Meh...

Tonight's 35-21 Chicago Bears loss against the Green Bay Packers wasn't too much of a surprise. Certain things that happened during the game however, were a surprise. Chief among the surprises were Josh McCown, Kahlil Bell, and Roy Williams.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to get excited about said surprises, but it still leaves this meatball Bears fan asking himself a couple of questions. McCown especially is drawing my self inflicted interrogative sentences : "Could the Bears have signed him last year instead of Todd Collins? Could the Bears have signed him sooner this season when Cutler first became injured? How can McCown, a guy that was coaching high school this year, look so much more competent running this offense, than a backup they've had on the roster for 4 seasons?"

I'll attempt to answer those questions as I go. Nevertheless, here's what I saw as my chestnuts were roasting on an open fire:

Offense : *Disclaimer - I know the Packers defense is not really good right now, especially in their pass defense. Still, they are a top 10 defense against the run, yet that didn't stop Kahlil Damn Bell from racking up 121 rushing yards against them. While Bell deserves a good amount of credit for yards after contact and being shifty in the holes all night, his offensive line played really well too. It was very apparent that the Bears had little trouble pulling both guards Edwin Williams, Chris Spencer, and center Roberto Garza to either side of the line to initiate point of contact and down field blocks for Bell and scrap-heap addition Armando Allen. All told, the Bears ran for 199 yards against the Packers. Bell certainly upped his stock tonight, and pretty much guaranteed he'll be on the Bears roster next season. 

As for the passing game, McCown wasn't bad. Not all that good, but pretty far from bad. Compared to Caleb Hanie, Josh looked like Kurt Warner!

McCown still threw a really dumb interception to Clay Matthews in the second quarter during a likely scoring drive. McCown's second interception wasn't nearly as egregious as he took a chance attempting the "chimney drop" throw in between two Green Bay defenders to Earl Bennett, but the pass bounced off Bennett's hands into the arms of Future Hall Of Famer Charlie Peprah. McCown also threw a touchdown pass, on his way to 242 yards through the air.

I'm not saying McCown is a starter in this league, but in terms of finding a perfect backup for Cutler last season, why the hell didn't Martz consider Josh?! McCown was definitely available. Obviously Martz knew who Josh was, yet Martz still felt he needed Todd Collins last year and Collins couldn't play DEAD! The worst part is, I don't know if McCown is worth keeping for 2012 because he only seems to work if Martz is calling plays. Regardless as I said, McCown was a pleasant surprise tonight.

Defense : I've made no secret to anyone that knows me, that I think Aaron Rodgers is the best quarterback I've ever seen play football. Ever. I know his body of work is too short to make this official, but I'm not really concerned about that right now.

With that said, the effort the Bears defense gave tonight was laughable, especially in the second half. 5 Touchdown Passes allowed on the day will make it laughable. One thing that absolutely chaps my ass, is how wide-damn-open Packer receivers seem to be over the middle. I mean not a SOUL in sight of a Packer receiver. There isn't a crossing route, slant, dig, drag, or comeback route the Packers won't run over the middle on any team, yet it always seems to be open no matter who they are playing?

The Bears front four barely breathed on Rodgers all day - not that it makes much difference. The key for the Bears to stop the Packers was jamming their receivers at the line, throwing them off their routes, and generating key turnovers. The Bears drew a big zero in all three of those keys, and Matt Flynn taking garbage snaps in the 4th quarter is a direct result of the Bears defensive ineffectiveness.

Special Teams : Devin is still injured/sucks. Podlesh is Podlesh, and Gould missed a 49 yard field goal attempt early in the first quarter. Dave Toub isn't a genius this week.

Where Do We Go From Here? : Now that the Bears are officially eliminated from the playoffs this season, the only interesting thing to keep an eye on before the Bears perfunctory game against the Vikings will be to see if they fire Mike Martz this week. I doubt they will, but in the off chance they do fire him, it will serves as an indicator of what the Bears offseason will be like. If they fire him, it will show that Jerry Angelo will not be "retiring" as he never wanted Martz in the first place. If they keep him, we'll still be unsure of what happens to Angelo this offseason.

For my money, I believe Jerry will be "retiring" this offseason. The only thing that will bother me about it, is if they name his buddy Tim Ruskell as his replacement. Ruskell has shown that he makes Mark Hatley look like Ted Thompson.

Whether the Bears go with Ruskell or not, the departure of Jerry Angelo will shape the Bears as an organization for years to come...

Fun While It Lasted

First of all the Johnny Knox back injury, is one of the worst injuries I've ever seen take place on a football field. That was just awful. Even though I don't think much of him as a player, I'm still wishing good health and a speedy recovery to him.

With that piece of business out of the way, let's address the most immediate issue, which is to say that the Chicago Bears 2011 season is over. No, it has nothing to do with Sam "Nino Brown" Hurd and his silly arrest. Hurd has nothing to do with why the Bears are bad now. There are plenty of other reasons as to why the Bears season is over.

I know mathematically, the Bears are still alive, but realistically it's over. Done. Finished. Hello-Goodbye. Adios. Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't want it to be over, but today's game left me with no choice but to accept it. If I was smart, I would have accepted it on November 20, when Jay Cutler broke his thumb.

Not sure if anyone else feels this way, but I always thought that quarterbacks were supposed to - I dunno - IMPROVE with more experience? If you're Caleb Hanie evidently, the complete opposite of that line of thinking appears to be true, as he has gotten violently worse each week. Here's why I'm looking forward to the Draft and Free Agency:

Offense : How's 111 passing yards from your starting QB sound? How does not one, but TWO pick-6's on top of the 111 sound? How's a 44% completion percentage and 3 picks overall sound? In my odd little football world, that QB stat line prompts me to ask "Have you ever played football before?" Unfortunately Caleb Hanie has played before. Unfortunately Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo couldn't figure out that Hanie isn't an NFL QB in time to prevent this disaster from ever taking the field.

Normally I'd be more diplomatic in assigning blame, but not today. This one is all on Hanie. Both Pick-6's were completely inexcusable and unacceptable. Hanie was as inept in the pocket as any UFL QB you can name off the top of your head. Irony not being lost on me, Hanie ended up being benched for a FORMER UFL QB in Josh McCown.

You want to say the running game wasn't there? I think it actually was there, but fine. You want to say the pass protection wasn't there? OK. To me, that's focusing attention away from where it deserves to be, and that's at Hanie.

In my odd football world, energy starts from the top and works it's way down. When Jay Cutler is under center, it doesn't matter what the situation is in the game, the 10 players in the huddle believe in him. Hanie, on the other hand, clearly shows that the other 10 are very far from belief in him. As a matter of fact, it's pretty obvious that there are nothing but 10 players showing nothing but doubt...and they should doubt.

Defense : Yawn...hey at least they played hard for the first half of football, right? Julius Peppers registered the one sack on the day, but it took place in the end zone while simultaneously causing a fumble leading to 6 Chicago points. Other than that, not much to report here.

Even though Seattle was 6/16 in third down conversions, it sure seemed like 15/16. It's not often that Tavaris Jackson looks like a competent QB in this NFL, but the Bears made him look like exactly that, as Jackson passed his way to 226 yards on 19-31 attempts and 1 TD.

The Bears had a solid enough game plan of stopping Marshawn "Beast Mode" Lynch, and putting pressure on Jackson to beat them through the air. It worked well in the first half, but the second half was a different story. Give Seattle credit for making the proper adjustments, and taking advantage of Chris Conte being injured, as they consistently attacked the middle of the field.

Special Teams : Boy, Devin Hester's ankle must be injured real badly. Quite frankly as morbidly as this sounds, it better be that bad. All day long he was in for returns, then out, then in, then out again, etc. Hester clearly hasn't been himself for quite some time, and as a result the return game has been very pedestrian as well as impotent.

Where Do We Go From Here? : As I wrote earlier, this season is over. The Bears were "in position to be in position" as Bobby Knight once said, when the Bears were featuring a 7-3 record. Once Jay Cutler went down with a broken thumb, that was it. Not only was Cutler playing outstanding football, not only was Cutler masking how bad the rest of this Bears offense was, but more importantly the Bears had a backup QB that looks like Jonathan Quinn's long lost brother.

Maybe now we know why the Bears seemed so eager to bring Kyle Orton back? Looking back now it makes sense because they had to have suspected Hanie was as bad as he is. Mike Martz certainly knew Hanie was this bad.

Speaking of Mike Martz, I'm optimistic that he'll end up being the fall guy this offseason. Part of his termination will be deserved, part of it won't. Either way, the Bears will benefit from his departure. While Martz showed some flexibility as a coordinator, he still needs to go. His system is too antiquated, let alone dangerous to the long term health of Jay Cuter. The Bears, and Cutler's spleen, will be better off with a coordinator that believes in running plays that maximize Cutler's strengths, rather than put him in harms way.

As far as the immediate is concerned, I really hope that they don't throw Cutler to the wolves next week, and have him start a meaningless game against the Packers. The game means nothing, and there's no point in starting him with some naive belief the Bears can still make the playoffs.

Then again this is the Bears...where the obvious is not always apparent. 

The Rassi's UD Hoops Preview!!!!

First of all I sincerely apologize for not posting this when I received this A MONTH AGO! I'm a bad blogger and friend. Sit back, relax and enjoy the UD Hoops Bigfoot known as The Rassi and his basketball musings!!!!

2011-12 UD Basketball Preview.

So after the recent “Sandusky Sex Scandal”, I would like to take the time to discuss a “Clean College Program”.  The Dayton Flyers started the season last Saturday with a solid 87-58 win over Western Illinois.  This begins with Archie Miller campaign off right.  Now, mark my words this guy will be the best coach we’ve seen in years and will make Dayton into a similar program as the warlords of the south, Xavier.  Archie comes in with a great background playing basketball at NC State, coaching at Arizona, Ohio State and Arizona State.  Derrick Williams, the number 1 pick in last year’s NBA Draft, credits Archie Miller with his development.  Miller is a type of the guy who will do anything to win and rumor has it he sat down with administration asking for more lee- way with academics.  He’s going to push the standards just like he did signing Jevon Thomas who recently has attended 4 high schools in the last 4 years and also has a 1.97 GPA to brag about.  Archie has backed up his recruiting by getting Vee Sanford for Georgetown to transfer along with Matt Derenbecker from LSU.  Both of these players are the best on the team already and will great additions for next year.  Along, with recruits Devon Scott (forward), Jalen Robinson (pf), and Jevon Thomas (pg) all these guys were recruited heavily by D1 schools.  Also, mark my words Archie Miller will be a better recruiter then Brian Gregory.  Every recruit he’s signed mentions how much the development of Derrick Williams has had and the reason why he is coming to UD.  

What I would like to point out to the Flyer Faithful it’s not about this year, it’s about next year.  Things you should watch for this is movement of the ball, shooting will improve, and the pace on offense will increase.  Overall, UD will be fun to watch on offense this year.  Defensively this year will be a nightmare; UD is very weak upfront with the loss of Searcy and Chris Wright.  Josh Benson, Matt Kavanaugh, and Alex Gavrilovic will lead the Flyers weak front court.  If any of these players get in foul trouble we’re fucked, but again I repeat it’s not about this year, it’s about next year.  I will be looking for improvements and changes from the old regime.   Look for improvements from Josh Benson, and Chris Johnson both will make A10 second team and will have a big year for us.  The motion offense will be a great improvement with ball movement unlike last year which was a struggle with the dribble weave.  Also, thank god there will no longer be any line change substitutions.  Now, my predictions will be a 21-9 record is very possible and a 9-7 record in conference is possible.  I think they finish anywhere from 4^th to 6^th place. 

I'm Not Even Going To Mention His Name...

I've seen a lot of football over the years. More specifically I've seen a lot of Bears Football over the years. I've seen some incredible victories. I've seen some woeful defeats. After all those victories and defeats, I can honestly say I've never seen anything like this game.

I'm literally and figuratively sick to my stomach after this Bears overtime loss 13-10 to the Jesus Freak Cult aka the Denver Broncos. So much so, I'm going to take a pass on my conventional breakdown of this game.

This was not a game we as Bear fans can learn anything from. This is nothing more than a freak occurrence. Some silly people would be arrogant to call this a "miracle", but then again the Denver QB is suffering from a Messianic God Complex.

Simply put, the Bears played outstanding for 55 minutes given their circumstances. Defensively, they were very prepared for that college offense Denver runs. They were solid in their pass rush, disciplined in their run stops, and changed up coverages very well. Offensively, they did what I asked by strongly emphasizing the run game in the absence of both Jay Cutler and Matt Forte.

The Bears did everything they could to secure the victory....for 55 minutes.

Then things got very strange. The Bears fell for the same thing every other team has fallen for. They let up. The defense played nothing but Cover 2 shell, and left plenty of openings underneath for Denver to move the ball which came back to bite the Bears in a major way.

Still, even though the Bears allowed a late touchdown, they had a chance to ice it. All Marion Barber had to do was stay in bounds, but we all know he didn't. Even in overtime, all Barber had to do was hold onto the ball, but we all know he didn't. Instead Barber chose to do his best Earnest Byner imitation and coughed up the pigskin at the most inopportune time!

Whatever. Deep down Denver fans have to know they got another gift. They have to know the Bears gave them the victory. They have to know they were outplayed by a team missing both their QB and starting Tailback. I suggest they savor this for as long as they can because luck always runs out eventually.

As for Denver's QB, he had two things going for him heading into this game. First thing was that most NFL Teams hadn't seriously practiced to defend the Zone Read. The Second thing was that teams take the pressure off him late in games.

The Bears took away one of those two things tonight. It's only a matter of time before someone else takes care of the second thing...good luck dummy.

Damn It...

A big bag of stupid? Not beaten, but definitely beaten up? A constant pursuit of dubious achievements and ineptitude? Take your pick of those descriptions for today's Chicago Bears home loss to the hapless Kansas City Chiefs by the score of 10-3. The truth is, all of them apply, and there's plenty more where that came from.

When Jay Cutler got injured, we as Bear fans had to understand and accept that if the Bears were going to win enough games to make the playoffs, those wins would have to be reached on an ugly path. Ugly is not the same as sloppy however. Ugly we can take. Unprepared? Unfocused? Undisciplined? That is unacceptable under any circumstances.

I'm not going to pile on Caleb Hanie, even though there's plenty to pile on. His inconsistency is to be expected, even though he missed a wide open touchdown pass to Earl Bennett, and made some other decisions that make you rip your hair out. This was a team effort, in terms of failure. Here's my blame list :

Offense : Some idiot blogger predicted earlier in the week said that the Bears needed to run the ball really well and not let Hanie throw more than 25 passes. The Bears ran for 93 total yards, and Hanie had 24 pass attempts. So I was a little off in my prediction....sorry.

In terms of play calling, Mike Martz was actually balanced, calling 24 runs and 24 passes on the day. Still the offensive line could do nothing against the Chiefs. Nothing. The O-line was consistently held up at the point of attack, couldn't stretch any of their zone block runs or their Power-O attempts and while Hanie deserves much of the blame on the 7 sacks allowed, it was still obvious that they couldn't pass protect to save their lives/season.

Many people will say that Matt Forte's injury had a lot to do with the lack of a running game, and to a degree I'd agree with that. Still, this is still the Kansas City Chiefs and their 22nd ranked run defense. It's plenty possible to run on them no matter who you have in the backfield.

Oh and don't think I'm going to forget about Roy Williams either! I had a bad feeling he was going to do something stupid to cost the Bears a win this season, and today was the day. His crucial drop at the goal line in the fourth quarter off a well thrown Hanie pass deflected into the arms of (not that one) Jon McGraw, costing the Bears a touchdown. Williams continues to show that at best he's a tease, and at most blunt, he's a BUM. Remember when Martz said Williams could have 80 catches this season? I'll never forget it, and neither should you.

Defense : Very disappointed in this group, and it has very little to do with the Hail Mary the Chiefs scored their lone touchdown at the end of the first half. Brian Urlacher did what he was supposed to do on that play, by knocking the ball down. It was just bad luck that Dexter McCluster was there to catch the knockdown. Those things happen in a game. Not much you can do about it.

What really vexed me was the consistent way that Tyler Palko, repeat, TYLER FREAKING PALKO was able to move the ball! Palko had that little checkdown throw to the left flat open all day, and he took advantage.

When Palko wasn't killing the Bears underneath, the Chiefs were running the ball successfully relying on draw plays. The Chiefs were 7-20 on third down conversions which added up to a 32:42 Time Of Possession advantage over the Bears.

Simply put, the Bears defense could not get off the field. While they generated some pressure in the first half, the pass rush was held in check only tallying 2 sacks on the day. There was plenty made during the broadcast about the tackling skills of safeties Craig Steltz and Chris Conte. Here's the thing about that : the Front 7 are not supposed to let those running plays reach the safeties in the first place. The linebackers were invisible. Charles Tillman and Tim Jennings on the other hand, played well.

Special Teams : Don't get to say this often, but bad. Devin Hester mishandled a lot of punts. Robbie Gould missed a 41 yard field goal, and they even drew some awful penalties as well. For a team that's in a position of having to rely on Special Teams for points, they picked a bad time to not know what they're doing.

Where Do We Go From Here ? The good news is that the Giants, Falcons, Cowboys, and the Lions lost too. The bad news is that the Bears not only failed to take advantage in the standings, but now have to withstand another key injury to a superstar in Matt Forte's Grade 2 MCL sprain. In case you were wondering, that's the exact same injury Cutler had in the NFC Championship Game. How come nobody is questioning Forte's toughness like they did Cutler?

Obvious double standards aside, the Bears actually have me worried about playing Jesus-err Tim Tebow and the red hot Denver Broncos next week. Don't get me wrong, I'm still far from a Tebow believer. Very far actually.

I'm concerned about the defense now. The Bears just made Tyler Palko look like Boomer Esiason. It would be just like this Bears team to be unable to stop The Option or the Zone Read that Denver is running because their quarterback is so awful he can't run anything else.

Then again, this Bears team is full of surprises. They've had their backs to the wall once already this season and responded. That was when they were just bad at football. This time they're both bad and unhealthy.

Once again, get well soon Jay...