Progkakke Week 6

Progkakke Standings:

Iggins!: 53-24

Code Red: 48-29

Mrs. Code Red: 46-31

Erik: 46-31

New York Giants (0-5) @ Chicago Bears (3-2)

Iggins!: Two tough losses to good-to-great teams for the Bears, but this stretch of the schedule should let them build some momentum and really mesh as a team. Bears win 38-20.

Erik: The Giants are not good. The Thursday thing is a vague concern, because weird shit always happens in those games; but if there’s anyone more likely to have a sloppy-ass Thursday game than Jay it’s Eli Manning so I’m not that worried about it. Bears win 31-21

Code Red: Not to mention the Bears are the home team, and they win like 70% of these games. Bears 34-24.

Mrs. Code Red: Bears, 31-17. And that's giving the Giants too much credit.

Oakland Raiders (2-3) @ Kansas City Chiefs (5-0)

Erik: Well, Terrelle Pryor is apparently good. We’re just going to have to accept this and move on with our lives. Not good enough to get past that Chiefs defense, though. It’s getting frankly hilarious to hear people saying “The Chiefs’ fall is coming!” as they roll to a 6-0 start. They could lose out the season, and still have improved more than anyone could’ve reasonably asked. Chiefs.

Code Red: The Chiefs fall will come as the Chiefs fall usually does, when they meet a playoff opponent who shuts down their typically overmatched game manager QB, before then I see no problem picking them over the surprisingly not that awful Raiders. Chiefs win.

Mrs. Code Red: Chiefs, because even though the Raiders have been better-ish, the Chiefs are just...better. Minus the ish. Y'know?

Iggins!: Chiefs, the #1 defense in the league!

Cincinnati Bengals (3-2) @ Buffalo Bills (2-3)

Iggins!: Without E.J. Manuel? Hard to see the Bills winning. On the other hand, the Bengal offense is, for no reason, just plain anemic right now. I’ll say Bengals win, but will not be surprised at all to see them lose.

Erik: I’d say that even with E.J. Manuel it’d be iffy, but without him it seems damn near impossible. The Bengals offense was a disgrace on Sunday, but so was New England’s so I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if the rain or something whatever. Bengals.

Code Red: I will NEVER pick a team that is starting a QB from Duke to win a game. Duke, people. Bengals win.

Mrs. Code Red: The Bengals are a very confusing team, but I can't pick the Bills and a QB who has one career start. For the Browns. Bengals win.

Detroit Lions (3-2) @ Cleveland Browns (3-2)

Erik: I could not have said that I think this will be a good game with a straight face a month ago, but it certainly seems possible that it will be now. The Lions showed that they are absolute horseshit without Calvin Johnson on Sunday, but if he’s on the field this week that is immaterial. The Browns were looking very impressive, but I don’t know if Weeden is enough to get past that defense. Lions.

Code Red: The Browns line is still very sketchy, and Weeden has not done all that well under pressure this year. Lions win.

Mrs. Code Red: If Calvin Johnson's out I think the Browns win. Hell, I'll do it. Browns win.

Iggins!: Whoah people think the Lions will win this game? You two are crazy. The Browns defense, at home, even with Weeden, will win this game. Cleveland wins.

Episode 20 of the SKOdCast: Oh Yeah I Forgot to Post This.

From Thursday Night:

Bears 27, Giants 21- Eli Sux

I am going to try not to overreact to anything that happened tonight. Thursday Night Games are generally less than  pretty, and the Bears, at least on one side of the ball, managed to keep it completely clean. That's to be commended. Otherwise, I can only say I'm glad the Bears survived.

The offense was everything we had ever hoped it would be for one half and then saw several promising drives in the second half fizzle out thanks to a mediocre effort in the run game and some missed passes. Nothing on that side of the ball really concerned me, though. A handful of plays (a crappy grounding call, a couple barely missed deep balls to Jeffery) go differently and they put this one away fairly early, but a few missed opportunities are understandable when you didn't even have a real practice in the week. They still managed 375 yards, picked up 25 first downs, and possessed the ball for over 32 minutes. Most importantly, they had zero turnovers in a game where one could have killed them. Again, for a Thursday night shitpile, I'll take it.

As for the other side of the ball? Well. Things there are...still panic-inducing. It's hard to harp too much on a team that was down 6 starters by the end of the game (really hope Anderson's injury isn't serious), but when some of those players struggling are the 5 starters who were so good last year, that Is concerning. Hopefully the ten days off will let them field as close to a complete unit as possible and let them get some practice reps for the new guys. Either way, I suspect they're going to keep us awake at night the rest of the year. In the end, though, 4-2 is nothing to be upset about and they get a long respite before taking on a struggling Redskins team. Hopefully they keep getting better.

THE GOOD:

Jay Cutler: He was smart and accurate for most of the game, with the only mistakes being some missed connections between he and Jeffery, some Jay's fault and some Alshons. He finished 24/36 for 262 YDs and 2 TDs, with his second straight 100+ passer rating, and his 5th 90+ passer rating in six tries. He also ran for 20 yards, converting several 3rd downs, because that's just what he does.

Brandon Marshall: Far too much will be made of the Bears determination to get the ball to Brandon, when really Jay just threw it to his star fucking receiver because he was, y'know, open. He finished with 9 catches for 87 yards and 2 TDs.

Marty B: He caught 6 of 7 passes thrown his way for 68 yards against his old team. Considering Eli's last DERP clanged off the hands of his TE, I'm sure the Giants are wishing they'd have found some money to keep him.

Pass Protection: The Giants aren't doing a very good job of getting to the QB right now (I sympathize!), but the line not only allowed zero sacks, I can't even remember more than one or two plays where Jay seemed to be under Any pressure. Commendable.

Marc Trestman: I thought that was a pretty good game plan on offense. It's a shame some promising second half drives ended in Giants territory, but the approach was sound and I was pleased with his decision to throw for the first down on 3rd down with less than 2 minutes left. I can't imagine Lovie being so ballsy in that spot.

THE BAD:

Run Defense: I can't say I expected them to be dominant with a d-line composed of guys signed off the street and Shea Fucking McClellin, but the Giants haven't run the ball worth a damn all year before tonight. That was ugly. Hopefully Stephen Paea and Charles Tillman (whose run defense should Never be understated) are healthy in ten days. Guh.

Shea McClellin: Once Paea is back, I expect Shea to be back at situational pass rusher and Nothing else. He is literally the worst run-defending DE in the entire NFL (and no, that's not hyperbole. That's where he ranks according to PFF), and teams just run right at him for huge gains. It's time to put an end to that experiment. I've defended that pick in the past, but not anymore. He's a liability.

Tim Jennings: Yes, he had two INTs, including a pick six, but he was pretty spotty in coverage most of the night, missed several tackles, and had one dumb PI penalty and had another that was only waved off because the pass was uncatchable. Tim's a fine complementary corner, but he has been exposed everytime he's had the role of guarding the #1 of another team's offense.

Injuries: Tillman was out. Paea out. Anderson and Williams went down. Make it stop. Please. God. Make it stop.

Run Blocking: the Giants were 24th against the run before this game, and the Bears have generally run-blocked well this year, so I was shocked to see Forte get less than four yards per carry tonight, and that, more than anything else, is what slowed the offense down in the second half and allowed the Giants to hang around.

THE UGLY:

Eli Manning: Holy shit. 15 INTs in 6 games. That's just brutal. And I don't want to hear how he has no offensive line this year. He was barely pressured all night, and still DERP'd his way to defeat. He's a joke right now.

That's it for now. The Bears won, that's all that matters, and the offense keeps getting farther along each week. If the defense can just get healthy in their extra time off, things will be better going forward, but for now we may have to content ourselves with winning some uncomfortable close games.

Go Bears.

SKOdcast 20: Revenge of the SKOds will be live at 6:15 tonight!

Join us for a pregame podcast at 6:15, with topics of discussion such as "How stupid is everyone talking about Brandon Marshall?" and "Hey look, the Giants are terrible!" Plus, laugh at Kyle's antics as he attempts to conduct a podcast in a crowded sports bar because he only seems averse to piracy when it directly inconveniences me. See you there! And by there I mean here.

Morrissey Must Get a Bonus if he Uses the Phrase "Team Cancer" This Season

A little over a month ago, after preseason game three, Brandon Marshall made some pretty straightforward remarks about not being back in top shape and learning a new offense. If you'll recall, the media flocked to it like kids flock to the house that gives out full-size candy bars on Halloween. I'm pretty sure Bernstein actually uploaded a video of himself having a hands-free orgasm at the thought of Brandon Marshall hitting a woman in a nightclub. Because the guy was feeling a little slow after someone stabbed his leg with tiny knives for a few hours.

This week, a lot of reporters asked Brandon Marshall a bunch of variations of one question: How frustrated are you with your production? Because he had two bad games in a row, one of which was pretty much Jay's fault for playing like dogshit until the Lions went to the prevent. Clearly, he must be ready to explode in a fit of rage and murder everyone in the locker room.

Really, it all comes back to the same thing as the first pointless media feeding frenzy: they want him to slip. They want him to give them something to talk about. They've more or less lost Jay now, he's played their game and kept his head down. Even Morrissey can only talk about him shoving a lineman for so long. But this, Rick can talk about. And talk he does. His article is in italics, my responses are regular text.

A Guest Post by Mrs. Code Red: What's in a Name?

Editor's note: It's a little-known secret that I really don't care for fantasy football. I play it, because it's expected of me and it's hard to scrape up enough living, breathing idiots to form a decent league that I feel bad refusing to play, but frankly it distracts from my pure, unfiltered obsession with the game, and it only ever makes me feel bad as I have a tendency to NEVER WIN ANY GODDAMN CHAMPIONSHIPS. My wife, however, freaking loves fantasy football (and has a trophy won at my expense to boot) and through the process has discovered a fact about ESPN and Jay Cutler that irritates her to no end and led her to write the following piece:

What’s in a name?

In the NFL, apparently a lot. As a devoted fantasy football player, and even more devoted Bears fan, I have been continually flabbergasted by ESPN’s continued refusal to believe in Cutler’s fantasy football potential. Granted, I own him in one of my leagues and happen to be married to just about the biggest Cutler fan imaginable so I am hardly an impartial audience. But as you’ll see, the numbers are definitely on my side.

When ESPN projected Jay to score only 10 fantasy points in the season opener, it was understandable. After all, he was coming off of a disappointing 2012 season, was running a brand new offense under a new-to-the-NFL head coach, and despite the attention paid to the offensive line in the off-season, lots of questions remained about their ability to provide Cutler with the protection he so obviously lacked in 2012. I was completely willing to accept their low-ish projection and was, in fact, happy and slightly surprised when he came away from the game with a solid 16 points against a genuinely good Bengals defense. I didn’t expect entirely smooth sailing from here on out, but things were looking up for my guy.

But when week 2 rolled around, ESPN projected Cutler to score 10 points. Again. Okay, okay, fine. Maybe the first game was a fluke or the new offense just took people by surprise. He still needed to prove himself to the critics. And he did - Jay scored 17 points against the Vikings, outscoring ESPN’s projection for him by over 50%.

When week 3 came around, I was expecting another low-ball fantasy projection from the “experts” at ESPN, but even still, their 9 points against the Steelers seemed a bit too low. Sure enough, Jay had his lowest yardage totals all season and still scored 11 fantasy points.

Surely after three straight weeks of outscoring their projections, the sage minds at ESPN had to give Jay some credit before the week 4 matchup against the Lions. They did not, with a projection of 11 points. Cutler played what was easily his worst game of the season and still finished with 16 points. Are you noticing a trend?

Okay, even with the undefeated Saints rolling into town, ESPN had to expect that Jay would put up at least 11 points, his lowest total yet. But no. They projected him to score 8 points. 8 POINTS! For crying out loud, Ryan Tannehill had just scored 9 points against the Saints in a game in which he threw three interceptions. How did Jay answer? With 22 points, easily his best total to date. For you math types, that means he outscored their projection by a whopping 275%.

So where does that leave us? With the woeful Giants heading to Chicago this week, ESPN has finally put together a bullish prediction for Cutler, prognosticating a 22 points effort against what is easily the worst defense the Bears have faced all year. Way to go out on a limb. Even still, they can’t help themselves from being jerks to Cutler. In their little blurb on Cutler’s player overview card, they spend the first half of the paragraph talking about Jay’s turnover problems before a game in which they are not even projecting him to turn the ball over. That’s right. The “Jay Cutler – Turnover Machine” stereo-type runs so deep in the ESPN offices that they literally cannot stop themselves from bringing it up.

So in summary, ESPN has projected Cutler to score an average of 9.6 points during his first five games when in reality he has averaged 16.4. That’s right, their dislike of Cutler is so intense that it apparently lowers his value by over a full touchdown.

For comparison’s sake, let’s look at golden boy Tom Brady. It’s obvious that this season has not started out well for Brady, a fact that ESPN only barely acknowledges and usually does so only in terms of blaming his supporting cast. Comments like “His 52-game touchdown streak came to a close last week, but it wasn't all Brady's fault as his receivers dropped four passes, including Julian Edelman's drop in the end zone in the game's final minute,” have been used over and over to apologize for Brady’s low point totals. Despite his mediocre showings and obvious issues, ESPN has projected Brady to score an average of 17.4 points through his first five games. What has he actually scored? 13.2. That’s 3.2 points lower than Cutler has averaged. As if to add insult to injury, ESPN cited Cutler’s great game against the Saints last week as a reason why Brady should bounce back against the Saints this week. Because hell, if Jay Cutler can do it, any old idiot can!

I’m not asking for anybody to name Jay the “elitest of the elite” or anything like that. I’m not even saying that he’s a better QB than Brady in real life (although I don’t think he’s too far behind – but that’s a different discussion altogether). But it’s fantasy football – open your eyes and quit ignoring a breakout fantasy season just because you don’t like a guy’s pouty face and double chin. 

Editor's note: Jay Cutler homer-ism is strong in this family. We make no apologies. Except for Jay, of course. 

Opinionating: Ten Thoughts on the Bears and Beyond

1) I'm not really disappointed that the Bears sit at 3-2. I have the same amount of confidence that, with their schedule, they can make the playoffs that I had before the losing streak. Even if they should fall short of that goal, to me the clock was somewhat reset once Lovie was fired. Lovie had run out of time, but Trestman has not. He was handed the job of fixing the offense, and so far the results are promising. Have they looked out of sync at times? Absolutely, but they're 4th in the NFL in scoring, 11th in yards, and Cutler, Forte, Marshall, and Jeffery are all on pace for phenomenal seasons. The amount of progress they've made from an utterly inept unit last year to a legitimate NFL offense in just five games should be praised, not criticized for being too slow. If the defensive collapse continues, and I see no reason to think it won't, sadly, that's hardly to be pinned on Trestman or even Emery. Give them a year to spend some time fixing that side of the ball (as they've largely fixed the offense in just one offseason) and then adjust your expectations accordingly.

2)Alshon Jeffery's development is the biggest positive for me this year, even including my happiness over Cutler finally putting up legit franchise QB numbers. To see the Bears identify and draft a talent at that position and have him actually develop the way a legit prospect should is comforting. After Jeffery's rookie campaign kind of hit a wall due to injuries after a promising start I have to admit I had horrifying Mark Bradley flashbacks.

3)Before this season I laughed at people suggesting the 3-4 defense was in the Bears future,  but with Henry Melton and others who were integral parts of the 4-3 approach suddenly regressing and having cloudy futures with the team, and with the abundance of talent at linebacker (including a possible position switch for Shea McClellin) and dearth of it elsewhere, I actually wouldn't be shocked to see the team move that direction next year.

4)It hasn't really been noticed much because of the attention paid to raw sack totals, but the tackle play for the Bears hasn't been great lately. Bushrod's struggled a lot of this year, as has Mills since week two. Hopefully that trend reverses before the Bears face another talented 3-4 defense that will really bring pressure off the edge.

5)It failed miserably, but I was really pleased to see the Bears use a package play in the red zone on Sunday. Cutler held the ball too long, causing the illegal downfield penalty on Long, but it's nice to see the Bears with an offensive coaching staff that's at least trying to embrace the newest innovation in football. Outside of all of the damn times Mike Martz attempted a bizarro version of the Wildcat, that is.

6)I love Drew Brees. Always have, always will. If the Bears are out of it eventually he will definitely have my backing in the NFC playoff field.

7) Matt Schaub is one of three QBs I can think of in recent memory who have rapidly and nigh inexplicably gone from perfectly adequate to bafflingly terrible overnight. The other two were Jake Delhomme starting with the 2008 Playoffs and Jake Plummer starting with the 2005 AFC Title game. Neither ever seemed to recover from letting their team down in a huge spot.

8) I hope Jadaveon Clowney keeps pissing all over his draft stock. I'll spread rumors of substance abuse issues myself if it drops him  somewhere into the back half of the draft where the Bears might have a shot at him. Anyone who overrates his struggles this year and passes on him will live to regret it.

9)Speaking of the draft, I wholeheartedly admire Gus Bradley's determination to tank with Blaine Gabbert, and I'm sad Gabbert's repeated injuries keep derailing the effort. That man knows what his best play is, and also knows that Gabbert's historically awful play is literally the only interesting thing about the Jags this year.

10)I won't say this often, but my God do I feel bad for Tony Romo.

Bears 18, Saints 26: We Told Him So

Well, the Bears lost to the Saints. Hardly surprising, but it was more painful that it had to be. Really, though, the pain seemed to roll to every phase in turn. When the defense was busy holding Brees to 6 points on two drives, one of which began at first and a goal, the offense couldn’t do anything. Then the playcalling just kind of fell apart. Then the offense worked, and the defense decided they didn’t need to.

Still, I said I wouldn’t be upset if they held up reasonably well against Brees in a loss and I stand by it. There were a lot of encouraging signs in this game, despite the frustration. Thanks to Green Bay spanking the Lions, the Bears are still tied for first and are looking at two pretty soft teams before the first Packers game. Without further ado,

Prognostication Bukkake Week 5

Progkakke Standings:

Iggins!: 45-18

Code Red: 42-21

Mrs. Code Red: 40-23

Erik: 39-24

Buffalo Bills (2-2) @ Cleveland Browns (2-2)

Iggins!: Two very surprising 2-2 teams here. What the hell is with the Browns? Apparently trading away over-praised A-Train was a nice kick in the ass. I like the Browns to win here as, honestly, they’ve just looked better.

Erik: Yeah they’re clearly doing something right, though if the Josh Gordon rumors are true it seems like they may be doing too much. Just… you’re good, guys. Get a new QB and a couple linemen and you’re good! Browns.

Code Red: The Browns have a good enough defense to be…like, legitimately good now. I don’t know how long this whole Hoyer thing can last, but I like them here. Browns win.

Mrs. Code Red: The Browns seem less mediocre. Browns win.

Kansas City Chiefs (4-0) @ Tennessee Titans (3-1)

Erik: While I predict an eventual return to Earth for the Chiefs, they just keep getting handed more and more wins. The Titans have been better than they had any right to be, but they’re up against a team that’s essentially just them, but better at every position here. Chiefs go to 5-0.

Code Red: Jake Locker finally plays as good as everyone was pretending he was playing and gets hurt. Figures. Chiefs win.

Mrs. Code Red: Chiefs. I keep waiting for them to lose, but I don’t think this is where it happens. Also,  Jake Locker is hurt, and that’s somehow a bad thing. Chiefs win.

Iggins!: I like the Titans, but that Chief defense is way too good for Fitzy. Chiefs win.

New Orleans Saints (4-0) @ Chicago Bears (3-1)

Iggins!: I took this one first so everyone could see I didn’t pick the Bears. I think we’ll do much better than we looked last week. Cutler should recover from whatever he had, the offense should get in tune. I think we can keep it close. But when you throw no pass rush, mediocre secondary play (if we’re being generous), and Drew Brees into a pot, you get a Saints win, 38-27.

Erik: I’m not going to mince words because I’m writing a long-winded rant about it, but here’s my take on Sunday: The QB played like shit, and we were never going to win that game. Everything starts there, and he owned it and was apparently sick. So I don’t like it, but every team loses and I’d rather it be an external factor making that happen than Jay just being bad for no reason. I don’t see how they slow down the Saints, but I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if we somehow keep up with them. But still, yeah, Saints 31-24.

Code Red: You treasonous bastards. My head may agree with thee, but I’ve sacrificed progkakke standings to loyalty before, and I’ll do it here. I do think the offense will play pretty well. Whether that will actually be enough, I don’t know. Bears win 34-30.

Mrs. Code Red: I have to admit I’m nervous, but Bears win 27-30. Think about that score for a minute. You gutless cowards!

SKOdCast Episode 19 is Now Up!

How many excuses can we make for Jay Cutler? ALL OF THE EXCUSES. Which of us are TRAITOROUS BASTARDS? (Hint: it's not me). What situations need Greg Schiano, besides every situation ever? More dumb trades, Brett Favre's dong, and more!

Episode 19 of the SKOdCast Live at 6:15 PM.

Listen in as we discuss DOOOOM, DOOOM, AND MORE DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.....

and probably the Bucs. 

LINKAGE

What's in a game?

The Chicago Bears are 3-1. Not a sentence I wanted to write. Not one I expected to write. Still, all things being considered, not one I’m as upset as you would think about writing. But God damn are a lot of people really upset about it.

We’re in that ridiculous part of the early season where ESPN insists upon figuring out whether teams are “for real” or not. Any team that has done well to this point now has to justify their success by winning all games, forever, always, lest they be exposed as pretenders.

And for some reason errbody keys on the Bears in these situations. But really, what about that game other than a poor showing from an allegedly ill Jay Cutler exposed the Bears as anything other than a pretty good team with flaws and a decent shot at making the playoffs, much like almost every good team in the NFL?

Lions 40, Bears 32- Die By the Sword

For three games the Bears have largely thrived off turnovers generated by the defense and have played largely smart, low-risk and effective offense to win games. Today they got hit hard by the reversal, and the result was ugly. The defense failed to get turnovers early, and Jay Cutler suffered an ugly case of regression to put the team in a hole. The result was an eventual 30-10 first half lead for the Lions, and the end of the Bears perfect record.

Where does this put the team? Plenty of members of the fanbase have immediately forgotten the 3-0 start or undoubtedly thrown it away as a mirage in order to jump on the team and it's quarterback as shitty. That's to be expected. I won't defend the way Cutler played today. I, like everyone, was hoping these kinds of days were behind him. A few stupid turnovers, however, does not entirely undo the progress this offense has made. As of right now they're averaging 32 PPG (or 26.5 if you take out defensive scores), up from 23.4 PPG last year (or 19.5 PPG without defensive scores), and their 360 YPG average is well above their 310 YPG average from last year. This offense is undoubtedly improved. Bad Jay, as he always does, will disappear once again for a few weeks before rearing his ugly head again and making us all want to choke ourselves in another game down the road. That's fine. They'll survive as they always have. There's no reason to ignore progress on so many fronts because of that.

The defense remains my going concern. It seemed to me like Julius Peppers played pretty well even outside of his strip sack, but the first start for Nate Collins was underwhelming, and Stephen Paea had his worst game yet. The Wootton/McClellin combo was once again a no-show. The secondary actually managed to hold the Lions passing game in check as much as could possibly be expected given the lack of a rush, but all three units failed miserably when it came to slowing down the run game or mastering the manly art of tackling. I'm slowly losing my confidence that they're going to all round into form at some point, and that's going to be an issue next week with Breesus coming to town.

In the end, the Bears are 3-1, tied for first place (yes, Detroit fans, use the tiebreaker excuse if you want because that's totally relevant before the second game has even been played), and get back to back games at home in the next two weeks. This offense was always going to have it's growing pains, but it's still given us plenty of reasons for hope going forward.

The Good:

Alshon Jeffery: Alshon caught five balls for 107 yards (with his sideline grab at the end of the first half being maybe the best yet of his young career) and a TD, and also had a 27 yard run. His development is going to pay big dividends down the line.

Charles Tillman: He had to leave the game several times, and is clearly hurting, but he managed once again to largely make Megatron a non factor. Get well, P'nut.

Matt Forte: He had 14 rushes for 95 yards and a TD before the scoreboard forced the team to abandon the run. Hopefully the next time these teams meet the game won't get out of hand so fast and he can continue to gash them as he has done most of his career.

The Bad:

Jay Cutler: That sucked. To his credit, Jay admitted the loss was on him. It certainly was. While the defense was less than spectular in the first half, Jay put them in bad spots with every turnover, and is actually lucky they didn't come away with as many points as they could have. I'm not going to sweat this, however, because every Bad Jay game feels like the end of the fucking world and he has never failed to rebound yet. It was also good to see that Marc Trestman called Jay out for it very calmly, and Jay responded without anger or any of the usual chirpiness. It was a pipe dream to think that his penchant for these kinds of games would completely disappear, but he has a chance to show actual growth in his response to this going forward. Let's hope he does. A win over New Orleans next week would make all of the negativity disappear quickly.

Run Defense: Jesus Christ. Pick a man. They all had a hand on a Lions runningback at some point and failed to make the play. The sad thing is that the run game was the only department where they Hadn't been shitty this season.


The Ugly:

Thom Fucking Brennaman. Again. God I hate this man. Apparently in Thom Brennaman's world, any sort of pass on a play where you have only a yard to go to pick up the first down is worse than child abuse. YOU MEAN TO TELL ME, THAT A TEAM IN THE NFL WOULD PASS IN A SITUATION WHERE DEFENSES WOULD ACTUALLY BE GEARED TO STOP THE RUN? UNBELIEVEABLE.

That's all for now. Losing sucks. Let's just not do that again.

Go Bears.

Progkakke Week 4

Progkakke Standings:

Iggins!: 34-14

Code Red: 32-16

Erik: 30-18

Mrs. Code Red: 29-19

San Francisco 49ers (1-2?!) @ St. Louis Rams (1-2)

Iggins!: Last week, hopefully, was a massive haymaker to the face for the Niners. The Rams gave them trouble last year, but that was because the Rams literally knew every play San Fran was running. Niners get back on track.

Erik: As much as the Niners have looked like garbage the last two games, there’s just too much talent on that roster to believe this is who they are now. A week ago I might have taken the Rams, but their defense is clearly not as consistently great as I believed. Niners grind this one out.

Code Red: The Rams defense looked really solid in all phases last year, but this year the D-Line has remained stout while the secondary has really struggled. Which is good, because f*&k Cortland Finnegan. 49ers haven't sunk that far.

Elyse: God, it feels weird that I'm even debating it. Goodness gracious, Colin Kaepernick. Still, they aren't that bad. 49ers win.

Chicago Bears (3-0 :-D) @ Detroit Lions (2-1)

Erik: Looking back on the game last night, I feel pretty confident that a lot of those “errors” were actually just super-conservative playcalling allowing the Steelers to stay in the game. Hopefully Trestman learns from that and takes a bolder stand against a team that can score as quickly as the Lions. Pass rush still concerns me, as does Tillman’s availability against Megatron, but for the first time since the Lions were “good,” I feel confident saying we can keep up even without a Pro Bowl performance there. Bears win, 28-21.

Code Red: Yeah, we'll never know what game Trestman would have called if they hadn't been up 24-3 before you could blink. I understand not wanting to chance that on the road, and when he called deep drops to try and get 'em moving again in the 3^rd quarter the OL suddenly couldn't block. Bears can score on the Lions. Really looking forward to Suh vs. Kyle Long. Bears 30-24.

Elyse: Kind of did not expect this to be a battle for first place, but I'm not impressed with Detroit. Bears win 30-21.

Iggins!: I’ll take the Bears to win because it’s bad luck not to, but I’m pretty sure we lose here, randomly, and for no reason. Just a hunch!

New York Giants (0-3) @ Kansas City Chiefs (3-0)

Iggins!: So apparently the Giants are terrible? The signs were all there, I guess. Terrible linebackers, mediocre secondary… if the d-line fell apart that defense would be crap, and it did. More concerning has to be Eli failing while having Nicks and Cruz to throw to. Also, that Chief defense is a nightmare. Chiefs win.

Erik: I really wasn’t that surprised. Even the years they won the Super Bowl, I have a hard time describing those teams as “good.” Certainly they had good players who put on good performances, but they’ve always (and by always I mean in the last five or six years) been flying by the seat of their pants and just scraping by. Eli’s protection has been shit, which has prevented him from putting on those Incredible Hulk performances that hide all the flaws under a barrage of TDs. It doesn’t get any easier against the Chiefs.

Code Red: that defense was shit last year, too. Then they made no additions on D and lost players on offense. Why does this shock people? I mean, the turnover hilarity is surprising even with Eli being Eli, but otherwise not surprised. Chiefs win, Eli gets caught in a Groundhog's Day like infinite loop of INTs.

Elyse: Woof. Chiefs are going to decimate them. Chiefs win.

BEHOLD! The SKOdCast: Episode 18

I did, in fact, call Jim Schwartz a f*%kface.

Episode 18 of the SKOdCast is Live at 6:15 PM

Listen in as we discuss a bit of Bears-Steelers and Bears-Lions (Odds are high that I'll call Jim Schwartz a f*&kface), and a bunch of around the league stuff ranging from Geno Smith to Josh Freeman to the Chiefs defense and various other topics. Also, Goddammit Bears Fans. LINKAGE

Opinionating: Ten Thoughts on the Bears and Beyond, Week 4

1) If he keeps up his absolutely stellar play, James Anderson may be one of the best free-agent signings of the last decade for the Bears, considering the pittance Emery is paying him. Perhaps the biggest difference between Tucker's scheme and Lovie's (although the similarities are apparent as well) is the large role Tucker has assigned to Anderson. With all due respect to two pretty solid players in Nick Roach and Hunter Hillenmeyer, I can't imagine either being able to do the kinds of things in the pass-rushing and pass-coverage departments that Anderson is excelling at right now.

2) The biggest difference between 2012 Jay Cutler and 2013 Jay Cutler? I suppose you could go with his maturity, as Dan Pompei says in this very good article. Statistically, though, it's in his accuracy downfield. Cutler right now is leading the league in completion % on passes thrown more than 10 yards in the air at 58%. Last year that number was just 39%. Although Trestman is calling more short passes for Jay than previous Bears coaches, it's been Jay's effectiveness downfield that has prevented defenses from sitting on those routes and preventing the offense from moving the ball.

3) That hole that Forte had on his 55 yard run is maybe the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. No analysis or anything. It was just awesome.

4) Did Lovie Smith do some kind of pump-fake drill every summer that Mel Tucker doesn't? Because I'm pretty sure that every single Bears defender has had their lunch money stolen on a pumpfake at some point this season. Hell, even Pro Football Focus mentioned it.

5)I have the normal amount of "Detroit Sucks" bravado and moments of panic-inducing "oh God what if they actually lost to Detroit?" thoughts this week, but one thing I am undeniably excited to watch this weekend is Kyle Long vs. Ndamukong Suh. Suh will win his share of matchups, but for once I believe the Bears have two guards who have a fighting chance against him. Besides, Long is just undeniably fun to watch. I don't know how you can say that about an offensive lineman, but the dude likes to hit people and I like seeing him do it.

6)I feel bad for Josh Freeman. I don't exactly think that he, like Steve Young, is a transcendent talent who will become a Hall of Famer when he escapes Tampa like Young did. There is some talent there, however, and it's always rough to see a guy just play without any confidence because his own coach hates him. I also can't imagine anyone who would trade for him in-season. Some teams that may look into a veteran option at QB next year *cough*Vikings*cough* will consider bringing him into camp, but the mid-season QB acquisition rarely works. Byron Leftwich's turn in Atlanta comes to mind.

7) I wonder how many weeks I can go without admitting how utterly fucking wrong I was about Ryan Tannehill being a Gabbert-like disaster. At least one more!

8)That Chiefs defense is downright terrifying. Any great 3-4 has to have three key ingredients: a play-making, wide-ranging safety (Eric Berry), a holy terror of an rush linebacker (why, hello, Justin Houston) and an immovable object at the nose (Dontari Poe). The Chiefs have all of that now, plus loads of depth at LB and DE. It's going to be so depressing watching another limp-armed journeyman QB with delusions of grandeur spoil this team's chances.

9)As dumb as it looked on draft night, I think it's fair to say the Jets deserve credit for taking Sheldon Richardson and Dee Milliner and not reaching to draft a QB when the arguably best QB in this draft fell to them in the second round anyway. With a front seven that is now loaded with young, premier talent (first round picks in Richardson, Muhammed Wilkerson, and Quinton Coples), they're slamming the door shut on opposing run games and placing Geno Smith in positions where he doesn't have to do much to win or at least keep the game competitive. If Geno can avoid the turnovers that doomed Rico Mirerez, he could enjoy similarly undeserved credit for riding a talented defense to a wildcard spot in a weak division.

10) There was a time when I was a big, stupid kid and hated on Peyton Manning out nothing more than pure jealousy. Those days are long past. If you don't enjoy watching what that man is doing (unless you're one of his poor victims, in which case hate away), then I'm not sure you really like football.

Bears 40, Steelers 23- The Uncomfortable Blowout.

I wouldn't have been surprised if you'd told me the Bears were going to win this game by 17 points. I'd have been pleasantly surprised, but not stunned if you told me they'd put up 40 points. The way these things played out, though, was interesting to say the least.

Anyone who has read this site for years knows I generally bemoan the crowd that constantly looks to point out how shitty the Bears played in games they won, or bitches about a defense that gives up "too many yards" while getting a ton of turnovers and not giving up that many points. I can't however, say that  I feel good about everything, even at 3-0 and coming off a big win.

The defense is absolutely concerning to me. I am glad the turnovers have kept up, and their talent at converting those turnovers into scores is undeniable. The fact of the matter is, however, that these Bears are giving up too many yards and getting very little of a pass rush without blitzing. The lack of pressure from the front four has left the team far too vulnerable to big plays, something that was unheard of for years. It's one thing for the team to give up 350 yards with a big lead and keeping receivers in front of them. It's another thing when those yards are actually coming on 3rd and long, or in meaningful situations. For all of this to change the defense is going to have to figure out a way to get pressure with just their front four, and that's not going to be easy to do without Henry Melton, even if he was struggling.

However, I'm not going to be the buzzkill. There's a lot to be excited about here. This team clearly has yet to play their best game, and they are 3-0 and in first place in the division. The offense played far too conservative for too much of the game, even though I understand that they were trying to protect the lead and avoid mistakes. When it counted, however, and with horrifying flashbacks to John Shoop and others in my mind, they made big plays to clinch the win. Faith restored. Hopefully we'll continue to see them taking steps forward in weeks to come.

THE GOOD

Major Wright: He had his questionable moments in coverage like seemingly every member of the secondary tonight, but he made some nice plays in the run game with 7 tackles, a pass defensed, and a huge pick six.

DJ Williams: He had two huge sacks, included a strip, on excellent blitzes. We will admit we were wrong if you keep this up, DJ.

Earl Bennett: Holy shit, that touchdown catch. BBE!

Matt Forte: He had some struggles outside of his big 55 yard run, but still ended with 87 yards rushing and 24 yards receiving, along with a rushing TD.

Jay Cutler: The numbers are certainly unimpressive, with Trestman calling a very conservative (too conservative in my opinion) game once the Bears went up 24-3. The pass protection was certainly shakier than it's been yet this year, with 2 sacks allowed and a ton of pressure surrendered in the 3rd quarter. Despite all of this, Jay avoided mistakes throughout the night, fought his own instinct to force plays downfield, and then made three huge plays in a row once Trestman loosened the reins late. His scramble was brilliant, although I'm not going to celebrate him risking injury by lowering the boom (even if my meatball side wants to high five him). The throw to Marshall was amazing, and Brandon himself said it best: "he threw it 40, 50 yards back shoulder. I've never seen anyone do that." Then the TD pass to Bennett to ice the game was as brilliant a throw as I've ever seen him make. I hesitate to say he's completely "fixed", but he sure seems like a different guy.

THE BAD:

Pass Rush: it's still lacking. The blitzes helped early, but as tends to happen once the Steelers picked them up it was big play time for Ben. The DL was better tonight, with several pressures and 3 or 4 sacks Roethlisberger escaped, but they still were not consistently making life uncomfortable for him. This is now a major concern, and I'm not sure how they can avoid shootouts with the QBs coming up on the schedule unless they can get pressure rushing four.

Chris Conte: He bit badly on a pump fake that led to a huge gain for Brown, then failed to get over in time to help Jennings on the big TD toss. He also missed a couple of tackles.

Blitz pick-ups: They were bad, and it allowed the Steelers to shut down the offense for a long stretch.


THE UGLY:

Injuries: Tillman very clearly struggled with keeping up with Brown with his knee bothering him, and then went out with a groin injury. He's one guy they can't afford to lose. The Melton injury looked bad, and while it may not seem like a loss with the way he's struggled so far this year, it's pretty upsetting. I'd have liked to have seen him get the chance to round back into last year's form. Hopefully Nate Collins is ready for the big job.

That's all for now. This was not as easy as the scoreboard makes it look, nor as ugly as it felt in those tense moments there early in the fourth quarter. Winning on the road against a good defense (and make no mistake, the Steelers are not as good as they've been but are far from bad on defense) is never easy, and the Bears certainly have struggled in that respect in recent years. 3-0 is something to celebrate. Go Bears.

Progkakke, Week 3

Progkakke Standings:

Iggins!: 23-9

Code Red: 23-9

Mrs. Code Red: 22-10

Erik: 22-10

Kansas City Chiefs (2-0) @ Philadelphia Eagles (1-1)

Iggins!: Much better slate of games this week. The Chief defense is very stout, but their offense still has something to prove. In the end, I think both of these teams rack up the yards, but a Chiefs stop or two clinches it. Chiefs win.

Erik: You can already see the cracks in the Eagles, despite their furious production. They moved too fast against San Diego and left enough time for Philip Rivers to get in field goal range at the end, refusing to give up on the blur even when it was counteractive. The Chiefs’ defense is considerably better than San Diego’s, and Alex Smith is as safe with the football as anyone. A couple key stops carry the Chiefs to victory.

Code Red: I would like to pick the Chiefs here, as I think their defense can expose some previously unseen weaknesses in the Eagles protection schemes, but home teams generally win on Thursday nights and I just can't pull the trigger. Eagles win.

Elyse: Chiefs.  Honestly, I just think they are a better team, even if the Blur is fun to watch.

Green Bay Packers (1-1) @ Cincinnati Bengals (1-1)

Erik: I really think the Bengals are too good to be a 1-2 team, but I don’t think they can keep up with Rodgers here. A good defense will make it closer than people might think, but the Packers still take a commanding win.

Code Red: Oh why the fuck not? GAMBLING TIME. BENGALS AT HOME.

Elyse: I'll take the Packers, sadly, but it'll be no easy win. Packers win.

Iggins!: Kyle and I are on the same page here: great Bengal pass rush will mess with Rodgers all day and Dalton will cruise through the porous Packer secondary. Bengals win.

St. Louis Rams (1-1) @ Dallas Cowboys (1-1)

Iggins!: Like I said, much better games this week. The Rams put together a strong comeback last week, and their defense really tightened up in the second half. I feel like this almost put Jason Garrett out of a job. 

Rams win.

Erik: Tony Romo is at his worst against a resilient, patient defense. Rams win.

Code Red: If Jerrah was gonna fire Jason Garrett this early in a season why even keep him after back to back fuck ups the last two years?  Rams are decent, but I like the Cowboys at home.

Mrs. Code Red: I feel like the Rams are just the more disciplined team. This just seems like the exact kind of winnable home game that the Cowboys tend to screw away. Rams win.

Looking Back: An Oral History of the 2003 Bears on their 10th Anniversary

I am bored on a Friday night and have nothing else to do because my wife is gone for the weekend I am 25 going on 60. So this is just something I thought might be fun:

Some teams are good. Some teams are bad. Some teams are utterly forgettable, and that includes the 2003 Bears. In a way, though, doesn't that make them the teams most worth remembering? No? Well, here's the story of the 2003 Bears anyway.

March, 2003. Coming off of a dismal 4-12 campaign in 2002, just a year after a startling and totally-not-at-all-an-aberration-considering-it-was-their-first-ten-win-season-in-a-decade division title in 2001, Bears general manager Jerry Angelo deemed his team to be closer to a Superbowl contender than a basement-dweller, and chose to take a cautious approach to NFL free agency.

Jerry Angelo, ex-Bears GM: I've never been a big believer in free agent spending, unless my ass and everyone around me is about to be fired without a quick fix. I thought the core of that 2001 team could still contend, and decided the key to getting over the hump was a tight end who caught 2 passes for 42 yards in 2002.


Desmond Clark: Hey, I turned out pretty well.

Jerry Angelo: You sure did, Dez. Sorry I spent every fucking year seemingly trying to find your replacement, right up until I eventually benched you for Greg Olsen just in time to hire a coach who didn't even want to use him. 

Episode 17 of the SKOdCast Now Up!

Episode 17 of the SKOdCast Tonight at 6:15

Listen Live as we discuss the Bears win over the Vikings, my continued hatred of Thom UNBELIEVABLE Brennaman, the upcoming matchup with the Steelers, the Trent Richardson trade, some other NFL stuff, and of course, God Dammit Bears Fans. LINKAGE

Opinionating: 10 Thoughts on the Bears and Beyond, Week 2

1) Looking at the stats from the first two games, one thing really jumps out: Marc Trestman likes to soften the defense up with runs and short passes before going for the big play in the second half.

Cutler is 23/38 (60.5%) for 224 yards in the first half, averaging just 5.9 YPA (although he has a 3-1 TD:INT ratio and a 92.4 first half QB rating, so I'd still say he's been pretty effective). Forte has had 25 rushes in the first half vs. 13 in the second.

In the second half Jay is 26/34 for 308 YDs (76.5%) and averaging 9.06 YPA with a 98.7 rating. It's encouraging that his completion % has actually gone Up as the team has gone deeper downfield later in games. As we saw with the game-winning TD to Bennett and Cutler's mention that they had run that same route combination 3 or 4 times in the game already, it seems so far that Trestman understands how to probe for weaknesses in a defense and exploit them late.

2) Okay, looking at the stats two things stand out, and the other one is that Jay has been sacked 1 time in 78 dropbacks (6 scrambles for 25 yards) against two solid pass-rushes. That's still mind-boggling to me.

3) Woah, the Bears ran a successful end-around. After seeing this team fail for Years at desperately trying to force a big play on a Hester end-around, it was nice to see Jeffery break a big one. Trestman had been trying to set that up for a while by sending Jeffery in motion quite a bit, including on the wheel route he ran against the Bengals where Jay hit him for 12 yards through the air. That said, I hope they don't go crazy with it, since it backfired on them later.

4) Good pass protection requires the right mix of talent on the line, play-calling, and smart quarterback play, and right now the Bears have gotten all three. Jay hasn't been entirely smart of course as far as ball security, but he has been very conscious about getting the ball out quickly and has made quick decisions about when to escape the pocket to buy time or scramble. Both Jordan Mills and Bushrod struggled at times, but got the help they needed from the coaches, Jay, and a strong showing by the interior (Garza, Long, and Slauson all graded out positively from PFF). Nobody has to play a perfect game every week, but that combination can keep this team from avoiding the massive, systemic breakdowns that plagued previous incarnations.

5) God, all that crap about Marshall's hip seems even dumber than it did at the time, doesn't it? If that hip is bothering him that much and he's still managed to haul in 75% of his targets for 217 yards in two games, I can't wait to see what he can do as he gets healthier.

6)Ron Rivera is a goddamn disaster of a head coach. The Panthers are 2-14 in games decided by a TD or less in Rivera's tenure. Historically speaking, teams tend to even out from year to year in terms of close wins and losses, as random chance plays a large role in determining tight games. Rivera somehow manages to defy that by being horribly inept at making decisions late in games. Twice now he could have won games by running a sneak with CAM NEWTON and opted not to.

7) I was so utterly unsurprised by Reggie Bush doing nothing in his second game as a Lion it hurts. Every year, whether the back is Jahvid Best, Kevin Smith, or Mikel LeShoure, the Lions get a great game from their runningback and people freak out, ignoring the fact that Scott Linehan is obsessed with Stafford's arm and will gladly abandon the run in favor of a one-dimensional attack the second it shows even a hint of a struggle. Bush's injury is no excuse for Linehan, either. Bell is a perfectly capable back up. Linehan just won't commit to it.

8) Are the Vikings the luckiest 0-2 team in history? The Lions had a TD catch overturned on the Calvin Johnson Rule, a pick six nullified by a penalty, and botched a field goal attempt to keep a ten point win from being even bigger. The Bears gave up their first kickoff return TD in six years, allowed a fumble return for a TD, and gave away first and goal at the one with an interception on a tipped ball. Minnesota is 0-2 by a margin of 11 points, but seems far worse than that in all honesty.

9) Woah, a Ted Ginn sighting. Whenever Ginn does anything, I'm reminded that the Dolphins used a first round pick on him because they hoped he'd be the next Devin Hester. When you consider that he's been worse than Hester at both returning (not a surprise) and as a receiver (Jesus, Ted, that's sad), and also take in to account just some of the guys the Dolphins passed on in that first round alone (Patrick Willis, Marshawn Lynch, Darrelle Revis, Lawrence Timmons, Dwayne Bowe, Joe Staley, or even Greg f*&king Olsen) that's got to be one of the dumbest picks ever, even by recent Dolphin standards.

10) Okay, I might be wrong about EJ Manuel. Fourth quarter comebacks against Ron Rivera's Panthers are so easy at this point as to barely count (Why cover Stevie Johnson? No chance Manuel looks for his number one receiver on the final play of a game!), but Manuel has looked very good so far. The Bills are leaning on the run game and not asking Manuel to make the big play (just 6.8 YPA), but he has yet to look like the QB who melted down against tough defenses like Florida in college. I'm still not sure how high is ceiling is, but as Iggins! said, he looks at least like might be David Garrard-ish (we also came up with Jeff Garcia as a possible comparison before you accuse us of doing the full Nolan Nawrocki!).

Bears 31, Vikings 30- Oh Thank God They Didn't Lose That Game

On the podcast this week I harped on AJ Green for giving the irritable loser's complaint of "they didn't stop us, we stopped ourselves." Had the Bears lost this game, I would have had a hard time avoiding the use of the mantra myself. The Bears offense for the second straight week had a great gameplan and executed it to near-perfection, racking up 419 yards on the Vikings defense. The Bears defense forced several turnovers, returned an interception for a TD, and held the Vikings offense to just 16 points. All of this considered, the game went about as we expected.

You know, except for the mind-numbingly stupid part where the Bears gift-wrapped three turnovers and 14 points and just handed them to Minnesota, necessitating a dramatic fourth quarter comeback that really should have never been necessary.

We're totally not ones to dwell on the negatives here, though, so Bears win and both sides of the ball had their high and low points, and I can't even honestly say Special Teams was bad on a day when Devin Hester had a team record for return yardage. It was just a weird game and I'm glad it's over and the Bears ended on the right side of the ledger.

THE GOOD

Martellus Bennett: Legitimate tight ends are amazing. Bennett hauled in 7 catches on 9 targets for 76 yards and 2 TDs, including the game winner. The Bears also threw to him a lot on early downs off of bootlegs to set up favorable situations for the offense. What a fantastic addition.

Tim Jennings: Tim looked much better in coverage today than he did last week, and he had a beautiful pick six as well as a pass defensed.

Devin Hester: *Gruden Voice* THIS GUY. HE RETURNS KICKS. I CALL HIM THE KICK RETURNER. YOU TALK ABOUT KICK RETURNERS AND YOU THINK OF DEVIN HESTER. A team record 249 return yards, and he had the awesomeness to admit he was just pissed off by the Patterson return and determined to get his own. Glad he is where he belongs and doing what he does best this year.

Matt Forte: I can't fault him for that fumble. That was just an amazing play by a defender on a play where Matt had it high and tight. Aside from that though he rushed for 90 yards on 19 carries and had 11 receptions for 71 yards. This team will win a lot of games if it manages to get Forte 30 touches like that.

Lance Briggs and James Anderson: the two combined for 19 tackles, 4 passes defensed, and a couple tackles for loss. Peterson had one of the quietest 100 yard games of his career, gaining 36 yards on one carry and just 64 on his other 25 (2.5 yards per rush). These two played a big part in that.

Jay Cutler: Much will be made about how this is "the same old Jay Cutler", and yes, he made some poor decisions based largely on too much confidence in his arm. I'll live with that, because this is not "the same old Jay Cutler." This Jay Cutler completed 71% of his passes for 290 yards and 3 TDs and a 97 rating. This Jay Cutler is completing 68% of his passes total this year, and has looked more comfortable than ever before doing it. The one category where this Is the "Same Old Jay"? 4th quarter game winning drives. In his career, Jay has now had 20 opportunities to win the ball game in the 4th quarter with a score and he's converted 19 of them. I'll take it.

Marc Trestman: His offensive gameplan was nigh-perfect, although I think we all would have liked to have seen him err on the side of caution with a run on 1st and goal on the play that ended up a pick,  but he otherwise has called a fantastic mix of runs and passes this year, put Jay in great position to make smart plays, and adjusted to the OL's early struggles in pass protection to limit the damage. Cutler has still only been sacked once this year, and while the OL and Jay himself deserve a lot of credit, Trestman's play-calling is perhaps the biggest reason why.

THE BAD

Special Teams Miscues: A return TD on the opening kickoff and a penalty on 4th down on a punt gave the Vikings 7 points and a new possession, respectively. It was a sloppy start, but it was also the first KO return TD they've allowed since 2007, so I'll hold off on the panic button.

The Defensive Line: They started very strong and then fizzled out late, allowing CHRISTIAN PONDER to extend plays with his feet and make some nice throws. Melton and Peppers need to start showing up soon if this team is going to hang with the Aaron Rodgerses on the schedule.

Jay's Interceptions: I'm the kinda guy who emphasizes 3 TD passes and 28 great throws over 2 miscues, so I'm not going to list Jay himself on the bad. But both of those were poor decisions in different ways. On the goal-line INT Jay just needed to accept the play was dead and throw it away or scramble. On the second INT, Jay made the right read. Marshall was open on the exact same play that they hit for 38 yards on the game winning drive last week, but Jay took too deep of a drop and threw too late. Bad plays, but he overcame them with strong play and deserves the credit for the win.

Christian Ponder: He pulled some nice throws out of his ass late, but still finished just 16 of 30 with a bad pick six and the Vikings really suffered late when they had opportunities to score TDs to put the Bears away but had to settle for field goals because they were scared to trust their own quarterback.

THE UGLY

Fox's Entire Broadcast: The blackout sucked, but not as much as the decision to cut away from the audio-only broadcast to a halftime show that refused to even discuss the Bears game. Then when we had the game we had to deal with Thom Brennaman's insufferable screeches and Brian Billick having the gall to say "YOU SAW IT ALL HERE" when we missed half the goddamn second quarter. Guh. I hate you sometimes, Fox.

That's all for now. Even with the Bears odd history of winning in unconventional ways, this was one of the stranger victories in recent memory. It was a victory, however, so clearly there's nothing to worry about going forward. Go Bears.

Progkakke Week 2

Progkakke Week 2

Standings:

Iggins!: 12-4

Mrs. Code Red: 11-5

Code Red: 10-6

Erik: 10-6

New York Jets (1-0) @ New England Patriots (1-0)

Iggins!: The Jets got a nice win last week and some hope that Geno Smith could eventually be pretty good, and the Pats got a hell of a scare from the Bills, showing off a bunch of bad receivers and losing their best RB in the process. For some reason, I still think the Patriots win.

Code Red: The Jets won opening day last year, too. Pats win.

Erik: Yeah, it’ll take more than a single win against a team with a habit of losing games they should win to convince me the Jets are on the up-and-up. The Pats lost to the Cardinals last year, too. Even without Danny Amendola playing a cheap Wes Welker, I have to take the Patriots.

Elyse: Patriots because hahahahaha Jets! But also hahahaha Patriots for almost losing to Buffalo last week and because basically their entire team is injured. But still, Pats win.

Minnesota Vikings (0-1) @ Chicago Bears (1-0)

Code Red: Nothing is easy for the Bears this year, not with Adrian Peterson on the other sideline, anyway, but the Vikings struggled on defense and struggled to run the ball after AP’s first carry. That doesn’t bode well for them on the road against the Bears. Bears win 28-13.

Erik: Other than one long-ass run, the Vikings didn’t really show a whole lot of anything frightening on Sunday. They have a decent pass rush, but the line held up great against a better pass rush, so I’m pretty confident. Bears win, 28-14.

Iggins!: The Vikings are a poor team, but AP tends to get one or two TDs whenever he plays the Bears, so I’ll say Bears win 30-17.

Elyse: Bears, 28-17.

Dallas Cowboys (1-0) @ Kansas City Chiefs (1-0)

Iggins!: The Chiefs looked impressive last week, albeit against the Jags. Still, holding an opposing offense to 0 points is impressive against any NFL team and the Cowboys seem more than happy to turn the ball over. I’ll take the Chiefs to win at home.

Code Red: I knew you’d take the Chiefs, you bastard. I am, too, though, because it would just be so Dallas to lose this game. Chiefs win.

Erik: Travis makes a good point. Even Blaine Gabbert usually gets a field goal, at least. Chiefs.

Elyse: Even though Dallas scored 36 points last week, I don’t think that is a testament to their offensive prowess but rather that the Giants defense sucks. I’ll take the Chiefs.

SKOdCast Episode 16: The One Where We Discuss an Actual Game:

Things get heated on the SKOdCast as we give HOT SPORTZ TAKES and cuss at each other a bit. Then we discuss the Bears-Bengals, and, no, we did not come up with something important to do to the Vikings offense other than "just maybe try slowing Peterson down a bit".

Bits and Bites: Week 1

Welcome to this week's edition of Bits and Bites,  where I'm being crushed to death by the number of people who somehow don't think the Bears' victory on Sunday counts. But we'll get to that on the podcast, I'm sure, so I'm not going to dwell on it. Instead, I bring you the glorious gift of stupid.

First, we have the time-honored tradition of Week One Power Rankings.  Mike Florio over at Pro Football Talk had a really baffling set this week, but his Bears entry stands out as particularly stupid. He has them ranked 12^th, which actually isn’t that bad. I would’ve put them ahead of the Lions and Saints, but certainly 12 is nothing to sneeze at considering it’s been one game.

It’s his description that got me. His one-sentence take on the Bears is this: “We won’t really know about this team until it encounters adversity and Jay Cutler shoves someone.”

I’m just going to tackle the first part of this statement calmly and logically and try to calm down before I get to the end.

“We don’t know” is absolutely a fair statement to make. They looked solid, they showed improvement in the most important areas against an opponent seemingly built to test their offseason improvements, but in the end it’s a single game and you can’t really know anything about a team’s seasonal prospects based on one outing.

But in what way is an 11-point second-half deficit against a stingy defense not “adversity?” Especially considering the offense had shown little inclination to pick up the pace, and Dalton had just executed an effortless TD drive. If that doesn’t count, what exactly does count as an adverse circumstance?

They got in the hole, made some adjustments, stayed calm under fire and fixed the situation. I won’t say they’ll never perform less admirably under pressure, but certainly Sunday built my confidence that they can deal with adversity.

But that’s not what Mike means. Because the last part of that sentence is there. “Until it encounters adversity and Jay Cutler shoves someone.” See, to Florio, “adversity” simply means “any scenario that gets me to see what I want to see.” They could play 14 flawless games, and in the 15^th Jay could shout at a lineman and the entire football media world will say “SEE WE TOLD YOU ABOUT DIS JAY CUTLER FELLA HE’S NOT A GOOD LEADER.”

“We won’t really know about this team until we see something that allows us to confirm what we are already going to say about this team” would’ve been an accurate statement. Note the not-entirely-subtle assertion that Jay Cutler will shove someone, it’s just a matter of time and “adversity.”

He did it one time, to a player that we were all angry at. That is pretty much the only thing Jay Cutler has ever done to earn his “hothead” reputation.

On Monday night, Philip Rivers pushed a referee while arguing about a clear-cut call and earned a familiar chuckle from Jon Gruden and his usual moniker of “a real fiery competitor.” Jay Cutler shouted at a man who allowed him to be repeatedly teabagged by Thor, and people are still pointing to it a year later.

Mike Florio says “we won’t really know about this team,” but what he means is “I already know, and no matter what happens on the field I’m sticking to my only real prediction: Jay Cutler is a bad quarterback.”

Up next is former offensive lineman Jamie Dukes, who gave a very confusing interview in which he said the offense “looked like the same old Bears” in a bunch of different ways and then not-very-subtly implied that Lovie Smith got fired and couldn’t find another job because he’s black.

The whole thing was dumb, but here’s the line that really stood out: “I didn’t see anything ‘wow!’ offensively, where a unicorn popped out of someone’s head and they did something miraculously. It was the same Bears.”

First, this team totally has a unicorn.

 

And furthermore, what?

I hesitantly assume that Jamie didn’t actually believe that Unicorns and exploding heads would feature prominently in Trestman’s offense. But that statement, coupled with the performance that he declares to be “the same old Bears” begs the question: What in God’s name was he expecting?

In a week when everyone is too busy stroking themselves while thinking about Chip Kelly to notice that the blur is just a spread where you call the plays really fast, it’s understandable that Trestman’s system isn’t exactly making waves. That does not mean that anything less than a total overhaul of the system is just doing the same old thing.

I mean yes, the quarterback still threw a ball to men who caught it with their hands and ran toward the end of the field. Yes, some men still attempted to hit him, and still more men pushed them away from him to help him throw. It seems to me like there are certain basic characteristics that can really only change so much before you’re playing a different sport.

But the offense that won Sunday’s game looked incredibly different from the offense under Lovie. They ran 30 plays out of the shotgun, targeted five different receivers, frequently checked down, used an I-formation with a lead blocker multiple times, and ran at least one package play.

I’ll admit, there was a certain deflating familiarity about the way they started the game on offense by scoring and then kind of fizzling for the rest of the first half. But here’s the thing: they fixed it. They made adjustments, stuck to the game plan, kept their heads cool and came back.

Lovie’s teams rarely, if ever, stayed cool and came back from a second-half deficit. Pretty much all the comeback wins that team got were either hard-won by the defense or came down to some Jay Cutler Fourth Quarter Magic, not a series of methodical 80-yard drives to get back on top.

See, offensive innovation, for this team, isn’t about reinventing the wheel. It’s not about using players in creative ways or running schemes that confuse the defense. It’s about taking the good things that we have and using them in safe, sensible ways to find the weaknesses in a defense and pick them apart. If that sounds like something Lovie’s Bears would’ve done to you, you might be the sort of person who implies that a nine-year head coach who missed the playoffs five times in six years was suddenly canned because his boss woke up racist one morning.

And of course we save the best for last. From seasoned dumbass and axe-grinder Hub Arkush comes this totally insensible piece of what seems to be English: “One area that should get better and will have to is that we did not see the multiple weapons we expect to on a regular basis in the new Marc Trestman offense. Of Jay Cutler's 32 passes against the Bengals aimed at a specific target, 30 went to Brandon Marshall, Martellus Bennett, Matt Forte and Alshon Jeffery. The only other wide receiver Cutler tried to find was Earl Bennett on his one catch of the day.”

I normally wouldn’t do a full paragraph here, but it just keeps getting better and better as he keeps talking.

I thought it looked plenty diverse, even without going to the numbers. He threw the ball to everyone on this team I currently trust to catch it, except for Marquess Wilson. Who else on this roster could he have gone to? Eric Weems? Tony Fiametta? Does he have to throw one pass to every eligible ball-carrier to satisfy Hub’s need for offensive diversity? Maybe so.

And then Hub does bring up the numbers. Jay threw the ball 32 times to six receivers. In terms of targets, you had Marshall with 10, Jeffrey with eight, Forte and the Black Unicorn with six apiece, and Earl and Bush with one apiece. In fairness, Bush’s was that weird throw that got picked off, but it seems like he was the intended target and either he ran the wrong way or Jay though he was going the other way when he wasn’t.

People who can’t think have said the fact that Marshall got more targets than anyone else is worrying in itself. If him getting two more targets for a total of 31% of Cutler’s looks makes you worried, you do not understand what a number one wide receiver is.

The number of targets Marshall got is not the important thing here; it’s the situations in which he didn’t get targets that we should look at. Jay never forced one into double coverage for an easy pick because the pocket collapsed. He checked down to Jeffery and Forte, he used Marty B and Alshon as primary receivers on a number of plays, and he allowed Brandon to either draw doubles or punish the Bengals. The Bengals finally stopped doubling him and it cost them the clinching TD.

I have literally no idea how Hub could think targeting six, or even five receivers with such an even distribution of targets is anything other than “using multiple weapons on a regular basis.” It’s almost like he just has an axe to grind with the Bears over some ancient perceived slight and he’s going to see the worst in them whether the numbers agree with him or—

Oh. I get it now.