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.