Memory Lane

No giant post here. With Bears training camp and preseason in full swing now, I thought it would be fun to share this. I must say, I have to give ESPN credit for knowing that Cutler was the best QB in the 2006 draft.

Maybe it's the lockout hangover talking, but I'm starting to get excited about the Bears prospects this season. I'm sure that will change though.

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.

Stuck In The Middle With You

Let's talk about Lovie Smith real quick. Is he the worst coach in the league? No. Is he one of the worst coaches in the league? Debatable. Is he becoming increasingly arrogant and daft to the point where he's putting this football team even further into the nosedive they've been on since Super Bowl XLI? Absolutely!

Let's start with the news of the day, the abrupt release of Mark Anderson, and signing of Charles "Starcaps" Grant. As most astute and observant Bear fans would agree, Anderson has been a disappointment after his rookie season where he was effectively used as a situational pass rusher. Most Bear fans knew that Anderson was not going to touch those numbers ever again, and wouldn't be effective in the Tampa 2. There was only one problem, the one guy who DID think Anderson could be effective...is the Bears Head Coach!

Here's the worst part though, Lovie has now TWICE been proven wrong about Mark Anderson! He tried this before in 2007 when he gave the starting defensive end position to him instead of Alex Brown. Anderson was invisible throughout all of 2007 and Alex Brown was the starter again by 2008. Flash forward to the 2009 offseason, and the Bears cut Alex Brown shortly after signing Julius Peppers, with the belief that Anderson would take advantage of the single blocking he would see with Peppers drawing the double teams. Anderson responded by posting ZERO sacks and 8 tackles in 4 games.

So now the Bears are left with neither Alex Brown or Anderson, and have now resorted to signing Charles Grant, who is not only the same type of player Alex Brown is, but it still looking down the barrel of a suspension for using Starcaps, not to mention he "witnessed something" that got him arrested. Great job Lovie, way to make the same mistake twice...while you're at it, why not re-sign Tank Johnson?

If that weren't bad enough, Smith decided to further show just how out of touch he is with the current climate in the NFL as it relates to his franchise QB's health. Jay Cutler now has 3 - repeat - 3 known concussions as a player. First time coming at Vanderbilt in 2003, second time in a 2006 game against the 49ers (the last game Darrent Williams played before being killed that night incidentally), and now this past Sunday against the Giants. When asked about it, the all knowing and caring Lovie Smith said :

"It seems like he's in pretty good shape right now...There are no visual signs or anything that I can tell. He seems like he's OK."

Sounds to me like Captain Daft plans on playing Cutler next week. Thankfully, it won't be up to Lovie since Cutler needs to be cleared by both the team doctor and the independent physician in order to play. Still, for it is really off-putting to see Lovie shockingly have no clue:

1. How serious concussions are
2. How sensitive the league is handling each concussion case
3. How Cutler might have damage that Lovie himself cannot see.

Add all that up, and it make being stuck in the Lovie Smith Era even more unbearable (pun).

Upcoming Redemption, or All The Kings Horses??? (Part I)

Today was the day that someone with real power spoke at Halas Hall. His name was Ted Phillips, and when he spoke, both sides of his mouth were moving. He was (fortunately or unfortunately depending on your perspective) joined by Jerry Angelo and Lovie Smith, and announced that while 2009 was his most frustrating year as Bears Team President, he believes that continuity is the quickest way to bring the Bears back to the level of Super Bowl Contender. I guess firing the Ron Turner and 5 other assistants is a part of "continuity" in Ted's world, but let's not get sidetracked with that detail at the moment.

The Bears have done either one of two things. They have either begun their self stated "bolt tightening"...whatever the hell that means, or they have decided to try shoving this massive amount of elephant excrement under the carpet to see if it goes away. Time will tell what eventually was or wasn't accomplished today. The one certain is that the Bears are now in the market for both an Offensive and Defensive Coordinator. For now in Part I, let's take a quick look at some of the names that have popped up for O.C.:

Mike Martz : Martz wasted no time expressing his interest in the Bears O-Coordinator opening. Just months after getting on the Bash Jay Cutler bandwagon, he now says he's "excited" at the possibility of working with Jay. While The Beard won't pretend to know anything about X's and O's, the job should not be given to Martz. Aside from the amount of kissing Martz would have to do if he were to get the job, there are other, much more relevant reasons to not give the job to him. Namely, the lack of field turf as a playing surface in Soldier Field, the bad history quarterbacks have of getting destroyed by the lack of protection/very deep routes receivers are asked to run, Matt Forte not being Marshall Faulk, and Martz's variation of the Air Coryell requiring a rank and file pocket passer, instead of a rollout/throw on the run, veteran QB like Cutler.

Charlie Weis : Hahahahahahahahaha!!!! Seriously, Charlie is rumored to being going to the Chiefs. Good luck having to tolerate someone who was responsible for some of the most dubious losses in Notre Dame history and still acts like he invented football.

Al Saunders : Al is the one name that is intriguing, and coincidentally he's another Air Coryell disciple. Saunders' variation of the scheme seems to be much more of a conservative approach than Martz's, with a stronger emphasis on protection and running game. As evidenced by the success he had as K.C.'s offensive coordinator with Priest Holmes. Al's scheme also doesn't seem to need dominant receivers like Martz's variation either, as it's focus isn't stretching the field deep to open up the running lanes up front.

Again who knows who they will hire? The key will be that whoever they give the job to, will have to understand not only Cutler's strengths and weaknesses, but also the 10 other guys on the field with Jay. Essentially this means being the opposite of Ron Turner which involves coming in with a system and trying to shoehorn the pieces into it.

All Hail Jay Cutler, but Lovie and his D still both suck and blow

Nothing really new to post here after today's Bears victory over the Lions that hasn't been posted before. Jay Culter once again carried this team to victory despite Ron Turner's play calling, and Lovie's inept at best, godawful at most accurate defense. Lovie's vaunted Tampa 2 made Daunte Culpepper look like a competent QB this week...repeat...DAUNTE CULPEPPER! Culpepper hasn't done anything since 2004, yet against the Bears Defense went 23/34 for 262 yards and 2 TD's.

It's going to be a very interesting week at Halas Hall. The Beard is predicting Lovie will be retained, Ron Turner will be sacrificed, and the Bears will say their defense was bad because they didn't have Urlacher this year, but it will be fine next year. Obviously there is plenty of room for disagreement regarding the defense, but again it will be an interesting and defining week at Halas Hall...

Don't Be Fooled...

Jay Cutler finally showing what he's capable of when his offensive teammates (particularly up front) around him are interested in playing football, and chucking 4 TD's, including the game winner=Awesome! Devin Aromashodu showing more than just potential, with a breakout game tonight=Fantastic! The defensive line stepping up in overtime, and Hunter Hillenmeyer punching the ball out of Adrian Peterson's grasp=Sweet! The Bears ending the Vi-queens chance at the number one seed in the NFC Playoff Picture=Fun, Fun, (schadenfreude) FUN!

As thrilling as tonight's victory over the Minnesota Favre's was, unfortunately it's a hollow victory at best, and no reason to overlook glaring problems with this team, at worst. Once again, there is plenty of evidence from this game, no matter how pleasant the outcome, to show that this is a fundamentally flawed team.

Lovie Smith's vaunted defensive play calling after a very impressive first half, didn't trust his new safeties and stuck with that beaten scheme that is the Tampa 2 (with the stupid fake blitz up the middle with a linebacker). The Tampa 2 promptly went out and allowed 30 second half points, 321 passing yards from Brett Favre, 94 yards and 2 TD's from Adrian Peterson, and 423 yards allowed overall. Once again, Lovie has nobody to blame for his porous defense but himself. His pointless loyalty to a scheme, that zero playoff teams including the Colts even run anymore, allowed Favre to work the middle of the field and deep sideline routes ad nauseam for pretty much the entire second half. And that's just the defensive side of the ball...

Offensively, the execution was much better than in recent weeks, but then again it was hard to get any worse. For as much as Olin Kreutz wants to run his mouth calling for "top to bottom" organizational changes while still playing like a swinging gate, he did nothing tonight to convince anyone that he's not overmatched in the trenches and that he can still play at an elite level in the NFL. Matt Forte looked better, but still seems to missing something that rhymes with "burst". Aromashodu again had a great game, Olsen, Clark, and Earl Bennett had good contributions. In this blogs view, all of the success largely was due to Jay Cutler's fearless play. Cutler showed that when he's given time, and his receivers execute their routes, he can make Lame Duck Ron Turner's offense look good. Imagine what he could do with a good team and a real offensive coordinator...

So for now, HUZZAH to the Bears for tonight, and refocus on making this franchise a playoff contender next year for tomorrow.

Suffering from the flu today, so I will keep real short.
1. Bears = continuing bad joke
2. Jerry Angelo & Olin Kreutz = apparently not happy, but too little too freakin late.
3. Caleb Hanie era finally started and......he was Caleb Hanie. Hopefully the calls for the white Henry Burris will stop.


4. Bears players = certainly don't play like they're trying to save Lovie Smith's (or anyone else's) job next year.
5. Ron Turner = Dead Coach Walking...
6. Jay Cutler = "I think you kinda suck but my dad says you're going to be great someday!"