ChicagoSportsBlogs : Non Compete

It took until the final week of the season for the Bears to win 2 games in a row. That's the type of season it has been. It was an exciting victory over the Saints, who happen to be another NFC team that underachieved in 2007. We got a chance to see what it would be like if Ron Turner was smart. His play calling was daring if not awe inspiring at moments. If I knew it would take a 3rd string quarterback and a journeyman running back to bring out the offensive creativity I would have been calling for Orton and Peterson months ago. As it stands, the Bears follow up the fluke that was the 2006 SuperBowl season with an pathetic effort in 08. They finished tied for LAST PLACE with the Lions in the division with a 7 and 9 record. But let us not dwell on the bad things. Let's point out some of the great things the Bears did today:

• We sent Hester on a fly pattern, FINALLY. Orton threw a great ball and hit Hester in stride for a touchdown. He is clearly special.
• Alex Brown was all over the place. Let's hope we eat some humble pie and give this guy his job back next year. He is simply GREAT.
• Orton showed some spark and life today. He threw a bullet to Mark Bradley early in the game that took me by surprise. I stand by my earlier assessment, Orton should start next year.
• We actually played spoiler, keeping the Saints out of the playoffs. That's always a good thing. Might as well ruin it for everyone else.
• Hester returned another kick for a TD. What are teams going to do next year? You have to think they stop kicking to him for real. Sean Payton, take notes.
• Robbie Gould is butter! This kid can kick indoors, outdoors, wet or dry, it doesn't matter. If you keep it under 50 yards, he's money.
• Urlacher, Peanut, and Tommie Harris are great players. They each played a decent game today with either getting a sack, or a pick. Overall, the defense was crap again (some no name running back got over 200 all purpose yards on them)

There are a ton of bad things that I'd like to see changed about this team, but I'll leave that for another post. I should have nothing but time on my hands now that the Chicago football season is officially over. Its hard to believe that we weren't good enough to make the playoffs this year. Lovie and Jerry Angelo have a lot to discuss this off season. I hope to get the conversation started this week. Stay tuned.

Man, John Paxon is a big-time S.O.B. He just gave Chicago Bull's head coach his Xmas gift and it wasn't a pat on the back. It was a pink-slip. Also known as a swift kick in the ass. I'm a bit shocked by this. The warm and cuddly John Paxson turned into the freaking Grinch. Skiles is out on the street this Christmas and the Bulls are without a head coach.

The Bulls are terrible. This is hugely disappointing. I was about to jump back on the Bulls bandwagon but then they started the season off sort of like the White Sox started '07. It has been a bad year for us here in Chicago. First, the Sox stink up the entire 2007 season. Underachievers, no question. Then the Bears crap the bed in the '07 season after getting thumped in the SuperBowl by the Colts. The Bears are the biggest disapointment in the entire NFL. Underachievers? Absolutely. Now we've got the Bulls. This is the team that many people predicted would win the East. At least before the Celtics signed KG. Underachievers? No question.  I can appreciate the swift correction by Pax, but without a clear plan on what new direction the team is supposed to be on, I am left questioning the decision to ruin everyone's Christmas at the Berto Center.

 I'm going to attempt to post up some half time comments here on this game as I sit here enjoying a tasty dinner...

The Bears have 2 turnovers already and lead 3-0. Orton doesn't look bad. In fact, he looks pretty mobile.

Tony Kornheiser sucks. He keeps shitting on the Bears as if they were the diaper he is wearing.

The Bears get a stop on defense and the Vikings are forced to kick to Hester. They try a fake reverse and Hester gets clocked! He fumbled the ball out of bounds! It looks like it is on the 3 yard line. Great. Letsee what Turner can call to get us some yards.

Here are some notes so far, broken down by offensive possession:

First pass from Orton was a check down to Peterson
Back to Peterson on a quick out curl. Dropped for no gain.
Kornheiser sucks ass. Shits on Orton.
Winfield makes a huge tackle on the reverse.

Defense
--------
Nice run to open the Vikes offense
Tommie Harris just jumped offsides. First down. Great.
Urlacher TURNOVER. Robert Furgeson fumbled it. Nice hit by #31. VASHER! Welcome back.

Offense in red zone.
--------------------
#69 False start -  I hate this offensive line.
Orton has time. Throws for Olson. There is a flag that was immedietly picked up.
2nd and 15 - nice throw. Winfield had good coverage on Olsen. (a little bit of offensive interference)
Another false start. Left Guard. St. Claire. Mother fucker.
2nd and 20 - I bet they call a draw...Nice throw by Orton to Desmond Clarke.
3rd and 11. Check down to Peterson. Orton stepped into the pocket on the blitz. Nice.
Field Goal attempt.

Vikings Second Possesion
-------------------------
Urlacher hit Jackson hard. Still completed the pass
Peterson runs amazing - almost a first down.
Chester taylor is in now. 2nd and 9. We can't stop the rush.
Peterson  catches it and runs for like 2o yards.
18 yard floater for Jackson. The running game set up the play action. Urlacher out of position.
1st down. Bobby Wade has 36 yards already on 3 catches.
FUMBLE. BEARS GOT IT. URLACHER RECOVERS!
Christ - lets do something!

Bears
--------
Nice pass to Peterson for 5 yards
2nd down, nice run up the middle for Peterson. Almost a first day
3rd down and 1. They missed the call for holding on Clarke. They fucking are punting.

Vikings Offense
---------------
Start at their own 35. Damn it.
Peterson runs for about 5.5 yards. Some pushing and shoving.
2nd and 5 another run for 3 yards. Flag down. HOLDING! Bring it back 10 yards! Bobby Wade you fucking cheater
2nd 15 - checkdown to the fullback. Jackson is fast and seems to have a cannon. If he starts to run, we are in trouble
3rd and 6 - Chester Taylor is on this drive. Bad throw by Jackson. They seem to want a flag on Vasher.
Vikings Punt to Hester...letsee.
Faked the reverse, and Hester fumbles the ball. It freaking bounces out at the 3 yard line. We are lucky.

Bears
-----
Loss of 2. Wolfe is a midget on the carry. Jesus christ. Trying to run inside?! Jaws is right. Moron Turner
2nd and 11 - Orton throwing to someone who isn't there. 3rd down.
3rd down and 11 - They run the ball with Peterson. He gets one yard.
The ESPN guys are shitting on us heavy. Jaws keeps harping on why we are running inside.
Maynard on the punt....55 yards. Bears 12 plays 26 yards and no first downs. 10 yard penalty, move them back.

Vikings Offensive Possesion
------
Alex Brown stuffs Peterson to end the 1st quarter.
2nd and 9. AP stuffed. McGowan!
3rd and 8 Almost got Tavaris. Taylor is short. Peanut stops him short of the first down. Vikes will kick to Hester again.Kicked out of bounds at the 13 yard line.


Bears Offense
--------------
Orton thows and almost intercepted. Berrian's first attempt. It was a bullet, but not accurate.
2nd and 10: Pitch to Wolfe. Gain of 3.
Obligatory list of failed Bears quarterbacks....
3rd and 7: Throw to Hester. They called a push out - he didn't get the foot down.
Did he keep possesion? Can't review it! Take the first, first down of the night for us.
What? They just said it was a drop! Mofos. We are kicking again....to Wade.
51 yard kick. Great tackle on special teams. Letsee what the Vikes have on offense...
 

John Kruk is an idiot. He doesn't believe Roger Clemens' trainer when he says that he injected Clemens in the ass with HGH. That's what Brian McNamee claims in today's Mitchell Report. McNamee is what we call in the modern era, a snitch. Clearly McNamee didn't get the Stop Snitchin' memo. I can only imagine all the noise coming out of Boston tonight. I can hear the furor of keyboards clacking away at all the major Boston blogs. They get to bask in the Yankee's shame while brushing the dirt off their shoulders. I guess technically both Sox teams are 'clean'. Further, both our championships are un-tainted. I'm positive there was a collective sigh coming from both SoxNation and the White Sox faithful. Andrew over at southsidebaseball.com has some pretty good questions that I'd like to answer. (Link was back there) Here goes:

So what of the names that come up? Would something like the Sox’ 2005 run be lessened? What if it were just a bit player or two whose name were splayed across the headlines? Could it become situational? If Player A wasn’t a regular, or wasn’t a starter at their position, or was just call-up, or was just OK at their job, does it sting less?

Yes. Our 2005 World Series Championship would be tainted. In this town? Are you kidding? We hold that championship up at every opportunity afforded to us. The Bears suck, but at least the Sox got a championship. Yea, the Cubs signed FukyouOno but we still have a White Sox championship! We can't cure cancer, but fuck it at least I'll go to my grave with memories of an awesome parade down LaSalle Street for that White Sox championship! All praise Ozzie!

As far as if there is a difference between say, Pablo Ozuna being nabbed with steroids and Paul Konerko I guess I've got to concede this point. It would have been much, much worse if they named Crede, or JD, or even Frank Thomas. Speaking of Frank, his name appears in the Mitchell Report 3 times:

First on page 11, Mitchell name drops Thomas as being one out of 5 players that actually did do an interview. He was described as being helpful and informative. The Big Hurt? Helpful? Regardless, my biggest fear was that my favorite White Sox player of all time (yes, more so than Greg Luzinski) was going to be on this list. Thankfully, Frank is clean and I say that with a straight face. It would have been pretty sad to see Thomas included with the likes of cheaters like Sosa, Big Mac, Palmeiro, and Mo Vaughn. I'm sure the folks in Boston are happy that Big Poppy and Manny weren't on the list as well.

A lot of people are going to say that this list isn't all inclusive. Others will say that I am being naive about the fact that this report is 100% accurate. It has to be 100% accurate, right? I don't believe you can slam someone with a serious accusation like drug use without more than hearsay as evidence. Or could you? Innocent until proven guilty...or in possession.

I'm going to see if I can get a few special guest writers to cover the legal and medical sides of this story. I'm still not convinced that drugs like HGH aren't being used LEGALLY to support someone's post operation recovery. But that's why I write crappy blog reports while the doctors are out saving lives. And batting averages.

The playoffs are practically out of reach for this year's Bears team. I am not one to rely on mathematics to confirm this. Being still mathematically relevant is not a consolation prize. The season is over and this means it is time to start evaluating talent. I would start with the QB position. I think it's time to see Kyle Orton. He has everything we would be looking for at the quarterback position in next year's draft. He is 6'4 and has a good arm. He has pretty good accuracy and has been in our system for 3 years. He knows the plays just as well as either Griese or Grossman. He was a 4th round draft pick too. That's the earliest spot I would expect the Bears to draft another young quarterback. So what would we be looking for in yet another QB from the college ranks? I think we would be looking for another Kyle Orton. A guy who is taller than 5'11 and has a great arm, good vision and has played against some tough defenses. Arm strength is called into question sometimes with our quarterbacks, but lest you forget Orton had a canon when he was at Purdue and he proved he can at least follow orders by going 9-1 2 seasons ago.

I'm clearly a few days late (actually weeks) on this opinion. Even David Haugh thinks its time to see Orton again. How bad could he be? I see only upside and while I don't agree with Mr. Haugh's assessment that we should play Orton to get more film of him for a possible trade I do agree that he should get another shot.

Part of the criticism I took for yesterday's post was that I was too harsh on Grossman. Everyone is too hard on Grossman but I can admit that Rex isn't our problem this year. At least not since his return. A crappy defense and a horrible offensive line have basically tanked both Grossman's and dare I say it, Benson's chances at being successful here in Chicago. Grossman isn't going to get the type of deal from the Bears that he would on the open market. I'd offer him 1 year to stay, and only if he was able to overcome the deficiencies of the defense and carry us on his back to the playoffs. That's a big if. With that being said, what else can we do? Are there any QBs on the market that you want to see in a Bears uniform next year instead of Rex? Griese gets to stay because he is a decent backup. Orton should stay and maybe be given the chance to start because I'm not so sure we wouldn't be drafting just another version of him (with less experience) Give the Boilermaker a shot.

Is it officially over now? I think so. Hell, I thought the Bears 2007 season was officially over with the loss to the Seahawks. The Giants came to Chicago with problems of their own. They were crushed in the previous week by the Vikings. Eli Manning was starting to revert back to his old self by throwing 4 INTs against the Vikes. I can only imagine the crap people were writing about Eli after last week. Yea, that was Tavaris Jackson that outplayed Eli. In New York! If I could have gotten my act together I would have written up a nice pre-game blog entry comparing Eli to Rex Grossman. Instead, check out how close The Goose was to getting it right. There was one comment The Goose made that I totally disagree with (hindsight being 20/20, I know...I know....)

The Bears defense, while not great, is still steady and should hold their own.

Yea, I don't think so. The Bears defense just isn't the same this year. Injuries, a coaching change, and Archuleta have decimated this once proud unit. If it wasn't for Ogulneye and Tillman this would be one of the worst defenses in the league. As it stands, we are currently ranked 28th in the league for total defense. Only the Browns, Lions, Bills, and Bengals are worse. But the story of this game was the quarterbacks.

There is a lot Rex and Eli have in common. Perhaps those jokes of how Eli was adopted (he can't be brothers with that other Manning, can he?) weren't jokes after all. Rex and Eli are a lot alike. That first-drive pick Manning threw right into the hands of Brian Urlacher must have seemed familiar to Bears fans. Ah, there is the Grossman family accuracy! It was textbook Grossman. I think Aikman and Buck said it best when they mentioned the collective groan coming from New York. Bears fans are all too familiar with that groan. Whether it is a Grossman fumble, or a mishandled snap we feel the Giants pain. It is the pain of knowing you drafted a guy at the most important position of the team and the only thing you can muster up for polite "back slapping" commentary is that they are both inconsistent. I am reminded of Ron Rivera's comments on Rex Grossman early this year. Being described as a "mental midget" by our former defensive coordinator was a slap in the face to Grossman. I would modify that description to "mental twin midget".