added to his all time Touchdown record. Gould missed a 35 yarder however that would have put the Bears up 41-34.

Where Do We Go From Here : As I mentioned, with this win the Bears are now in a good position to lock up the #2 playoff spot-with the outside chance of home field throughout. Before you get your hopes up though, here's how that would have to happen : the Falcons have to lose to Carolina, the Eagles have to lose to either the Vikings or the Cowboys, the Saints have to lose to Tampa, and the Bears have to beat the Packers.

The more logical scenario is the #2 seed, and the Bears control their own destiny in that regard as they simply need to beat the Packers-barring an Eagle loss on Tuesday Night. On paper it seems that the Bears should win this game, but in my opinion I don't like giving Aaron Rodgers & company an opportunity to play for their playoff lives at HOME, do you?

Either way though this is one opportunity where Lovie's "#1 goal" would work out real well overall for the Bears.

Division Champs!

Did I call you guys "assholes" last week? Sorry about that. Can we play outdoors on a college field all the time? Never mind, I just remembered the 2002 season in Champaign. For the first time since 2006 the Chicago Bears can call themselves NFC North Champions! Congrats to them, they deserve it, and I deserve to eat my words.


As important as tonight's victory was, the way it was obtained was a lot of fun. Amid all the kerfuffle regarding the field conditions and Brett Favre making a mockery of the Injury Report, the Bears not only beat the Vikings, but beat them up too (2 Viking Concussions that I'm aware of) in record setting fashion. They may have FINALLY done what I've been hoping to see for years if not decades, and that's put an end to Brett Favre's Career. They also witnessed Devin Hester break the all-time kick return record with his 14th career TD coming in the third quarter. Ridiculous indeed. Here's what I enjoyed:

Offense: In a word, "Great". In another word  "Dominant". The Bears ran and threw the ball seemingly at will, despite the slippery and snowy conditions at TCF Bank Stadium. Matt Forte led the way on the ground with 92 rushing yards, while Cutler threw the ball with accuracy and velocity en route to three touchdown passes, the first of which was a 67 yard rope to Johnny Knox on a 1st and 30 that put the Bears up for good. Cutler spread the wealth, hitting 7 different receivers, and might have had 4 Touchdown Passes were it not for a badly timed penalty. The offensive line put together an impressive performance against the Williams Wall of the Vikings, allowing only 1 sack while opening up gaping holes for the ground game. Keep it up O-Line!


In each of the last 6 wins, the Bears offense looks more and more cohesive. That can only help in the playoffs. Don't tell Cutler that though : "By no means are we completely satisfied," Cutler said. "We know we can be so much better offensively." Good Answer....good answer...


Defense : A tremendous performance by this unit tonight. For the fifth time in six games, the Bears allowed the opponent to get ahead early in the game, and then opened the floodgates. The defensive line was so active and disruptive tonight, particularly Julius Peppers who once again drew constant double teams yet walked away with an interception. Henry Melton tipped the pass to Peppers, Israel Idonije, and Matt Toeaina each walked away with a sack, but the best sack of the night belonged to rookie (and now my favorite Bear) Corey Wootton, as he slammed Brett Favre head-first into the rock hard field turf, and apparently may have given the All-Time Interceptions leader a concussion! Hate to wish injury on anyone, but if anyone deserves it, that would be Favre. 

Linebackers and secondary also played at a dominant level. Brian Urlacher led the way with 8 tackles, Lance Briggs had a sack, and Charles Tillman and Chris Harris each had an interception. All told, the 14 points the Bears allowed is actually misleading. The Vikings had no chance offensively once Favre was out in addition to no Adrian Peterson. The way this unit played tonight though, I don't believe it would have mattered.

Special Teams : An All-Star night for Dave Toub and his crew. Obviously Devin Hester gets the much deserved attention for breaking the all-time record, but for his other two returns that once again gave the Bears outstanding field position. An equally impressive display was made by Patrick Mannelly, Brad Maynard, and Robbie Gould for making field goals and extra points look like they were being kicked in a dome. Maynard also had the lead foot as well averaging 41 yards per punt. Outstanding!

Where Do We Go From Here : Playoffs? PLAYOFFS! For as much as the celebration is underway in many respects, there is still work to be done this regular season. The Bears have the chance to lock up a first round bye next week, but will need some help to do so. As it stands now, the Bears need to beat the Jets at home, the Eagles and Giants both need to lose for the Bears to clinch a first round bye.

So the Bears still have plenty to play for these next two games, and should prepare accordingly, specifically against the blitz-heavy New York Jets. Cutler may have been sacked only once, but he did take a shot to the chin courtesy of an Antoine Winfield blitz and helmet. That cannot happen.

Are they really lucky? Absolutely. Is Luck enough to win Super Bowls? Not even close. As we know, it's not enough that you receive the benefit of luck during an NFL season, but you also need to take advantage of it. The Chicago Bears of 2010 will forever be known as Advantage Takers now.

Rapid Car-Bombs

I apologize for the gap between posts. Time Management is really tested during the Silly Season, and a lot has happened since the last posting. With that in mind, I'll do my best to shoot from the hip and spray to all fields:

• It appears that Notre Dame went 3 for 3 in their attempt to shed no more light on the Elizabeth Seeberg case than has already been released, as the St. Joseph County Prosecutors Office announced that it will not prosecute Notre Dame. The County Prosecutor also will not reveal the name of the person who sent Seeberg the threatening text of "Don't do anything you would regret. Messing with notre dame football is a bad idea." Obviously Seeberg's family is not happy about this, nor am I. Before you Notre Dame defenders start saying "See I told you so, Notre Dame does NOTHING wrong!", you should understand that the only reason the Prosecutor will not pursue this is because Seeberg's death makes her statements inadmissible. That is not even close to what would be considered "innocent". Mark my words though, this won't be the last of this, and Notre Dame is FAR from being out of the woods.
• There's been some loud baseball activity on both sides of Chicago the past couple weeks. For the White Sox it was the retention of Paul Konerko and the recently signed Jesse Crain to supplement a weakened bullpen. For the Cubs, it was acquiring the statistically enigmatic Carlos Pena from the Tampa Bay Rays, and welcoming with open arms the return of Kerry Wood to their bullpen. Regarding the Cubs moves, I actually think both are good decisions. For as up and down as Pena has been over his career, he's worth the risk for one year. Getting more fastballs thrown at him in the NL should help him. As for Wood, there's really not much to dislike about it as Kerry gave the Cubs a HUGE hometown discount, while simultaneously giving them a proven bullpen arm and opens the door to Andrew Cashner joining their rotation. If Jim Hendry can pull of the impossible and make this Zambrano to the Yankees rumor happen, that would REALLY be amazing. I'll believe that when it happens though. With the White Sox transactions, I think it was brilliant how they made Konerko cave to the pressure from Dunn and AJ back loading their deals to make room for him. Paulie has been the face and captain of this team for the better part of 10 years and keeping him along for one more "go for it" season was the right thing to do, even though it involved some public peer pressure. Crain could be good, but he could be Linebrink too (please god I hope he's better than that).
• Brett Favre...Eff your record. Yeah it's impressive, yeah you played through a lot of pain to get it, but your still a douche, and you really should thank Goodell for waiting until your streak was over before making a decision on whether or not to suspend you. Bye-Bye Ass-Face...
• And now to the Bears. I'd personally like to thank the Vikings for having a hole ripped through their dome to shift the focus on where this upcoming Monday night's game will be played, rather than how awful the Bears were last Sunday. As for how this situation is being handled, The Beard thinks this is the biggest fustercluck he can remember seeing in the NFL since the New Orleans Saints had to play games in Baton Rouge and San Antonio in the wake of Hurricane Katrina 5 years ago. I can't remember whether or not Beer was sold for those games in Baton Rouge, but I DEFINITELY know they won't be served at TCF Bank Stadium! Not to mention there are 15,000 people that had tickets to this game that will not have seats, and even though they are working like hell to melt the 2 inches of ice and snow covering the field at this moment, the weather forecast calls for more SNOW this weekend! In summary this is really a dumb way to handle this by the league. Who gives a crap that it's the 50th anniversary night for the Vikings Franchise? That poor piece of scheduling is really worth having to go through all of this garbage at the risk of player and fan safety? In my opinion...I've got another place you can put that snow shovel...

In the meantime please click on the picture to enjoy some outtakes of Ozzie Guillen shooting a Christmas Commercial! Haaaaaaappy Holidaaaaays...Haaaaaaaaappy Holidaaaaaaaaaays...

Assholes...

Just when I was beginning to doubt my own misgivings about what an inept coach Lovie Smith is, the Bears go ahead and get completely disgraced like this. I could offer the typical breakdown of what I saw from the game as I usually do, but why bother? Why bother preparing when the Bears themselves prepared for this game about as much as Jay Marrioti prepared to not beat his girlfriend someday.

In short here's where it came down to. Julius Peppers needed to generate pressure, and he didn't. The Bears needed to stuff the run...and they didn't. The Bears had to allow short completions by the Pats and cause them to cough the ball up....but they didn't. The Bears offense needed to establish the run...and they didn't.

To sum up, there was a whole lot of would've, could've, should've and didn't from the Bears today. This is the kind of game that the coaching staff burns the game film, rather than try to learn from it. Instead of locking up the NFC North Division crown, the Bears have now pretty much guaranteed that it will come down to the final week of the season before we find out if they will be playing meaningful football in January.

Thank goodness Detroit gave Aaron Rodgers a concussion...

Long Awaited And Never Duplicated....UD Flyer Hoop Squad 2010-2011 PREVIEW

I was going to offer up a season preview for my beloved Dayton Flyers, but I somehow felt that I wouldn't be able to offer the best insight possible. As if he was reading my mind, long time Whitey Guccione contributor Rossi offered to write the preview for me, and my immediate thought was "Who Better to preview them than Rossi?", which of course the answer is none. So without further ado, here is Rossi's take on the season for UD Hoops 2010-11:

The Flyer Faithful: The UD Flyers will make the big boy tournament this season. The two main reasons why are Chris Wright and Chris Johnson. What I've seen in the first two games is UD has improved point guard play. Josh Parker and Juwan Staten play the position under control and both can shoot effectively. One thing I noticed is Josh Parker likes taking heat checks, similar to Rob Lowery. Parker will have on and off shooting nights that will both kill us, yet win some games for UD as well. I consider Parker to be a better shooter and smarter player than Staten.


Staten has however been given the keys to car at this point, and Brian Gregory is in the front seat. Staten will play really well at times, but UD will have to live with the freshman mistakes he is certain to make. One thing that does impress me about Staten is that he displays the capability of scoring on every possession, yet it seems like he loves passing to his teammates more, and making sure everyone is involved. Staten reminds me a lot of Mateen Cleaves in this offense. Even though Staten has a better shot, his quickness and ability to get to the basket is very similar to Cleaves. Without a doubt Staten will lead the Flyers in assists and I am confident that Staten will be named A10 rookie of the year.


My next prediction will be Chris Johnson will make the A10's second team. His recent play makes that prediction a little shaky at this point however. Against Akron he shot a grand total of 1 time! He had 3 points on 1 for 1 shooting. It is my contention however that Johnson will turn around his season and be the second leading scorer on the team this year.


Thirdly, many experts predict the lost of last years’ starting center Kurt Hueslman will hurt the most. I'm calling bullshit on that right now however because Devin Searcy will have a breakout season. He will average around 8 to 9 points and about 7 to 8 rebounds per game. Well the big dog is pleasantly proving me wrong as he has posted 2 double doubles in his first two career starts!! From where I sit, I say let the big dog eat and sext all he wants. FYI the rumor around UD is Searcy loves sexting his junk to girls around campus. I inquired about the issue to London Warren. Warren said it was true and later said "Man, Searcy is weird as fuck", so it looks like UD has another member of the “Athlete Dong Shot Phenomenon” aka “Brett Favre Syndrome”.


Fourthly, Brandon Spearman will push Paul Williams for minutes. Spearman is local kid out of Chicago. He reminds me a lot of Marcus Johnson when he first arrived at Dayton. Spearman has a better handle and shot though. Keep an eye out for Spearman next season.


Finally (you knew this was coming) Chris Wright will make the NBA period. He might even be a late first round pick. His performances against Miami and Akron made it clear he has improved his jump shot and the way he handles the ball. Chris also appears to more muscular than I can remember, and that can only help his game. The additions of Parker and Staten will benefit Wright’s game the most however, as playing with a true point guard will attract defenders and leaving Wright open for easy buckets. Currently, Wright is averaging 13 and 10 boards. If Wright keeps that type of production up, watch for his NBA stock to rise.


As for the team results, UD will go 13-2 in their Non Conference schedule. They will go 3-1 against the BCS teams. The main focus is the Conference Schedule though, and you can mark it down right here and now: UD will beat Xavier in Cincy this year for the first time since 1982 and finish with an 11-5 conference record. UD has a chance to go 13-3 with a favorable home schedule playing Xavier, Temple, and Richmond at home. All are predicted ahead of UD in the standings. UD will place in 2nd. All four of those aforementioned teams will make the NCAA's.


Once UD gets selected for the NCAA Tournament, who knows what they can do? We've all seen in the past years once you’re in, you can do some damage. Just ask Butler last season. Around mid-season we will get an idea if UD will be defending its NIT crown or playing with the big boys. Either way though, it’s time to get Flyer’d UP! WE ARE UD!

9-3 I guess...

Oh boy....I was waiting for the Bears to regress from this roll they have been on since the Bye week, and it happened today during the much ballyhooed "trap game" that was their contest against the Detroit Lions.


This one was ugly...not Bears v Bengals '09 ugly, or Bears v Ravens '09 ugly, but far from Pretty nonetheless. The Bears defense didn't show up until midway through the second half while missing more tackles than a peewee defense, and making Drew Stanton look like Michael Vick minus the dog slaughtering. After getting the benefit of a goofy, and from my vantage point incorrect, roughing the quarterback call from Ed "Muscles" Hochuli, the Bears took care of business, and can now lean on the generic football cliche of "Great teams win when they don't play well, the very good teams lose when they don't play well". Whatever...here's what I watched:

Offense : It's nice to not have to start bitching about the Bears offense for a change. It's really hard to come down on this group lately, despite the offensive line still being porous to average throughout the day. Incidentally, this was the third consecutive game I saw Olin Kruetz pushed back on his ass during pass blocking. Olin should really think about hanging it up next season Be that as it may, the Bears offense looked pretty fluid. Matt Forte and Chester Taylor ran the ball well for 97 total yards and two touchdowns between them.


The new and improved Jay Cutler shined once again with a high completion percentage, nearly 250 passing yards, 1 touchdown and ZERO Picks. Cutler also continued to make plays with his legs when he had to, despite being sacked 4 times one of which resulting in a fumble. Cutler was helped immensely by the vastly improved play of Earl Bennett. Earl made some tremendous catches in big situations, contributing to the 5 of 9 third down conversions the Bears had on the day.

Defense : This was the group that deserves to be under the microscope for todays performance. After playing largely inspired football last week, as well as the last few games, this unit laid an egg in the first half - especially at the end of the first half. 2 plays, 91 yards for a touchdown with less than a minute to go is just flat out DUMB. So dumb in fact that the normally pulse-less Lovie Smith actually got "angry" at halftime at his lackadaisical defensive effort.


After Lovie's alleged meltdown, and some blitz calls later, the defense picked it up particularly early in the third quarter when Cutler fumbled near the Bears 10 yard line, and forced a 3 and out limiting Detroit to a Field Goal. Brian Urlacher was an animal once again. Julius Peppers (once again still not taking plays off) came through with a sack.


Bottom line, the defense got the job done when the chips were down.

Special Teams : Definitely a highlight of todays effort. Maynard dropped two punts inside the 10 yard line. Robbie Gould kicked a career high 54 yard field goal in the second half, while Devin Hester was one Craig Steltz block of the punter away from running back another touchdown. Why teams continue to kick to Hester is still one of the biggest examples of just how meatball NFL head coaches can be.

Where We Go From Here : It's easy to say the Bears overlooked the Lions because of what's happening next week. To some degree that's true, but I don't believe that the Bears were mailing it in effort wise. I think Detroit actually had a game plan for them, and executed it pretty well in the first half. The Bears not tackling made Detroit's approach that much better, but eventually both the Bears and the Lions remembered who each other were, and the Bears ended up with the victory.

That's now two of the predicted 3 wins the Bears would get courtesy of The Beard. I personally believe New England will be too much for them next week, but I've been wrong before.

Either way, most of the country will be watching. It should also be mentioned that regardless of how we've fels as fans, it goes without question that the 2010 Bears team is WAY more enjoyable than the one a year ago aren't they?!

All In

Color Me Impressed as well as Confused...

 In case you missed it, the White Sox - after lying in the weeds this off-season - leaped out of the brush to make bold and swift moves today, principle among said moves is the surprising signing of free agent Adam Dunn to a 4 year $56 million dollar contract.


Before signing Dunn however, the Sox decided to pick up Alexei Ramirez's club option of $2.75 million for 2011, and virtually gave a "don't let it hit you in the ass" gesture to 2005 World Series hero Bobby Jenks by non-tendering him for 2011. Both of those moves are very logical in The Beard's mind.


Then seemingly out of nowhere, not only does Kenny Williams sign Adam Dunn after word quickly got out that Dunn and the Oakland A's were not going to be able to make a deal, but Williams decided to shock everyone who has followed this team by saying:

"I've made no secrets that we have strong interest in bringing him back,'' Williams said of Konerko. "Not only is there room for it, but it would be the ideal fit from our perspective. The one thing Paul and I talked about at the end of the season is being mindful of each other's process. It's a fine line I have to walk right now where I am respectful of his process, but where we are also putting the best baseball team on the field.''



But wait, Kenny didn't stop there, with reports emerging late that the White Sox have resigned A.J. Pierzynski to a 2 year $8million dollar contract. This is significant because Kenny has said that talks with A.J. were put "on hold" because there needed to be progress made with Konerko first before A.J. situation could be addressed. Sounds like whatever sort of progress with Konerko Williams was talking about, has been made to me...

As for my take on all of this, as I mentioned earlier I am equal parts impressed and confused. Confused, because all season long as well as this offseason, the underlying understanding from the White Sox front office has been "We don't have the money to resign Konerko".

Now it seems that they looked under ALL the couch cushions and have found whatever money they needed plus some extra cash to land a big free agent like Adam Dunn, and by all accounts seem ready to spend more! Going into today the Sox had $83 million committed to the 2011 Payroll. They've cut loose $7.5 million by saying bye to Jenks, but are seemingly headed right back to the $103 million they spent on last years payroll. So why did they say they didn't have the money?

While that question may or may not be answered with the upcoming press-conference that's scheduled for Friday afternoon, one thing is for certain. The White Sox have made it clear that they are "going for it" in 2011, and I admire the fashion in which they are doing so. 

They went out and signed most likely the best available Lefty slugger they could get, while retaining fan favorites Paul Konerko and A.J. Pierzynski. This will be the final time they will be able to go for it with this group of veterans since Ozzie Guillen has one more season left on his contract, as does Mark Buehrle.

Will Adam Dunn provide the left handed firepower the White Sox have been looking for? I'm not really sure. Obviously Dunn can hit and get on base. Since 2004 the only player who has hit more home runs than Dunn is Albert Pujols. Sabermatricians love Dunn's numbers, but I've never looked at building a championship team being as simple as solving an Algebra Equation like the Dateless Wonders Living In Their Parents Basements that call themselves Sabermatricians.

I guess we'll find out eventually, but all we know right now is that if these moves work, the Sox will win the division. If these off-season moves don't work, and the White Sox aren't in contention by the trading deadline, you will most likely see Dunn, Konerko, and Buehrle traded, with the youth movement taking over at that point.

In terms of risk-reward, it's as solid bet as any to be made. Either way as the White Sox often say they are NEVER boring...

Tidbits And Nuggets

Just a quick shot at some things I've noticed in the past couple days:

• The best NBA Bigfoot in the business Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports gave us a scathing story about how bad the LeBron-Spoelstra conflict has gotten, and that really Spoelstra is in a no-win situation even though the only thing he's guilty of is holding LeBron accountable. It really is amazing that for 8 years of being aware of who LeBron James is, we had no idea how much of a child he has always been. There is such a disconnect with LeBron's perception of reality and lack of overall maturity that it's scary it took us this long to figure it out. Thankfully we as Bulls fans aren't finding this out with James in a Bulls uniform.
• Here's a copy of the all the Free Agents this baseball offseason with up to the minute updates on who has signed where. There hasn't been much activity yet, but of those free agents that have signed, I noticed something strange. Not counting Omar Vizquel, 31% of the Free Agents who have signed are Ex White Sox players. Juan Uribe, Javier Vazquez, Jon Garland, Jose Contreras, and Geoff Blum making up that 31%. I have no clue what that means, but I just find it interesting, especially since there are more Ex White Sox still on the market, namely Magglio Ordonez and Miguel Olivo.
• Speaking of Baseball Free Agents, I'm so SICK of the non-story that is the Derek Jeter-Yankees "will they or won't they" movie. I'm not even going to waste time writing about who's right or who's wrong and the reason is simply this. Any reasonable and rational thinking baseball fan knows, that Derek Jeter isn't even CLOSE to being the #1 most sought after free agent. Matter of fact, I wouldn't even put him in the Top Ten like Yahoo did. Forget that he's Derek Jeter for a second and pretend it was someone else who's 36 years old, just hit .270 with a .710 OPS and despite the worst Gold Glove ever issued since Rafael Palmeiro in 1999, is a butcher defensively. Would anyone who follows baseball care where that guy ended up? I didn't think so...
• Finally, I just wanted to share something I read that far better articulated my outrage at what a Scum Of The Earth program Notre Dame has become in the wake of Declan Sullivan and Lizzy Seeberg's deaths. Not only is the column well written by Editor In Chief of politicsdaily.com Melinda Henneberger, but it particularly gives me hope because Melinda is a Notre Dame grad, and it doesn't stop her from having Brains as well as a Conscience strong enough to be on the right side of this. Give it a read here.

Good Enough

"As bad as we played, we lost by five and they know we're a better team."-Eagles Left Tackle Jason Peters.

That might be true Jason. You might prove to be a better team as the season goes along, but NOT TODAY. By the way, anybody get the score of the Green Bay-Atlanta game? The Chicago Bears beat a red hot flavor-of-the-month Philadelphia Eagles squad today. An Eagle squad that was billed as having "the most explosive offense in the NFL". Since the Bears were featuring the number one overall ranked defense in the NFL, it was going to be an interesting mix. Here's my observations:

Offense: Ever since I gave up on him after the Redskins game, it seems Jay Cutler has taken it personally. Today he really gave me, and all the other Cutler doubter's, the middle finger with an outstanding performance. Cutler set a career high with 4 TD passes in a game while only throwing 21 times. He had a near perfect passer rating of 146.2, while chucking the ball around for 247 yards and ZERO interceptions. Matt Forte ran the ball well with 147 yards mainly fueled by a 61 yard scamper early in the game. The receivers played pretty well too, finding open spaces, getting good separation with crisp route running-taking advantage of an Eagle secondary missing it's top two corners. This mainly was evident by Earl Bennett in the redzone as he hauled in two of Cutler's four TD passes.

As for that 3rd down conversion stat....I guess it's not that vital for the Bears to win since they only converted 3-10 third downs on the day. Like every football team taking any field in any game, all of the Bears offensive success is predicated on the offensive line. While I'm inclined to agree with Peter King when he tweeted "That Bear offensive line will prevent a very strong team from being a great team", they got it done today despite some 2nd quarter hiccups, and 4 sacks allowed. They gave Cutler the time he needed overall, and they were successful in opening up enough holes for Forte, not for Chester Taylor though.

Defense : As funny as it sounds to brag about a unit that gave up 333 passing yards, 105 net rushing yards 2 passing touchdowns, two fourth down conversions and 26 points overall, here we are.

The Bears went old school and simplified everything with the Tampa 2 today. They really stuck to it's founding principles of only rushing four lineman most of the time, dropping both safeties WAY back in coverage to prevent big plays, shooting their gaps while keeping Vick in the pocket on their way to 4 sacks and 7 QB hits. That plan of attack lead to the Play Of The Game late in the second quarter at the Bears own four yard line, as the ghost of Tommie Harris deflected a Vick pass which found it's way in the arms of Chris Harris and resulted in the first interception Vick has thrown in four years. That pick, allowed the Bears to go up 21-13 at the half and resulted in a completely different complexion for the rest of the game.

Speaking of that front four, they continue to show they look playoff ready. FYI, I'm still waiting for that whole "Takes Plays Off" version of Julius Peppers to show up? That was the common lament of Carolina Panther fans during his time there, and I haven't seen a shred of that have you? Peppers racked up another sack today, while being one of a very few select defensive lineman capable of chasing down and tripping up Michael Vick when he's scrambling. That's not the best part though. The Best Part is that the Bears have found the right rotation of Henry Melton, Israel Idonije, Matt Toeaina, and Anthony Adams to compliment Peppers. It's lead to a lot of the success the defense had today, as well as their overall play throughout this season.

Special Teams : Once again Dave Toub's unit showed why they remain one of the best in the league as the kick returners gave the Bears excellent field position when called upon. Devin Hester returned one for 46 yards, while not to be outdone Danieal Manning had a 44 yard kick return. Brad Maynard managed to drop one within the Eagle ten yard line, and Robbie Gould continued his solid kicking.

Where Do We Go From Here : 8-3 is 8-3. I keep trying to remember how the Bears went 13-3 using smoke and mirrors in 2001, and promplty got exposed in the playoffs, but it's getting tougher to do that these days since this Bears team is WAY more talented. That being said the Bears keep winning games they need to win, and manage to do so in somewhat impressive fashion. The most important thing I've observed is that ever since the Bye Week, the Bears seem to be getting better as the season wears on. It also needs to be repeated that they've stayed INCREDIBLY healthy this season.

Up next lies the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. One of two more winnable games I see on the remaining schedule. If the Bears stay healthy, that offensive line holds together, and they continue to execute solidly designed game plans by the long suffering coaching staff on both sides of the ball, it should mean the Bears go to the playoffs-dare I say win the division.

Now that the Bears own a 1 game advantage over the Packers, the Impossible is becoming all the more Probable.

Happy Anniversary!!!

I'd be remiss if I didn't take a time out this Thanksgiving to commemorate one of the my favorite days in sports history. November 27, 2009.

In case you've been living in a cave on Mars with your eyes shut and your fingers in your ears, here's a complete timeline of everything that's happened since. From my perspective, a wonderful thing occurred in the early hours of that day, and that was the edifice of Tiger Woods seemingly impenetrable marketing appeal was decimated the moment Woods got into that Escalade wearing nothing but his shorts and socks.

From that moment forward, we the people of the reasonable, rational, skeptical, and cynical sports world were shown the real Tiger Woods. The duplicitous, fraudulent, petulant, blame everyone except himself Tiger Woods finally emerging for us all to digest.

If there's a downside to all of this for me, it's simply this: I don't believe Woods has been nearly as criticized as he should be. There are still plenty of people in the media i.e. Rick Reilly, that make no attempt to disguise the fact that they are rooting for him. Nevermind that showing prevailing Woods Homerism is patently against the principles of being an objective journalist, but then again that's why Reilly works for ESPN right?

People really need Woods to be the dominant golfer he was before November 27, 2009, and it's downright PATHETIC! I can find no other word to describe this childlike need for a golf hero. People still refuse to accept that Eldrick is not only a jerk and a phony of a human being, but more importantly they won't accept any thoughts or ideas that the reason he no longer dominates golf tournaments anymore has nothing to do with the amount of Road Pussy obtained versus Monitored Steroid Use by Doctor Anthony Galea.

In the end though, none of it matters. All of this talk of how Woods can repair his image is just empty conversation. The only way Woods image gets repaired is if he starts reeling off tournament wins again.

Since we all know the way he won tournaments before isn't going to be possible until he gets another PED Hookup, we won't be seeing any image repair anytime soon, and the world is a better place for it.

The Blade Is Being Sharpened...

Hey University of Notre Dame and your silly ass fans...do you realize that you've gotten so obviously out of control with your football program that even David Haugh says you've screwed up?

Assuming you haven't realized it by now, let me shed some light. I've already covered how you killed Declan Sullivan earlier this season, even though your Athletic Director tried to say that you didn't. Now comes word that before you killed Declan, you may have been told that one of your players sexually assaulted a girl and you didn't exactly react with any common sense, let alone do a whole lot about it.

The woman in question, former St. Mary's student Elizabeth Seeberg, killed herself 9 days after informing you that you may have a sexual assailant on your team. That happened in September. Did you comment on it? No. Did you turn over any information from your private investigation to the St. Joseph County Prosecutors office? Yes but certainly not very promptly to say the least. Matter of fact, you just did that Friday. That doesn't look bad AT ALLLL...

There's a reason they took their sweet ass time turning in their results of course, and that reason is they were hoping this situation would go away, so Notre Dame wouldn't HAVE to submit their results. Now THAT'S what I call INTEGRITY. It's also pretty damn obvious that Notre Dame tried to stonewall the Seeberg Family, since the Seeberg's hired former Federal Prosecutor Zachary Fardon to look into the matter further and thus putting pressure on Notre Dame.

Considering those factors the question then becomes, What's Notre Dame Hiding? Why wouldn't they follow the chain of command for investigations as serious as sexual assault? Why wouldn't they at the very least provide answers to the Seeberg Family that would dissuade them from having to hire a Federal Prosecutor? Why would they continue to use terms like "University Matter" when it comes to yet another dead student?

Before I put Swarbrick, Kelly, and the Entire ND Administration and Board of Trustees on the Chopping Block, I must take a step back for a moment. Reason being, it's still very possible that Elizabeth Seeberg might have been, for lack of a better term, "bat-shit crazy" compounded with a vivid imagination while on anti-depressants. It's conceivable that she could have hallucinated the whole thing, and/or made it up for some ill-attempt at attention. I'm obviously unable to speak for her and her state of mind at the time.

Either way, it still looks bad for Notre Dame, and god-awful for Brian Kelly. Remember when Notre Dame fans were only concerned with Kelly's stance on Abortion? It looks like they had way more to worry about than that. This is now two dead students that are connected loosely in Seeberg's case, or directly in Sullivan's case, to his Football Program....and Kelly's cracking jokes about the impending bankruptcy of the Chicago Tribune and Manti Te'o's broken nose! That's not even counting a recruit of his that died on Spring Break by the way...

Again, where we go from here will depend on the St. Joseph County Prosecutor's Office. They have Notre Dame's investigation results now, and they will be combing through it brick by brick to see if it holds.

So as the title of this post suggests, while the rest of the ND Clowns are not on the chopping block yet, Kelly was already on it the moment Declan Sullivan went up in the Scissor Lift that fateful day. Whether or not Kelly's head or limbs will roll first depends on the results of the investigation.

Either way, the Blade is being sharpened by our hooded friend at the top....

Getting Closer...

I'm not at Full Fledged Defcon 1 Bears Meatball "Super Bears Super Bowl" level yet, but I'm talking myself into it. The Bears winning for the third time in 12 days, and posting the second shutout at home in Dolphins History, is helping me get there however. While this team isn't playing anywhere close to what could be considered "inspired" football, they seem to be building towards something. Here's what I saw:

Offense : The Bears certainly weren't going to break the scoreboard with their offensive performance today, but for a short week I'll give them some latitude. The Bears needed to run the ball well, and they did. Forte had a workman like effort with 97 yards on 25 carries. Cutler wasn't at his best, but he was good enough while mixing in some questionable decisions that have pretty much become accepted with him week after week. The O-Line pass protected OK, allowing only 3 sacks vs a Dolphin defense that was much more prone to blitz than the Vikings were 4 days ago. 

The bottom line is this though. After having it brought to my attention from my astute cousin Joseph, it bears repeating once again. The main difference with the Bears offense has been one stat, and one stat only : Third Down Conversions. Tonight the Bears were 10 of 18 in that department, and it's not a coincidence that based on those third down conversions, the time of possession was laughably in the Bears favor 37:51 to 22:09. A quick review shows that ever since the off week, the third down conversions have been greatly improved with 7-12 at Buffalo, and 11-19 against the Vikings. That is a vast improvement versus the first seven games of the season.

The more the Bears convert third downs, the more they move into scoring range, and keep the defense off the field. Not bad huh? Some would call that winning football.

Defense : For as much as I've complained about the reliance on an antiquated scheme, I must admit that this unit continues to get better and better each week. Sure I just mentioned they're on the field less than they were earlier in the season, which I believe helps ANY defense, but it's more than that. They also get OFF the field in a hurry too, limiting the Dolphins to 1-11 in 3rd down conversions. Wow!

It's been brought up on a few occasions (myself included) that the Bears don't run a complicated scheme. While their Tampa 2 is by definition predictable, it still works when you have elite players running it. Julius Peppers finally got to pad his stats with 3 sacks against a Dolphins Offensive Line that Swiss Cheese actually feels sorry for. Peppers also is finally getting some help on the other end of the line with Israel Idonije (along with Henry Melton) finally doing what Mark Anderson, Alex Brown, Adewale Ogunleye and The Late Gaines Adams failed to do - be a dependable single blocking pass rusher. Matt Toeaina has been terrific at the 3 technique and in case you didn't notice the ghost of Tommie Harris has been seen a time or two in the backfield. Don't jinx him by talking about it though...

The Linebackers - despite Pisa Tinoisamoa being out - continued to flourish in this game as they have all season. Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs continue to make strong cases for trips to Hawaii this February. The secondary played well too, taking advantage of a puss-armed and ill-prepared Tyler Thigpen with key interceptions and a fabulous display of separating a receiver from the ball by safety Danieal Manning late in the 4th quarter.

If this unit continues to improve at the rate they are currently displaying, they might be ready to be even more dominant than they were in 2006 as Brian Urlacher suggested after the game.

Special Teams : Not much to really report here as Devin Hester was held in check. Robbie Gold kicked the hell out of the ball in both field goals and kickoffs. Gould seems to have a little more lead in his foot this year for whatever reason. It's been nice to watch.

Where Do We Go From Here : As I eluded to earlier, I'm not 100% convinced this team is for real, yet I cannot discount these wins. 7-3 is nothing to sneeze at, especially in this version of the NFL, where the dominant teams in the league change from week to week. They won a game they should have won, and have now put the pressure on Green Bay to beat Minnesota this weekend to keep pace.

More importantly, along with their health, the Bears seem to have figured out what will work and what won't offensively. Defensively and Special Teams wise, it appears they are ready to compete at a playoff level. The way I figure it, they'll need 3 more wins to get into the playoffs. The three wins I believe they can get are against the Eagles, Lions, and Vikings. The Patriots, Jets, and Packers will more than likely be too much for them to handle.

Then again this is the 2010 NFL where the one thing that is certain....is the uncertainty. Bear Down!

Is The Ring The Thing?

I have been thinking about this for a while, and tonight's castration of the Washington Redskins by the Philadelphia Eagles helped confirmed my feelings.

For as long as I can remember, there is always one aspect of watching football that has never changed over the years. That aspect being that no matter how successful or accomplished a team is, someone will always want the coach fired in favor of someone else. This is the age old folly in sports that many have fallen prey to over time. I've been guilty of it*, many other NFL, College and High School Football fans I know are guilty of it, and print/electronic media syndicate is certainly guilty of it. Someone always wants the coach fired no matter what, for various reasons.

What usually follows this "Fire His Ass" sentiment, is the prevailing opinion that whomever they end up hiring MUST have won a Super Bowl as a head coach previously. That's the reason why guys like Vince Lombardi, Hank Stram, Mike Ditka, Bill Parcells, Jimmy Johnson, George Seifert, Tom Flores, Mike Holmgren, Dick Vermeil, and Mike Shanahan have been hired by other franchises. It's also the same reason that guys like Bill Cowher, Jon Gruden, and Brian Billick are high on every teams list.

Here is my question though. Out of all the guys I just listed...who among them won another Super Bowl as a Head Coach for another team? The answer is NONE. I originally thought Don Shula was the only one, but upon researching this I came to find out that he was NOT the Head Coach of the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl V. That would be coaching legend (kidding) Don McCafferty.

Sure, some of them have Super Bowl rings as assistants, but that's not why those guys are sought after as Head Coaches. All of them were hired by other teams largely on the basis that they won Super Bowls as Head Coaches, and ALL of them were unsuccessful at winning another Super Bowl as a Head Coach. As a matter of fact, out of all of those names, Mike Holmgren is the only one to even get BACK to the Super Bowl as a Head Coach of another team.

Am I saying that every available coach who has won a Super Bowl should be avoided when filling a Head Coach Vacancy? Absolutely not. All I'm saying is just because a guy won one before, that does not mean it is guaranteed he will do the same thing again for another team.

As a matter of fact, the next guy that does it, will be the First to do it.


*I'm not writing this to defend Lovie Smith. Quite the contrary. My position on Lovie Smith has not wavered despite the Bears 6-3 record. I still remain doubtful that he is the right head coach for this franchise, and when his contract runs out in 2012, I would not shed a tear if he wasn't retained. However, I do retain the right to change my mind on bringing him back if the Bears were to win the Super Bowl. Until such time, I will not confuse activity (being competitive, multiple playoff appearances) with accomplishment (winning Super Bowls).

Really?

6-3...it just doesn't sound right but here we are...


The Bears defeated the Minnesota Favre's today, 27-13. With the win, the Bears have now taken up the top spot in the NFC North because even though they're tied with the Packers record wise, they own the tiebreaker. More importantly, the Bears added another nail to the coffin of the Viking playoff hopes, and we are one step closer to having a LOOOONG overdue Viking Funeral for the soon to be ending career of Brett "Wang Out" Favre. Here's my take:

Offense : You would think Cutler throwing a pick in the end zone would lead you to believe the Bears lost today, but obviously they didn't. Other than that typical bonehead hiccup, Cutler played pretty well. He threw the ball well on the run and when he hung in the pocket throughout the day. Cutler sensed pressure really well, and took what he was given on his way to 237 yards and 3 touchdown passes.

Running game once again left a lot to be desired as Forte had 69 yards on 21 carries. Not that thrilling. Offensive line pass protected anywhere from Adequately to Well in some spots but J'Marcus Webb, despite his basketball box out of Ray Edwards on the first Cutler TD pass, is still a big project. Omiyale was pretty effective overall on Jared Allen, and Kreutz had some stupid penalties, but the unit only gave up 1 sack on the day. That's two games in a row where they've only given up 1 sack, so I guess that's improvement.

Receivers played OK. They still dropped some passes that they shouldn't have and still run sloppy routes sometimes, but that's what happens when you have 3 kick returners for wideouts in your offense. They got it done when it mattered, particularly Devin Hester when he made a great run after the catch for Cutler second TD pass of the day.

Defense : Today's game was a typical example of why the Tampa 2 is so frustrating. It's not a smashmouth, complicated alignments, and designer blitz packages style of defense that say the New York Jets, or Pittsburgh Steelers run. It's not designed to put fear in a quarterbacks mind with high sack totals, nor is it designed to disallow any yardage. It's just a maddeningly effective scheme designed to take the ball away, when it's run correctly. Take the ball away, is exactly what the Bears did today forcing 4 turnovers by way of 3 interceptions and a forced fumble from Favre.

With that said though, the most important thing the defense did in my football world was limit Adrian Peterson to only 51 yards for a 3.0 yards per carry average (pay no attention to Toby Gerhart running for 20 yards on 4 carries please), and kept Peterson OUT of the endzone for a change. Peterson has owned the Bears throughout his young career, and is having one of his best seasons this year. None of it mattered today however, as the Bears got great penetration up front and did a good job funneling the linebackers and secondary towards the ball carrier.

Special Teams : You could give this group the game ball if you wanted to. Maynard punted well all day. Devin Hester looks comfortable again returning punts and kicks as he nearly broke a couple for scores today - particularly the 68 yard kickoff return he had. Ever since he got the monkey off his back in the Packer game, Hester is a factor again as the Bears are now receiving excellent field position thanks to him and the rest of the unit.

Where Do We Go From Here :  It's so weird because even though the Bears keep winning, the outlook manages to get murkier? This was a pivotal game for the division race, and the Bears came through. This reminds me a lot of the Packer game in that the Bears managed to win the game even though they were not dominant in any phase other than Special Teams? It's not like the Bears are a disciplined team either since they had 11 penalties today!

Still, somehow, some way, the Bears are getting it done. The only real conclusions or winning formula we can point to on how the Bears are doing it is when they give Cutler time, Cutler doesn't turn it over, the defense generates turnovers, and the Special Teams unit gets good field position, the Bears usually win.

Sounds simple enough right? Yes, but I still don't know if it's good enough to make the playoffs.

The good news is we get a quick chance to see if the Bears can keep this up against the Dolphins on Thursday. Conventional Wisdom says that the Bears have a good chance at victory now that both Chad Pennington and Chad Henne appear to be out for the year which means the Bears will need to stop Tyler Thigpen.

For those of us who have watched the Bears for a long time, we know in the back of our minds that Thigpen could throw for 385 yards and 5 touchdowns on Thursday.

Throwing It All Away...

I was meaning to get to this as soon as it came out, but I got a little sidetracked. Plus, I kind of hoped it would kind of go away but alas, it hasn't gone away, and actually it's been parodied a couple times, so I figure I might as well quickly give my two cents on the LeBron "What Should I Do?" commercial.

Many people think this was a very good or creative or ground breaking commercial. To me, it's a large window into just how disconnected LeBron James really is with reality. Point of fact, LeBron should have been asking himself this question years ago. James should have realized the totality of his decision to leave Cleveland to be a second banana on someone else's team, and he should have been surprised by zero of the backlash he's received.

Instead the opposite has happened. James is so hurt by the backlash that he actually admitted to having an "Enemies List" of people who spoke negatively about his decision. An Enemies List?! Really?! Pathetic LBJ. LeBron really didn't fully understand what he would be opening himself up to by doing what he did. Whether that's the fault of Maverick Carter or anyone else that surrounded him is immaterial. James should have been plenty self-aware to know that people's perception of him was going to be drastically changed.

This commercial is proof that he wasn't self-aware enough. This commercial is nothing more than "You People Aren't Kissing My Ass The Way I Thought You Were Going To, So I'm Going To Try To Make You Feel Bad About It". Nothing More.

What should you do LeBron? Well...you don't want to hear the answer because even if you win a championship, the answer is still the same. That answer is, what you SHOULD do, can no longer be done....

That Was Um.....Better?

Only the Chicago Bears can make winning feel really complicated and conflicted. We hear the mantra all the time from Lovie Smith, "Anytime you win in the National Football League, it's a good thing". Obviously he's got a lot of truth on his side in that statement. I suppose the most realistic way to look at it, is while winning is always the goal, it does not erase ongoing issues/problems. With that in mind, here are my observations:

Offense : You heard that they would be more balance with the play calling, and they followed through with it. The Bears ran 31 times, and passed 30 times. It should not go unnoticed that Cutler was the Bears second leading rusher with 39 yards today. As for the rest of Cutler's play, it was better. He's still double clutching some throws, throwing off his back foot, and making questionable decisions, but overall Jay did what he needed to do with 2 TD's and ZERO picks. The offensive line still didn't look like a competent unit, let alone a playoff unit. They couldn't blow the worst run defense in the league in your Buffalo Bills off the ball. 105 running yards as a team with a 3.4 yards per carry, isn't exactly impressive. They did protect Cutler enough though. Whether that continues next week remains to be seen. For the record the Bears finally figured out that Chester Taylor is a better back near the goal line as they ended both the 0 for 10 streak at the 1 yard line, and the scoreless 3rd quarter streak with a rushing TD in the third quarter.

Defense : The unit played like a mixed bag. Some good things, some bad things, some weird things, and some not bad but not good enough things. Good things included a sack from Izzy Idonije, a forced fumble by (who else) Charles Tillman and allowing only 46 rushing yards. Bad things included, not enough pressure from the front four, Ryan Fitzpatrick picking the Tampa 2 apart, and being woefully inept on third down as the Bills converted 10-16 third downs. Some weird things included a key interception from Tim Jennings late in the 4th on an under thrown pass by Ryan Fitzpatrick. That play turned the game around for the Bears so kudos to Jennings for taking advantage. As for the rest it all comes down to scheme. I tell anyone who wants to listen, that in order for the Tampa 2 to work, you need pressure from the front four. If you don't get pressure, a competent QB like Fitzpatrick knows exactly where the holes in the zone are and will pick you apart as he did.

Special Teams : Really a non-factor. Maynard was Maynard, Gould was 0 for 1 from a very makeable range, and the Hester only fielded two punts.

Where do we go from here : Hard to say really. The Bears won a game that they should win and needed to win. They didn't exactly dominate, or really play like they were in control of the game since they were down in the 4th quarter. The offense, while hardly Martz-ian despite playing in a dome on turf, looked better especially in the redzone, and got the points they needed to get when it mattered most.

Can they beat the Vikings next Sunday? I actually believe they can but I have no idea if they will? The Bears strong run defense will be put the test as Adrian Peterson with his career numbers against the Bears (5.27 yards per carry, 122.2 average yards a game and 11 career rushing touchdowns in 6 games) coming to town.

With all that said though, in this version of the NFL, anything is realistic. Whether the playoffs expectaions for the Bears are still realistic will take more than just smoke and mirrors...

Thank You San Francisco Giants

I'm a little late but I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge that the San Francisco Giants have completed a remarkable World Series Championship run this week, by beating the Texas Rangers 4 games to 1. This Giant team was hardly a favorite going into the regular season, let alone the postseason, for any multitude of reasons. "They don't have a slugger", "They don't have a leadoff hitter", "Zito and Rowand are killing the ballclub", etc.

None of it seemed to matter. As I was often quick to remind my friends who are Giants fans, you can NEVER have enough pitching in October. True to form, the Giants pitching rotation and bullpen lead the way, in conjunction with a lineup littered with castoffs, has-beens, and misshapen Pandas that got hot at the right time. As Assistant GM Tony Siegle said after winning Game 5 "So much for Moneyball".

The San Francisco Giants as a franchise have had many players since moving to San Francisco in 1958. Some of them remarkable, but most of them forgettable. This Giant team now closes the chapter on those greats that came before that made fans say "what if" and washes away the bad taste out the many ass-clowns that wore Giants uniforms at various points. Thank you 2010 Giants for allowing us to forget the following names :

Stu Miller, Matty Alou, Felipe Alou, Jesus Alou, Orlando Cepeda, Willie Mays, Gaylord Perry, Garry Maddox, Dave Kingman, Jack Clark, Kevin Mitchell, Steve Stone, Chris Speier, Bobby Murcer, Dan Gladden, Dave Lapoint, Bob Brenly, Will Clark, Robby Thompson, Willie McGee, Bill Swift, Jeff Brantly, Rod Beck, John Burkett, Royce Clayton, Dusty Baker, Jeff Kent, Barry Bonds, or any of the other infamous, colorful, never wills, bad guys, fan favorites, and notable players in Giants History.

We now say to you "FEAR THE BEARD". Congratulations.

Outrage (Update)

So it seems that I'm not the Lone Wolf in the "Notre Dame/Brian Kelly Killed Declan Sullivan" camp. Here are some other people who agree with me:

• Jason Whitlock eloquently asks where the outrage towards Kelly and ND is at foxsports.com .
• Dan Bernstein of WSCR 670 AM Asks the same question Whitlock asks here, and did half his show dedicated to how completely cold and heartless Kelly and ND have been post Declan's untimely death.
• David Jones of pennlive.com also agrees with me here as well.

Throw in the fact that Jim Tressel wouldn't even take the field a day before because of the wind conditions and former coaches like Gerry DiNardo stating that the coach is 100% responsible for everything that happens on a practice field and it becomes even MORE untenable.

With each passing day Notre Dame continues to look worse. With Kelly's flippant, "productive practice" attitude whenever this subject is brought up, makes it all the more clear that Kelly doesn't understand what it means to be a coach, and should be removed immediately.

Outrage!

Anyone who knows me knows my disdain and vitriol for the University of Notre Dame, and Notre Dame Football over the years. I've always maintained a level of contempt for that arrogant "We're Notre Dame, and we're awesome because we're Notre DAME" philosophy that exudes from nearly every alum and overall fan (see Rudy) of Notre Dame I've encountered in my lifetime, and 99 times out of 100 they always seem to justify my feelings and prove my point with their overall conceit, holier than thou attitude, and general schmuckiness even though they haven't done a damn thing since 1988.

Over the years, there have been many adjectives I've chosen to describe my personal feelings and general conflicts with Notre Dame and her defenders. "Spirited", "Contentious", "Mind-Boggling", "Angry", and "Cute", just to name a few. Overall though, it never got beyond any level of seriousness. That has now changed this week with the news of the death of 20 year old Declan Sullivan.  Now my feelings of disdain and vitriol for Notre Dame have been replaced with "DISGUST"!

Let me quickly summarize for those who haven't heard what happened. Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly likes to practice outside and hates practicing indoors. The Midwest has had very strong winds lately up to 60 MPH. Declan Sullivan was a Notre Dame student who filmed the teams practices from on top of the Scissors Lift towers, as part of his job. Those scissor lifts are not to be used in winds over 25 MPH. The winds were too strong that day (53 MPH according to many readings), and obviously Declan knew it judging by picture of his Tweets featured above which were posted about an hour before the tower fell and lead to his death.

Declan is now dead, and Notre Dame and Brian Kelly, have Declan's blood on their hands because they put him in harms way. Whether they knew how dangerous it was to put Declan on the Lift during high winds is irrelevant! Ignorance is NEVER an excuse. Kelly's and Notre Dame's negligence now has a body count behind it, PERIOD. Fortunately for us, there are many courts in this country that would call this situation "Wrongful Death" and it will be only a matter of time before Notre Dame opens up their checkbook to Declan's family.

No amount of that money will ease the pain for Declan and his family however. No amount of painted gold helmets or praying to Touchdown Jesus will wash the blood stains from your hands when they hit your Play Like A Champion sign.

In short Notre Dame, you have now crossed the line from Hateful Play-Thing, to the Embodiment of Negligence and Wrecklessness.

Let that little thought keep you warm at night you hypocritical bastards...

The Thrill Is Gone

I am out of carrots...I am out of sticks...I'm out of excuses...but most importantly, I am out of faith in Jay Cutler, and it's very painful and disappointing.
In light of Sunday's debacle of a game against the Redskins, my foundation of Cutler belief has been shaken to the point of instability. In a game that NEITHER team was good enough, let alone deserved, to win the Redskins ended up with the victory all thanks to Cutler and his 4 inexcusable picks thrown to DeAngelo Hall who in case you were wondering - has been beaten by more receivers than any other cornerback in the league this year.

Yeah I know Ryan Torain had 125 yards, yeah I know Jay has a Swiss Cheese Offensive Line that I wouldn't trust against a bunch of 8th graders, and yeah I know Jay doesn't have legit receivers but rather kick returners disguised as receivers...but that's just the same old song that I've been signing for two years that's prevented me from realizing the truth, and that truth is Jay is not a franchise QB like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady or hell you could argue Aaron Rodgers if you wanted to.
At this point in his career Cutler has shown some flashes of brilliance. Officially he has 11 fourth quarter comebacks and Game Winning Drives under his belt. Cutler also made the Pro Bowl in 2008. Cutler has one of the strongest arms of any QB in the NFL. Despite all of those accomplishments however, the fact of the matter is Cutler simply hasn't gotten any better or improved. If anything, he's gotten worse. His mechanics continue to betray him at key moments, as evidence by at least one of Hall's four picks on the day - which in case you were wondering, Jay still has the swagger enough to say he'd continue to throw at Hall no matter what. Ballsy? Yes. Foolish? Probably.

Is there any hope for Cutler? Well I can't say I've become a full fledged Cutler Atheist...I'm more of Cutler Agnostic. With that in mind, I do reserve the right to hope against hope that he improves. I will allow the possibility that he works on his mechanics - particularly in the red zone - to the point where he becomes way more efficient at it.

Plus if we really want to reach...it's important to remember that may of the same things we're saying about Cutler were said about John Elway at various points in his career. For many years Elway was considered a loser, or a choke artist even though he put together "The Drive" by his fourth season. Those perceptions changed dramatically when he got the right coach, with the right system, with the right running back, for Elway and the Broncos to put it all together for back to back Super Bowl wins. So I guess it technically can happen.

Bottom line though, I'm tired of waiting for good things to happen TO Jay. It's time for Jay to start MAKING good things happen all by himself.

Ready Or Not

When I first saw the picture above, my first reaction was "I'm glad Mr. Strickland (the principal from Back To The Future) found some steady work". After quickly realizing that wasn't him, I realized something else, and that is The Mike Quade Era is upon us...even though it kind of already has been since August 23...but whatever. The Beard says, it's the right move for the Cubs, and I'll give you my reasons.

You're going to read a variety of takes from other opinion-makers ranging from "Why wouldn't they wait for Joe Girardi to become available" to "How could they turn their back on Sandberg", and any and all thoughts and emotions in between. That's fine if they want to go that direction.

To the first question, my response would be to point out that Girardi was already interested in being the Cubs manager before the 2007 season, and they turned him down. He wasn't about to put his neck out there again at this time, especially when the current state of the Cubs is not the most optimum to say the least. The Yankees on the other hand, are in a much better position to contend in 2011.

With regard to the second question...well that answer isn't as cut and dried. Did Ryno do everything that the Cubs asked him to do? Yes. Did Sandberg appear to take his job seriously? He was named Pacific Coast League Manager Of The Year this past summer, so yes. Do the Cubs really have anything to lose by hiring him? Not really. The only one with anything to lose is Sandberg, and that would be his reputation. Still, it didn't seem like Sandberg cared too much about that possibility. So why isn't Sandberg being named Cubs Manager today? For the same reason Quade is being named manager, and the same reason the Cubs are in this pickle they're in: Jim Hendry.

Jim Hendry has become the Matt Millen of Baseball General Managers. This is now Jim Hendry's third managerial hire during his tenure. He has spent an obscene amount of money that has resulted in absolutely nothing (Even though some readers are still waiting for the parades to start for the 2007-2008 Division Championships) in terms of satisfying the only expectation that matters in the minds of serious Cub fans which is winning the World Series. The money spent by Hendry has completely mortgaged the future of Cubs contention until 2014. Despite all of it, Hendry managed to snowball the Ricketts into keeping his job, and since he never wanted Sandberg to be Cubs manager in the first place...well it's pretty academic as to why Quade is manager, and Ryno is not.

As for Quade, it's a real low risk hire for the Cubs, and a nothing to lose move for Quade. A two year deal is nothing. If you think about it long enough, it's almost laughable. I mean can you imagine the Yankees or Red Sox giving a manager a two year contract? I don't. Quade, for his part, certainly doesn't seem to care as he's been nothing but affable and direct about his enthusiasm for the job.

Whether he can continue the good baseball the Cubs seem to play under his tenure this past season (24-13 record in case you were wondering) remains to be seen. One thing's is for sure...he'll need to start off hot next season to avoid chants of "We Want Ryno" in April.