Congrats I guess???

Barry Larkin was a fine baseball player. He accumulated numerous Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards throughout his career, and also won the National League MVP in the strike-shortened 1995 season. Larkin played his entire 19 year career for his hometown Cincinnati Reds, and in 1990 he was a key player in their World Series winning ball club, as the Reds pulled a shocking 4 game sweep of the Oakland A's.

Today, Larkin received the call he has been waiting his entire career for, as he will be the newest member elected to the Baseball Hall Of Fame this summer. Do I feel Larkin is a deserving candidate? I'll get to that in a minute. In the meantime, I just can't help but point out how completely hollow this is because there's this GIANT PED Elephant in the room, and he's taking a dump in Walter Johnson's hat.

Let's get some obvious stuff out of the way. The Baseball Hall Of Fame is the equivalent of Penn State football (albeit a less extreme example): The more you find out about Penn State Football, the more you become sickened by it, and want nothing to do with it. The same methodology holds true for the Baseball Hall Of Fame.

The Hall Of Fame's location itself is based on a LIE. The Hall claims that Abner Doubleday invented the game in a pastoral setting in Cooperstown, New York in 1839, and goes so far as to showcase the baseball Doubleday purportedly used, in an exhibit (I have seen it). The Doubleday Myth has been debunked dozens of times, yet Bud Selig and Hawk Harrelson still believe Abner invented the game.

So while the Hall's very existence is enough of a reminder that the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it, I've learned more history about the Hall of Fame itself as I've gotten older, and I've realized it's little more than a tourist attraction. Obviously, there are many who disagree with me on the significance of the Hall. They view it as Baseball Mecca, and election into it is the ultimate measure of baseball greatness. Whatever. Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

Back to the original question, do I think Larkin is worthy of election? I do, but I hesitate in thinking that because of a few different reasons. It's not so much that Alan Trammell is Larkin's complete statistical doppelganger, yet Trammell received a paltry 36% of the vote. It's not so much that Larkin never led the league in....any...statistical category...ever. As a matter of fact, my hesitation has very little do with Larkin himself. My hesitation mainly has to do with who ISN'T getting elected along with Barry.

Larkin was elected today, but a guy who has 569 career home runs was not (Rafael Palmeiro). Another former player with 583 career home runs was also not elected (Mark McGwire). Same goes with another player with a career .948 OPS and 449 home runs (Jeff Bagwell). Did I mention a lifetime .313 hitter, .965 OPS, with 383 home runs also wasn't elected either (Larry Walker)? All of these eligible players are being denied entry, yet Major League Baseball along with the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) are whistling past the graveyard when it comes to addressing why.

The irony of course, is that 365 days from now there will be even bigger and uglier graves to whistle past, in the form of Barry Bonds, Mike Piazza, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Clemens. There is no question that none of those aforementioned players will be elected on the first ballot, yet there will be no overt reason given as to why they will be denied. It will be sort of hinted at, and strongly implied, but never expressly stated by anyone on the record.

What further complicates the matter, is that the BBWAA has been given a mandate by the Hall Of Fame itself, that there MUST be at least one player elected every year. Other than Curt Schilling, and maybe Tim Raines and/or Craig Biggio, there won't be many names for the BBWAA to choose from if this pattern of election continues.

Which brings me back to my original feelings about Larkin's election. While Barry is a deserving candidate, his election is cheapened by the inaction and silence by both the BBWAA and the Hall Of Fame when it comes to decreeing/classifying PED Use, Admission, and/or Suspicion as it relates to Rule 5 - otherwise known as The Character Clause.

I am now calling on the BBWAA and the Hall Of Fame itself to remove the "Minimum 1 player election per year" mandate. I am also calling for a suspension of voting until PED use, suspicion, and/or admission is determined to violate Rule 5  and is documented on record as such. If that takes one year, ten years, or fifty years, so be it. Just as long as you take the "did he or didn't he" guess-work away from the voters.

I'm quite certain none of my wishes will happen. Still, I feel stridently this must be done before this gets worse. That is exactly why it won't be done however, because this is baseball after all.

Baseball's history is not anticipatory, but rather it is a history of being stubbornly deliberate. Whether it's been issues of racial equality, free agency, revenue sharing, or PED'S, baseball has always been dragging their feet, rather than being ahead of the curve.

The time to change that behavior is now, otherwise this will be yet another error in the handling of The Steroid Era.

You Missed A Spot Or Two George...

As I tweeted earlier, I had a feeling I shouldn't post my thoughts on the blog right away after the Bears meaningless victory over the Minnesota Vikings on New Years Day. Something told me that I should save it for later this week, in case there were any swift and bold changes taking place at Halas Hall. My instinct served me well evidently, as I awoke this morning to the news that long time Bears General Manager Jerry Angelo had been fired.

The interesting part of that news mainly involved the fact that Angelo hadn't retired, or even resigned, but was Fired with a capital "F". The Bears didn't stop with Angelo today either. After initially stating on their website that "...no other changes would be made", much maligned Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz and Quarterbacks Coach Shane Day had resigned as well.

What did all of this activity mean? Were there more names that were about to be referred to as "ex-Bears" on the coaching staff? Was Team President Ted Phillips next? How about Lovie Smith? If Jerry Angelo could be fired, couldn't the same fate await Lovie and Ted? After all, they have as much to do with the Bears making the postseason 3 times in 8 seasons, and only once since reaching the Super Bowl five seasons ago, as Angelo and Martz did. Does this activity signify that newly named Chairman George McCaskey was wiping the slate clean and starting fresh from the top down? Only an afternoon press conference could answer those questions:

Well the press conference happened, and unfortunately for us, the few answers we got aren't the right answers, and the new questions that have emerged are even worse.

There's so much subtext to all of this, it's pretty impossible for me to cover it all here, but I'll do what I can without "whistling Dixie". First things last, Jerry Angelo deserved to get fired. The totality of his too-many-misses-not-enough-hits draft classes, are more than enough grounds to justify Angelo's termination. Add the fact that Angelo's failure to recognize that Caleb Hanie couldn't play football while keeping Hanie on the roster for 4 seasons, on top of the following free agent/trade busts:

1. Adewale Ogunleye          2. Mushin Muhammad
3. Adam Archuleta              4. Frank Omiyale
5. Brandon Manumaleuna   6. Orlando Pace
7. Gaines Adams (RIP)       8. Chester Taylor

...and it's pretty clear that Jerry Angelo was in over his head, especially once he got away from Greg Gabriel and Bobby DePaul.

With regard to Mike Martz departing, I doubt many tears will be shed. Especially from the Bears most important player Jay Cutler. One sentiment I've heard is "Well you can't fire Martz because the last two game Cutler played, the offense was moving the ball pretty well." So that means it took 28 games before Martz's offense started to work?

Obviously that's not true. It's also not true that they were even running Martz's offense. What definitely IS true however is that the Bears made the simple art of relaying the play calls from the booth to the huddle the most complicated process ever, and thus burned more timeouts, and incurred more delay of game penalties, than any other team in the league.

Most fans don't seem to understand that Martz was calling all those running plays through gritted teeth. He HATED calling a 50/50 run/pass split every game. He couldn't stand calling plays for Cutler to roll out of the pocket and throw on the run. It was also Martz's idea to get rid of Cutler's favorite target Greg Olsen, since Martz's offense has absolutely no use for a pass catching Tight End. The New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, and Green Bay Packers on the other hand seem to think the Tight End can be a pretty lethal part of a passing game, but what the hell do they know about offense right Mike?

Martz wants to run his antiquated Greatest Show On Turf version of Air Coryell, and he can't accept that he doesn't have the talent on the roster to run it. More importantly, Martz doesn't understand that his offense is going to get Cutler killed, like it did with every other quarterback that ran it. Not to mention it's pretty much an open secret that Martz is known as a "Me Guy" in Halas Hall as well. Therefore it was in the Bears best interest to part ways with him, and search for an Offensive Coordinator that is ahead of the NFL curve, or at the very least understands what he can and can't run with this personnel.

As for what happens now? Well Ted Phillips and George McCaskey made it clear that Ted is running the Bears right now, and Lovie Smith will be the head coach for 2012 no matter what. This means that the incoming GM will not be allowed to replace Lovie for at least one more season. This doesn't really sit well with me, because it sure seems like there was some Quid Pro Quo between Ted and Lovie in an effort to save their jobs.

The logic being, Ted says he'll fire Angelo while asking Lovie to fire Martz, therefore the two of them will get what they want - another year of employment while placing Angelo and Martz as the scapegoats. Want proof that Lovie fired Martz? When asked about Martz's resignation, the first words out of Ted Phillips' mouth were "Well that was Lovie's call..." So yes, it's pretty obvious Lovie fired Martz and is now working on his 4th offensive coordinator in 9 seasons.

Here's my bottom line. If the Bears are serious about bringing in a new, big nuts, General Manager, and they're also serious about bringing in an offensive coordinator that's going to maximize the talents of the franchise QB....Phillips better not have only identified candidates, but he should have them all but one final interview away from accepting the job(s). I know some people might refer to this as "tampering", but a more accurate way to describe it would be "working the back channels of the NFL".

Something tells me that's not what has happened though. These moves are little more than scapegoating by two desperate men trying to save their own asses, in the form of Ted Phillips and Lovie Smith, and it looks like they are going to get away with it.

If George McCaskey would have done what many had hoped he would do, and clean house from Phillips on down, I think this would be cause for much more optimism. The Bears are a charter franchise of the NFL. They have some attractive components already on the roster, and if they were starting over with a new GM free to hire any coach he wanted, along with making any personnel moves he desired, I have to believe this job opening would be much more attractive to the likes of say a Bill Polian, Bill Parcells, Carl Peterson or to any of the new blood candidates whose names will be brandied about very soon.

Either way, today's transactions are another example of the Bears repeating the same mistake they made when they hired Jerry Angelo in the first place on that spring day in 2001. Angelo wasn't allowed to fire Dick Jauron, and as a result had to wait three seasons into the job before he could make his first - and it turns out only - head coaching hire.

As the title indicates, if George McCaskey was going to clean house, he missed two dirty spots he needed to get rid of.

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...