Sunday the San Diego Chargers performed one of the greatest heists in the history of the National Football League: they stole the crown jewel of the 2007 season. They robbed us all of not only the best rivalry in football but the best rivalry in all sports, anywhere. We won’t get Patriots v. Colts. We won’t get Tom Brady v. Peyton Manning, the quintessential sports debate of this era. Peter King subtitled his Monday Morning Quarterback column as Observations from a nearly perfect NFL weekend. Peter should know better.
And let’s be honest. The Chargers make it very difficult to root against the New England Patriot quest for perfection. Philip Rivers shatters the glass on the douchebag-o-meter. He’s a mediocre player that talks like a star and acts like Ryan Leaf. Shaun Phillips celebrated a sack on a botched Peyton Manning handoff as if he’d plowed through Anthony Munoz to make the play. We had an opportunity to see World Champions as underdogs and instead we’re left with a two-touchdown point spread that will only grow as the week continues.
So what can we hope for now? Patriots 45. Packers 10.
#2 Al in WI said . . .We can hope for career ending injuries all around. Brady, Favre (a la Theismann), Rivers/Merriman/LT, Strahan. I despise all 4 teams left in the playoffs.
The bigger question is, why should I even watch the games? Shit, even the SB commercials are not very good anymore. And since Robert Goulet passed away this year, I can't even look forward to another one of those. Unless they taped it prior to October...hmmm...
January 14, 2008
#3 Mike said . . .Yeah there is very little to like about any of these teams:
Pack: Their fans would absolutely never let anyone hear the end of it if they beat NE in the Bowl. Not to mention if they make it there, especially since we made it and lost last year we really can't give them too much shit.
Giants: Eli Manning anyone. Can't stand the guy, especially after his draft BS and refusing to play for the Chargers. How about this guy taking some heat for being way, way more erratic then Rex ever was despite about twice as many starts and better weapons.
Chargers: I'm with you Jeff on Rivers, what a F'ing punk ass bitch. He is very average at best, and with that running game he gets to throw against basic coverages. And by the way enough with the trash talk from him Roid rage Merriman, and the rest of the lot.
Pats: They cheated. Everyone knows they cheated a lot more then the Jet game but Roger G destroyed the goods. And yes I hate Randy Moss, and can't stand that the Pats are still in the hunt 6-7 years in a row. Enough of them.
Give me somebody to root for!! All I see are teams to root against.January 14, 2008
#4 jeff said . . .I'm confident enough in my Bear skin to admit that Green Bay looked REAL good on Saturday. Mike McCarthy impresses the daylights out of me as head coach. The Packers are not a fluky team. They've got it all going in the right direction. The matchup against the Giants in frigid conditions should be a game for the ages. I believe Green Bay will prevail.
But nobody is going to stop the steamroller that is Tom Brady and New England. A Super Bowl matchup of the Packers vs. the Patriots will be about as exciting as last year's contest pitting the Bears vs. the Colts. In other words, the game will be done by the 2nd quarter.
January 14, 2008
#5 Mike said . . .mike, i like that you're dedicated here but shut up with the superbowl idiocy. the bears trailed by five points in the fourth quarter. how was it then over in second quarter? i don't mind people saying the bears were outplayed in february - they were - but the game was 16-14 at halftime.
January 14, 2008
#6 Mike said . . .Did anybody else want to puke all over their television set over the following.
1. Norv Turner's incessant crying and whining on the sidelines. He acted like a two year old who missed nap time over some of those officiating calls.
2. Jerry Jones "coaching" right next to Wade Phillips on the sidelines. There is no professional sports team I hate more than the Cowboys, but MAN did I feel sorry for a classy guy in Wade Phillips. To have to be publicly humiliated on national TV by your egomaniac owner right in the thick of things? If I were Phillips, I would have handed over my headset to Jones and told the sonofabitch to shove it up his ass. Jones is the biggest douche bag in sports, followed closely by Terrell Owens. And am I the only one who absolutely cannot stand Tony Romo. That walk he does on the sidelines with his baseball cap on backwards and that smarmy grin is enough to make me vomit.
January 14, 2008
#7 jeff said . . .I dont' give a flying fuck what the score was at halftime. For all intents and purposes the world knew that game was over 5 minutes after the Devin Hester touchdown romp. The Bears had ZERO answer for Peyton Manning and Rex Grossman and the offense where being overwhelmed.
January 14, 2008
#8 mikebdot said . . .mike, you're just wrong. the colts responded with a score and thomas jones went sprinting down the sideline a minute or so later. the bears had the ball, down five in the fourth quarter. it was over when grossman threw the late pick. if you thought the game was over in the second quarter, you didn't watch a bears team that won several games they shouldn't have won last year.
January 14, 2008
#9 B.A. Baracus said . . .I've grown quite tired of the pointless arguing about the SB. We (the chicago bears) lost the game. We probably should have run the ball more. Throwing the ball 15+ downfield was stupid. Running a route 15+ downfield was stupid (unless the coverage was completely blown, paging Daniel Manning). The defense didn't play well enough to pull it out for us. The offense didn't play well enough to capitalize on the Hester TD and the long run by TJ. As for who thought what when, I wish Mike would just shut up with him presumptions about knowing what everyone else IN THE WORLD thought at halftime. As if you know every one of them and hang out on Tuesdays during bowling leauge. Please.
As for Norv Turner's whining, I think most of it was warranted. If I were the coach I would have been kicked out of the game for beating the umpire upside the head, and probably gone to jail cuz one hit to that guy's head and I think he's a dead man. He should fucking retire. There were some really ridiculous calls. They wanted Indy in the game against NE. Badly. That pass interference penalty was just plain awful. The holding call on the run-back was marginal at best. The INT was also marginal.
January 14, 2008
#10 AfroCelt said . . .We can also hope that Mike takes his head out of his ass...
The aformentioned serious topic aside, a Bear fan can only hope that Green Bay gets destroyed against the Giants or in the SB.
As far as the Chargers go, they will be lucky to field their marquee starters at 100% next Sunday. The Pats D will eat their offense alive - and then pull a Mike Tyson and eat the offensive players' children.
January 14, 2008
#11 Midway Monster said . . .I was going to post a long comment on why I think the Giants actually have a good shot at the Pack, but I simply don't feel like it. Apathy, ain't it a b**ch?
January 14, 2008
#12 PolygonHell said . . .As much as I hate it, I'll be rooting for the Gothams (under dogs). Also, I'd like to see someone stop the over confident Pats, so I'll be rooting for the Boltz (yeah, like they have a prayer).
On second thought... maybe this would be a good weekend to clean the garage.
-- Midway --
January 14, 2008
#13 Z said . . .I'd take Chargers Giants, as an interesting superbowl.
Not that I think it will happen.
If the teams play like they did this week, it'll be Green Bay New England, and New England with a perfect season at the end of it.
January 15, 2008
#14 Z said . . .It's good to see football being talked about again on here, even it is a bunch of playoff teams that I loathe.
I was starting to think that I needed a nemesis to bicker with to write anything. I guess when your team sucks it up and your sworn football enemies look like they are going to the SB, tempers boil over and the emotions find some way to be vented.
Be nice (or not, some of it is f'ing hilarious), it is only a football blog (though a really good 1) and our team has been out of it 4 awhile.
Am I really going to have to cheer for Moss, Belicheck and Brady to run the table, how cruel a season it has become. If Favre promised to retire, would it be worth having them win? It would probably be a trick anyway and he wouldn't so no, no that won't work.
We need a miracle football gods from Lil' Manning or the Chargers backups or preferably both. Plz, don't let it end this way.
NO PACKERS SB WIN!
January 15, 2008
#15 Megan said . . .Oh and to the BT,
If you're thinking our o-line isn't too old and you're happy with the same 3 QB's and you aren't going to re-sign Briggs, BA or BB and you aren't going to spend $$ on Michael Turner and there are no good FA recievers and you are happy keeping all the coaches and you can't draft offense what exactly is the plan for next year and the future.
You have to do some of these things. I thought we would pretty much dominate the NFC this year and now I am very concerned 4 our Bears.
OK, calm down. There is some hope. We need some O-line FA help and we better sign BB or get somebody else if we can't sign him so we don't have 2 franchise him (that list of receivers in the 3.5 -6 Mil range is sad, we can't get any of those guys, WTF.)
Rex if u come back and we let u keep the #1, plz don't screw us over. Take some Safety help plz (keep Brown just don't count on him). And get CB back 2 being the change of pace back. Maybe he can handle it. And RT maybe use our badass 2 TE's and speed WR's a little better. With a healthy D, we could b OK.
Oh 1 last thing. If Hester is ever not out there on ST, even once, all the coaches and GM should be fired on the spot. I am sure he gets winded watching the ball go out of bounds and all but r u trying to actually win the games.
January 15, 2008
#16 Duff Diggler said . . .Gee Z, I wonder what you mean?
January 15, 2008
#17 Megan said . . .Random mental image:
Randy Moss sniffiling and crying, "it ain't fair! that's my teammate..................that's my quarterback............" as the media tears Tom Brady apart for his dick allegedly inpregnating someone other than Giselle Bunchen during his day off, after a gut wrenching 4th quater loss to the chargers.....
January 15, 2008
#18 Phil from SATX said . . .Okay, silver lining...
The Packers get oh so embarassed here in the off-season.January 15, 2008
#19 RandomName said . . .Z, that's a great post. Very succinct and all correct. CB will be tandemed with someone, not AP or Wolfe. I hate the rock and hard place that the Bears seem to think they're in (and may in fact be in) regarding wide receiver. Paying Berrian franchise money just cause you're scared of losing him seems very foolish to me - I'd rather take a flyer on a rookie plus our existing crew than waste money that way. And although there seems to be some concensus out there that Berrian isn't as good as either he or his agent think he is, it unfortunately only takes one stupid team out there to make him unavailable to us.
Fortunately, here is where the traditional bane of Bear cheapness and reason intersect. He won't get paid stupid money because both Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo have gotten to see every down this year and watched what Berrian gave them, which was not much until it was too late (although Lovie Smith might have to review the tape, of course).
We absolutely need safety help, although Payne and McGowan may have promising futures, their presents are not enough to team with D. Manning and create a fearsome safety tandem. And we desperately need a fearsome safety tandem. Phillips can't be the only very good safety in the draft, but we have to draft higher than we've been doing at this position. Mike Brown was a 2nd rounder, Dave Duerson a 3rd, Tony Parrish a 2nd.
1st pick's 0n oline unless Phillips is available, 2nd pick's a safety, the two 3rd pick's are RB and WR. Oline in FA. Maybe a QB in Day 2, no earlier (Rex is resigned, Orton's still in, Griese'll be released when they sign their contract with the young guy).
And I've been with you Z about Hester. The silliest thing Angelo said was limiting Hester on returns. Zero tolerance there, step into my office stuff, etc. Yet although I assume Angelo was lying and glossing throughout most of his interview, I can't for the the life of me figure out what motivation there would be for him to lie about that. Maybe they're looking at someone who wants to be a returner, and they're lying for his benefit? Otherwise you're fucking fired Angelo. If you think he'll get tired, bring out an armchair and let him sit in that while they're kicking out of bounds and setting us up on the 40.
January 15, 2008
#20 Phil from SATX said . . .Are the patriots the best ever? well if and when they win the answer will be.... yes.
Athough it's crazy in a way to compare past to present I say this team is just dominate.
Brains, pinpoint accuracy, athleticism. It's all an edge over the competition.
I hate to say it but the Patriots may win the big one, this season and next season.
This team is all about strategy, confusion and execution. Bruce lee discusses feining(faking a punch or any attack) . Which in effect is strictly a punch to the mind. Make them believe you are going left when you're really going right. This strat works on future plays when you really are 'going left'.
Every team tries to do this but the Patriots are the masters of beating teams mentally and physically.
With all that said, GO BEARS in 08!
anti climactic but whatever.January 15, 2008
#21 Rancid said . . .The Bears promoted Lloyd Lee from within to fill the vacated Hardy Nickerson linebackers coach job. He was an assistant on the staff for the last 4 years, most recently working with nickel backs.
Does this make the Bears better? Who knows.
I apparently lost my last post so I'll try to repeat it.
I can't tell you all how much fun it was to live in Cowboy country yesterday (and today, and tomorrow). The wailing and gnashing of teeth are exquisite. These guys are so pissed.
13-3, home field advantage throughout, prohibitive favorite to reach the Super Bowl, 1ST ROUND LOSS. And they are poised to lose their favorite coach and the presumed future of the team, O coordinator Jason Garrett, who may be going to the Ravens. Rest assured, Bear fans, these guys will have a far worse offseason than us.
Do you realize they gave Tony Romo a $67.5MM contract in November? And this is what they get. Did you see a different Tony Romo take over when the Giants finally started getting pressure on him in the second half (major kudos to Giants' D coord). Romo has not been sacked all that many times in his short career because of a great oline and nearly unparalleled escapability. When they started pounding him, he got rattled. Did you see him flinging balls and then turning his back to the line to avoid the hits? Made me proud of our boy Rex, who takes a hit like a man.
We'll get another chance, folks. We WILL be back. We have a lot to look forward to in the offseason.
January 15, 2008
#22 Phil from SATX said . . .I been around here but haven't posted much. I'll watch the playoffs and SB. I like the game too much not to. But I don't really care all that much, thus, no opinions to post. Lookin forward to the positions breakdown.
January 15, 2008
#23 Rancid said . . .Check it out Rancid, you'll like this.
David Haugh has a stirring article about the Other Turner and how good he's been for the Bolts. Unfortunately he comes to the wrong conclusion.
From the article:
[The Bolts players] leave the thinking to Turner, whose shrewd play-calling against the NFL's third-ranked defense Sunday reminded everybody why he had built such a reputation around the league as an offensive whiz.
The 56-yard screen pass to Darren Sproles that went for a score was designed as well as it was executed. The way that the Chargers kept picking on the Colts' weak corner, Tim Jennings, and exploiting the soft spot in two-deep coverage with QB Rivers gave Turner backers reason to say he outcoached Tony Dungy.
So what is David "I Love Ron Turner and Am Sure He's a Genius" Haugh's conclusion?
"So this is what it looks like when a Turner brother runs an offense that has playmakers? ..."
Bzzzzzz! Wrong again David!
This is what it looks like when two brothers pursue the same line of work but one was dropped on his head as a baby!
At some point in the future I may be willing to concede that one Turner brother turns out to have some talent, but
NEVER EVER will I say that about DentedHead Turner after what I witnessed this season. NEVER!
January 15, 2008
#24 Phil from SATX said . . .Haugh defenitely underwent a transition this year. I have less and less respect for his work. He must have gotten a bad life coach or something. It's just not the same guy.
January 15, 2008
#25 Rancid said . . .I think Haugh just has some blind spots, and a huge one is his view of Turner and Turner's impact on this season. He's like Mike, he blames players rather than the playcalling. However, even he had trouble assimilating some of the worst Turner errors, like sitting Benson on a predetermined rotation after Benson shows his first signs of life.
In that same article, I thought Haugh did very good work discussing some of the recent failures of the Cover 2.
Here's what he had to say on that subject:
"Last year, Super Bowl XLI became a celebration of the Cover-2 defense with the Bears and Colts. This year, it's time for introspection. The Colts did nothing to enhance the popularity of the scheme in an uninspired collapse against the Chargers. They stayed too rigid in their belief that they could pressure Rivers with the front four and the lack of imagination in coming up with ways to rush the passer ultimately hurt them. Sure, they missed Dwight Freeney, but the design of the defense needs to include more flexibility to account for more stunts and blitzes or teams reliant on the Cover-2 might be doomed by it. Ask the Bears. Now with the Colts and the Buccaneers exiting the playoffs earlier than expected, a thorough re-evaluation of the scheme is needed by those teams that have livedâ€â€and diedâ€â€by it recently.
Defenses in the 3-4 alignment, such as the Chargers and Giants, tend to move their best pass- rushers around more and confuse offensive lines and quarterbacks. The Packers also run a variation of the Cover-2 but take more chances because they trust their cornerbacks to play more man coverage."
I agree with that analysis completely. The Bears arrogantly felt they could contain the Colts with a basic 4 man rush and taking away the deep ball, and the Colts showed that as long as you have patience against that defense, a good offense will score against it. In the Giants/Cowboys game, the defense was very unpredictable in how it rushed Romo (2nd half) and it succeeded in confusing both the line (with Flozell Adams finishing plays lying on his back looking up at the hole in the roof) and Romo too.
Some major tweaking needs to be done with the Bears scheme - it will never go 3-4 as long as Lovie's here, but he and Babich better get more creative with it.
January 15, 2008
I think that counting on the front four is fine but you must have an incredible front four. I still think we can do it when we're healthy. The problems come when either injuries knock you out of it, or you play a team with a real solid O line. We had injury issues at DT this year and when we played decent O lines there needed to be an adjustment. Now obviously there was some more blitzing (just compare Urlacher's sacks to last year), but overall not enough adjustment. You almost have to have a defense that can play the cover 2 well, but also play another version just as well if the pressure isn't happening. That's a lot of practice time, maybe it isn't possible.
January 15, 2008
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.