First, my apologies for stepping on the District's column. It's below and it's good so give it a read. But I have three quick thoughts before I get to the point.
1. The Bears created five turnovers yesterday the old-fashioned way. They hit people. And they hit people all day. Yes Brian looked bad once but Tom Brady made great plays all day. That's why he's Tom Brady. The fumble they forced from Corey Dillon is another example that this is the best defensive unit in the game.
2. The Bears ran for over 150 yards. Again. And that's one of the best rushing defenses in football on the other side of the ball. The running game is back, baby.
3. I keep hearing the Bears are amazing because they generate pressure from their front four. Do they still do that?
All in all, let's keep things in perspective. Rex Grossman is not Tom Brady but he is their starting quarterback. Yesterday was not about bad decision making. It was about bad throws. He's got five weeks to develop and eliminate them. Five weeks to minimize mistakes and take fewer silly chances down the field. Five weeks to guarantee the Chicago Bears don't play a road game until Miami in February. He needs help from the sideline and upstairs. He'll get it. And if he doesn't...
At least he's not Eli Manning.
#2 jeff said . . .The bottom line is that we need to stick with Rex. If he throws the deep ball and its picked off, its like punt. If its completed Rex and Berrian (most often) look like studs. Lets remember that the coordinator calls the plays not Rex, when he goes deep its cuz he's told to. Lets all stop hating on Rex, there is no other good option, not Greise either. If you look at Rex's numbers this year they are pretty good, even with the mistakes, far better than the alternatives of years past.
November 27, 2006
#3 jeff said . . .The thing he fucked up yesterday was that damn snap. If he doesn't fumble a snap, its no less than three points. And then the Bears only have to drive for a fieldgoal to win it.
November 27, 2006
#4 Megan said . . .by the way, paytonrules gets saturday's column. for being scared shitless of tom brady and because i want to see a column dedicated to the notion of Rex Orton.
November 27, 2006
#5 Megan said . . .It was soooo awsome to see Corey Dillon held to what.. 40 yards?
Yikes, on the other hand to Maroney, he is one versitile player. Although, he had better luck catching the ball then running with it, except well, kick-off returns.
You guys are too nice to Rex. Hey, it's was really great to see him connect with Berrian, but it was because Berrian adjusted himself in order to catch the ball but it took Samuel only one time to figure it out. We CAN'T expect to win with all those interceptions.
Urlacher, my heart sank. Especially after seeing the now well-established gay-man celebrated after fooling him. I agree that he learned his lesson. He looked pretty pissed off at himself on the side-lines.
The running game came alive. Benson had a couple of really good runs.
We got lucky with those pass interference calls.
hmm. Romo would make a nice addition.I'm having a hard time staying as opptomistic as you all. The Bears just don't look play-off ready. I think Ron needs to seriously adjust the offense. If we played safe, more then likely we wouldn't really have a problem winning our division. I mean our defense alone could probably win it for us. Good Lord, fumbling a snap!?
AHHHHHhhhhhhhh
During the game yesterday, I kept thinking to myself that the defense would score one. The odds were in our favor with the amount of turnovers!
(alas, I had to put the maple syrup away)November 27, 2006
#6 Max said . . .peytonrules was right about Benson, he is the WIMPIEST blocker in the world! Most punters block better then he does!
November 27, 2006
#7 Shamen said . . .RUN THE BALL. . . More. Turner needs to do with Rex what he did with Orton, take the snap, turn, and hand it off. Limit his chances of making a mistake. I am not sayin stop throwing the ball, I am saying dont throw it as much.
We were running it down their throat. Benson straight trucked one of the safties on his run and TJ turned what should have been a no gain into an 18 yard pick up.
I am still supporting Rex over Griese.
November 27, 2006
#8 Pyrobob said . . .I think that loss comes down to one thing - pass rush. The Pats had it, we didn't. Jeff nailed it with his #3 above. The Pats offensive line was awesome (at pass protection), and even when we blitzed we barely got to Brady. And our o-line sucked. Only one sack, but a lot of hurries and a lot of hits on Rex. Don't think that didn't cause some of those bad passes. When Rex throws off his back foot he isn't very accurate. Pass protection is why Rex was bad in the first half of the Giants game (except for the last drive) and good in the second half. If you give him time, he's a good passer.
November 27, 2006
#9 Megan said . . .Sighhh, here we go again... The fairweather fans as well as the so-called "true" fans lash out at the team they say they love; but damn it they want wins! Bears ought to be 11-0. Period. If not- Grossman sucks and Urlacher screwed up and "our" team fell apart. Didn't run enough, the offensive line crumbled, Rex threw too many INT's; blah, blah, blah. All of a sudden we have a plethora of "armchair coaches": replace Grossman or make him sit out a few games (what is this idea? a timeout for a QB? get real!) ; go for it on 4th; don't go for the deep pass with under 2 mins in the game, etc. Sure is easy to criticize after the fact. What if those decisions resulted in a different outcome? Go ahead you can say it: we would all be singing a different tune- Bears all the way! SB Champs! It's '85 all over again! Woo-hoo! Sexy Rexy, we KNEW he had it in him!
Here's something to chew on: Lovie and the two Ron's know their teams strengths and short comings and despite stating they are only focused on the game at hand, maybe just maybe they are doing some fine tuning for future games. Minnesota is ranked #1 against the run. Hmmm. Here it is week 12, how much has Rex improved? What's the best way to figure that out?November 27, 2006
#10 jeff said . . .Do you think that Ron is more about protecting his ass then he is about seeing the Bears win? Is that why we didn't go for it on 4th and 3? or is protecting his ass/Bears winning mutually exclusive?
I would hate to think, Ron being an ex-Bears player from 1985, that he wouldn't have any balls? He does appear to take some pretty big risks with the offense. Yesterday's game is proof of that. EXCEPT for the 4th and 3??
I am confused.
Anyone, help me to understand?November 27, 2006
#11 jeff said . . .pyrobob's name may scare me but i'm with him...the problem this team has is rex stinks too much and if he stinks less they'll go to the superbowl....that's what most of the people around these parts want...they want the chicago bears, the oldest and most storied franchise in the nfl, to not be cursed by the lack of a quarterback for another century.
November 27, 2006
#12 Pissed off said . . .wrong ron, meg....the d-coord was on the 85 team. and anyone who thinks ron turner is trying to win a head coaching job with his playcalling doesn't quite know how things work.
November 27, 2006
#13 District Selectman said . . .I agree that passing less and running more is a good idea but then teams will scheme the run too much and if we only throw on 3rd down every time and its incomplete we will look completely inadequate. I like it when we attempt to pick up big chunks of yards at once. I want to be a passing team, I want to be like the Mike Martz led Rams. I hate Martz but I want the big score and big stats. And we have seen shades of that with Rex this year and if we couple that with this defense, we will win all of our games 41-10. A perfect example is the niners and lions game. Get geared up Rex...dont mess up so much....we will need you if we are going to go anywhere in the playoffs!
November 27, 2006
#14 Ted said . . .Jeff, I agree with all three points you bring up. But I want to address this Rex thing. I clearly miscalculated when I figured that the calls for Griese were just the media stirring up controversy.
For starters, Griese is not the answer. That much should be clear. What happens if we go to Griese and he can't throw it deep and they put nine guys in the box and stuff our now-chugging run game? If we go down with Griese, the same fans will be demanding the heads of Lovie and Ron -- the only people left to blame.
As for rationalizing Rex's performance, the old saw that he's still in his first season has run its course. On the other hand, he is still in his first full season. I think right about now is where you start to have trouble keeping focus. Forget 16-0, 11-0 is a ridiculous record. Moreover, history is littered with teams that breeze through the regular season only to melt down in the playoffs. Sorry, but they're going to have bad regular season games.
As for Romo, he has played five and a half games. If you want to crown his ass right now, go ahead. I know we were all pretty sanguine about Rex after five starts.
In conclusion, listen to Oly:
"We've got to correct everything. Everything that went wrong, we've just got to keep correcting and keep improving. We have all of December left. We didn't win today's game, but we're 9-2. All of our goals are still right there. We're still No. 1 in the NFC and we're still No. 1 in the NFC North. We're trying to get in the playoffs and we're trying to get home-field advantage. Only an idiot would panic right now."
November 27, 2006
#15 Midway Monster said . . .The question is... WHY do people not want to use a proven professional QB like Brian Griese, rather than this pickathon ? I see comments like "Griese is not the answer", and I say "how the heck do you know that? I mean, how many games have you seen Griese throw away for the Bears?
Lovie doesn't want a quarterback controversy ... well guess what -- the noise will keep getting louder as other teams see how to beat the punky QB. He can say "Oh, Rex is our QB" all he wants, but he is just the latest coach to stick with his first choice out of stubbornness.November 27, 2006
#16 Midway Monster said . . .If it were up to me, and I was running the team... I would have kept Rex in. Yeah he had a stupid mishandled snap (I used to play center) because he had his hands in the wrong position. We'll fix that in the films with a good verbal lashing.
There was just too much good that happened yesterday and I think when the Pats woke up this morning, they were sore from the smash mouth football the Bears played. That ought to be acknowledged, appreciated, and rewarded. The Bears definately "got there firstest with the mostest".
I say we move on. Next game. We now get to take on each division team and beat em to a pulp. One at a time. One at a time gentlemen. The line for an a$$ kickin forms to the left.
First up: that purple team with that stupid spike on their helmets.
November 27, 2006
#17 Pissed off said . . .Megan: You say "I'm having a hard time staying as opptomistic as you all". Hey, Get motivated! Don't wait until Feb 2 to start your smack talk!
November 27, 2006
#18 jeff said . . .Enough Ted, you can kiss Greise's ass all you want, he doesnt have the potential that Rex has and with the Bears defense as good as it is the staff is going to roll the dice with Grossman's high risk high reward style. 9-2 is fine but I want more. What good is having a 16-0 caliber team if you only win 13 or 14 games.
November 27, 2006
#19 Ted said . . .guys, brian griese isn't that good. believe me, i loved him in college and watched him very closely in denver. not very good. great backup.
November 27, 2006
#20 paytonrules said . . .OK, "Pissed". What an apt name. BTW, his name is Griese, not "Greise". You can kiss Grossman's ass all you want to, but he will never be more than a mediocre NFL QB, and unless he comes up against a coach who has the balls to bench him when he screws up, he will constantly give the ball away... and as yesterday, give the game away, also.
November 28, 2006
A whole column devoted to Rex Orton eh?
Bring it on! I'm supposed to be writing for a class anyway so I might as well successfully write something tonight.
I wouldn't call Benson wimpy Megan. For the second time I saw what people are talking about with him yesterday. That was a nice run when he went right through the linebacker. I can't remember the last time a running back on the Bears broke a tackle. Jones runs around people, not through. Benson just doesn't seem interested in blocking. He missed one big time yesterday.
Course I saw TJ miss a block too, and frankly I don't spend all game watching pass protection, maybe Jones sucks like Paris Hilton too.
November 28, 2006
Here at DaBearsBlog, you are free to kill us or the Bears as you so wish. You are not free, however, to be an asshole. So if you spew racism or ill-meaning foul language (cursing about football is just fine) or anything of that ilk, your comments ain't gonna last long, jerk.