2013 Chicago Bears: Week 5

Opponent: New Orleans Saints
Location: Home
Outcome: Loss
Record: 3-2 (1-1)

2-2 (1-0) Green Bay Packers
1-3 (0-2) Minnesota Vikings (Bye Week)
3-2 (2-1) Detroit Lions

I may have mentioned this before, but now that the bye weeks have started, I'm not really going to talk about the division standings. The whole "half game" thing just gets too convoluted for my taste. Besides, by week 9, we'll have a better overall idea of how teams are actually doing.

This week the Bears again lost by 8 points, but this one wasn't as painful to watch as last week. The team looked much better than they did against the Lions despite some early bumps.

Offense
This would be where the early bumps were. On the offense's first play Matt Forte dropped the ball...literally. Cutler pitched it to him and it just slipped through his fingers. Starting out 2nd and 20 on your own 10 yard line is no way to start the game. 3 and out. The next possession started with a fumble causing sack where the offense failed to adjust properly for a blitz. Cutler is included and possibly most at fault for this. Long story short, the Bears started out way too slow against a very good Saints team and were behind the rest of the game. The offense really started to click after about the first 22 minutes of play, but you can't come to play 2/3 of a game and expect to win against a good team. One particularly bright spot though, was Alshon Jeffery. He set a new Bears' receiving record with 218 yards on 10 receptions. Let other teams be warned, if you continue to double cover Brandon Marshall, we have a #2 receiver who is more than capable of stepping up.

Defense
The defense looked much better this week. Their tackling was much improved, they held the Saints to a season low 347 yards (yes, that's their low), and did not give up nearly as many big plays as they have been the last couple of games. The one big slip that I noticed was Lance Briggs falling for a hard count on 4th and 1 where the Saints probably weren't actually going for it. He's a veteran player and knows better than that. The other thing that was less than ideal is that the Bears did not generate any takeaways, but Drew Brees is one of the more accurate QBs in the league so it's not so worrisome.

Special Teams
The Saints did a good job of not letting Hester do much in the return game. He had very few opportunities and he played smart by not trying to force anything. Adam Podlesh was much better today and we never gave up field position due to special teams play.

Overall the team looked better than they did in week 4, but the offense needs to do more to get rolling sooner. Punting from your own 20 yard line to start the game just sets a bad tone and forces you to play from behind all day. One other thing I have noticed is that Cutler seems to play better when he's in a hurry. I almost wonder if trying to play a no-huddle type of offense would benefit him. Next week (tomorrow) the Giants come to town. They are 0-5 and even though they have some great players and coaches, the Bears should be able to get back on the right track and make them 0-6. BEAR DOWN!

2013 Chicago Bears: Week 4

Opponent: Detroit Lions
Location: Away
Outcome: Loss
Record: 3-1 (1-1)

1-2 (0-0) Green Bay Packers (Bye Week)
1-3 (0-2) Minnesota Vikings
3-1 (2-0) Detroit Lions

I'm not going to sugar coat it. It was an ugly game for the Bears. Detroit showed up to play in the 1st half, the Bears didn't.

Offense
The offense had 3 interceptions, 1 fumble, a couple of costly offensive penalties, 2 sacks, some bad throws, some dropped catches, and no third down conversions until the 3rd quarter. To be honest, it felt a bit like last year. Often the other team's defense didn't have to beat us, we were beating ourselves.

Defense
When the opposing running back is averaging 10 yards/carry, you're not doing well. This is something that has been worrying me for the last couple of weeks. There has been sloppy tackling and too many big plays by the opponent. The cover 2 scheme is supposed to be a bend but don't break defense and the Bears D has been breaking a lot this season. They did generate some takeaways, but the Lions scored on every possession but the first in the first half.

Special Teams
We allowed a 57 yard punt return. Our gunner got there and slowed up the returner, but the 2nd and 3rd guys on the coverage team were out of position and the left side of the field was completely open. After that we kicked out of bounds and gave the Lions great field position all day. Last I checked WE had the scary kick returner, not everyone else.

We knew there'd be bumps in the road this year. I was just hoping that a game against the Lions wasn't going to be one of them.

I do think it's kind of funny though. The media now seems to be completely ready and willing to throw in the towel on the Bears this year after one loss. I saw a Bears team have several things not go their way, but this organization has preached resiliency. It's one game and next week is a completely new one. It was also nice to see the team turn things around in the second half. The defense was getting stops, and the offense started to get back in sync. Unfortunately they had dug themselves too big a hole. The Bears were composed and Cutler didn't give the media any drama bits that they seem to be starving for. In fact, he pointed the thumb at himself for all of the turnovers. It was a disappointing game overall, but I have no reason to think that they won't move on and come back fighting next week.

BEAR DOWN!!!

Chicago Bears: Week 3

Opponent: Pittsburgh Steelers
Location: Away
Outcome: Win
Record: 3-0 (1-0)

1-2 (0-0) Green Bay Packers
0-3 (0-2) Minnesota Vikings
2-1 (1-0) Detroit Lions

The AFC North was generous to the Bears this week. The Bengals and the Browns beat the Packers and Vikings respectively. In addition, the Steelers lost to the Bears in Pittsburgh. All in all, a good weekend for the Bears

Offense
I was very impressed with how the offensive line held up in their first away game. They looked very good in the first quarter moving down the field and getting a field goal on the opening drive. Marshall was quiet this week, but Alshon Jeffery and Earl Bennett got in on some passing action. After the first half though, it seems that Mark Trestman pulled back his offense and was concentrating on ball security over scoring more points. It seems that the arrow is still pointing up and from the way the players are talking, Trestman still has a lot of plays that we haven't seen yet.

Defense
There were 5 turnovers, 2 pick sixes, and some hits behind the line of scrimmage that made me wonder if the Steelers carry a change of pants with them. The defense was able to get pressure on the quarterback, but often had to do it with blitzes. The front 4 still isn't getting consistent pressure and to make matters worse, Henry Melton is out for the season with a torn ACL. I feel especially bad for him since he was playing under the franchise tag and very possibly may be done as a Bear. With his recovery projected for sometime in the spring, his stock is not going to be very high next year when he hits free agency. Anyway, sorry for the derail. I'm still a bit worried about the Bears defense. The 5 takeaways were wonderful, but they're giving up way too many big plays every game. If they can't find a way to get good pressure with their front 4, it's going to put a lot of pressure on our secondary and our offense.

Special Teams
Our special teams group was very quiet this week. The Steelers were probably scared off a bit by Hester's performance last week so they only allowed him to return 2 kickoffs. I expect teams to forget about him again in a week or 2 so we should see some good returns in the near future. On a special teams side note. I watched a few games this weekend and I noticed a lot of kickoffs being fielded just short of the endzone. It could have been bad kicks, the weather, or avoiding particular returners, but I wonder if it might be a trend towards trying to pin a team with a kickoff. Last year with the new kickoff rule, it was easy for teams to blast the ball out the back of the end zone for a touch back, but I wonder if teams are now playing with the short distance in the same way as a directional punt. Trying not to automatically give the other team 20 yards. It'll be something to pay attention to in the coming weeks.

Play of the game
This game had so many amazing plays. To name a few: Either one of the pick 6s, Matt Forte's long run, the defense slamming through the Pittsburgh line to tackle for a loss, and Earl Bennett's amazing TD catch. My favorite one though has to be when Jay Cutler ran for 13 yards on 3rd and 10 and instead of sliding like everyone expected him to, he plowed over the Steelers' safety and knocked him on his butt. I love having a QB who's not afraid to take a hit.

Up next are the Lions in Detroit. This is going to be a tough game. The Lions were much better than their record indicated last year, and they are going to be hungry to knock the Bears out of first place in the division at home. I think this is going to be a shoot out between quarterbacks. Trestman, time to open up that playbook a bit more. BEAR DOWN!!!

Chicago Bears: Week 2

Opponent: Minnesota Vikings
Location: Home
Outcome: Win
Record: 2-0 (1-0)

1-1 (0-0) Green Bay Packers
0-2 (0-2) Minnesota Vikings
1-1 (1-0) Detroit Lions

On a sloppy Sunday afternoon in September, the Bears pulled off a second win and in doing so, claimed an early hold on sole possession of 1st place in the division. It was an ugly win so I'm not pulling out the champagne glasses just yet. But factoring in the rainy weather and the overall lack of traction on the field, I'm not all that worried either. Going with that theme, every phase seemed to have that BUT going in their favor.

Offense
The offense turned the ball over 4 times. Blame seemed to be shared by all on this one. Cutler, Forte, Marshall, the line, and even the coaches all had their hands in some of the blame for the turnovers. When you turn the ball over four times, it's hard to win games.
BUT
When they needed to, the offense drove 76 yards on 10 plays to end up with a beautiful throw to Martellus Bennet in the end zone to pull ahead by 1 point with 10 seconds left in the game. Last year's offense couldn't do that.

Defense
For the second week in a row, the pass rush was nearly nonexistent. The Bears allowed Christian Ponder too much time to run around and make throws. They were pretty terrible on 3rd downs, allowing the Vikings to control the game way too much.
BUT
They held Adrian Peterson to 100 yards, no touchdowns, and caused him to fumble once. They got a pick six that erased one of our own fumbles, and in the second half, they managed to hold the Vikings to only 9 points and kept us in the game.

Special Teams
They allowed the Vikings to return the opening kickoff for a touchdown.
BUT
They allowed Devin Hester to be Devin Hester. He set a new career record of 249 kickoff return yards starting with a 75 yard return in response to the Vikings. This set us up to tie the game at 7 in the first 3 minutes of play. It also gave us great field position all day long.

Play of the game
With 3:15 left in the game and down by 6, the Bears got the ball back at their own 34 yard line. On the first play of the drive, Cutler threw a line drive ball towards Alshon Jeffery...only for it to be deflected by the referee who couldn't get out of the way fast enough.
BUT
The offense brushed it off, continued from 2nd and 10, and marched down the field for the win.

My overall impression after two games is simply that this is a team. No one group is pulling more weight than the others. They all shared responsibility both for allowing the game to be as close as it was and for working together to pull off a win. It's an odd thing after having a dominant defense with an incompetent offense for so many years. Up next is the first away game of the year against a struggling 0-2 Steelers team. If anything this makes them more dangerous as they will be desperate for a win.

BEAR DOWN!

Chicago Bears: Week 1

Opponent: Cincinnati Bengals
Location: Home
Outcome: Win
Record: 1-0 (0-0)

0-1 (0-0) Green Bay Packers
0-1 (0-1) Minnesota Vikings
1-0 (1-0) Detroit Lions

Ah, the return of football Sundays. Glorious, glorious football Sundays. So the Bears are one of 16 teams to start the season with a win. It's a good feeling. I imagine it's an even better feeling to Marc Trestman who is one of only four Bears coaches to win their first game as a new head coach. Anyway on to the game review. 

Offense

We had four out of five starters on the offensive line playing their first game in a Bears uniform. Two of those four were playing their first NFL game ever. With those two thoughts in mind, let me hit you with three other game stats: zero sacks, zero pre-snap penalties, and zero sacks! Ok, so that was only two stats, but come on! ZERO SACKS against a very good Bengals front line. Oh yeah, and our new tight end caught a touchdown pass, Brandon Marshall was Brandon Marshall, and Matt Forte ran for a touchdown up the middle. On top of that, Cutler was able to spread the ball around to five different receivers. Marshall of course had the most, but he is our number one receiver. The only real bad play I remember was the interception, and when I saw a clip of it later, it was obvious that a defender got a hand on Cutler as he was throwing which probably threw off his aim. I'm trying to keep my optimism in check since it was only one game, but if it's a sign of things to come, we're in for a great season on offense.

Defense

Charles Tillman was sick as a dog and dehydrated on Sunday and still managed to come up with two interceptions. Unfortunately, that was the primary bright spot for the day on defense. Overall, tackles were sloppy, the defensive line had no teeth whatsoever, and the Bengals had two scoring drives of over 90 yards in the first half alone. Julius Peppers was never even a blip on the radar. But I will say this: they came through at the end when they really needed to. After the Bengals got a touchdown early in the 3rd quarter, they never scored again. Hopefully there's just a bit of rust to knock off, because I'm not sure how to respond to a Chicago Bears defense that is only ok.

Special Teams

He didn't get a return for a touchdown, but Hester had some good returns. The Bears started with great field position all day long. On top of that, Robbie Gould raised the bar on his previous franchise record for a long field goal by hitting a 58 yarder (with room to spare) to end the first half. Special teams has not lost a step under the new coach, Joe DeCamillis.

Overall it was a great team win. The offense and the defense both came through in the end when we needed them, but play of the game in my book goes to rookie right tackle, Jordan Mills. The Bears were trying to run out the clock with under 2 minutes remaining and had just come up short on 3rd down. Defensive lineman, Rey Maualuga, apparently didn't like being beaten by a rookie and ended up throwing Mills to the ground well after the whistle. I love Mills's post-game quote. 

“When he came up, I locked on,” Mills said. “I was not letting him go no matter what. Till that whistle blew, I was not letting him go. He kind of got a little frustrated, pushed me. I wanted to retaliate, but that would have been selfish on my part, so I kept my composure and we got the first down.”

That's a team player! He kept his cool. He didn't retaliate, and the resulting personal foul against Maualuga ended the game. It gave the Bears an automatic first down and they were able to take a knee to run out the clock for the win. BEAR DOWN!!!

And We're Back!

I've been meaning to write this for a while now, but at least I got it in before the regular season started. :) Photo and tickets to the game last night, courtesy of my friend Nathan.

Now that the Bears have their 3rd 4th preseason game under their belt, I feel that I can actually make some educated observations about this relatively new team this year.

Defense
The defense seems like it's picking up right where it left off last year. Yes, we've lost Brian Urlacher, but we've got enough veteran leadership with Tillman, Briggs, Peppers, and others that the team will move on. Things will get very interesting around week 2 or 3 when middle linebacker D.J. Williams is recovered from his injury. Right now Jon Bostic is doing a great job, but the Bears didn't sign Williams to a (potentially) $1.75 million contract to be a back up, at least not at the beginning of the year. It should be interesting to see how that turns out in a few weeks.
Outlook for the year: Solid

Special Teams
We lost Dave Toub to the KC Chiefs, but we also lost Devin Hester as a wide receiver. Yes, that second part is a positive. Now that Lovie Smith is gone, the Devin Hester experiment is finally and officially over. He sounds excited to bring his focus back to the return game. I'm excited to watch it! He's had slumps before, and I'm eager to see if he can come back again. I think he can. In other news, dedicated specialists Patrick Mannelly, Adam Podlesh, and Robbie Gould will continue their excellent work.
Outlook for the year: Solid

Offense
This is going to be the hardest to nail down. I'm excited to see Jay Cutler play without (legitimate) excuses to hide behind. I think he has much higher potential than he has been able to achieve for the last 4 years with the Bears, and I'm eager to see him reach that potential this year. He's had unstable coaching, play calling, targets, and protection for most of his time here. This year, those handicaps should be gone and I'm looking forward to a Bears team that can let its offense do some of the talking. We look to have a strong offensive line this year (never thought I'd say that), we have plenty of great targets for our QB to throw to, and we have an offensive coordinator who will not only get the plays to the QB well ahead of the play clock, but will probably call some creative plays while doing it. All the pieces are there, I want to see them fall into place.
Outlook for the year: Excited, but cautiously optimistic

The Bears have looked good in the preseason both as a team and as individual players. But as Brad Biggs pointed out, their pre-season opponents had a combined record of 23-41 last season so it's not like they're the cream of the crop. In addition, the 2008 Detroit Lions proved beyond all doubt that a preseason record means absolutely nothing by going 4-0 in those games and then 0-16 in the regular season. But all in all, I like what I'm seeing so far. No matter what happens, it's going to be an exciting year for the Bears.

Bear Down!!!

Jay Cutler is on the Clock

I've been very quiet lately. Work’s been busy. I've been spending time outside. I just haven’t been spending as much time sitting on the computer. Anyway, I thought I’d do another Chicago Bears post to get me started again.

If you've read my posts on the Bears before, you probably know that I’m a fan of Jay Cutler. I’m not his #1 fan or anything, but I have a lot of respect for him. I chose the picture above to illustrate a point. Jay Cutler is the best QB the Bears have seen in a long time, but there has been entirely too much of what you see above happening. Some of it is Jay’s fault for holding onto the ball too long and trying to make a play out of nothing. Most of it is the organization’s fault for having been too much in the “getting off the bus running” mindset for far too long.

The days of the QB who is simply a game manager who can simply hand the ball off to the running back are long gone (well…except maybe for Minnesota). Cutler has been in Chicago since 2009 and this is the first year that the Bears have truly decided to surround him with the supporting cast that a successful quarterback needs to have. Getting Brandon Marshall last year was a great move, but with the injuries that plagued the rest of the receivers last year. Defense against the Bears was simple. Over-cover Marshall, then squish Cutler when he had nowhere to throw the ball. Now he has the makings of a good offensive line to protect him, and a play caller who knows something about calling plays. From what I saw, Mike Tice was able to put together a reasonable o-line for what he had to work with, but a good play caller he was not. Now we’ve got a guy who is supposed to be a real whiz kid when it comes to play calling and from what I’ve seen from OTAs, the plan is to nip the sack count in the bud.

Now to get back to the title of the post and my long and meandering point. Assuming the line performs like it’s supposed to and Mark Trestman has a reasonable game plan in his head, Jay Cutler is out of excuses. As I’ve said before, I’m firmly in the camp who believes that those excuses up to this point have been legitimate. I imagine it’s hard to look like a great QB when you’re getting knocked on your ass every other play. However, if he doesn’t have a stellar year this year, Jay Cutler will have no one to point the finger at but the guy in the mirror.

That said, I think the combination of the surrounding cast and the last year of Jay’s contract will add up to one heck of an offense this year. With Alshon Jeffery coming in with a little more experience under his belt, a tight end who can actually catch a ball, and someone who understands that “run Matt Forte up the middle” doesn’t actually work, I’m excited to see what the Bears offense can do this year.

BEAR DOWN!

Brian Urlacher Redux

A couple months ago, Pat wrote a bit about the Brian Urlacher situation, how he and the Bears couldn't agree (some might argue, didn't really try to agree) on terms to bring him back. His future's been up in the air since then, but this morning he announced that he would retire.

I'm sure this isn't the way he wanted to end his career, despite ending his statement by saying that he has no regrets. I think there's a difference between having regrets and dwelling on regrets. There's nothing wrong with saying that you wished things could have happened differently.

I suppose only he knows how he truly feels, but I certainly wish it would have happened differently. Still, though, I'm (somewhat selfishly) glad he's not going to play for another team. I say "somewhat selfishly" because it feels wrong to say that I wanted his career to be over. But he's one guy I expected to see retire a Bear, and while you can argue the timeline and the semantics of that statement, at least now I can always think of him as a Bear.

(Not that I wouldn't have anyway, but it would have been a lot harder if he'd worn a different uniform for a couple years.)

There are already a ton of stories floating around with various takes on the news: recapping his stats, discussing his Hall of Fame future, comparing his career to that of other great Chicago linebackers . . . and so on and so forth. I'm not going to start collecting links or I'll never stop, but at the very least, here's a short article on ChicagoBears.com, including a highlight reel, and a collection of responses from Twitter. Twitter is, of course, where I first saw the news, and watched reactions roll in. There are a couple tweets worth pointing out on their own though. The first is a look back to thirteen years ago:

LM: Check out 2000 post-draft issue of Bear Report with Brian Urlacher on cover: "Born to be a Bear." twitpic.com/csfvjo

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) May 22, 2013

And the second, well . . . if you don't get it, don't worry about it. But if you do . . . enjoy a laugh.

You were who we thought you were.Congrats.RT @burlacher54: It was an honor to play my entire career for the @chicagobears.

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) May 22, 2013

Brian Urlacher

I’ve been going back and forth on how I feel about the situation with Urlacher in Chicago. For years Brian Urlacher has been the true face of the franchise. Coaches have come and gone. Quarterbacks have really come and gone, but good ol’ number 54 has stayed the same. The immovable object in the middle of the Bears defense. The heart and soul of the team. “Quarterback” of one of the best defenses in the NFL. Ask most any Bears fan or player and if they could, they’d keep it that way forever.

Unfortunately, the hands of time are not so kind in football. Good ol’ 54 has started to replace that apostrophe with the “d” to still be good, but also getting old. In most places, 34 is not considered old, but in the NFL, it is. Now I’m not so involved in watching defenses to see that he’s truly lost a step or two in his on the field speed. What I do see is that he’s been out for several games the last few seasons due to injuries. It’s sad to say, but he’s not the monster in the middle of the field that he once was. His instinct and intuition are as sharp as ever, but if he’s not able to stay on the field, it doesn’t do much.

I’m sorry to say that I let his comments towards the end of the season tarnish my view of him. I’m trying not to. He made a comment that the fans and the media are two of the people that he doesn’t care about. Media, I agree with him completely, but the including the fans in that statement stung. I’m trying to remind myself that this was in response to a comment that fans and the media were calling for Lovie Smith’s job. It also came right after a tough home loss and he was in a bad mood. I know I’ve said things I didn’t mean and regretted saying when I was in a bad mood. Thankfully, I don’t have the media following me around to record every little thing I say and use it against me later. So again, I’m trying to let that one go especially since everything I’ve heard about how he does interact with fans that request autographs or just want to say hi is always very positive. Off the field, he sounds like one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. He just had a bad day and was sick of hearing people insult someone he respects.

How his departure from the Bears went down was…confusing. When you hear it from Urlacher’s camp, it sounds like the Bears blindsided him. He made a high offer to start and expected to haggle back and forth a bit. The Bears made a counter offer. When he said no, the Bears announced that they were parting ways with Brian because a deal couldn’t be reached. The parts where this gets confusing are twofold.

The first is how quickly the Bears organization announced that they were parting ways with Brian. It seems like the Bears knew that he wouldn’t accept their offer and that they had no intentions of haggling. That’s the only explanation I can offer for the rapid press releases and quotes they had prepared regarding their parting ways from the long-time face of the franchise. This could be because they had already decided they didn’t want him on the team and just wanted to save face by saying that they made him an offer. It could also be that they had a good idea that he was going to want a lot more money than they thought he was worth and didn’t want to waste time haggling only to come to the same result. Instead they wanted to spend their money on getting some decent replacements before they were picked up by other teams. The only ones who know the answer to that are in the organization. All I can do is speculate.

The second confusing part about the situation is Urlacher’s reaction to their offer and their announcement. The news was flying in quickly, but I got three things out of it. The Bears had announced that Brian Urlacher was not going to be playing for them next year, the news came as a bit of a shock to Brian, and he was calling their offer an ultimatum. The last two are the parts that have me wondering how things happened. If he thought their offer was an ultimatum and they actually said, “this is it, take it or leave it”, then why would he be confused that he was no longer on the team if he said no? Or is the timing of the quotes a bit muddled because of how quickly they came in and he didn’t realize that their offer was an ultimatum until after the announcement? Again, I can’t know. I wasn’t in the room for the contract discussions.

The bottom line in all of this is simply that football is a business. I would have liked to see Brian in a Bears jersey for at least one more year and then gracefully retiring (hopefully after a Superbowl ring), but often that’s not the way things go. It is a business. The market value of a player is whatever a team is willing to pay him. So far, that $2 million deal that the Bears offered to him is the best offer he’s gotten. Now, it has only been a week since the parting, but so far it sounds like there hasn’t been much interest anywhere else. That leads me to believe that Urlacher’s agent (and therefore Urlacher) didn’t have a good understanding of what his market value truly was. That brings me back to what I said earlier about the Bears or more specifically Phil Emery knowing in advance that Brian wasn’t going to accept the deal they offered, one way or the other.

Brian Urlacher, number 54 was one of the greatest middle linebackers to ever play the game. He was fun to watch and cheer for. When he was in the game, opposing quarterbacks knew that they were in for a tough game of cat and mouse. I will be extremely happy for him WHEN he is inducted into the hall of fame. Brian Urlacher truly represented the phrase “Monsters of the Midway”. Thanks for 13 years of great memories.

Johnny Knox

I'm sure I started liking Johnny Knox mostly because he wore the number 13. Many people have a problem with that number. I do not. I continued to like him because he was one of the best receivers we had seen in quite some time. I will concede that he was not a typical number one receiver for a team and would have made a great 2 or 3 option. He was still the best we had at the time, and his yards per catch prove it. He was also a great kick returner and made the pro-bowl for the 2009 season.

I would have liked to see him as a complimentary receiver to Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery as his speed would have fit perfectly. Unfortunately in the 2011 season, he fumbled the ball and when both he and Seattle's Anthony Hargrove were diving for the it, they collided. At the time, Hargrove weighed roughly 282 lbs and Knox weighed in at 185 lbs. With the nearly 100 lb difference, Knox was the one to give. Specifically his back. The hit ended his season and most likely his career. He had spinal surgery the next day and the initial projection was that he would have at least 4-6 months of rehab in order to get back into normal functioning shape. Much longer to possibly return to football. He spent the final year of his contract on the Bears' physically unable to perform list.

Yesterday the Bears announced that they were ending their contract with Knox. Because he spent the entire final year of his contract on the PUB list, the Bears had the option to extend it. They chose not to do so seeing as he is unlikely to return to the NFL.

"Johnny will always be a Bear and he will always be welcome in our practice facility and all of our team events and at games,'' Phil Emery.

I enjoyed watching him play, and if he ever does come back, I will be extremely happy for him. Until then, I will wear my Knox jersey proudly as he was a fun football player to watch, and continues to be a very stand up guy.

The Hunt for a New Head Coach

I know a lot of people either loved or hated the decision to let Lovie Smith go as the head coach of the Chicago Bears. I have to say, I'm firmly in neither camp. I'm kind of indifferent to it. I thought he was a decent coach. I agreed with how the blame fell last year on the GM and having the stipulation that Lovie remain this year. The fact that the players loved playing for him says volumes. So, did I hate having Lovie Smith as the Bears' coach? Heck no!

That said, I understand the people who wanted him gone. I think Phil Emery made a very logical decision and did a good job of separating emotion from the choice. He simply looked at the facts. During Lovie's time here, we've had stellar defenses under several different coordinators. We went to the playoffs 3 times and the Super bowl once. While Mike Sherman and Brett Favre were in Green Bay, Lovie had something like a 7-3 record against them. However, once Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers were there, Lovie has had only 1 or 2 wins. We started the season 7-1 and ended the season 3-5. We've failed to make the playoffs 5 of the last 6 years. In a league where the rules currently favor the offense, perhaps the most telling stat is that in 9 years the highest the offense has ranked is 15/32. The second highest rank was 23/32. This was Lovie's Achilles heel. He was unable to hire an effective offensive coordinator and draft enough pieces for the offense to work with, most notably the offensive line.

Based on the 54 minute Q&A he gave, I think Phil Emery has a really good head on his shoulders and wants to do what he needs to do for the Bears to succeed. He's being extremely thorough in his search for a head coach. Depending on how shrewd he is, he may also be using the interviews to pick the brains of some of the best offensive coordinators in the league regardless of if he thinks he's going to hire them as the new head coach. Right now, I'm being optimistic in hoping that Dave Toub and Rod Marinelli are going to be retained as the respective special teams coach and defensive coordinator. If those two stay and we get a head coach who can jump start the talent that exists on our sputtering offense, I'm excited about the direction the Bears will take in the future.

Chicago Bears: Week 17

Opponent: Detroit Lions
Location: Away
Outcome: Win
Record: 10-6 (3-3)

11-5 (5-1) Green Bay Packers
10-6 (4-2) Minnesota Vikings
4-12 (0-6) Detroit Lions

Note: I actually wrote this about a week ago...I just kept forgetting to post it.

Again, Charleen and I were still out of town and with New Years, writing this post hasn't been high on my priority list. Happy New Year everyone! Anyway, the Bears needed a win against Detroit coupled with a Vikings loss to get into the playoffs. The Bears did their part, but unfortunately the Vikings did what they needed to get themselves into the playoffs. Congrats to them, they played a good game against Green Bay. Anyway, back to the Bears game.

Chicago Bears: Week 16

Opponent: Arizona Cardinals
Location: Away
Outcome: Win
Record: 9-6 (2-3)

11-4 (5-0) Green Bay Packers
9-6 (3-2) Minnesota Vikings
4-11 (0-5) Detroit Lions

Charleen and I were out of town this past weekend, and I completely forgot about writing this post after the Bears game on Sunday. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and is looking forward to having a safe and happy New Year.

Chicago Bears: Week 15

Opponent: Green Bay Packers
Location: Home
Outcome: Loss
Record: 8-6 (2-3)

10-4 (5-0) Green Bay Packers
8-6 (3-2) Minnesota Vikings
4-10 (0-5) Detroit Lions

If you remember from last week (Thursday), I mentioned that I was traveling to a friend's house to watch the game. It was a fun time. There was a good balance of Bears and Packers fans. Regardless of the outcome of the game, I knew I'd have a fun time which is why I took the 6 hour round trip to do it. I especially enjoyed the host and his mom shouting "Booyeah" back and forth at each other when their team did something well. Thanks Dan and Toni for hosting!

Chicago Bears: Week 14

Opponent: Minnesota Vikings
Location: Away
Outcome: Loss
Record: 8-5 (2-2)

9-4 (4-0) Green Bay Packers
7-6 (3-2) Minnesota Vikings
4-9 (0-5) Detroit Lions

Sorry for the delay in this post. I've been a bit under the weather this past week.

The banged up Bears lost to the also banged up Vikings this past week. The Bears have lost 4 of their last 5 games. They are no longer in control of the NFC North, and unless they win out, they're not guaranteed a spot in the playoffs. These games are getting harder and harder to watch.

Chicago Bears: Week 13

Opponent: Seattle Seahawks
Location: Home
Outcome: Loss
Record: 8-4 (2-1)

8-4 (3-0) Green Bay Packers
6-6 (2-2) Minnesota Vikings
4-8 (0-4) Detroit Lions

That was tough to watch. The Bears lost to a team who has played lousy on the road, and surprisingly it was the defense who was the bigger letdown.

Chicago Bears: Week 12

Opponent: Minnesota Vikings
Location: Home
Outcome: Win
Record: 8-3 (2-1)

7-4 (2-0) Green Bay Packers
6-5 (2-1) Minnesota Vikings
4-7 (0-4) Detroit Lions

With this week's win and Green Bay's loss to the Giants, the Bears are back on top of the NFC North standings. I've also added in the division records of each team in parentheses since the regular season records are still pretty close. It's going to be an interesting close to the season in the NFC North.

My initial reaction to this game is mostly positive. All phases of the game seemed pretty solid. The only real concern I have is that we lost 5 starting players due to injuries that did not come back to finish the game. We'll have to keep an eye out over the next week and hopefully most of those injuries aren't very serious.

Chicago Bears: Week 11

Opponent: San Francisco 49ers
Location: Away
Outcome: Loss
Record: 7-3

7-3 Green Bay Packers
6-4 Minnesota Vikings (Bye Week)
4-6 Detroit Lions

And with that, all of the NFC North teams have completed their bye weeks. Now the rankings actually mean something again, but there are so many intra-divisional games and the division is so tight that things could swing any direction in a matter of a week or two.

Now...I knew that Jay Cutler was necessary for the Bears to have any kind of offense. What I didn't know was that his presence was needed for the defense to function. I went into this game thinking along the same lines that everyone else was. Both teams' starting quarterbacks were out, both teams have great defenses, and this is probably going to be a very low scoring game. I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if this game had ended 3-0. I was expecting more like 10-13, but either result wouldn't have shocked me. Boy was I wrong.

Chicago Bears: Week 10

Opponent: Houston Texans
Location: Home
Outcome: Loss
Record: 7-2

6-3 Green Bay Packers (Bye Week)
6-4 Minnesota Vikings
4-5 Detroit Lions  :)

Quick blurb before the review of the Bears' game. The Vikings beat the Lions this weekend. That's not once, but twice that they beat them this season. It's been a while since they were sweeping anyone in this division and I'm not sorry in the least that it happened to the Lions. Moving on.

My initial reaction to this game came before it even started. Everyone needs to get the old idea of "Bears football" or "Bear football weather" out of their heads. I lost count of the number of times someone made reference to the Bears having an advantage due to the weather. It's not 1990 anymore! We have some fast receivers who like to make cuts. We have an elusive running back who is good at making people miss by changing direction. We have defensive players who like to play tight coverage using their speed. Remind me again, what part of a slippery field helps these groups? There's a reason a lot of fans (myself included) want Soldier field changed over to turf. One is because it's used for so many events and concerts that wreck the field, but the other is because it'll give our team and advantage by providing better and more consistent traction. Ok, on to the actual game.

Chicago Bears: Week 9

Opponent: Tennessee Titans
Location: Away? (see first paragraph)
Outcome: Win
Record: 7-1

6-3 Green Bay Packers
5-4 Minnesota Vikings
4-4 Detroit Lions

51-20. Do I really need to say anything else? Chicago Bears fans were drowning out the Tennessee Titans fans in Tennessee. "Let's go Bears" was heard clearly on the television. This was partly due to the score and partly due to the proximity to Vanderbilt University where several of the Bears went to college. It was a fun game to watch.