With the disasters of the past couple games and the lethargy that accompanies a bye week it has been tough to express my despair at the situation the Bears currently find themselves in. A situation that only threatens to get worse with the rash of injuries that seem to threaten every good player we have with the exception of urlacher, brown and maynard.
The Reverend has a reputation for being cynical and negative so perhaps I am once again overreacting however I would like to post the RevDad's opinion of this Sunday's game against the Vikings to show that if I am cynical, I at least come by it honestly.
For reference this is his succinct assesment of the Bears two days prior to the season opener: "both offense and defense seriously improved, schedule nicely frontloaded, and every qb on the staff this year is better than every qb on the staff last year. no way they go 5-11 this year. but orton no roethlisberger, either. 8-8 or 9-7."
Without further preamble: RevDad on Bears/Vikings
prediction 1: at kickoff, I will be in the last throes of not catching trout at beaver dam. (the weekend over/under is 6 fish.) (Revnote: The fact he will not be worried about missing any part of this game is indictative of how much he has given up on this team)
prediction 2: the real drama in this weekend's game will be whether kyle orton keeps from getting killled. the left side of his line is st. clair, playing left tackle for only the fourth time in his career, and garza, who demonstrated in outstanding fashion on his first two plays last week why he's a career backup. and the backfield blocker apparently won't be thomas jones, who understands how to read blitzes, but cedric benson, who doesn't -- and who, so far, has shown no reason for defenses to be afraid of his running, either.
prediction 3: notwithstanding no. 2 above, the vikings are in complete turmoil this week, thanks to mike tice's mindboggling lack of discipline and leadership, not to mention maritime oversight. that gives bears hope.
prediction 4: but probably false hope. notwithstanding no.3 above, the vikings are still better than they've shown so far, and I bet dante culpepper was not part of the love boat cruise. (Revnote: reports currently say he was) he will have something to prove. ditto paul edinger.
therefore, prediction 5: vikings, 23-6. the new bears kicker gets two field goals, but edinger hits three; jeff blake starts the second half (hub says he should start the game, in fact -- says bears can't run an nfl-style game plan with orton, and blake gives them the only chance to win); and peanut tillman/chris harris look like dopes again, at least twice.
To that bleak assesment I have to add a couple points:
1. They pull Mike Green because he made so many mistakes in game 1. He made two, one blown coverage and the pass interference that negated Vasher's interception. Yet this week they say that Harris making a few mistakes is no reason to pull him. YES IT IS. You have a strong reliable proven veteran who has been a stalwart on this team for several years just sitting on the sideline cause he made a couple mistakes in the first game of the season while Chris "How do you play a cover-2" Harris lets up game winning touchdown scores in the final minutes. Its a travesty, its a crime and it leads to point number 2.
2. The coaching is to blame for where the Bears find ourselves. Several of the interceptions against the Bengals were bad play calls, then the coaches got more scared than Orton and the shackles never came off against the Browns. Then there is the genius decision to take out the red hot TJ after he rips Cleveland in half with multiple 15+ yard runs and put in Benson. The game was not anywhere near being put away why bench your most potent weapon for a guy with less single digit touches in his rookie season, who an hour and a half earlier couldnt gain 2 yards in two tries? Stupid stupid stupid.
3. Mike Brown gets huge credit for admitting they stink, but Lovie shouldve been the one to pull an Ozzie and he should have done it to light a fire under them. Lovie's zen coaching style is all well and good but there is a time for assuming the lotus position and a time to throw a chair at your players (specifically Tillman. Yes you intercepted Randy Moss in the endzone and won the game. yes we were all very proud of you. guess what? you are one more touchdown away from being that guy that everyone hates who currently sells real estate and after drinking never shuts up about his high school glory days on the gridiron. seriously. play some damn defense.)
4. I dont want Blake to play. Orton hasnt been great, and he sucked against the Bengals but he hasnt been awful. Week 1 he was alright, made some costly rookie mistakes but your first NFL game is a freebie. Week 2 he didnt have to do much but he did everything well (qb rating of over 100. havent seen that in a while from a bears qb) Week 3, a disaster, obviously but that happens and wasnt entirely his fault. Week 5: boring, uninspired and not game threatening but he wasnt allowed to go verticle and for the most part he was controlled and competant, the peterson fumble notwithstanding.
Blake hasnt shown any flashes of brilliance and hasnt gotten many first team snaps so there is no reason to risk the serious potential damage to orton's confidence by benching him. Ride it out. Hes light years about Hutch and Quinn and Krenzel so dont rock the boat. Specially because it takes us closer to putting in Kittner. Bench Orton only if we suddenly sign Jeff George.
5. And final point. Minnesota sucks but still our much better than theyve appeared thus far. This game could go one of two ways. We dominate them like we did against the Lions and Bears fans once again see the playoff mirage for a week or two; OR they tear us apart and we officially give up on the season and go on to win a just few meaningless games near the end so as to try to fool us into thinking we might be alright in '06 and eliminate us from any hope of grabbing Lineart in the draft.
This post was long but so is the Bears' history of failure the last few seasons.
This week is really the Bears' last chance to recover the season. Hopefully Monday I will be joyfully buying into the playoff mirage.
In mydefense, postgame:
-- I noticed the blog was mighty quiet all last week, an indication, I think, that I wasn't the only one discouraged by Da Bears chances after the Great Cleveland Debacle.
-- The only prognosticator I know of who picked exactly the right score was Mark Potash of the sun-times. of course, he had it VIKINGS 28, DA BEARS 3.
-- I caught 10 trout, counting one baby one I threw back, plus a bunch of bluegill. Definitely better than the Vikings' experience on the water. Obviously, it was an omen.October 18, 2005
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