Lance Louis to IR, Gabe Carimi to Right Guard?
Lance Louis was the Bears best offensive lineman in 2012 and he’s the second major player lost by the team to a dirty hit this year. The Bears will miss his toughness and they will certainly miss taking the majority of their run game off his right hip.
But now the table is set for Gabe Carimi. What we have heard about Carimi is exactly what the tape has shown through eleven games. He’s got fight in him. He’s an excellent run blocker who seems to thrive finishing plays. But he lacks the footwork and technique required to handle the type of athletes currently coming off the edge in the modern NFL. At right guard, Carimi will not have to worry about such issues. His job will be simple: line up and beat the man in front of you. Yes he lacks the experience at the position of Edwin Williams and Chris Spencer but this should be his job.
Quotes Jay Cutler:
“Maybe we’re on to something. Maybe he’s a guard. I don’t know,” Cutler said Monday on “The Jay Cutler Show” on ESPN 1000. “I know he’s a guy who took the demotion really personally. He was hurt by it. He wants to be in there. He cares about his performance. He’s hungry. Maybe him coming in at guard is going to be a blessing in disguise for him.”
If Carimi thrives in his new role, he could prove to be a stabilizing force on the team’s most maligned unit. I would imagine the look of that unit Sunday will be Webb – Williams – Garza – Carimi – Scott.
Final Five: Schedules for Bears & Packers
The race to win the NFC North is going to go right down to the wire after Sunday so the Bears retake control. Here is who Chicago and Green Bay meet down the stretch:
Bears: home Seattle, at Minnesota, home Green Bay, at Arizona, at Detroit
Packers: home Minnesota, home Detroit, at Chicago, home Tennessee, at Minnesota
How will it play out? Who knows. But I feel quite confident saying the Bears will win the NFC North by beating the Packers at home on December 16th. That’s the division right there. With a win there the Bears can afford to drop another game along the way and feel no worse for the wear. It will be decided at Soldier Field.
A side note to the 2012 season is quickly becoming the relevance of the Vikings down the stretch. The Bears should be rooting for Minnesota to stay relevant so they NEED that Week 17 encounter to possibly make the tournament.
Sherman, Brown Will Play at Soldier Field Sunday
The NFL says Richard Sherman and Brandon Browner used Adderall and the NFL also contests Adderall somehow makes you better at football. (It doesn’t.)
With Seahawks starting cornerbacks Richard Sherman and Brandon Browner facing four-game suspensions for allegedly testing positive for Adderall, the suspensions won’t take effect until the appeals have been resolved.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the NFL wants to resolve the appeals quickly.
The league wants to conduct the hearings next week. The players are resisting, not in order to delay the punishment but because the challenge to the suspensions will arise from irregularities in the collection process. In order to properly prepare for the hearings, the players and the NFLPA will need to consult with experts, and possibly retain one or more of them to testify.
Don’t know about Adderall?
Sherman and Browner may miss four games to suspension but they’ll be playing Sunday.
Administrative Note
DaBearsBlog will be leaving ChicagoNow on March 1st 2013 instead of the previously mentioned January 1st. We’re doing this partly to not bail out on our partner of four years in the middle of a playoff campaign and partly to ensure the newly-built DBB can handle all it needs to upon our immediate launch.
