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.