SAVE THE DATE!

DaBearsBlog will be co-hosting a charitable benefit in Chicago on Sunday night, December 8th with Bears legend Otis Wilson.

The event will be co-hosted by a new organization called Art of Men (pairing men with volunteer projects across the country) and raise money for the Otis Wilson Charitable Association. TICKETS WILL ONLY BE $20 and will include drink deals. All proceeds will go directly to the OWCA.

What.

To celebrate the following evening’s Mike Ditka number retirement ceremony, we’ll be hosting a:

Mike Ditka Look-a-Like/Impersonation Contest.

Come dressed in your best Mike Ditka costume and bring your best Grabowski-laced voice.

Celebrity judges will include Super Bowl Champion Otis Wilson and other members of the 1985 Chicago Bears. 

Contest winner will receive two tickets to the Monday night Bears game vs. the Dallas Cowboys, including the Ditka jersey number retirement ceremony at halftime.

There will also be a Christmas toy drive and various raffles for Bears-related memorabilia as well as large screens showing the Sunday night game featuring the Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons.

When.

Sunday Night, December 8th

Doors Open at 7:00 pm.

Where.

Double Door

1572 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago

Wicker Park

To visit the venue’s website, click here.

_______________________________________

Tickets will be available for purchase in the next week or so through the Double Door’s website. I will update when that time comes. For any questions regarding the event, please email me: jeff@dabearsblog.

Most would consider the eighth game the halfway point of a sixteen game season. Those people are what I refer to as math-dependent. The Bears have played seven games and now must wait fifteen days before playing again as they lick their injury wounds. Hell, the team is off this entire week. If ever there was a line of demarcation signally HALFWAY, this is it.

So what follows are responses to the first half, thoughts on the second half and the normal awards, predictions and general folly that have filled this space lo these eight years. You’re not going to see everything below but you’ll see the things on my mind. I’ll leave it to you from there.

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Enough With the 2014 Draft Stuff…

We say it here all the time but NFL fans are guaranteed sixteen games a season. That’s all. And I will never understand these fans that seemingly can’t wait to give up on a current season and plan for the next. It won’t be happening here.

This is all supposed to be fun, folks. We’re supposed to enjoy the games. And even though a team is injury-riddled and more than likely not a title contender doesn’t means the remaining 9 contests should be ignored. Some of my favorite modern Bears games were played when the team was completely out of it! Adewale Ogunleye’s safety against the Titans in overtime, 2004. Edinger knocks the Lions out of the playoffs in 2000.

The Bears have a tough road coming but they still have a road. And I’m going along for the ride.

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The Bears offense has emerged as one of the best in football in only seven weeks. Seven weeks was all it took to seemingly erase a decade of offensive futility. Yesterday it took a devastating injury to the starting quarterback  for that fact to become apparent. As Josh McCown stepped into a high-pressure, low-probability scenario, Bears head coach Marc Trestman dialed up smart play after smart play. He put the football in the hands of his Emery-assembled weapons and they rewarded him with a near-flawless second half. For Jay Cutler’s tenure in Chicago, an injury to the lead signal caller meant an offensive implosion and consistently dreary output. Yesterday they rallied – on the field and on the sideline.

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Did you ever think the day would come? Did you ever think we’d be sitting here post game discussing an offense so good they can put up forty with a backup quarterback and a defense so bad they can’t make that number stick? Well that’s exactly where we are.

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Three final thoughts on the ball game:

1. A lot has been made about the expectations surrounding rookie MLB Jon Bostic. I sure hope fans and media do not let this game become a referendum on him. In this defensive system a lot is asked of the position manned by Brian Urlacher for a decade and Bostic should not be expected to find a comfort level in the defense after a few meaningless preseason games and nine days of practice. Bostic should not let the nerves/excitement of his first start stir his penchant for over-aggressiveness. Stay disciplined. Play within the system.
2. I missed the stories in the lead-up to my game preview but the Washington Redskins have struggled mightily on special teams thus far in 2013. If there was ever going to be a week for Joe D to figure out the team’s coverage and blocking issues, this is it. (The more I look at tape of the Bears special teams units the more critical I become of Joe D’s work.)
3. I watched the Jay Cutler press conference live. Jay was asked if he had any specific comments about facing DeAngelo Hall again. Jay said Hall was “just another player”, meaning he was preparing to face Hall like he’d prepare for Kerrigan or Orakpo or me. Of course Pro Football Talk runs this headline: JAY CUTLER ISN’T IMPRESSED BY DEANGELO HALL. This is what PFT – once the most important website in the NFL – has become. Cutler vs. Hall should be trumpeted this week as a grand football rematch. But we don’t have that media unfortunately.

Bear down. The action of a new generation. And since you all wanted a chat room…