487 Comments

In Honor of SNL’s 40th Anniversary…

| February 12th, 2015

…DaBearsBlog salutes the Bill Swerski’s Superfans – the greatest sports sketch in the history of television and the namesake of this website. Saturday Night Live’s connection to Chicago, its deep-rooted ties to Second City, are undeniable. It is just as much Chicago’s show as New York’s. Sunday night the show celebrates its 40th anniversary and DBB celebrates about 22 of the 40 years with rapturous applause.

Tagged: , ,

361 Comments

DBB Chats Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times [AUDIO]

| February 9th, 2015

Another wonderful conversation with my buddy Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times. (Apologies for the technical feedback. Soundcloud’s problem, not mine.) In the chat we discuss:

  • Battling the national “source” guys
  • Cutler’s fans inside the locker room
  • How the Trestman era will be remembered
  • Jay Glazer’s golf foursomes
  • Possible surprises this coming off-season
  • Much, much more!

Tagged: ,

267 Comments

Everything We Learned About the NFL This Season.

| February 3rd, 2015

butler

Top NFL Teams Separated By Merely a Play

Look at the fates of the NFC’s best teams in the month of January.

  • Detroit loses to Dallas after a pass interference flag is announced and walked off by the game official and then ludicrously picked up. (Has anybody yet given an explanation of this?)
  • Dallas  loses to Green Bay after a Dez Bryant catch – a spectacular catch – is deemed a non-catch by one of the more ludicrous rules in the NFL rulebook. (And in my opinion a gross misinterpretation of that rule.)
  • Green Bay loses to Seattle with a ludicrous late-game collapse featuring a tight end dropping an onside kick that hit both of his hands and his face.
  • Seattle loses to New England with the worst play-call in the history of professional football, asking a non-pocket passer to pocket pass a tight-window slant route on the goal line, at the death. (And do so with the league’s most physical runner just, you know, standing around.)

In all four of these games a serious argument can be made for the losing team deserving victory. That’s how close the league has become at the top.

Read More …

Tagged: , , , , , , ,

402 Comments

Likely Offensive Turnaround in 2015 Makes Bears and New OC Adam Gase a Perfect Match

| February 2nd, 2015

xxx

There was a popular refrain sung on social media about midway through the 2014 season, denigrating General Manager of Christmas Past Phil Emery for building a fantasy team on offense. The connotation of this accusation seemed to be that the Bears offense was a collection of talented individuals who somehow did not work as a unit. The string quartet brought together two brilliant violins, a heartbreaking cellist and virtuoso violist but their  performance lacked cohesion.

Now, unless fantasy football has changed drastically since I last played (Marshall Faulk won me a fantasy title in my last year involved), the object of the game is production. Productive players equal fantasy points equal victories equal a nice pile of cash men can hide from their wives to use at strip clubs with oddly vague names like Sensations.

Only Chicago Bears fans, who’ve had maybe six great skill players in the organization’s history, could wage the complaint “We’ve got too many productive players on offense!”

Phil Emery made mistakes as Bears GM, most notably hiring the worst head coach in team history.

But Emery deserves nothing but praise for this assemblage of offensive talent. The Bears, the damn Chicago Bears, have two top receivers, a top tight end and two top guards. (Yes, Matt Slauson is a top guard. His absence was THE major factor in the offensive line’s decline in 2015.) The team also has one of the league’s finest backs and a productive quarterback. 2013’s offensive production was not an aberration or anomaly. It was the proper output from one of the league’s most talented units.

Read More …

Tagged: , ,

126 Comments

Rich Campbell’s Ernie Accorsi Interview is Must Read

| January 24th, 2015

accorsi

Been a long time since DBB has dedicated space to a single piece but Rich Campbell’s interview with Ernie Accorsi is one of the most insightful football pieces I’ve read in a long time. There is tremendous detail regarding the hiring processes, the relationship between Ted Phillips & George McCaskey, why this opportunity at this time was perfect for Ryan Pace and the difference between Chicago and other football markets.

Some of my favorite stuff was a look inside the Giants offices. An excerpt:

What did you admire about John from your experiences with him with the Giants?

“His office (as defensive coordinator) was right next to mine, so we interacted. In a lot of places, the GM and the coach are at two different ends of the building. We were right beside each other, and (Fox) happened to be in the office next to mine. We interacted every day. First of all, he’s just a great football coach. Second thing, he has a way with people. He’s not going to lock himself in the office and draw up plays and be aloof. Players love to play for him.

“When we lost him, Mr. Mara actually said these words, and they were printed. When we lost him and he became head coach of Carolina, Wellington Mara said, ‘I feel much the same as I did when (Vince) Lombardi went to Green Bay.’ He said that.

“I’ll just give you an anecdote about John. We’re going to play Minnesota in the NFC championship game (in 2001). They have Randy Moss, Cris Carter, Robert Smith, Daunte Culpepper, and they’re scoring a million points a game. Now, all week they already scored 50 touchdowns in my apartment while I was trying to sleep.

“Finally we get to Friday, and I bump into Fox, and Fox says, ‘You’ve been ducking me all week.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to talk to you. I’m afraid of what you’re going to tell me.’ He said, ‘We may just shut them out.’ And we did (41-0). I thought we had a chance to win because we could score, but I thought we were going to win 45-38. He said, ‘We may just shut them out,’ and we did. And John doesn’t say that kind of stuff … to be boastful or bravado or anything like that.”

To read the entire Tribune piece, and you absolutely must, CLICK HERE AND DO IT.

Tagged: , , ,

382 Comments

Saying Everything I Want to Say About Jay Cutler & Then Going Dark on the Subject

| January 23rd, 2015

cutlermail

(1) Jay Cutler throws interceptions. He has started 119 games. He has thrown 130 interceptions. If you think having Cutler throw fewer passes is going to result in fewer interceptions, you’re just not paying attention. Cutler, if he plays all 16 games in an NFL season, should be expected to throw between 14-18 interceptions.

(2) Throwing interceptions does not automatically equate to losing. Eli Manning has thrown 185 interceptions in 167 starts. He’s also won two Super Bowls. Joe Flacco has thrown 90 picks in 112 games but raises his game in the postseason. These two quarterbacks are big game hunters. They raise themselves up at the big moment. They are only allowed to play in the big moments because they have complete teams.

(3) When has Jay Cutler ever had a complete team? Honestly ask yourself that question without any bias. When has he had a better than average defense, offensive line and skill guys? Not great. Just better than average. The teams Jay Cutler has played on have required him to carry them and he’s not that guy. I wonder if Pace and Fox will recognize that and do in 2015 what the Cowboys did in 2014: take the pressure off their mistake-prone quarterback.

(4) What turning the ball over DOES mean is sustained postseason success is unlikely. Eli has had a couple brilliant postseason runs. He’s barely gotten to the postseason otherwise.

(5) People say Jay Cutler is not a winning player. Well, factually, he is. 61-58 as a starter (44-38 as Bear). He has also only had one season where he’s been more than a single game below .500. (The Bears just completed that season.) You know who isn’t a winning player? Matthew Stafford. Is he being run out of Detroit for being 7 games below .500?

(6) Over his last three seasons with Lovie Smith as head coach and the combination of Martz/Tice at offensive coordinator, Jay Cutler was 27-13 as a starter. Interesting that when the team played solid defense he was not drawing “not a winning player” label.

126794x

(7) Jay Cutler is never going to be a rah rah leadership type. Remember when he used to shout at offensive coordinators (like Tom Brady) and shove offensive linemen (like Phil Rivers) and get angry when receivers ran the wrong routes (like Peyton Manning) and get lambasted by the national media for it? Well, he stopped. Now you get Jay Cutler, the father. Watch a Ravens or Giants game and find me the moments Eli and Flacco display these emotions Bears fans want from Cutler. You can watch every snap of their careers. You won’t find any.  Their emotions never change. This is not to say a quarterback shouldn’t be be a rah rah type. This is to say you don’t necessarily need this attribute to win.

Read More …

Tagged: ,