DaPicks Contest Updated!

We have our final four. This weekend it’ll be Shady v. Ufficio and TracDaddy v. tobijohn. I’ll post the Weekend Show first thing Friday morning and all picks must be made prior to kickoff of the Christmas Eve slate Saturday. Good luck. (And for those of you who picked the Bears this week, I applaud your loyalty. But I thought the Bears would lose by two touchdowns and didn’t write a game preview to avoid having to make that prediction.)

Lovie Smith on Caleb Hanie

Say what you want but I like Lovie Smith’s comments on Hanie’s struggles and how they relate to the organization:

“You have to have the right player in that (No. 2) position as much as anything,” Smith said. “But as far as preparing him, you prepare the No. 1 guy and you do what you can with the No. 2 guy. It’s hard to give the backup quarterback or the third quarterback a lot of work, you just hope you have the right guy in that position.”

Do I think the Bears organization made an evaluation error when it came to Caleb Hanie? Yes. But we don’t have access to Hanie on the practice field, Hanie in the meeting rooms…etc. And Hanie’s performance in the NFC title game last year led many – myself included – to believe he was more than able to step onto the field and manage outcomes. We were all wrong. Hanie is a complete disaster. The sad truth is the Bears were not able to find out until it was too late.

But I will be fair. If you turn to me and shout, “Jerry Angelo is paid to evaluate personnel and he failed miserably with the backup quarterback” I will not argue with you. Though I do believe there will be little-to-no turnover in the front office or on the coaching staff for 2012.

What Can the Bears Accomplish Sunday Night in Green Bay?

Very little. But I’d like to see them come out and play angry on the defensive side of the ball. I understand the Packers are overwhelming favorites to win the game but the Bears should make Aaron Rodgers pay for every completion in the pocket. The Bears should make Finley regret ever entering the middle of the field. Julius Peppers should torment the Packers tackles. They better play with maximum aggression because if they give Rodgers time to throw, Meriweather and Steltz will have no chance.

Notes on a Pair of Kids

Gabe Carimi is going to have a second procedure on his knee but is expected to be ready when football activities begin in 2012. If I were the Bears I’d strongly consider moving Carimi to the left side and using J’Marcus Webb as my flex option.

Chris Conte is on IR. Impressive kid and certainly should be the starting free safety next season. The question the Bears must answer is whether they can continue to count on injury-prone Major Wright to cover the other deep half of the field.

…and I have nothing. That’s the God’s honest truth. I have nothing of interest to add to our collective emotional states when it comes to this most disappointing of football seasons. I am in an advanced state of melancholia and I believe I know the reason why. You see, the 2011 season, is a lost season. It was not good. It was not bad. It was merely lost. Lost to the football gods – that arbitrary group of angelic beings tearing ACLs and breaking thumbs for the negative and applying sticky stuff to David Tyree’s helmet for the positive side. This happens in the NFL the way it rarely happens in other sports. Injuries can cripple a franchise, even if only momentarily. And in the span of about two weeks, the Bears lost 100% of their offense.

Now we play out the string, without even the possible splendor of ending the Packers perfect season. We definitely won’t see Forte again. We shouldn’t see Cutler again. And I know I have no interest in ever seeing Caleb Hanie take another snap for this organization. (I’m also good never seeing Marion Barber carry another ball or Roy Williams run another route but injuries have made both of those things necessities.) This is the time of year bad teams use to evaluate talent on the roster. Right now the Chicago Bears are a very, very bad team.

That’s it. I don’t even have a third paragraph. It’s Packer Week but damn it, it don’t feel like it.

Who knows what the game will mean when it comes to playoff possibilities and, frankly, who cares. I say all the time that we’re only guaranteed sixteen Chicago Bears games a year and we should cherish each and every one. With or without Cutler.

As for scoreboard watching…go Raiders.

On this week’s show I speak with Nathan Whitaker, co-author of Tim Tebow’s Through My Eyes, about the unnecessarily controversial Broncos quarterback and his time with Jerry Angelo in Tampa Bay. Also the Reverend rants on Sam Hurd. I urge you to listen to the rant. It may be the Rev’s finest 3 minutes.

Da Picks Contest Playoffs

The bracket is pictured above. Same rules this week as last week. Pick three games against the spread and make your two tiebreaker selections. Closest wins on the tiebreakers (no Price is Right rules).

The Lines This Week

FALCONS -12 Jags
Cowboys -7 BUCS
GIANTS -6.5 Redskins
Packers -13.5 CHIEFS
Saints -6.5 VIKINGS
BEARS -3.5 Seahawks
TEXANS -6 Panthers
Titans -7 COLTS
Bengals -6.5 RAMS
Lions -1 RAIDERS
Patriots -6.5 BRONCOS
EAGLES -3 Jets
CARDINALS -6.5 Browns
Ravens -2.5 CHARGERS
DOLPHINS -2.5 Bills

The Tiebreakers

Tiebreaker #1, The Ex-Cowboy: How many total yards will Marion Barber and Roy Williams combine for against the Seahawks?

Tiebreaker #2, The Opponent: How many yards will Marshawn Lynch average per carry?

Just imagine how you’ll feel if Maurice Jones-Drew knocks off 150 yards rushing and the Jags upset the Falcons in Atlanta. Imagine the odds of hope slinking back into your life after these last two weeks. I have been saying I’m not sure I want that hope back. I’m full of shit. I would love it back.

Normally on Thursday mornings I like to have my game preview up for the coming game. In that game preview there will be a collection of thoughts on Bears vs. Blah Blah ranging from vague cliches like “the Bears must contain the run game” to specifics (based on previous game-watching) like “Johnny Knox must get the first step on the nickel corner when lined up in the slot on the second-and-long”. They are game previews, sure. But mostly there are de facto game plans – my objectives for and warnings to the Chicago Bears.

I will do no such thing this week. Not after losing to the short bus Kansas City Chiefs offense two Sundays ago at Soldier Field and not after The Marion Barber Game. (Side note: Barber should be ashamed of himself for avoiding the media the way he’s done since his pathetic display Sunday. It’s one thing to showcase such mental laziness. It’s a worse thing to avoid taking responsibility for it with the fans.) What would be the point of trying to break down a football game featuring these Cutler-less Chicago Bears? Do you believe they can score two touchdowns (in one game) on any team in football?

But I want a win Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks. Perhaps the Falcons will lose Thursday night to the Jacksonville Jaguars and that win Sunday would insert this post-Cutler disaster into the postseason race once again. But even if the Falcons roll the Jags, as they should, I want the Bears to show up for the final regular season home game of the year and deliver an inspired effort. I want to see the kind of spirit and fight that will inspire me throughout the offseason to believe the 2012 Chicago Bears will be able to fulfill the promise of the 7-3 2011 Chicago Bears. I want to see that these men wearing navy blue and orange are not quitting on this campaign after the disasters of the past eight quarters.

Win. Whether it matters or not for any playoff hunt. Win. Your fans, especially those gathered on Lake Shore Drive Sunday, deserve this from you. This season was far too exciting, far too promising, for everything to devolve into a black hole of winless football in the final month. Win. For us. Please.

I have never experienced a season quite like this as a Chicago Bears fan. Very few people, if any, have. How often have the Bears looked on the verge of competing for a championship at midseason, scoring points seemingly at will, only to have the ground fall out beneath them? The 7-3 Chicago were one of the best teams in the NFL. The 7-6 Bears are not in the top half of the league due to an anemic offensive output. The reason for the unique situation is a simple one: the Bears have never had a quarterback like Jay Cutler.

In the past, losing the starting QB in Chicago was about as consequential as losing the nickel corner. When Rex Grossman dropped in the 2005 preseason, the Bears settled on Kyle Orton (after a Chad Hutchinson layover) and the difference was negligible. When Jim Miller would get hurt, Shane Matthews would step in and most times you could barely tell the difference. Hell even in the 1985 Super Bowl season the Bears barely missed a beat in Steve Fuller’s five starts for Jim McMahon. (Having the greatest defense and tailback ever helped a bit.) Fuller’s numbers weren’t any good but the Bears won 4 of 5 nevertheless.

Jay Cutler makes the entire team better. The offensive line has less pressure to hold blocks due to his combination of mobility and near-alarming arm strength. The run game prospers because opposing defenses have to to keep a safety deep, knowing Cutler can strike for a touchdown on any play. The defense can play more aggressively because they know allowing a touchdown or two will not cost the Bears a notch in the win column. He does not have the credentials yet of Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger or Eli Manning but he is every bit as important to his team as they are to theirs. Likewise each of those organizations would see a precipitous decline should their signal caller see extended time on the sideline.

These things happen in the NFL. They are sad, disappointing events but they do occur. The Bears had every opportunity the past two weeks to survive this injury by making a play here or a play there. But Urlacher knocked the Hail Mary to Dexter McCluster. Roy Williams dropped the slant. Marion Barber provided arguably the worst five minutes of Bears player tape since David Terrell dropped a pair of wide open TD passes against the Lions on December 2, 2001 and Henry Burris got his Sunday night start against the Tampa Bay Bucs. Caleb Hanie missed Earl Bennett down the sideline, Johnny Knox over the middle, Barber on a screen and just about every other open receiver for 175 of the 180 minutes he’s played. Lovie Smith softened the defensive coverage Tim Tebow, believing the shaky QB would not be able to move the Broncos the length of the field.

If the Bears do not reach the postseason, even with the injury to Cutler, this will not have been a successful season. Not with the losses sustained to Tyler Palko at home and after Barber’s antics in Denver. To call this season successful would be to excuse a series of mistakes over the last eight quarters that are nothing short of inexcusable. And while the postseason seems like a pipe dream now it does not relegate the final three games to the land of the meaningless. The Bears can still have a winning season. The Bears can still stop their rival from perfection. The Bears can build on the success of 7-3 and the set the stage for 2012.

But they cannot win a championship. Not anymore. Not without Cutler.

The updated Picks Contests playoff bracket is above. Rules for this week’s matches will be available with the Weekend Show on Friday.

Playoffs?! You Talk About Playoffs?!

The truth is this: it’s no fun to consider the Bears prospects of making the postseason. Two reasons: (1) They can’t seem to beat anyone and (2) Who would want to see Caleb Hanie start a road playoff game? The Bears would be in the playoffs today were they to have survived either the Chiefs or Broncos – two teams they would have beaten by three touchdowns each were Cutler the quarterback – and now would need help even if they were to go into Lambeau and pull the upset of the year. If you want to remain optimistic (and at least have some fun here down the stretch) pull for the Jaguars in Atlanta Thursday night. If Jacksonville wins, the Bears could find themselves truly back in the mix by beating the Seahawks.

On Jerry Angelo…

Anybody who is using the last three games as a mean to indict the management decisions of Jerry Angelo is off-base. The management decisions of Jerry Angelo had the Bears 7-3 and looking like one of the two or three best teams in the NFL. Then they lost their best offensive player (and second best player overall behind Peppers) and a team that scored four offensive touchdowns in the Detroit Lions game has scored three in three games since. Cutler is to the Bears what Eli Manning is the Giants, Brees is to the Saints and Big Ben is to the Steelers. If those teams lost their QB they’d be in the same situation the Bears are in right now.

Josh McCown Should Start Sunday 

I don’t believe Josh McCown will be a significant improvement over Caleb Hanie but I do believe I’ve seen enough of Hanie. Put McCown in the game. If he looks like the second coming of Jonathan Quinn or Todd Collins after two or three drives, toss Hanie back into the fire and hope the benching serves as a wake up call. Hanie looked lost throwing the ball against a secondary that surrendered 400 yards to Christian Ponder the previous week. 400 yards. Christian Ponder. If Lovie continues to take the “Caleb is our quarterback” approach to the 2011 regular season, he may wind up 7-9.

I also Tweeted this yesterday but I’ll share it here now: we all owe Mike Martz an apology. He never believed in Caleb Hanie and was criticized handily for it, especially by me. He was right. I was wrong.

There are losses with names. The Bears loss to Carolina in the 2005 postseason will always be remembered as The Steve Smith Game. Number eighty-nine had about a thousand yards with the Bears refusing to double-cover him. Or tackle him at the line of scrimmage. Or stab him in the throat. This performance was compounded emotionally by the fact Smith did the exact same thing to the Giants the previous week. Early in the 2008 season, the Bears lost The Matt Ryan Game. Lovie Smith inexplicably squib-kicked the kickoff with about ten seconds remaining (following a brilliant Kyle Orton TD pass to Rashied Davis) and Ryan connected on a deep sideline route, the only route he could actually throw in that situation, to set up the game winning field goal.

Now they’ve lost The Marion Barber Game.  Lovie Smith is much to blame for what happened in Denver Sunday afternoon but over time his contribution to a season-ending choke job will be minimized. Marion Barber is the goat. It’s his loss and his name belongs on it.

How can a professional running back, a man paid millions of dollars, run out of bounds as regulation is winding down? How can he not understand the situation when the situation is so simple? How can he possibly believe his job there is to bounce the ball outside, bringing the sideline in play? Fucking HOW? Some folks will blame the coaches in this instance but there is no possible way Marion Barber WASN’T TOLD NOT TO RUN OUT OF BOUNDS and there is no reason HE SHOULD HAVE TO BE TOLD THAT! The man is a professional football player. There is no level of shame strong enough for Marion Barber this Monday morning.

And oh! The fumble! You can forgive a fumble, even one in overtime. But you cannot forgive Barber’s fumble. Marion had cleared the first level and was going to gain 10-15 more yards, setting up an easy Robbie Gould game-winner. He got lazy. No other way to describe it. Barber got lazy with the football and any contact would have knocked it loose. He got lazy, for the second time in about five minutes of game clock, with his brain.

Losses don’t get names unless they are major losses and the Bears choked their postseason hopes away yesterday. On an afternoon where Atlanta needed a massive comeback against Carolina and Detroit tried their best to blow a big lead to Minnesota, the Bears had an opportunity to seize control of the wild card race. This game was over. The Broncos were beaten. Then Marion Barber took center stage. And the lights went out.

I could spend fifty hours writing about how angry this game, particularly the last five minutes, made me today. But one thing is certain: Lovie Smith and the Chicago Bears coaching staff gave this game to the Denver Broncos. After forcing Tim Tebow into difficult situations all afternoon, Lovie went prevent. Pure, old fashioned prevent. And allowed Tebowed to walk the ball down the field with screens and underneath routes. It was pathetic coaching. Sad, pathetic coaching by a staff that should be ashamed of themselves. They cost the Bears postseason hope today.

Other thoughts:

• Kudos to Adam Podlesh and Craig Steltz. Wonderful games from both.
• Marion Barber. You just made the stupidest play in the history of this organization. Congrats. And what was the fumble in overtime? Was that just to remind us how stupid the play you made in regulation was?
• Tim Tebow started at quarterback for the Denver Broncos and he was the best quarterback on the field.

I have no energy for this. None. Three weeks ago I thought the Jay Cutler Bears could win the Super Bowl. Now I have this. Seattle comes next week. The only question is, “Who cares?”